Afterlife (A7X)

Chapter 33: Digging Up The Past

~~~~CHAPTER 33~~~~

Digging Up The Past~~~~

~~~~Matt's Point of View~~~~

"Matt, I think I've got something!"

Brian and I looked over in Jimmy's direction, seeing the light from his torch a way down the tree line. I looked to Brian, indicating for him to come along as Jimmy called again.

"Holy fuck; yeah man. I've found something! You've gotta come see this Matt!"

I picked up my pace, breaking into a slow jog as we approached Jimmy. He looked over as I slowed back down to a walk, halting off to Jimmy's side. Brian appeared next to me as Jimmy shone his torch down on the ground.

"The fuck is wrong with people?" Brian asked, sounding rather appalled once again. "Why can't they bury hands correctly?"

"Needed something to mark the grave, right?" Jimmy said, that fascination back in his voice like the other few times we'd been here.

Johnny appeared off to Jimmy's right, looking down at what we'd found. Bones of a half-buried hand were showing out of the ground, and by now, Brian looked completely done with everything. He stayed quiet though, knowing there was no use in saying anything.

"Alright, you know what we have to do," I said, knowing that Brian wanted nothing to do with this; he backed off a couple of steps, and I knew it would be down to me and Jimmy, seeing as Johnny looked like he'd rather be somewhere else entirely. "Jimmy, help me dig this up then."

Jimmy gave a nod, turning his torch off and throwing it to Brian who fumbled with it before catching it. I just switched mine off and handed it to Brian instead of throwing it, Brian just staying back and shining his torch on what we were doing, Johnny following suit.

Jimmy knelt down, pushing away some of the loose dirt. He looked to me.

"How far down you reckon he is?" he asked seriously.

"Hopefully not far; his hand isn't buried, so what do you think?" Brian responded, making Jimmy look to him with no amusement.

"Was just asking; no need to get like that."

Brian just shook his head, looking back the way we'd come; I glanced at him before looking back to the task in front.

"Alright, let's do this then," I sighed, kneeling down with Jimmy who was once again pushing some loose dirt away from the grave. "Brian, keep a lookout and let us know if anything's coming this way; Johnny, just hold the torch for us please."

"You think he'll try stop us?" Brian asked, still looking away from what we were doing, his focus elsewhere.

"Wouldn't put it past him," Jimmy said, not looking away from the task at hand. "I mean, this' gonna put an end to his existence, so to say; if I were him, I'd already be here and trying to stop us in any way that I could." I just shook my head, Jimmy glancing at me and shrugging. "What? It's true."

Brian shook his head as he scanned his torch around the land, choosing not to say anything. Jimmy paused, looking to me as I continued on with moving dirt out of the way.

"Wait a sec," he said, making me pause and look to him. "What're we gonna do once we dig 'im up?"

"Burn it all," I said, my tone implying that he should've already known. "You can burn it if you really wanna."

A hint of a smile appeared on his face.

"Yeah, ok then," he said as I went back to what I'd been doing. "But what happens if this doesn't work?"