Desperate Farm-wife

An excerpt from the short story, "Desperate Farm-wife."

 For my mother.
      
     Abruptly, Elle was struck in the back of her head with something hard. Screaming aloud, she fell into the pool of coagulated blood.  Elle kicked and thrashed wildly, but it didn’t do her any good. All she did was cover her body even more in the disgusting liquid. Panic filled Elle. She was screamed and kicked like a boar caught in a net. All she had to do was stand up and run, but she just couldn’t get back up. Every time she tried, Elle fell back down; she was a drunken imbecile. Then she finally got a glimpse of her attacker.

      It was indeed Elle’s dead husband. Animate in the fact that his parts were moving, but the lurching motions he moved with proved that his existence was not natural. His body parts had been dissembled, and there was no way of telling how they were being held together. It was a sick puppet show. Arms and legs flailed wildly as the walking corpse walked. His glazed eyes and face were absolutely expressionless. His head was completely detached at the shoulders, but hung limply to one side. This had to be some sort of nightmare, because what Elle was seeing was surely impossible.

      Elle screamed as loud as she could; she really didn’t care who heard her. She only cared that someone would come save her. Elle was frozen with fear as the zombie of a man approached. She could hear faint breathing behind her, but she had no idea what it was. Elle was far to petrified by the sight of her reanimated husband to look and see what approached. Seconds passed that felt like hours, and then everything happened faster than Elle could comprehend.