Percy (Chapter One)

The pile of bodies is ten feet high and consists entirely of children. The youngest I’ve seen so far can’t be more than two months old and has his arms pinned back behind him in a twisted manner. The babies face is smiling, and I leap back in disgust. I look for Blaine, who’s now standing over by one of the burning houses. They’re stuffed with the bodies of older people, most likely the parents and siblings of these orphans. He turns to me and through the smoke rising from the stinking windows of the house I can see the tears streaming down his face.
Tattooed above the window in bright red spray paint says clearly “Do not defy our Savagery.” Most likely some Tribe rushed through this town searching for food, and when the people tried to stop them, they probably took their children and slaughtered them in front of their parent’s faces. Made them watch. In fact I’m sure of it.
I look to my left where an old play park used to be. This was a community park; I can tell by the houses surrounding it. They’re all the same. There are rows of metal chairs lined in front of a wooden make-shift stage where pools of blood seep massively down into the bark chips. I look carefully at the stage where I can see bloody foot prints and what seem to be fingers stacked in a bucket next the chairs.
This is where they tortured them. I thought to myself, silently confirming my thoughts. Yes, the children had been slaughtered in front of the parents. And the Tribe made it as painful as they could.
I can hear Blaine’s footfalls sauntering slowly up behind me. There’s a quick tap on my shoulder, and I turn just in time for him to wrap me in a hug. “I can’t believe this.”
I nod generously, “It’s nothing like I’ve seen before.”
We walk up to the stage and Blaine turns and sits on one of the swings. Tears still stream down his face and I begin to feel bad because my cheeks are still dry. I’ve begun to think I’ve run out of emotion. The sun still tells me its midafternoon, but I begin to worry that we won’t make it to the next Shelter if we don’t leave soon.
When I turn back to Blaine I notice he’s holding something in his hand, and when I walk up to him I see that it’s a shoe.
“I took it from one of the women in the house.” He doesn’t look up to point, but I can’t help turning to see a hand outstretched from the flaming window.
“Are you fine?” I asked trying to sound concerned. Of course I truly am concerned, it’s just I have no way of showing it sincerely.
Blaine stands, “No, I’m not fucking fine.” He looks at the mass pilings of children’s bleeding bodies. “This is sick. I had no idea anyone can be this sick.”
“It’s just another Savage Tribe. They’re everywhere. We’ve seen it.”
He looks at me, “Why does his seem worse than that?”
I can’t look at his face. “It’s not. Nothing is. We can’t call them human. Humans don’t do this to each other.”
But in my heart I know I’m wrong. And I’m scared of the day when we begin to turn into them.
We steer clear of the mountain of bodies on our way back through the town. Most of the buildings are burning now, and unfortunately we can’t really search them for food, which is why we stopped here in the first place. Blaine thinks that we can stay here until morning but I don’t want to risk another Tribe stumbling upon us. We would be stranded if they found we have a working vehicle. But, it wouldn’t matter because we’d be dead.
There’s a coffee shop down one of the side alleys leading from the park and I decide it might be in our best interest to make sure they don’t have any leftover supplies. Blaine stands behind me, and it’s beginning to irritate me. When our father would try and hit me, Blaine would always make our father hit him instead so that I wouldn’t have to suffer. Now it’s almost like since this all happened he’s lost all his courage. I guess I should be feeling bad about thinking that way since I owe him something for what he’s done.
When we’re ten feet from the building I can feel a looming coldness seeping from the orifice that is the open doorway. A darkness bleeds from the haunting shadows that lurk behind the machinery in the once over populate coffee shop, and I can tell that it has already been raided.
“I can go first. Someone might still be inside.” And I walk forward silently praying that Blaine is still following me. But when I realize he’s not, I turn so that I can see his face.
Blaine was never scared to feel pain. All along his muscular legs are scars from where our father burned his cigarettes out on him, and along his forearms bare cuts where our mother tested her kitchen knives. His dark hair hides the small, almost unnoticeable indention where my father left the impression of a baseball bat. Now, as I stare into his shimmering blue eyes, I know that he’s lost everything. I can’t risk going in for the fear of leaving him to die alone.
I pull myself back and grab his hand, dragging him out of the alley and towards the border of the town where we parked the truck. Suzy begins to whine as we approach, and I can see her little head peaking about the bed of the pickup.
“Percy, we should bring her inside with us-I’m scared she’s going to jump out.”
When Blaine steps inside the passenger seat I grab Suzy in my arms and slip her into the cab of the pickup. She rushes across the seat and jumps into Blaine’s lap.
I silently wish I’d left her in the apartment. I curse myself when I remember that we have an extra mouth to feed.