The Bone Mother by David Demchuk

Author:David Demchuk [Demchuk, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Horror, Fantasy
ISBN: 9781771484220
Publisher: ChiZine Publications
Published: 2017-06-27T04:00:00+00:00

Bogdan

I was the first to be killed when they came onto the factory floor. Normally, when I am at my station, I am farthest from the door, but at this time I was closest because someone had fallen in the change room, or so I was told, and I was the first aid attendant for the morning shift. I have wondered since if someone inside the factory assisted the attack, as I could not see anyone injured when I approached the change room, and then the outside door pulled open abruptly and the gunshots began.

I was struck in the chest and face and fell quickly. Within moments, I felt myself lift up and out of my body, held only by a thin thread of light, and then I was high up near the ceiling, looking down at my bloodied remains and then at the carnage unfolding in the rest of the room.

There were, I think, seven of them in our building, all in dark grey trench coats with black fur collars and black leather caps that were not of the police nor of the military, but from something worse. Two of them sprayed the room with machine guns. The others had semi-automatic pistols that they used to finish anyone still breathing after the hail of bullets.

After just two minutes, thirty of us lay dying, and after six minutes, we were dead. As the machine guns swept one room, then entered and swept another, mechanically, from room to room to room, you could hear the gunfire echo everywhere. And after the shots, the fires were set. In the brief silences in our building, you could hear the tra-ta-ta in the other buildings, the rush and roar of hungry flames.

Fifteen minutes, and all were dead. Two hundred and twenty of us. Four escaped, including the girl, and perhaps also the collaborator.

After a time, I felt the thread of light between myself and my body fade and I rose up higher through the floors until I was well above the factory buildings. They were consumed in an immense and terrifying conflagration which could only leave ruins and ash. Every building was burning, even animals and birds were dead. So much was lost that day.

I found in time that I could move of my own accord and that I was undisturbed by wind and smoke, and so I returned to earth and glided to the small cemetery outside the factory gates. I had always found it peaceful and contemplative, and had sometimes wished that I would die during my requirement so that I could be buried there. I settled under a tree, much as I would have if I had been alive, and turned my attention away from the factory buildings towards the three villages and the land beyond.

After what felt like an hour or two—for time was already behaving strangely—a young woman drifted along the road and up over the hillock and came to rest next to me. She said nothing, so I spoke first.

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