The Swamp

by Yates, R

  “What about you? What did you do before all this happened?” She asked

  Sam laughed “You would never believe it.” He said and shook his head, “Never in a million years.”

  “Tell me, it can’t be that bad,” She urged, “Computer programmer, Art teacher, or shoe salesman?”

  “None of those actually, much worse,” Sam paused, “I was a mortician, but what good are funeral directors when the dead don’t stay that way?”

  She stared at him for several seconds, disbelief in her eyes, as she waited for the punch line.

  “No really, I swear,” Sam reiterated “I sold caskets and embalmed people.”

  Her eyes pierced him for a moment, and then she began to laugh so loud that even Mike was brought out of his malaise and Sam had to explain, Mike had a good laugh.

  “It’s actually kind of fitting when you think about it. You still can give the dead eternal rest, and make them look snazzy in the process.” Rebecca said.

  “Not a lot of use to us now, I have a good future I hear as dinner. There seems to be a lot of demand for that.” Sam replied ruefully.

  “Cheer up buddy. Nobody is going to eat you.” Mike said, “Trust me on that one.”

  “I wish I had your confidence in that.” Sam shook his head.

  “I wish I had a smoke.” Mike said wishfully, and leaned back against the corner of his cage and closed his eyes. “I am going to catch a little sack time, you two hold down the smooching sounds tonight.”

  “Shut up, asshole” Rebecca said, Mike have obviously touched a sore spot.

  “You are going to regret calling me that,” Mike said with a chuckle and then was quiet.

  Dark was falling, so they decided to follow Mike cue and lay down. Their hands again found each other and they settled in. Sam found the worries of the previous night and chewed them over in his mind. Tonight though he found it easier to let them go as he looked up at the stars and marveled at the display god had made.

  “The stars are magnificent tonight.” He said to Rebecca, but got no answer. He turned to her and saw her eyes closed, her breath slow and even. He looked back to the stars and promptly went to sleep.

  He walked into the funeral home and found the stairs. He was tying his apron as he walked into the prep room and was surprised to see three bodies filling all the tables, his partner, David, must have had a busy day yesterday to arrange this many new clients.

  “Looks like a busy day.” He said to the first sheet covered corpse. He had always talked to the people he worked on, he found it difficult not to. Dead or not, he still tried to think of them as people, it made his work easier.

  “Let’s see what we have today.” He said as he pulled back the first sheet to reveal the body. He found himself looking down into his own eyes, fixed and staring up at him. He took a step back in shock, and out of the corner of his eye saw the other two bodies sit up. He looked to them and saw the sheets falling away to show the bodies of Mike and Rebecca. They turned their heads to him as his own corpse sat up.

  Chapter 15

  He awoke suddenly, jolted from the dream by Mike’s voice calling to someone. “Hey, lady, can you empty this slop bucket? It stinks to high hell.” It was still dark out.

  She looked at him dubiously, and made no move towards the cage.

  “Come on, here, I will put it by the door and step all the way to the other side.” He did this and waited. Sam wondered what he was up to, they had been living with that smell for days now and Mike hadn’t complained once. He looked to Rebecca and saw that she was as puzzled as him.

  “Please, it’s the Christian thing to do.” Mike said and Sam could tell he had finally swayed her as she approached the cage warily. She reached into her pocket, withdrew the keys and undid the lock. She never took her eyes off Mike as she opened the door. Mike had set the bucket inside the room far enough so that she had to put one foot inside the door to reach it, as she did, she glanced down at the slop bucket and Mike made his move.

  Almost faster than Sam could see, Mike sprinted the distance and grabbed the woman around the neck and twisted her around. He jerked his arm and a sickening crack broke the silence of the night. Mike lowered her gently to the ground, and began to search her body. He removed something from around her neck and took the long knife she had sheathed on her side.

  That was when luck ran out as Sam heard a scream from near the house as someone noticed the woman on the ground and Mike crossing the distance to Sam’s cage.

