Grave Benders

1947. The plague never ended. After the curfew bell, only the Sanitary Corps may walk among the dead.

You were Corps once. They let you go. You kept the mask.

Now you go back after dark with up to three friends, a shovel each and an old army ambulance. The rich went into the ground wearing their jewellery. It seems a shame to leave it there.

Five places to get caught

St. Brannoc's, a country churchyard where the crickets fall quiet around you.

Holloway Necropolis, where the port buried its money behind iron and bronze.



Gallows Hill, where a searchlight still sweeps the war graves. Nobody told it the war was over.



Quarantine Island, where the tide comes back for the low ground.



The Undercroft, a catacomb under a burnt chapel, where the dead still keep their seats.




Every stroke of the shovel carries further than you'd like. Then the blade finds the lid. THUD. Everyone stops.


The watchman hears footsteps, voices and shovels. He can see a lit head lamp from across the yard. And he keeps a cage for people like you.




St. Brannoc's used to be the quiet one. Whatever lies under it has been waiting for a shovel.




Not every grave is quiet, and nothing on the stone says which. You find out by digging.



The rich never wanted to be dug up, either. Some of them made arrangements.




Someone always writes down who went into the ground, and what went in with them. Read the list. Find the stone. Hope the moss has left you the name.






The van leaves at first light, with you or without you. The last crew left you their book of notes. It tells you what the dead do. It doesn't tell you which graves are theirs.



Wishlist Grave Benders, and bring a shovel. Keep your voice down.