Crimson Rivers

11) Wolves

AFTER

The optimism Sadie held disintegrated against the sight of the bodies lining the road.

Before, as The Beast chased them to the motel, the bodies were still fresh, and they weren't able to see just how many they were.

They walk in silence. If no one mentions the bodies, it's like they're not there, right?

Every one of the bodies is in a different position, some with their legs spread out, some still sitting in the driver's seat of their car, some with one hand reaching forward as if they were crawling, leaving a slime trail of blood behind as they tried to escape their fate. Cars litter the road, crashed into one another, or slammed against the guardrail.

Animals of all kinds frolicked through the field of flesh, feasting. Rats scurry about on the ground, their fat stomachs scraping against the road. Swarms of flies incessantly fly around the bodies, creating a terrible buzzing sound in the air which follows the trio as they go along. Some of the bodies are in one piece, with their eyes still open, eternally screaming, but others were found in pieces, shredded.

A crow pecked at a man's eye sockets and a rat cleaned itself on the leg of a dead man's jeans. Sadie closed her eyes, but she couldn't escape the smell. A thick cloud of blood and rot plaguing the air, making Beth's insides seem like the smell of flowers in spring. It almost made Sadie long for her motel room. Almost. Placing her shirt over her nose, she retreated to the stale blood sticking to her chest.

Running on fumes, Martha raised a hand to stop so they did. They sat on the side of the road, overlooking another road below just as bloodsoaked as theirs. A family of rats passed by, and the thought of picking one up and eating it crossed Sadie's mind, but then she remembered the brown blood caking their lips and threw it away. She stared out at the horizon which hung above the endless road filled with a hundred dead bodies, the smoke of their cars reaching out into the clouds. The sun dipped below the horizon, bringing with it a brilliant burnt orange color that blanketed the sky. Threads of light lingered with its descent, and the stars seemed to grow brighter.

Food was becoming a distant memory. They needed to find something soon, or Sadie worried they wouldn't get back up again. Eyes watering, the sky teased her with its brilliance, making her forget the dead surrounding her.

"We need to keep moving," Sadie wiped her eyes and stood up.

"No shit," Jerry said, surprising Sadie who was used to his obedience to her.

Jerry shook his head and rubbed his temples. "Sorry, ugh, just fucking starving,"

"No shit," Sadie smiled.

Jerry laughed and helped his wife up. Martha followed behind, led by Jerry's hand.

Sadie's feet throbbed, and a dull ache had spread in the back of her head, but nothing compared to the hole in her stomach.

"Where are we going?" Martha asked.

"I was thinking the gas station across from the high school. It's the closest place I can think of," Sadie responded.

"Alright," She replied.

They walked for what must have been miles, barely able to keep themselves from falling over Jerry spotted an old lunch pail on the floor of one of the cars with the door swung open. A dead girl sat in the seat, while her mother sat next to her. The pail sat between her decayed legs. Sadie carefully grabbed it, trying her best not to touch the dead girl's skin.

She plopped it on the ground and found a moldy sandwich, rotten carrots, and a fruit rollup. Martha examined the sandwich turning it over, but found nothing but green. Sadie grabbed the roll and tore it into three pieces, resisting the urge to plunge all of it into her mouth. They devoured it and continued.