Resurrection by Kevin Collins Read Free Book Online Page B

11
     
     
         Charlie stood vigil over Elizabeth’s body throughout the night. The rain became heavy and pounded upon the metal roof of the house. He was always amazed at the lack of lightning.
    He missed the lightning and its younger sibling thunder. When he was young the rumbling of a distant thunderstorm in the night made him melancholy, but now it was the lack of which dispirited him.
         Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw movement in the sheet which covered his wife’s body. Was it the flickering flame of the candle playing games with his eyes or did she indeed stir? He rose from his chair and came close to her and watched for any movement, but there was none.
         He had not long returned to his seat when Elizabeth’s leg kicked out from the sheet, it hung loosely over the side of the bed and began to swing back and forth. Slowly at first but with more intensity as the clock ticked.
          Without warning Elizabeth’s eyes popped open and she rose to a sitting position on the bed. Her eyes appeared as if they had been replaced with a child’s toy marbles. Charlie stood and moved to her side.
         “Elizabeth, can you hear me?”
         There was no response, He reached out his hand and lightly placed it on her shoulder, “Elizabeth?”
         Suddenly her head spun round and he heard a loud cracking in her neck as it did so and her cold agate eyes set upon him. Her mouth opened exposing her teeth and a low gurgling sound emanated from her throat.
         In an instant she sprang from the bed and grabbed him by the hair and bit him on his left shoulder. His mouth opened in a silent shriek as she tore through his flesh and deep into his shoulder muscle.
        He fell back against the nightstand, his head made contact with the corner of the headboard nearly knocking him cold. She leapt on top of him, her teeth gnashing, her black tongue flitting in and out of her mouth like that of a serpent searching the air for the scent of blood.
         Charlie grabbed her by the throat, the strength and ferocity of her attack had taken him by surprise but even so he managed to force her head to the floor. Her nails cut a deep gash in his cheek as she reached for him. With his right hand he held her down and with his left he reached into the nightstand and found his pistol.
         He took the weapon and put it to his wife’s temple, “I’m sorry,” he screamed and with that, part of Elizabeth’s head exploded.
         Under cover of darkness, Charlie Lynch of Anywhere U.S.A. took what remained of his wife to the basement and there he took a shovel and separated her head from her torso and then bound her body with a heavy rope. He lowered her into a hole he had dug in the dirt floor and put her to rest next to their five children.

 
    Chapter 12
     
     
         Charlie and the girl set off well before sunrise, hiking through the flat, dusty plain. The desert was baking by nine o’clock and the sun beat down on them. By very late in the afternoon they had entered a large valley.
         Suddenly, he stopped atop a small knoll. The girl, who was trailing him by several yards, saw him halt and then quickly lie down on his belly.    
         “What is it?” she said as she ran toward him.
         “Quiet,” he said “get down low and come up here.”
         The girl joined him. “What is it?”
         He handed her the binoculars and there, through a shimmering mirage she could see a small village. She handed the binoculars back to Charlie.
         “It‘s a town,” she said. “We’re not going in there, are we?”
         He rolled over on his back and looked up at the sky.
    “We need water, he said. “We’re relatively safe out here, I say relatively, but if we go into that town all that goes down the drain.”
         “That’s why we should leave this place, now,” she said urgently.
          “Look we’re almost out of