A Fistful of Zombies 16

***Ooh, sorry. Did I say on Monday I wouldn't miss another update? Slipped my mind. I'm just sick about this.***

They all enter the church.

DENVER
Hello?

MIGUEL
Is anybody here? Padre?

Miguel shrugs. They close and bar the door.

MIGUEL
We should be safe here. This whole place is holy. We’ll just wait it out here.

DENVER
No, we can’t stay here. We’ve got to the warn the army.

BERNARDO
Which one? There are Northerners and Southerners camped out there.

MIGUEL
It doesn’t matter. What will the army do? They can’t do any more than we can do. They’ve got the same bullets we do.

DENVER
Well, what do you suggest, Miguel?

MIGUEL
Simple. We wait in here until morning. I bet the daylight kills them.

TAYLOR
Yeah, he might be right. I think I heard that zombies can’t go outside in the daylight.

DENVER
You think? You think? And what if you’re both wrong? What if they’re just a little uglier in the daylight? They could be in Arizona by tomorrow morning, and by next week they could be in New York. We’ve got to go tell the armies, either one, or both of them. They’ve got to know.

MIGUEL
Come on, Denver, even you’re not stupid enough to believe that will help. We stay here tonight.

Denver pulls his pistol and sticks it in Miguel’s face. Miguel puts his hand on his own pistol, but knows better than to draw it.

DENVER
Listen, you fucking spick…

MIGUEL
Stop swearing in church!

DENVER
You fucking spick! You don’t give the orders around here! And you don’t to talk to me like I’m one of your greasy bandito fuck buddies!

MIGUEL
You’d better stop screaming and start thinking, Denver. You think either the Rebs or the Yanks will believe your crazy story about the dead coming back to life? I don’t even wholly believe, and I was there. They gonna call you crazy, they gonna call you a spy, then they gonna shoot you. I agree with you something should be done. And when the armies see the zombies for themselves, then they do something. But for us, the only safe thing to do is to camp out here, where we know we’re safe.

DENVER
You mean where we’re sitting ducks. Look out there.

Denver points out the window. There is a graveyard around the church.

DENVER
There are going to be a lot of those things pounding on the doors soon.

MIGUEL
They can pound all they want, but they won’t come in.

DENVER
You think they won’t come in! You guess they won’t come in! But what if you’re wrong?

MIGUEL
Maybe I am wrong! But I know for a fact that you’re wrong!

Denver cocks his pistol. Suddenly the priest, FATHER VAZQUEZ, comes into the church from the rectory, carrying a candle.

VAZQUEZ
What in the name of God is going on here?

Bernardo crosses himself. Denver grudgingly lowers his pistol.

MIGUEL
Forgive us, padre.

DENVER
Listen, reverend, I know it looks bad, but you don’t understand. There is evil out there…

VAZQUEZ
The only kind of evil I see is in here! Men trying to hurt one another! That is the only kind of evil there is! And in the house of God. You men should be ashamed of yourselves. Ashamed!

Miguel takes off his pistol belt and hands it to the priest. Denver grudgingly holsters his own pistol.

MIGUEL
Padre, I would like to confess my sins. But there is someone in the booth.

They all look over at the confessional. Vazquez walks over and opens the door. A man tumbles forward out of it. He was apparently hiding and leaned up against the door to eavesdrop on them. He is extremely well dressed, tall and skinny, wearing a derby and a pinstripe suit. He stands up and dusts himself off. He tries to act dignified, but with little success. This is MR. CHAPPELLE.

MIGUEL
Yankee.

VAZQUEZ
Look at all these people in my church. Why don’t you people ever come out on Sundays?

DENVER
And who the hell are you?

MIGUEL
Language!

CHAPPELLE
Oh, uh, my name is Mr. Chappelle, I am a lawyer from Pennsylvania. I was educated at Harvard law. Mr. Immanuel Port hired me to come out West and protect his interests from the squatters on his property.

DENVER
Port. You mean that fat robber baron is trying to make it legal to shoot the settlers where he wants to put his railroad.

CHAPELLE
Well…yes. And it’s perfectly within his rights, I might add.

DENVER
But is it right?

CHAPELLE
Well, who’s to say what’s right and what’s wrong?

VAZQUEZ
What are you doing in my church? What are all of you doing in my church?

CHAPELLE
Well, my wagon was overturned and my driver was killed. I thought at first that it was bandits, or even Confederates, but when I got out I saw that it was these…creatures. They looked like humans but…

DENVER
But not breathing.

CHAPELLE
Well…yes. Dead men. Eating. My driver and the horses. I ran from them and I kept running until I got here and they wouldn’t follow me into the church.

MIGUEL
I told you.

DENVER
Shut up.

VAZQUEZ
You men…saw the same thing?

DENVER
I saw one of my deputies get shot and keep walking. I saw him get stabbed and keep walking. I saw him get decapitated and keep walking.

Bernardo is looking out the window.

BERNARDO
Senors…

CHAPELLE
Then there is no way to kill them?

MIGUEL
You can’t kill what’s already dead.

TAYLOR
There are ways to stop them. Salt…fire…holy objects.

BERNARDO
Senors…

DENVER
Reverend, do you have any salt or kerosene?

VAZQUEZ
I may have a little. But there are holy objects all around here.

DENVER
I’m not going to use that religious mumbo jumbo unless I have to.

MIGUEL
Mumbo jumbo?

VAZQUEZ
You think the Lord is some kind of joke?

DENVER
No, I don’t think there’s a Lord at all. But I do know there are dead men walking and killing, and we need to burn them.

MIGUEL
You gringo son of a whore…

Miguel pulls his pistol from the belt that Vazquez is holding and points it at Denver. Denver draws his own and points it. Vazquez jumps in between them.

VAZQUEZ
Stop this! Now!

BERNARDO (screaming)
Senors!

They all stop and turn to look at Bernardo.

BERNARDO
They’re waiting for us.

Slowly, the others move towards the window. There are several empty graves and zombies staggering around with shovels, digging up the graves. The Bokor is standing there, and so is Brainfree. The Bokor is looking, with quiet malice, at the men in the window. He hands Brainfree a shovel and Brainfree begins digging up another grave. The Bokor licks the edge of a knife so that he leaves blood on the blade. Then he sprinkles the blood onto the grave Brainfree is digging up.

TAYLOR
That must be the Bokor.

CHAPELLE
We’d better…do something.