Taking out the Dead
Lily struggled with the weight of Mrs Francis' legs. The wound had made turned them into festering lumps of meat and threatened to tear away from the rest of the corpse if she pulled too hard.
Niamh had taken the rest of the children into the back room. She could hear her now, talking to them as though she were one of the adults. Even other Jonathan's harsh breathing, Niamh voices was angelic.
The stories she told were her favourites. Tales of beautiful princess and brave knights. But she liked making them her own. Quite often it was the prince that would need rescuing because he'd gone up the wrong tower and gotten stuck whilst the princess had to climb down her own tower and then figure a way out to save him.
Lily admired her courage. It was only surpassed by her creativity which worked in tandem to create beautiful lands where the children could escape, if only for an afternoon. From time to time Lily wanted to join them and drift in wonderful colours on the back of the daydreams of a child.
"Lift the legs more." Jonathan hissed at her. His teeth were tightly clenched and his face scowled with the tension of lifting the heavy corpse. Harriet's mum had died the same evening that Jonathan arrived. Luckily the children were asleep so they could figure out a way to break it to them gently. The last thing they wanted was to attract attention to themselves by a load of children crying their eyes out.
"I'm trying," she hissed back. "They're going to split if I squeeze them any tighter!" Jonathan reached the first step and started tilting her head upwards, putting more pressure on Lily. There was a slosh from within Mrs Francis' stomach. The last of her remains that would never be digested. Despite the smell, Lily's own stomach rumbled. Their food supply was on the brink of empty and soon the would have to venture out into the world.
Jonathan had told her what it was like out there. As far as she could tell, society was finished. Sent back further than cavemen times, she knew it was going to be hard to move on from this. That's if they ever got the opportunity to. She had made Jonathan stop talking when he got onto the subject of the creatures. She knew those all to well and the memories clung to her brain like a virus. Something things you can never unsee and they will remain with you, like a scar on your retinas.
Half way up the stairs and Mrs Francis was starting to groan. The skin that so finely stitched her legs to her torso could be heard tearing. The effects of the creature had started to take its toll on her carcas and soon she would distinergrste.
"Hurry up Jonathan, I thinks she's going to burst."
"My neighbour did that. He died right down in the street and then a few days later. Splat. His body opens up and suddenly there's a million little crab like things and two parts of his body."
"Do as you're told and hurry up the ." Their whispering had become a little too load and she could hear Niamh stop her singing to listen to the two of them. They doubled up their speed and were through the cellar door before any of the children saw the dead body. They had been sheltered from the horrendousness thus far and as far as Lily was concerned they weren't going to have to witness a human being, let along one of the girls mums p split open and spew baby creatures all of them.
Jonathan pulled down on the handle with his back and the door swung gently open. Lily let out a gasp when she saw the state of the city she has lived in for most of her life. The grip on mrs Francis legs gave way and one of them hit the ground with a slap.
"Watch it"! Jonathan growled. He looked down the road and saw the coast was clear. "Come on let's get this dumped round the corner, that way they shouldn't be able to find us for a while. Be quick though."
They edged over the rubble and into the funnier street, cautious of how exposed they were. The city had a cold silence to it. Even before it still felt like there was going to be life above her head but Lily was painfully away that her small girls and her gay guest might just be all that remained.
Jonathan slipped backwards as he miss placed his foot on a rock. He stumbled to the floor and Mrs Francis flopped on top of him. He clenched his eyes closed and his face turned a burgundy red.
"It's alright Jonathan! she's in one piece still. Carefully roll her over and get out from underneath her." He did just that. mrs Francis lay on the floor with a look on her face and the blue glint of the sky in her eyes hat said she was resting.
"Perfect, now let's get back inside before those things show up."
Lily looked down at the mother. She hadn't been with her class for very long. She had been elsewhere but with her losing her job she couldn't afford the more expensive sclssses any longer. Lily sighed as she realised that death was open her body.
"we can't leave her there. She was a dignified lady. Can we move her. Please?"
"Look, I'm not being funny because I knew her all of five minutes but no matter how dignified and lovely she was when she was alive, she's dead now so can we please just go."
"I'll give you half of my food tonight if you help me move her over to that wall. Just so she can sit down in peace." Lily looked at him with expectation.
"Fine. But hurry the fuck up." He went down to lift her torso back up. "And I get the canned stuff. You get the packet stuff."
Lily looked at him with a coy smile. She knew that he wouldn't let her starve and he'd give her her share regardless of what deal they made out here. As soon as he calmed down he'd realise it too.
Lily bent down and grabbed the dead woman's legs. A little too roughly.
The body ripped in too like freshly baked bread. Her organs spewed in the air and coated the pair in a green bile. Whilst they clued and spluttered at the smell of hype dead, the most frightful thing occurred.
From the intestines of poor dead Mrs Francis erupted millions of tiny monsters. Like their parents they had an appetite for human flesh and like their parents, they struck immediately.
As though the bile were a beacon, the tiny creatures swarmed Jonathan and Lily. Their flesh was soft and delicate and the tiny parasitic creatures feasted on it as though it were the only meal they had ever had.
Less than a minute after Lily had promised her diner to Jonathan, they were both dead. They didn't even had time to scream.
Down in the basement below the ruined building, Niamh finished her story of the beautiful princess and the brave prince. Soon her childhood would be over too, and she would need to become the hero of her own stories.
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