Minerals

On his way from work one day, Rafael thought he saw on the side of the tracks a man prostrate, his head dug in the ground. The train Rafael was on, speeding by fast, had not allowed him a second look. He soon forgot about it.

The next morning on his way back to work, Rafael faced a similar occurrence. On the small patch of grass next to the street was another man. His head, too, was dug in the ground, his body laying flat on the grass. “What a strange thing,” Rafael thought, and walked up to the man. He crouched down next to him and gently pulled his head out.

“Hello, sir. Are you alright?” Rafael said. The man didn’t say anything, but looked at Rafael in almost a frightened way. “Do you need me to call someone?”

“No… That will not be necessary. Could you leave me be?”

“Are you sure?”

“Most definitely.”

“Alright. Stay safe now.”

Rafael continued on his way. He looked back some way off and noticed the man had dug his head back in. When he came back from work that day, he saw the man was gone.

Later that evening, Rafael met his friend Isaac in a bar. The two ordered beer and sat down at a booth in a dark corner.

“Strange thing happened,” Rafael began. “This morning I saw a man with his head dug in the ground. I asked him if he was alright and it seemed he wanted me to be on my way. It seemed like he was very desperate to resume this activity. He wasn’t there later.”

“I’ll say! I had a similar thing. I was at the beach the other day, and saw a woman with her head in the sand! The rest of her body was spread open, like a star. I went up to her and asked if she was okay, but she didn’t respond. Then I pulled her head out and she started yelling immediately, saying things like: ‘Dear God, dear Lord Jesus, put me back in, please, put me back in!’ It was very unsettling and I backed off. She pushed her head back in and the rest of her body seemed to relax.”

“What ever could be going on?”

“Beats me. I asked around at work but no one said anything, and I think they didn’t even believe me. Should we get another round?”

This kept puzzling Rafael in the days that followed. He kept seeing more people with their head in the ground, only once every other day at first, but then multiple times in a single day. Rafael asked around at work too, but nobody seemed to know anything about it, not even when people from the office started disappearing.

“Why are there so few people here?” he asked his manager one morning.

“Some have called in sick, but many have quit recently.”

“Quit?”

“Yes, they said there was something they had to do.”

Rafael’s suspicions about the disappearance of his coworkers came true when he saw the woman who worked the next room from him with her head dug in the ground, in a park closeby to the office. He ran up to her and yanked her head out.

“Put me back in! Put me back in, you bloody heretic! Put me back in!” Rafael was alarmed and ran off. From the window of his room at the office opened a view of the park. When he sat down and looked out he saw the woman had put her head back in.

A week later Rafael was fired, as the company closed. He asked the woman who gave him the notice about what was going on. She only said the higher ups had quit, and that there was nothing to be done. Rafael knew something really was up. More and more people who had first dug their heads in the ground went missing soon after. Rafael kept reading the news, but there was nothing about this phenomenon there.

At the bar one night, Isaac told him he had been fired as well.

“Get this, though. I heard there's something there, in the ground, you know? Why else would people keep doing this? I heard it’s really nice,” he told Rafael.

“Are you serious?”

“Well think about it! We lost our jobs, things seem to be going badly altogether, what do we have to lose? I say we should try it.”

“Count me out.”

“Now, be very careful what you say next.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you’d be stupid not to seize this opportunity. No, not stupid, you’d outright go against everything true and rational! ‘Count me out.’ Are you hearing yourself?”

He had at first thought Isaac was joking, but when he didn’t pick up calls and didn’t even answer the door, Rafael began to be worried. He spent most of his time wandering around the city trying to find him, seeing increasingly more people with their heads in the ground. Some had it in the sand, some in the grass, but others had managed to ram their heads even in the concrete. One day, Rafael finally found Isaac. His head was dug in a muddy bank, and his body was standing, held up by his forearms. Rafael ran up to him and pulled him out.

“What’s the matter with you? I’ve been looking for you all over!”

“Say, Rafael! The minerals of the earth are tasty indeed! Would you mind putting me back in? It is awfully noisy and bright here, it all hurts my head quite a bit.”

“No, I will not put you back in. Come on, let’s go.”

“Now, if you do not put me back in I will kill you. I will kill you, Rafael, eat you up!”

“What the hell is the matter with you!”

“Put me back in! Put me back in! You devil, you demonspawn you!”

Rafael slowly backed off and saw Isaac happily dig his head back in.

Things started to go off and awry from there. The number of people doing the thing grew. They all went missing afterwards. Everyone Rafael knew was gone. He spent most of his days going around the city and finding food. Most of the stores had been raided already, and Rafael was really struggling to find anything to eat. Yet, he kept going. He even managed to grow some tomatoes on his balcony.

Winter came on, and the tomatoes didn’t grow. Rafael felt the struggle was becoming unbearable. “Why struggle today”, he thought, “if tomorrow I have to struggle the same way?” After not eating for three days, the thought occurred to him. Could it really be a nice thing to do? It would definitely not hurt to try.

On a calm and freezing winter morning, Rafael left his home with a shovel. He walked around some time before finding a good, clear spot with not much snow, and began shoveling until he hit the ground. He cleared enough space to be able to lie down, and finished by making a hole big enough for his head in the dirt. Rafael took one last look at the blue sky above. He laid his body on the cold hard earth and dug his head in the hole. First the dirt burned in his eyes, but it subsided.

“This isn’t so bad, actually,” Rafael thought. “Why did I hold out for so long? It is nice and warm, and look! There are even plenty of things to eat here.” He started to eat the worms and tiny pebbles he found in the dirt.

Time went by and it was quiet all around. Before dusk two men in ill-fitting suits approached Rafael, whose head was not visible any more.

“Hah! Took him long enough,” the shorter of the two said.

“Better late than never, that’s what I always say. Shall we?” the taller one said and pulled out an axe. “Right, then!” He raised the axe high above his head, and with one fell swoop rained it down on Rafael’s neck. The body came off from the head, blood spilling on the dirt and soft snow. The tall man kicked some dirt on the head still in the ground, barely covering it.

“Say, there seems to be quite some meat on this fellow.”

“Hmh. I’m still full from the last one. All yours.”

“Yeah? Don’t mind me.”

The tall man crouched down next to the body and tore open the back of the shirt. He bit into the skin and clawed it with his long nails. Soon a quiet munching, almost a hum, could be heard, interrupted only by a crack of bone every now and then. The short man had sat down on the ground a few feet off. He was playing on a handheld console in calm concentration. “Any good?” he said.

“Excellent!” the other replied. He went on munching, the other went on playing.

Under the thin layer of dirt Rafael thought how nice it was to feed on the rich minerals of the earth. He was quite content.