The Things I Love Will Kill Me Yet by Rob Pierce

Author:Rob Pierce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: noir stories, all due respect, uncle dust
Publisher: All Due Respect

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We marched for days, submerged when we drew close to shore, then retreated beneath the surface. If daylight remained we would rise from the middle and walk toward shore, or if it was dark we would wait until morning. We never touched anyone, they always turned away, but evenings there were others like I had been who sought us out. Ours was a world of total isolation yet we all moved together, with no names or thoughts or feelings to share. There were steps to take, forward and back.

I don’t know if everyone else covered in mud was a loner; there was no way to ask and that made it perfect. We reached out daily and were denied, and sometimes in the dark someone would join us. And in the morning someone new would be straining. They weren’t alone.

Night so we lurched up from our liquid beds, surfaced and trudged forward, toward shore. We moved in tandem and without intent. There were gaps in the mud that allowed us to see and hear and breathe and defecate, although everything was somewhat clogged. It wasn’t pleasant, but the mud over the eyes was a goopy film that allowed me to see the young men standing on shore.

A handful of them drank from cans, and they were easier to hear than they should have been at this distance. Instinct told me to slow down, to turn back. My legs propelled me forward, even as I noticed the guns.

Pistols, and those men were laughing as the rest of the crowd stepped away from them, away from us. Our steps brought us within firing range and one of them raised his gun and fired. Two bodies to my left, one of us was hit. We kept moving forward, even the wounded, and the other land creatures lifted their shooting hands.

We were shot but we didn’t fall. We couldn’t retreat. Could only move forward, as they could only keep shooting.

There was nothing for us to do but reach out to them. They didn’t seem to understand. I took a shot and felt nothing and took another step forward. They were still firing as we took our last steps to the edge of the lake. All of us at the front had been shot.

I reached out, as did all my neighbors, and grabbed the men that stood before us. They clutched their weapons. We had come as far as we knew how to go; now it was time to step back. We did, with these creatures that had attacked us in our hands, and they squirmed slower with each backward step we took, submerging into our depths.

We would take these strangers down with us as we had taken anyone else who ventured into our midst. Their attack gave our lives meaning. Our lives changed.

We were no longer merely immersed. We had lives worth taking, and enemies who wanted to take them. We wouldn’t stay down so long this time; I knew as we submerged that we would hit bottom like a ball hits a wall.

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