"Jesus Christ Burt!" Delilah gripped the cushion of the car seat as the tail end of the vehicle popped up violently for the fifth time, "What are you trying to do? Hit every pothole in Nebraska?!" Burt looked at his younger sister who lounged across the entirety of the back seat, lacking any form of restraint to hold her down. "Well maybe if you put on your seat belt you wouldn't go flying every time we hit one." He retorted as his wife, Vicky, fiddled with the radio.

"Well maybe if you learned to drive..." The teen picked up her book which had flown from her grip with she was tossed up and Burt frowned deeply. Gripping the steering wheel and eyeing the empty road to make sure no one was coming, Burt violently turned the steering wheel back and forth making the car jerk and swerve left and right aggressively, also sending everything not tied down, ie. Delilah, out of place and then the man slammed on the breaks, sending her flying forward and on to the car floor.

"God damn you Burt!" Delilah pulled herself off the floor and Burt had his head on the steering wheel laughing while Vicky was gripping the dash board. "Sorry, I guess I have to get the alignment checked." He said between howls and wiped his eyes before hitting the road again. "Would you two knock it off?" Vicky snapped and opened the road map again, "Yes Mother" Delilah grumbled and Vicky growled a little.

Burt began to fiddle with the radio, picking up nothing but static. "Hail Mary full of grace, Help me win this stock car race." He muttered and tuned in the dial once more, finally hitting a working music station. "Alright, boogie!" Delilah grinned and rolled down her window in the back and stuck her arm out of it, feeling the wind roll around her round forearm. The wind whip her lank, yellow blonde hair around her head wildly, occasionally veiling her grey green eyes until she brushed it out of her face.

"Turn it down!" Vicky snapped, "Do you want my ear drums to break?" Delilah rolled her eyes, the two had been fighting for the past three hours and frankly she was about ready to hop out and hitch hike her way to California. "You play it like that just to get under my skin." Vicky accused him.

"Your paranoia is showing again Vicky" Burt brushed is off, "Sometimes I wonder how I ended up married to you." Vicky shook her head and Burt chuckled, "by saying two little words" Vicky glared at him, "Shut. Up"

Delilah decided to break the tension quickly, "So, where are we anyway?"

"Nebraska"

She rolled her eyes and kicked the back of Burt's seat, "Haha, smart guy. Seriously I'm starving, so where are we?"

"Nebraska"

"Okay better question," Delilah, "Where's the lunch stop?"

"Vicky has the road atlas, ask her to look it up" He grinned, "you still remember how to read don't you Vick?" the brunette frowned, "Such a comedian" she hiss sarcastically. "Is this why we got off the interstate? To drive past fields and corn and listen to the wit and wisdom of Burt?"

"Will you just come off it Vicky?!" Burt barked and everyone fell silent as he flipped the radio back on and Vicky pulled out the road atlas.

They drove in silence before Burt eventually caved and flicked off the music, "I'm sorry okay. I'm sorry."

Vicky sighed, "I know" Burt wiped his face, "It's just that I've driven so far on the interstate- 1500 miles. And since you won't drive."

"You know I get migraines if I drive for too long" Vicky cut in and Burt growled, "I know you do! I know, okay? That's why I asked you to navigate for me on some of these secondary roads and you said you would."

Vicky unfolded the map and Delilah leaned over the shoulder of the seat to read. "D? You wanna sit back? If I have to stop you're gonna go right through the windshield." Burt reached over and pushed her back playfully by the forehead and she leaned back pouting as Vicky squinted at the thin squiggles of roads on the map.

"When did we get off the Interstate?" she finally asked,

"Back at Grand Island"

The woman traced a long red line then tapped her nail on the map. "The next town is Gatlin. In about ten miles."

"Whoo Hoo, looks like civilization has made its way to the great plains!" Delilah cheered as her stomach rumbled. "It's nothing but a wide gap in the road but do you think we can stop there to eat?" Vicky asked as that edge came back to her voice, "or does the Almighty Schedule say we have to drive til two o'clock like we did yesterday?" she tossed the Atlas into the back seat and Delilah picked it up to study for a bit, sensing another fight coming on.

"Alright you know what, I have about had it with you!" Burt shot back, "as far as I'm concerned we can call a quits right now!" Delilah glanced up a second. "We can go back and see that Lawyer like we want because I have had en..."

The teen spotted something running toward the road and squinted, leaning forward and setting the map down. It wasn't until she realized what it was and screamed bloody murder before it was too late and the fender of the car made contact with the form of a small child and the rest of it soon followed, running him down with a series of sickening crunches and jerks as Burt laid on the breaks hard.

Delilah flew forward at first before forcing herself back and banging her shoulder and neck on the seat behind her. Her heart fell to her knees and for a moment she actually saw stars as the car came to a complete stop.

