What a Horrible, Wicked World: A Collection of Horrors

Breathe: Part One of Three

Author's Note:
I was tossing and turning one night after watching a movie that ends with the main character being buried alive. I really couldn't get that image out of my head, and eventually I went to sleep to have a nightmare of the same kind of suffocation- only much worse. I dreamt I was trapped beneath dead bodies, and I couldn't move. (Honestly, I think it was because my boyfriend was resting on top of me after work, and I'm sure that's why it was me being buried under a body and not in the ground!) When I woke up, I realized I had always had that fear growing up: being stuck under someone heavier than me, because I'm very stick-built. My dad used to sit on me when I was a kid for giggles (like him saying "is this a chair?" because I would tell him I was invisible) and I enjoyed the game, but oftentimes he took it too far and overestimated how much pressure I could take. All of that together, I bring a new piece: "Breathe".

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On the news, there's always coverage here and there about "miracles" where people rise from their caskets and are suddenly deemed alive and well after days of being dead. Zombies or the Messiah, people assume. What's more is that many loved ones are buried with a string on them attached to a bell on the tombstone in case their heart decides to beat again.
I didn't get a bell strung to my fingers, nor an open casket funeral. My parents could never afford anything like that, so in my untimely demise they took whatever chance they could to get me cremated at the best price. It was 25 dollars down, and they had to buy the urn separately. The crematorium was shut down for asbestos by the health department, but those who ran it refused to search for another building so they ran it underground for dirt cheap.
That's why I woke up in that unfamiliar space, with a large object laying across me. When I opened my eyes, I gasped for air like a fish out of water. My vision was blurry, but I blinked hard until I could make out the truck roof above. It felt enormous in that room-in that truck.
Then, I suddenly realized the horrible pressure laying on my chest. It felt like my cartilage was splitting and my sternum was about to fall right onto my heart.
"Help," I murmured, shifting my head left and right.
Swallowing after you die for a while is incredibly difficult, might I add. My lips, tongue, and throat dried up. I felt dried out like dehydrated fruit and extremely zombie-like.
I still hadn't caught eye of what was smothering me, but I gasped for air as I wriggled my arms beneath it. It felt cold and squishy, and the entire room smelled-quite frankly- like shit. That's when the truck started, and I could hear two men outside of it chatting.
"Please," I whispered, turning my head toward where they were talking at. I closed my eyes, and listened closely while accepting the fact no one could hear me until I got fluids.
"There's a lot more than usual, honestly," one of the men coughed, then he asked his friend for another cigarette.
"You're always bumming off me," the other one laughed, then he said lowly, "I just don't understand how many people won't go into a little debt to bury their loved ones." That's when it hit me. My heart sank, and the crushing feeling on my chest felt deeper than it had before.
The object on top of me was a corpse.
I panicked, squirming while still weak and dizzy. I managed to free one of my arms, and tried to shove it off of me with all my force, but to no avail.
"Please," I whimpered again, turning toward where the men were laughing outside. I tried to cry, but my eyes couldn't even form tears.
"They'll open the truck eventually, then I just need to yell and wail my arms like crazy," I told myself, "Save your strength." The two men, happily talking about their wives at home, walked toward the back of the truck. My body shuddered in excitement, and I tilted my head back with a wide smile, hoping they were going to be opening the back hatch.
They didn't.
Instead, one of the men slapped the back of it and the truck started up in response.