Blood Soaked Sheets

Chapter 7 New Arrival

Everything in woodward was going great, Lilac began eating again and her baby belly began to show. Jon and his father went on runs while Diane takes care of Lilac. It had been almost nine months since they first arrived and Lilac knew that the baby was coming, she was just worried that the childbirth would go wrong and one of them was not going to make it. But Diane always told Lilac that it was going to be just fine and everything was going to go perfectly. But still, Lilac knew that without proper medication or a doctor that something was going to happen. Jon was so nervous he could barely sit still,so Lilac had to send him out for random things just so his head doesn't blow up. But somehow he always found away to come back twenty minutes later with what she asked for. Then the day finally came and Lilac was left with only Diane, Jon and his dad were out on a run to find blankets and water. Luckily Diane was a vet and used to help dogs deliver, but Lilac was no dog. Her water broke when she was cooking some scraps in the kitchen, causing her to let out a loud yell and drop the pan of scraps.

Diane ran in and led her to the couch, she rushed to the hall closet and grabbed towels and a pillow. She wet one towel with cold water and placed it on Lilacs forehead, then did the same with another and put it behind her neck. With the dry towel she placed that under Lilac and put a tub of cool water on top of it. The pillow that she had went under Lilacs back. Twenty minutes went by when Jon and his father arrived, Jon was on Lilacs left, squeezing her hand and trying not to hyperventilate, while Jon's father was outside having a smoke. Seconds turned to minutes, which turned to hours, which then felt like years, until that heard the sweet sound of a baby's cry.

"It's a girl!" Diane said jumping up and down. Jon and Lilac looked at each other in a way they had never looked before, they felt more love than before, they felt passion.

"What's her name?" Diane said while handing the baby to the mother.

"Adria." she said as she pushed her short, thin brown hair back. Her eyes were big and grey just like her father, and her smile was filled with joy. Lilac could feel her little heart beat in rhythm with her own, and her small hands wrapped her finger, so soft and delicate.

"Why Adria?" Jon's father said in disgust.

"It means 'person from Hadria' and that's where my mother was from." she said smiling down at her precious baby. "Here Jon, hold your daughter." She said holding her wrapped baby up for Jon to take. His hands shook and he brought her up to his chest and his breath was heavy, he started tearing up and sniffing. He sat down on the floor next to Lilac and began to rock Adria back and forth in his arms. She was mostly quiet but when she did start to fuss Lilac would sing her an old lullaby her mother would sing to her and Jane, and soon Adria would be fast asleep making tiny noises and hiccupping. When morning came the whole family was sitting around the table eating and chatting, but Jon's father wasn't. Jon's dad just sat there eating his scraps from last night and every once in awhile he would raise an eyebrow when Adria made any noise. Then when Adria started to cry he got up and walked to the back yard, Jon and Lilac were both irritated that he was being so passive aggressive but Diane would always say, don't worry about him George is always antsy around baby's. Then he came back in the house with a smoke in his mouth and something trailing behind him.

"Here." he said pushing a large box into Jon's leg.

"What is it?" he said

"For christ sake just open it would ya." he said dropping the smoke to the floor and placing his boot over it. So Jon did as his father told him and ripped the top of the box open, inside was a handmade baby bed with ruffly pillows and a stuffed bunny lying to the side. Jon raised an eyebrow and pulled the bed out of the box showing it to Lilac.

"Did you make this George?" Lilac said as she pulled Adria out of her seat and walking over to the bed. George nodded and placed another smoke in his mouth. Lilac placed Adria in the bed and started rocking it back and forth, Diane rubbed George's back and mouthed to him, thank you. Adria held to the bunny and played with it's ears, putting the fuzzy ends in her mouth. Jon looked at his father and noticed he was crying. He hadn't had a baby girl in the house for along time, and this was the closest thing to his daughter, Adria looked just like his departed daughter. Lilac walked over to George and gave him a hug, thanking him for everything he has done. But all George said was, "No, thank you."

As the day went on the family heard a cluster of gunshots and screams that seemed to get closer by the hour. Lilac was pacing around the room checking the window, then Adria. Jon and George went to the look out point on the widow's walk to see how far the shots were. And Diane was driving to the nearby Hy-Vee to try to find some supplies. It was just a normal day in this new world. As Jon and his father sat and watched for anything they noticed smoke coming from behind some trees, something was burning. They went back inside to tell Lilac that they were going to leave, and to tell her that she should stay safe, but Lilacs anxiety went through the roof that was currently caving in. As Jon led the way to the smoke George was having a hard time catching his breath, Jon knew his dad was old and that he should have stayed at home, but like Diane said, he gets antsy around babies.

"Are we almost there?" George said breathily.

"Yeah, just another half mile dad."

"Son, can we just get a car?"

"No, we can't let whatever is at the smoke know we are coming." he said

"But Jon, I'm tired." he whinde.

"No!" They kept walking and turned the corner of the street to be met with a groups of men standing around a car hood that was smoking. "Hey." Jon said walking hastily to the group.

"Hey man, could you help us?" One of them said.

"Um, yeah sure." Jon said walking over to the car, they stood there talking and adjusting parts of the car, and one of them even hit the car with a mallet.

"Hey man it's getting late, could we just kick it at your place for the night?" One of them asked.

"Yeah, sure." They walked back to the house and that entire time Jon would get glared at by his father, whom was not happy about his new roommates. As they walked up the steps they noticed that Diane was back home and that Adria was crying.

"You got a baby in there?" Someone said from the back.
"Yeah, it's my daughter." Jon said opening the door. The group just made weird looks at each other until some guy said,

"Congrats man." The group of men walked into the house all bunched up together and just eyed Lilac and Adria.

"Jon, who are they?" Lilac said while rocking Adria in her arms.

"Hello, my name is Mike, and on my left is my brother Dan, and to my right it Josh. What a lovely baby." he said stepping forward in a soft tone.

"Well hi, I'm Lilac and this is my daughter Adria. You already know Jon and George, but this is Diane. Lilac said as she placed the baby into the crib. Diane waved awkwardly sticking close to Jon and George as they pass the men to get to the couch.