Mark trudged down the street, past the ruined buildings and the husks of abandoned homes, some still largely intact, others burnt, or with large holes torn through them, or otherwise damaged.

It was depressing.

But someone had to do it.

…Or at least that’s what the council had decided. Mark wasn’t entirely sure. He knew the dead deserved far better than he could give them, but when it came down to it, this was time that should be spent planning for survival and “Leveling” their “Classes” that the system deemed so important. Not that Mark could argue. The man he was before the apocalypse couldn’t even compare to who he’d become.

“We’ve got another one, big guy!” a voice called from the house across the street, and Mark ambled over to take a look.

“Hey Liam, what’ve you got for me? Please tell me it’s not too old.”

“Sorry bud, this one looks like it might be from the very first day, it’s pretty rotten.”

And by the gods was it.

What greeted him was the maggot, fly and worm covered rotting mess in the vage shape of a human body, half buried under a desk, a computer and some miscellaneous rubble.

“The poor bastard didn’t even make it to class selection I’d bet.”

“He… or she… must have gotten crushed during the earthquake in the beginning. Not a bad way to go all considered.”

“She? Hah! Good one, Mark! See that gaming headset there? Definitely a guy.”

“Whatever you say, Liam. Guess I’ll be carrying him to the grave. Ugh, I’m gonna need a hundred baths after this.”

“And as usual you make me glad I got a movement based build!”

Mark lifted the computer and shoved the rubble off the corpse before picking it up in both arms. Many of the crawling insects tried to bite him but they couldn’t break his skin.

He cradled the decaying corpse in his arms, to make sure it didn’t fall apart, and the pair headed off down the row of houses toward an open lot.

On the way back, Liam cracked a few jokes, and Mark did his best to laugh and respond in kind, but neither was particularly sincere, and their grim facial expressions betrayed their mood.

And then they arrived.

An open lot.

Most of it taken up by a large pit. Well, more of a ditch really.

And it was filled with corpses, in various states of decay.

Some were about as rotten as the one in Mark’s arms, others were simply bloated and ashen, and a few could almost pass as the living, but for their pale complexion, empty eyes, limp bodies and the wounds that had been their end.

This wasn’t the first corpse mark had dumped into the mass grave today, and it wouldn’t be the last.

“So many died that first day, and so many die each day since…”

“I know, big guy, but we’ll remember them. We have to.”

Mark looked at Liam, and slowly nodded. Then he silently and slowly tipped the rotting husk of flesh and bone and maggots that had once been a person into the mass grave and began to slowly make his way back to the houses.

And Liam scouted ahead. On the search for others to bury, monsters to kill, or maybe even survivors who hadn't joined up with the enclave yet.

And in the mass grave, in that pile of decaying flesh and ruined bodies, the body Mark had left, was slowly buried under more corpses as others came with more fallen to dispose of.

And Catherine Seddon was slowly buried under the festering flesh and blood and viscera of dozens upon dozens of the people who had once been her neighbors.