Undead Flesh

by Dennis McDonald

  “So you think you saw a ghost?”

  “Yeah, I do.”

  “There’s no such thing, dear. The only person to come back from the dead was Jesus Christ. Ghosts and spirits don’t exist. It’s a trick that Satan plays on people’s minds to make them turn away from God.”

  “Well, I saw something.”

  “What did this something say to you?”

  He thought for a second. “Biblical stuff.”

  “Maybe he was an angel and you should listen to him.”

  “Well, if he was an angel, then he was sitting in his own shit.”

  She shot him a disgusted look.

  Jack turned away. The slight tinge of an oncoming headache pressed against his temples. Kate was right about one thing: Stress did bring back the urge to drink, like a seductive whore whispering in his ear. His mouth felt as dry as ten yards of cotton. He watched Brett step out of the station and reminded himself once again that he needed to be sober for his family, especially for the kids, and quickly pushed the thought of whiskey aside.

  “Hey, champ,” Jack said as Brett walked up. “Where’s your sister?”

  He popped the top of a can of Dr. Pepper. “Oh, she’s talking to that guy with the pierced lip.”

  “What?”

  “They’re in there flirting with each other,” he said.

  “Really? We’ll just see about that.” Jack reached in and pressed the Escalade’s horn.

  “Jack, you shouldn’t,” Kate said. “You’re going to embarrass her.”

  “She doesn’t need to be in there flirting with that punk kid when we’ve got to get on the road.”

  He pressed the horn again for a long fifteen seconds.

  Kerri emerged from the station, crossed to the rear passenger door, and climbed into the backseat. “You’re such a jerk!” she said.

  “We haven’t got all morning to sit and wait on you, young lady.”

  She slammed her door. “God, why do you have to be so embarrassing?”

  “I’m your father, like it or not,” Jack said, starting the engine. “It comes with the job.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  “There should be a cemetery sign up ahead,” Kate said. “I checked it on Google and it shows a turnoff.”

  Jack grunted in response. His focus remained on driving down the deserted two-lane asphalt cutting through a flatland of brown and green fields. Northern Oklahoma reminded him of that song from the sixties with the chorus “I can see for miles and miles.” The only thing breaking up the monotony was an occasional farmhouse or a little country town built around a towering grain elevator.

  Kerri’s phone beeped from the backseat, signaling that she received a text message.

  “Who is it, honey?” Kate said.

  “Doug.”

  “Doug? Do I know him?”

  “I just met him back at the gas station.”

  “You gave that punk kid your phone number?” Jack said.

  “He’s not a punk kid,” Kerri said while texting. “I think he’s cute.”

  “You don’t even know him.”

  “Mom, tell Dad to shut up. He embarrassed me enough back at the station.”

  “Dear,” Kate said in the calm, quiet voice that meant he was acting like an asshole, “what harm is it if she texts Doug on the phone?”

  “Yeah, what harm is it?” Kerri said.

  “For one thing, he’s got a lip ring, and for another, he’s too damn old to be flirting with a fifteen-year-old girl.”

  “Are you drunk again?” Kerri said. “We’re just texting. I’m not screwing him!”

  “Kerri Ann!” Kate said. “That is no way to talk to your father!”

  Jack bit his tongue. Like a knife dulled by overuse, his daughter’s words had cut deep into his heart. Kerri had every right to be resentful. Too many times he had staggered home stinking drunk in front of his children. He had hoped this vacation would help heal the scars of the past and let them bond once again as a family. He now realized it wasn’t going to be that simple when it came to his daughter.

  “There’s the turn,” he said when he spotted a sun-faded cemetery sign pointing the way down a stretch of red dirt road.

  “Good,” Kate said.

  Kerri’s phone chirped again.

  “Doug just sent another text,” she said. “What’s this about a ghost? Did something really weird happen back at the station?”

  “Ghost?” Brett leaned forward in his seat. “What ghost?”

  Jack didn’t answer and made the turn onto the country road. Loose gravel kicked up by the tires rattled against the SUV’s underbody, and he prayed that it wouldn’t scratch the new paint.

