Chapter 1: The Graveyard

Kacey lit the grave where the dead had just risen. She poured more gasoline over two graves as rotten flesh began to break the surface. Flicking her cigarette, the fire bursts alive all at once and settles down as it eats up the fuel. The fire dances in her eyes, reading the tombstone Kacey just torched.

“Poor kid.”

Mason had made a sudden appearance behind Kacey, startling her enough to jolt her out of her trance. “Why aren’t you back at the camp?”

“I was worried ’bout cha’.” Mason reached back and jumped his butt on top a tombstone. “Heard one of ’em screechers not too long ago, too.”

“It’s alright. I handled it.” Her eyes moved back to the flames. The fire was almost gone by now. Just a blue-licking blaze whatever gas it can find.

“I came to make sure you’re alright.”

The sweet boy smiled his toothy grin with that black hole where his left canine once been. Every now and again, air’d sneak out while he talked so his southern drawl had a soft whistle to it. Who knows when his tooth will grow back. It’s been months. Ever since they left the city…

“You thinkin’ bout Kelly?”

“No, why you say that?”

“When you look sad like that, it’s cuz you’re thinkin’ ’bout ’em.” He said this while kicking his feet off the stone like drumsticks.

“Well, I wasn’t this time,” she hangs her arm around the boy and ruffles up his auburn hair. “And you wanna know somethin’ else?”

He scrunched his freckled nose.

“This face ain’t sad, hun.” She said, lookin’ into his soft-blue eyes. “This is the face you’ll be makin’ when I beat you back to the camp!”

“Not if I make it there first!”

Kacey pulls Mason back off the tomb so he falls back on to the bed of grass. “Last one’s a rotten egg!”

Kacey ran forward with the momentum of a cross-country runner. She’d often forget about her life before all this. Waking up early, making coffee, taking Bailey out for her morning walk. Sometimes she’d remember Bailey when they’d run into packs of wild dogs. Maybe Bailey’s out there still, leading a pack of her own. Someday, they’ll all have to rebuild their lives like they used to be. Hopefully that day isn’t too far away.

Mason’s footsteps couldn’t be heard behind her. Kacey glanced back to see she was alone in the graveyard. The spot she and Mason were at before was empty; a small pillar of smoke rising from the charred grass.

“Mason?” She called out, “Where’d you go, bud?”

There was no reply. Only the sound of the US flag, wiping in the sharp breeze. The sound it made smacking the metal flagpole was a thudding thunder.

“Mason!” Kacey called out again, looking out towards the graveyards edge. Squinting her eyes from the setting sun, for a moment, she could she the boy standing by the treeline. “What are you doing over there? The camp’s this way, hun–!”

Before she could make sense of it, Kacey’s hand was pulled back and it wasn’t Mason. A brittle snap of dry bone, a petulant stench of death. By reflex, she swung at the Cankers head, swiping off a chunk of it’s left cheek. Kacey could see the Cankers inner-mouth, gnashing with black teeth. She noticed it chewing it’s brown-swollen tongue and decided to swing her arm back for good measure. It’s head twist off with a crispy crunch and rolled away, teeth still gnashing.

“Mason, where are you?”

The sun had gone down past the horizon. Twilight washed everything in a light blue, getting bluer. A bright, full moon debuted over the canopy of trees– Mason! Kacey ran back to where she’d last seen the boy but there was no sign of him. Her eyes caught something moving at the graveyards edge…

[to be continued]