Page 10 (1/2)

BY M B HOMLER

In Jesus-like effigy, the body hung i in town - city hall It rested with ar down, torso firmly rooted in place When the body landed, there had been a loud shuck and townsfolk in the street felt a fan of light rain - a rain not in the forecast - sprinkle down on top of theruesoruesomeness Slivers of dried flesh floated like confetti in the streets On a randoot to see it except for a passing Chihuahua, who gobbled it doith- before his owner could surmise what happened Most in this s entertainossip and the occasional affair, were transfixed by the sudden and illogical i

Response on the scene was quick Cop cars and fire-trucks roared to siren-wailing stops in front of city hall Due to the graphic nature of the incident, they closed every nearby street to keep bystanders back Fire it over to the body, s Several firemen went up the ladder and stepped off onto the roof They looked up at the spire Walkie-talkies to their mouths, they reported what they saw in detached journalistic fashion Desiccated bodyureen teeth filed downafreely

When the corpse on the pole twitched, everybody juet it down Oh they tried: they pulled and pushed and e re back and forth with a safety net trying to catch a threatening jureat ave up, let the corpse slide back down, and left it there Thump Their attitude was fuck it The or ots and buzzards of the world take care of it!

So that&039;s what they did, and though , as if the croere taking to it - their wish fulfilled - this unfortunately was not the case The croould go nowhere near it They remained far away and aloof on a telephone wire

Scared? They ht have been

Danny McDanielson worked as a short-order cook in the diner down the street fro a short-order cook meant that no one took him seriously, and while he tried to pretend it didn&039;t bother hi, with Johnny Depp hair that he was always peeking out fros of inadequacy to himself When the corpse had fallen from the sky, Danny was one of the few people unable to rush out and gawk His girlfriend of the last three years, Jennifer Bugles, the same one that fawned over his morbid poetry and tousled his scarecrowup with hi to do

&039;Hey, Danny You know that screen that appears at the end of Ms Pac Man when you die?&039;

&039;Yeah&039;

&039;It&039;s Game Over for us&039;

&039;Why?&039;

&039;If you have to ask, I can&039;t tell you&039;

&039;What?&039;

&039;Are you trying to ee, right, Danny You knohat? Screw you I&039;m out of here&039;

Hurt, stunned, Danny didn&039;t knohat to say But there was not much he could say when Jennifer came back into the diner minutes later with her new beau, Trevor Moses, a dude who had patches of facial hair, piercings, and tattoos Danny could hardly stohtly bent at the hips while thisout of her jeans shorts He would never forget the sold tooth were glinting at hieekazoid?&039; Danny withdrew to the kitchen and tried to let it all fade to black

The diner was e tired It was hot in the kitchen and hot outside Perspiration dripped from his face, horseshoed the pits under his T-shirt and at the s boss, out on an errand, he decided to take a break Noro out the back door and sit on the stoop wishing that he were a smoker, but he wasn&039;t Instead he took his note - pad and pencil outside He often used this notepad to draw pictures and work on turns of phrases, however unlikely theycame to him He had heard some of the talk about the body that landed on the spire, and now that hours had passed and everyone had forgotten about it - that was how this toas - this was his opportunity to go see it He was curious With his apron still on, he walked the several blocks to city hall There, he squinted up at the spire The glare of the sun sawed his eyes He couldn&039;t see He needed to get closer

Using the eency stairs inside city hall, he walked to the roof When he first cah the door, his hand went to his mouth and he muttered, &039;For shit sakes!&039; Once the initial shock passed, he took it in, drank it down like cold water It was an aan to sketch the head, ords percolating in his own: The creature, not a person, li and pale The rew And for so Jennifer&039;s face appear in front of hiirl? Even in the presence of this hideous sight, he still found hi of her

When he realized how late it was, the trance wore off He had taken too long of a break and strayed far fros, and as he was departing, taking that first couple of steps, he swore he saw the body twitch Unsure, he looked back, stared, and nothing The wind picked up He shook his head It couldn&039;t have been Just a creepy thought

On his hurried return, he wondered why the town seemed okay with this body up there It didn&039;t strike hi everyone should be okay with Even for them

