The crunch of my boots on snow as I shuffle my feet is only interrupted by the dull thud of the shovel breaking the ice. The soil, dark as night against the blinding whiteness of the snow, scatters behind him as he digs. The sun was setting now, the sky illuminated in bright shades of purple and gold. I glanced behind us, to the limp bagged form and sighed.
"You gonna help?", his voice strained with exertion, each motion casting a spray of dirt.
I tapped my fingers on the handle of my shovel, blade sunk into the fresh layer of snow. "Yeah. Yeah, okay."
We worked in silence, fighting the stony soil. It comes up with effort. I feel the dull ache in my arms with a tired joy. Mindless work is a comfort, the chaos of the past 20 hours fading away. We work as one, automatically covering for each other. The hole grows as the sun sets, the headlights from the car becoming the only illumination on the scene.
The hole deepens steadily at first. We're both exhausted. We haven't been sleeping. Our digging slows as we proceed. We pass 3 feet, stopping at around 6. Our eyes meet, his eyes the only part of his face betraying his panic.
We climb out of the hole and take in our surroundings, the forest, distant highway. There's a gas station a few kilometres up the road, the only semblance of civilization.
The bag, a lumpy and fabric wrapped thing. Silhouetted by the headlights, I threw the top flap and open and studied the corpse. For a moment, I saw her as I had last, howling and hungry, descending upon me, the weight of her falling onto the knife. I felt the twisting jerk as it lodged into bone and left my grip. I felt her life leaving her, the rage dying from her eyes. The knife had been pulled out since, leaving her torso drenched with dark blood. He catches me staring.
"I just think that we should burn-"
He interrupted. "Yeah, you would. I love her. And I will kill you before I desecrate her corpse."
"Right, but if this reaches civilization, I just..."
He's pulled his gun out and aimed it at me.
"Okay."
"Okay."
"And when it's done?"
"We drive home. And we never see each other again."
"What if you're infected?"
"What if you are?"
We hold each other's eyes for a moment. We'd had this conversation all ready.
Her body hits the bottom of the hole with a wet thud. The dirt covers her, burying all evidence of the tragedy, taking the last of the victims with it. The night holds all sins.
The radio clicks on as we sit in the car. It's reading numbers from the local bingo. He sighs and starts driving. I glance out the window, feeling my teeth starting to lengthen. Not yet. I smile. Just a few more hours. Then I can do whatever I want.