  “Your father thought he talked to an old man,” Kate said.

  “An old man?” Kerri said. “I didn’t see an old man.”

  “No one did but your father.”

  Jack let out a frustrated breath. “It was just some old man sitting under the Coke mural. He spoke to me, that’s all.”

  “He was a ghost?” Brett said with youthful curiosity.

  Jack chuckled. “Apparently so. I guess he used to work at the station but died a few years ago.”

  “Cool,” Brett said, leaning forward with his palm up. “A ghost. Give me a high-five, Dad.”

  Jack reached back and slapped his hand.

  Kate rolled her eyes. “Son, there are no such things as ghosts. They’re the devil’s way to trick you into believing in things like spiritualism, witchcraft, and voodoo. The only true spirit is the Holy Spirit.”

  “What did the ghost say, Dad?” Brett said, ignoring his mother.

  “Oh, just a bunch of end-of-the-world stuff like the sun going black and the moon turning to blood. That sort of thing.” The Escalade bounced over a bump in the dirt road and he decided to slow down. “Oh, and he said six seals were open or something like that.”

  “Boring,” Brett said.

  “What was that last part?” Kate said.

  “Something about six seals, I think. It was hard to follow.” Jack chuckled. “I mean, the poor guy was sitting in his own dirty drawers and smelled to high heaven.”

  “He was a poopy ghost?” Brett said.

  “You could say that.”

  Brett laughed. “Dad saw a poopy ghost.”

  Jack laughed, too. “Yeah, I guess I did.”

  Scanning the road ahead for any sign of the country cemetery, he noticed Kate opening her Bible.

  “It’s in the Book of Revelation,” she said.

  “What is?”

  “What the old man said to you. ‘And I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth, and the whole moon became as blood.’ ”

  “Weird. Those were his words exactly.”

  “Maybe he was a zombie,” Brett added. “Zombies are cool.”

  “Zombies can’t talk, stupid,” Kerri said, giving her brother a playful pinch on the arm.

  “Maybe this one could, fart-face.” Brett responded with a punch to his sister’s shoulder.

  “Ow.”

  “Behave, you two,” Kate said. “I think the old man was just something your father imagined.”

  “Yeah, why am I not surprised?” Kerri said while texting.

  By this time, they had reached an old wrought-iron fence stretching along the right side of the road. A collection of gravestones was visible through the rusted railings.

  “This looks like it,” Jack said.

  He turned up a short gravel drive and passed under an arched metal gate before cruising slowly into the cemetery. The place looked untended, with many of the grave markers overgrown with grass and weeds. A large dead tree rose from the center of the grounds, its bare branches providing scant shade to the rows of headstones. In the clear skies over the cemetery, blackbirds flew back and forth.

  “Home, sweet home,” Jack said, bringing the vehicle to a stop.

  “It looks creepy cool,” Brett said.

 
“Tell me again who we’re looking for,” Jack said to Kate.

  She grabbed her notebook. “We’re here to find Tess Harmon’s grave. That’s the married name of my great-great-grandmother. I’ve been searching months for her. Everyone spread out and look around.” She opened her door. “Kerri, are you coming with us?”

  “I’m staying in the car, Mom. Doug had to do some work on the truck and will text me back in a minute. I’m just going to wait here.”

  “Fine. You do that,” Jack said, opening his door. “Don’t help at all.”

  The raucous chatter of birds drowned out Kerri’s reply. Stepping out of the vehicle, Jack held his hand up to shadow the morning sun as he looked at the dead tree. Amid its bare branches roosted hundreds of noisy blackbirds.

  “Wow,” he said under his breath.

  Brett left the SUV and pointed at the tree. “Jeez, Dad, look at all of them.”

  “Yeah, cool, huh?” Jack said. “Now watch this.”

  He clapped loudly to startle the flock. To his surprise, they poured out of the tree and swooped down at them. He yanked Brett to him as the birds swept past in a deafening cloud of flapping black shapes before rising into the sky. Jack turned to check on Kate. She had not been spared the avian onslaught. Unraveled strands of brown hair hung in her face, and she had dropped her notebook in the confusion.

