Welcome to The Pilot Program 2020.

Men Eaters is part of The Pilot Program 2020 of Short Stories One-Shots, where you with your likes, shares, comments can choose which short story becomes the next year’s 52 week short story series.

“BANG!” Rang throughout the house as the shotgun recoiled in my hand with my brother being the last of my family members that I had to kill. It’s not fair! I shout as I kick his corpse. Why do I have to survive and live in this world? But you… Get… To… Fucking die and escape? I sigh and sit down with my head in my hands. My phone rings, I take it out of my pocket, a friend of my brother’s. Did you do it? He asked as soon as I picked up. Yeah. A moment of silence sets before he continues. You okay? I look at their dead bodies. Yeah. I just need to bag the bodies and take them to a crematorium. He laughs. Always burn the bodies, right? I sigh. Right, if they’d come for them instead of having me take them there. Anyways, I’m taking them to the one just over the hill, you’re coming right? Without hesitation he tells me he’ll be there. Well, glad to hear that. See you there in like two hours. Still have some cleaning to do.

I can’t believe this has been going on since 2010, I say as I start talking to myself in an empty house whilst moping the puss and blood off the floor. Why… Are you… So… Heavy? I mutter to myself as I try to drag my brother into the body bag. Well, fuck. Looks like we’ll have to cut you into piece. Seems like this is my last resort, I say as I rev up the chainsaw and start cutting off his limbs. Blood and puss starts flying everywhere, pieces of his bones too. Suddenly I realize what I’ve been doing and stop. Why the fuck did I mop if now I’m doing a bigger mess? I ask myself as I look at the splatter on the walls, sigh, and continue. Why did all three have to do this at once? Unbelievable! I start preparing the bags in the back of my car and bringing limbs and pieces of their bodies one at a time. A neighbor spots me and approaches me. Fuck, say under my breath as I see them get ever closer. He puts his hand on my shoulder and looks me in the eyes. Sorry for your loss, he says. I thank him and to my surprise he leaves without saying anything else. I look at my phone and see that it’s already been an hour and a half. I get in my car and drive off…

What did you do to their bodies? Why did you do this to them? Asks in a revolted tone the man at the crematorium. Listen, I say barely catching my breath, you take three people and carry them to your car by yourself. Why do you care? Just burn the damn things. He looks at me with distaste. They were human once. But they’re not anymore, now are they? I ask as he leaves. Yo, how are you? Just you and me? He asked. Yeah. He looks around. What about family? I start to laugh. Well, they’re dead. And those that aren’t dead, I don’t have their numbers. So it’s just me, and you, his old friend. He looks at me, puts a hand on my shoulder and says that it’s going to be okay. I look back at him smiling. Don’t worry, I don’t even feel guilty, we all fantasized about at least beating our siblings at once. Besides, since we’re not american, well, not me, but most of us kill with swords, axes, weird improvised weapons. Saw a guy the other day with an ax that had basically a shotgun welded to it. He starts laughing. Isn’t that just fucking impractical? I start laughing too. Probably, but it looked fucking cool. He gets serious. But who would have thought that we’d actually get to live with zombies. Actual men eating zombies. I start to rub my eyes. Yeah man. I know. But I swear it’s like nothing changed. You just have the right to kill the undead. You shoot their brains, or bash, slice, dice, cut them and then bring them to burn. Since burying them might just fucking bring them back to life… He looks at me once more. You did the right thing killing them so fast, if you didn’t, they might have become more dangerous. I interrupt him. Or, they would’ve died on their own. He interjects. That’s true, but then again, that’s just another risk we’ll never take. The man comes to tell us that their bodies will be put into the furnace. We both look up at the furnace as black smoke starts to rise, and we both sigh.

Hope you liked this other type of zombie story that’s part of The Pilot Program 2020. And if you did, remember to like it and share it. The more people read it, the bigger the chance that it will be turned into the short story of the year. And if you want to support what I do and these free short stories even more, you can always help by donating to: https://www.paypal.me/RaulFO