Once Bitten: Twice Mad

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen: There Ain't Really Much of a Comparison

April 1887

Colt shook his head as he watched the man leave the barn of the house that he and Katherine were taking shelter in. He knew damn well what that man had been in there doing and when he saw Katherine step out of the barn moments later, adjusting her blue skirt it only confirmed his suspicions.

Once a whore, always a whore apparently.

Two weeks they'd been riding together. Colt had yet to speak to her and she seemed to have given up speaking to him. They would travel by day and hole up at night. Always moving. Always running. Always just looking for more food, ammunition and living souls.

They had found this house two days ago and had decided to stay here longer than just one night.... Well Katherine had decided. Colt had been thrown by his spooked horse when they'd been under attack by a pair of rabid. He'd damn near been bitten before Katherine had shot the rabid in the head. All should have been just fine after that except that Colt's ankle had gotten messed up pretty bad when he'd fallen.

When they had come up on this empty house, Katherine had insisted that they stay here and let him rest his ankle for a few days. Colt had grudgingly agreed, both because his ankle had hurt like hell but also because he could tell how tired the woman was.

Then this man, J.B., had shown up the day before and while Colt didn't much care for him, Katherine obviously liked him quite a bit.

"Hey there, Colt." J.B. called when he saw Colt standing on the porch of the house. Colt tipped his head in greeting and then looked at Katherine as she walked past him toward the door, stubbornly avoiding meeting his gaze. Colt could see the straw stuck in her hair and it made him mad.

He wasn't sure why... He had no interest in Katherine himself but he didn't want this man having her either. He didn't trust this man and like it or not he was fond of Katherine and felt responsible for her.

"Why don't you talk, Colt? Are ya a fucking retard or somethin'?" J.B. asked.

Colt hadn't uttered a word since his wife and daughter had died, taken from him by those monsters. It had been a long time since then. A month.. though it seemed more like a lifetime. Strange how a month with his family would have flown by in the blink of an eye but a month of life in this new world of survival without them had crawled... each day a fight and each night sleeping with one eye open and just praying to see the sunrise.

He still missed his Sarah and his Loralie more than he had ever missed anything in his life but he knew he had to move on without them. Life had to go on.... Sarah would not have wanted him to curl up and say quit and Loralie would be watching him from up in heaven, (an innocent beautiful angel like her was sure to be there), and he wanted her to be proud of her daddy.

His vow of silence could end.

"No, I ain't no fucking retard and you'd do well to mind your tongue, stranger. There ain't no call for bad language like that."

J.B.'s eyes widened in surprise and then he chuckled and ran his hand over the mustache on his upper lip.

"Is that right? By God the bastard speaks and turns out he's a know it all little prick."

Colt pulled off his hat and wiped his arm across his sweat slicked forehead. He's spent the morning chopping wood and the weather was getting warmer even here in this mountains.

"I don't know it all, J.B.," Colt countered as he put his hat back on his head and glanced up at the sun, squinting in the glare. His thumbs slid through the loops on his stained and worn out denims as he shrugged. "But I know a good for nothing, cocky, little boy when I see one."