Chapter 26

Jin Was Right

Burke’s legs felt like cement. His feet throbbed, his calves hurt and his back ached. All that plus his head throbbed from what he assumed was dehydration. He didn’t remember the last time he pushed his body this much. It had to have been during his old police academy days, back when he ran for fun. Back when he actually enjoyed exercising. Now as a much older man, he found himself exhausted to the point where he felt he might collapse, and yet he still craved a cigarette more than anything. I’m definitely crazy, he thought as he pulled off the backpack, setting it on the ground near a pile of black goop. The strange part was that there were no flies on or around it. He’d seen enough dead things in his career as a detective to know there should be flies and bugs buzzing around it. He looked up at the trees and figured the black goo must have come from Grady.

“Grady, you little shit,” he muttered. “Even you didn’t deserve this.”

He opened a gas canister and poured a small amount on the backpack watching it soak into the papers and fabric. Not only was Jin right about this, he was also right about not letting this get into the wrong hands. That simply couldn’t happen. Burke proceeded to make a trail in the directions where the other bodies hung in the trees. He stood for a moment and watched the trees sway in the wind. Having assessed the wind’s direction being in his favor, he backtracked making a trail with the rest of the gasoline in the first canister. Burke discarded the empty jug and fetched the second one. With this one he made a trail to where the rabbit hung in the tree. He assumed this was the farthest he had seen any of the evidence of the unexplainable mould before him. While in the process of making a line of fuel, he heard a rustling sound in the brush behind him.

Panic set in as he saw a large deformed rat emerging from the brush. It was the size of a raccoon. He set down the can and pulled the tire iron from his belt. Behind the large rat, he saw more movement of what looked like another of its kind, whatever it was. Burke fiddled with his large plastic framed glasses, unaware of the fate they had saved him from. The large raccoon-sized rat rose up on its hind quarters and sniffed at the air, its thick tail curled up behind it.

“Whatever the fuck you are, you smell the gas, don’t you?” Burke said while clutching the tire iron like a weapon. While not taking his eyes off the creature, he took the remaining canister and continued pouring a line of fuel in front of the area where the bodies hung in the trees.

One of the deformed rats burst from the brush and ran past Burke, through the line of fuel he had just poured. A deafening, screeching sound coming from behind startled him. Burke turned and saw one of the rat things sitting on a tree branch above the dead rabbit. He turned and saw the first rat thing that had emerged from the brush now rush past him. He panicked and flung the tire iron at the rat and missed. The large rat continued towards the area where the bodies hung, completely bypassing Burke.

Burke frantically patted his pockets, found his Zippo, pulled it out and looked at it.

“Fuck it,” he exclaimed as he lit the Zippo and tossed it into the fuel. There was a loud WHOOSH sound and the flames raced down the trail of gasoline he had poured. In mere moments, he stood watching flames as they consumed the dry forest debris, feeding a fire that grew by the second. Burke heard another screeching sound coming from the trees behind the fire line. One of the large rat things was on fire, flames spouting from its matted fur. He saw it scurry and climb a tree the way a cat tries to outrun pain.

“Burn, you fuck!” Burke said as he watched the wind spread the fire faster than he assumed it would. The wind blew the flames towards the dangling bodies, reaching them quickly, setting them ablaze along with the trees. Burke watched as Grady Foster’s body fell from the tree as it burned. It hit the ground in a loud thump and splat as the body’s liquefied insides spread out when it hit the forest floor. That was enough for the former detective. He had seen enough, he thought as he turned and began walking back the way he had come.