{"id":3813,"date":"2012-07-07T22:08:30","date_gmt":"2012-07-07T22:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/?page_id=3813"},"modified":"2012-07-07T22:08:30","modified_gmt":"2012-07-07T22:08:30","slug":"the-undead-detective","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/?page_id=3813","title":{"rendered":"The Undead Detective"},"content":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Rhys Barter<\/span><\/h3>\n

Professor Moriarty skidded to a halt inches from the precipice, and looked\u00a0down at the violent rapids below.<\/p>\n

He cursed under his breath. He should have known that the route he had taken\u00a0would be a dead-end, but, blinded by panic, desperate to escape the indiscriminate\u00a0bloodshed unfolding back at his hotel, he hadn\u2019t paid attention to his surroundings.<\/p>\n

Now he found himself stranded atop the Reichenbach Falls, commanding a clear view\u00a0of the chaos unfolding below.<\/p>\n

They were everywhere, the recently undead, flocking like raptors, tearing the\u00a0living limb from limb.<\/p>\n

He began to wonder what had happened to his friends: Sherlock, Stamford,\u00a0and the groom himself, John Watson. They had travelled to Switzerland for Watson\u2019s\u00a0stag weekend, prior to his marriage to Mary.<\/p>\n

In the distance a fire was enveloping the town of Meiringen. Then something\u00a0exploded.<\/p>\n

Moriarty recalled the final news report they had seen before the power cut. An\u00a0archaeologist named Dr Culverton-Smith had uncovered a deadly poison in Sumatra\u00a0that had, within minutes of exposure, reduced him to a febrile, bloodthirsty, mess.<\/p>\n

The zombie plague had spread faster than anyone predicted.<\/p>\n

Moriarty\u2019s woolgathering was interrupted by a discordant rasp, and he spun\u00a0around to find himself face to face with his former friend, the great Sherlock Holmes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSherlock, are you alright?\u201d Moriarty asked, but he knew that his friend was\u00a0beyond help.<\/p>\n

Sherlock was dressed in his familiar smoking jacket and deerstalker hat,\u00a0although both were now caked in blood. He was also still wearing his Persian slippers,\u00a0indicating that he must have been turned inside the hotel.<\/p>\n

He limped and lurched towards Moriarty, gabbling glossolalia, drooling like a\u00a0wild animal.<\/p>\n

Moriarty backed away, towards the precipice, but within seconds Sherlock\u00a0Holmes was upon him.<\/p>\n

Moriarty knew that no matter how hard he fought, he couldn\u2019t win. In life\u00a0Sherlock had been adept at baritsu, the Japanese style of wrestling. In death he\u00a0seemed no less efficient.<\/p>\n

Eventually Sherlock landed a bite on Moriarty\u2019s neck. The professor winced in\u00a0pain. He knew what was coming. It was only a matter of minutes before he became\u00a0one of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry Sherlock,\u201d he said, gripping the zombie by the shoulders, \u201cBut this\u00a0is no way to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then he threw himself and his friend off the edge of the Reichenbach Falls, to\u00a0their watery grave below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Rhys Barter Professor Moriarty skidded to a halt inches from the precipice, and looked\u00a0down at the violent rapids below. He<\/p>\n

Continue readingThe Undead Detective<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":779,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3813"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/779"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3813"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3817,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3813\/revisions\/3817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}