Once Bitten: Twice Mad

Chapter Four

Chapter Four: A flesh eating husband or a colored man savior?

Silas was whistling a tune as he rode his mule down the winding mountain trail. It was dawn and the rain had finally stopped though his mule's hooves were sloshing and squishing in the thick mud. Silas had never wanted the daylight to come as badly as he wanted it to come right now. He wasn't whistling the tune because he felt lighthearted or happy, no he was whistling the tune just to hear something other than the quiet...

Honestly he had no real idea of where he was at the moment. He had been wandering for days, searching... hoping. Born the son of a slave and, having been one himself until just before his tenth birthday, Silas had seen some terrifying and horrific things in his life and yet none of that had even compared to the horror and sickness currently sweeping across the country.

They were called 'rabid', he had learned that when he'd stopped in Crockett Tenessee and met up with a man who seemed to know a thing or two. He'd come from the east and said the sickness had started there. Some sort of medicine had been given to the folks that way and instead of making them better, it had turned them into flesh eating monsters. And they spread their sickness by biting folks who hadn't taken the medicine.

Folks like Silas's brother Samuel whom Silas had been forced to kill. That had been the hardest day of his life so far but Silas had a sinking feeling that times were going to get harder. A lot harder. Five days had passed since Silas had killed his brother, three days since he had spoken to that old man in Crockett and Silas was losing hope that there was anyone else left. It was a scary feeling, an oppressive feeling, this loneliness. The knowledge of being alone pushed down on a man from all sides making him feel desperate.

Sure most folks were probably hiding, too scared to come out especially just to speak to a colored man whom the white folks around here tended not to trust anyhow. But Silas had a sinking suspicion that the reason he wasn't finding anyone was because they were all those monsters and they were wandering the woods, roads and town and looking for the same thing he was: survivors.

He just wanted to find one piece of land untouched by this madness.

His mule let out a frightened snort and Silas tightened his hold on the reins in his hand when he saw the barn come into view at the edge of the rolling fields on the left of him. Silas pulled his double barrel shotgun as he rode closer to the barn and called out. There was no response and while he'd been hoping to hear a survivor reply, it was better to hear nothing than to hear 'Gnaa!'.

Silas rode on further, hoping that perhaps the family that had lived here was perfectly fine and simply up at the main house.

Any hope of that left quickly when he rode through the open wooden gate and saw the jerking man clawing at the walls of what appeared to be a servant's quarters beside the large grand house.

"Gnaa!" The man called out as he turned and started toward Silas. Silas could still make out several tufts of white hair on the man's blood and sore covered head. He was wearing a blood covered nightdress and robe and half of his throat was missing.

"Lord be with us all...." Silas gasped and he pulled the trigger of his ten gauge causing the man's head to practically explode at such close range and the 'rabid' fell to the ground. Silas slid from his horse, deciding that he'd check around the house. Even if he couldn't find any living folks, there may be some supplies that would be useful. He was running low on food.

Silas reloaded the spent shot in his gun from the bandolier around his chest and then began to walk slowly toward the house. It was then that he heard a mewling cry from inside the servant's quarters.