The Extinct

CHAPTER
47

The rain cleared up as quickly as it had come and the clouds seemed to vanish. The sun began pounding the earth again and within hours the plains were dry once more. It was odd how quickly the weather changed out here and it was something Eric was certain he could never have gotten used to. Life was unstable and unpredictable enough without the environment being the same way.

They walked through a particularly thick patch of grass and came out the other side onto a narrow dirt road. William looked one way, and then the other.

“It’s gotta lead somewhere,” Eric said.

“Yeah, but which way?”

The road went on in both directions well past the limits of vision. Eric examined it more carefully. It wasn’t a road built intentionally; it was a path that had been beaten down through the grass.

“Why would so many people come through here?”

“Tourists probably. Maybe there’s a government facility here somewhere, who knows?” William looked both ways again and then said, “Well, what do you think?”

Laughter behind them.

They both turned and looked into the grass, unable to see anything. There was some movement far off and William raised his rifle, but didn’t fire.

“Either one is as good as the other,” William said.

“Yeah,” Eric said, not taking his eyes off the grass.

Neither of them could concentrate as they walked, each glancing over their shoulder. Whenever they’d hear the slightest noise they would stop and raise their guns. They’d wait half a minute before walking again. “Eric, I want you to know something. I think there’s a good chance we could die out here.” “I know,” he said. “If you got anything you want to get off your chest, anything you want to tell me, you should say it now.” “I don’t, Will.”

They saw something in the distance as they walked. It was a dark speck at first but as they approached they saw the square outline of a building. It was made of dark red brick and was about the size of a large house. The front door was open.

William walked up some steps to the door and peeked in. It was a reception area. There was garbage strewn all over the floor and a single desk took up half the space of the room. The place looked like it’d just been ransacked. “Hello?” he said. He looked back to Eric and shrugged before walking in.

The air was stale even though the door had been open. A slight breeze was blowing and causing some of the papers to rustle. Eric could see a half-eaten lunch on the desk. William walked to the desk and flipped through some of the papers.

“It’s a medical facility,” William said.

“Then where is everyone?”

“I don’t know.” There were some metal drawers against the wall and William opened each one, examining the contents before closing the drawer he was on and going to the next one. “Some of this stuff’s in English.” He stood up and looked around. “They’ve got to have a bathroom somewhere, which means they have to have water.”

Eric followed William down a narrow hallway and into the first room on the right. It looked like an office, but there was no furniture; only garbage thrown around everywhere. One of the windows was broken and sunlight reflected off the little pieces of glass on the floor.

They walked to the next room. It was a medical examining room. William found some band-aids and antiseptic in one of the cupboards and he stuffed as many as he could into his pockets.

Eric searched the room but found neither food nor water. There were tongue depressors, thermometers, stethoscopes and even an X-ray machine, but no food or water. They walked out of the room and to the last door at the end of the hallway. William checked that his rifle was chambered.

The room smelled of feces. They looked in and could see black spatters of blood all over the walls, baked into the paint from the heat. Two bodies were on the floor, a male and female. Stab wounds covered her flesh and her head had a large fracture. The man had been decapitated, his head placed on a desk against the wall. The woman had lost control of her bowels.

“God almighty,” William said. He said a silent prayer and covered his nose with his shirt to keep out the stench.

Eric had to get out of the room. He leaned against the wall in the hallway and looked out a window on the far side of the reception area. He tried snorting a few times to try and get the stink out of his nostrils. He felt the acid in his throat and couldn’t swallow in time to keep the vomit down. What little hydration he had spewed out of him and over the wall.

William walked out to him and leaned against the opposite wall. “Thuggees,” he said. “They have roving gangs all over this valley that do things like this.”

“Why would they do this? There’s nothing here for them to steal.”

“That woman’s been severely abused. They probably did it just for that. The doctor just happened to be here.” William stood up straight. “I need your help Eric, we need to bury them.”

“Why? The animals’ll just get to ‘em either way.”

“Please, it won’t take long.”

Eric had to breathe out of his mouth from the stench. They tore down some curtains and rolled the corpses onto them, dragging them outside and leaving large smears of blood on the floor. A small ditch was dug in the soft dirt using the metal drawers from a filing cabinet. They dragged the bodies to the edge of the ditch and rolled them in, then covered them back up with dirt. William said a prayer. “I hate this fucking place,” Eric said, tears welling up in his eyes. He was beginning to shake. “I fucking hate it.” William grabbed his shoulders. “Calm down Eric,” he said softly. “No! There’s nothing here but fucking death. Everything’s dying. This is hell, Will! We’re in fucking hell!” “Eric,” William said sternly, “keep it together.”

“I fucking hate it,” Eric said, sobbing. “Everything’s black.” He burst into tears, his body convulsing. He collapsed on to the ground on his knees.

William wrapped his arms around him in a tight embrace. “It’s okay, I’m here for you, Eric. God’s here for you,” he whispered. “We’ll survive. We’ll live to see another day; you just need to hang on.”

Eric wiped at his tears, pulling away from William. He looked and saw William’s soft eyes and it comforted him. “I’m sorry,” he said, regaining control.

“No need,” William said. “God won’t abandon you Eric, even in a place like this.” He looked over to the structure. “I think we should stay the night here. Would you be okay with that?”

“Yeah,” Eric said. “Yeah, I’ll be okay.”

Night came quickly as they sat in the reception room, staring out the windows. William tried to pass the time by reading some of the medical documents he’d found and cleaning his rifle. Eric just sat silently, unmoving. They’d found some candles and had them set up around the room, providing a warm glow in the darkness.

“These people suffered so much,” William said, flipping through some papers. “It seems like everyone was dying of things that could be cured in the states with a prescription.”

There was barking outside. William looked to Eric and dropped the papers. He picked up his rifle and made his way to the door. Eric didn’t want to move, but he forced himself up. He walked behind William and stared out into the darkness.

The moon provided some illumination and they could make out the shapes of animals running around in front of the building. They were hyenas, about six or seven of them. They were no bigger than dogs but they struck a fearsome shape in the dark.

They were digging up the corpses. Two of the larger animals were fighting over what looked like a leg. Another one held the woman’s corpse by the head and was dragging it up out of the ground.

Eric took out his handgun and fired, the bullet whizzing by William’s ear. He fired again and hit one of the larger hyenas in the leg. The pack, hollering with fear and anger, scattered.

William grabbed Eric’s arm and forced it down. “Don’t waste your ammunition. These aren’t the ones hunting us. They’re too small.”

William shut the front door and sat down against the wall. He watched Eric awhile. He’d known many boys like him. Confused and angry at their confusion. Hell, he had been like that most of his life. He wondered if there were certain principles that helped one overcome ruts like the one Eric was in? Or was all psychology just random and subjective? No, he decided. That’s too simple, and life is anything but simple.

As the hours passed the air grew so humid William was constantly damp and it was too uncomfortable to sleep, but he thought he would try anyway. “We’ll leave here in the morning,” he said.

Eric stared out the window at the moon. Outside he could hear barking again, and the sound of something being dragged away. Soon, there was just the darkness, distant laugher echoing through the valley.