Ashton Memorial (26 page)

“Fuck you!” Maylee yelled,
bringing her bat up over her head. She slammed down with all her
might. The impact was loud and squelching. The corpse groaned, its
voice now more of a wet gurgle.

Maylee screamed and slammed
down again. This time she felt the bat connect with skull. There
was a sickening “crack,” and the impact sent a shudder up her bat
and into her arms. The corpse was quiet and still.

A hand landed on her shoulder. She screamed,
her voice more anger than fear, and spun, bat over her head and
ready.

Ella jumped back, holding
up her hands. “Whoa whoa! It's me!”

Maylee lowered the bat and
sighed. “Shit. Sorry.”

Park rushed from the
darkness. “Look out!” he yelled.

Maylee darted to one side, turning to see
Park punch the dark outline of a corpse in the face. Or, the area
Maylee assumed the face would be if there was any light to see
by.

Maylee moved back to guard Ella, holding her
bat in front of her. Park pulled the knife from his pocket as the
corpse groaned and came at him. Park put his palm on the corpse's
forehead and shoved the blade up into the corpse's chin. He
wrenched side to side and pulled the knife free. The corpse's head
fell backward, loose on its own neck. Maylee heard blood patter
against the leaves. Park kicked the corpse and it fell over,
shuffling slowly side to side on the ground.

“Shit,” said Park, wiping
his face with his clean hand. “I've got to get a new
gun.”

He turned to face them.
“You guys okay?”

Maylee nodded, lowering the bat. She turned
to look at Ella, who was nodding also.

“Okay,” said Park. “We're
gonna have to...”

Then the air exploded with squawks and
beating wings as the mob of birds found them again. Maylee turned
in time to see a huge black mass of bird outlines coming at
them.

“Fucking birds!” yelled
Park. “Run!” He grabbed Maylee and Ella and pulled them
along.

The three of them ran to the side as the
mass of birds sped past them, screeching and cawing. Maylee ran,
straining to see the outlines of trees and bushes in the dark. She
could hear the birds behind them.

“What's the matter with the
birds?” yelled Ella as they ran.

“Fuck if I know,” said
Park.

“Are they…”

“Dead? No, they seem alive
to me. Just crazy as all fuck-out.”

They rounded the dark outline of a tree,
almost tripping through a small pond built into the exhibit. Maylee
guessed they were halfway through the sanctuary. She could see the
walkway off to their left. She wished they could run back to it,
but didn't dare suggest anything but continuing to run forward. She
was scared to even take the time to look back.

Odd shapes loomed in front of them. Maylee
thought they were small trees or bushes. Then they moved. And
groaned.

“Shit!” said Park, stopping
so suddenly Maylee and Ella ran into his back.

The dark mass of corpses moved toward them,
reaching and writhing. Loud rustling and squawking came from behind
them.

“Oh no,” said Ella,
quietly.

Park spun. In the dim light, Maylee saw him
looking up and over her shoulder. He moved to stand between Maylee
and Ella. He clamped his hands on their shoulders, so hard it
hurt.

“Ow!” said Ella.

“Down!” yelled Park. He
dropped to his knees, pulling Maylee and Ella down with
him.

Maylee's torso slammed to the ground, the
air rushing from her lungs. She heard Ella cry out as she hit the
ground nearby.

“What the hell?” Maylee
started to yell, then understood as the thick mass of birds raced
by overhead. Inches from their backs. Hundreds of tiny claws
scraped against the back of Maylee's jacket. At her hair. She
screamed into the noise, feeling like she was losing her
mind.

With a loud stream of
“whump-whump-whump,” the crazed birds hammered into the approaching
mob of corpses. The sheer amount of birds pelting into the corpses
slowed their approach. Then caused them to stagger back. Then
caused them to change direction. The corpses, knocked off course
and distracted from Maylee and the others, started to break up and
wander in different directions.

As the last bird careened
overhead, chattering furiously at nothing, Park stood. “Move!” he
yelled. Maylee and Ella followed.

