The Gathering at Harvest Hill

Swallowing hard, Andrea forced herself to her hands and knees. She coughed and wiped her eyes. She kept seeing the shadows in the trailer, and Tab screaming. She strained her ears, but heard nothing from the direction of the trailer. They got Tab. She knew she would never get used to those words.

Andrea rose to her feet. In a wide eyed daze of shock and dread, she headed up the path toward the fire. She had to see the others.

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The branches reached out into the path like a thousand spider legs. The auburn glow ahead guided her way. She tried not to think of the darkness around her. Her feet stayed on the beaten dirt path. With each breath she quivered.

Andrea drew closer to the fire. She became more alert, but did not slow her steps. As she came to the clearing, she spotted the vehicles. Tab's car. Ryan's truck. Tab's friends had not escaped. Andrea's senses were numb. Only that cold feeling in her chest remained.

The passenger door of Ryan's truck, the closest vehicle, was open.

Andrea didn't turn her head. She only cut her eyes to look. Through the substance that coated the windshield, she could see a figure moving. Andrea kept walking. She passed the open truck door. The person hunkered in the truck seat worked busily on the body behind the wheel. His shoulders shook. The sounds alone were repulsive enough to make Andrea want to vomit. The body beneath the haggard person was not moving.

The scrawny thing snapped its head around. Andrea jumped only a little. He studied her over his pale shoulder with a single bloodshot eye. Andrea tried not to look into the cab of the truck. She knew what was happening. The person glared at her for only seconds before it resumed chewing. Her feet kept moving. When again she glanced into Ryan's truck, the pale bony savage had returned to its business in the driver's seat, its skinny form shaking as it tore at the corpse in the seat.

Andrea had reached the fire. The bodies were sprawled around. Some she recognized. Some she hardly knew. She stopped walking and crossed her arms over her chest. It was warm by the fire. The flames weren't as high as they were, but she already felt better.

She saw the shapes moving, bustling about the bonfire. There were three, no four. Five. One of them was pulling the shoes off of Erica's twisted form. It lifted the shoe up and examined it with wide eyes in the light of the flames. The wiry figure put its crooked nose to the sneaker and inhaled. Another oddly dressed being was licking the cheek of a girl near Ryan's truck tire. Andrea didn't even know her name.

It spotted her. Andrea tensed. The thing shook its head. The long tufts of hair on its skull danced. She recognized the sweatshirt draped around its skeletal frame. The man dropped its jaw and let out a yowl. It scrambled across the earth on all fours. It was charging right at her.

"Stop."

The freakish person stopped dead in its tracks. It was as though it had been struck. In a fearful flurry the thing whirled. Andrea wearily followed his gaze.

A woman stepped into the fire light. The eyes. Andrea saw her eyes first. It looked like they were glazed white. The rags that hung around her frail form did little to cover her flesh. Her graying hair was knotted and tangled beside her face. She stepped closer, slow and unblinking, like a woman hypnotized.

Andrea didn't move. The ghastly woman came to stand right in front of her. The scrawny being that had dashed toward Andrea seconds earlier hunkered behind the woman, its long cracked fingernails digging into what flesh clung to her legs. For a time, Andrea stared at the ground, watching the light of the fire dancing on the grass. When she did look up, the woman cocked her head to the side, still studying her.

That gaze was hard to meet. The woman's cold glare was as enchanting as an owl's, but as chilling as the lifeless stare of a corpse. The glow of the firelight on her face only added unsettling dimensions to her face. Half of her face appeared cold and dead, while the other seemed frightfully alive.

The savage at the woman's legs peeked around and grunted. It snarled its nose and gritted its jagged yellowed teeth. Andrea regarded the thing with a knot in her stomach. It's face was wrinkled, twisted, and haggard. The skeletal woman looked down at it, then traced its gaze back to Andrea.

The woman's head twitched. Then her lips parted to speak.

"You smell strange." Her voice was hoarse, and crackled just like the fire beside them. "They hardly recognize you anymore."

Andrea nodded. Her eyes darted down at the savage. It chewed its fingers and watched her from behind the woman's dirty legs.

