The Abyss:

Be submerged into nothing. (Conceptual Short Story for a novel)

The wheel wagon groaned wearily as it traveled along the bumpy trail. The crickets crooned to the sight of the half moon prodding through the leaves of the trees that lined their path. The horses were blinded, but they were accustomed to the travel and knew the way with their instinctual omniscience. Their noses huffed and puffed the chilled winds blowing through – everything.

Ekbert and I were seated in the well of the wagon they towed. We only had the company of the two ravens driving it forward with the occasional whip of the reins. Men with masks that resembled the faces of the black bird itself. They weren’t good company either. They usually left us to go pick up the next poor bastards as we finished.

The pit’s were a good distance away from the city walls. They ran along a large hamlet that had been abandoned when the plague ripped through the surrounding lands. So it was a long trip with a company of silence.

I looked at Ekbert as we rumbled along. Even with the brown burlap wrap masking our faces, his sagging eyes bled with fatigue. The body-checks had been getting longer and longer, while the breaks were getting shorter and shorter. The exhaustion thickened the quiet between us in the recent days, nights, and weeks. Especially since our group was dwindling on each turn from the pits.

The image of Osgar’s bloated face flashed into his mind. We found his body the previous night. The man left behind a skinny daughter and widowed wife. My spine shuddered as I looked up at the clouds beginning to cover the half moon. Poor bastard. Can’t worry about them too long though.

We reached the edge of the muddied hamlet and the ravens stopped the wagon. The armored raven hopped down first. His sleek breastplate still shined through the black shadows around us. The second raven was in a sleeveless leather doublet and white cotton shirt. He spoke to us in a posh voice as he hopped down as well. “We must walk from here. The mud’ll get the wagon stuck.”

Ekbert signaled to me with a thumb. “Grab the shit.” He cleared his throat. I nodded and hopped over the lip of the wagon where our shovels and burlap sacks hung from the side.

Every step was sounded by a wet squish as our small group walked through the former settlement. All the black shells of the houses were slumped in agony and embers. The only thing alive was an apple tree that stood in the middle of it all. Nature seemed to prevail even in the face of death and fire.

Two ripe and ruby apples were paired together near the top of the bundle of leaves it possessed. It was rooted beside a small stream that sliced through the ground we walked along. The sound of running water faded away as we reached a small ridge on the edge of the bunched homes.

Below was a stretching valley that was bordered by forest. Not far was a looming silo that reached towards the pale clouds which fully covered the moon now. Torches adorned its walls and illuminated just a small part of the pit positioned under it. I bit onto the inside of my wrap. It was going to be a long night.

The pit was shaped like a giant rectangle and held the depth of two men standing on top of each other. Outlining the entire thing were two neatly stacked rows of corpses. Bodies that once belonged to men, women, and children. Live’s that the plague took. Family’s were the first to go. Good thing I stayed alone before it even hit. I would say thank God, but I never needed to pray to him anyways.

When people began dying the king took them. Any and all possessions were taken and their bodies checked for abnormalities. We were really after the tainted valuables that were left on their person. The abnormality was the plague itself.

There was a small time the bodies had jewels and tangible valuables, but as the unrelenting wave kept on; our new valuables have become bits of string, buttons, good leather, and even fake teeth. If the boils hadn’t touched their face that is.

The ravens went ahead and we followed with the clank of the shovels on my shoulder. Before we got close enough to inspect the bodies, they both spun around and stopped everyone in their tracks. The posh raven’s voice was muffled. “We will be at the top of the silo – where another pile awaits you. The doctor will arrive shortly.” With the final word he spun on his heel and began walking towards the wooden silo. The armored raven’s mail shifted like metal sand as he turned his back to us.

We both looked at eachother with cocked eyebrows. Ekbert spoke in a hushed whisper. “Medicine man.”

“Ain’t seen no medicine man up here at all.” I muttered back.

“Aye. There been alotta singing about how it’s –” He stopped.

“Worse.” I finished.

The sight was unlike anything we had seen before. While usually many had clothes – most of these were bare and bloodied. The boils were still popping and oozing in puss. Rising the skin like thin leather. Like their body was growing new heads in every region. A lot of their actual heads had been completely torn apart by the boils themselves. Making them a mass of tumors instead of a four limbed human. We both tightened our wraps upon smelling the stench. Just as thick as the plague itself. Iron mixed in with a sweet rot that resembled dying fruit laying in the soil. The moon light came flooding back as the clouds parted again. It illuminated everything even more.

