Sound
Jim doesn't remember how he got down and out. He does, however, have scars that don't match any particular event in his memory and so he puts them together and calls it even.
He does remember what They sounded like, though.
'Silent as the grave' is utter bullshit.
At the time, Jim thought he was hallucinating. Now, he knows that he really did hear the way their bodies settled into death. Blood slowing and stopping, gases rising in the stomach, organs bloating, skin crinkling and wrinkling, flaking off to rub dry and hiss against the muddy grave like snake skin against the dead leaves on the jungle floor.
Jim heard all those things. He heard more.
When he put Them in the ground, he saved Dinkins for last. Jim felt it was the least he could do: let the kid feel the sun on his face that little bit longer, before Jim shoved him away forever.
Curious, Jim had put his head against Dinkins chest. Listened for…something.
Jim doesn't know and he's never told Sandburg but he's pretty sure he'd heard an echo.
Only the shadow of a sound, vicariously cast by the thumping of his heart, selfishly shining through its chamber while seven others lay dark and silent.