Abomination

First there was the book, 'The Pod People' written by Yhikhiing thirty something decades ago. Then there was the movie, then the blockbuster remake of the movie starring Aleenya, the actress who gained fame portraying the witch of the ancient windwheel. Now she is also starring in a sequel that promises to be bigger and bloodier than the remake. When Dyoniss and Kessil find the sliced open body of one of the zombies from the Pod People movie, they think it is a prop left by the cinema company to publicize the upcoming release, but when it is analyzed in a laboratory, it is determined that the zombie was genetically engineered and could well be spreading in the wilds.

When members of Kessil's former tribe arrive, looking for weapons to defend themselves and the All Basin Powwow where most of the plains tribes have gathered, they realize that this is a much more serious situation than they thought. They find that the movies are all documentaries and people had actually been killed making them. They come to believe that the cinema company is responsible for these zombies and had deliberately released them into the wild to provide scenes for their movie. They plan to chase down those responsible, but find that first they must defend the people of the plains from the zombie apocalypse. When they lose some of their own, including a good friend of Kessil's granddaughter, bringing them to justice becomes even more important.

Dyoniss finds out all too clearly just how close to the Instinct those people will come to defend their ill-gotten gains. If not for an unexpected ally, he could well have succumbed to their trickery. When Kessil learns of the unexpected part she plays in all this she is even more horrified. She is most horrified however when she has to face the guilt that results from taking a life.

This may be the second most violent of the stories of Kassidor, even though most of the dead are plant-based artificial zombies. There are more advanced zombies and several humans are their victims also. Kessil is not the only one who has to face the executioner’s guilt. At 6011ad. this takes place at the latest time of any of the Kassidor stories.