The eating was almost scarily organized. Each contaminated would take a free section of the body and eat their share, put it down and let the next contaminated to jump in have some. The larger of the contaminated were able to push their way to the front and tear into limbs first. If one of these were pissed off, they would rip into the contaminated getting in their way as if they were a ragdoll, sending them flying, and if they were lucky, all body parts intact.
I had a feeling that the larger of the contaminated were the oldest from the initial contamination. They were able to feed longer and grow to the size of a football lineman, but without the fat. There were also fewer of them, and I only spotted about three of the giants in the mess of contaminated. If there was a hierarchy in the ranks of the contaminated, these guys were on the top.
They tore at the bodies until there was nothing left but reddened bones and flakes of cartilage hanging off of them. Some of the contaminated even broke apart the bones to get to the marrow on the inside, drinking it as if it was a cocktail. The group started to circle again, giving me a better view of the center.
There was one appendage lying in the middle of the group, a leg ripped off of its body. Blood was trickling out of the hanging veins and large artery, draining into the dead yellow grass.
“What’s going on?” I heard Chelsea say from behind me, resting her head on my shoulder.
I shook my head, “I can’t fully tell, but I think it’s a sort of feeding ritual.” I noticed that the larger of the contaminated had left now along with the more healthy looking ones. The crowd had shrunk to maybe a third of the initial size. Most of the contaminated remaining looked decrepit and on the verge of death. “Zach!” I called.
“What?” I heard him call back.
“Come here! You need to see this!”
“You could have just sent me to get him instead of yelling,” Chelsea said.
“Yeah, but I rarely get the chance to yell anymore. Have to savor these moments,” I smiled back.
Zach reached the top of the stairs and I called him over. I pointed to the field out of the window to the contaminated cult circling the leg in the field. “There were more of them. I counted five ripped apart by their own and feasted upon.”
“What do you mean feasted?” Zach asked.
“Just that. They’re cannibals, but I don’t know why,” I replied.
“Maybe they just ran out of food and have nothing to eat but themselves – is that a leg?!” His face looked disgusted and turned a little shade of green when he spotted it.
I laughed a little, “Yeah. It’s the remains of one of the feasted.”
“Interesting way to put it,” He said.
“What’s the point of the circling?” Chelsea asked.
I shook my head, “I’m not sure, obviously. It seems as if it’s a sort of a game to them. They have the body in the middle, tempting each of the contaminated in the circle to go for it. When one does – oh there it goes now!”
One of the contaminated broke off of the pack and bolted for the leg. It was smaller than the rest, possibly a teenager when it initially became contaminated. It was pale, as were most, but this kind of pale was much closer to white. It reached the leg in a matter of seconds and ripped apart a section of flesh. The contaminated held it to its mouth and drained some of the leaking blood. It threw the chunk of skin and muscle down onto the leg again and sprinted back to the circle, none of the other contaminated moving a muscle.
“What just happened?” I asked.
“Feeding, what else?” Zach said as if it was a known fact.
“No, I mean that hasn’t happened yet. Each of the other contaminated that goes after the body gets ripped to pieces and fed to the group. None have made it back to the circle.”
“Maybe they were just too slow,” Chelsea said. “I mean he went in, got a bit, and got out. Quick.”
“Hang on another is going!” Zach said, quieting us.
It ran to the middle in a full sprint, picked up the piece of muscle and flesh that the previous contaminated drank from, and pulled out a full bite before sprinting back to the circle. It was safe. Another contaminated did the same thing, but on its way back, it tripped and fell down. Before it had a chance to get on one knee, the group was upon it. Arms flew and legs kicked as the entire set of thirty or so contaminated jumped it.
It made the crying and hissing noises signature to the dying contaminated until its head was severed and blood gushed out once more. There was a frenzy this time without any form of organization. The contaminated flew at the body just as women would to a fifty percent off shoes sale. These were the smaller of the contaminated, which meant the larger would keep the order, a sort of leader to the monsters.
This feeding was over quickly. The contaminated eating were smaller and hungrier, and the eaten was smaller, but no longer hungry. The crowd dispersed finally, leaving broken bones stripped to the core as the only remains.
The field looked peaceful after the contaminated were finally gone, a bloody, dead sort of peace.
Chapter 17
“I think that we can all agree, that was some crazy ass shit right there,” Zach said after the crowd of contaminated had finally left the field. The strangeness of the whole situation left the three of us relatively quiet, the air standing still from the shock of what we just saw.
