FARM - Fear, Antivult, Red, Men

I slowly entered the barn, even though I was avoiding sudden movements and talking quietly, Crystal reared up. Ben and Tom shuffled in the back of the stables, they'd lost one of their own. The only horse who seemed to remember me and calmed down rather than freaked out more was Cowboy. I guessed that it was because he was blind in one eye and could hear better; or paid better attention. The two beasts were still lying sprawled out on the floor. I noticed how fucking massive they were. I wasn't sure how the fuck we were going to be able to clear them out of the stables. 

I knew Cowboy would be the easiest to calm down so I slowly neared his pen and started to talk to him. He eyes me suspicously for a moment with his one good eye, then trotted over to me. I pet his muzzle. "Everything's going to be alright, Cowboy." I murmered. He still danced around a bit, but he didn't look scared for his life anymore. Just spooked. 

Crystal would be the hardest to calm down, I knew it. So I spoke a few gentle words to her before moving on to Ben and Tom. The other American Quarter Horse, Jesse, the one who'd died was Ben's brother. They'd spent their whole lives together on this farm, I knew that cause my uncle'd told me. I called Ben over to me. It took him five minutes to even take one step nearer. I was patient. 

Tom recovered a wee bit faster. Maybe he saw that Ben and Cowboy had neared me and that it'd been alright. It took me about half an hour to coax the first three horses out of hiding and regain their trust. Crystal was still prancing around uneasily. I stepped up to her stall and whispered her name.

She looked at me nervously. I smiled at her and held my hand out. I didn't reach out to her, I didn't want to scare her, but I held my hand out palm up. Too bad I didn't have any peppermints. Crystal just stared at me. She didn't come closer, not even after ten minutes. 

I gave up for the time being. It was no use to preassure the poor thing. I couldn't give them more hay either because most of the bales of hay were bloodstained. 

I returned to the farmhouse. Everyone was inside, sitting around the table. Nobody was talking.

"What's up folks." I said as I pulled back a chair and sat down to join them. "You all look miserable, it wasn't that bad right?"

"I guess you're right." Martin answered. "I'm still alive, aren't I?" 

"I'm sorry to come with serious matters right now but we have to clear the bodies out of the stable, or bring the horses somewhere else. The poor things are totally nervous." I pitched my idea of using wheelbarrows to transport the animals out but Ryan chimed in saying they wouldn't be big enough. "We could cut them in pieces?" Martin gagged and Ryan closed his eyes as if that could block out the unpleasant picture. We finally agreed on dragging them out. It would leave a blood-stain but so would anything else. We were only four men strong due to Martin's injury, or rather three men strong and one woman. 

I casually talked to the horses as we entered the barn, spooking them again. We grabbed one of the beasts by the legs and started to slowly pull it throught the door backwards. I talked to the horses the whole time, telling them what we were doing and that it would all be alright. They still danced about nervously, but none of them reared up or totally lost it. Not even Crystal. 

The second monster was much harder to drag out. It was in the middle of the barn but we chose the same exit we had before. Better to have them at the same place. Dragging grey-lions out of a barn was fucking exhausting. We had all broken out into a sweat by the time we'd finished the second one. 

And then we still had to somehow drag Jesse out. He had been a sweet horse, a bit arrogant at time, but he'd always done a good job at what he did. Ryan and I got his head out first. It was creepy having his dead eyes staring at us. 

It was harder to get him out. Not because of the body mass, that was about the same as with the lions, but because we couldn't just fucking drag him out. We had to be careful. The other horses watched us closely. I kept talking to them, telling them that we were being careful. 

Fifteen minutes later we'd gotten every corpse out of the stables. I got a pitchfork and sorted out all the bloody hay which I had taken out and dumped next to the grey-lions. We'd need to bury all of it. Fast. I was starting to get very frieghtened that we'd attract more predators. I dropped the pitchfork and ran outside. 

"Hey guys. We really need to bury those bodies ASAP." I said, out of breath. Ryan, Fred and Abby nodded. We each took a shovel and started to dig. We'd chosen a spot on the edge of the farm. We didn't know if their decaying bodies would contaminate the earth and we didn't want anything that had smelled them to be right next to the farmhouse or the stables. We'd need time to fend whatever came off. 

It was almost sunset when we'd finally finished digging the hole. By the time we'd dragged all three bodies into it, it was already dark. Martin had hobbled out of the farmhouse (to our protests) and was holding an oil lamp. We shoveled the dirt back over them in silence. 

Fred and Ryan did the honors of sprinkling the grave with Antivult. That stuff came in handy quite often on the farm or in hunting. It had been invented in 2040 and was, in my eyes, one of the best inventions ever. It coated the smell of death and bodies and made it smell indifferently to animals who'd pass by. It could hold up to a month but we had to be extra careful, so I ordered them to add some fresh Antivult every week. 

I almost wanted to go back to the horses, but Fred forbade me to do anything more than just whisper them all a good night. 

I went to bed tired and scared.