Fallen

The Cafeteria

Chapter 2

I pressed a button and the sliding door hissed open.

"Well," I smacked my lips as I led the group, "power is on."

An elderly man behind me adjusted his glasses, and said,

"Good old cold fusion."

"Hmm," my brother said, curiosity in his voice, "I wonder if there are some sort of radiation powered generators taking in radiation from the outside."

I and several others gave him a look,

"Sorry," he said sheepishly, "dark imagination."

A man strode next to me, whispering, "I don't like this, what are we going to do with the children?"

"Hell do I know. We'll figure out when we get there-"

I pressed the next button and the door opened to a one eyed figure with rotted skin gazing back at me. I cursed and lifted my pistol on instinct. A rotten stench bombarded us like a tsunami. The others shrieked and Wayne sloppily lifted his gun. Several adrenaline defusing moments passed before I deduced that the figure before us was a VERY dead man.

I gulped, and returned my pistol to its holster. The adrenaline rush made me shake as I did so. I spoke not even looking at the others,

"Men, clear the area for those of innocent eyes. Women," I honestly lost my train of thought, "j-just stay here."

Everyone watched as a cockroach crawled out of the mummified body's empty eye socket and disappeared. Hope spoke up,

"You heard the man! Get moving!"

Everyone was broken from their trance and we continued into a cafeteria. My footfalls landed upon something hard and I looked at my half-frozen boot and noted the unmistakable glint of bullet casings stuck in my boot tread. Discreetly glancing at several other casings shining back at me I shook my head and approached the first body.

My brother was with me and we watched the body in a short moment of trauma before he poked it. Peeling from its prop on the cafeteria bench ,it fell down and jostled the other eye free. Wayne gulped, and said,

"You get the legs while I-"

"Yeah." I interjected, "Yeah, let's do that."

I lifted the bodies legs on the bench as my brother took the dead man's wrists. The feeling of the dead man's legs triggered my memories of cleaning up the aftermath of the Battle of Hell; only those who were in W-56's survived the Phosphorus Mini-Nuke carpet bombing. Then the Red Fist came to finish the job and those that survived had to hold them back.

While carrying carrying the body, cockroaches scurried from the dead man and my brother struggled to keep his lunch and composure. He finally broke when his grip peeled the rotten skin away to the bone. He covered his mouth and nose with both hands and him dropping his half caused my grip to rip the ancient skin away as well.

I just looked up at him, my face reflecting the morbidity of the task we set out to do. After a few deep breaths he regained his composure and helped me move the body. Once all the bodies were conveniently moved to the family restroom we went to the men's and I turned the facet to wash any gunk or flesh away.

Once I turned around the other guys were staring at me. After a moment of confusion I snorted in realization. I bit out,

"Yeah, I've done this sort of thing before. Now wash your hands and let's sort all this crap out."

I shouldered past them and joined the women and children. After tentatively following my commands they joined us as well. Some people were crying while others looked off into space; traumatized. My brother hunkered down on a cafeteria table, shaking as he held gripped himself. Tears for her lost sister were in Hope's eyes but she held herself together for the group.

"Aight," I said, standing up, "I know the smell is bad but you'll forget its there before long! Name's Nathan and I'm a veteran with two Medals of Liberty and a Crimson Heart." I continued in a more diplomatic tone, "I was thinking, unless someone has a better idea, to get to know everyone and pool our skill sets and then our resources." I let it hang until they started introductions one by one.