"It was a dog." Burt finally said in a pleading voice. "Tell me it was a dog." Vicky was hyperventilating and close to tears. "It was a boy, it was a little boy! He ran out of the corn!"

"Oh my God." Delilah trembled as all the blood ran out of her face. They had hit something, a child, they had run over a little boy in the road.

"He's dead." Vicky stated, "He's dead isn't he?"

"Oh yeah" Burt's fingers were still gripping the wheel in a white knuckle vice hold. Vicky made some gagging noises and opened the car door to throw up before stumbling out of the car. Burt pried his hands off the wheel and turned around to his sister whose head was still reeling and looked like someone had tossed flour in her face she was so pale. "Stay here." he managed to get out.

"Stay in the car, and no matter what don't get out." She didn't reply as he hauled himself out of the car and Vicky hovered toward the body, "It's manslaughter!" she yelled "that's what they call it, you took your eyes off the road! She turned around and saw Burt leaning on the car, un-moving.

"Well don't you wanna come see?" she almost taunted him. "Show all your NRA buddies what you bagged in Nebraska?! Huh?!" Burt opened the trunk and Delilah, against all better judgement, crawled out and forced her legs to support herself on the pavement.

"Don't you want to come see?" she kept at it, "What are you gonna do? What are you going to do!? Answer me! Answer me when I talk to you!" Burt grabbed a brown tarp and began to walk toward the body before pausing to look around.

"Look at me!" Vicky panted as Burt wandered over with the tarp. "how'd you handle it over in Nam huh? How'd you handle it in the hooches? Grease guns right? Grease guns and Zippos."

"Settle down" Burt said calmly. "You're hysterical"

"Oh don't tell me you crapped out, big Vietnam war hero? Huh, whole Purple heart and all that? Huh? Come on John Wayne, what are you going to do? This is no time to go Section 8!" Burt turn toward her, "You ran that little boy down! He was just a little boy, and You. Killed..!"

She didn't get to finish before Burt slapped her across the face, calming her down instantly if not jolting her out of her hysteria. She stared at him.

"You're going to jail. You're going to jail."

Burt leaned forward, "Yeah, you're rabid, it's taken me all this time to figure it out you've got a terminal case of rabies. Shut up." He walked toward the body and knelt down.

Delilah had made her slow way over to them and was still shaky but she was rational. "What are you doing?"

"I'm turning him over." Burt replied, not bothering to scold her for leaving the car. "No, you're not supposed to touch..."

"I wanna see what is did!"

Vicky swallowed, "I can't watch this" Delilah couldn't either but she forced herself to inch forward to watch in sick curiosity.

When he turned the body over it sounded like pealing off rubbery Velcro and they both cringed but stared down. Burt swallowed "his carotid artery and jugular vein have been severed."

"What?" Vicky asked. "His throat's been cut." The blonde teen translated as Burt went on. "someone scragged this kid. Bayonet, maybe a kitchen knife I don't know, sure wasn't a two dollar buck. You get twenty maybe thirty seconds before you bleed out."

"That little boy is dead." Vicky growled.

"Yeah. "

"You ran him down"

"Yes."

And you killed..."

"Yeah He ran him down but He didn't kill him." Delilah said quickly. "This kid had two feet in the grave by the time the car hit him."

"Why would anyone cut a little boy's throat huh?' Vicky demanded.

"Do you like that idea that we killed him too much to let it go?"

"Of course not!"

"Then look!"

Vicky swallowed and leaned over to see the putrid looking gore around the boy's throat before gasping and stumbling back as Burt caught her. "Hey, hey."

Vicky leaned on her husband as Delilah tried to look away but couldn't take her eyes off the mutilated corpse of the child.

"Don't look around, no body look around." Burt whispered. "his throat has been cut, and that corn over there is all bent and twisted," Vicky began to turn but Burt's hand kept her facing front, "Don't look around!"

"Don't act suspicious. Okay? Now we're going to cover this boy up and we're going to put him in the trunk. Alright?"

They all nodded and Burt swallowed. "I'm sorry about this guys."

He took the tarp and cover the boy with it, grabbing his sister's shoulder. "Come on, you gotta stay with me now okay?"

She shuttered and nodded. "okay." She whispered as Burt picked up the body and carried it to the trunk.

"Get in, both of you." Burt said and stopped Vicky, "you know how to drive this thing?"

"You want me to drive?"

"No I want you to wait for me, I'm going to go take a look, I thought I saw something where he came out. I'm not sure." He looked out over the ocean of corn stalks. "You could hide an army in there, the Viet Kong sure did,"

Vicky rolled her eyes at another mention of the war Burt was so proud of. "Scragged right?" she scoffed. "sometimes I think you'd sell your soul to the devil for it to have never ended, that way you can go on doing sweeps and smoking dope for the rest of your life, cause that was the best part of your life wasn't it Burt? Good ole' Vietnam right?"

