Chapter 1: Grave Revival

“Mother, please don’t leave us!”

“Mother. Please forgive your unfilial child.”

“Mother!”

“Ma…”

Aina heard crying sounds in the darkness, calling for ‘mother’. She thought it was Asu, but it couldn’t be. Robots can’t cry, that’s a fact. But who else would call her mother other than Asu?

Or perhaps someone else was also caught under the rubble? It wouldn’t be strange. After all, many female researchers also worked in the same building under different projects. She knew of projects that were even more secretive and classified than hers.

She moved her hands around, feeling her surroundings. It was dark and she felt like she was buried under rubble. Perhaps the explosion had caused the ceiling to break, burying her under it. Yet, how come she couldn’t feel much pain on her body? She tried to speak, but an extreme pain in her throat, as if there was sand inside, stopped her attempt.

Aina pushed the rocks around, trying to create a hole for her to escape. She didn’t harbour much hope, but surprisingly, the rocks were fairly loose and moved aside easily without much effort on her part. As the rocks moved around, she spotted light peeking through the space between the rocks. Gathering her strength, she dug herself out through the rocks, the loose rocks hitting her back painfully, but she paid it no mind. With every inch she managed to dig through, the sound of crying became louder. And also the sound of guitar, drums and… cheering.

Who would be cheering at the site of an accident?

Outside in a clearing at the edge of the village, five children in patched clothes knelt before a burial mound. Four cried with dried tears as another simply sat on her knees with her head hung. The torches made five long shadows stretched somberly on the ground, in contrast to the festivities behind them.

Behind them over twenty men and women danced merrily. Hitting drums and guitars, they sang without matching the tune of the drums, the tune itself was a mismatched mess. The lyrics of the song differed from person to person, but roughly they all said the same thing, “The bitch is dead” Or “The wretch is buried”.

A rock piled on the burial mound rolled over. Nobody took notice.

But then another rolled over, and then another did the same. By now, the dancing people took notice. One stopped in mid-dance. One noticed the dancer stop and looked in the same direction. The revellers then took notice and looked at the burial mound as a skeletal hand poked out of a hole between the rocks.

As they looked on horrified, the second skeletal hand came out, seemingly dragging its body out. By now the crying boys and girls too noticed. They looked at the burial mound intently, shivers ran down their backs and the hairs on their arms stood up like needles.

The first son thought, Did mother wake up because we didn’t bury her properly?

The second son thought, Is mother going to beat us for not getting her an auspicious grave?

The third son thought, Don’t drag me to hell, mother!

The two girls just screamed in fear.

As for the revellers, they watched in horror as the two skeletal hands dragged its body out. The head, covered in dirt and what appeared to be dried blood looked up first at the kids in mourning, then at the revellers. As she looked at the revellers, each of them sweated, they swallowed their saliva with difficulty, feet nailed to the spot. About half of them wetted their pants and their feet.

“Whooo…” the corpse before their eyes said in an eerie, raspy voice, “Whoo…”

The revellers screamed. The spell broken, they sprinted away from the place as if their lives depended on it. None turned around to have a second look. None stopped to help when their fellow revellers fell and rolled down the mountain road comically.

By morning, the whole village would know. They would know that the revellers ran away from the grave site in fear. They would know that Old Man Fern shat his pants. They would know that Aunt Rouna fell and rolled down all the way to the foot of the mountain. They would know that the little scoundrel Feae trailed piss right into his family’s home. And the whole village would know, that the evil bitch of the Virell house had come back to life!

In actuality, Aina just wanted to ask who was making all that racket, but her throat felt so rough and her tongue was hard like rock. As she finally dragged her whole body out of the burial mound, the mound made up of dirt and loose rocks collapsed behind her.

To the boys and girls in front of her, they looked on in fear, feet and knees rooted on the ground. Not only were their feet rooted because their legs were numb from kneeling too long, but also from the fear of having watched their dead mother crawl out of her grave. The dirt under them started to smell from the stench of the moment they wetted themselves from watching their mother coming back to life.

And now that mother stood up with difficulty, swaying one way and another. Her body was all bones, with barely any meat or fat. As she stood, her body swayed from having been starving for so long. To those watching, it felt like looking at a revenant about to unleash her fury on all those who wronged her.

And when her stomach growled, their fear heightened. They feared that this corpse, the hungry ghost of their cruel dead mother, would eat them instead. So they offered her the food they had prepared.

“Mother, please eat this! Please spare your children.” The eldest son lowered his head and raised the bowl of thin, very thin rye gruel, meant as a food offering to his mother’s soul, to his revived mother, and closed his eyes tight.

Aina picked up the bowl, took a sip, and spat out the contents.

“What is this shit?!” Aina spat as she wiped her mouth with the hem of her dirt-covered sleeve.

But to the children, her guttural words spoken with stiff tongue and coarse throat sounded like a frightening curse.

“Mother forgive us!” The five boys and girls prostrated before the formerly dead woman.

Then the second son said, “If you’re still hungry, first brother has the most meat!”

“Oi!”

“You little dog! You dare sacrifice your brother!” The eldest girl scolded.

“If I’m a dog, he’s a dog too! You married a dog, dog’s wife!”

The youngest son cried, “If you’re both dogs, then am I a dog too?”

The youngest girls also cried, saying “I’m hungryyy!”

Aina looked at the children with a mixture of annoyance and hunger. Not hunger in the sense that she wanted to eat them, but hunger because there was nothing in her belly. Not knowing what was happening, she could only look on until they finally stopped arguing when everyone’s bellies started to groan.

Cautiously, the oldest and the second sons pulled their mother’s thin arms down the mountain and into the village. The daughter took out the last of their rye, then cooked a thin rye gruel with wild vegetables for the family. A drop of tears leaked out of her left eye as she pondered what they would eat tomorrow.

She needn't have worried.