Ashton Memorial (29 page)

One of the approaching corpses dropped to
its knees behind the thin man. It was a small boy with tight
leathery skin and yellow eyes. Dirt clung to his small frame. He
snarled and bit into the thin man's back. The thin man sucked in a
sharp, surprised breath.

Maylee held back, watching. Ella clung to
her shoulder. The rest of the corpses drew close to Park. Too
close.

Yelling, Maylee ran up to where Park knelt.
She swung her bat at an old woman with loose, slimy cheeks. Her
head exploded into the rain, spreading wet glop across the
pavement.

Park stood. The thin man screamed and
clutched at the corpse behind him.

“We gotta go,” said
Maylee.

“You're telling me?” said
Park.

They both ran over to Ella. She was staring
at the corpses. And at the two men as the corpses ripped them
apart. The first corpse had moved to the fat man's stomach and was
pulling loose what looked like a liver. The thin man bucked, trying
to reach the child on his back. Blood poured from his mouth, mixing
with the rain running down his cheeks.

“Come on,” said Park,
reaching down to grab Ella's hand. Ella snapped out of her staring
and jerked away. Park looked confused.

Ella stared at him briefly,
then nodded at the mob of corpses. At the corner they were coming
around. “That's the way we have to go.”

“Fuck,” spat Park. “The
only way?”

Ella nodded. “Pretty
much.”

“I'm so fucking happy about
that,” said Park.

The group of corpses finished coming around
the corner. Maylee guessed there were fourteen, counting the two
eating the two men. She glanced down to see the small boy bite into
the thin man's forehead and wrench free a red strip of skin. The
boy chewed, his small cheeks bulging.

Park gripped the handle of
his knife and looked back and forth between the different corpses.
He glanced over at Maylee. “I think I might need your help,
kid.”

“You kidding me?” said
Maylee, clanging her bat on the ground then holding it up and
beside her head, like a baseball player. “I've been doing this for
days now.”

Park smirked. “Your mom
would kill me for letting you near them.”

“So don't tell
her.”

“I've never fought any,”
said Ella, behind them.

“That's fine, Ella,” said
Park.

“I don't think I'd be very
good,” said Ella.

“Don't worry about it,”
said Park.

“Maybe if I had a
gun?”

“No one's giving you a gun,
Ella,” said Park.

A corpse stumbled past the bodies of the two
men, heading for Maylee, Park and Ella. It was a gangly old man,
his withered arms working up and down like claws on a pale, dry
insect.

“I got this one,” said
Maylee, stepping up and readying herself.

Park stepped in front of her. “Oh no. I said I might
need
your
help. Not the other way around.”

He moved toward the old man, knife ready. A
second corpse, a short woman with red hair and a gaping hole torn
in her chest, came up behind the old man. Maylee could see part of
her dead heart sticking through the hole.

“Fine,” she said, moving
toward the woman while Park was occupied with the old man. “I got
this one.”

Park reached the old man first. The old man noticed
Park approaching and moaned, opening his mouth to reveal a swollen,
gray tongue. It reached for him, like a child eager for an
approaching treat.

Park brought up his knife and shoved it deep
into the old man's forehead. The old man blinked and gurgled, dark
fluid spilling from his mouth. Park put his free palm on the handle
of the knife and pushed upward, toward the top of the man's head.
The skull cracked as the blade ground upward. The old man slumped
and was still. Park wrenched the knife free and the old man fell
over backward.

At the same moment, Maylee reached the woman
with a hole in her chest. She swung the bat into the woman's
sternum. Bone shattered and the bat smashed into the exposed heart.
The woman staggered back, hissing and grasping at Maylee. Maylee
brought the bat up and slammed downward on the woman's head.

The bat crunched down into the woman's
skull. She jerked as her forehead split. A thin line of fluid
seeped out, running down her face. The woman hissed, more weakly
than before.