  “Take this and hide it.” Mike whispered as he slid something cold and metallic into Sam’s hand. He had placed his body between the people running from the house and Sam to hide the motion. Sam obeyed and stuffed it into his pants without even looking at it.

  “What the hell are you doing Mike,” Sam said exasperated, “We don’t have time to get everybody out now that the alarm has been raised!” Sam looked past mike at the onrushing women, several had armed themselves with knives and other weapons as they came whooping across the lawn.

  “Not you, just me. Get out when it calms down.” Mike said and turned to the crazies rushing at him, he raised the knife above his head and let out his own whoop and sprinted for the trees. “Make this count! He called over his shoulder and disappeared into the night.

  A rifle shot from the house buzzed past Sam’s ear as Joseph finally mad it to the porch, but the shot was wild. “After him” Joseph bellowed at the remaining women, who quickly disappeared into the woods.

  Joseph sprinted to the cages, first the one that had formerly held mike where he stooped to examine the body of the dead woman. He rose to his feet and started out the door when suddenly he stopped and his smile returned. He chuckled as he reached up and took the keys out of the lock, right where the woman had left them.

  “It would seem Mr. Michael forgot to give you something,” Joseph said as he held the keys up and jingled them, and I saw he even ran off with her knife. What a friend!”

  “Mike won’t abandon us,” Sam retorted, “He will come back.”

  “He will be dead!” Joseph said and laughed, “My woman will catch him, and even if they don’t the hunting parties will be back soon and they will go find him. I assure you your friend will pay for what he has done here.” And with that he sprinted off into the woods.

  “What just happened?” Sam said aloud when they were alone.

  “I think Mike had a plan and decided to go for it, or he just lost his mind.” Rebecca said thoughtfully, “What did he hand you?”

  “I have no idea, but I dare not take it out, we are being watched.” He indicated and old woman holding an infant standing by the porch. “It wasn’t the keys or the knife, which would have been the most useful.”

  “Don’t you see?” She asked, “He couldn’t have given you either of those, they were the first thing that man looked for. He had to give you something they wouldn’t miss.”

  Her point suddenly dawned on Sam and he felt stupid. “Of course, you are right. But what they hell is he going to do out there. He has to know they will find him.”

  “That’s what he meant by ‘make it count’ He doesn’t expect to make it out.” Rebecca said and her voice broke with realization.

  Sam looked over and found her crying and that pushed him over the edge and they cried together. Mike had done the best he could for his friends. He had potentially sacrificed himself to give them a chance.

  They listened to the noises in the woods and Joseph’s angry voice periodically yelling far away. It made Sam feel better to know that as long as he could hear that, Mike was alive.

  They set in silence and listened until the sounds had gotten too far away to hear. They continued their vigil until the searchers returned well after day break, and Sam was glad to see the look of anger on the leaders face. He walked to the house and climbed the stairs. “We go back out in one hour!” he yelled at the nervous looking women, and slammed the door on his way through.

  Several women came and carried away t
he body from Mike’s cage, all were weeping softly. Sam almost felt bad for them, almost. He wondered if she was bound for a grave or a cook pot, but didn’t get the answer as she was carried out of view.

  The other woman set about packing small bundles of food, and several produced bows from tents. They were ready when Joseph re-emerged from the house. He sent them out in groups of five, and admonished them not to return until they had found Mike and brought him back dead. The woman rushed out of the clearing to begin their hunt.

  Sam noted that only the old woman, Joseph and the several children remained. Good, he thought to himself. It will make tonight that much easier.

  He and Rebecca didn’t talk much all day they mainly sat and listened, desperate to hear something that would mean Mike was still alive. They didn’t hear a single sound, but the woman also didn’t return.

  Joseph spent the day sitting in the porch swing watching his captives, the big rifle across his lap. Sam knew he was waiting for Mike to reappear to try to free his friends.

