Authors: Jack Batcher
Texas Funeral (4 page)
me, “Fast!”
I pushed the gas pedal to the floor, and the car
jumped into action. The headless body slid off the hood, as
we tried to escape Kilgore. I looked in the rearview mirror,
and saw that the tornado was engulfed in flames. The car
began to buck and rock like a bronco. I held the wheel as
tight as I could to keep control of the car. The cyclical ball
of flames twisted after us, like an angry
Godzilla
releasing
its wrath on Tokyo, it wrecked and set fire to everything in
its path. Steam began to shoot out the sides of the hood of
my car. I read the temperature gauge on the dashboard, it
was pinned in the red. Carmela began to cry as the car
slowed down, and sputtered to a stop.
We were trapped.
We watched helplessly out the
back window as the fiery tornado grew closer. Carmela and
I screamed as the fierce winds began to rock my car. There
was no escape. We clung to each other as the car began to
to slightly turn counter-clockwise. Carmela buried her head
into my neck and refused to look. I couldn’t look away
from this blazing twister, and was so petrified I couldn’t
move or breathe. The back end of my
El Camino
began to
lift. Then slammed down, as a wave of fire passed over the
car, and then there was just the wail of the tornado warning
signal. The tornado had vanished, with the only evidence of
its existence being the wreckage it had left behind.
I finally exhaled and began to breathe again.
Carmela slowly raised her head and looked up at me, then
gazed out the window at what was left of Main Street. She
was shaking, and rattled by this horrific experience. We
were stopped in front of Kilgore Park, where this nightmare
so innocently began. It was with the best of intentions that I
released those Phorid flies. I had no indication from my
research to show that this sort of devastation would be
capable from one swarm of flies.
“Are we alive?” Carmela asked.
“Yes,” I said, “I think so.”
“That was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced,”
“Me too,” I said.
A human head crashed into the windshield and the
glass cracked into the shape of a spider web. Carmela
screamed. I screamed. More heads and headless bodies fell
from the sky.
“And I’m not feeling good.”
I turned the key to start the car. The starter cranked,
but wouldn’t turnover. I smacked at something that felt like
it was crawling on my left forearm, but nothing was there. I
turned the key. Still nothing. I smacked my left forearm
again. It still felt like something was crawling on it. Then I
realized that nothing was crawling on my arm… It was
crawling in it, under my skin.
I turned towards Carmella, she had a slight trickle
of blood coming out of her left ear. I looked at her left leg
and noticed that something was crawling under her skin. I
watched as the lump made its way up her thigh and
disappeared under her uniform. Carmela turned to face me,
she had smaller moving lumps pulsing on her face. I looked
in the rearview mirror and saw that my left eye was
bleeding. Scared, I grabbed the mirror for a closer look. I
saw blood began to trickle out of right nostril and a fly
crawled out of it.
hand and pointing behind me.
I turned quickly to see
a second tornado forming
in the field at Kilgore Park. The tornado began tearing up
the earth as it made its way across the field. It looked like
we were stuck in the path of another twister. I attempted to
start the car again, and got nothing. The tornado tossed
some wooden bleachers into the sky, while ripping up fence
post and chain link fence. Carmela reached over and took
hold of my right hand. I turned to face her. She had a slight
trickle of blood coming out of the corners of her mouth.
“I’m sorry Carmela,” I said, I just felt I needed to
apologize to someone for what I had done, and I didn’t
think I had too much time left to do it.
Ray?”
“I’m sorry, because with all the chaos that has
happened tonight,” I said, “I didn’t get a chance to ask you
out on a date.”
louder behind me, and the car was beginning to rock.
“I was waiting for you to ask me,” Carmela said,
with a crooked smile, half her face was paralyzed. “We
would have had a great time.”
“An awesome time,” I said, I could feel the right
side of my body spasm and twitch.
“Well,” Carmela said, she had tears of blood
streaming down her cheeks, “Maybe we aren’t going to get
to go out on that date Ray, but we can still have a good
night kiss.”
“Yes, Carmela,” I said, “We can do that.”
Carmela used what strength she had left to turn and
face me. Her arms were shaking. Her head began to
wobble. We leaned in towards each other. I reached a
trembling left hand up, and brushed her hair away from her
face. I looked into Carmela’s soft brown eyes. The car
began to rise and spin.
Carmela let out a high pitched howl. Her body fell
on my lap, and drenched me in a small tsunami of her
blood. I held her head by the strands of her hair that were
tangled in my fingers. A swarm of flies filled the cabin of
the car. I attempted to scream, but the sound was cut short.
