MISFITS- Nathan Young

Shift The Stiffs

The next few hours were spent digging in the spot where they'd buried the bodies. Well, Curtis, Simon, and Nathan were digging while the three girls stood off to the side anxiously. For once, they were quiet, their usual gobbiness gone for the time being. This was too serious for them to act stupid.

Annabelle had zoned out for the past while, just staring into the growing hole the boys were digging in the dirt. Until a sudden stench hit her nose and practically startled her out of her little trance. "Aw, man. It stinks," Curtis grumbled, bringing a hand up to his nose. "We must be gettin' close." He shook his head a bit before continuing to dig.

Nathan, however, did not seem to recover so quickly as he hunched over and retched. The noise and sight made Annabelle's chest tighten and her stomach feel funny with the sudden urge to do the same. "Stop it." She muttered, though she knew it wasn't loud enough for him to hear. Her brows scrunched as she continued and she was on the verge of full on screaming at him- then he stopped.

"I'm fine," He croaked. "I'm fine." He took a deep breath before he stood up and started jabbing at the ground again. Annabelle noticed the way he paused before he spoke. "I've got somethin'."

Everyone leaned over a bit to see if he was being serious or not. And Jesus, he was. A dirty, severed hand lay in the dirt, causing the group to groan and turn away with both horror and disgust.

They didn't take much longer to get the bodies out of the ground and Simon worked on getting up wrapped up while the others refilled the holes in the ground. Annabelle's stomach was still churning and she felt completely sick. She didn't realize how much just hearing someone retch could bring back such God awful memories. She sucked in her gut slightly, standing up straigher as she tossed dirt into the little grave. Kelly had been awfully quiet as well. She hadn't hit anyone for a while either. "You okay?" Annabelle asked the other woman quietly, whose head jerked up. "What?"

Annabelle sighed. "I asked if you're all right. You're quiet." She repeated, and Kelly just stared at her for a few seconds. "I'm fine."

She wanted to argue, press more or... something. But she didn't. If the blonde didn't want to talk, she didn't want to talk. She understood that completely. With a small nod she went back to what she was doing, shoveling dirt.

It was quiet for a while until she heard Nathan's voice. "What about you, Annie?" She looked over, raising her brows in question.

"You all right?"

Annabelle just stared at him, and she understood even more how Kelly felt. "Yup." She responded dryly, quickly deciding to change the subject. "Why're ya livin' in the Community Center?"

Nathan made a noise that sounded like a scoff and a huff. He let his shovel hit the ground, shaking his head. "Do we have to be that intimate with each others lives? No. I don't think so. I'm not so big on the sharin'." He suddenly walked off.

Seemed like nobody wanted to talk tonight. She supposed she couldn't blame them, though. They'd finished filling the graves however, so Annabelle loaded up her shovel and followed back to the car. She clambered into the front seat with a sigh, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. She only opened them when something hit the windshield and Alisha yelped, and she let out a startled gasp at the sight of the hand sliding down.

Nathan's faint 'sorry!' could be heard from behind the car before the boot shut, and once everyone was in the car they were off back to the community center.