Cloyd Berkeley drew his knees up under his chin. His bare back scraped painfully against the tree as he nervously rocked like a boy. He realized, as a man, he could’ve used a mother.
They were coming……
Earlier in the evening, he watched his long-time neighbor, Mr. Fenty, try and ward off at least a dozen of the creatures with his shotgun, the one he used to murder Hill Gentry for joyriding in his ’40 Ford Coupe years ago – Wasn’t enough proof to convict him. Each head he blew off beckoned two more. They looked human, only difference was their rotting and bloody flesh, symptoms of what newscasters called the alive deceased.
Two weeks ago, Marvin Gilcrest dumped the bodies of his wife and twin daughters into Lake Billings, referred to as Lake Killings by locals. It was no secret how many bodies lay at the bottom, though exact numbers were impossible to come by. The muddy bed acted like a magnet, drawing each corpse beneath whatever held the water. Marvin didn’t know that his girls were still alive. Their adolescent energy turned those deceased, back into the living – called to the surface like chum. Finally, set free, making it clear vengeance wasn’t the Lord’s, not this time. Marvin Gilcrest couldn’t be identified by his features, everyone just assumed.
Cloyd’s pity party peeked about the time a group of sopping wet female monsters, sat a lantern on the tree right above his head, peering down on his weak, puny body. He’d convinced himself as a teen that his mother never wanted him, she couldn’t give him a father, and that he’d practically raised himself. He always felt like he’d done her a favor by sweetening her coffee with antifreeze, until now. He didn’t know if this was karma or just a plain ole’ B….!
Leesa Writes 