ZombiePalooza - Anthology

#TeamInsidesAndEntrails Pt. VIII - @Red_Harvey's "Begin and End"

Begin and End

By Red_Harvey

A scream cracked through the quiet of the woods.

Brian barely registered the noise. He was too busy trying to decipher what he was looking at.

"Gavin, what the hell?" Shauna's hands came down from her ears.

Shaking, Gavin pointed to the road. Shauna scanned the treeline, inhaling sharply a moment later.

"You don't see them?" she asked Brian.

"Them?"

Tufts of hair caught his attention, peeking from between the sparse fall leaves. From his count, that meant at least ten men were hiding in the branches. He nudged Shauna, who shot him a funny look, and then he checked again.

Not men at all, not anymore. Just silently protesting remains attached to large pikes. They resembled small gray sacks, the only indication of their humanity being yawning mouths.

On the morning hike, they'd circumvented the road, as always. Roads meant trouble. They had trekked far enough into the woods to escape notice, but the head-topped pikes had been erected to a ridiculous height, perhaps with the purpose of being spotted by travelers far and wide.

Come one, come all.

Gavin had insisted they check them out, even as Shauna had cautioned against it. In the end, they had gone.

After Gavin took a minute to bend over and retch, the group returned to their original path deeper into the woods. Nothing much was said, and didn't have to be. Eaters never would've gone through the trouble of mounting heads on pikes.

Brian watched Gavin sniffle and shoo away mosquitoes, and he was grateful for all the weekend camping excursions that had prepared him for this hard life. Shauna marched ahead of them. She often acted as the scout. On the day they did find trouble, Brian would rather she met it first.

They wandered into a clearing and settled a camp for the day.

"I'm goin' to get more food. Enjoy this while I'm gone."

Shauna tossed Brian the last of their canned food and sauntered off, letting everyone else off the hook for the hunt. She always went anyways. She even skinned and readied the meat, not an easy task, especially for a woman. Brian wondered, as he often did, what she used to do in the Before.

"Want me to go with you?" Gavin offered.

"I'll manage," Shauna tossed over her shoulder.

Initially, her show of independence had been cute, then annoying, then just how things were.

Gavin seemed to be the only guy left holding onto the old ways, sure that Shauna needed help. Brian no longer cared.

"I hope she comes back," Gavin said, green eyes squinting against the sun's orange glare.

Brian scooped a helping of the canned peaches into his mouth, offering it to Gavin.

While the city man chewed, he told him, "Wouldn't look at the sun if I were you. Gonna hurt later, man."

"Thanks, you're right," Gavin smiled.

Such a nice guy. He won't last long.

The tranquil quiet of the morning still took some getting used to. No more birds, squirrels, or cars. Some larger animals had survived, like deer and foxes. Cats had held out pretty well, and didn't taste half bad, either. They skipped dogs, but he imagined if (when) the other meat got scarce, they'd forget about man's best friend in favor of dinner.