It took us traveling through the night to reach my destination. About twelve miles traveling over pitted, cracked, but still largely intact highways, freeways, and a backroad or two. A few wild animals challenged us, but most of the local nocturnal wildlife was more than happy to steer clear of something as big and loud as my heavy metal coils moving over concrete. A few of the bridges complained or seemed shaky, but the vast infrastructure Texas invested so much of its GDP into seemed to still be holding up in the heart of major cities where nature's grip remained mild even after a couple decades of rebellion.

Along the way Matilda and Damian both spotted about a half dozen potential proto-towns as they spotted large gatherings of people in parks, golf courses, large warehouses, and potentially even inside a lake. A few of the residents were even brave enough to poke their heads up to investigate us. It was nice enough time to take a break and tell them about the small burgeoning civilization forming around Wrangler Stadium and The Veranda, but I wasn't really looking to get bogged down playing ambassador or advertiser so we tended to move on after a few minutes of talking with Matilda leaving a few moths behind to act as a crude relay system. Apparently she still wasn't finding an edge to her range, so long as she made preparations, and still had a solid connection with her moths back in the Stadium.

Finally, just as the sun was starting to peak over the horizon we arrived. The Metroplex National Cemetery.

The Cemetery was a massive sprawling graveyard, covering roughly four square miles if memory served, sitting next to Valley Creek Lake just across from a national guard base. Unsurprisingly, this was a graveyard for military servicemen and their families. The last time I had been here it had been an immaculately tended field of plaques and headstones that had stretched as far into the rainy mist as I could see through my tears.

Now it was heavily overgrown with ivy, young trees, and shrubs for miles as the surrounding woodlands that had once cut the site off from the surrounding cities had now invaded. The iron gate was rusty and looked to have been bashed down not too long ago. The place hadn't fully gone to rot, a small corner near the gate still had short manicured grass free of ivy and growth thanks to the ravenous efforts of a score of goats with star shaped pupils and horns that seemed to be made of razor wire. Even as we watched the goats were actively reclaiming the site and scraping buried plaques free of the dirt

A particularly large goat, nearly as dark as Damian, and the size of a Hummer had just finished uprooting a tree nearly as thick around as I was, turned to glare at us. A deep shudder rippled through me as the shaggy goat looked us over with a quiet confidence that seemed to bore past my armored exterior and into my soul. He turned away from the toppled tree and approached us with calm confident steps, each one seeming to plant a flag, declaring this entire area as its realm. Several of the alpha goat's herd paused in their grazing to watch the interaction with a sort of vicious eagerness.

"Welcome to the Metroplex National Cemetery, how can I direct you today sirs, madam?" The man asked with an oddly soft and respectful voice.

"I'm here to see my granny's grave," I admitted shyly, "You don't mind if I try and find it do you?"

"Not at all." The goat nodded with a small smile, stepping aside, "Do try to be careful though, while the 'boss' in the area is dead, other beasts have been trying to sneak inside the graveyard. If you can remove them if you happen upon them I will be grateful for the assistance." he nodded to me as he looked up to where Matilda rested atop my hat, "And you?"

"I suppose I'm far past due to visit Leon," she fluttered down to the ground and idly nibbled on her scarf a bit, "I do hope he isn't too upset about my appearance."

"I'm sure he'll understand mam," the goat said with a gentle smile before turning to look at what I thought was empty air, "And you sir?"

Damian jumped in surprise and seemed to fret a bit before quietly mumbling, "I'll, just uhm, wait here for them to finish."

"If you insist," the goat man shrugged, "I would not mind a bit of help cleaning up."

"No no, I'll just, wait, over there." Damian shuffled off to stand just outside the gate looking seriously spooked.

"Thank you for trying to restore this place," I nodded to the goat, "It means a lot to see someone working to see that they aren't forgotten."

"My last assignment was to maintain the area and watch over the dead sir," the goat said with an amused chuckle, "Until I receive orders to the contrary I will do my best to see them through. Might take a while seeing as my commanding officer is a few states away."

I nodded and started slithering along the still half visible roadways leading deeper into the massive overgrown field that I knew to be full of buried grave stones. I knew roughly where her grave was, but a lot of that was based on landmarks that were no longer present. So once I reached the right turn in the road ways I tried heading to the area I remembered her grave being, scraping away the top layer of dirt to try to find the markers beneath. My first several tries ended up with me uncovering the wrong graves, which I whispered a soft apology to before trying the next stone over in an outwards spiral. After roughly ten minutes of such careful searching did I finally find her.

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Reverently cleaning off the buried marker with the only thing I knew was soft enough not to damage the embossed granite, my tongue. Thankfully the rich dark soil didn't taste or smell terribly, though the slight gritty sensation in my mouth was annoying. Before talking to the remarkably well preserved stone I did the same to the grave next to her. She had loved Pepaw deeply, I knew, even if he had died when I was too young to remember much about the man aside from a few lessons and how loud he was. When both stones were as clean as I could get them I settled myself as best I could while not laying on any of the other headstones, a difficult task seeing as the rows were laid out to accommodate humans and not giant snake monsters.

