Rotting oranges. The smell of death. It fills my lungs. I would choke if I had the strength, but the congealed blood at my throat allows barely a swallow.
He is coming for me where I lay in the street. His cart crunches over villagers, the wooden wheels smashing old bones into cobblestones. Bones too old to fester or infect.
The fresh dead pile up, sweltering in the sun. He clears them, rolling along and hefting corpses into the grimy barrow. I wonder how many have gasped their last breath in that pile of rotting flesh? How many were still alive, groaning in protest as he flung them?
A voice pulls my eyes from the cart. A woman lurches across the street, stepping over the putrid bodies, wringing a blood-soaked tunic in her hands. “My husband,” she says, “you took my husband.” The tunic drops onto a dead man’s face, but she does not see. Her arms, riddled with oozing black sores, seize on her middle, hands grasping at flesh. A scream rattles from her throat as she slumps to her knees then falls, face smashing into the noxious dirt. Dead.
He wastes no time. The cart keeps rolling. He gives it a shove and wrenches her still warm flesh onto the pile in one swift movement. I want to feel pity for her or even hate her. Something to make me feel alive. But I am cold.
His hands clench the bloody handles again.
He is coming for me.
The wheels stop. A shadow covers the sun. His hands grasp my shirt. My turn for a ride.
_______________
©2010 Brenda Stokes
Brenda Stokes is a writer of strange things from southern California. Her work has appeared in Everyday Weirdness, Electric Velocipede and Six Sentences. When she’s not putting pen to paper, she’s spending time with her husband, Matt and teaching her pet rats tricks. You can find out more about her at www.brendastokes.com.
Tags: Brenda Stokes
August 9th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
I like this! Nice, little story Brenda!
August 10th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Yep, great atmosphere to this one - chilling.
August 12th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Chilling tale. Interesting era. Love the feeling of inevitability throughout and thought the lady looking for her husband was a good touch..:)
August 13th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
Yes, the Plague did take so many people and you depicted quite well in your chilling flash how bodies were just piled on a cart with no reverence for the person they once were.
Well done.
August 15th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Nicely done!