"This isn't one of your damned consciousness raising groups Vicky."

While the two fought Delilah stared into the green and yellow wall of stalks, swearing every once in a while she could see the slightest hint of movement. As if there was someone or something staring right back at her, as vaguely aware of her as she was of it.

Few a second there, she was tempted to go darting of into the haze of plants without a word. Just run as fast of her feet could carry her like she was chasing something, or like something was chasing her. There was a flicker of black and she blinked before squinting, did she just see something? Or were her eyes going fuzzy from staring into the corn?

"Hey," Burt shook her, "You alright?" She blinked a few times, "I think so."

"Alright well, get in the car with Vicky and don't get out this time okay?"

"Where are you going?" she eyed the rifle in his hands, the one he kept stored in the trunk for safety, through how it would help him stowed away in the back of the car was beyond her. Frankly she thought he just liked the thought of having it around. Years in the jungles of Vietnam with a military rifle on his back, she didn't think he felt complete without one.

"I'm going to see where he came from."

"What? No, Burt come on we need to get the body to the cops! we don't have time to go tracking..."

"Just shut up" Burt cut her off. "And get in the car." She crossed her arms and he frowned. "Now"

She huffed and crawled into the back seat again and sighed as Vicky began locking the doors. "Can you get the ones back there?" she asked and Delilah nodded. "Yeah, sure" she reached over and pushed down the metal pegs to lock all the doors. They sat in silence for a while until Vicky honked the horn loudly.

"This doesn't feel right. We have to get to a police station or something and report this." The blonde muttered. "Ole Bully Burt." Vicky growled and began to lay on the horn once more.

"yeah cause that will hurry him up" she sighed and looked behind her out the rear window to see if he was close."I swear I feel like we're being watched."

"That's not funny D." Vicky hissed and the teen shook her head. "I wasn't joking." She turned around just soon enough to swear she could see the shadow of a man pass by the side of her eyes. She gasped and jerked forward.

"What? What's wrong?" Vicky panicked as her sister in law scanned the horizon. "I thought I saw something." She whispered. Vicky growled and unlocked the door. "that's it." She stepped out and looked around while the younger crawled into the front seat. "Vicky wait! I don't think it's safe out there!"

She didn't listen as she yelled out. "Hey! Mr. Comedian! Where are you?!" Delilah looked around nervously until she faced sideways and felt her blood run cold.

There was a young man standing maybe three yards behind Vicky, splattered with blood that caked brown in his longish blonde hair and freckled the right side of his face. He was dressed entirely in black church clothes and carried a blood stained sickle. Her stare caught his eye and he stared back at her intensely before holding up a single finger to his lips and then sliding the edge of the tool across his throat threateningly.

She was so stunned by the sight it took her a moment to register it and start shrieking loudly, making Vicky jump and whip around and the young man dart off into the wall of corn before the other woman could spot him.

"What is it? What's wrong?" It took all of three seconds for Burt to come flying out of the crops to find Vicky trying to get a coherent word out of his sister.

"What happened?"

"I don't know I was calling your name and she just started screaming and..."

"There was a boy." The teen sputtered out.

"What?" Burt knelt down to be eye level with her. "There was a boy and he was covered in blood and he had a sickle and Oh my God We have to get out of here!" she babbled as Burt stood up and held his rifle at the ready, scooping the area.

"Where was he?"

The teen pointed at the edge of the corn. "He was right there I swear to God he was!"

"Delilah Are you sure you saw some one?" Vicky asked like she was speaking to a crying child and the teen grew furious. "Yes I'm sure, he was standing right behind you on the edge of the corn and he stared at me and I..."

"Okay, Alright. I believe you" Vicky nodded. "Just get back in to car, Burt." She stood up. "Burt we need to get to a police station, now."

Burt nodded "yeah. Get in the car, everyone in the car let's go" Vicky ducked in and slid to the passenger's seat and Burt pushed in a faded brown suitcase with red dots sprinkling it. "What is that?"

"I think it's his, I found it in the corn." Burt put it in the back and the younger girl stiffened, "I-is that blood, is that his blood?!" Burt put the gun in the back as well without responding and started the car before speeding off down the road.

As they drove it began to cloud over and lighting flashed in the distance as rain pelted the car. "Now you're sure you could describe this guy to a sketch artist or something?"

"I'm sure, I couldn't forget him if I tried to." Delilah shuttered and edged away from the suitcase by her leg. "What did you say the next down was?"

"Gatlin" Vicky replied. "Is it big enough to have a police station?" Burt asked, peering over the wheel and she sighed. "No, it's just a dot."

"Well, the boy was on foot right? Had to have come from somewhere close and Gatlin's the only town for eighty Miles." Burt rationalized.

"If you say so" Vicky swallowed as they sped down the empty country road past acres and acres of corn.