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"A Plague of Zombies" is a novella by Diana Gabaldon and part of the Lord John Series. It was originally published (as "Lord John and the Plague of Zombies") in Down These Strange Streets, an anthology of urban fantasy stories edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois.

On April 15, 2013, the novella was released (as "A Plague of Zombies") as a standalone ebook. On June 27, 2017, it was published in a new collection, Seven Stones to Stand or Fall, which consists of seven Outlander stories.

Plot[]

In June 1761, Lord John journeys to Jamaica to put a stop to the slave rebellions on the island. Upon his arrival, Lord John learns of the murder of a local planter, one Mr. Abernathy of Rose Hall, and the maroons are the suspected culprit. He also has to deal with the matter of a missing superintendent, snakes mysteriously invading the governor's house, and another grisly murder, possibly involving zombies.

Summary[]

In June 1761, Lord John arrives in Jamaica to help the current governor of Jamaica, Governor Derwent Warren, quell a growing slave riot. He is staying at the official residence, King’s House with his valet Tom Byrd as well as two of his subordinate officers Major Fettes and Captain Cherry.

The governor tells John that the riots are spreading across the island, targeting individual plantations. However, their conversation abruptly ends when the governor sees John casually playing with a small harmless snake that has crawled into his pocket. The shaken governor retreats abruptly.

Tom Byrd helps Lord John Grey unpack and dress for dinner, with help from another servant Rodrigo a tall young Black man. At dinner with the governor that night, John learns that the riots began when two young maroons (escaped slaves living in independent settlements in the mountains) were accused of stealing, and were whipped and imprisoned without a trial. The English superintendent of the maroons, Captain Cresswell, who serves as the official liaison between the maroons' leadership and the other colonial officials, disappeared and is thought to have been kidnapped or murdered by the maroons.

John, critical of the maroon's lack of trial, arranges for Cherry to meet with Samuel Peters the Judge who issued the sentence. He also tells Fettes to look for information about the Captain Ludgate and Captain Perriman, the two previous superintendents, who seemed to have equally ill-fated tenures.

That night, Rodrigo comes into John's room and asks John if he knows what an Obeah man is. He tells John to stay away from the governor as "the zombie come for him." Unnerved and sure he's being watched, John leaves his room to check on the governor and posts sentries at his door. When he returns, a man smelling strongly of decay attacks him. John wounds him and the intruder flees. John is unnerved but slightly comforted by the sight of the intruder's blood on his floor and clothes, as a "zombie" wouldn't bleed.

The next day, John visits Twelvetrees Planation, suspected to be one of the maroons' upcoming targets. The atmosphere is awkward, as John's brother Harold Grey killed Nathaniel Twelvetrees in a duel twenty years prior, and John did the same to Nathanael's brother Edward Twelvetrees a few years later. The owner of the Twelvetrees planation is Nathaniel and Edward's cousin Phillip Twelvetrees and his sister Nancy Twelvetrees. Nancy flirts heavily with John. John interrogates Nancy about the Obeah and what she knows about "zombies." She reveals that an Obeah is someone who can talk to spirits, but advises him to talk to Mrs. Abernathy for more information.

On Nancy's advice, John next visits the newly and conveniently widowed Geillis Duncan, now the widow Mrs. Abernathy and sole owner of Rose Hall planation. Though she claims her husband was killed by the maroons during the recent riots, John realizes quickly that she killed him, though cannot prove anything. Geillis tells John that zombies can be made by creating a specific combination of poisons and burying them atop a recent corpse until they themselves also smell of decay. The poisons used render the person in a dreamlike sluggish and obedient state, like a zombie. Geillis also cryptically tells John that she sees his loa, his spirit, and that she sees a huge snake resting on his shoulders.

