The dead couple

At the sight, she stood frozen with shock and terror! It sent shivers down her spine. She had never seen or imagined anything so awful, repugnant and scary. She closed her eyes in an attempt to shut the scene away, but couldn't keep it shut forever because she heard them advancing, she opened her eyes and saw they were so close she could see the blood dripping from their mouth.

They had sloppy gait and they moved slowly; they were distorted and misshapen. Groans and inhuman moans emitting from their open mouths filled the air. They had deformed bodies, limbs sticking out at odd angles, flesh hanging like tattered rags from the shoulder. Lack of eyelids gave their eyeballs a popping look as they swivelled in their sockets, with dislocated jaws showing their torn tongues with bloodstained rotted greyish teeth, they looked appalling. Flesh hung from their bones, exposing nonfunctional organs and hearts and skull. The arms of the tall man were covered with deep cuts made with an axe, all of them penetrated the bones. He was bare bodied, while the wrapper that covered beneath was torn into pieces. The upper part of the woman's wrapper was in pieces exposing her sagging breast but from her knee downwards was still intact.

They let out a piercing screech and charged towards her with ape-like fury and hands stretched out in front of them as if to grab her. Ego aghast by their sudden reaction was released from the hold of fear and shock that has pinned her to a spot. She almost dropped her mortar in fear but for her quick reflexes but she couldn't catch the pestle which fell on her left foot. All the adrenalin running through her made it impossible for her to feel anything, she was thinking only of an escape route. She picked up the pestle but as she bent, she saw the couple bend with her. She picked up her pestle and torch which had fallen as well and the couple dove up with her. It seemed they were after her pestle or her torch. She waves the two items at two different directions and they went after the light. She immediately knew they were after the flames and not her.

She got out of the path, placed her load in between her legs and put out the light with sand. She stood motionless and waited for their reaction. Naza junction was few kilometres from here. There are only two ways out of this, either she is caught and probably eaten up by these dead couple that is back from the dead or just hang in here till they simply walk past her. Running backwards was certainly not an option. She can't engage them in a fight, she is not a warrior and even if she is, she doesn't know how to kill what is already dead. They must have risen from their graves because of the battle between light and darkness.

Ego, spellbound and paralyzed with fear, stood still like a mossy statue in a graveyard and just as cold; with her torch stick in one hand and pestle in the other. She could hear their bones cracking as they slowly dragged themselves forward. Some of the flies after them found their way to her, some landed on her bare chest; a hand full on her face, moving around finding any entry into her body. One was already trying to enter her nostril, others were working their way to her eyes and others already dancing on her lips and ears.

The couple was really closing in on her, the stench intensified making it unbearable, her intestines were on the verge of revolting. At the same time, she was enduring all the irritating sensation all over her face. She was suppressing the strong desire to scratch her face and get those flies away from her. She would give anything at that very moment to have someone rub her face especially just above her lips to prevent that one nettlesome fly from entering her nostril. She knew that once it succeeds, there will be no inhibiting it. Sneezing is a luxury she can't afford right now; as this could lead to her being discovered or even worst her death.

Well, desperate situations demand desperate measures. She raised the pestle in her left-hand slowing directing it towards her face to chase the flies away, ensuring she made no sound. It was not difficult for her to locate her nose in the darkness, but after waving the pestle over her face, she only succeeded in chasing the fly directly into her nostril with high velocity. Ego gave a powerful sneeze that could blow away a newborn baby, it was so powerful that she dropped both the pestle and torch and landed on the ground, narrowly missing the mortar.

On the ground, the creaks of bones in their necks and legs could be heard; they had turned to her direction heading for the sound. Landing on the ground freed her from the flies but got her into something more life-threatening. She could hear the hissing of a snake and the rustle of the grass as it crept through the dry grass advancing towards her.

Like more than thirty percent of the world's population, Ego had a phobia for snakes. That notwithstanding, she had one of the cold-blooded reptiles on her left leg slowing making its way to the upper part of her body.