1. Enter the fields, examine the nearest buffalo corpse up close.
You walk down the road to the gate. It's locked, but easy enough to slip under.
Making sure your flaregun is secure on your hip, you cautiously approach the nearest corpse, about thirty yards in front of you. The stench wafts over your face, and you gag a bit, trying to breathe through your mouth.
I can almost taste it anyway, you think as you pant. The buzzing of the flies grows louder in your ears as you come close to the pile of meat.
Standing about ten yards away, you can tell that the thing has been rotting here for some time. Lacerations run up and down the sides and flanks, like someone cut into it with a sword. The fur is torn and shredded. What look like welts run up and down the back.
You step closer, slowly. Five yards. Really, the smell is something else.
Beneath the skin, something moves.
The flies all suddenly turn and scatter to the winds.
This is bad, you think. I should run.
Despite this thought, you find yourself unable to move. Try as you might, your eyes remain locked on the pile of rotting buffalo before you, legs unmoving.
What the hell? you think. This is insane. I'm afraid, but not panicked. I knew this might be bad. Why can't I move?
A low giggling noise in your head is the only answer.
Benny, you think. You son of a bitch. Let go.
But isn't it pretty? I'm glad you got out of your car to look at it. Watch closely! You're about to see the miracle of new life! Benny's voice in your head is almost hysterical with laughter.
The corpse begins to shudder in front of you. What can only be snakes or worms move beneath the hide, like migrating veins. As they move, you can feel your own worms within you also twisting. A low, throaty hissing sound begins to emanate from it.
Looks like you set off the proximity alarms! Benny says.
You struggle internally, trying to yell, your mouth locked in place, agape, sucking in foul air and unearthly noise. The crawling sensation within you intensifies.
You. Son. Of. A. Bitch. Arrrggghhh! you think, rage building inside you, washing away the fear.
Ahhhh, anger. Yesssss. I can feel your hatred for me. Yessssss, this is an emotion we understand.
The thing in front of you begins to shudder violently, the noise increasing. Bits of blood and gore begin to shoot out in spurts from the body with wet popping sounds, one splattering you on the face. You don't even flinch. The blood dribbles down your cheek, onto your neck, staining them both red.
Benny, I'm going to fucking KILL YOU!
You already tried that, remember? Didn't work so well, really. Well, you know what they say. Hindsight 20/20, and all that.
The noise abruptly cuts off.
The pile of meat goes still. For a moment, everything is fixed in place, you, the dead animal in front of you. The very air hangs heavy, choking the day.
Then, with a horrible tearing sound, the buffalo rises from itself.
Out of the corpse comes the bones of the creature, ringed all round by writhing, twisting worms. Their many mouths feast on the bits of meat and gristle that tear away. You see in perfect clarity the skeletal beast now before you, stepping out of the meaty shell that it once was. The worms have actually infested the very bones. They slip in and out of rents in them, and through the chunks of meat that cling to the frame still. The largest and thickest worms are balled up under and inside the ribcage. As the thing turns toward you, the mouths of a thousand parasites open at you, and the maw of the buffalo itself widens to release the greatest noise you have ever heard.
CREEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRWWWWW!!!
The fear returns.
The thing takes a single step toward you. Worms from the front of it begin to extend, lamprey mouths wide and dripping.
You close your eyes.
The thing pushes you over from the side, slamming you away and rolling, dirt under, over, pain flaring from the impact, the worms descending --
Your name. Someone is screaming your name from above you.
You open your eyes. Jesse is above you, screaming hysterically. She slides off you and begins to drag you away.
Your mind snaps back into place.
The buffalo is a mere few meters from you.
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1. Get to your feet. Run.
2. Flaregun. Shoot it.
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Poll
4 (66.7%)
Author
Topic: The Ends (Read 59208 times)