~-o0O0o-~
We are inured against death by our merit procedures. That, and the walk to the chamber when our time has come, means I have lived my whole life in the warren without seeing a dead person.
It is not pretty.
Pieces of dried skin hung in flaps from white bone. I was so appalled that it took me seconds to spot the important fact. The dead man had not been wearing a suit. He had died while there was still an atmosphere in the cave system.
Not being an expert, I had no way of telling how long ago that might have been, but judging by the decomposition of the clothing, I guessed that many years had passed.
I kept going, but I was no longer convinced I would meet anyone yet alive.
The corridor opened into a wider chamber, an eating area of sorts.
Bodies lay strewn everywhere, lying on mounds or pairs. Skeletal arms were wrapped around broken necks, skulls showed signs of having been bashed in against tabled and floor. They had all killed each other in a frenzied melee.
As I bent to inspect the closest, I saw the cause.
The darkness danced in their eye-sockets, a deeper shadow. It was full of stars where the sky had fallen in and got them.
The more I looked, the more I saw it; there in the shadow where a body hung over an overturned chair, there in the corner under the food processors, but mostly in the eyes, dancing and twinkling, mocking my horror.
I stumbled past more bodies than I could count, searching for a reason, an answer as to what had happened. The empty eyes followed me everywhere I went. There was a door opposite me, and I went through, hoping for some small escape from the terror.
Green Grow The Rashes And Other Stories Page 10