Chapter Thirteen: I Don't Trust Them

April 1887

Evangeline watched her brother pacing the tiny interior of the cabin. He'd been doing so for an hour as he mumbled quietly to himself. Evangeline had tried to follow his words for a short while but had quickly given up. When Ox got caught up in one of these spells there was no following him and there was no calming him. It was how he dealt with things.

Pacing and mumbling.

They had been hidden in this cabin for days and days. Their food had run out. They had no weapons other than the unloaded rifle and a stick that Ox had crafted into a spear.

"We gotta get out of here, Evie." Ox stated simply as his pacing ceased and he looked at her for the first time in over an hour.

"Yes, Ox, we do." Evangeline agreed. "Is the horse still outside."

Ox nodded. "Yeah but it's hungry. There was a bit of oats in those saddlebags but not much else."

"Yeah well we are getting awfully hungry ourselves." Evangeline reminded him and as if in agreement, Ox's stomach rumbled.

"Shit, Evie, I just don't know which way we should go. Can't go home cuz them things were crawling everywhere and they were crawling all over town too!"

"I wonder if they are everywhere." Evangeline stated quietly and the siblings shared a look of horror.

"Reckon we could go to Aunt Rachel's?"

"Up in Tennessee?" Evangeline asked, scrunching up her forehead in a way that would have had her mother smacking her hand sharply and letting her know she'd get wrinkles. Thinking of her mother caused a sharp pang of pain to hit her heart so Evangeline forced the thoughts from her mind.

"Yeah!" OX said his voice becoming more animated. "Maybe there won't be none of those monsters there."

Evangeline had her doubts though she didn't voice them to her brother. She couldn't voice them. It was too horrible to imagine that this sickness was everywhere. To imagine that everyone in the world other than she and Ox were those flesh eating monsters.

"Ox we have to go to town before we can head that way." Evangeline warned. "That horse will not be able to carry both of us for very long and we are going to need better weapons." She glanced down at her stained nightdress and robe. She had worked hard to scrub the blood out of them but the faintest trace of that horrid substance still lingered. Her mother's blood.

"We can't go back to that town, Evie... Please...." Ox croaked and Evangeline saw the pain enter his green eyes.

"Is there another town close by?" Evageline offered, hating the sheltered life she'd lived in that plantation house and how it made her ignorant to the rest of the world.

Ox seemed to think hard for a moment and then he nodded enthusiastically. "Yep. Probably a day that way.' He pointed toward the corner of the cabin and Evangeline sighed.

"That's where we need to go then... With any luck we'll get there and things will be just the same as they have always been and this horrible nightmare will not have spread."

***

Ox knew his sister's hopes had been useless the moment they rode toward town and he saw the moaning, shuffling monsters wandering around the streets.

He heard Evangeline's gasp and followed her gaze to see a group of those monsters ripping apart the body of a woman who didn't appear to have been dead for very long.

"Close your eyes, Evie." Ox warned, knowing that his pa would want him to shield Evangeline from as much as he could.

"I will be okay, Ox." Evangeline assured him as she sat behind him in the saddle and kept her arms tight around his waist. "I refuse to close my eyes and let one of those monsters sneak up on you."

"Gnaaaa!" as if on cue a long moan sounded to their right. Ox turned his head to see the woman stumbling toward them. She was one of them. A monster. Her jaw was crushed as if someone had tried to end her life. They had clearly failed. Ox would not.

He pulled the rifle, let his horses reins drop for a moment and gripped the barrel tight. As soon as the snarling monster was close enough, Ox swung the gun and the stock caught the side of the monster's head, crushing her skull and sending her crumpling to the ground.

"Ox, there's another one." Evangeline warned as a monster, this one a man, came toward them with gnashing teeth. Evangeline realized that Ox was having trouble maneuvering the rifle and controlling the horse so she raised the spear her brother had crafted and hit the monster in the eye, sinking it deep into the creatures brain before yanking it back out.

The monster slumped to the ground as Evangeline shivered and swallowed vomit. She hated this!

"Shit, I'm sorry, Evie. I'm supposed to be takin' care of you. Pa wouldn't want you havin' to kill these things."

