Free Zombie Jesus by Edward Teach

slowly reached up and dipped two fingers in the gaping wounds on his skull. He ran his now bloody fingers across Cisco’s left cheek, and then his right, leaving two red streaks painted across the biker’s face. Romeo stood silently as the kachina man performed the same ritual upon him. The kachina man then went to one of the skulls mounted upon the wall and took up a horn that had been hanging from a chord on one of the antlers. This he hung around Cisco’s neck. Then he pulled a bow and quiver of arrows from another mount, and handed these to Romeo.
    The kachina man looked once more at the two men, then climbed back onto his stool. He silently lifted his arms up and grasped the arrows, then pulled himself up, the arrows digging into his head wetly as he pushed his skull into place. Wind began to blow within the lodge, urging them outside, as if the kachina man’s voice had become the wind itself. Cisco and Romeo walked out of the longhouse and saw that Turk’s bike was parked next to the bonfire, and the Rider beckoned them to the fire.
    The Rider approached Romeo and drew forth an arrow from the quiver, then pushed the point of it into his own face. In moments the arrow was burning, and the rider placed it once more into the quiver. The fire spread to the other arrows, though the quiver did not burn, as if it contained the fire within. Then the rider tossed Cisco the keys to Turk’s bike and turned to walk into the bonfire, the clothing and flesh burning in the heat.
    Cisco and Romeo watched the body burn down to nothing as the fire died, then looked up as the sun began to peek out over the horizon. In the dawn light they could see the brilliant purples and blues of the surrounding desert and stone formations. Cisco looked at Romeo, his question as plain as it was silent, and Romeo nodded. The men walked to Turk’s motorcycle and Cisco took the main seat and turned the key while Romeo slung his bow and took the high passenger seat at the back. Cisco kicked the engine to life and they took the small side trail that Romeo pointed out leading down the other side of the mesa. Below them the Grand Canyon lay bathed in the morning light.
     
    Jesus said, "Honor to you when you are hated and persecuted; and no place will be found, wherever you have been persecuted."
     
    Honor to those who go hungry, so the stomach of the one in want may be filled."
     
    Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you will kill you."

 
    THE LAMB OF GOD
     
    Jesus said, "Show me the stone that the builders rejected: that is the keystone."
     
    At last he had reached the kiva, the hole in the world as revealed to him by the thrice-pierced sacred clown. The pilgrims had crowded the canyon behind him, and though many had followed him for miles, none seemed to dare to draw near the salt mound. It was several feet high, and at its crest was a vibrant mineral spring. In its depths he knew the spring became a cave, and the cave became a sea, and the sea led to the blue world that had been driven away. Even as this world died another world long dead waited to rise again. Now, at the end of all things, the two prophets approached, riding Death’s own pale horse.
    Cisco and Romeo stood silently, silhouetted by the morning light at their backs. They had painted their faces in the muertos style, their faces the grinning flowered skulls that honored the Day of the Dead. In this new world every day was thus, and they rode to bring death to the undying. Cisco had brought the bike to a stop just at the entrance to the gorge, and Romeo stood in the stirrups with his field glasses to set eyes upon what lay before them.
    They had followed Romeo’s sense of the path for nearly and hour, the motorcycle making quick work of a trail that would have taken many hours to travel by foot. Now they were poised above a dry riverbed set deep in the bottom of the Grand