Charlene, a tomato-bottomed woman who often walked around with her hands on her hips, aiting for hiot back Her lacquered nails tip-tapped on her hip as her tongue clucked at the top of her as all pleasure

&039;Where have you been? I&039;ve got custo to eat and no cook to make the food!&039;

&039;SorryI went for a walk&039;

&039;Would that be a walk of leisure or away from your job? Next time you decide to pitter-patter off, do so on your own time This is a business I run, not a support center for retards that can cook&039;

She turned to the custoized to them for the lateness of the food, and declared that the food would be free,that it would be paid for out of Danny&039;s salary

Danny went back into the kitchen and picked up the orders Though he was supposed to be cooking, he couldn&039;t get his ing at him, and it wasn&039;t Charlene

When he returned ho, all he wanted to do was relax, sit on the couch, veg out, consider the frat house-party- sardines out of a can, staring at his barely reception-worthy TV, he could think of nothing ht if he could get even with her, it would make him feel better, but really, he just wanted her back

The local neas advertising top stories to cohts: &039;Bear Mauls Teens Having Sex&039; and &039;Toupee Injures Construction Worker in Rare Scalping&039; and &039;Man Cooking Weiner-Dogs at County Fair Burns His Britches&039; and &039;Airplanes Disappear in New Berle&039;

Danny&039;s notepad lay on the coffee table And while watching TV like this was supposed to be the life, he spent the ti abruptly ended when the doorbell rang He didn&039;t get visitors, didn&039;t have friends, and there wasn&039;t a chance that Jennifer could have dropped by - or was there? He went to the door and looked out the peephole No one was there Was it soain No one

&039;Who is it?&039;

He heard so in response but wasn&039;t sure what it was Sorabbed the knob and flung the door open To his shock and surprise, Jennifer stood before hiust but also maybe a hint of hurt &039;Why are you here?&039;

She didn&039;t say anything He turned his back and went inside and left the door open Hadn&039;t everything been bad enough? Now he had to deal with this Her here Here to talk Talk about what?

When he realized that she hadn&039;t said anything, he turned back around She still stood in the doorway

&039;Well Aren&039;t you going to coht, he noticed souehas come&039; She said this al it out

&039;What the-?&039;

She was stooped and haggard-looking in a way he had never seen her Sure, soht she wasn&039;t as pretty without the ood God, was that her upper lip curled into a rictus snarl? And her hair was standing on end as if electrified Her face bore a grey hue to it that seeot He looked at her breasts What the hell had happened to her breasts? They had shrunk and were poking through her T-shirt like tree branches and not mounds of flesh

&039;It has&039;

She didn&039;t finish the thought, and Danny could see hen part of her brain slid out of her nose

She ca He tried to reason with her, but she raainst the ar, disturbed And teeth - crooked, filed down to slivers She scratched at his face She tried to bite hiainst her head He winced, fearing that he had hurt her She gave no reaction, ca near at hand - and rabbed his foot, pulled him toward her She lifted hiet the strength? He couldn&039;t believe this was happening When he glanced up her nose, he sahat looked to be ver around inside and lost his shit He brandished the pen, swung his body up, and drove the pen into the side of her eye with such force that it popped out through the socket of the other eye, sending the two eyeballs toppling to the floor1

She dropped hiered back, screeched like a Poe raven, and blood jetted, spraying indecipherable graffiti around his apartsuntil he came to his senses and realized that he was lucky to escape with his life Then reality hit hiirlfriend

He threw up on the carpet

Before the menace fell from the sky and landed in the center of town, far away in an undisclosed location worked a scientist naapp He was part of an elite tea the supersoldier seruovernment, codenamed Project Captain America He believed, after years of research and thousands of hours of tests -with perpetual graphing and calculating at the expense of tax-payer dollars - that he had finally discovered ouldserule test tube, and now he looked upon it with glee The govern about cutting his funding so that they could build a rumored weapon, the Earth both except to say that it was a destroyer of worlds and could one day be used against the threat of alien invasion, in case aliens were real

Not wanting to lose his funding, Dr Parkingapp was eager to test the formula But since he had no more mice to destroy - he had tested theif they could withstand conditions of extreme heat, and if they could, that meant that the formula worked2 - it was time for him to use it on himself

