They walked to the next room. It was a medical examining room. William found some band-aids and antiseptic in one of the cupboards and he stuffed as many as he could into his pockets.
Eric searched the room but found neither food nor water. There were tongue depressors, thermometers, stethoscopes and even an X-ray machine, but no food or water. They walked out of the room and to the last door at the end of the hallway. William checked that his rifle was chambered.
The room smelled of feces. They looked in and could see black spatters of blood all over the walls, baked into the paint from the heat. Two bodies were on the floor, a male and female. Stab wounds covered her flesh and her head had a large fracture. The man had been decapitated, his head placed on a desk against the wall. The woman had lost control of her bowels.
“God almighty,” William said. He said a silent prayer and covered his nose with his shirt to keep out the stench.
Eric had to get out of the room. He leaned against the wall in the hallway and looked out a window on the far side of the reception area. He tried snorting a few times to try and get the stink out of his nostrils. He felt the acid in his throat and couldn’t swallow in time to keep the vomit down. What little hydration he had spewed out of him and over the wall.
William walked out to him and leaned against the opposite wall. “Thuggees,” he said. “They have roving gangs all over this valley that do things like this.”
“Why would they do this? There’s nothing here for them to steal.”
“That woman’s been severely abused. They probably did it just for that. The doctor just happened to be here.” William stood up straight. “I need your help Eric, we need to bury them.”
“Why? The animals’ll just get to ‘em either way.”
“Please, it won’t take long.”
Eric had to breathe out of his mouth from the stench. They tore down some curtains and rolled the corpses onto them, dragging them outside and leaving large smears of blood on the floor. A small ditch was dug in the soft dirt using the metal drawers from a filing cabinet. They dragged the bodies to the edge of the ditch and rolled them in, then covered them back up with dirt. William said a prayer. “I hate this fucking place,” Eric said, tears welling up in his eyes. He was beginning to shake. “I fucking hate it.” William grabbed his shoulders. “Calm down Eric,” he said softly. “No! There’s nothing here but fucking death. Everything’s dying. This is hell, Will! We’re in fucking hell!” “Eric,” William said sternly, “keep it together.”
“I fucking hate it,” Eric said, sobbing. “Everything’s black.” He burst into tears, his body convulsing. He collapsed on to the ground on his knees.
William wrapped his arms around him in a tight embrace. “It’s okay, I’m here for you, Eric. God’s here for you,” he whispered. “We’ll survive. We’ll live to see another day; you just need to hang on.”
Eric wiped at his tears, pulling away from William. He looked and saw William’s soft eyes and it comforted him. “I’m sorry,” he said, regaining control.
“No need,” William said. “God won’t abandon you Eric, even in a place like this.” He looked over to the structure. “I think we should stay the night here. Would you be okay with that?”
“Yeah,” Eric said. “Yeah, I’ll be okay.”
Night came quickly as they sat in the reception room, staring out the windows. William tried to pass the time by reading some of the medical documents he’d found and cleaning his rifle. Eric just sat silently, unmoving. They’d found some candles and had them set up around the room, providing a warm glow in the darkness.
“These people suffered so much,” William said, flipping through some papers. “It seems like everyone was dying of things that could be cured in the states with a prescription.”
There was barking outside. William looked to Eric and dropped the papers. He picked up his rifle and made his way to the door. Eric didn’t want to move, but he forced himself up. He walked behind William and stared out into the darkness.
The moon provided some illumination and they could make out the shapes of animals running around in front of the building. They were hyenas, about six or seven of them. They were no bigger than dogs but they struck a fearsome shape in the dark.
They were digging up the corpses. Two of the larger animals were fighting over what looked like a leg. Another one held the woman’s corpse by the head and was dragging it up out of the ground.
Eric took out his handgun and fired, the bullet whizzing by William’s ear. He fired again and hit one of the larger hyenas in the leg. The pack, hollering with fear and anger, scattered.
William grabbed Eric’s arm and forced it down. “Don’t waste your ammunition. These aren’t the ones hunting us. They’re too small.”
William shut the front door and sat down against the wall. He watched Eric awhile. He’d known many boys like him. Confused and angry at their confusion. Hell, he had been like that most of his life. He wondered if there were certain principles that helped one overcome ruts like the one Eric was in? Or was all psychology just random and subjective? No, he decided. That’s too simple, and life is anything but simple.
As the hours passed the air grew so humid William was constantly damp and it was too uncomfortable to sleep, but he thought he would try anyway. “We’ll leave here in the morning,” he said.
Eric stared out the window at the moon. Outside he could hear barking again, and the sound of something being dragged away. Soon, there was just the darkness, distant laugher echoing through the valley.
CHAPTER
48
Morning came and they began their trek again. As they left the building they noticed the empty ditch where they’d buried the corpses and the drag marks leading into the nearby brush.
Though it was morning the heat had already reached into the hundreds and without water walking was becoming more difficult.
The first thing Eric noticed about severe dehydration was the numbness in his lips. They began to crack and sting whenever he licked them. Soon his legs began to feel sore and he couldn’t think clearly. After a few hours in the heat, the last of his body’s hydration leaked out onto his skin to try and offset the intense heat. His muscles began to cramp and he realized that he wouldn’t be able to walk for much longer.
A rustling behind some nearby trees.
William stopped and lifted his rifle. Eric took a step back and pulled out his gun, holding it low rather than waste the strength to point it.
There was a patch of gray fur spotted black in the thick shrubbery.
William pointed his rifle and fired, a swarm of birds leaping from the grass and taking flight. The crackle echoing across the valley.
The fur ducked low and was gone.
“What the hell was that?” Eric said.
William tried to spit on the ground and it spattered onto his boot. Dust and dirt were constantly swarming with the wind and it gave him a taste in his mouth like he had been sucking on sand all day. “It’s him,” he said.
“How do you know?”
“I just know.”
Another streak of fur, this time farther away and heading in the opposite direction. William took aim and fired and the fur ducked low again. An icy chill went down Eric’s back. “Stop,” he said. “What?” “Don’t shoot anymore.” “Why?” “He’s doing it on purpose.” “Doing what?” “Making us waste our bullets.”
William stared at him a long while and then back out over the grass. The wind had died down and a breeze was rustling through the trees, an invisible hand stroking the leaves as gently as a mother running her fingers through the hair of her child.
“Let’s get moving,” William said solemnly.
Walking soon became torture and Eric had to break down his goals into smaller chunks. Finding civilization was reduced to finding a good road and then walking a hundred feet and then fifty, twenty… and then all he could do to keep his body in motion was to focus on the next step. One step, and then muster strength for one more. He kept his eyes on the tall grass surrounding him, his ears attuned to every sound. But he couldn’t help his eyes from falling to his feet, concentrating on each step so as not to fall. If he fell, he wasn’t sure he could get back up.