Ekbert unsheathed his iron knife. It was five inches long and one inch wide. A single sided edge. Mine was of the same fashion. The old gravedigger pointed it at me and said, “Let’s get this shit over and done. Can’t be much on them anyways.” He cleared his throat as I looked into his eyes. I noticed his right eye’s pupil was beginning to tinge red. I blinked it away and returned back to the corpses. “We will speak on it later. Just look out for the medicine man.” He stated. I agreed and left his shovel and sack there.

Across the pit I went as more clouds seemed to gather around the moon again. They were dancing in the sky tonight. The silo’s torches glowed onto Ekbert picking away at the corpses with his knife. The armored raven was perched on top of the silo overlooking the pit. I noticed the sword poking out along his waist.

They were prepared – but for what? I shook the question out of my head as I laid my shovel at the edge of the pit. No business of mine. Been me, and it will always just be.

I unsheathed my knife and got to work. Cutting at fabrics, fingers, and toes. Then throwing them into the void below. The naked ones I tossed in easily. Nothing to find there.

The patter of rain began to fall onto my head. It turned the already cold corpses into ice cubed corpses. The heavy and dark clouds removed all of the natural twilight and nothing but silence filled the air around the pit. I took in a deep breath and let the wet perspiration of the sky fill my lungs.

Ekbert had disappeared into the darkness too. I could no longer see him as I looked around. The armored raven was gone from his lookout as well. I let the rain drops sprinkle into my eyes and I continued when I spotted a velvet cloak down the line. One of the only pieces of fabric so far. I was joyed to see it.

The man had his arms crossed against his chest. His left one was puffier than the right as it nearly popped out from his sleeve. His face was deformed by two giant boils. They were covered in dried blood and – gashes? I touched it with my knife and the wound opened. Definitely wounds from a dagger. Dead anyways.

The man’s hair was cut down to the skull. His velvet cloak was wrapped around his waist. I tore through it easily and it revealed his bare pelvis area. The boils had overtaken the space completely, rendering it nothing but exposed muscle and glowing puss. Clipped onto the inside of the cloak was a sapphire brooch and the pendant of a bulldog. I curled my lips into a smile as I sliced them off and threw the cloak back onto the dead man. He would need it in the afterlife. I heard it’s cold down there. Doggard bastard. I spit on him. The pendant belonged to the old guard. Though they never guarded anything, they only attacked and oppressed.

“I think I’ll keep this one for myself. It’s perfect for my muse.” I held it in the moonlight for a moment and slipped it into my waistband. I began dragging his corpse into the pit.

I yelped as a wild rat ripped through one of the boils on his head. Spitting an array of blood at my shielded face. I covered my eyes just in time and recoiled back up, dropping the corpse on the ground with a thump. The rats eyes glowed like red brimstone in the sudden moonlight that overtook everything.

It bared its two front teeth for a moment and leapt onto my ankle. I was caught off guard by the complete flurry. It scratched and bit at my trousers with a symphony of deep squeaks. Fucking bastard!

I tried shaking it away but the shit kept digging until I felt the graze of its nails tear into my own flesh. I yowled and finally just gripped it with my gloved hands. I threw it into the treeline behind me, as hard as the bastard could be thrown. Little cunt.

Its throat spouted a few more squeaks as it scurried away. The heat from the scratch made me wince. I rubbed the area for a moment. My eyes jerked back to the corpse near the edge of the pitch black hole. It was motionless as ever and dried up from the cold night.

The sound of hooves cut through my pain and rage. A man in an all white cloak was riding down the small ridge. He stopped below the silo. His face was adorned in an ivory mask that possessed a beak similar to the ravens. It was the medicine man. I watched while kneeling down.

The two dark ravens met him with a secure handshake and exchanged words with movements. The medicine man beckoned towards the pit and then the posh raven glanced towards the armored one. He stepped away and shouted into the air with a voice of thunder. “GRAVEDIGGERS! TO US!”

I just left my shovel and bag there to mark my spot as I stumbled over. I needed to ignore the pain. For now.

The medicine man greeted me as I got there first. “My salutations, Gravedigger. Your work here is appreciated.” He never extended his arm out. I nodded at him and replied, “Hello – pleased to meet you.”

The posh raven cut in, “Where’s your other?”

