And Elder's.
They'd made urgent love there on the blanket, in the afternoon air, before succumbing to exertion and falling asleep amongst the flowers. Elder looked over to the picnic basket, sitting beside two Sig Sauer assault rifles, and reached into it for the half empty bottle of raspberry wine. He sat up, took a sip and lied back down, satisfied, watching the wisps of clouds cross the sky above him.
Eydie stirred beside him.
He kissed her as she began to wake, cupping one of her breasts through the thin fabric of her dress. She moaned and kissed Elder back, her tongue exploring the inside of his mouth. Elder felt the urgency rising in his loins again, and he instantly knew he wouldn't be able to stop until the urgency had been satisfied. He rolled over on top of her, holding himself up on his elbows, as her legs parted underneath him. Elder worked his way down her figure, kissing exposed flesh where it was available, raising the hem of her dress along her thighs, hungry for the taste of her. Her moans grew louder as he found the right spot with his tongue.
"Elder!" Eydie said suddenly, sitting up, kneeing Elder in the jaw. She rolled onto her knees and snatched one of the black rifles, cocking it.
"What?" Elder said in irritation, rubbing his wounded jaw. He pulled himself up and followed the point of Eydie's rifle up the hillside.
"Skinny!" Eydie half yelled, half whispered. Elder shaded his eyes against the glare of the afternoon sun and looked into the distance. He couldn't see any–
Then he saw her, perhaps fifty yards distant, at the crest of the hill, a silhouette against the sun. As his eyes adjusted to the glare, he began to make out more details. A thin figure with long, flowing hair. A woman with full, pert breasts bared to the world.
She moved like an apparition, floating through the long grass. Elder could have mistaken her for a faerie, a beautiful, radiant nude, with the sun behind framing the outline of her perfect body. But instantly, Elder knew what she was. He scooped up the second rifle and snapped it to his shoulder.
"Just the one?" Elder asked as he pulled himself to his feet, not letting the barrel of the rifle dip.
"So far," Eydie replied, keeping the distant figure in her ghost sight. "But they hunt in packs..."
"Has it seen us?" Elder asked.
"Fuck, I hope–" Eydie began, but the distant figure answered Elder's question. Her head suddenly snapped in the direction of the picnic, and the naked woman began to sprint. She was sprinting, full bore, towards Elder and Eydie, the mane of her hair billowing up behind her.
Eydie took the first shot: a controlled, aimed, single squeeze of the trigger. The bullet caught the sprinting woman in the left hip, releasing a spray of red blood. The shot should have hobbled her, but she sprinted on as if the wound was nothing more than a bee sting.
Elder fired next, catching the woman in the right shoulder. The force of the impact caused the naked woman to momentarily stumble. But quickly recovering, the woman regained her stride and charged down the hillside.
They snapped off three more rounds with indeterminate effectiveness before the woman sprang into the air. She completely cleared the long grass, vanishing into the brilliant light of the afternoon sun. Elder went full auto, firing wildly at the black splotch in the sky.
A bullet must have hit home by happenstance. The spot against the sun suddenly exploded, throwing Elder and Eydie back down onto their blanket. A chunk of skull landed in the grass next Elder. It buried itself into the dirt, a tuft of long, silky hair still attached to it.
"Shit!" Elder coughed, pulling himself up.
"That was close," Eydie groaned in pain.
"You're a lousy shot," Elder said as he collected himself, allowing himself a chuckle.
"I thought a hip shot would have dropped her."
"Dropped her? You know there's only one shot that counts with the Skinnies..."
"Yeah," Eydie agreed, checking her rifle. "Yeah..."
"If you get a clear shot like that again," Elder lectured. "Don't waste it–"
But he was forced to cut his marksmanship lesson shot. Elder's words faded as he caught sight of another head rising over the crest of the hillside. It was followed by another, then another, until a dozen or so figures where looming in the sunlight above them.
"Shit!" Elder exclaimed, quickly ejecting the spent magazine from his rifle.
"Skinnies never hunt alone!" Eydie repeated, bringing her rifle to her shoulder.
Elder realized there was no spare magazine for his rifle. "Fuck it! Come on!"
Elder grabbed Eydie by her outstretched arm and turned her around, pulling her after him, fleeing down the hill towards the town of Bannock, resting in the valley below them.
#
Above, the Stems paused at the hill crest. They had been drawn by the sound of the explosion, but now they could sense the nearness of warm blood. Aroused, they sniffed the air, their dead eyes relaying nothing to their dead brains. The pack of corpses milled at the precipice of the hill, searching. They could almost taste the flesh, it was so close... but where exactly...
Outwardly, the Stems had suffered no deterioration in appearance. The group of Stems could have easily been mistaken from a group of young friends, out for a walk in the woods – if those young friends had not bothered to fully dress, or remove their winter clothing. Their bodies were still beautiful, perfectly maintained by their stems.
But the dead eyes trapped in their gorgeous faces told another story. The dead, unblinking eyes stared vacantly into space. Though their bodies were still moving, propelled by their stems, their brains had long since ceased to function. Their implants were now in control, animating the corpses like puppets, seeking out any source of power.
All that mattered now was that the stem kept itself functioning, continuing its single goal of maintaining the health of its host body. That the host body no longer housed a living soul was immaterial to the programming of the device.
The dead had never died – not completely. While there was still power in their implants, the Stems would keep shambling, sniffing out new sources of power. With the electric grid dark, there remained only one source of reliable energy, easily extractable by the stem's backup subroutine.
No, the dead had never died – not completely.
And they'd returned to consume the living.
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