Buried

Chapter 2

The next day I was wrapping the elderly couple's bodies up individually in the bed sheets and dragging them out far into what was left of the woods. Dragging them was nearly impossible for me, my body was way too weak. Being trapped in that grave meant that I had to limit my body to one rat a day. So for as long as I was down there one rat a day caused me to be deadly underweight, and lose my strength. The couple probably individually weighed five times more than me. I was currently dragging the old woman out into the woods looking for a good spot to leave her.

I walked back to the cabin after leaving the old man next to the woman so that they could rest in peace together. My arms were aching and I kept stumbling in the pair of riding boots that I had found this morning in one of the rooms while looking for a pair gloves. I was halfway through the yard when I looked up and noticed that their a small barn behind the cabin. The barn was a lot taller than the cabin buy not by that much, it was charred black with the smell of burning wood still lingering in the air. I reached the barn door and I slid it open immediately locking eyes with a brown arabian horse. The horse flung its head letting out a loud neigh and trotted over to me. I smiled and let my hands stroke over its muzzle gently, noticing the white star on his head I rubbed it gently giving him comfort.

I remember when I was little I was so horse crazy, my mom and dad would always take me down to the stables down the road. The owner was my dads friend an would aways let me pet the horses and sometimes let me groom them until I turned 10 and my parents bought me a horse of my own, than the owner gave me riding lessons on Domino. I named him Domino because he was black horse with white spots on him which reminded me of Dominos. Up until I was fifteen I had learned how to jump, gallop, rope, and drive a horse drawn carriage.

I pushed lightly on the horse's shoulders making him step back as I stepped in shutting the barn door behind me. The smell of manure and ammonia hit me and I looked around the barn to see where it was coming from. I saw a messy pile of hay over by a little room that I assumed had tack. There was empty stall that had those doors that you could open an let the horse out straight into the pasture which was locked and closed. The stall was covered in manure which is really bad for a horse to live in because they could end up with an infection in their foot. I walked over to the corner of the barn an grabbed a pitchfork and wheelbarrow and started to get picking up the manure.

After a while I was finally finished and dumped the wheelbarrow on the side of the barn outside. I put down some fresh straw, cleaned out the water trough and threw down some hay and opened up the top half of the stall door so the horse could get some air and the lingering smell would disappear. I was able to lead the horse back into the stall and was about to shut the stall door when a name on the door caught my attention. JUSTIN. I looked up at Justin who was facing away from me looking out the stall door. I walked up beside him and looked at the scenery before us.

Trees were burnt and tipped over some barely standing. Grass was burnt to all that was left was the stiff burnt black stem and the sky was still had greenish black cloud that seemed to go on forever. The air was quiet which I found strange. There were no birds singing, no animals to make there sound, there were no lights or movement in the village off in the distance, no planes or helicopters flying over or around, no roar of cars and trucks, and no ringing of cell phones. The quiet in the air was almost deafening. I looked back up to the sky and noticed that the greenish black cloud starting to get dark indicating that night was about to take over.

I shut the stall door, locking it into place and walked out of the barn sliding the barn door shut and I walked inside the cabin and shut the door. After kicking off my boots I walked further into the house turning into the bathroom and gasped at my reflection.

The dirt from my grave had turned my hair into a nasty black color and my light caramel skin into the color of what my long brown hair used to be. The skin around my mouth had dried blood and dried mud running down my neck from where the juice of the pears and peaches had been. I slid the dirty nasty dress over my body and threw it across the room and looked at my body through the mirror. My arms were so small my finger could almost close around my upper arms, I looked down to my stomach seeing my rib cage showing under my skin. The silver necklace I wore hung down my chest just resting above my cleavage. I looked at the rest of my body that pretty much was close to a skeleton.

My head turn to look at the shower as I walked toward it. Praying silently that warm water would come out. Resting my bony fingers on the knob I turned it slowly. My heart fluttered as my prayer was answered and water started quickly pouring out of the shower head. After the water was warmed up enough I jumped in and happily welcoming the hot water that slid down my body. I grabbed the soap and started rubbing the dirt and dry blood off my body. I looked down to the bottom of the tub an immediately saw that it was completely black from all the dirt that had come off me. My body had finally turned back to its original color not a speck of dirt in sight. Thank God. I used whatever shampoo and conditioner I could find and washed my hair until I felt that familiar silk softness that it used to carry. When I got out I wrapped the towel around my body and I walked over and picked up the white dirty dress I was buried with and threw into the dusty trash can.

I walked to the room next to mine and looked for something to wear. I slid the closet door open to find some old dusty shirts, when my eyes fell down to the wooden closet floor I found a small white tank top and I picked it up and slid it over my head an pulled it down making it fit my body perfectly. As my eyes continued to rome around the room they suddenly laid upon an old wooden dresser. I walked to the dresser and opened the first two top drawers finding only lighters which was useful since none of the lights worked in this house. When I opened the three bottom drawers I came upon a large pair of sweat pants. I pulled them up over my legs and tied the string around my body until it was tight enough that I was sure it wouldn't fall down.

When I walked into the kitchen Digit whimpered and walked over to his food bowl sniffing inside it than looked up at me.

"Ya hungry," I said thinking about what I could feed him. I couldn't feed him his dog food it was all moldy. I walked over to the cabinet an looked at all the options. Corn, peas, fried beans, pears and peaches. I grabbed the can of fried beans and stabbed the top with scissors until there was an edgy hole at the top and dumped the beans into his food bowl. As he happily ate I grabbed a can of corn and stabbed it repeatedly. I started limiting myself to three cans a day knowing soon we'd run out.

I leaned against the counter and slowly sipped the corn and juice from the can, hearing the silence lingering in the air as if it were ready to attack once the sound of Digit licking up his food was done. The house was starting to turn a dark green from the light outside shinning into the windows. I walked into the living room as I remembered seeing some candles there earlier when I dragged the old couple out of the house. My eyes scanned the living room barley able to see anything. It was so dark I almost missed seeing candles sitting on the shelf.

The candle burned as I exchanged rooms walking into the room I slept in. I sat on the bed watching the flame dance on the burning string, dazed and far away in my thought. Thinking. Thinking about my parents. Thinking about how I was going to be able to take care of Justin and Digit. Thinking about what could've happened to everyone and everything. Thinking about what would happen when we ran out of food and hay. Most importantly I was thinking about how I ended up in the grave.