They ran toward the separating mob of
corpses. Park drove his shoulder into the corpse closest to him.
The corpse stumbled back, clearing a path for Ella to run through.
Maylee swung her bat at a second corpse. It connected somewhere in
the vicinity of the corpse's face. The corpse fell to one side.
Maylee rushed through the opening, following Park and Ella.

They ran, mostly blindly, through the
underbrush of the sanctuary. Maylee strained her eyes, trying to
see more clearly. Shapes were all around, most likely trees or
bushes. Hopefully.

The shadows in front of them began to join
together. Rustling came from everywhere. Birds squawked as the mass
of shadows rushed toward them.

“Dammit!” yelled Park.
“Down!”

The three of them dropped
to the ground, laying flat on their stomachs. The swarm of birds
raced overhead, screeching and clawing at them. Maylee put her
hands over the back of her head and pushed her face as far down as
she could. She heard the dull “whump-whump” as the birds pummeled
the corpses behind them, but not as many as before. A chill ran
through her as she realized the corpses could be anywhere
now.

The last of the birds raced overhead. Maylee
lifted her head and looked around. She brushed off a leaf that was
stuck to her cheek and blinked in the dark. As far as she could
tell, it was clear.

“Go!” yelled Park from up
ahead. He pushed himself up. “Fucking go!”

Maylee put her palms in the dirt and pushed
herself up. A hand closed on her calf. Groaning came from behind
her.

“Shit!” she yelled. “One's
got me!” She kicked backward but couldn't find the corpse's head.
She slammed her foot down on the hand gripping her calf. The grip
held.

She twisted around in the dirt, trying to
sit up. She heard Park and Ella rushing up behind her. She managed
to sit up just in time to see the dark outline of the corpse
crawling up her leg. She struggled but could not wiggle free. The
corpse reached out its other hand and grabbed her shirt. This one
was fresh, she realized, and stronger than she expected.

The corpse crawled up her, knocking her back
against the dirt. Maylee pushed upward on the corpse's shoulders,
keeping it away from her face. She tried to get her legs up under
it, tried to do the same trick that saved her from the corpse in
Uncle Bobby's closet. The corpse whose clothes she was wearing. She
couldn't get any traction on the wet ground.

Suddenly Park was above
her. Ella's hands closed on her shoulders. “Maylee!” yelled
Ella.

Park grabbed the corpse by
the head and pulled it to one side. “Lean!” Park yelled.

“What?” said Maylee, too
panicked to understand.

“Fucking lean your fucking
head the other fucking way!”

Maylee did, leaning her head in the opposite
direction from how Park was pulling the corpse's head.

Park grunted and, using his free hand,
shoved the hunting knife into the corpse's temple. The corpse
groaned and bucked. Blood and other foul-smelling fluid poured from
the corpse's mouth, pooling next to Maylee's shoulder. She could
hear it splatter and smell its thick rotting stench.

“Oh god!” she yelled.
“Fucking sick!”

The corpse bucked two more times, then
slumped forward on her upraised palms. She pushed it off of her and
stood, shuddering and wiping her palms on her jeans.

Park wrenched the knife
from the corpse's temple with a wet slurping sound. “Shit. Again,
fucking gun. Soon.” He whipped his knife hand downward over and
over, trying to clean the blade.

“Are you okay?” said Ella.
Maylee could see her wide eyes in the dark.

“Yeah,” said Maylee.
“Shit.”

“What shit?” said
Ella.

“Down!” yelled
Park.

They all dropped as the
mass of birds whipped overhead, moving the other direction this
time. Maylee knelt at first, not wanting to lie down again. She
held her forearms up to her face, curling her hands up inside the
sleeves of her jacket. Birds buffeted her arms. They screeched and
tiny claws pulled at her hair. “Fuckers!” she screamed into her
arms, then gave up and fell to the ground, out of harm's
way.

After a few seconds of the deafening roar of
wings, the birds moved past. Maylee lifted her head at the same
moment Ella did.

“So,” said Park. “Who's
sick to fuck of that?”

