Blood Soaked Sheets

Chapter 8 George

The group of brothers sat around the table joining Jon, Lilac, Adria, and Diane for dinner. George like always was being stubborn and decided to eat dinner on the widow's walk in the cold dark Des Moines air. "So Mike, did you live in Iowa when the outbreak started, or were you just visiting?" Diane said placing the meal on the table, making the room smell of pees and rabbit.

"Well we lived here when we were young but then we moved to carolina, but as a birthday surprise for my baby brother Josh we came home to visit ma and pa." Mike said as he noogied his baby brother.

"Oh that's so sweet, do they live around here?" Lilac said pushing baby food into Adriana's mouth.

"Well kinda" he said scratching his head "They live in the veterans park." He said.

"Well that's silly, that's a cemetery, why wou-" Diane stopped realizing that the brothers were staring down at their hands. "Oh my, I'm so sorry." She said placing a hand on Dan's shoulder. He looked up and smiled warmly at Diane,

"Thank you." He said. They all finished their meal and resigned to the living room where they sat and played with Adria.

"So Mike, did you have any kids?" Lilac asked.

"No, my girlfriend didn't want kids, I love kids." Mike said picking Adria up and making silly faces. Adria tugged at the beards of her new friends and drooled all over their legs.

George was still outside smoking a cig after cig, he would look through the window once in awhile but only to glare and shake his head disapprovingly. With every cig that fell from his fingers the more thirsty he got, his mouth full of smoke and the taste of burnt rabbit remained there no matter how much he would spit. So he opened his old cooler next to his chair and grabbed a beer, it was warm but it did the trick to get rid of the flavours that were in his mouth. When he finished the beer he would light up another cig and smoke it till when he dragged on it he could feel burning in between his fingers. He would then drop the cig and place his shoe over it, when he did that he would open up another beer. He did this routine until he was out of cigs, which by this time he was well drunk and very disoriented. He walked down the steps from the back porch into the yard, stepping over old branches and a garden hose. He tripped over his feet and stumbled through the bushes that lead to the front yard and kept fumbling to the road. But what this old drunk didn't realize was that he was not alone. The cold air surrounded him as he stumbled through the street. The dim streetlights illuminated the sidewalk with a pale white light, putting one foot after the other he could feel the energy of the biter coming slowly behind him. He knew that it was going to get him, and he welcomed the bitter sweet greeting of death. He then stopped walking and closed his eyes, his body swaying in the wind and teeth chattering from the cold. He felt a warm breath fall down his neck, then the feeling of a tongue and rotting teeth dig into his neck. He screamed in pain and fell to the floor pulling the biter down with him. Jon and the three brothers ran outside to see what the noise was and noticed that George was on the floor kicking his feet and pounding his fist on the road. Mike pulled his pistol in the air and fired, the bitter fell over on his back pulling the skin from George's neck with. The wound in his throat was a substantial size, blood spurted from the revealed veins and his cough was to bloody. Diane and Jon ran over to him, Jon placing his hand on the wound.

"We can save him." Jon said.

"No, the bite is too large, he's losing blood fast." Diane said.

"But we have to try, please mom, we have to." Jon placed his forehead on the chest of his father and cried. He placed more pressure on his neck until he realized that he was choking him. Jon took his dad's face in his hands and whispered, "It's all going to be okay." But George knew it wasn't, he knew he was going to die. Jon placed his ear to George's heart and noticed that there was no beat, there was no movement in his chest. Jon sat up and noticed that his father's eye's were closed and his once clenched fist's were now two lifeles hands open on the pavement. Jon let go of his father's wound and turned to his mother whom welcomed him for a huge, but Jon denied the offer, for this was not a sad moment. His father is dead and that is that, his father was free. Mike went to Lilac's room where he found her cuddling a giggly Adria.

"Hey, everything is all settled outside." He said poking his hairy face in the doorway.

"I know." She said.

"You can come out of the room now." Lilac was silent as she rocked back and forth on the bed. "Lilac y-"

"I heard you, thank's." Lilac snapped. Mike knew that at this moment he should put the stick down and leave the momma bear to her cub. Diane and the other brothers came inside while Jon just stayed and sat next to his dad.

"You just had to get drunk, you couldn't have just sat with the family and enjoy the night but no you had to be the usual asshole you are and get drunk. This is why I left, because you were never home, you were never there for mom or me or my sister. Nothing was left for me at home, you were always at the bar, mom had two jobs and was never there, and sister was always doing drugs and going to parties. I was left alone. Now look who's alone." he said standing and kicking the body. He headed back to the dimly lit house where the only light source was the fireplace. Jon sat on the front porch watching the body lay on the ground motionless.

"Jon, come inside, it's not safe." Lilac said.

"No."

"But it's could."

"I don't care." Lilac walked back in the house and grabbed an old blanket and wrapped it around Jon. As Jon sat on the porch images of his childhood rushed through his head, images of him alone in the old living room with the fireplace crackling and shooting soot at the ground. Nights where he went to bed hungry and cold, days where his father drank one beer after another until the coffee table was full of cans and bottles. He was so lost in his thoughts he didn't realize that his father's body was slowly walking to him, his head bending back due to the support lose that his neck provided. Jon didn't want to kill this biter, not him at least. Jon got up from the porch and walked in side leaving his father roaming.