William Rose - The Dead & Dying

I could see Mr. Carl but he looked all watery cause my leg hurt so bad I thought I was gonna start cryin’ again. He’d took the gun he’d used to shoot Mommy out of his pants and I knew why he’d dropped me: he musta thought it would just be easier to kill me right then and there since I was fightin’ him so hard and everything.

Only, he didn’t shoot me. Instead, he spun around so that he was facin’ the door and at the same time a monster came bustin’ through. This was one of the fast ones and he kinda looked like a regular person ’cept there was this big hole in his cheek that I could see his teeth and the side of his tongue through.

The monster came runnin’ at Mr. Carl, jumpin’ and fallin’ over the benches in the church like he didn’t even care that they were in the way. It’s hard to explain but part of me wanted that monster to get him, to rip him into a million tiny bits and make him pay for what he did. But I also knew if the monster killed Mr. Carl then it would come after me next. I kept tryin’ to stand up so I could run away but it kinda felt like there was something inside my leg grinding against something else and it hurt so bad that I felt like I was gonna throw up as I fell back down again.

Mr. Carl just stood there, watching the monster as it got closer and closer to him. When it was only a few benches away he shot his gun and all of a sudden there was this little black hole in the monster’s forehead and it fell backwards across the benches as everything crashed down around it.

He didn’t take no time to make sure it was really dead but ran to the doors of the church instead and threw them shut. Then he picked up one of the benches and smashed its legs real hard against the wall. They broke right off and he kinda flipped it around and did the same thing to the other set of legs and then kicked away the part that made up the back so that it looked like he was just holding a big board.

The doors started to fly open and I saw this hand that looked like the claw of an evil old witch reaching through. But Mr. Carl slammed his body against the doors and they shut on that hand over and over and over until finally there was a really loud crack and it just kinda fell off.

The whole time he’d been holding the broken bench close to his chest and now he started trying to slide it down into these two hook-like things that were attached to the wall on both sides of the door. I’d seen things like that in cartoons about knights and knew that was how they used to lock doors before they had real locks; and I also knew the reason that the doors looked like they were bulgin’ out was because the monsters were on the other side tryin’ to force their way in.

Finally, Mr. Carl got the bench slid into the hook things and he just kinda fell backward onto his butt and sat there breathin’ real hard. His hair was all covered in sweat and when he looked over his shoulder at me I could see in his eyes what he was thinkin’… he was sittin’ there wonderin’ what the best way to kill me was.

I didn’t want to look at him no more so I just closed my eyes really tight and laid there, waitin’ to hear the sound of his gun and feelin’ like I had to pee worse than I ever had before.

Mr. Carl didn’t shoot me though. Maybe he thought it would just be too easy. Or maybe he wanted to make me really hurt. That’s probably it, because after the monsters were locked out of the church he started bein’ really mean to me.

He came over and squatted down next to where I was layin’ and started tryin’ to talk to me but I wouldn’t answer. Didn’t matter, though, cause he just kept right on talkin’ anyway.

He started pokin’ around at my hurt leg and every time he did it felt like someone was jabbin’ a knife into me. I remember him sayin’ how my leg was broke and then he said he was gonna hafta sit on it or something and that it was gonna hurt real bad. He took my leg in both hands and asked me if I was ready and all I wanted to do was claw his eyes out. It was like he was just makin’ it worse by tellin’ me how he was gonna make me hurt. But before I could do anything, he kinda pushed real quick on my leg and I screamed so loud and it hurt so bad that everything went dark and then it was like I’d fallen asleep somehow.

When I woke back up, I noticed that he’d taken two pieces of wood and tied them to my leg. I figured this was probably so I couldn’t run as fast if I tried to get away, which was stupid cause I wasn’t even able to stand up or anything.

I don’t know how long we sat there and listened to the monsters pounding on the doors but it seemed like forever. He tried to tell me stories, tried to talk to me, but I kept quiet and wouldn’t say anything back. After a while I could tell from the light coming through the colored windows that it was startin’ t’ get dark outside and my stomach growled real loud.

“You hungry, kid?” he asked me and since I didn’t want to talk to him at all I just nodded my head. Which was maybe kinda cheatin’ but my belly felt like it was shrivelin’ up.

He pulled out these cans and started opening one up and it smelled just like the tuna salad sandwiches Mommy used to make me. My eyes got all watery but I didn’t want him to see me cry so I kinda turned my head around like I was looking at the big painting of Jesus that hung on the wall. I didn’t cry though and when I turned back around he had a handful of this pink meat he was holding out to me. Mommy had always said I shouldn’t eat with my hands but I was so hungry that I know she would have said it was okay in this case.

It didn’t take long to eat the tuna fish he’d given me ’cause I just gobbled it right up. I sat there waiting for him to open the other can too, but he just put it back in his pocket and I knew I was gonna have to say somethin’. Which is probably what he wanted all along.

“I’m still hungry.” I told him. “I want more.”

Mommy probably would’ve been mad because I didn’t say please but I didn’t see why I had to use manners with someone who was just gonna kill me anyway.

“Sorry, kid.” he said. “We gotta make it last.”

And then I knew exactly what his plan was. He didn’t shoot me when he had the chance ’cause he was gonna make me starve t’ death. I knew that as soon as I was asleep he was probably gonna take that tuna fish and eat it all up by himself and that made me really mad all over again.

“You got another can.” I said. “I seen it. I want more.”

He just looked at me for a minute and then slowly shook his head.

“Sorry, but maybe we can have some more tomorrow morning.”

I was so mad that I turned my whole body around even though it made my leg hurt really bad. I crossed my arms over my chest and kept thinkin’ again and again how I wished it was him that was dead and not my Mommy. And then, for some reason, I thought about the big black birds I seen before I came to the church. There were dead monsters layin’ in the street and these big old birds were just eatin’ away at ’em. And it wasn’t fair that those birds had something to eat and I didn’t and it was all his fault. Maybe I’d just wait ’til he was asleep and eat that tuna fish myself.

Or maybe I would wait ’til he was asleep and take his gun from him. Maybe I would do what he did to Mommy to him and see how he liked it then. And I would still get all the tuna fish I wanted and not have to share any of it with him. I’d never shot a gun before but it looked easy. You just point it and shoot.

“I’m really am sorry, kid. Maybe we should just try to sleep and then morning will be here before we know it and we can eat again.”

And I thought that sounded like a really good idea. Just let him go t’ sleep.