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Where Grief Meets Fury

The Heart Still Lives

By Karen BouknightPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
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Where Grief Meets Fury
Photo by Peter Forster on Unsplash

Jon Stevens wished he could "unsee" what was ahead of him: Six people making a meal of another human being. He hadn’t seen a living person in weeks, and he preferred it that way since just about every one of those “things” had tried to kill him and make him into dinner. Not that he often carried food because it was hard to come by after the world supply chains collapsed. Human beings were now food for each other.

No one in his neighborhood, except maybe Jack, saw this coming – the power outage eleven months ago that everyone thought would last a few hours and had turned out to be permanent. The day Jack’s twins, and Jon’s son died. One day he was driving to work – then he was watching planes dropping out of the sky. One day we were enjoying the last days of summer with a block party – then we were fighting the neighbors for food and water. How the hell does this happen?

Jon stopped. He needed to stay hidden until the pack moved on or else risk being next on the menu. He choked back the bile rising in his throat and quietly dug his binoculars out of his son’s school backpack. Even with one lens cracked he could tell the group was bedding down. He settled into some thick brush about fifty yards downwind of them and glassed them once more. Jon caught his breath - now there were only five. Crap.

By Yann Allegre on Unsplash

Lynn Coulson wanted to throw up. She was up a slope well above the interstate and watched six man-eating thugs chase down a woman and her little girl. It was disgusting and vile and Lynn had happened upon them too late. She couldn’t help them, and neither could she watch the grotesque spectacle unfolding near the overpass below. She had escaped what could have been a deadly situation earlier just by being patient and letting the cannibals move ahead of her. And because of that decision those people died. I never thought saving myself would get someone else killed.

Lynn settled into a gully with plenty of cover. Her crossbow was still cocked and loaded with the safety on and three more bolts in the attached quiver. She followed the movement of the cannibals with her scope. Granted, at this distance she didn’t have a reliable shot. But she had already visually scouted where she could close the distance and maintain cover. She scanned the tall weeds from the base of her slope outwards and was shocked to see someone crouched and watching the camp. Interesting, but he’s way too close.

One of the cannibals left the group and headed for the near side bridge supports. Lynn moved parallel with catlike stealth using each tree to mask her movement until she could see where Cani One stopped. She almost let out a snicker when she realized he was relieving himself behind a tree. She crept closer, using the shadows to her advantage. Cani One zipped up, took three steps, and then turned right around and dashed behind a large rock. This time he was squatting, and apparently having a rough time of it. Lynn lined him up in her sights, but only had a visual from the shoulders up. She estimated him to be at twenty yards and flipped off the safety. One down, five to go.

By Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Jon’s heart was beating out of his chest so hard it filled his ears. His eyes darted back and forth searching - desperately searching – for that missing cannibal. Ever so slowly, Jon reached into his back pocket and pulled out the only weapon he had: a ten-inch wrench. Of course, every single one of those people-eaters had knives at a minimum. It’ll have to do.

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Lynn stuck her foot in the stirrup and re-cocked her crossbow. Quietly sliding another bolt on the rail, she chose another spot for when the next targets came looking for the first one. She didn’t have to wait long – Cani Two and Cani Three came looking for their comrade. Lynn had guessed right on their angle of approach, and they were now one behind the other on a narrow path between a tree and the rock masquerading as a toilet. Just a little closer and this will be a two for one special…

By Alexandros Dimitri Karantges on Unsplash

Jon barely raised his head and panned the binoculars all the way to his left, slowly looking for movement, and panned back to the cannibal camp. Now there were only three. Oh, great. Maybe fifty yards is too close. Stashing his stuff back in the backpack, Jon started crawling backwards to put space between him and the camp. He figured he had crawled another twenty yards when suddenly the grass and weeds exploded with wild turkeys taking flight and clucking madly at Jon’s intrusion. He dropped completely flat in place. He didn’t need binoculars to see that every eye that he was trying to avoid was now upon him.

Flying Turkeys Attack Hunters / YouTube - Backcountry Bowhunter

Suddenly Lynn’s targets turned their heads toward the sound. What the hell? Turkeys? She would lose the shot if she waited even less than a second. The bolt fired and sliced completely through the upper abdomen of Cani Two and continued straight into an incredibly surprised Cani Three - who now had blood gushing from his lower abdomen plus all the weight of Cani Two falling on top of him. Yelling was coming from the camp – but were they heading in her direction or toward the guy crouched on the other side?

Sliding to the bottom of the slope, Lynn found Cani One and pulled the bloodied bolt from his neck and slid it on her re-cocked crossbow. She left the other broken bolt and ran for the top of the overpass.

By Brandon Hoogenboom on Unsplash

Jon knew he was in trouble. He was hoping that the cannibals would be interested in the turkeys that just flew into their roosts for the night. Instead, he heard people approaching. So, this is how it goes down. Jon jumped to his feet, whipped out his wrench, and… why are there only three of them? Who cares?! Run!

Jon headed straight for the one guy who didn’t have a weapon and using the wrench like a pole he jammed it right into the attacker’s solar plexus and kept on running. Heading toward the overpass, Jon noticed a figure up above – a woman? No idea whose side she’s on. Not stopping to ask.

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Lynn watched from the overpass and saw “crouching guy” suddenly stand up and pull out a weapon. Then he charged at Cani Four who went down like a sack of potatoes. I like this guy. Run this way buddy…

The remaining targets closed the distance with Lynn by heading right for her - she picked Cani Five and he ran right into the advancing bolt. Cani Six continued under the bridge in pursuit of crouching guy. Re-cocking again, Lynn loaded one of the remaining bolts and ran back down the side of the overpass.

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Jon suddenly realized what he was running through. This is where these cannibals ate. There was human skin on the ground and pools of blood. But that wasn’t what made Jon stop. He had seen plenty of atrocities in the months since the world went to hell, though admittedly never this close. There was a woman’s large purse with blood on it. And right next to it was a little pink backpack. A little girl’s backpack for school.

By S&B Vonlanthen on Unsplash

Jon wheeled around so fast that Cani Six was caught totally by surprise. And for a moment, he still believed that he had the advantage with knife in hand. But Jon’s eyes changed in an instant. These animals had killed a mother and her child. Jon was still wearing his son’s dinosaur backpack because it was all he had left from that horrible day. He let Cody’s pack slide from his shoulders to the ground and then Jon was on that man with a fury that had been held in since his son’s death.

Grabbing the knife hand with both of his hands, Jon twisted the arm backwards and put his right leg behind Cani Six’s right leg in a hip-sweeping motion. The knife came free and both men were on the ground, rolling and punching, kicking each other and cursing.

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Lynn arrived under the bridge just in time to see Jon slam Cani Six’s head into the concrete five or six times.

“I think he’s dead,” said Lynn.

Jon pounded the head once more for good measure and looked up, fire still burning in his eyes. “You with them?”

“Oh hell no. I’m the reason you only faced three instead of six. Name’s Lynn.”

Jon got up and wiped the blood from his mouth. “Thanks.” Picking up his son’s backpack, a heart-shaped locket fell out from the side. Lynn picked it up. “This looks important,” she said while handing it to Jon.

“It is,” said Jon. “It belonged to my wife.”

“I think you made her proud just now.”

Author’s original work: https://vocal.media/horror/time-and-tide-do-not-wait was re-written for this piece and modified to fit the requirements for Vocal Challenge: Doomsday Diary.

Horror
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