Flesh Eaters

House of the Dead

Chapter 10 - House of the Dead

*Murphy's POV*

"What's the blood from?" She asks me.

My eyes drop to my hands which are coated with dried blood. Time seems to slow as I stare down at the dried blood. My mind drifts back to yesterday, shortly after Grey fell asleep.

I went back to the cellar I found her in. I lit one of my matches and found the cb radio with the talk button stuck in so it'd pick up everything. I unstuck the button and started to leave the cellar but somethin' stopped me. I turned around and spotted the corpse. The corpse of Clint.

A switch started to flip in me as I walked over to his limp body. I stared down at his body and one thing caught my eye, called to me. Grey's knife, tucked in his belt. I picked it up and the switch turned off. Anger boiled up inside me and filled me as I dropped to my knees next to his body.

I took the knife and stabbed it into Clint's skull. Blood splattered onto me but I didn't care. I pulled the knife out and plunged right back into his head. More blood splatted but I don't even register it. I just kept stabbin' his useless skull until it was nothing but a pile of blood, bone, and brains.

I dropped the knife and stood back up. I took a step back still not registerin' what I just did.

A sound drew my attention away from the pile of guts. Not a sound, a voice. It came through the cb radio. I ran over to it and caught the endin' of a sentence. The voice, it said words I never thought I'd here again.

"There is hope."

That's all I heard. I spent the rest of that day sitting in that cellar, just prayin' the radio would speak again.

It never did.

I left when the sun started to rise. I went back to Grey. She laid in the bed fast asleep. I sat back down in the chair I sat in earlier and just watched Grey sleep.

Soon I found myself waking up to Grey screaming. I jumped outta the chair, thinking a eater was attacking only to find her still sleeping but screaming out in fear. I walked over to her and tried to wake her but she wouldn't. I grabbed her shoulders and yelled her name.

"Murphy?" Grey asks yanking me out of the memory.

Swallowing I lie and say, "I killed a eater that was tryin' to get in."

She nods believing me.

"What was the dream 'bout," I ask although I know the answer.

"Clint. Was I really out that long?"

I nod then look at her arms which are wrapped in white bandaging. I notice a pink color starting to bleed through and say, "gotta change those."

I watch Grey look down at her arms as I pick up fresh bandaging. I still can't believe she's alive with the way she looks. Her eye is still swollen shut and the purple bruise still clearly visible. A similar bruise runs along her jaw bone. The thing about her face that startles me the most is the gash across her cheekbone. It's still open and just starting to heal.

I shake my head and start to unwrap the old bandaging from her arm. I reach the open gash on her arm and again wonder how she survived.

The skin around the wound is unnaturally warm and bright red color. Not good. Means infection is tryin' ta' set in.

"What's the matter?" she asks when she notices me studying her wound.

"Nothin'. Just gotta clean it is all," I say and head to the bathroom I found the bandages in.