Chapter Seven

Back in the dungeons of Kublai's stronghold, Thundarr, Ariel, and Ookla are just coming back to consciousness. Once Thundarr has regained his senses, he sees that the three of them are chained to the wall in a prison cell. Standing before them is the undead wizard Kublai. If possible, his skeletal face almost appears to be smiling at them. Thundarr tries to leap forward, to grab Kublai by the throat, but the lich is standing too far away for the barbarian's reach. Kublai throws his head back and laughs that hollow, evil laugh of his.

"Fool!" he says, "What can you hope to do to me without your precious Sunsword?"

"I can twist your foul head off, fiend!" replies Thundarr.

Kublai just laughs again. "You and the mok will be my most powerful Death Guards yet!" he says.

"Your walking corpses won't get close enough to bite us!" declares Thundarr.

"Barbaric fool!" laughs the lich, "You've already been infected!" Kublai holds out his hand, which contains two empty syringes. "This is my latest zombie formula," he tells them, "If it works as I think it will, you will keep all of your strength and skill, and even continue to be able to wield your Sunsword. Only you will be completely under my control."

"Only two needles?" asks Ariel, "There are three of us."

"Don't worry, my dear," replies Kublai, "You too will soon be joining your friends in the realm of undeath. I am currently in the process of brewing a new potion specifically for you. Once I inject you with it you will become a lich, just like me. A being of pure evil, under my control. You shall be my corpse bride."

"Never!" shouts Thundarr.

"It is inevitable," says Kublai, "By sunrise, you will all be members of my army. Then you will help me defeat your friends barricaded in that ancient prison."

"No!" cries Thundarr.

He desperately tries to pull the chains free from the wall. Ookla howls in rage and defiance and also starts to pull on his chains. Princess Ariel just silently looks on in shock and horror.

"Ariel," says Thundarr, "can you free us with your magic?"

"My hands are bound," she replies, "I need to have my hands free to use my magic."

Thundarr twists himself about so that he is facing the wall. Pulling hard on the chains, he plants his feet on the wall and starts walking up the side of the prison cell. Once he gets his feet up to where the chains are fastened to the wall, he plants them there and pulls using his whole body. When Ookla sees what his friend is doing, he understands and follows suit. Soon, the welding that hold the chains in place begin to groan in protest to the stress.

Meanwhile, back at Alcatraz, things are not going well for the defenders. A steady stream of zombies just keep on coming up over the hills ledge and trying to break down the electric fence. The air is heavy with the stench of decaying flesh, burnt skin, and ozone. The pile of corpses outside the fence is constantly growing. The defenders soon realize that sooner or later, the pile will be high enough for the zombies to just walk over the top without ever touching the fence. And unbeknownst to them, things were getting far worse farther down the side of the hill. Part way up there is a large drain pipe, big enough for a man to walk in, which leads to tunnels beneath the prison. Two thousand years ago, during The Cataclysm, it was covered up by several heavy boulders and earth and has been hidden for all these centuries. But while climbing up, a zombie mok discovered a small opening leading into this ancient drain pipe. Whether from some sort of residual memory or some primitive instinct is unknown, but that undead mok starts digging out the boulders. One by one the large rocks begin tumbling down the side of the hill, smashing into zombies, crushing their skulls, or knocking them off the side of the hill. Eventually, the mok opens enough of the drain pipe to be able to walk in. There's a large heavy steel grate welded in place to prevent anything from getting in or out that way. The zombie grabs hold of the metal bars and starts rattling them, pushing and pulling with all his diminished (though still formidable) strength. The metal is weak and corroded from centuries of neglect and exposure to seawater. The grate soon breaks free and the zombie mok throws the useless metal bars away, accidentally decapitating another of his fellow zombies in the process. Then with the stiff, shuffling gate of the living dead, he begins walking into the dark tunnels beneath the ancient prison. Soon other zombies begin to follow suit. Eventually a whole horde of the living dead are now walking beneath the ruins of Alcatraz, seeking a way up to the victims trapped above them.

Meanwhile, back in Kublai's dungeon, things are beginning to improve for Thundarr, Ookla, and Ariel. After several minutes of pulling and tugging at their chains, Thundarr and Ookla finally manage to break their shackles free from the wall. Quickly they rush over to Princess Ariel and use their combined strength to break her free from her shackles. Soon after freeing themselves from the wall though, Thundarr and Ookla begin to feel weak. Thundarr's skin is pasty white and he's sweating profusely. Ookla's eye's and tongue are a very strange colour.

"I feel. . . dizzy," says Thundarr as he leans against the wall for support, ". . . weak."

Ookla growls in agreement, as he too must lean against the wall for support.

"It must be Kublai's new zombie formula," guesses Ariel, "It must work more quickly than the one he originally made."

"Then we must defeat him, before his poison takes us," declares Thundarr.

"I think we can," replies Ariel, "While we were fighting before, I noticed something about him. A weakness I think we can exploit."

"Oh?" says Thundarr.

"He wears a ring," she tells them, "An ornate ring carved from bone. I believe it's the source of his power. I noticed that it glows whenever he's using his magic."

"What does that mean?" asks Thundarr.

"If we can remove the ring from his body," explains Ariel, "or even destroy it, then we destroy him."

