Disintegration

darkness.
    “Nothing yet,” Hollis replied, shuffling tentatively forward again. “Hold on, here she comes…”
    The corpse dragged itself out into the light, and it was an abhorrent sight. Despite the filth, the sloping glass roof above them meant that the light levels in the swimming pool were better than in much of the rest of the hotel complex, certainly better than the office in which the loathsome carcase had been held captive for almost two months. This, Martin realized, was the first time he’d seen her in her full glory, and her dishevelled appearance fascinated him. He felt an instant revulsion but also genuine pity as she lumbered clumsily forward. A guest at the hotel on the day that she and almost everyone else had died, he remembered again having seen her just before the infection had struck. Transfixed, he walked over to where Hollis was standing, finding it hard to believe that the grotesque creature he was looking at now was the same woman he’d seen previously. Her figure—and she’d had a great figure, he remembered that clearly—was all gone. Where her body had been pert and tight before, it now sagged and drooped. Gravity had steadily drained the contents of her bowels down. Her feet were swollen and blue, her belly and buttocks distended and her heavily stained and discolored swimming costume had been stretched completely out of shape. The straps of the one-piece outfit had cut into the skin on top of her shoulders, wearing little grooves where they’d continually rubbed against her deteriorating flesh.
    “Careful,” Lorna whispered. Without realizing it, both Hollis and Martin had continued to move closer to the corpse.
    “It’s okay,” Hollis said, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on the body. The cadaver, in turn, kept what was left of its eyes trained on the figures which surrounded it. Although labored in its movements, it was definitely looking around the group. It slowly moved its rotting head from left to right, then turned back again when Gordon slipped in a puddle and lost his footing for a moment. Howard’s dog growled again, an ominous low rumble of warning, and the body reacted, dropping its head and looking down at the animal standing its ground just meters in front of it.
    Then it stopped.
    It began to move backward.
    With even less control than it had demonstrated before, the body slowly began to retreat, leaving behind it a trail of smudged, slimy footprints. It shuffled back across the tiled floor, bumping into the frame of the door through which it had just emerged. Then, more through luck than as the result of any conscious decision making, it shuffled left and slipped back into the darkness of the room where it had spent the last sixty days.
    “Fuck me,” Hollis said.
    “Where’s it going?” Gordon asked, unnerved by the creature’s unexpected behavior and hoping that someone would have a plausible explanation.
    “She’s trying to get away from us,” Lorna suggested.
    “This is great,” Harte said from his position a little farther back. “Damn thing knows it hasn’t got a hope in hell.”
    “Did you see her checking us out, though?” Howard said, standing next to him. “I reckon she saw there were too many of us and decided it wasn’t a fair fight.”
    “I think you’re right,” Hollis agreed. “If it’s got any sense left in its head, it’s got to know that it’s got no chance on its own against six of us.”
    “And a dog,” Howard added.
    “It knows it’s safer back in there than out here,” he continued.
    “So what do we do now?” Martin nervously asked. “Have we actually proved anything? If we go outside, do you think all those bodies are going to start backing off when they see us?”
    “They haven’t so far,” Lorna said, moving slightly and trying to peer deeper into the changing rooms. Hollis did the same.
    “The difference is it’s still got a choice at the moment,” he said. “Most of the bodies left out in the open don’t have anywhere to hide. We need to see what happens when we take away its options.”
    “Force it out into the open?” Lorna wondered. Hollis nodded.
    “Martin, why don’t you go through to the corridor and try to force her back out here. Then close the door behind her so she can’t get away again.”
    “I-I don’t know…” he stammered anxiously. “Do you really think we should be doing this?”
    Lorna sighed. “Oh, for Christ’s sake, stop being so pathetic. I’ll do