It's only a day before Halloween, but I'm guessing some of you are still thinking of ways to occupy your time for that all-hallows evening. And if that's the case, and you're looking for something a little on the gruesome side (and who isn't?), why not follow the example of a man who, hands down, wins the award for
MOST GRUESOME ACT EVER.
Yes, I can guess what you're thinking: This is too creepy, even for Halloween. Crosses the line. Comicsfan has turned a dark corner somewhere and probably should be medevaced to Bellevue, yesterday.
So what is it with this guy? Well, as unsettling as it is to be on a first-name basis with someone who's getting comfy with a corpse, his name is Chernak--and not only is Chernak disturbingly happy about what he's doing, but very quickly it becomes apparent that he's got something else in mind than what we're assuming at first glance.
Our friend Chernak is a prisoner in a communist camp in 1954, a camp that has daily fatalities given the impoverished and brutal conditions enforced by its commandant, Koslo. What Chernak's fellow prisoners aren't aware of is that he's cooperating with Koslo, specifically to uncover the means by which so many miraculous escapes by the prisoners are being accomplished.
With Koslo and Chernak arranging for the latter to be treated as poorly as any other prisoner in full view of the entire camp, it isn't long before Chernak gets his wish and is taken into the confidence of those who are coordinating the escapes. And at last, Chernak learns the grisly irony of how the prisoners are vanishing without a trace--all due to the merciless treatment by Koslo and his men that results in the dead bodies which now serve a purpose for those desperate for freedom.
As for their contact, Tullski, the "vegetable man" working with the underground, Chernak discovers he's closer than he realized.
With Chernak now aware of the entire operation, he spills all to Koslo, after which the two conspire to spring a trap on the entire underground. (Ha ha, get it? "Under ground"?)
And so, with no one the wiser, we come full circle, as Chernak crawls in with one of those beaten to death and scheduled for burial in what is no doubt turning into a mass graveyard of poor souls. It looks like Koslo and Chernak have covered all the bases here: Both are on the same page... Koslo himself will be on hand to free Chernak from his temporary "resting place" six feet under... no prisoners will be present in the graveyard to alert the underground on the spy in their midst... and the camp's labor shortage that occurred as a result of this escape plan will be resolved.
WHAT COULD GO WRONG?
Your thoughts ring out like a bell (or most likely a shriek), and I couldn't agree with you more: What kind of fool who does something like this passes the time by unwrapping the corpse next to him in order to find out their identity?
But as if Chernak doesn't have enough to worry about (but not for long, heh heh), there's one other thought that occurs to him which, you'll pardon the expression, serves as the last nail in this coffin's lid.
BONUS!
This story's awesome cover by artist Harry Anderson.
5 comments:
I saw this story on television a million years ago. I believe it was an episode of Boris Karloff's Thriller. I never forgot it.
I really enjoyed this story! Horrible people meeting horrible ends is always a fun theme!
That cover is AMAZING!
I'll have to look that one up, Rick! And yes, John, the cover is an eye-catcher for sure.
I heard it as a horror story that took place in a prison. So that's where that came from.
Yep, John, ghost stories and horror stories are often pretty moralistic.
If you're the least bit bad yer gonna get it.
Or, if you just make a bad mistake, like picking up a hitch-hiker on the same night a big guy with a hook for a hand has escaped the local insane asylum.
And don't read the Necromicon aloud if you find it in a cabin in the woods!
Do neither of these and Happy Halloween all!
M.P. (double-checking the locks on the door)
I hadn't read this particular story before but read a very similar story in one of Marvel's horror reprint mags of the mid-70s. The setting was changed to an American prison but otherwise the basic set up and outcome were identical. I'd guess the story I read was published several years after this version but maybe not. The one I read was straight horror without any Cold War allusions as with this one, so it's possible the that was the earlier one, recycled to add anti-Commie elements.
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