Maylee brought the bat around and smashed
the woman across the temple. The woman's head crumpled in on one
side, forcing more fluid out of the split down the woman's
forehead. A thick glop splattered out after the fluid. The woman
stopped hissing and fell over.

Maylee stepped back, gripping her bat and
scanning the approaching corpses. She counted twelve remaining. She
gauged how close they were to reaching Ella, Park and herself.

She glanced over at Park,
who had also fallen back. She could tell from his face that he had
made similar calculations. “This ain't gonna work,” he said. “We're
either gonna have to run or do something faster.”

Maylee nodded, looking around for any
ideas.

Two corpses stumbled against the bodies of
the two men, which by now had been completely torn open. Red and
gray organs were splayed out. Rain pattered down on them, streaking
red across the pavement. The little boy corpse lifted a rope of
intestines to his mouth and gnawed on it.

The two corpses who had stumbled into the
men grunted and noticed the freshly torn bodies below them. They
reached down, toppling to their knees and grabbing. They pulled
meat and organs into their mouths and chewed.

“I just got an idea,” said
Park.

“Me too,” said Maylee. “And
it's gross.”

“Whatcha gonna do?” said
Park. He stuck the knife back in his pocket and ran to the bodies
of the two men. The now four corpses on the ground ignored him,
engrossed in eating.

He knelt down and grabbed an organ that had
fallen several inches from the bodies. It was a gray-red hunk of
meat Maylee couldn't identify. He stood, frowning.

“Goddammit,” he said. “Fuck
my grandpa with a spoon, this is gross.” He hauled back and flung
the organ into the approaching group of corpses. It slapped against
the chest of a middle-aged woman missing an arm and with two
scab-crusted gouges across her face. The organ distracted both her
and another corpse. They both fell on the organ, biting and pulling
on it.

“Mega gross,” said Ella.
“Plus, I can't believe it worked.”

“Good thing these things
are stupid,” said Park.

Maylee rushed over and started to reach for
an organ.

“Whoa!” said Park, holding
her back with his left hand while he tried to wipe his right clean.
“Don't get too close. They're not that stupid.”

A young man with a dark hole in his throat
drew close and came at Park. Park pulled his knife but only got it
halfway up before the man grabbed him.

“Look out!” yelled Maylee.
She and Ella moved to help.

“I got this!” yelled Park,
struggling with the young man. “Just distract more of those
fuckers!”

Maylee frowned. The approaching corpses were
too close to reach another organ. There were ten left undistracted,
counting the one fighting Park. Not yet enough to get past.

Ella ran up. “What can I
do?”

“Shit,” said Maylee. “Here,
hold my arm.”

Ella did and Maylee leaned out, holding her
bat outward with her free hand.

“The fuck you doing?”
yelled Park, still struggling with the young man.

Maylee ignored him and stuck the end of the
bat into the pile of meat, blood and organs. She leaned until she
felt the bat touch pavement.

“Yeah,” said Ella behind
her. “What are you doing?”

“Pull!” yelled Maylee. Ella
pulled on her arm and Maylee leaned back up, dragging the bat along
the ground toward her.

“And dammit!” she yelled as
she saw the bat had snagged a loop of intestines and not a free
organ.

“Again?” yelled Ella. Park
was still struggling with the young man. He was holding him back
with one hand and trying to bring up the knife to strike with the
other.

Maylee looked at the
corpses. The remaining undistracted ones were drawing closer. “No
time.”

She dragged the bat along the ground,
pulling the loop of intestines toward her and Ella. Either end of
the loop ran back to the stomach of the thin man's body. He jerked
slightly with each tug.

“Gross gross gross gross!”
yelled Ella as the intestines scraped along the concrete. Bits of
intestines broke off, stuck to rough spots in the
pavement.

“I know,” said Maylee. The
intestine was close enough for her to lean forward without Ella's
help. She shook her hand free of Ella's grip and twisted the bat
around until the intestines had looped over the top of
it.

