Short Stories Volume 2

The Unburied

Eating healthy. The perfect diet.

Something that is easier said than done. It's also something that is a lot more expensive than just going straight to the nearest fast food place.

Yes, I know that those places have really greasy food that is most likely filled with all kinds of steroids but lets be honest here. There's a reason why they call it comfort food. It tastes way much better and as I said, it's so much more cheaper. I mean five dollars for a basic salad with a three dollar bottle of water, both of which that have no flavor. Or... a triple bacon cheeseburger with onion rings and thousand island sauce, large fries, five piece chicken nuggets and a medium soft drink for only four dollars because it's a combo meal.

That's not including the coupons that allow you to combine more than one combo.

Yeah it's not a hard choice and it's no wonder why the world has so many health issues.. Yet, it wasn't really the food itself that was the problem. In fact it wasn't just one singular problem either. More like a whole bunch of factors combined that lead into one big problem.

For years we have tried everything from the kitchen sink to help grow healthy crops and make the earth cleaner. Despite our best efforts, nothing seemed to be working. Granted most of it was in vain because we were constantly releasing loads and loads of toxins in the air due to smog, factories and such. Don't even get me started on how we were polluting our oceans and other waters.

Any who, when we finally discovered that we were the issue, it wasn't in the way that any of us thought it would be.

We were focusing on the wrong materials like trash. All of the plastic and metals were not the ones that needed the proper disposal. I mean they did but well you'll get what I mean in a bit. The most dangerous toxic substance that was being ignored was us.

Because we were so unhealthy and so many illnesses relating to it, every time that we had a funeral and buried our dead loved one, then those toxins would seep into the earth. Hence why nothing would grow as it should. No healthy crops. Whatever did grow would usually taste like crap.

Then there was the big stuff. Things that were diseases but not ones that were linked to eating wrong. I'm talking about the ones like cancers, meningitis and all that fun stuff. Those guys were worst than any plastic or oil spill that hit the soils and waters.

So it basically turned into a never ending cycle. One that took a while for us to figure out or at least admit to ourselves. For one, it wasn't as if we just buried in the ground. They had their caskets and stuff but eventually it was plain as day to see that the data was all there.

The first thing that had to be done was to get everyone to stop burying their loved ones or anyone else who passed. As harsh as it sounds, we needed to find new ways to dispose of them. I know, I know. The most obvious solution would be to cremate them and you're right. The only trouble was the price.

See, before all this started happening the most basic and low costing cremation was around $745. Not even taking into account where you live or if you wanted any fancy urns to place your loved one's ashes in.

Now with burials being completely out of the picture and everyone looking for their business, well it was like when the iPhones first came out but worst. Then there was the trouble of people that broke the law because they were still burying others even though it had now become illegal. Because why not? Why would there be a law that everyone would follow? Especially if they would benefit from it.

However, even after we settled on the cremation dilemma like making it more affordable for everyone and punished those who were breaking the law it still wasn't enough. There were still contaminations in the ground due to centuries upon centuries of ones that had already been placed in their graves. So this brought on a whole new issue. While we agreed that there would be no more graves, we hadn't come to any discussion about what to do with the previous ones.

People became divided into either leaving them be as they were because they were already buried long before any law had been passed or to dig up every single last grave because that was the whole purpose of this worldwide consensus.

Like most things, we started step by step. The deceased that had any living relatives were contacted not necessarily to get permission per se, more like to notify them that we were going to exhume the bodies. In return, they were offered full paid cremation so that they wouldn't have to pay out of pocket themselves. It made it a lot easier for the families to cooperate and not cause a fuss.

Next step from there was going through the records to see which people were good to dig up now or go through a full investigation. As we all painfully know, not everyone die peacefully in their sleep or at ripe old age. Tragically, there are many that are killed and murdered. That is why we spoke with whoever was in charge of any police or federal investigation in any cases in order to ensure that there were none that were still open. Or if they had gotten all the evidence that they needed from the body. Once the green light was given then it out of the ground and into the fire.

Of course that was when other troubles began. Not sure which place flagged it first but more and more morticians were burning more bodies than what they had in their schedule. In other words, people were dying. Though it wasn't until one horror scene afternoon where a simple loose screw on the door was causing the fire to get out.

For obvious safety reasons, the mortician turned off the flame before going to fix the door. In that moment, two heinous things were discovered.

The first was that when he got close, he heard the faintest of whimpering. Like a tiny mouse crying. Instead of trying to reason with himself that it was all in his head, his instinct made him open the door and look at the body he was burning a minute ago. He nearly passed out when the body not only made the whimpering sound again but it's fingers from the left hand began to twitch.

After the ambulance had rushed the man to the hospital and the police were done questioning him did he admit to himself the second heinous thing. The second he opened the furnace door and the smell of the burned man hit him, he could've sworn he salivated at the aroma. He knew he should be repulsed by the idea of burned human flesh stirring his appetite. Especially when the poor man was still alive.

He tried so hard to get the smell out of his head but it was near impossible given his line of work. It was beyond tempting to just turn off the fire, reach out and open the door, pull the tray out and satiate his curiosity.

Finally he couldn't take it anymore and he switched off the flame. Like the countless times he replayed this in his head, he slowly pulled out the tray revealing the cooked corpse. Taking the scalpel from the table he slowly put it to the thigh and sliced about two inches deep. Once the piece was off he hesitated for a moment before he put it in his mouth.

Repulsion. Disgust. Ashamed.

These are the thing that he should've felt when he chewed. Instead he never tasted anything better in his life.

He was interrupted as he was getting another piece when his supervisor walked in. Just as the boss was about to say something, the smell had reached him the same way it had the mortician. Recognizing that look, he quickly cut a piece and shoved it into his boss' mouth before he could get reprimanded or even arrested. Like it did with him, it was like an explosion went off in the man's mouth.

One piece wasn't enough. Soon they were both cutting into the body taking what they thought would be better. Obviously they didn't eat all of him as there was too much, so what they couldn't finish was tossed into the furnace once more.

About ten years had passed since that mortician first cut into a burned corpse. Word got out about what they had done amongst other cremation facilities and they too began eating. Eventually it spread to the outside and you'd think the way people were first appalled by the idea of no longer burying the dead they would be opposed to eating human flesh.

However that wasn't the case. Because we spent so much effort in trying to eat healthier and be healthier, and succeeding, we wanted more. We wanted the best and healthiest thing we could get. What healthier could you get besides us. If it didn't have the big guys like cancers and such, then all you needed was a little side of rice and veggies to go along with your favorite piece of the body.

We no longer had funerals and buried our dead. Instead we ate our unburied.