Damage & Decay

Chapter 7

Part One: Family Business

"I don't know what's waiting for us when we die– something better, something worse. I only know that I'm not ready to find out yet."

                                                                               - Charles De Lint, The Onion Girl

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Twice more Armin pulled Eren off the road so they could circle around wandering zombies. After the second time, once they were clear of the creatures' olfactory range, Eren grabbed Armin's arm and demanded, "Why don't you just pop a cap in them?"

Armin gently pulled his arm free. He shook his head and didn't answer.

"What, are you afraid of them?" Eren yelled.

"Keep your voice down."

"Why? You afraid a zom will come after you? Big, tough zombie killer who's afraid of them?"

"Eren," said Armin with thin patience, "sometimes you say truly stupid things."

"Whatever," Eren said, and pushed past him.

"Do  you know where you're going?" Armin said when Eren was a dozen paces along the road.

"This way."

"I'm not," said Armin, and he began climbing the slope of a hill that rose gently from the left-hand side of the rode. Eren stood in the middle of the road and seethed for a full minute. He was muttering the worst words he knew all the while he climbed up the hill after Armin.

There was a narrower road at the top of the hill, and they followed that in silence. By ten o'clock they'd entered a series of steeper hills and valleys that were shaded by massive oak trees with cool green leaves. Armin caution Eren to be quiet as they climbed to the top of a ridge that overlooked a small country lane. At the curve of the road was a small cottage with a fence yard and an elm tree so gnarled and ancient that it looked like the world had grown up around it. Two figures stood in the yard, but they were too small to see. Armin flattened out at the top of the ridge and motioned for Eren to join him.

Armin pulled his field glasses from a belt holster and studied the figures for a long minute.

"What do you think they are?" He handed the binoculars to Eren, who snatched them up with more force than was necessary. Eren peered through the lenses in the direction Armin pointed.

"They're zoms," Eren said.

"No kidding, boy genius. But what are  they?"

"Dead people."

"Ah."

"Ah. . . what?"

"You just said it. They're dead people. They were once living people."

"So what? Everybody dies."

"True," admitted Armin. "How many dead people have you seen?"

"What kind of dead? Living dead, like them, or dead dead, like Aunt Annie?"

"Either. Both."

"I don't know. The zombies at the fence . . . and a couple of people in town, I guess. Aunt Annie was the first person I ever knew who died. I was, like, six when she died. I remember the funeral and all." Eren continued to watch the zombies. One was a tall man, the other a young women or teenage girl. "And. . . Marco Bodt's dad died after that scaffolding collapsed. I went to his funeral too."