Latter-Day of the Dead (9 page)

“You’re right, Brother Elias. God is glorious and he continues to expose his plan for me,” she said, sounding like she was trying to persuade herself not me.

“I’m really happy for you, Keturah,” I said warmly.

If I had to describe that last statement I made to her in two words I would probably use:
untrue
and
heartbreaking.

After grabbing everything I would need from the medical station I made my way back to Benjamin’s house to deal with the body. My feet picked up the pace upon request, knowing I did not want to be working until sunrise.

I casually hopped onto the front porch and into the house before freezing in my tracks. I hunched down and took a step backwards towards the door. My breath was held as I strained to listen for anything in the house.

“Hello?” I called out in a way that didn’t necessarily want a response. “Rodell? Are in you in here?”

The noiselessness of the house did not put me at ease. I remained deathly still until I had the courage to inch my way further in, and even then stopping every few steps to listen for any unwelcomed sounds.

Once to my destination inside the house I said a little too loudly, “What the heck?”

Bafflement lingered as I stared at the blood-stained floor where Brother Andy’s body used to be. My mind couldn’t register the current situation. Why would someone take the body? Where would they take it?

After a longer look I could see the blood on the floor had smeared towards the back sliding door. The body must’ve been dragged back that way, but the odd thing was that the streaked red only went a short distance before turning to a sole set of crimson-stamped footprints across the dingy kitchen linoleum and out the back door. It was hard to imagine someone carrying the body out by themselves, not that it was impossible though. Not that anything was impossible at this point.

I sat down on the unkempt couch that overlooked the bodiless floor. My body had given in to the attacking exhaustion. My inflamed eyes begged for eyelids to blanket them. Sinking further into the tattered sofa, I decided I could close my eyes for a short rest.

***

“Brother Elias, what are you doing?”

I could hear the words, but couldn’t nail down if it was being said in my dream or in the real world. I kept my eyes closed while I feigned trying to determine.

“Wake up.” The words were joined by a firm shake of my shoulder.

I convinced one eye to slide open just enough to see what the fuss was about. Upon seeing our prophet Verdell and two other men my other eye quickly joined and I sat upright. My head throbbed from moving too fast.

“We didn’t see you at breakfast,” Verdell said dryly.

“Breakfast?” I used my thumb and middle finger to rub both eyes in concert. The sun was shining heavily through both windows and the open doorway. “I must’ve fallen asleep. I’m sorry.”

“Well,” Verdell began, walking over to the open floor, “at least you removed the body beforehand.”

“Actually, I need to talk to you about that.” I stood up to fully wake myself, knowing this wouldn’t be fun. “When I came back last night the body was gone.”

“What does that mean,
the body was gone
?”

“It just…wasn’t here.”

“Well he sure as outer darkness didn’t get up and walk out himself!” Verdell shouted. It surprised me how quickly he became angered.

He walked over to the window and stared out while the other two men and I remained silent.

“We are heading down a wicked path, brothers,” Verdell judged, breaking the dead air. “Damnable actions must be met with scathing punishment. Everyone must receive the message. We are intolerable to the unhallowed.”

“What do we do?” I asked, unsure of what he wanted.

“We make an example that will stay with everyone.”

The two men nodded at Verdell in pleased agreement, obviously already aware of what he was referring to.

Verdell had still not turned back from his window gaze, confirming, “It will happen at 4:00 p.m. Brothers, make sure everyone is outside the church at 4:00.”

The two men immediately left to alert the group. I remained standing next to the couch, confused. “What will happen at 4:00?”

“At 4:00 Benjamin Gardner is to be publicly hanged for murder.”

“Hanged?” I asked, dismayed. “Sir, with all due respect….”

“There is no respect due for transgressors and miscreants,” he dispassionately interrupted, “and whoever has taken our brother’s body will face exacting punishment as well. My flock will not be subject to such evils.”

It was clear that this was not up for debate. The prophet did not look my way as I exited the house. I decided to head home to change clothes before diving into my medical books at the office to take a stab at figuring out what was going on.

I veered-off my path home and stopped at another house along the way. A woman answered the door, drying her hands on the apron she adorned.

“Good morning, Sister Hannah. Is your husband Rodell in?”

“He is, Brother Elias, but I’m afraid he ain’t no good for no company this forenoon.”

“May I check on him, Sister Hannah?”

She looked back into the house before responding, “He’s unwell, but I s’pose that’s why you’re visiting?”

I nodded in confirmation before she extended the door open and allowed me in. She took me back to Rodell’s room, where he was being tended to by one of his other wives and his eldest daughter. He was sweating inexhaustibly, his wife continually rubbing a cold washcloth over his brow.

“Rodell, how do you feel?” I asked as I knelt down bedside for a close inspection.

He fought to open his eyes, his head wrestling side-to-side. He panted, “Is that you, Doc?”

“Yes. I am here, Rodell.”

He struggled to upright himself against the headboard of the bed.

“Take it easy. You can stay down.”

“No, Doc. I need to…I need to apologize. I just feel something awful about the finger. It was rotten of me to do something so heinous…just rotten.”

When he looked at me I grew concerned that his pitch-dark pupils had taken over a large portion of his eyeballs, much like Benjamin, but decided now wasn’t the best time to cause additional alarm.