When John returns to the Kings' House, he's informed that the governor is dead. his body has been found in his chambers with human bite marks. Virtually every resident of the Kings' House has also disappeared, including the enslaved people and the two soldiers assigned to guard the governor. As he investigates the grisly scene, John speaks to the governor's secretary and learns that Governor Warren had seduced and then rejected Nancy Twelvetrees. He also learns that the governor had violated a young enslaved woman, Azeel. She had disappeared after the incident, but the next day a man had come to the residence and cursed the governor for the harm he had caused to Azeel. Since that day, the house had been constantly infested with snakes.

Meanwhile, John's deputy Captain Cherry returns from his errand and reports that Cresswell was widely hated by the maroons and contributed to the unjust arrest of the first two maroons. He believes Cresswell has been kidnapped by the maroons.

With no one else to take the role, John assumes the role of acting governor of Jamaica. He, Tom, and Rodrigo begin a multi-day journey to the maroon-controlled territory for answers. However, John wakes up from camping overnight to find their horses and all of their supplies missing, along with Tom and Rodrigo. John doggedly continues for the maroon camp, now intending to rescue Tom and Rodrigo as well, as he believes both men are under his protection.

After days of walking, John at last meets with Captain Accompong, the leader of the maroons. Accompong is standoffish but admits to having Tom and Rodrigo at the settlement, along with the sentries that had been guarding the governor before his death. Accompong warms to John slightly when John confesses to disliking the governor and Captain Cresswell (another hostage of the maroons) nearly as much as the maroons, and promises to appoint a new superintendent that the maroons can get along with.

When John asks who created the zombies, Azeel steps forward. She tells John that she was violated by the governor and left the house afterward, but had been so angry that she sent an Obeah man to curse him. The Obeah man had cursed the governor with being plagued by snakes. Unsatisfied with the extent of Azeel's revenge however, her lover Rodrigo went to Ishmael, another maroon and a "houngan" and asked him to create zombies to set after the governor. Rodrigo killed the governor and had the zombies "feed" on him. Accompong tells John that Rodrigo's private act of revenge against the governor had nothing to do with the maroons as a whole, and that in fact what Rodrigo had done was a deep violation and considered by most of them to be an unclean ritual. However, as payback for what Rodrigo had done, Accompong had arranged for Ismael to turn Rodrigo himself into a zombie as justice. John is horrified to find Rodrigo to be in a stupefied and sickly state, looking almost dead from the poison used to "create" zombies.

Accompong does not want to release the men to John, especially Rodrigo, and does not fully trust his intentions as a representative of the colonial government. He tells John that first they will go to a nearby cave to see John's loa, his true spirit. John travels with Accompong and Ismael to a mysterious cave with a hot spring. Ismael echoes Geillis's earlier pronouncement that John's loa is a snake, and encourages him to pick up a snake nearby and put it on his shoulders. John learns while wearing the snake that it is deadly poisonous, but it does not bite him, proving to Accompong and Ismael that he is trustworthy.

John returns to the maroons settlement and is allowed to leave with Tom, Cresswell, the soldiers, and Rodrigo. Azeel accompanies the group and readily agrees to help John restore Rodrigo return to full health. Before he leaves, Accompong mimes the removal of a snake from his shoulders, telling John "carried him long enough," thereby releasing John from his loa.

Characters[]

  • Lieutenant-Colonel Lord John Grey
  • Derwent Warren, governor of Jamaica
  • Gideon Dawes, secretary to the governor
  • Captain Cresswell, missing superintendent in charge of the maroons
  • Tom Byrd, Lord John's valet
  • Rodrigo, servant of the governor
  • Major John Fettes, direct subordinate to Lord John
  • Captain Robert Cherry, adjutant to Lord John
  • Philip Twelvetrees, plantation owner and cousin of the late Edward Twelvetrees
  • Nancy Twelvetrees, sister of Philip
  • Mrs. Abernathy, recently widowed owner of Rose Hall
  • Captain Accompong, headman of the maroons
  • Azeel, a woman who has escaped slavery
  • Ishmael, houngan

Book Covers[]



References[]

See also[]

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