288 CCLXXXVIII. The Row Of Ants (1/2)
”I've never seen anything like it, Captain... besides, notice his fingers... those of the hands are stretched in a strange way and that of the feet are bent on themselves, as if this poor man tried intensely to resist something, just before he died. He must have suffered a lot” Reidar sobbed, who bowed his head downwards, out of respect for the deceased.
Dag pulled out the hammer, holding it backward, with the handle facing forward and touched the head of the corpse slightly, which bent drastically on one side, hanging on his neck only through a flap of skin and emitting noise of brittle bones.
”Fuck! Oh...” Reidar exclaimed, who looked away for a moment, disgusted.
After the corpse's head fell to one side by the force of gravity, it slowly dragged the rest of his body with it, which ended up with its stomach on the ground.
”Reidar, look at this... at the bottom of the nape... this man's flesh has been completely torn at that point, which is why his head has come off at the slightest stress!” Dag acknowledged, pointing to a huge rotting wound right under his broken neck with the hammer handle.
”What... what does that mean? Captain, I can't reason with this unbearable stink!” the archer replied, stepping back, covering his mouth and nose with his arm.
”I don't know... but it looks like a wound intentionally done at this point. On the rest of the body, there are no other cuts or signs of blades or blunt instruments... this is the only wound on this elderly man's corpse” Dag continued, trying to reason aloud when his gaze fell on a row of ants moving in groups on the sand, near the corpse.
He continued to follow the insects with his eyes, noting that part of them was stationary next to the body, slowly devouring the carcass, while in a neat row, another group moved towards the rubble, passing between the wooden beams and the muddy straw of the roofs.
He stood up and left Aslan's bridles to Reidar, without saying a word.
He put the hammer back on the magnet and climbed over the corpse and obstacles behind it, going into the rubble, trying to follow the path of the ants.
”Captain, if I was you, I wouldn't go in there... you're going to get some kind of sickness!” Reidar stuttered in an unconvincing tone, knowing he couldn't divert the attention of Dag, who had a head as hard as marble.
He continued to walk on tiptoe, being careful not to stumble and noticed that as he moved in the direction of the insects, the stench of corpse increased by joining that of the soaking wet wood full of mud and algae and become unsustainable.
At one point, his foot trampled on yet another pile of straw and mud, but a strange noise followed.
*crunch*
Immediately Dag lifted his foot off the ground, trying to figure out what he had crushed.
Helping himself with the tip of his boot, he moved the mud and dirt, discovering in the wet sand a human hand, of which he had just broken the bones with the pressure of his foot.
”Holy bitch!” he exclaimed, unable to hold back his disgust, seeing those fingers dangling on the putrefying hand.