Rodell stretched over to the side of the bed. I bowed in closer, thinking he wanted to tell me something. He became very still and closed his eyes before reopening them and retching tar-colored blood across everything. He continued to hack and cough violently while tears streamed down the faces of his wife and daughter.

It took a solid two minutes for Rodell to catch his breath and compose himself. “I know what this is,” he gulped.

“You do?” I uttered with surprise, as I was at that exact moment trying to interpret what it was I was seeing.

“It is God. He is rightfully punishing me for being in such a dark place last night and dismembering Andy, one of my own brothers. It was greedy. It was vain. It was ungodly. This is my punishment. Somebody go get my boy. My son needs to be witness to this.”

I tried to advise him, “Rodell, hold on….”

He looked at his daughter. “Go get your brother.”

She corralled her six-year-old brother, Joseph, and ushered him into the bedroom.

“Joe, come up here by your pa,” Rodell ordered. He grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him in before continuing, “Look what’s happening to me, Son. Do you see this? You stay right with God, boy. Stay right with God!”

At this point he was shaking a terrified Joseph, who burst into tears. Rodell’s wife and daughter pulled Joseph out of the room, with Rodell shouting, “He needs to know!”

I stood back, not wanting to interfere with any family matters, but now had a quick moment with Rodell and I alone to ask him the question I came here to ask.

“I know you are in pain right now, but I need to ask if you went back to Benjamin’s house last night.”

“Of course I did, you saw me there.”

“Back after the finger incident.”

“No, why?”

“The body is missing.”

“And you think I had something to do with it? Oh, Lord, what would I want with a body?”

“I don’t know. Maybe, for example, you didn’t want anyone seeing that he was missing a pinky?”

“Ah, scrud! You can’t be serious. I’ve really put myself in a position. My righteousness will just always be questioned now? That’s just great!”

“I’m just asking, Rodell.”

He hacked a few more times. “The fact that you are asking shows what you think of me.”

“I meant no disrespect.”

“I didn’t take no danged body.”

“Okay.”

“It’s probably time for you to leave, Doc.”

“Okay.” Before heading out I said, “Thought you should know Benjamin is to be hanged today at 4:00 for what he did to you and the others.”

“Hanged?” he asked solemnly. “Well, guess we all need to answer for our actions at some point or ‘nother.”

“I guess so.”

chapter seven

A
new stop had to be added on my trip down to the medical station after seeing Rodell. My concern turned to Parley, who was the one originally bit by Benjamin. I had bandaged his lacerated shoulder and had yet to follow up. If he was showing the same symptoms as Benjamin and Rodell I knew we could potentially be dealing with a major problem.

Parley’s house was across the field that sat in the middle of our township on the other side of the school. I made a short trek across the field and approached the unassuming house. Progressing from the side of the house, I came upon a basket of wet clothes sitting below the clothesline, not yet hung.

I strained to hear any signs of movement in the house as I drew closer, but nothing. Before stepping to the door I glanced back at the untouched basket of wet laundry. Parley had multiple wives and children, somebody had to be there.

My fist knocked on the door in a way that was content with no one answering. I leaned over and eyeballed the living room through the dreggy window next to the door. With no sign of anything out of sorts, I decided to go in.

“Brother Parley?” I called through the silence upon entering. After no response I walked lightly through the other areas of the house.

I inhaled deeply at the sight of all the blood drenching the bathroom in the hallway.

“Oh no,” I gasped, heading to the next room. The small bedroom I went to next had a similar dousing of red. A splattering of blood stretched across the twin bed comforter, with a more concentrated gathering of the red bodily fluid pooling into a murky puddle on the floor at the front of the bed. I could feel an intense tingling over my entire body. I stepped to the end of the bed to see if whoever this blood belonged to was still there. The hesitation was making me more fearful, finally lunging over and quickly back…no one to be found.

My body shivered trying to calm the tingling and now trembling.

“Hello?! Is anyone here?” I bellowed, now hoping there was someone to put my increasing anxiety at ease.

I staggered to the main bedroom: blood. I backpedalled erratically to the next bedroom: blood. Stumbling back towards the front door, I passed the kitchen: blood. Dining room: blood.

I gagged while gasping for fresh air once outside. As many times as I’ve seen blood in my line of work, it had never been this extreme and unnerving. I felt confused, alone.

Following my limited success at composing myself, I went to the side of the house near the clothesline. As disturbing as it was to see all that blood, it was even more unsettling that I could not find any of the Harris family.

“Hello?” I yelled from the side of the house towards the back. The short backyard was bordered by dense forest. I tried to peer into the heavy foliage from a distance. No movement detected.

Unsure of how I missed it before, next to the left-out laundry was a long streak of blood and mashed-down grass. It looked like someone or something had been dragged into the forest.

“What is happening?” I said out loud to no one.

I stood up on the balls of my feet to try and get a better look into the backwoods without getting any closer.

If I had to describe the possibility of me walking into those woods in two words I would probably use:
no
and
chance
.

***

I found the prophet and three of our brothers at the gnarled oak tree next to the church. One of them was sitting up on a thick branch, securing a braided rope in preparation for the hanging which was fast approaching. Verdell looked somewhere between content and pleased watching the set-up happen.

“Where are you rushing to, Brother Elias?” the prophet asked.

“There’s…something…wrong,” I said between breaths.

“Oh yeah?” he replied with concern, looking up to the rope for inspection.

“No, not with the rope. There’s something wrong here.”