  Dark had begun to fall when they finally heard it. The sound of walking feet grew closer and closer, until a group of woman emerged from the woods dragging something behind them. Sam turned his head and Rebecca fell to her knees, sobbing hysterically. Mikes body was tied to a rope by his ankles. Sam could see several nasty wounds to his body, and someone had smashed the side of his head in, probably to keep him from reanimating after he was dead.

  Joseph let out a cry of triumph, and rushed to the body. He knelt and turned the head towards the cages.

  “It looks like your friend has come back to save you!” He laughed at his own joke, and then kicked the Mikes body hard in the ribs. He looked back to the cages, smiled and said something they couldn’t make out to the gathered women.

  The woman pulled Mikes body to the large oak and hoisted him up and went to work. Rebecca had curled herself up into a little ball with her back to the activity, But Sam watched and let his anger flourish inside him.

  The woman finished their work and took Mike around the back of the house. By this time it was fully dark, and they cleaned up and headed into their tents, Joseph went inside and a few minutes later, the candle in his upstairs room was extinguished and all was quiet.

  They hadn’t posted guards, confident that the prisoners were trapped and they had no one to come help them. Sam waited an extra hour to make sure no one was up. And removed the item Mike had handed him before sprinting off to the woods, His last gift to his friends.

  “What is it?” Rebecca whispered, her voice hoarse from the hours of crying. Sam held up the woman’s crucifix. It was stainless steel and about three inches long the edges were beveled into the perfect size to loosen screws.

  Sam went to work on a corner of his cage while Rebecca kept watch He got the screws out and bent the corner back to make a hole just large enough for his body. He slid quietly through and walked to Rebecca’s cage and passed her the cross.

  “Where are you going?” she asked as he walked away.

  “I have some unfinished business,” Was all he said as he approached the house.

  He walked quietly, placing his feet carefully as he crossed the porch. The door wasn’t looked and Sam opened it quietly. He was met with a simple living room and a staircase to the right which he crept up. The fourth step creaked a little and Sam froze, listening for sounds from above. Hearing none, he proceeded to the top. The door ahead of him was open, Sam guessed to allow the Florida hot air to circulate, and on the bed within, he could see a pair of legs. He moved to the door and peered inside. Joseph lay sleeping on the bed, his naked body flat on his back.

  Sam cast his eyes around the room and found Josephs cane. Picking it up, he moved to the bed and stood over the man, glaring down on him. He stood there for several minutes, just watching the man sleep and thought of Mike. When his rage had filled him, he grasped the cane in both hands and snapped it over his knee, the wood breaking into two sharp splinters.

  The sound woke the man, whose eyes focused on Sam, standing over him, the top of the cane held in both hands. Sam waited for the terror to build in those eyes and drove the sharp wood into the man’s chest and put his full weight on it. He felt the woods burst through the man’s flesh and into the mattress underneath, pinning him to the bed.

  He stayed there, his face mere inches from the man as he tried to scream, but Sam had known right where to put the stake so that the man couldn’t make a sound. He stayed there until the eyes glazed over in death. It took Joseph almost 5 minutes to reanimate.

  Sam left him there, pinned to the bed, his arms reaching for him as he left the room, pausing only to grab the man’s rifle. He found a gun cabinet in the living room and retrieved the two pistols there and several boxes of ammunition.

  His trip into the house hadn’t made enough noise to wake anyone. He stood on the porch and listened to the sound of sleepers. He could see Rebecca was free, and had started to free the others. She would only need a few minutes. Only the one group of women had returned, and he had watched what tents they went into, so it was easy enough to get to the back of the house undetected. He found a shed there, and inside, hanging from a hook he found the remains of Mike.

  “No one is eating you either, buddy.” Sam said aloud. In the corner he found a can of gasoline covered in dust and forgotten. He spread it around the room and poured a string of it away from the building. He lit it from one of the many smoldering campfires the crazies had left when they went to bed. The fire started to follow its trail into the shed, and Sam trotted quietly back to the cages. There Rebecca stood alone, the rest of the captives having already fled into the woods.

