Voyages of the Chosen One: Chapter 10

     We arrived at the Ghost Farm a lot later than I had expected. Jo had made it seem like the trip would not take this long. Maybe we should have waited until the next day until we set out on our trip and stayed in Modoc for the night, as the sun was rapidly disappearing from the sky. It was too late to think of that now, though, as we were almost there.

     I could see the posts that were supposed to contain the various body parts that the Sheriff had talked about, but I was doubtful that he was accurate on that. I had heard a lot of stories about various raider groups that wander the wasteland, and none of them had rituals that involved placing body parts on posts.

     We approached as rapidly as we could. We were all excited that we were about to reach our destination. As we approached, my focus on the posts became clearer. From what I could tell, there was definitely something entangled on the posts, but I could not tell what quite yet. I looked over at Vic, and then to Sulik. They too saw the objects that were hung on the tall polls, but neither of them commented on the bizarre site.

     Closer we rushed, eager to find out exactly what the figures were. Soon enough, we were standing right next to one of the posts. As we had approached, my focus did not leave the object of my desire, and still I had no idea what it was. It did resemble a part of a body, perhaps a torso, but I could not tell for sure.

     “What do you think it is?” I asked my companions.

     “I’m not sure,” Vic replied slowly. This response was followed by a brief moment of silence.

     “Holy shit,” Sulik said under his breathe, as if realizing something that he hoped not to be true. I looked over at him, taking my eyes off of the disfigurement on the poll for the first time since we arrived. I watched in utter awe as my companion threw down his prized sledgehammer; I had never seen Sulik let that hammer out of his hand. Even when he slept, it was right by his side, in arms reach, in case there was an attack during the night. To see him simply drop it made this already surreal situation become even more fantastic. I watched continuously as Sulik moved forward to the post that we stood ever so close to. His arm extended to the poll as he approached his destination. Finally, Sulik’s hand came in contact with the omen in front of us, and shockingly I watched on as he ran his palm over the surface. Slowly, he retracted it, and revealed a dark shade of red on his hand. Slowly, a drip of red fell from his hand to the ground. “It’s blood!”

     Sulik was right; the post was covered with blood. I’m unsure of how he managed to determine that the red texture was blood, as there was so much of it that the entire post was covered in the same color. My mind began to race as I wondered what was going on at this strange place. I looked once again at the object at the top of the post, and an idea formed in my mind. I was still slightly doubtful about what the figure was, but I had to be sure.

     “Let’s bring down this post!” I exclaimed. Both of my companions looked at me as if I were crazy or possessed. “I want to know what the hell that thing is on the top. Plus, if that is blood, why is it still fresh? If these posts were up for as long as Sheriff Jo claims they were, the blood should be dry.”

     “That’s a good point,” Vic said slowly, thinking carefully about the point that I had just made. “However, there is one flaw.”

     “What’s that?” I questioned.

     “Just how do you propose that we get this post out of the ground?” With that said, Vic walked up to the poll and pushed on it with both hands. It did not budge an inch. “It’s obviously in the ground quite a ways; there is no way we can push it over. Plus, the sun is almost out of site, and the clouds overhead are going to keep any light from the stars and moon at a minimum. We won’t be able to see anything, and Jo said we shouldn’t be here at night.”

     I knew that Vic was right, and something told me that I really shouldn’t be here after sunset. I felt it in my tribal blood that this was not the place for me at night, but my curiosity urged me to stay and find out what the figure was. Thinking as fast as I could, I reached a compromise. “Okay, we’ll dig up the post tonight, and once we find out what the object at the top is, we’ll leave and set up camp in the desert. We’ll return in the morning again to explore the rest of this place.”

     Vic looked reluctant to agree, but then simply shrugged and walked towards the post. Sulik smiled at me, and then approached the post as well. I really wished we had a shovel right now, as the task ahead of us would be a long one.

     I joined my companions at the post, and using our hands, we dug into the ground as fast as we could. Surprisingly, the ground was extremely soft, which made digging a much easier task. After a few moments of digging, I looked towards the horizon and noticed that the sun had already set. The only light that was left was those few rays of sunlight that were dispersed in the atmosphere.

     I turned back to my task. After a few more minutes, we had dug quite a distance into the dirt. “Let’s see if we can push it over yet,” I proposed. With that said, we all rose to our feet and walked to the post. Then, I began to push on the poll. Surprisingly, it fell to the ground easily.

     I looked at my companions. “Who has a flare?” I questioned.

     Vic stepped forward, and handed me the object of my desire. I then approached the top of the post, eager to examine the object and then get the hell out of there. I was really starting to get an uneasy feeling about the ghost farm.

     Suddenly, I saw a motion out of the corner of my eye. I turned quickly, peering deep into the darkness, wondering what I had seen. However, my site was greeted with simple darkness. I took a deep breath, reassuring myself that my imagination had just been playing tricks on me, and that I had seen nothing.

     Quickly, I rushed to the figure that had rested high above the ground on the post. I lit the flare when I reached my destination, and then knelt to the ground for a closer look. Vic and Sulik were both behind me, looking on, curious as well to what the weird figure was.

     The first thing that I noticed now about the object was that it was wearing a leather jacket. The reason that I didn’t recognize the jacket before was because it appeared to be covered with dried blood. I ran my hand over it, and confirmed my suspicion as some of the blood flaked off of the jacket and fell to the ground. My curiosity rose further at that point, and my suspicion that this was indeed a part of a corpse skyrocketed. I moved now to bottom of the object. I couldn’t really tell what was the top or bottom of the object, so I decided to use the leather jacket as a reference. The last few inches of the bottom of the jacket fell on empty air, but I knew from the shape that there was certainly something inside of the cover.

     Slowly, I grabbed the bottom of the jacket and began to lift it. One of my fingers brushed up against something slimy on the inside of the jacket, causing me to retract my hand. However, the object remained on my hand. I brought my hand towards the light of the flare, and realized that the slimy object that I grabbed was a worm. I tossed the creature to the ground and watched briefly as it squirmed away. Then, I returned to the jacket and lifted it once again. This time, I felt nothing out of the expected. I moved the flare, which I held in my other hand closer so that I could examine what was inside the jacket. Light fell on something that I did not recognize. After a few minutes, my eyes began to focus better on what I was looking at. The site almost caused me to become sick. From what I could tell, it was the bottom of a torso that was amputated from the naval down.

     It appeared to be a fairly clean cut. The utensil that was used had to be very sharp in order to cut through the organs and bones so cleanly. Strangely, there didn’t appear to be that much blood, if any, present anymore. This was definitely one of the worst sites I had seen in my life, and I would not soon forget it.

     “I’ve seen enough,” I said shakily. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”