With his stereo cranked to full, he stood with his legs spread and pointed to an i a liquid-filled test tube in hand Springsteen&039;s &039;Born in the USA&039; rocked his loudspeakers He sang along in a punched-testicle falsetto, using the test tube as a microphone When he broke into a dance step, he accidentally tripped and spilled a drop of seruht It ate through his shoe and into his foot

&039;Ah, shit I fucked up Oh, od, I fucked up Holy crap it burns!&039;

His screarabbed his notepad and ran fro the door wide open He ran down the street in a state of panic He had killed the only woman he had ever loved It ful, horrendous He felt hideous

After a while he stopped running to catch his breath and try to get hold of his erief Despite the obvious signs that Jennifer had contracted some terrible sickness, he was convinced it was his fault He looked around town and saw the street where they had walked hand in hand for the first tie on the sidewalk He didn&039;t notice that It was unfortunate that he focused only on his own grief, because if he had stopped to turn around before running off, he would have seen Jennifer sit back up on the floor of his hoht pole on a street corner to rest against Froe point, he surveyed the don area It see sitting in the road There was an alar off at the local bank Screa The cops were on the scene, only they didn&039;t see around Danny didn&039;t knohat to do Cops? What if they were looking for hi to save his life, but was it worth it? Maybe he should have let her kill hi on? This scene didn&039;t see back to hi in the street There were feet sticking out fro back and forth as if he were a leaf being pushed by the wind When Danny got two steps closer, all of that changed The officer turned around He looked as if he had been buried underground for the past nine weeks and had somehow come unearthed He let out a sound somewhere between aand saw that the screa on and that there wereout of the bank He backed up, shaking his head in disbelief

A bony hand fell on his shoulder, and an inhuman voice hissed in his ear: &039;I likeyfreshmeeeeat&039;

Danny ju he kneas running down the street with soed to far behind hiround in disgust When he saw ithard It wasn&039;t just Jennifer any more It was the entire town

&039;Jesus Christ&039;

He looked toward city hall, where the iht he saw it twitch

Did he? Yup He did

&039;Jesus Christ!&039;

Dr Parkingapp was no longer coherent Placed in a straitjacket, he was bounding up and down and cackling like ahis shoulders into the soldiers that had been brought in to restrain him General Deaconheinz, a tall swarthywildly His unit co not to appear as if he was picking it, although that was exactly what he was doing

&039;This is the greatest day in our nation&039;s history&039;

&039;Sir, I don&039;t understand, the supersoldier serum was a failure&039;

&039;No, it wasn&039;t a failure It just wasn&039;t a supersoldier serum&039;

&039;Sir?&039;

&039;It&039;s classified But leton a supersoldier serum That&039;s a load of hokum from the comic books You&039;d have to be pretty stupid to believe he orking on that That&039;s the brilliant thing about these genius scientist types They&039;re sh toSoldier, he was developing a very dangerous biological weapon&039;

&039;Shit from Shinola, sir That&039;s positively brilliant&039;

&039;I know I&039;et hiet the hell out of here&039;

It wasn&039;t safe to stay, Danny knew that, but what he would do he did not know It was just that he had to leave First, he had to get back to the diner and warn everyone While he didn&039;t like the patrons of the diner, they were still people, and he was still freaking out about Jennifer If Charlene was good for anything, it was setting hiood He went in through the back entrance He wanted to get a few things from his locker He undid the lock and took out some money and a knapsack that had water, spare clothes, and protein bars He filled it frantically withit on his back He walked out through the kitchen and into the diner&039;s main room What he beheld looked normal The customers were seated in their booths, and Charlene was at the front of the diner looking out the , perched on the ledge

The television on the counter was on The broadcastred curls, was giving a stunning report She looked different from the last ti due north appear to have disappeared over a sht have been involved in a fatal midair collision that has caused the quarantine of the sa yet is as on board one of those planes One of the aircraft was believed to be ical weapon was aboard It is believed they were transporting the carrier of this weapon before the accident Rue that they have created a zoree with It&039;s just preposterousWell, so&039;s taking a shit in the refrigerator, I say!&039;3

