Cavern of the Blood Zombies (2011) by Lei Xu Page B

back turned toward me. Wanting to see her face, I ran in front of her, but once again I could only see her back. No matter how quickly I ran, again and again, I could never be face-to-face with her. How is this possible? I wondered, and then I realized she had no face—her body was made up of two backs with no front. My scream awoke me, and my eyes opened to see the sky illuminated by a bloodred sunset.
    “Awake?” Panzi smiled, his face close to mine.
    I squinted my eyes to adjust to the fading daylight. Panzi pointed to the sky. “You see that? No shit, we’re finally out!”
    I touched the back of my head. “Hey fucker, was it you who hit me?”
    “I had to. You’d been warned not to look back. You almost killed us, you stupid asshole.”
    My memory came back in a minute. Terrified, I touched my back abruptly to see if the creature was still there. Panzi laughed. “Relax. It’s gone.”
    “What was it?” I was still lost in fear.
    “Menyouping says it was the soul of that woman dressed in white. She was relying on your positive chi to get her out of the cave. We don’t have all the details because he fainted as soon as he told us that much,” Uncle Three said as he paddled along the river under the open sky. “But apparently he’s had some incredible experiences. Even that zombie knelt down before him. What extraordinary power that guy has!”
    I sat up and saw Poker-face leaning against Big Kui, both of them sleeping like two oversized babies. I smiled. Seeing the sky was especially comforting after the dark menace of the cave with its horrible green light. I asked, “Who is that guy anyway?”
    Uncle Three shook his head. “I really don’t know. I asked my friend in Changsha to recommend an experienced helper and he sent me this fellow. I only know his last name is Zhang so I gave him the nickname Menyouping. I tried to learn more about him on the way here, but all I found out was that he was always either sleeping or lost in a trance. I don’t know his story, but the person who sent him to me has an impressive reputation in this business and I can always trust anyone that he recommends.”
    The more I heard about this person, the more mysterious he became. But since Uncle Three said he didn’t know much about him, it was pointless to ask any more questions. I looked ahead into the distance and asked Panzi, “Can you see that village there?”
    “Straight ahead.”
    Uncle Three pointed to the dots of light in the darkness. “It looks like these people aren’t poverty-stricken. They have electricity.”
    A village—I immediately thought of a hot bath, stir-fried meat dishes, and pretty women with their hair in long, fat braids. I began to feel excited. I could see the shadows of people riding mules down the hills behind the village. It looked as though they were coming to the village as well. As we came closer, I began to see that these people did not dress like country people, and I wondered what might bring them to this place.
    Our boat pulled in toward the pier and a little village girl cried out as she saw us, “Look! There are ghosts!”
    We stood in puzzlement, unable to ask what she meant because she zoomed away immediately. We clambered onto the riverbank. As soon as his feet touched dry land, Big Kui woke up, muttering something about the nightmare he had just dreamed, which earned him cuffs from Uncle Three and a few kicks from Panzi.
    Poker-face was bleeding heavily from his wounded hand and remained unconscious. I picked him up to carry him, which was an easy job—his body was as light as a young woman’s, as though he had no bones at all.
    Uncle Three grabbed a passerby and asked if there were any hotels around. The man looked at us as if we were a bunch of lunatics. “Where do you think you are? Our village has only around thirty families. Why would we have a hotel here? If you’re looking for someplace to stay, go to the village guesthouse.”
    We found the guesthouse. From