If he couldn’t see the corpses, then they didn’t exist.
Wind Chime
When Michael opened his eyes, he jumped and kicked his legs. Hanging from the end of the rope, he twisted like a fish on a line. The woman next to him had maggots crawling from her eyes. The sight seemed to heighten the fetid smell of the dead.
After the initial panic, Michael fell limp again but kept his grip firm. The movement drained his energy. Energy he needed to get back up to the bridge.
Another strong breeze sent him crashing into the woman again. He could cope with that, the maggots on the other hand... a wave of repulsion snapped through him.
Although he didn’t want to look at it, Michael kept staring at the decaying face. Tilly and his mum would have no doubt ended up looking the same if the house hadn’t burned down. Puffy, gray, and crawling with maggots, the corpse stared at him through the fleshy pits that used to be her eyes.
“Michael.”
Michael looked up at Lola.
“You did great, kiddo, now find some strength and climb back up. You’ve done the hard bit. You’ve held on.”
The action of tilting his head back to see Lola sent him swinging, and he crashed into the maggot-ridden corpse yet again. The dead woman continued to stare at him.
Michael stared back at the hideous creature and said, “Fuck you.”
“Fuck me?” Lola said. “What have I done?”
He didn’t bother explaining; she’d work it out. Michael yelled from the effort of swinging his feet forward and clamped them onto the woman’s hips in front of him. If he hadn’t crashed into her so many times, he may have feared the rotten corpse would also crumble and fall from the rope. He’d felt her hard body against his too many times to believe that now.
Sharp aches streaked up the inside of Michael’s thighs as he tightened his grip with his legs. It took enough of his weight off for him to pull himself up the rope with his sore hands.
He made slow progress, but it was progress. Centimeter by centimeter, he moved higher up the woman, clamping his feet around her middle, and then her shoulders, and then finally her head.
When he was high enough to move back onto his rope, he took a second to recover his breath and watched the corpse—more specifically, the rope around her neck. What if it snapped when he pushed off?
If he didn’t risk it, he’d be there all day. Three, two, one. He pushed from the woman and jumped back to his rope.
He made it.
As he stood on the knot he swung more than ever, but he’d made it.
***
Michael climbed again, and when he got near the top of the rope, he felt Lola’s strong grip on the back of his jacket as she pulled him higher. He nearly gave over to it and trusted in her completely—his tired muscles desperate for the rest—but that would be stupid; she couldn’t lift him from there.
Shaking, his arms weak, Michael grunted one final effort as he pulled to the top.
Tears stung his eyes when he managed to wrap his weak grip around the cold metal railing running along the top of the wall. What little strength he had left in him all but vanished and he let Lola drag him over.
It may have been a short fall to the ground, but that didn’t stop the jarring pain that ran through him when he hit it.
Michael blinked for a few seconds to try to clear his blurred vision. It didn’t work and the clouds closed in.
No Rest for the Rich Kid
When Michael opened his eyes, the stress lines left Lola’s face, and she smiled at him. “Well done, Nearly Eleven. I don’t know how you managed to get back up after that, but well done.”
“What’s wrong?” Michael said.
Pulling her head back, Lola frowned at him. “Huh?”
“Something’s up. You’re being nice.”
“I can be nice, you know.”
Michael gave her a dead stare.
“Okay, fine. You’ve been lying there for about ten minutes now. We have to go. We have to get off this bridge.”
A throbbing ache sat deep in his muscles. “I need more time.”
After an anxious look in both directions, Lola returned her attention to him. “We don’t have any more time. Ten minutes is too much as it is. We’re trapped on here. If someone else comes, we’re fucked.”
After releasing a deep sigh, Michael sat up.
When he got to his feet, everything trembled. He rested on the side of the bridge,