Dinner Is Served

Well, it’s finally here, the day of the new episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead.

Needless to say, I am ghoulishly excited about it and thought this piece might be in order. It’s taken from a piece I had started but never finished and so I’m calling it…Dinner is Served…

I was doing fine, that is to say that fear and constant moment was keeping them behind and at bay before I fell, landing full force on the cap of my knee. With the ground sparsely covered with burnt out grass, one would think it would have been a soft landing, but it wasn’t, it still felt like concrete. I rolled to my side, yelled out in pain and drew the knee up to me, grabbing for it like some football player that had taken an injury inflicting bad hit. My fingers distinguished the gash. The warm gooey moistness oozing through them told me it was bad and I was too afraid to look. With pain rampantly flowing, I fearfully glanced back. This stumbling of mine allowed them to chronically close the distance I had already put between us.

Ignoring the pain, I let loose the knee, rolled back over and scrambled for a moment to regain footing before taking off running again. I could feel the swelling growing, causing the muscles to tighten. The wound, which I still hadn’t looked down at it, remaining focused at what lied ahead, pinched as the skin tore wider with each forced step. A constant trickle running down my shin almost tickled, overtaking the increasing numbness.

After six or so steps, the knee threatened to buckle and I countered with primarily hopping on the good one, only using the bad one when absolutely necessary and to keep from falling again. That was when my plight truly soaked in. Beforehand, I had hope of getting away. Now that hope was completely gone and I was strictly on survival mode at any cost. I didn’t need to look back to know that with each step mustered, the gap closed between the horde and myself. I desperately continued on, knowing that eventually that gap would no longer be.

When they did finally catch and grasp hold, tackling me to the ground, the first bite was directly below that bad knee, on my calf, and for just a moment the pain of that thing’s flesh sinking teeth took away the throbbing pain in the knee and it was oddly relieving. Of course, the relief was short lived as the flesh was tore away. Within moments, other bites came, into my back and arms and increasing everywhere as they gathered about, dropping to their knees and surrounding me. I remember faintly wondering, as they rolled me over, whether their knees hurt when they did before fading to pitch black from either the horror or the pain or maybe both.

When my eyes opened, I could move them. Looking down I noticed that most of my body, especially the fleshy meaty portions was torn away, having nourished many. Two buzzards leaped about, one on each side, arguing back and forth with squawking sounds as they occasionally pecked into my ribcage, fighting over what was left of my innards.

I attempted to move, but couldn’t. And, although having seen and knowing that I had no stomach left, I felt famished and ravenously hungry.

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I verified whether Kelly Stewart of Fangoria fame and Ellen Datlow (The Best Horror of the Year) received their copies of The Daily Death - How I Killed My Co-Workers In 30 Days. Kelly received his and Ellen indicated that it might be in her mail, which she'll check when she finishing jet-setting. I can only hope that they enjoy the macabre ride. Otherwise, I haven't heard anything from the other review requests from the likes of Rue Morgue, Scream Horror, Albedo1, HorrorHound and a few others.

But, and I'm sure some of you already know, Sheri White has reviewed it for The Horror Fiction Review and Dale Elster (Yule Tide Tales of Horror, Look What I Found) has posted a review on Amazon, calling it Greeting Cards From Hell.