Status Updates From The Returned

'Somebody finally came and, as Lucille had expected, it was not Colonel Willis but Agent Martin Bellamy. He came through the gate in something that was partly a run and partly a walk. As always, he was wearing his suit, but his tie was missing. A sure sign, Lucille thought, that the whole situation was doomed.'

'She half listened as she went on with her writing. There was nothing new happening anywhere. More Returned were returning. No one knew how or why. The detention centers were growing larger and larger. Entire towns were being taken over, and no longer in just rural areas such as Arcadia, but in larger cities. The True Living were being usurped, or so one of the announcers said.'

'He got out of his truck, clutching his picket sign. He was starting the day in a bad mood. It had been another night of restlessness for him and, as is often the case with certain types of men, he'd decided that being angry in general was the best way to deal with whatever was going on in his heart that he didn't understand.'

"But they didn't understand. I did have to be the one to take him out of that river. I had to be the one to feel how cold and unnatural he was. I had to be the one to know—to be genuinely and truly sure—that he was dead. And that he wasn't ever coming back. We buried him. Because that's what you do to people when they die. You bury them."