  “Why did you do that?” she shouted at Jack.

  “I just wanted to scare the birds for Brett.”

  “You nearly scared me to death. I hope you’re happy.”

  Kerri rolled down her window. “Did those birds just attack you, Mom?”

  “Sort of,” Kate said, picking up her notebook. “Your father thought it would be fun to startle them.”

  “That was a stupid thing to do,” Kerri said. “Mom could’ve gotten hurt. Dad, you’re such a jerk.”

  Her window buzzed back up.

  “I had no idea they would act like something out of The Birds,” Jack said and shrugged. “Honestly.”

  Brett held up his palm again. “Don’t worry, Dad, I thought it was cool.”

  “Thanks, buddy.” He gave him another high-five.

  “Are you two slackers going to help me find this grave or not?” Kate said.

  “Yeah, we’ll do it,” Jack said. “Brett, you go check the ones on that side. I’ll get these.”

  “Okay, Dad.”

  Brett took off toward the plots on the far side of the cemetery while Jack walked with Kate along a line of grave markers. She knelt to pull some dead weeds blocking the face of a headstone.

  “Sorry about scaring the birds,” he said. “I honestly had no idea they would react like that. This is turning out to be a freaky morning.”

  She read the name on the weathered stone and said nothing.

  “Are any of these really old?” Jack said, looking around.

  “Not for Oklahoma.” She stood and continued down the row. “It was wild unsettled territory up until 1900. There are a few older ones here and there, but most of these graves are less than seventy-five years old.”

  “I see.” He glanced back at the Escalade. “Kerri is still texting that loser.”

  “Why does that bother you?”

  “The guy has a lip ring. It’s unhygienic and bad for his teeth. ”

  “You don’t like him from a dentist’s standpoint?”

  “It makes her look like a slut when she flirts with every loser she encounters.”

  “Jack, she’s still a virgin, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  A creeping embarrassment reddened his ears. He had a hard time facing the fact that his daughter was growing up.

  “Well, she won’t be one for long if she keeps texting losers like that guy.”

  “They’re just texting. After we find this grave, we’re driving to Phoenix, so she won’t ever see him again. What’s the harm in it?”

  “We’ll just let her flaunt her ass to any creep that comes along then.”

  Kate looked up. “Jack, what’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know.” He shook his head in frustration. “I’m not getting anywhere with Kerri. I think she hates me. I feel her slipping away from me every day.”

  “She doesn’t hate you. She’s at a difficult time in her life. You should treat her more like an adult.”

  “It feels like I’ve already lost her.” He glanced once more toward the Escalade, where Kerri sat bent over her phone. A deep longing for his daughter’s love and respect swelled inside his heart. He hoped it wasn’t too late.

  Kate placed a hand on his shoulder. “You can’t expect her to treat you like nothing happened just because you’re sober now. It takes time, Jack. Remember what the family counselor said? Healing is a slow process. She’ll come around eventually.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  He wandered down the row of headstones. In the corner of the cemetery, a monument caught his eye and he headed in that direction. Arriving at the lonely plot, he read the name engraved in the old granite headstone: Tess Harmon.

  “Kate,” he called over his shoulder, “I found her.”

  “Great, I’ll be right there.”

  He returned to studying the grave site, which was suffering from years of neglect. The name chiseled onto the headstone was almost illegible due to corrosion. Jack was relieved at the sight. With Kate’s quest to find her great-great-grandmother’s final resting place fulfilled, they could start enjoying their family vacation.

  “Whose name’s on the stone?” Kate said as she reached his side.

  “Tess Harmon. She died in 1939.”

  “The records placed her in the wrong cemetery. No wonder I couldn’t find her until now.” Kate pulled up her digital camera. “Hon, can you clear away the growth so I can get a better picture?”

  “Sure.” He yanked a mass of dead weeds free from the loose dirt. “Better?”

  “Much.” She snapped the camera.

  Brett shouted from the other side of the graveyard. “Hey, did you guys find it?”

  “Sure did.”

  “Cool.”