"Then all we'll have to do is find his talisman and destroy it to save the people in Alcatraz," reasons Thundarr.

"Not to mention ourselves," adds Ariel.

"Then let us make haste," says Thundarr, "Time is short!"

Out in the hall, a pair of Death Guards head towards the prison cell to investigate a constant, repetitive banging coming from within. As the Death Guards approach the cell door, the heavy metal portal flies off its hinges and slams the two guards into the opposite wall. Quickly, Ookla runs out of the room and before the Death Guards could react, he grabs them both by their heads and crushes their skulls in his massive clawed hands. Thundarr exits the prison cell next.

"The Sunsword!" he exclaims as he notices that one of the guards has the weapon tucked away in his belt. Thundarr takes it up and ignites the blade, quickly cutting away the heavy shackles still chained to their wrists.

"Much better," says Princess Ariel.

"No time for talk!" replies Thundarr, "To the main chamber!"

Then the three of them run off to face Kublai again. Meanwhile, back at Alcatraz, things are going from bad to worse. Whenever the equarts tire and have to be replaced with fresh animals, during the few moments that the generators aren't working the zombies are trying to force their way in. The archers try to keep them under control by killing those in front, but there are so many of them that the loss of a few barely slows them down. Inside the main building, men and women are looking out the windows to try and determine the success of those brave souls who remain outside. What no one realizes is that the danger has already breached their walls. In the ancient prison shower, a part of the prison currently being used mostly for storage of supplies and provisions, a grate in the floor lifts up and slides to the side. Out of the hole in the floor climbs a mok zombie, followed by a human zombie, and a groundling zombie, more humans, zombie carocks and mutants, and still more zombie humans. Over by the showers entrance sits a human villager. He's supposed to be standing guard, but with no foreseeable threat to guard the supplies from, he ended up falling asleep. The growing horde of zombies shuffle over to him as he gently snores away. They grab a hold of him, causing him to wake from his sleep. When he sees exactly what had grabbed him, he begins to scream for help. But by then it is too late. The zombies tear into his flesh, eating him alive. Farther down the corridor, other guards hear their friend screaming and run to see what's the matter. As they approach the showers they are confronted by a mass of undead. A virtual wall of rotting flesh comes at them, reaching for them, snapping at them. One of the guards regains his wits enough to turn and run, screaming bloody murder all the way, raising the alarm. The others were not so fortunate. Their state of shock caused them to hesitate, and by the time they began to react they were in the zombies' clutches. They fight fearsomely, driving their hammers and axes into the skulls of the undead horde, but are quickly overwhelmed by the greater numbers.

Outside things are little better. When Kwan next switches equarts with fresh animals, the zombies manage to break through the main gate. The fresh set of equarts begin running on the generators, but it's too little too late. The zombies are storming the gates. The archers in the guard towers start launching flaming Molotov cocktails at the gates, which slows the breach to a crawl and even incinerates some of the zombies trying to get in. They also manage to shoot down many of those who got through before the fire, and those that they missed were destroyed by the ground troops. But the damage is done. The gate is open and there's no way to close it back up. The ground troops light more Molotov cocktails and throw them into the giant woodpiles that had been stacked all over the courtyard. The archers in the towers throw more Molotov cocktails into the zombie horde to try and cause panic amongst their numbers. The plan works somewhat. The zombies don't want to enter the gate as long as there's a fire burning there, and several zombies outside the gates are set on fire and thrash about, knocking others of their kind off Alcatraz Hill before plunging over the side themselves. When they run out of Molotov cocktails, the archers climb down out of the guard towers. They form a rear guard as the ground troops gather up Kwan and the others from the generator room. Then they retreat to the front entrance to the main building of the prison and knock the retreat code on the door. They hear heavy bolts sliding off the doors, which are soon opened by armed guards who let the outside defenders into the building. No sooner are they inside when they hear screaming and the sounds of battle.

"What's. . . happening?" asks Kwan as he tries to catch his breath.

"Zombies have gotten inside," replies one of the guards.

"What? How?"

"We believe they came up from under the fortress."

"How many?"

"Too many. We're holding them in the main cell block, but I don't know for how long."

At the main cell block, what was once a sanctuary now looks like a prison riot. Defenders wielding long spears are holding the zombies back, driving their spears through their enemies brains. The catwalks are lined with archers with bows and crossbows, launching arrows and crossbow bolts into the zombie horde. With them are those too weak to fight, the very young and the very old, heaving heavy rocks and slabs of concrete onto the zombies' heads. With the archers is the sorcerer Merlik. While he has recovered somewhat from the fatigue brought on by his earlier spell casting, he's still too tired to unleash that sort of magic. Besides, he doesn't want to risk hurting the defenders down below. So he blasts the zombies' heads with energy blasts from his fingertips, strong enough to cause their heads to explode. Behind the wall of pike men stand every able bodied man and woman in the village, armed with baseball bats, sledge hammers, picks, and fire axes. They are led by Shara The Barbarian with her club, and Synda with her Staff Of Power. Absent are Valerie Storm, who's lying in bed with a fever and chills, and Queen Maya who is looking after her. Valerie is barely conscious, her sheets are soaked with sweat and her breathing is shallow and labored. Maya is certain her friend doesn't have long left to live.