Chapter 18: Dig Some Graves

Young Russell Meeks, twelve years old, claws his way up from inside the freshly dug grave. A boot kicks him back down. Russell falls onto something. Chaotic whispers erupt around him. He rolls and sees…Linda, dead, eyes agape at him.

“You killed me.”

Russell screams!

##

Meeks jolts awake in the boxcar. He is bathed in silence. But then, the whispers start. Soft at first, subtle, underneath everything. Meeks notices a dark figure in the back of the boxcar. Its eyes glow with burning fire.

Meeks draws his gun and he’s never been this afraid in his life.

“Get the hell away from me! Do you hear? Shut up! Shut the hell up!”

The Dark Figure pauses as if at a threshold, as if deciding, but it backs away, and the whispers stop. Meeks clenches his eyes shut.

Another voice speaks, different, dripping with sarcasm. “Well what the fuck do we have here?”