“What are you doing?” asked
Ella.

“No idea,” said Maylee. She
whipped the bat upward. The intestines flew up into the air in
front of her and Ella. Maylee gripped the bat with both hands and
brought it up over her shoulder. She watched as the intestines
arced and started to fall.

No way in hell this'll
work
, she thought. As the intestines fell
in front of her, she swung.

The bat hit the coil of
intestines square on. With a solid squelching “thwack” the
intestines flew back toward the approaching corpses. It draped over
four of them, smearing red glistening slime over their rotting
clothes and bodies. The four corpses lost interest in Maylee, Ella
and Park and turned on the intestines. They clawed at it, shoving
it greedily into their gnawing mouths.

“Shit,” said Maylee,
lowering the bat. “I can't believe that worked.”

“Me either,” said
Ella.

They turned to Park to see him pulling his
knife from the temple of the young man. He rocked the knife up and
down, then wrenched it free. The young man slumped, dragging his
rotting hands across Park's torso. He crumpled on the ground and
was still.

Park turned to look at the corpses. The four
Maylee had distracted were chewing furiously at the intestines. He
looked to Maylee and nodded in approval.

“Damn straight,” said
Maylee.

He stepped quickly back
over to her and Ella. “What's that leave? Two?”

Maylee looked. Of all the
corpses, only two seemed to still care about getting to them.
“Yeah.”

“I think we can handle two.
Let's move.”

The two corpses broke free of the group and
came at them. One, a thin gangly woman with thick curly hair, came
at Park. The other, a chubby older man with a gray mustache and no
lips, came at Maylee.

Park stood in front of the woman, shifting
his weight from one foot to the other. Like he was looking for an
opening. The woman lunged at him. He ducked to one side, grabbing
her by one of her outstretched arms. He pulled the woman to him,
holding the knife out and toward her head. She fell forward,
driving the blade into one of her yellow, pus-filled eyes. The
woman growled and gurgled.

Park grunted and pushed the knife in
farther, twisting. The woman convulsed, then was still.

Maylee ran at the chubby older man,
screaming. He chattered his lipless teeth under his blood-crusted
mustache. She swung her bat around from her side, smashing it into
the corpse's mouth. His jaws collapsed and he fell backward,
gurgling and choking on his own teeth.

Maylee brought her bat around the other way,
throwing her back into the blow. She whacked the corpse across the
side of the head. It jerked to one side, neck breaking and skull
crumpling. It kept falling over sideways and was still.

“Go!” Park yelled and they
ran for the opening the two fallen corpses had left. It was a small
strip of pavement between the walkway and the capybara exhibit to
the left.

They stopped running when they realized what
a small opening it was.

“Shit,” said Park, looking
at the corpses feeding, then back at the opening. Maylee followed
his gaze. They would have to move single file. And pass very close
to the corpses.

“Should we kill a few
more?” said Maylee.

“No,” said Park. “Don't
want to call attention to ourselves. They seem so
happy.”

Maylee smirked. The corpses tore and chewed
at the two men. Soon they would run out of meat. Or they would want
to move on to something fresher.

“Okay,” said Park. “I'll go
first. Take my hand.” He held it out for Ella.

Ella took it, frowning at
the feeding corpses. “I knew they were doing that,
but...”

Maylee looked at Ella and remembered seeing
corpses feed on Brooke, the babysitter Mom had insisted on the
night the world ended. Remembered the cold, deadening shock of it.
The feeling of nauseous imbalance.

“But it's different seeing
it,” said Maylee.

Ella nodded.

“We going?” said
Park.

Ella sniffed and nodded again. She reached
out for Maylee's hand and took it. Park stepped slowly toward the
opening. Ella followed and Maylee went last.

Park pressed his back against the fence and
slowly inched past the feeding corpses. The corpses grunted and
chewed. The capybara snorted and stomped its feet on the
ground.