Useless Bastard

clearly at a loss for a counter explanation. Not wanting to explore the implications of their discussion further, Josh and Dave peeked over the skirting. A man who had been killed by having his stomach shredded was laying in the coils of his intestines. Instead of laying still like dead people normally do, the intestines were slithering like snakes and crawling back into the dead man's body. Before their eyes, Josh and Dave saw the dead man heal completely and then rise up on his feet. The dead man's clothes were still tatters from his attack, and yet there wasn't a single sign of an injury anywhere on the dead man's exposed skin. Even the blood that had previously been wildly sprayed everywhere during his murder was gone.

Josh returned to hiding behind the skirting. "I must be crazy because I'm less bothered by the way that they come back to life, but I'm more bothered by the way they heal their injuries."

Dave lay face down and turned to look at Josh. "That's not all. Have you seen the way that any body parts that are not connected any more, reconnected themselves."

"You have to be shitting me."

"But have you seen it?" asked Dave insisting.

"Yes. Yes. It just ..."

"It just makes you doubt your sanity doesn't it?"

"Yeah. I don't know what to think those shitters."

"Shitters?"

"It's as good as name as any for something that I don't understand."

Dave frowned a bit. "Maybe it's too early for that."

"What?"

"I mean, this is the first time that we've seen something like this. Maybe we just need to spend some time watching before coming to any conclusions. We're seeing a lot of crazy looking shit and maybe we're working with all the wrong assumptions. We can't just drop the first attempt at naming that we come across."

"I think 'shitters' is a great name for them."

"I think we should wait a bit and observe them a bit longer before trying to label what we see."

"So you want to keep looking at that shit?"

A perplexed look darted onto Dave's face. "Sorry. I'm a business analyst. This sort of approach is normal to me. I don't think we should limit our way of thinking too early. We need to be open to all manner of ideas no matter how whacky."

"Huh?"

"Okay. Say there was a serial killer. He writes a manifesto and makes videos of what he does."

"Sounds disgusting."

"Agreed. And the goal is to stop this guy and prevent others like him appearing."

"What's your point?"

"I'm not sure I have one. I'm kind of just improvising a line of thought here."

"That's a bit anti-climatic," grinned Josh despite the topic and environment.

"I don't see how you can act without first understanding the situation. And here's this serial killer who writes down his thoughts and records his actions. So let's study them."

"Come on. You can't believe what a serial killer is saying."

Dave nodded. "Very true. But why not take the time to have a look?"

"Because it would turn the stomach."

"Why should the state of your stomach get in the way of a solution? If your doctor found out that you had a terminal disease, would you like the doctor to lie and tell you that you're healthy? Or would you want the brutal truth so that you can try out some treatment and hopefully live a long life?"

"What if the treatments do nothing and the last months of your life are nothing but suffering caused by the treatments? There's something to be said about ending it all in style with a smile on your face."

Dave frowned a bit at the mess of his logic. "Reality has a nasty habit of being more complex than what humans can imagine."

Josh would had chuckled but it was getting very loud on the streets nearby their position on the awning.

Dave slowly peeked over the skirting before ducking down. "It's lunchtime."

Josh stared wide eyed at Dave, understanding full well the consequences of what Dave said. A rise in the sound of violent deaths only confirmed that the streets had become a clone of the pits of hell.

"Why is everyone just walking out of their offices and into that bullshit?" asked Josh. "Can't they at least hear the screams?"

"I guess that people just aren't all aware of their surroundings. Haven't you seen the way that people just stare at their phones all the time."

"Shit," said Josh. "They were probably checking their phones in the elevators on the way to the ground floor. Probably found something interesting. Couldn't stop looking at it, and just walked out on the streets."

"I wonder if it was worth it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I don't want to sound like a snob but most people probably are just trying to pass the time with their phones so they were probably distracted by something trivial."

"So these people are dying because they a busy watching a funny cat video."

"Hell of a way to go."

Josh gave Dave a serious look. "You got a sick sense of humour."

"I'm not joking. I'm just trying to call it as I see it."

Dave frowned.

"Now what?" asked Josh.

"Pardon?"

"You got a thoughtful look on your face."

"At first I was just thinking that I was lucky."

Josh looked dubious. "I guess that we're alive, so maybe that's lucky."

"It was earlier. Before climbing up onto this awning I had thought about taking shelter in the office."

"Probably better than the street."

"I'm not sure. When I last peeked I noticed some people getting attacked in the doorways of a few buildings. So there's no doubt that those things are on the ground floor."

"Are you saying that the buildings are full of shitters?"

"I'm not sure," repeated Dave. "I don't think that they know how to operate the elevators. But maybe they don't need to know."

"How's that work?"

"Well, a living person is in an elevator. It stops on the ground floor and the door opens. One of those grey things that are standing nearby see a new meal and charges into the elevator. The door closes and a trap is set for whoever