She-eaters

It was a chilly night on the rooftop of my apartment building near Wesleyan University. My friends and I sat around a picnic table, drinking and generally enjoying each others' company. Suddenly, the elevator to the rooftop opened and out walked a detective and two lady-cops. Our conversation became uneasy, instantly, as they had little reason to be on the rooftop other than us. Sure enough, all three walked over to our table and said they wanted to ask us some questions.

It was about a trip we had taken together as sophomores, quite a while ago if you ask me. Specifically about some trees around the area where we were camping. I remembered the trees well. There were seven old pine trees, each one an impressive bole, growing in a perfectly straight line on the side of a hill along a contour. The woods started a few yards down the hill from the trees so they were almost an anomaly in the grassy hill. On the camping trip we had grown fond of the trees. There were seven of us and there were seven of them. Each one of us chose a tree and named it, some of us giving the tree our name and others choosing other names.

After a series of questions in which we explained this to the detective, growing more and more uneasy, we asked what this was about. The detective responded. "We've had a series of incidents in the area where you were camping, more specifically bodies have been found directly underneath these trees. We're trying to track down anyone with knowledge of the area. Whats more disturbing is that for each body we've found, we're almost sure only one or two people are responsible. You wouldn't happen to know anyone with nine teeth? or a relatively small mouth that may not have lost all of its baby teeth?"

Everyone responded with no. I asked, "Why?"

"Well, the bite marks indicate--"

"BITE MARKS?" everyone asked in unison.

"Yes, it seems each body was badly mauled. We at first believed there was a wild animal in the area as the bodies were partially eaten, but now it appears the bite marks are human. Specifically an adult and a child. If you know anything about this please tell."

We all thought and came up empty. What the hell was going on, murder? canabilism? here? It was a little much to take in instead of the night of frivolity we were expecting.

All of a suddent there were screams from street level. A shot rang out in the night. More screams. Most of us had dropped to the ground instinctively. All were wide eyed and slack jawed. Again, what the hell was going on? All of us except for the detective and cops, of course.



"Shit, she's here. We've been followed. Get them out of here! Stay low," the detective said while un-holstering her sidearm.

The cops ushered us, confused, over to the elevator, the detective brought up the rear. As soon as we were there, waiting to descend, a woman stepped out behind us. The detective spun and leveled her gun.

The woman looked like anyone would expect a midwestern mid-forties mom to look. Fat, ugly jeans, ugly applique cardigan (dark green), bad hair and bad skin. Except for her eyes. Her eyes were wild. Something was very very very off with her eyes.

"She sent me here to give you a message," the woman said.

I was sure nothing good was going to come from any of this and began to make my way from the group. Away from the elevator. And most certainly away from the crazy eyed soccer mom. As i did so, inexplicably, a noticed a car, on the roof, going in reverse straight at my group of friends.

"Watch out!" I screamed but it was too late. The car ran everyone over. And then went forward, did it again. And then reverse again! I couldn't watch and ran into the labyrinth of turrets on the roof. There were more screams from street level now, a massive din seemed to be rising in the city. Chaos was erupting everywhere.

I hid amongst the turrets for a while, until i heard footsteps. i looked around and caught a glimpse of the crazy eyed woman, blood dripping from her chin and mouth. I ran, found a ladder down a shaft in the roof and climbed down.



On the way down there were windows into other apartments. Windows to a scene so disgusting and depraved I wish i hadn't seen it. There were men in there, men in the apartments and the hallways, some I knew, most i didn't. Most of them were clothed, at least from the waste up, some were fully nude. All of them had raging phalluses. Alll of them had the crazy eyes of the woman on the roof. They were running, each one of them, bursting through doors and grabbing anything that moved and raping it. Sometimes each other. Sometimes occupants of apartments, taking bites out of them in the process. Sometimes they were being called over to a crazy eyed woman, who would calmly have her way with him. They seemed oblivious to my presence outside the windows, only caring about what was in front of them. They were sex crazed maniacs. I watched slack jawed, unable to turn away until i heard the crazy eyed woman from above speaking on the roof. She was talking to someone up there, but i didn't intend to find out who. I quickly made my way down the ladder.

I finally made my way to my apartment and looked through the window. There some of my friends were inside. They had barricaded the front door and were watching it with uneasy eyes. I opened the window and crawled through, scaring some of them half to death. After convincing them that i was fine, that i wasn't one of the sex crazed men from above or below, they began to fill me in on what they knew.




Apparently it was some sort of infection, but it hit the men differently than the women. Men became the sex crazed monsters i had seen through the windows. Something akin to a zombie but with an unending lust for anything that moved. The infection was apparently transmitted through body fluids as bite victims and rape victims alike were turning. The women, however, had become something much more frightening. They were infected, but they were retaining their intelligence. They were smart, cunning, and clever. And what they wanted was either to turn you or to eat you. They could plan, and were good strategists. Also, they seemed to have some sort of control over the men. They were called the She-eaters.

Time passed. We sat in our apartment, makeshift weapons, kitchen knives, and i had found a machete, wondering when it would end. The chaos from around us in the building seemed to be dwindling, so did that from street level. Soon, there was not a sound to be heard. No noises what so ever. That made us more uneasy. Several hours passed, and some of my friends decided it was time to attempt to make it home. I argued against it, that we should stick together, but they were adamant. A friend of mine, Kate Heller, decided she would be the first to go. I walked her out of the apartment to the front door of the building. There were no She-eaters anywhere to be seen. When we opened the door, two of my co-workers were standing there, Peri Mason and Angela Smilanich. Neither had the eyes of the She-eaters, you could tell right away that they were not infected.

We hugged, glad to see each other. "My boyfriend is infected," Peri said, tears in her eyes. I didn't know what to say, so I said i was sorry. Peri and Angela offered to walk Kate back to her house.

They left and I went back to my apartment, locking all of the doors behind me. I fell down on my bed exhausted.