Favorite short stories:

[MiddleFingerMom]

24. From Clive Barker's "Books of Blood Vol 1", something SO outside the box (SPOILER ALERTS)

.
.
.
.
.
"In the Hills, the Cities"
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Two gay men, Mick and Judd, go on a romantic but strained vacation in Yugoslavia. In an isolated rural area,
there happens an astounding event: two entire cities, Popolac and Podujevo, create massive communal creatures
by binding together the bodies of their citizens, with almost forty thousand people walking as the body of a single
giant, as tall as a skyscraper. It's a ritual that occurs every ten years, but this time, things go wrong, and the
Podujevo giant collapses, killing thirty-eight thousand, seven hundred and sixty five citizens horribly.

They come upon the smashed bodies of Podujevo and a ravine awash with blood, but at first do not see the City
of Popolac walking behind nearby hills. Meanwhile, in shock, the entire population of Popolac goes mad, and in
losing their individual minds actually become the giant they are strapped into. Popolac wanders the hills aimlessly.
By nightfall many of the people who made up the giant die from exhaustion, but still it walks.

Mick and Judd are told the truth about the giants by a local man who tried to steal their car in order to catch up
with Popolac and reason with it before it collapses and destroys the people who compose it. But they at first do not
believe his story. They seek shelter at a remote farm, but Popolac blunders right into the farmhouse that night. Its
giant foot kills Judd by accident. The elderly farm couple, who saw Popolac, go crazy with fear. Mick, seeing Popolac,
goes insane too, but wants to join Popolac. He climbs up the tower of ropes and bodies, and is carried away as it
walks into the hills to its fate.
.
.
.