Pestilence: Rise Of The Pure Undead

Chapter 57: Putrid Gift

A heavy sigh made its presence known, it was noon and today, the sun was rather gentle.

Milo was seated in a chair, overlooking the still fresh soil covering the final resting place of David, his foster father, Helena sometimes went by, the two of them had gotten busy taking care of the fields, much the same as many other people.

The amount of deaths that had occurred was not to be underestimated, many farmlands had been left without owners, with only few available to take over, many had to be harvested early to avoid unnecessary losses.

Milo had been planning on taking over the old man’s crops, but Helena had had a surprising proposal for him.

He sighed once more, resting his head in between his hands.

"I- I don’t really know what to do David, I don’t know what you would have told me to do, and honestly, you are the only person whose opinion I ever bothered truly listening too, I don’t think you were ever wrong on anything that mattered" he said to no one.

"Get this: Helena thinks I should come along with her, not to the city, she says that she will be going to some sort of school or academy or whatever, I apparently have potential in her eyes, I think Helena wants me to go there because she is under the impression that I want to avenge you"

"Maybe I should be insulted that she thinks I am so stupid, but I am actually looking forward to spending more time with her, would you want me to hunt down that undead who killed you? Does it even matter? They are nothing but soulless husks, I don’t feel like I can hold one accountable for its actions" he scratched the back of his neck, realising that he was sounding quite different from usual.

"I am just so sad" he then blurted out.

No one could respond to him, he shook his head and stood up, retrieving the chair he had brought, what was he even doing here? Speaking to the dead? It was useless, David wouldn’t want him to waste his time doing something so meaningless.

Turning around, Milo began to move back toward the barn, he was going to tell Helena that he was going to agree to go with her, it was simply the right thing to do, David had pretty much begged him to try and get with his daughter, and also, Milo had to admit that he was very much fond of her.

Two birds one stone, David would have loved this.

"I’ll make you proud! Just you watch!" Milo raised his fist and smiled up at the sky, David may not have been very pious, but he had surely risen up to heaven.

’At least I hope so-’

"Mmh?" something attracted Milo’s attention, he turned around, facing back toward the two graves, where David and his late wife were supposed to be resting for the rest of time.

He loosened his hold on the chair he was carrying, confused for a moment.

"A mole?" he hoped for the best as he stood still, looking down upon the small, trembling mound of dirt.

But there was no point, his hope was nothing more than wishful thinking, he could already tell the truth the instant he had laid his eyes on the grave.

A pale, emaciated finger protruded from the dirt, the whole hand soon followed grasping at the ground as a familiar but distorted figure emerged from beneath.

Mouth agape, orbits partially hollowed, the zombie still looked like David nonetheless, Milo stared, his eyes wide open and bloodshot, gritting his teeth, he approached the newly arisen undead fearlessly.

The zombie did not advance after breaking out of his confine, he looked around himself in a confused manner before locking in on the living moving toward its position.

Letting out a terribly hoarse cry, it rushed toward Milo, not an ounce of realisation struck the empty husk of David, Milo was left no choice but to desecrate the corpse of his adoptive father, it was the only way he had of returning him back to his grave.

"..."

Milo didn’t make a sound, he silently did what needed to be done, forced to destroy the head of David to finally put him to rest, he buried him back and hid the signs of struggle, not wanting Helena to know her father had been resurrected as an undead.

He himself would have liked to never have to be faced with this, flattening the dirt with his bare hands, his face covered in gore and hands covered in soil, sticking to his palms due to the rotten blood covering them.

"Undead filth…"

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Loimos finally emerged from his cocoon of rot, a wave of miasma following him as he exited the cold and filthy embrace, he was back in full.

All around him, the hairless apes were already back, uncaring that some of theirs had been taken apart in the very spots they were standing, in fact, were it not for their proximity to his rot, their corpses would still be there.

They kept on shouting and shouting without stopping, they weren’t shocked by the fact that he was a skeleton, but they quickly grew appalled at the fact that he wasn’t falling over and dying like any other of their targets would have.

It still took them a while to put two and two together, Loimos had yet to move for he was busy inspecting the ape directly in front of him, this one wasn’t hollering without stopping, it was just sitting there.

Loimos could only suppose that it was their leader somewhat, not that it had any distinguishing features other than being a little bit taller.

This ape was definitely not that much stronger than the rest.

It made a sound, prompting the rest to grow silent and look at it.

Then, it yelled once at Loimos, looking ridiculously regal and overbearing, it seemed like its superior strength didn’t lie in brute strength, but merely in the potency of its mind-shaking shout.

Loimos was unfazed, no reaction whatsoever to the attack, but he hadn’t stood still, the moment he was certain that this monkey had nothing more than this, he ran forth, growing blood-filled ball of rot, he slammed it in between the ape leader’s face and his skeletal palm.

He writhed in pain as the black blood dug into his skin, burning his soft bits with remarkable power, it wouldn’t be lethal on its own, but a good bite to the nape would certainly be.

The rest quickly dispersed without bothering about their leader.

The skeleton threw the lifeless body into the rot cocoon for the miasma generator to consume and went on his way.