Was she insane? Talking like that on the newsAnd then he saw that tinted look in her eyesand he knewhe had seen enough He started forward to warn the custoht in his throat One of the patrons seated at a booth grabbed his arm and snarled that saet his ar it away And when he looked up he saw CharleneHe wanted to vomit

&039;Charlene, no, please don&039;t I&039;

He kicked the patron in the head Twice The patron still wouldn&039;t let go, so he pushed with his foot against the creature&039;s shoulder and tore hi to the floor fro itself from the zombie&039;s body The zombie moaned Danny jumped to his feet, took the hand, and stuffed it into the zombie&039;s an to gnaay at his own hand, choround He stopped Danny looked down at the finger The zoer in case Danny got hungry and thought to take it from him

Charlene ca her off He screa to bite and choh his face He couldn&039;t believe this This was his boss Yes, she was a bitch, but now she was a zoth he didn&039;t know he had in hih the others as they tried to stop him

He ran out of the diner

Groups of three and four zo at a snail&039;s pace Some were people who used to come into the diner occasionally Now they lurched in Danny&039;s direction, sensing freshto rily as they were chased back Danny wondered what it could be When he got there he saw a fierce Chihuahua, fending off a horde of zoet their hands on it, but it barked and tore at their appendages, rending thes and arms, stopped in front of Danny When Danny started to run, the dog ran with hi hio A kinship was instantly forave it to hi bite one of them in the ass Seemed apropos

&039;He broke free of his harness!&039;

&039;What?&039;

&039;He broke free of his harness!&039;

&039;What?&039;

&039;He broke free-&039;

&039;Why do you keep repeating that?&039;

&039;Well, you said, "What?"&039;

&039;Soldier, I heard you the first ti shock that it had happened! It&039;s like saying "What the fuck?"&039;

&039;But-&039;

&039;What now?&039;

&039;When did you say "What the fuck"?&039;

&039;Fucking get it together, soldier! Tell nawed off part of his ar scream General Deaconheinz looked over the soldier&039;s shoulder and saw one of hisbody of Dr Parkingapp huddled over hi away

The plane lurched to one side, going off course

Military units were ear-saddled soldiers on Segithpersonnel Behind that was a slow- tank Danny and Butt Muncher headed in their direction Machine-gun fire went off around theh the air Danny covered his ears, and the dog barked The soldiers obliterated the zo behind bricks of shredded flesh It was impressive stuff, all that firepower, and after the initial shock of it wore off, it got Danny to thinking about Jennifer The explosions reo, when they had shared their first kiss - with tongue &039;Oh, God,&039; he said &039;She&039;s everywhere&039;

The ive him time to react Danny and Butt Muncher were hustled off the streets and pushed into a makeshift medical tent Danny was stripped naked and prodded with sharp poles by scientists in hazmat suits to make sure he did not have the infection Every tiht of how Jennifer used to tickle him when they watched TV on the couch So he broke out in hysterical laughter, which consternated the scientists They set hi hi him in the face with a hot water sack Butt Muncher was shaved bare and given the saet dressed and reunited hioing on

The soldiers were constantly running about, going this way and that It was hard to get anyone to talk Danny tried, but everyone ignored hirabbed one soldier by the ar

The soldier shook his head &039;You don&039;t know?&039; He shouted instead of spoke, like he was always giving out orders or hard of hearing &039;Moses! They tell nobody nothing around here! Always up to addammit, we don&039;t have anyone else to do it! Look, there aren&039;tback to Iraq to rectify this ue that will turn you into the living dead It will! The only way to stop &039;eot to kill &039;e &039;e anyone We&039;ve been instructed to use an abundance of brutal force This is war!&039; He grabbed Danny&039;s notebook from him and swatted it down on the table &039;Nohat the hell is this?&039;

Danny looked at his book, considering

&039;Please don&039;t do that,&039; he said

&039;Don&039;t get upset What&039;s so special about it?&039;

&039;It&039;s hed &039;Ah, the sensitive type Is it epic poetry?&039;

Danny shook his head

&039;How the fuck is poetry going to help us fight a war unless it&039;s epic?&039;

&039;I don&039;t know It&039;s alost art And therapy&039;

&039;Therapy? For what?&039;

&039;My girlfriend, she broke up with me&039;