“Good evening, this is Gabriella Gonzalez
with
FOX 7 News
in Austin. Breaking news tonight as scenes of
horror are being reported through out Texas. Reports of a
massive fly infestation in the City of Kilgore, and at
Kilgore Memorial Hospital, where headless bodies were
found. Also in Kilgore two tornados had wrecked havoc on
the downtown area. In Houston fly infestations have been
reported, as well as in Waco, Dallas, and San Antonio. All
area hospitals are experiencing overcrowding, as patients
are coming into the emergency rooms with complaints of
multiple fly bites, nausea, headaches, and in some cases
seizures. We are going live to Alana Christensen at the the
Austin Medical Center. Alana…”
“Yes, Gabriella,” Alana said, continuing the report,
“It is nothing short of chaos here at the Austin Medical
Center. People are showing up here with complaints
varying in severity, and the common thread being that they
had all been bitten by the flies, which you can see are
swarming around the hospital.”
As Alana was giving her report, the camera man
noticed and zoomed in on a blonde haired woman in a blue
dress. She staggered behind Alana, wondering aimlessly in
a wide circle, while dragging her left leg. She looked like a
Zombie that had lost their way off the set of
The Walking
Dead
.
This woman then looked right into the camera. She
let out a high pitched howl. Startled, Alana turned around
quickly to see where the noise came from. Blood exploded
out of the blonde woman’s eyes and mouth, as her head fell
to the floor. Her body slowly collapsed to the ground to the
sound of Alana’s shrieking, because of what she had seen,
and that she was splattered by the woman’s blood. The
broadcast quickly went back to Gabriella in the
FOX 7
News
studio.
Gabriella continued with the report, “I would like to
apologize for the unplanned horrific scene that had just
been broadcast live from Austin Memorial Hospital. We
are just as shocked by the unexpected turn in this evenings
report, but it only reinforces the severity of what we are all
facing. Officials are asking people to stay inside during
what they are calling an outbreak situation.”
Gabriella had then become unbalanced and caught
herself before she fell off her chair. Her head began to
wobble. She then let out a high pitched howl. Her right eye
twitched and blood began to spill out of her mouth.
Gabriella’s head slid off her shoulders and onto the
newscaster’s desk. Blood erupted out of her neck like a
geyser.
The FOX 7 News
studio filled with a swarm of flies.
Other high pitched howls were broadcast as the camera
feed went black. All that could be heard was the growing
whirr of buzzing flies.
The back story behind
Texas Funeral
.
I wanted to
tell you about the inspiration behind this story and how I
came to chose the setting.
One day I was messing around on the internet, when
a news headline came up “Zombie Fire-Ants in Texas”. I
had to read the article! Its been a few years now since I
have seen the article. I can not site who printed it, or who
the author of the article was either. I do know that I was
intrigued by this article and what was going on there.
The South American Phorid Fly is real, and what it
does is real. How fast it does it, is not real. You can find the
research from the University of Texas at the web address
below. I also found other news articles about the Zombie
Fire-Ants.
I was excited about this idea. I was also concerned
that if the flies could attack the ants. Why couldn’t it do the
same thing to people? So, that is the question that got this
story rolling.
The setting for the story had to be in Texas. It was
already happening there. I had seen Kilgore, TX on the
map. I chose Kilgore because of Author Kurt Vonnegut. He
had a character named
Kilgore Trout
. So, I liked Kilgore
for that reason. In doing my research for this book. I
learned more about Kilgore, TX and would like to visit
there.
The title of the book came from a line in a Quentin
Tarantino movie
Kill Bill Vol: 2,
when after the bad guys
bury the main character alive, in a graveyard, one says to
the other, “So, that’s a Texas Funeral?” I liked that idea,
and had another storyline all together based on someone
being buried alive. And that was the idea. At least it was,
and then I read about the Zombie Fire-Ants.
I hope you liked the quick little bit of insight into
Texas Funeral
. As promised here is the link to the
University of Texas at Austin, Fire Ant Project,
utexas
.edu/
fire
ant/
Thank you for reading
Texas Funeral
.
Please remember
to go and review the book, and tell your friends! If you like
this book, you will want to check out these other great
books by Jack Batcher. You will find them on his website
at www.JackBatcher.com
Novels
Under a Thunder Moon
Death of a Pop-Star
Novella
Texas Funeral
How I Killed My Mother-in-law
Scattered Pieces: A collection of Poems & Songs
Children’s Books
Are there Monsters in My Closet?
Burnt Eggs and Scrambled Toast
I’ve got a Song!
Joke & Coloring books
Silly Cow!
Silly Halloween!
Silly Kitty!
Silly Puppy!
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