The two men laughed nodding their heads pretty sure they knew what waitress he was talking about and shook their heads thinking how they’d probably take a few rounds on her themselves if the opportunity, which would never come up, did.
The older man said, “Well you just don’t go getting thrown in the drunk tank you hear?”
Chuck gave them a thumbs-up setting his beer down and exiting the bar knowing he was past when he should have said that he had, had enough for the night. The two men smiled thinking about it and headed to the bar both of them setting an empty thermos on the bar counter. The bartender walked up nodding to the two men.
He said, "Hey Izik, Christian how you all doing tonight? What can I get you? You got time for a cold one tonight?"
Izik sat at the bar shaking his head. "No, not tonight Denny, I see storm clouds rolling through and we haven't even so much as broken dirt yet tonight. I had to work late and well, let's just say that I'm not too excited about this."
Denny leaned on the bar lighting up a smoke. He said, “Yeah that is damn inconsiderate of people going and dying on a weekday and then needing to get buried huh?”
Christian said, “Yeah couldn’t they have made it past Friday, hell this is the best day of the week to get shit faced, go to church on Saturday night, clear my sins and start the entire thing over again.”
Denny said, “So what do you want me to get you two boys?”
Izik pushed the thermos forward. “I don’t know about Christian but if you could put a quarter of jack and finish the rest of it off as coffee that’d get me through the night.”
Christian said, “Yeah Denny that’ll work for me, can you do the same?”
Denny took both thermoses putting them under the bar and out of sight from no one in particular and filled the boys off with whiskey.
He said, “Seems a damn shame you can only get a bit shit faced.”
Izik said, “Nah it’s okay, we will be wasted, it's just that we won’t have the opportunity of sitting on these lovely, comfortable bar stools. Maybe we can get done early and make it back?”
Denny screwed on the caps pushing them back across. “No way man, we are going to be closed in less than two hours, you know the sheriff would have my ass if I tried to stay open past two. Don’t you worry though, you go dig the stiff’s hole and we will still be open on Saturday for you to come in and spend your hard earned money.”
The two men both set down a couple dollar bills nodding and headed out to their truck and started their drive out to the cemetery. Izik poured two cups of the very Irish coffee and handed one of them to Christian who tested it with his lips uncaring if he burned himself because he knew it was the only way he'd be getting the taste of whiskey on his lips.
Christian said, "You think we can plan on beating the rain?"
Izik said, “Plans are just a good way of God reminding you how little you can control.”
Christian said, “You know half the time you sound like that little damn green feller from Star Wars. Why don’t you just say, no? You don’t have to sound all smart and shit for me, Christ how long have we known each other?”
Izik said, “The force is strong with you, it is.”
The two men cracked up at this, both sipping on their scolding hot coffee and pulled into the cemetery that was just a short mile away from town. As they drove they saw a man waving his arms wildly running toward town. The two men stared at each other not quite sure what in the world could be wrong with him, but neither of them overly ready to stop and let the crazy into their lives. When they pulled up they headed around to the back of the cemetery stopping quickly not expecting to see a long semi truck out there. Christian hit his high-beams both men leaning forward in their seats reading the giant red and yellow lettering on the back of the truck that said ‘Evans Chemicals’ on the back of it.
Izik said, “Well what the hell is that thing doing out here?”
Christian said, “Hell if I know, but would you look at the damn thing; it has a hose connected to it. There’s a good chance they are dumping something where they don’t think no one is going to complain about it.”
Izik said, "Did you get your CB radio fixed yet?"
Christian said, “What do you think I'm stupid?”
Izik just stared at him knowing the answer in the back of his head. Christian hit the steering wheel and said, "Well hell it isn't my fault, I didn't have any damn time. If I'm not at work then I'm digging holes for all these damn people. The wife has me running all around the damn place like my heads chopped off."
Izik said, "Well why can’t we just use the one in their truck? I don't see anybody around watching it right now anyway."
The two men polished off their cups, both thinking there was a strong chance they were going to have their night even more interrupted and later because of this incident. Izik put his flashlight around the grounds looking around quickly. He went up to the truck seeing the keys weren't in it but hit the power for the CB radio. He hit the channel he knew the sheriff kept on and hit the transmit button.
"Hey, sheriff Gareth are you there sir?"
He clicked the receiver off and waited a minute a few minutes later a groggy voice came back and said, “This is sheriff Gareth, what seems to be the problem?”
Izik said, "Well uh, I got some bad news to report sir. We are out at the cemetery just on the outside of town. Well, Evans Chemicals got themselves a truck out here and a hose attached to it. It looks a lot like to me that they are doing a bit of dumping out here tonight. I thought you might want to know about it."
Gareth cursed clicking the receiver back on realizing he to would have a shit night if this was how his shift was going to start off.
He said, "Oh hell, I'll be out there. That is all I need is the damn government down here inspecting why I got people dumping shit out in the middle of nowhere. You boys stay put and make sure no one leaves. You understand me?"
Izik said, "Yeah I copy that sir. We got a hole to start digging up here anyways, old man Shelman kicked the bucket this week and they’re putting him in the ground on Saturday morning. We are parked behind their truck so they aren't going to go anywhere until we move the pickup."
Gareth said, “Well see to it that you don’t touch anything you don't need to. You just go about your work and we will be good to go, ya’ll got that?”
Izik said, “Yep I'll make sure Christian doesn’t do anything stupid either.”
