A novelette, a work of fiction longer than a short story, shorter than a novella, typically between seven and seventeen thousand words: that is what Brian Hodge has written here. It turns out to be the perfect length. Less would have been inadequate, more would have been padding. It is a form I really must experiment with myself.
The Weight of the Dead is not post-apocalyptic, it is post-frazzle. Within living memory the Day the Sun Roared caused a power surge which burned out all electrics, instantly turning the Technological World into what survivors called the World Ago. Without tech or transport humankind reverted to nomadic lifestyles. A generation later they began to settle into fortified villages, like the one Melody Banks lives in. Melody is fourteen; the male of the species is being to notice her. One such, Ted Harkin, became inappropriate, causing Melody's father Grady to beat his brains out. Now Grady must pay the price.
The villagers are not barbarians. They do not have the death penalty. Instead, Grady Banks must bear the weight of his crime - literally. Harkin's corpse is fastened to him and he is banished into the woods outside the defences until such time as his burden is lifted, either by death or putrefaction. Obviously Melody can go out and visit, take her father food and necessary supplies, but she cannot take anything that might free him of Ted's corpse.
The woods are not entirely safe. Myths and rumours have already evolved about the people who wander out there and what they might have become...
A really skilful, beautifully written and controlled, example of short weird fiction.
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