I sat there looking at the two embossed granite plaques fidgeting nervously as I tried to find the words to say. What did I even want to say? This was stupid. I knew their spirits weren't here. Or so I hoped. They were too good to be reduced to ghosts lingering confusedly in the world. They both deserved to be in heaven with their families before us. Yet maybe they'd still hear even if they weren't here. I admittedly wasn't the most well informed on the metaphysics of the spiritual world despite my brief encounters with it. Still it couldn't hurt to say something?

"H-hey Granny." I choked out softly. It felt like someone was throttling me as I tried to speak. I took a deep fortifying breath as I forced myself to continue even. It felt like a dozen fish hooks were dragging at my flesh, forcing me to struggle to get the words out. "I-it's me, Joe. Your grandson. I, I don't know if you recognize me, y-you didn't last time we spoke, an-and I know I look more than a little different now." I paused to choke down a sob and steel myself as a deep agony tore at me making it all the harder to continue. "I know you don't like snakes, I hope y-. I hope you won't hold that against me. I didn't get a choice in the matter."

"I've been trying to live a life you'd have been proud of. I... I haven't been doing a good job of it. I've been doing a down right terrible job of it until recently. It's been so hard I've been d-... I've been making a lot of excuses." I chuckled weakly, "Maybe that's why I got turned into a snake. Lying to myself, living in sin. Being something you'd hate. I don't know. . . I've been doing better since. Actually helping people. Actually bothering to remember all the things you taught me. Those old prayers have been helping me, but, it's still so hard. I, I keep trying to live by His teachings, but I feel like I'm doing it wrong.

"I'm so scared granny. I'm so terrified that I'm doing everything wrong and making things worse. I. I nearly died yesterday and was so scared that everything I've done would end up sending me to hell. T-that I'd never get to see you again. T-to give you a big ol' hug and tell you how much I love you again. I already missed that opportunity before you d-, passed because I had work! As if that mattered in case you woke up again, and then you did and I-" I stopped as a massive sob rocked my body. I bit down on my own tail to make up for not having fist to clench or tears to cry with this stupid awful cursed snake body that I had no doubt earned!

"So," I took a few more breaths to try and let myself calm down a bit, "So I wanted to make sure I actually came to say goodbye to you this time. I'm going to be making a bit of a trip. It's probably going to be dangerous and I might not make it back. But. I, I need to check up on Mom and Dad. Jessica and Daniel if they made it. E-." I scowled and took a deep breath, "Even Edward if he can pull his head out of his own a-erm, butt. I'm not going to abandon family again just because it's inconvenient, or I-I'm too busy again. I'd check on Ray, Nancey, Meredith and all the others too, but I don't know where they live. I... I guess I wasn't the best cousin or nephew.

"I guess... if I don't make it. I'd like it if you can try to convince St. Peter that I'm worth letting in. I, I hope it won't come to that. If, if I do die. I hope I make it up to heaven on my own merits and that, that you'll be able to honestly tell me how proud you are of me." I bent down to softly tap the headstone with my nose in as close to a kiss as I could come. "Goodbye Granny, please watch over me." I turned to the headstone next to hers. "Goodbye Pepaw. I'll keep doing my best to be a proper man in these hard times. I, I hope you're proud of me too, and sorry for never getting to know you."

Turning away from the stones and slithering back to the road, I headed for the entrance. I could clearly see Damian helping the goat's work as he helped de-limb the toppled tree to make it easier to move. Matilda watched the pair work from the gate and nodded to me, making no comment about how rough I no doubt looked as she fluttered across the field to resume her perch atop my hat, "Did you take care of what you needed?"

“I think I did.” I softly sighed.

"Heading out already?" the goat asked, dropping the branch as big around as a human leg he'd just casually ripped off the tree, "You three are more than welcome to rest her if you need it. I'd be happy for any help you're willing to offer, and I don't doubt the Guardsmen across the pond would be happy to meet you."

"Nope, nope! We got to get going right Joe?" Damian insisted with a deep pleasing in his black buggy eyes.

"Indeed we do," I chuckled, lowering myself to let Damian settle into his preferred perch atop my backpack, "We've got a long road ahead of us and should really get to walking it."

I looked out over the lake just outside the graveyard, at the rising sun now peaking over the tree line causing the lake to shimmer and sparkle beautifully even to my monochrome vision as both people and animals begin to stir in the various buildings. An almost stork sounding call echoed across the gentle quiet of the lake, free of the constant noise of traffic that usually filled the city even in the dead of night before the Event. It looked to be the start of a wonderful day.

End Book 1

Snake in the Garden: Three Days Grace