Gareth turned the car over and headed towards the cemetery. Christian and Izik grabbed their shovels and headed up the hill. They stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the graveyard. There was nothing but holes for as far as the eye could see. The ground had been disrupted. To put it lightly, there were thousands of stones staring back at them all with dirt pushed up to the sides.
Izik said, “Well would you look at that, what the fuck happened out here?”
Christian said, "Hell if I know, looks to me like someone came and dug them up? There ain't any chance in hell of that but that looks like that is definitely what happened, though."
Izik leaned on his shovel just staring at the grounds in front of him. He said, “You think we ought to call the sheriff back and let him know what he is coming toward out here?”
Christian said, "Don't know what good it's going to do, given he's already on his way out here. Not like he's going to be able to do shit until he gets out here right?"
Izik just shook his head staring at the cemetery and said, “Well someone out there is going to have their ass thrown in the slammer and have the key thrown away for all this mess. You can’t go fucking with the dead around here and get away with it. What do you think was running through their mind when they did this?”
Christian said, "No Izik I'd have to say there is a damn good chance that whoever it was that did this wasn't doing all that much thinking. What do you think was going on out here?"
Izik said, “Hell if I know, but I don’t think we got enough of that special coffee from Denny to deal with it.”
Christian said, “Hell, we never have enough. You want to start digging or should we just wait?”
Izik said, “Guess we best get digging, who knows if we are going to get paid if we don’t do the work. That cheap ass probably care at all if these things got all dug up.”
Christian and Izik started to head to plot number five sixty-two when they saw a figure in the distance. Christian pointed to him and said, "Hey you see that Izik?"
He turned his head following Christian's finger outstretched in that direction and squinted trying to make sense of the figure he was looking at in the dark.
"Well, do you think that is the son of a bitch who went and caused all this trouble?"
Christian said, “Well hell if I know, but I'll be damned if we don’t need to go and have a talk with him. He doesn’t have a shovel with him, it is damn hard to dig up a hole without one.”
Izik said, "Yeah because they couldn't put it down right? Come on why don't we get over there."
The two men walked cautiously towards the figure both of them were holding tight to their shovels, it didn’t matter if they were used to being out here, there was little that was more creepy than being where the dead were supposed to be resting especially, at night. When they got within twenty feet the figure was standing next to a tombstone swaying they yelled, “Hey you, get over here!”
The figure turned around slowly twisting its neck to the point where it was almost an entire ninety-degree turn, something they both knew would have broken anyone else's neck, short of a circus performer freak. Izik shone the light on his face and his mouth dropped at the man's looks. He had a black suit that hung on his frame, he looked like it would have fit if the man was thirty pounds heavier and his eyes were black, his cheeks sunken in, and his mouth hung open. Black ooze came out of the side of it. Izik looked over to Christian who was having a similar reaction to what he was looking at.
Christian asked, "Well what the fuck is wrong with that guy?"
Izik walked slowly towards him. He said, “Well I’d have to say there is a good chance I don’t know, but I think he’s already dead.”
Christian took the flashlight pointing it at the man more. He said, “But if he is dead then how the hell is he standing?”
Izik looked at the man yelling, “What the hell is wrong with you? What are you doing out here?”
The stranger opened its mouth and moaned and started to stumble forward swaying walking slowly and sloppily. The two backed up turning around and shone the light on the property. What they saw wasn't something that made them feel any better, black dead eyes glistened back at them shining all in different states of decay.
Christian said, "Every one of these people are in their Sunday best but stained from years and maybe even decades of decay, each of them having different looks from the time period when they were buried.”
Izik said, "I don't know about ya'll but I'm getting the fuck out of here, and I'm doing it right goddamn now. This shit is crazy."
Christian was already walking backward not needing to be told that they needed to get out of there. He said, “Let’s get the fuck out of dodge and do it now.”
The two heavy men turned around running straight for the truck. They went running down the grassy hill carrying their shovels with them. They fell face first running down the hill hands in the grass gripping onto their legs. They kicked and squirmed hitting the arms with the shovels, but the hands of the dead weren't letting anything go.
Izik screamed, "What the hell is it?"
Christian kept kicking and put the flashlight on what was gripping his legs. There were five different sets of hands holding his legs tight, clinging to his worn blue jeans.
He said, "They got hands coming up out of the ground man, there are fucking hands!"
Izik looked up at the dim stars just barely visible through the thickening clouds. He said, "I don't know what to do man, they won't let go. But hands never killed anybody."
Christian pushed up stabbing at the hands with his shovel blade. Bones were brittle and crunched under the force of the thrusts. They tried backing up but when they looked down all they saw were more hands coming from the dirt.
Izik yelled, “You know when they redid this place someone told me that they went and stacked people, well they weren’t fucking kidding now were they?”
The hands gripped the men's shirts and pants and they weren't able to move. Just when they didn't think anything could get any worse, mouths came up from the dirt and gripped the men taking healthy bites of flesh, they swallowed it whole not waiting to chew the delight. They screamed to each other, but little could be done to save each of them. Within minutes, there was nothing left but a pile of bones. The dead finished climbing and clawing their way out of the dirt. Their clothes were covered with guts and remnants of the men.
*****
Sheriff Gareth took the only highway that would take him out to the town cemetery. He thought of it like he always did realizing exactly how it was the great combiner. It didn’t matter if it was a drunk that wrapped themselves around a phone pole, a cancer patient, or just someone older than dirt who finally passed away and got to go and finally meet his or her maker. He rode out there his window down enjoying the cool night breeze. The lightest bits of mist hitting his hand as he drove out there.