DEATH WARDEN
Compendium 2020 – Story 9
By Andrew Hawnt
I can hear him out there on
the other side of the glass, but he can't hear me. He can't even see
me properly. How to I seem to the warden? A vague shape of a person
behind thick reinforced glass, my hands against it as he does his
tests.
I must be dark to him. A
silhouette drawn by the light of my cell against the dull, ridged green glass
of my enclosure's view station. Does the warden see me as a person, or
just a specimen?
“I'm real,” I try to
say. The sound that escapes my lips is more of a moan. “Let me
out.”
He can't understand the
wails and grunts that come out of me. To him I'm just a dead thing in
a box, being watched by cameras, being tested by devices I don't know
the names of.
I'm trapped in this cell,
but more than that, I'm trapped inside myself. We all are. This cell
is one of many. There are rows of these cells. Hundreds of us in this
block alone, and nobody knows that our minds are still alive inside
these decaying, flesh-eating corpses that shuffle to and fro within
their tiny rooms.
The warden has moved on.
The tests must be complete. My body moans and craves human skin. It
wants to tear at limbs and suck the jelly from eyeballs. It wants to
crack through the skull to get to the quivering brain meat. It wants to
douse the raging, endless fire of undead hunger with the blood of the
living.
It's hard to make friends
when you want to eat them, I guess.
The hunger in my belly
burns. The craving is making my drooping mouth salivate. I was
beautiful when I was alive. I'm sure I was. I was athletic and toned
and never short of a lover. Now I shuffle and groan and watch my skin
flake away as my body continues to decompose.
I am trapped in my cell
with my thoughts and a rancid, rotting countenance.
I can't take it any more. I
want to be out there. With the people. I want to see them again. To
be around their warmth and their voices and their sex and their
problems and their desperate dreams of better days.
There aren't any better
days, though. Not now. Not since the dead got back up and started to
infect the living with their pestilence.
I throw myself at the green
window, slivers of grey meat dangling from my hands as I thrash them
against the glass, screaming inside and bellowing outside. I can't be
this thing any more. Let me out. Let me out so you can shoot me in
the head. Destroy the brain and let me rest. I beg you.
The warden returns, and I
rage harder against the glass. My body gnaws at the ridges in it, and
a tooth comes loose, clattering away beneath me. Let me out. Kill me.
Let me die again, damn you.
But the warden doesn't lift
his instruments to the interface outside the cell. Not this time. He
raises a hand to meet mine against the glass. His other hand reaches
to the interface and works it. My cell is suddenly filled with
alarms. Poisonous gas seeps from vents around me but has no effect.
My lungs burn, but that pain feels like life.
The glass shakes, there is
a heavy mechanical sound and the thick veil between me and the
corridor lifts away, moving into a hidden alcove above the cell
entrance.
I let out a sob of shock
and delight. My body responds by emitting a wordless howl.
The warden is dead. His
skin is grey and green. He is missing an eye. I think of the wasted
jelly it had contained. Dried blood has turned his grey overalls a
filthy brown. Beyond him I see others being freed. They howl and
scream and gibber as they stagger and shuffle out to join the undead
caretakers of this place. Clearly, security was not as perfect as had
been thought.
The warden leads me down
the crowded corridor and to the circular hall at the centre of the
complex. Screams rise from its core. Screams from the few left alive.
The carcasses being feasted
on by my rotting brothers and sisters are not screaming any more. The warden leads me towards
the loudest of the screaming people.
My hunger does burn so. It
is time to quell those flames.
===
©
Andrew Hawnt 2020
About
Compendium 2020:
Compendium
2020 is a project from author Andrew Hawnt and consists of 52 weekly
stories encompassing science fiction, fantasy and horror. They are a
mix of short stories and flash fiction, 100% original and written
throughout 2020. Why is he doing this? To keep the words flowing. To
keep the ideas coming. To dance in worlds that are his and his alone.
To prove that he can.
About
Andrew Hawnt:
You
can find Andrew on Facebook at facebook.com/andrewhawntauthor and on
Twitter and Instagram as @andrewhawnt. Formerly a musician and DJ,
Andrew is known for his books, comic book writing, music journalism
and more, including fiction in Doctor Who Adventures, the Judge Dredd
Megazine and others. Look out for his film work soon.
Comments