The Dead Awake

It staggered along the rocky path despite a broken ankle, it's torn face showing no recognition of the inevitable pain it must be causing. In fact, the face was emotionless, the jaw slack, blood trickling slowly from the remains of its mouth and staining it's ragged top.

The top hung off it's concave body, ribs clearly defined through the thin material. One arm was completely shattered at the elbow and was hanging loosely by it's side, shards of decaying bone jutting out and poking it's torso.

It hadn't noticed or didn't care that it's intestines were spilling out of it's rotted stomach and were trailing on the floor; nor did it notice that with each step, it's broken body left a bloody smear of decomposing flesh.

It's eyes had long since disappeared, pecked away by hungry vultures, leaving sockets which stared unseeingly into the distance. The creature was emitting a putrid stench which involuntarily polluted the country air around it.

Behind it stumbled a young child, it's head twisted at an impossible angle. It's jaw was missing, leaving a gaping hole in it's place. Dried blood coated it's face and shoulders, and the majority of it's clothes were absent.
The remains of a dress clung tightly to the body, held only by the blood gluing it in place.

Skinny legs protruded from the bottom of the sparse material, littered with careless cuts and grazes. Bare feet led the body forwards on it's blood-thirsty search for food, with no regard for the well-tread path carved into the ground.

The odd couple stopped simultaneously and released a haunting wail which lingered in the valley long after they had stopped, ricocheting around the mountains surrounding them.

Half a mile away, a figure raised it's head and opened it's mouth to return the call, revealing blood-coated teeth. Silence ensued, as it's throat had been torn out long ago and now hung uselessly down it's naked torso.

It lashed out with fractured fingers at it's chest, seizing the throat in a bony fist and tearing it away from the connecting flesh. It brought it to it's awaiting mouth and gobbled it down in one go, forcing the meat into it's hungry mouth.

Nearby, what was barely recognisable as a human body dragged itself forwards on matchstick arms, leaving a bloody trail in it's wake. A frayed end of a spine surrounded by rotting guts signalled the end of the body, the legs nowhere in sight.

It was following the call, and all around the country similar creatures were doing the same.

The dead had awoken.