“He does one side while I do the other – should be here soon.”

The medicine man put up his hands. “Patience my friends. It is one of God’s virtues.”

Ekbert emerged from the dark behind the group of kingsmen. My smile pulled on my cheeks as I saw a familiar figure. . . but his gate was different, he took long strides with each leg. His shoulders rolled awkwardly like he was attempting to stretch out a pulled vertebrae.

“There he is.” I pointed. I bit the inside of my wrap.

The medicine man looked back and exclaimed loudly, like he had not a care in the world. “The Senior Gravedigger I presume?” The medicine man walked over to him, smoothly stepping across the grass like he was gliding. “Glad you are still kicking, much like me–”

As the horse got a whiff of Ekbert, it shrilled out with a quick wine and flicked its ears. We all looked back at it as it rolled its eyes over and over while puffing hot air from its nose. It shuffled away from the group while nobody saw Ekbert push himself even closer to the medicine man.

I was the first to turn away from the spooked horse. I noticed my senior gravedigger’s red eyes, completely red like blood had been spilled into his corneas. In a single lurch, Ekbert threw his entire weight into the medicine man who was offly too concerned about his horse.

They scuffled on the ground and Ekbert snarled like a wolf. His teeth crunched down onto the pointer and middle finger of an outstretched and defensive hand. His bite went completely through leather, skin, muscle, and bone. It snapped like a carrot as he pulled away from the hand he latched onto. An agonizing scream left the mangled medicine man’s chest as the rest of us all stumbled back at the sight. It happened in a quick blur. The sudden barbarity.

The armored raven rapidly unsheathed his sword and rushed at Ekbert. “Wait!” I pulled on the raven's arm, halting him. He jabbed his elbow into my sternum, causing my body to fold onto the floor. I coughed up spit.

A pack of shrieking howls emerged from the void within the pit just ahead. The medicine man kicked Ekbert away. A nasty gurgling grunt left the red eyed gravedigger’s bloodied mouth. His legs twisted over each other and he fell onto his back.

As I caught my breath and eased it back into my lungs, I witnessed the shadows beginning to rise in the darkness ahead. No, not shadows – the figures of the corpses that had been ready to be thrown away back to the earth. The one’s Ekbert and I didn’t reach all rose like puppets on strings.

The wet thwack met my ears as I snapped my head to see the armored raven driving his sword into the left eye of the sick and old Ekbert. The posh raven was helping the medicine man back on his feet. Blood bubbled up from the stumps of his fingers. He held onto his left wrist with his right hand to keep the arm up. His breaths shuddered as he spoke. “God has arisen the dead. God has arisen the dead. God has arisen the dead.” The posh raven tore some fabric from the man’s cloak and began wrapping it around the blood. It easily soaked through.

I staggered up as the pain in my chest lingered. The shrieks still echoed out into the valley as we all saw the dead lumbering towards us. All of their eyes glowed red like the apples of the tree within the hamlet. “Get me on my horse.” The medicine man groaned out. The armored raven retorted back at him with the commanding presence of a mountain. “No. Too late now. Come.” He did not wait for opposition. They left the horse there to flee. So it did. It rushed right past me and I felt dread begin to gorge itself on all of my nerves as I stood frozen.

“Come on then Gravedigger!” The posh raven yelled back as he followed the armored raven and medicine man back towards the ridge that led us here in the first place. His words awakened the fire in me and it burnt away the ice that held me in place.

My chest still quaked as I began running to catch up. The fear was greater than the scratches on my ankle. I got a last glimpse at Ekbert’s limp body sprawled in the grass. His crimson face was frozen in shock. Although – no more worries for the senior now.

The wounded medicine man struggled up the small hill and over the ridge. The armored raven had to help him. We clambered through the mud and back into the hamlet. I looked back as the walking dead emerged into the moonlight below and their cries punctured our ears. Halfway between moans and sobbing. The group was steady and concentrated in its chase. Most of them on steady limbs that the boils had not quite reached. The gored and rot ridden corpses were behind on all fours or slugging through the grass. Either way, they were moving. For us.

The armored raven had to support the medicine man by the shoulders for the rest of the way. The rain began to fall in thick splats as I sprinted past them and towards the wheel wagon. I was the first to reach it.

