Latter-Day of the Dead (13 page)

“We will do no such thing. You’ve done nothing but try to impede the Lord’s will trying to trip this marriage up.”

“Here they come.” I took a step back and pointed over to Parley, Rodell, and the others approaching.

“Well well well,” Verdell began, “it looks like they haven’t disappeared, doesn’t it?”

“They’re not right,” I explained. I looked at Keturah but she kept her head down.

“I think there is only one person here who isn’t
right
,” Verdell admonished.

Parley lumbered towards the stage, while the others made their way towards the crowd.

“Parley, can you hear me?” I yelled from a short distance, trying to get his attention.

Verdell laughed. “Brother Parley, this young man seems to think you aren’t well.”

He stepped onto the stage behind the row of Verdell’s wives, exposing his darkened eyes. He grinned and showed the prophet and the rest of us his blood-stained teeth.

“What in the….” Before Verdell could finish his thought Parley clamped his teeth onto the back of the prophet’s third wife’s neck. She shrieked as blood poured down her shoulders and Parley chewed deeper into the back of her neck towards the spinal chord. Her arms flailed and she could only look straight to the sky from the continued pressure on the back of her neck.

I initially thought the screams from the crowd were in reaction to the gruesome sight, but I glanced and saw Rodell and the Harris family attacking with the same veracity as Parley.

“Parley, stop!” I yelled.

He shoved Verdell’s bloodied wife down on the stage, her blood splattering the prophet’s white suit as she fell at his feet. Parley chewed on a piece of her neck muscle still partially hanging out of his mouth. Verdell and his second wife knelt down to their dead partner. Her eyes were still and frozen with the terrified look she maintained throughout the attack. Blood still drained out the gaping hole below the back of her coiffed hair.

“Stay back, demon!” Verdell shouted at Parley, who was licking the fresh blood off the corners of his mouth.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” I urged.

A high-pitched snarl turned my attention to the edge of the stage behind us. One of Parley’s young sons was reaching for Keturah’s leg. His dead eyes matched those of his father.

“Keturah, watch out!” I jumped to the edge of the stage and kicked his head back with the sole of my shoe. He screeched with dissatisfaction.

“We have to go!” I yelled at everyone on the platform.

We were becoming more and more exposed the longer we stood up there. I looked out to find a good escape route. Chaos everywhere. All of the commotion had created a huge dust cloud over the holy mess. Chairs were knocked over, blood was everywhere. People were screaming from being bitten. People were screaming from seeing people being bitten. Through the confusion I could see my dad in the back fending off one of Parley’s attacking wives with a chair.

“Let’s go,” I pleaded.

“Okay, stick together everyone,” Verdell ordered. He turned to his second wife who was still kneeling over her dead sister wife. “Sharon, stay with her.”

“What?” she cried.

“Stay with your sister wife. Comfort her.”

“She’s dead.”

“I will not have these savages defile or desecrate her body any more than they already have.”

“Sir, she will not be able to fight them off,” I interrupted.

He ignored me and kept his eyes locked on his wife. “Sharon, we will be together for all eternity. Do this.”

Sharon cried. She sat at the head of her cadaverous sister wife, Terry. The crying turned hysterical when Parley swooped down and began gnawing on the leg of the body. She could not move. Parley yanked at the tendons on the torn-open leg. Sharon could only rock back and forth, stroking her sister wife’s hair.

I kicked Parley’s son back again before hopping down off of the stage. Verdell grabbed Keturah’s hand and followed closely behind. Two of the other wives stood undecided. They looked at Sharon going into hysterics as Parley continued to chew his way up the dead wife’s leg.

One of Parley’s wives crawled onto the stage and joined in on her husband’s feast, sinking her teeth into the opposite leg. This was enough to convince the two remaining sister wives to leave Sharon and follow the rest of us.

“We can’t leave her,” one of them shouted to us.

“Then don’t,” Verdell snapped back.

She stood panicked, knowing her fear would not allow her to stay. She sobbed, “Can’t Sharon just come with us?”

“You do what you feel you need to do…we are all heading for higher ground.” Verdell nodded to the rest of us to start moving out.

“I’ll help you get her,” I explained to the distraught sister wife, Mary.

“Elias, no,” Keturah said.

Verdell glared at her, resentful of the worry he could see in her eyes. “No, by all means, allow the
hero
to step into battle with these demons.”

“I’m just going to get her off the stage,” I said looking directly at Keturah, ignoring the prophet. “I’ll be right behind you guys.”

The sobbing sister wife composed herself long enough to say, “Thank you.”

Annoyed at the whole situation, Verdell shook his head in disagreement. He grabbed the arms of Keturah and one of his wives and marched off. Keturah looked back with apprehension.

The remaining sister wife, Mary, and I probably wasted some valuable time watching them walk away. We turned around to see Parley had made his way past the shredded leg, now grating his teeth on the pelvic bone that had become exposed from his ripping and tearing.

Vomit splashed onto my boots from the sister wife, Mary.

“I’m sorry,” Mary said, embarrassed.

“Don’t be.”

“I’m not going to be able to do this,” she deadpanned.

“Look,” I pointed to Parley and his wife contently eating away. Vomit splashed onto my boots again.

“I’m sorry,” Mary said, embarrassed.

“Don’t be.”

“I can’t look, Brother Elias.”

“My point was that they are paying no attention to Sister Sharon. All we need to do is go to the side of the stage and have her slowly come over. But we have to do it now.”

“Okay,” she said aloud, trying to convince herself.

“I don’t see where Parley’s son went, so keep an eye out.”

