Blood Soaked Sheets

Chapter 10 Missing Kid

Jon and Mike were walking back down the street from which they came not realizing that Josh and Lilac were probably closer to finding them.

"No offence man but your mom is yella belly." Mike said.

"What the hell is a yella belly?" He asked.

"What, you lived in Iowa and you don't know what yella belly means?" Jon rolled his eyes and kept walking dragging his aching feet on the gravel. "A yella belly is someone who ain't too tough, someone who gets scared easily, for instance your mama." He said trailing behind slowly squinting his eyes at the blazing sun.

"My mom is not a yella belly, she was just frightened and thought that is she ran she was saving Adria, that's all." He said turning to face Mike.

"Whatever, my pa always said that is you run from a fight you a yella belly."

"Listen my mom is anything but a yella belly, she worked two jobs and came home to a drunk, abusive husband and stoned daughter, so you can shut your trap." Jon said pointing a finger to the large man.

"She still a yella belly, ya know I bet she's dead, along with that baby of yours." Mike said walking passed Jon shoulder checking him. Jon was seething with rage, this man had no business calling his mother a "yella belly" and adding on that his daughter could be dead.

"Hey! Listen my daughter aint dead and neither is my mother so you can just shut your trap. I'm sorry your parents may be dead but you don't have to be an ass about it." Jon said speed walking up to Mike.

"You aint got any reason to talk about ma and pa." Mike said jerking his head to the side.

"Well then you aint got any reason to talk about my mother and kid." Jon replied. Mike was silent and still as Jon passed him. Jon and MIke didn't even think of talking to each other for the rest of the search, they didn't even so much as breath towards each other, it was really awkward.

Back at the car Dan sat and waited, hitting whatever he could reach, Dan was the middle kid so it was normal for him to be left alone. Growing up Mike would work and Josh would be with friends while Dan just sat home while his parents were stationed somewhere overseas. When the sun began to go down he began to worry, thoughts raced through his head along with images of his brothers and newly made friends dismembered with pieces of rib cage and organs flung to the side along with a half eaten face. Their bodies lying leisurely in a pool of blood relaxing like everything was normal. He imagined the screams of of Lilac and Adria, the loud cursing of the men as the biters grab the flesh and rip it from the bone. Soon Dan got so frightened that he jumped in the car and drove to the neighborhood that they had intended to go to. When he got to the house he got a feeling guilt and fought the urge to go back out into the cold night on a lone road where his life could end. The house he was in looked as if it belonged to a rather wealthy family, the front door when opened led you to a large corridor with one staircase leading to the second floor, the ceiling was tall and held a large chandelier that swung when Dan entered the home. The floor was a dark brown that complimented the wall paper beautifly. The wooden banister wrapped around the outside of the stairs but some spindles had been broken and and fell to the floor and shattered into wood pieces and chips. Rooms were blocked off with pool queues and chairs, as Dan walked around he thought more about finding his brothers dead and having have to put them down if they were biters. As he glided his fingers on the broken and splintery wood of the banister his feet went one by one up the carpeted stairs, on the stairs sat a small landing halfway from the top and bottom. Dan set his hatchet and bag on the landing and went to the closest room from the stairs, he ripped a blanket of a bed and grabbed a pillow then walked back to the landing. He thought that if he slept here tonight and woke up early ha could make it back to the road before anyone got back.

Lilac and Josh followed the path of broken twigs and grass indentions. "Do ya think we'll find 'em miss. Lilac?" Josh said dragging his half metal pole vault on the ground.

"I don't know Josh, we just have to keep looking; I don't think a fifty year old could run this far with a baby, or even walk this far without complaining some." Lilac said shrugging her shoulders.

"My mama always said that if aint nothin workin for ya just pray to the good lord Jesus Christ." He said putting his palms together while looking at the night sky. Lilac lost belief in any religion if all that's going to happen is death and roam, but Josh was so nice and caring; she didn't have the heart to tell him about how God is just a thing old people made up so they aren't so scared of death.

"Okay, you lead the prayer." she said taking his hand in hers.

"Dear lord up above, how are ya? Well you see little ol' Adria and Diane are out in the woods and we need your help to keep them safe till we find 'em." He said squeezing Lilacs hand. "Okay that's about it, tell ma and pa I say hi and that I love 'em, Amen." He said while releasing her hands. Lilac looked up and smiled at him,

"Thank you for those kind words." She said.

"Why you are quite welcome Ma'am." He said gladly.

"Did you pray a lot?" She asked.

"Yessum ma'am, I prayed every day at dawn and every night when the sun hid behind the land."

"What did you pray for?"

"My ma and pa of course, they were overseas and fighting. I was lucky if I even got a letter from them before I send my letters first." He said. Lilac nodded and kept walking, for the rest of the search they were quiet so that they might hear some cries or yells. Suddenly Lilac was startled by a small chirp which may not scare most people, but when it's so quiet that you can hear the person's breath beside you it would startle you too.