Autumn

second, all the hope and elation he had felt suddenly disappeared. It was just another corpse. The man’s face was blank and cold and drained of all emotion. His pockmarked skin was tight across his skull and had a familiar grey-green hue and translucence. His dirty, ragged clothes were loose and ill-fitting. He was as sick and diseased as every other one of the lamentable bastards they had seen.
    Dejected, Michael climbed to his feet and turned back to shout the news to the others.
    ‘It’s no good,’ he yelled, fighting to make his voice heard over a vicious, blustery wind. ‘It’s no fucking good. This bastard’s just like the rest of them.’
    Neither Emma or Carl could hear what he was saying. Confused, they watched as the scrawny man continued to move closer. He lifted his rotting head, seeming almost to be looking at Michael who was still facing the other way. The man’s next movement was so unexpected that no-one, especially not Michael, had time to react.
    The sound of a single sliding footstep squelching through the thick mud alerted him. He span around and found himself face to face with the foul creature. Before he could do anything it launched itself at him, grabbing hold of him with its emaciated arms. More from the surprise of the attack than its force Michael was sent slipping and sprawling to the ground. Suddenly forced into action, Carl sprinted to his friend’s defence and grabbed the shoulders of the corpse that had now gripped hold of Michael tight with its skeletal fingers. Although weak and with little strength, the body held on with a savage and unexpected determination which proved difficult to break. Carl managed to pull its weakened frame up a little way, just far enough for Michael to be able to slide his hands under its bony abdomen and push it up and away. With one brutal and controlled show of force he thrust the body up into the air and rolled away to safety through the greasy mud.
    ‘Okay?’ Emma screamed, rushing to the Michael’s side.
    He wiped splashes of foul-smelling mud from his face and nodded, still fighting to catch his breath. Already tired from the run, the brutal speed and shock of the unexpected attack had winded him.
    ‘I’m all right,’ he gasped.
    The body on the ground lay on its back, squirming and struggling to right itself again. It had just managed to haul itself up onto its elbows when Carl kicked it back down.
    ‘Fucking thing,’ he hissed. ‘You stupid fucking thing.’
    The body continued to twist and writhe. Oblivious to Carl’s hate and comparative strength it again lifted itself up. Carl again kicked it back down.
    ‘Fucking thing,’ he spat for a third time before kicking the corpse in the side of the head. His boot collided with its left temple with a sickening thump and it stopped moving. A couple of seconds later it started again.
    ‘Leave it,’ Michael said. He had managed to stand and was being pulled back towards the house by Emma. ‘Come on, Carl, just leave it.’
    Carl wasn’t listening. He began to lash out violently at the figure on the ground. He kicked it in the area of the left kidney, sending it rolling over and over away from him.
    ‘Carl!’ Emma pleaded. ‘Carl, come on!’
    She could clearly see hate and frustration in his face. He looked up at her for a fraction of a second before returning his attention to the rotting corpse in the mud. He spat into its vacant face before letting go with another brutal torrent of kicks. Oblivious to the battering it was taking, every time it was beaten down the creature continually tried to climb back up again. Dumbfounded, Carl took a breathless step backwards.
    ‘Just look at this!’ he shouted, pointing at the pathetic creature squirming in the mud. ‘Will you just look at this fucking thing! It doesn’t know when it’s had enough.’
    Emma could hear desperate, raw emotion clear in his voice. He sounded close to tears but she couldn’t tell whether they were tears of pain, anger, fear or grief.
    ‘Come on!’ Michael yelled again. ‘Don’t waste your time. Let’s get back to...’
    He stopped speaking when he noticed that there was another figure in the field with them. Emma grabbed hold of his arm.
    ‘Look,’ she whispered, her voice barely audible.
    ‘I see it. What the fuck is going on?’
    The second figure was walking towards the survivors with the same slow, slothful intent as the first had just minutes earlier.
    ‘There’s another one coming,