Hope and Undead Elvis - By Ian Thomas Healy Page 0,32
don't belong here. You're just… misplaced. You belong in Graceland, Elvis."
"That I do, Li'l lady."
Hope grew somber as they approached the dead victims. The sweet burnt smell of their flesh was making it difficult for her to keep from vomiting in spite of her efforts to the contrary. "Do you think you'll die when we get there?"
"I'm already dead," said Undead Elvis.
The wood piled beneath the victims still smoldered, which had created the columns of smoke Hope had seen from the road. The people—she couldn't tell if they were men or women--had died in agony as their skin and hair blackened and burned away. One had thrown his or her head back as if to scream "Why?" at the heavens above. The other's head was bowed, perhaps in a final prayer. They looked so much like the lamb's heart which Asher had burned in his grill that Hope swore off all meat ever again. On the heels of that thought, she wondered if food would be so scarce that survivors would have to resort to cannibalism. And then, unbidden, she wondered how they might taste.
"Stop it," she said aloud. "That's horrible."
"What's the matter, Li'l lady?"
"Nothing. Bad thoughts."
"Thoughts aren't bad. They're just thoughts. It's what you do with them that defines good and bad."
"Actions over thoughts?"
"Yep."
"I'd like to think we're doing a good thing by taking these bodies down." Hope reached out a hand. Residual heat washed across it, but she didn't think the chains holding the victims to the crosses would be too hot to handle. She walked around the crosses and saw that the chains had been cinched down to cruel tightness using ratchet binders like truck drivers used. The poor victims must have already been suffering in agony well before the fires were lit beneath them. She walked back around to the front of the crosses once more. She wanted to look upon the people who'd died on them, to fix the image in her mind forever that there were still people in the world evil enough to do such things, because this was what her baby would grow up to stop.
One victim's eyes opened.
Hope staggered back in horror, tripped on a stone, and plopped down amid the ashes. The victim took a deep shuddering breath as if in preparation for a scream. Bits of charred flesh flaked off ribs as they expanded, showing for the first time lumps of charcoal that might have been breasts. Hope didn't want to look closer, but now that she realized the victim was a woman, she couldn't help but see the swell of hips, the slender waist. She'd had a beautiful body before she'd been burned. A dancer's body, like Hope's. The woman's eyes were nothing but charred, empty sockets. Hope winced in anticipation of the agonized scream, but no shriek came.
"Please…" The woman's voice was only a hoarse whisper, and smoke escaped her mouth when she spoke. "Please… kill me."
"God…" Hope wanted to say more, but she felt paralyzed.
The woman shifted a little at the sound of Hope's voice. Soot fell from her charred skin like snow. "I can hear you. I thought you might be an animal at first. Or maybe I'm dreaming. Are you real?"
Hope found her voice. "Yes."
"I'm Mercy." She coughed. Black chunks hit the ashes below her. Hope cringed. "Nice to meet you."
"Hope. I'm Hope. God, are you in a lot of pain?"
"No," croaked Mercy. "I can't feel anything at all."
"Who did this to you?"
"The Righteous Flame."
"Who is that?"
Mercy gasped and more black slime trickled from her mouth. "Please. Please kill me. I can't… I don't want to remember. My eyes are burned up and I can't cry."
With a fluttering of wings, two of the familiar dark birds settled onto the top of Mercy's cross and regarded Hope with their baleful eyes.
"Those fucking birds again," she whispered. "Why are they following us?"
"I wish I could see them," said Mercy. "I miss birds."
"Not these birds. They're evil. Like demons or something." Hope thought about trying to take a shot at them, but she only had four bullets left and one was already earmarked for Mercy.
"Like the Righteous Flame." Mercy shifted a little in her bonds. Charred flesh crumbled away from her.
"Who is that?"
"They."
"Who are they?" Hope shivered at the thought of people who would do things like this. Had they burned up the forest?
"They're bad people, Li'l lady." Undead Elvis's voice was hushed as he held a hand down to Hope.