“Here,” said Ella, lifting
her hand.

With the noise of the birds gone, Maylee
could hear groans coming from behind and to both sides.

“We hear you. We hear you,”
said Maylee, standing. “We're going.”

“Amen to that,” said Park
as he stood and helped Ella up.

“How much further?” she
said, looking around.

“I dunno,” said Park. “We
need to get back to the walkway. It'll be better than rolling
around in the bushes.”

Maylee nodded, shifting her bat from one
hand to the other. She peered into the dark until she could make
out the outline of the walkway.

“Everyone see it?” said
Park.

“Yeah,” said Maylee and
Ella together.

“Good.” Park ran, pushing
Maylee and Ella out in front of him.

“Stop pushing!” yelled
Ella.

“Just run!” yelled
Park.

The walkway drew closer. Maylee kept
glancing side to side, looking for any sign of corpses. Shadows
moved and corpses groaned from somewhere unseen. The trees around
them rustled but she couldn't pinpoint where the birds would come
from next. There was no time to stop and figure it out.

Ella was in front, followed by Maylee, with
Park in the rear. As Ella drew near the walkway, a corpse emerged
from a shadow and stumbled toward her. In the dim light, Maylee
could see it was an old man with dried blood caked in the wrinkles
covering his face. He hissed. Ella screamed.

Maylee ran up behind Ella and shoved her
aside. Ella stumbled to the left. Maylee swung her bat up and
slammed the corpse across the face. The corpse's head snapped to
the right with such force the corpse spun around and dropped to its
knees, facing the walkway. Teeth and thick dark glop shot out
across the metal platform.

Maylee stopped running and moved to the
kneeling corpse's side. She hoisted her bat above her head,
preparing to slam down on the corpse's skull.

“Save it!” yelled Park as
he arrived. He used the momentum of his running to kick forward
against the back of the corpse's head. The corpse's jaw cracked and
its head split open horizontally as Park kicked it forward. More
glop and teeth spread out across the walkway.

Park stopped and looked down at the corpse.
Most of the upper half of its head was on the walkway. Its body was
still attached as it knelt on the ground. It gurgled and weakly
moved its limbs. Maylee lifted up her bat to finish it off. Ella
came up from where she had staggered to.

Park held up his hand for
Maylee to stop. “I said save it.” He kicked a second time against
the back of the corpse's head. The top half of its head snapped
free and slid across the walkway. The body fell to the ground and
was still. Park nodded at the body, then at Maylee. Maylee lowered
the bat and shrugged.

“Come on!” yelled Ella,
running to the walkway. She moved farther up the walkway, avoiding
the gore the corpse had left. Ella climbed over the rail. Maylee
set her bat on the walkway and followed. She picked her bat up as
Park joined them.

“Move!” said Park and they
ran for the other side. Maylee felt exposed to both corpses and the
crazed birds, but she was thankful for the lack of obstacles the
walkway provided. She was in front this time, with Ella and Park
behind her.

The trees rustled, too faint and far-off to
pinpoint. Groans came from either side of the walkway. Maylee
couldn't tell exactly from where.

“How much further?” yelled
Ella from behind her.

Maylee strained to see in the dark. From the
outline of the dome over her head, she could tell they were
steadily approaching the other side.

The rustling grew louder. A few squawks
became audible. The sound was focusing behind them. The groans to
each side grew louder.

A dead arm reached out across the
walkway.

“Arm!” yelled Maylee. She
dodged to the far side of the walkway, narrowly avoiding the arm's
grasping fingers as she ran past. Behind her, she heard Ella’s and
Park's footsteps change direction as they did the same.

Maylee ran harder, her feet pounding on the
metal walkway. The rustling behind them increased. A corpse's head
leaned out over the walkway. It was a woman, her long black hair
caked with dirt and blood.

“Head!” yelled Maylee,
moving to the other side of the walkway. The woman hissed and bit
at her legs as Maylee raced past. Again, Maylee heard Ella and Park
follow suit.

The swarm of birds grew loud behind them.
The birds screeched and squawked furiously.