  He turned to see the house silhouetted in flames, the shed behind it burning vigorously fueled by the five gallons of gasoline. He could hear the shouts of the People in the tents, awakened by the brightness, and he pulled Rebecca with him and ran into the woods.

  Sam hoped the confusion of the fire would buy them some time. He knew that when Joseph didn’t make his appearance, that the women would venture inside and find him, and then they would come.

  Sam and Rebecca ran, taking what trails they could find, just trying to put as much distance as he could between themselves and the house.

  They didn’t stop to rest for almost two miles. Sam shoved one of the pistols in to Rebecca’s hands. “Do you know how to use this?” He gasped as he tried to catch his breath.

  “Yes" she said "my father used to take me shooting on weekends.” She responded and chambered a round to prove her point. “What happened back there, did you find Joseph?”

  “Yes I did,” was all Sam said.

  “Did you kill him?” Rebecca pressed. Sam nodded his head and she went one further,

  “Did it hurt?” she asked.

  “Yes.” Sam said and told her of the preacher’s death.

  She smiled and said “Mike would be proud.”

  He smiled at that, then frowned and cocked his head, listening. “They are coming.” Sam said as the sound of crashing brush grew louder, “Let’s go.”

  They ran again, heading in a direction Sam hoped was towards a road. The thick underbrush very noisy and difficult traveling, but the pursuers were in the same boat. Sam could easily keep track of them. They were easily a couple hundred yards behind, but seemed to be tracking them.

  In another mile, they burst from the trees and onto a road. It was a two lane country road badly in need of resurfacing. Sam looked both ways and took a wild guess and ran. He didn’t know what direction he was going, our where they would end up, but they were making good time. The crashing of brush behind them suddenly stopped and was replaced by feet on pavement. Sam glanced back over his shoulder but couldn’t make them out. By the sound of it, they seemed to be closing the distance.

  Beside him, Rebecca was slowing and her breath came in pants. Sam felt his own energy waning, but the noises behind them showed no sign of slowing. He would have to think of something quick.

  Out of the darkne
ss a shadow appeared in the middle of the road, a great hulking shape that Mike recognized immediately. They had lucked out and found the RV. “Follow me.” He said to Rebecca and ran around the front of the huge vehicle. The tree lay across the road and he jumped to the other side and crouched behind it, Rebecca did the same. The approaching feet were less than fifty yards away and coming fast. “Wait for them to come around the RV so the moon silhouettes them against the side, wait for me to shoot and then empty your gun at anything that moves.” His whisper to Rebecca was answered by a soft acknowledgement.

  Thirty seconds later, the women in pursuit came around the side and slowed up when the saw the tree. Mike had guessed the same five that had brought Mike back would be the ones that came for them, so he waited until a fifth shape came out of the darkness. He aimed for the shape at the back and started firing. His target went down and he moved to the next one and fired. Beside him Rebecca’s pistol barked and he saw another shape go down. They fired again and again. When all the targets were down, they fired shots into the prone shapes. The cacophony of gunfire faded into the distance.

  They watched the shapes in the moonlight for awhile until they were sure that they were dead. Only then did it occur to Sam to reload and he cursed himself for forgetting. He quickly refilled the clip from bullets in the box in his pocket and stood up. Rebecca stood with him and the moved in, guns ready towards the shapes before them. Sam moved from person to person, putting a single bullet into each one’s head. The last thing they needed was them to come back as zombies.

  “Sam.”

  He looked at Rebecca. She stood less than a foot away, the moonlight light lit her face and he could see the longing in her eyes. They stepped together, their lips met, and the world disappeared. The held that kiss, and each other and nothing else mattered. Her body was alive in his arms, her lips gently yielding to him.

  Eventually, they pulled apart. They couldn’t stay here, the sound of the gunfire would draw anyone from up to 5 miles, and they knew that the hunting parties were still out there.