We both slowly migrated back to the edge of the stage. I took a moment to look around at the ongoing massacre. The dusty ground that blanketed the area was all but mud at this point from the blood that continued to spill and seep into the Earth. It was almost too overwhelming to fully comprehend what I was seeing. I had to focus on Sharon and the task at hand to keep the anxiety from taking over.

Her back was facing us as she hypnotically continued to rock back and forth. I called to her as quietly as I could, “Sharon…Sharon.”

No response. This time Mary and I crouched down hoping not to bring any attention to us when I yelled more directly, “Sharon!”

Still nothing. She was unresponsive, mentally shut down.

“We have to go up and get her,” I determined.

“There’s no way I can do that.”

“Okay. Stay here and keep watch.”

I crept up onto the stage, directly behind Sharon so Parley and his wife would not be able to see me. Inching towards her on my hands and knees, I felt like holding my breath was necessary to remaining quiet enough. Once I reached her I placed my hands on her shoulders, which snapped her out of her traumatic daze. Her whole body convulsed, assuming she was about to be attacked.

“Shhh, it’s okay. Sharon, look at me.”

She resisted momentarily while her entire body shook. When she built enough courage to look I could tell she still wasn’t all the way in the present.

“Sharon, it’s me…Brother Elias. We need to leave, right now.”

She nodded in agreement but did not move. We both looked at Parley and his wife. Neither one of them were paying any attention to us. I put my arms underneath each of Sharon’s to pull her back away from her half-eaten sister wife.

“Very…slowly,” I whispered.

While I was holding Sharon, she was still holding her sister wife, easing her to the ground as gingerly as possible so not to disrupt the engorging couple below. The torso was set all the way down. I started to step backwards when Sharon leaned back down over her sister wife and kissed her on the forehead.

“Hey, we have to go,” I urged.

It seemed like we were moving in slow motion while everything around us was full-speed chaos.

Sharon broke down, crying on top of the carcass. I knelt down to pick her up. Before either of us could lift up we felt eyes on us. We raised our heads in unison, then froze, finding Parley and his wife both staring at us.

“Stay still,” I whispered without moving my mouth.

Parley’s tongue was trying to grab a flap of flesh that was hanging out the corner of his mouth by a stretched piece of twisted skin.

The four of us all eyeballed each other, no one moving. With their eyes completely blacked-out it was hard to tell if they were looking at us unequivocally.

Sharon was the first to flinch, becoming unnerved. Parley and his wife both fixated on her.

“Stay calm,” I said, trying to keep my own nerves under control.

Parley’s tongue finally worked the loose piece of flesh into his mouth. He tauntingly smacked his lips while chewing it down.

Sharon wailed and stumbled to her feet. Her hysteria would not allow her to move any further.

I don’t know exactly what it was I was begging for when I pleaded, “Sharon, please….”

Parley and his wife both leaned forward, his wife smelling the air in a carnal way. Sharon put her hands over her face and continued to ball, frozen in place.

“Hey! Parley! Over here, look at me!” I stood and began to shout. He continued to zero-in on Sharon. I stomped on the stage fearing it may be too late.

From the base of the stage the other sister wife, Mary, finally joined in, shouting, “Sharon, run!”

Sharon took one step towards the edge of the platform and that was enough to send Parley’s wife flying towards her violently. She pounced on top of her, sending both of them crashing off the stage.

With my attention turned towards the disturbing action, Parley advanced on me. I caught his intentions early enough to turn and point a vigorous finger at him.

“No!” I said as sternly as possible.

He crinkled his nose and brow in discontent. Fortunately this seemed to make him stop, but the fortune was short-lived as it just made him turn his focus back to Sharon and his wife.

The two embattled women rose to their feet, with Parley’s wife’s jaw locked onto Sharon’s bicep. Sharon squirmed in agony. Parley jumped down and began pulling Sharon away from his wife, who remained clamped on Sharon’s arm.

“Help her!” Mary shouted from the safe side of the stage. Parley and his wife were in a tug-of-war, struggling for control of Sharon.

I jumped down behind Parley and tried to pull him off. All that did was help him get the momentum he needed to pull Sharon free from his wife’s chomp, minus a big chunk of bicep. Blood poured out in mass.

I could not stop Parley from sending his teeth straight into Sharon’s trapezius muscle where her neck and shoulder met. Her head jerked and she recoiled in pain before passing out. Her body fell limp and Parley followed it to the ground. He snarled like a defensive dog as his wife joined in on the feeding.

A fiery scream from behind beckoned for my recognition. Verdell’s other wife Mary was leaning against the stage, yelling.

“It’s okay,” I comforted, imagining she was distraught over seeing her sister wife being dismembered. Her face was red and she started slamming her hand on top of the stage.

“What’s wrong?” I said as I rounded the corner to where she was at.

She writhed in pain and it still took a few moments to see Parley’s son was knelt under the stage. Both of his hands held onto her leg as he repeatedly bit into her shin.

“No! Hold on!” I ran to the back of the stage looking for something to use. I couldn’t find anything and had no time to waste so headed under the low stage unarmed.

I crawled under and repeatedly told him to stop, which of course did nothing. I grabbed a rock next to me and flung it at him, surprisingly hitting him right in the head where I was aiming. This, more unpredictably than the verbal commands, also did nothing.

He continued to masticate on her tibia, she continued to shriek. I finally got close enough and all I could think to do was grab his hair. I yanked back with two handfuls of hair, but he wouldn’t budge. I yanked harder this time and fell back with the ripped-out hair still in my hands. New handfuls of hair were grabbed and this time I pried him back more gradually, getting him off her leg between bites. He snarled angrily and I realized I hadn’t made a plan for what to do once I got him off.

He jerked and spazzed as I kept control of his head and kept him at a distance. I backed out from under the stage slowly with him being dragged out as well.