The woman twitched. She looked toward the path. "What happened? Why was you back there?"

Andrea shifted. "They... we were at the trailer. They g-got some of them there. Bobby scared me is all."

The pale glazed eyes scanned her face. Andrea didn't miss the woman's scrutinizing look toward her jeans, which were still unfastened. Her pink panties were visible. Memories of Tab's face, her smile, her round cheeks... it was all assaulting her mind. Blinking hard and squeezing her hands into fists, Andrea prayed the woman didn't ask.

Instead the woman turned. "Bobby? Your sister sayin' you gave her a fright."

Looking past the fire, Andrea saw the gargantuan figure in the old black suit, a ragged patch of clothing that was far too small for the lumbering man. It still clutched the ankle of what had once been Wayne. The body was missing too much to still be considered Wayne, however. The massive man turned his head toward them. Andrea still couldn't bring herself to meet the fleshy featureless glare of her enormous brother. She turned her eyes down.

"You alright girl?"

Andrea looked up. "Y-yes, Mama."

The thin woman twitched. Again her eyes looked down toward her crotch. Andrea crossed her arms. She felt embarassed and ashamed. Tab's dimpled cheeks flashed in her mind. She couldn't bear it. Maybe she wouldn't ask her.

"Your Auntie been talking to you again?"

Andrea shook her head.

The woman looked down at the thing at her legs. "Thomas, go and find the book. It's almost time."

The scrawny man muttered something and scurried off, barking toward the others.

The dead gaze was back on Andrea. The girl swallowed hard and found the courage to speak.

"Is Grandpapa okay?"

The woman studied her. "They're fine, girl. Him and your Maw is doin fine."

It wasn't the answer Andrea was looking for.

"You ought ta' stay tonight," Her mother said. "I worry 'bout you down there. You ain't never got the blight, but you're still my blood."

Andrea managed a weak smile. "I can't, Mama. I just can't."

The pale woman's eyes narrowed. "You not thinking 'bout running again, are ya' girl?"

"No, Mama," she said shaking her head.

With an unsettling twitch, the old woman snorted. "Can't nobody hide from Him. You should know that. He is the provider. He calls on you. He's always watching from the dark."

Andrea nodded. "There's a diner. It's right beside this truck stop, a gas station, you know? They're... they're hiring and I though I c-could maybe--"

The old woman paused. At last she nodded.

"Do what you must, baby girl," her mother said. "Our family is gettin' bigger. Your brothers look forward to seeing you."

The woman turned and walked toward the fire. Andrea looked around at the bodies strewn around in the clearing. Bobby still watched her with his faceless gaze. Erica's body lay naked in the grass. Her red hair was littered with blood and leaves. Andrea turned her eyes toward the black of the woods beyond. The black always scared her. She knew too much about what her family lived alongside.

The others were already coming back, crawling from the dark woods on their knuckles and toes. Andrea couldn't count them. She spotted a few dragging the huge spit. Her skin flushed warm when she saw the bones that adorned the thing. All she could see was Tab's sweet smile. She closed her eyes.

"Mama?"

The frail woman turned. "Yes?"

She swallowed. "Do you think He will be pleased?"

Her mother's glazed eyes caught the firelight. The stare was painfully long. Finally, the ghastly eyes turned toward the woods.

"Yes," the older woman said. "Yes, you done good, baby girl. Just... don't forget about us. Harvest is the most important time, but we need you, too."

Andrea nodded and offered a weak smile.

"Happy Harvest, Mama."

She turned and headed in the direction of the gravel road. She'd have to walk through the woods, Mama said He was pleased. It'd be okay to walk through the woods. Andrea thought of a northern accent. Yes. Boston or something like that. Maybe she just moved here. She'd always wanted to be a tough girl. Maybe snarky. Like that redhead. What was her name? Erica. Andrea did like the name. Maybe she could be an Erica. She'd have to be tough at that truck stop anyway. Snarky. She practiced swaying her hips as she walked.

Erica. She liked that.

****

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SC