  Brett ran to join them while Kate knelt to write in her notebook. Jack stood back to brush the dirt from his hands.

  At that moment, he had a sense that something was terribly wrong. A feeling of dread so intense it felt like ice in the pit of his stomach.

  Jack looked around the graveyard. The air became suddenly still. There was no ambient noise, not even from the flock of birds circling overhead. It was as if someone had shut the volume off to the world. He gazed at the far horizon and his mouth dropped open. An immense rolling curtain of darkness stretched across the landscape. He stared perplexed at the phenomenon. Was it a storm? He had checked the weather before setting out that morning. No storm activity was expected today, but then again, it was Oklahoma. The state had a reputation for violent weather changes. He surmised that it had to be some kind of thunderstorm, though he had never seen one like it in Missouri. Fingers of blue-green lightning laced the oncoming storm front. He was about to warn Kate when something even more frightening paralyzed him.

  In the middle of the wheat field bordering the graveyard, Puss Cobb stood like a bent arthritic scarecrow. He shouted something at Jack but was too far away for him to hear. There was no need. He knew the old man’s words in his soul: “Resurrection Day!”

  Jack doubted his sanity. Was this a dream? Could he be still locked in another nightmare back at the hotel? He turned to warn Kate but was too dumbfounded by fear to get the words out.

  Brett rushed past him and stopped on top of Tess Harmon’s grave.

  “Son, how many times do I have to tell you it’s bad luck to step on someone’s grave?” Kate said, oblivious to the oncoming danger.

  “Dear God, Kate, look at that!” Jack cried out. “It’s the old—”

  His words were cut short by the earth shaking beneath his feet. The tremor increased in intensity until the ground buckled and twisted like a living thing wanting to brea
k free. The violent quake knocked Kate prone and forced Jack to his knees. He watched in terror as Tess Harmon’s grave cracked down the center. The next second, his son disappeared into the hole in the earth.

  “Oh, shit!” Jack shouted. “Brett!”

  The strange storm front rolled in overhead and plunged the world into an unnatural twilight. Kate screamed as Jack crawled over the shifting ground toward the newly opened grave. Reaching the edge, he was relieved to find Brett unharmed at the bottom. The coffin had broken his fall, but the rotten wood splintered beneath his weight, leaving his leg trapped in a hole in the lid.

  “Dad!” He looked up with panic in his eyes.

  “Grab my hand!” Jack reached down and felt his fingers grip Brett’s. He pulled up with a strength fueled by fear, but his son made it only halfway out.

  “Something’s got me!” Brett screamed.

  Jack looked past him and reeled back in horror. A bony hand of decayed flesh had reached out of the hole in the lid and latched on to his son’s ankle. More rotted wood fell away to reveal a woman’s shriveled face, long wisps of gray hair still clinging to her withered skull. The horrid thing looked up at Jack with worm-filled eye sockets as the blue-green lightning flashed. Her mouth opened and closed, causing her brown teeth to clack together.

  “Holy shit!” Jack said.

  Yanking Brett up with all his might, he slipped his son out of the corpse’s grip. Jack pulled him to his side and looked down into the pit again. The undead woman hissed and broke apart the rest of her coffin and continued clawing her way toward them. The tattered remnants of her burial dress fell open, revealing more worms feasting on her sunken chest. Gnashing her stained teeth, she reached again for Brett’s ankle.

  “Get the fuck away!” Jack kicked the horror’s decayed face and sent her sprawling backward into the grave.

  Clutching his son close, he turned to tell Kate to run, but her scream cut him short as she stared wide-eyed at Tess Harmon’s grave. Jack snapped his attention back to the pit. The woman’s skeletal hands clawed again at the dirt edge. He watched in awestruck horror as she climbed out of the grave while the weird lightning highlighted her desiccated form. She grabbed once again for Brett’s ankle just as another violent tremor shook the ground. The loosened headstone toppled forward and slammed down on her upper body with the crunch of brittle bones. Pinned beneath the heavy marble, Tess Harmon’s corpse continued chomping her horrid teeth together while struggling to reach Brett’s ankle.