Once Bitten: Twice Mad

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen: I Must Say that You Have My Attention

Rachel's Plantation

Tennessee

April 1887

Rachel swept furiously at the dirt on her porch as sweaty strands of her red hair clung to her cheeks. She shoved those strands back into her bonnet and swiped the sleeve of her white gingham dress across her brow. The world might very well be falling apart but that was no excuse for letting her house fall into disrepair. Her husband, God rest his cheating, unfaithful soul, would be horrified to see the state of this porch.

It wasn't entirely her fault. She'd been rather preoccupied with the chaos going on in the world around her peaceful little plantation. It seemed that every other person in the world other than herself had gone stark raving mad.

She had actually been forced to kill several people that had tried to come into her home and, (the thought was nearly too terrible for a proper lady such as herself to think), had tried to eat her.

Never in her life had Rachel been forced to take the life of another human but as soon as she had seen those demon possessed monsters coming at her with slobbering mouths, bleeding bodies and snapping teeth, she had known it was either she or them, and she hadn't been in any hurry to die.

She had wondered often over the last month since the sickness had first arrived at her plantation home about her family in Georgia. Was the sickness there as well? Had her sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew already fallen victim to these monsters? Or had they themselves become monsters such as the ones she had seen?

She truly hoped not. While she had not seen them in many years, she could remember how beautiful little Evangeline had been and how much of a gentle giant Ox had been turning into. Pity filled her as she thought of Joshua. The boy hadn't gone by that name in nearly twenty years. Ever since it had become clear that his body was going to continue to grow while his brain was not he'd been known as Ox. The only person that had not called him Ox was his mother. Rachel's sister had always insisted that she had given her boy a good name and that was the name she was going to use.

Rachel kept one eye on the surroundings and both ears alert for any sign of those moaning shuffling monsters. They certainly were no good at sneaking and that, at least, was something to be thankful for. That was why when she heard the sound of horse's hooves and the creaking of leather she thought for sure she was hearing things. Dear God, those monsters hadn't mastered horse riding had they?

Quickly she grabbed up the .45-70 buffalo rifle from beside the door and leaned her broom against the wall, fully prepared to shoot whoever was coming should the need arise. Up until these monsters had come Rachel had never killed a soul but now she had killed many and she would kill more in order to ensure she herself remained alive. She was nowhere near ready to die.

"Sure would be a shame if you shot me, ma'am." A man said with amusement in his raspy voice as he rode into view and Rachel was taken aback by his appearance. He was long and lean, maybe even thin though it was hard to tell with his body all wrapped in worn and stained skins the way it was. His dirty blond hair, streaked with white and gray was hanging long around his bearded face and the hat on his head was tattered with a red twine wrapped round it stuffed full of feathers.

"Who are you, sir?" Rachel demanded knowing that in desperate times such as those they lived in now monsters were easily created, and they could take any shape and form. They did not have to simply be of the moaning and flesh eating variety.

He pulled his sleepy looking gray mare to a stop and slid from the saddle before taking his hat in his leathery hands and offering her a broken toothed smile that creased his wrinkled and age spotted face. The man's pale blue eyes sparkled with a good nature that instantly had Rachel feeling more at ease.