Even blinded, the horses could sense the incoming ruin. They shifted nervously on their hooves. I tore off their blinders and began to try and calm them. The ravens finally reached me as I looked back to see the dead cresting the ridge. They had truly risen before us and they moved together like an ant colony.

My mind went to the man I was just speaking to before he collapsed under the plague. Did Ekbert die before – ? Was that truly him? Or was it – ? Something else?

They slowly began to repopulate the hamlet again.

The armored raven emitted a grated hiss as they all saw the wagon’s wheels completely coated and sunken into the thick mud. “Help, gravedigger!” He commanded. The medicine man backed away. I could hear his breaths getting heavier with each passing moment.

The armored raven told them all to push as the cries of the dead crawled into our ears again. With a whimper, the medicine man threw up slimy bile all onto the rain covered earth and in turn, it splattered all over the armored raven’s greaves. He threw off his mask as the remnants of his stomach lining dripped from his bearded lips. It was an older and fading man with very light brown hair. The armored raven recoiled away and unsheathed his sword. It was still sticky with Ekbert’s blood.

The old man’s eyes widened in shock as he raised his mutilated hand up. “No! Just wait! I will be fine. . .”

The posh raven tackled the armored one onto the ground before he could strike the old doctor down. I stepped back and towards the horses. I had nothing to cut their binds with.

The revived corpses were all sprawled amongst the destroyed village. More than a few red eyes were placed directly onto us. My chest rumbled as the two ravens wrestled in the mud. The fear was taking me again. The images and snap of the medicine man’s fingers popped into my brain. The snarl of Ekbert. Would that become of me?

THWACK! The armored raven slammed one of his fists into the temple of the posh raven. It shattered the mask he wore and revealed his gaunt and freshly shaved face. The armored raven hopped on top.

The old man’s eyes rolled up into the back of his head. His body fell stiff as a board and he hit the mud with a splat. THWACK! THWACK! It sounded like heavy bricks were being slammed into the posh man’s face repeatedly.

The sword shined on the slick ground. I was not dying here – not tonight. This was my chance. I leapt over and gripped it, expecting it to be heavier, but I lifted it with ease. I ran back to the leathered reigns wrapped around the horses. They were attempting to pull with every muscle to flee as the dead closed in.

Their wails split the raindrops. I could smell them again.

When the armored raven heard the snap of cut leather, his head craned back to see me mounting onto one of the burly horses. He left the moaning posh man bleeding from his cracked face as he tried to rise and intercept me. The medicine man arose first and wrapped himself around the armored raven. The sudden weight caused the armored raven to drop into the mud.

The dead medicine man rapidly took a chunk of flesh from the exposed skin on the back of his head — hair and skull. The armored raven shook him off with a howl of agony. The horse did not wait for my commands and barely dodged the outstretched arms of the red eyed dead reaching for us as we fled. SNAP!

The other horse used all of its might to tear its binds and the momentum carried them through the dead and off in the opposite direction — stomping on more than a few to sprint into the empty wilderness.

We dashed around the gurgling armored raven who fell into the mud. I looked back to see the scramble for his flesh, all the dead flooded around the wheel wagon. Some also found the fresh meat of the posh raven. The medicine man’s red eyes were the last I saw of them as we rode off. He was crudely chewing on a chunk of someone’s crimson muscle.

The horse and I raced down the twisted path, twisted trees, and onto the bumpy road. There was no more crying, no more dark, red eyes. It was still. My gut was knotted, and doing flips. I took a deep gulp. Swallowing my insides to keep them from pouring out. The gray and burly horse was warm.

As we got further from the hilltop hamlet, the horse slowed down to a trot. The full moon was fading as the grays of the morning began to sink into the night sky. The shadows of the plane I travelled through began to wane.

My eyes were heavy, my back ached, my head was pounding and my feet. Mostly my heels – were burning like fire. There was some relief now that I could let my legs dangle instead of hanging on for dear life. The breeze hit my back as I lay on the horse's neck. My body felt hot and the sweat began to soak through my cloths. It knows the way back. My eyes closed. I remembered the blinders they usually wore.

Images of pigeon legs and a simple stew made my mouth water, I was hungry, and parched. I thought about the way the water was poured from a vase into a large wooden mug. Like a waterfall of relief. My throat was sand. But most of all, I was dead tired.

My body nearly sank into the horse as the images of sleep took my mind. The way your body sinks into a cot and your back sighing from the long day you had. It knows the way back — was my last thought as I fell into the abyss.