The corpses no longer vibrated. They had truly risen.
One by one, the bodies that had been rigid upon the red earth began to move unnaturally. Kretak... kretak... The sound of bones being forced into alignment filled the harrowing silence. Some rose with jerky, staccato motions, exactly like wooden puppets whose strings were being yanked by an invisible puppeteer. Others crawled first, blackened fingers clawing at the thick soil, before finally standing on shattered knees with shins protruding through the skin. Some could only writhe helplessly because half their bodies were destroyed, yet their eyes remained open—for in this place, death was no longer a sanctuary.