"Pa isn't here, Ox. We have to do what we have to do in order to survive. I refuse to allow one of these monsters to kill me when I am perfectly capable of killing it first."

"Just the same, I'm gonna get you somewhere safe. I swear it." Ox promised and he meant it. Even if he had to take her plumb across that big ocean to England he was going to get his sister somewhere safe. He wouldn't lose his sister to these monsters. She was all Ox had left.

"Ox, look! Those are people!" Evangeline exclaimed. Ox followed her pointing finger and saw the group of people atop an old saloon. They were waving for Ox and Evangeline. The people slipped from view as Ox quickly led the horse toward the building and an old man opened a wide back door while another man stood guard with a gun to stop any of the monsters that might try to come in.

"Bring that horse in here, son. If you don't them critters would be glad to eat her." The old man warned.

Ox led the horse into the saloon and couldn't help but laugh when he saw the horses already hitched to the bar. He sure hadn't never seen anything like that before! All the downstairs windows and doors, (other than the back one they had ridden in through) were boarded up tight and Kerosene lamps lit up the dusty gloom inside the saloon.

"Who might you two be?" The old man who had opened the door for them asked as Ox jumped to the ground and then helped Evangeline down as well. "Damn you're a big'un!" the man exclaimed as he looked up at Ox's face a good foot and a half above his own.

"Yessir." Ox replied with a respectful tip of his head. His mama had always told him to respect those older than himself. "My name's Ox and this is my sister, Evangeline."

"Ox, huh?" the other man asked as he walked over with a rifle cradled in his arms. "Is that cuz you're so damn big?"

"Naw, it's cuz I'm dumb like an old Ox. Everybody thought it was funny and I reckon it stuck."

"Ox, you should not say things like that!" Evangeline scolded him as she crossed her arms over her robe and nightdress. Ox lowered his head, his shoulders slumping a little.

"Sorry, Evie. It's just the truth. Pa always said...."

"Yes well pa is dead, Ox. I do not truly think that what he always said really matters now."

Ox was shocked to hear his sister speak that way though he knew he shouldn't be. Evangeline had never much cared for their pa. He had always been a bit distant with her and too busy to spend much time getting to know her. He always only worried about marrying her off to some wealthy man from an important family and never took the time to realize that Evangeline wanted more.

"Only good that might come from all this madness is that who we were yesterday don't rightly matter anymore." The old man said with a nod as he glanced between the brother and sister. "Hell, I was a wanted man. I robbed banks for a living... Guess those rich folks ain't so worried about their money now that they're too busy getting turned in to monster shit."

"Yeah and I was a lawman over in Virginia but law and order are damn hard to maintain when people are being eaten by other people and going crazy."

"I had to kill my pa." Ox admitted sadly and he saw the two men share a strange look and then the older man nodded with sympathy.

"It's rough on everybody."

Ox simply nodded and then Evangeline cleared her throat.

"Would it be possible for my brother and I to get a meal since we haven't eaten in over a day and possibly get some supplies from town before we continue on our way?"

"And just where are you going?" the ex-lawman asked as he stepped forward, his dark eyes traveling up and down Evangeline's body.

"We're heading to Tennessee." Ox replied, not noticing the way the man was looking at his sister. Ox was too busy looking up at the balcony where a woman wearing only a corset and skirt was leaning over the rail and watching him. Her full breasts all but spilling out and her lips painted and curved into a smile.

"What's in Tennessee?" The old man asked.

"Our.... Our aunt Rachel." Ox mumbled as the woman waved at him and he tossed his hand up in response. There had always only been one thing that Ox was truly good at and that was bedding women. And the women in the town he'd grown up in had known that. Though as soon as the bedding was done the women took off running or forced him out and they had made it clear to him to keep his mouth closed about who he bedded. The women, even the whores, hadn't wanted anyone to know that they'd actually laid with 'that big dumb Ox'. Which was fine with Ox. He didn't see the bad in it since that had simply always been the way it was.

Ox knew when a woman was wanting to lay with him and it was clear that this one did.

"Well good luck with that." The ex-lawman stated. "We heard tell that Tennessee is even worse off than we are. Chances are your auntie will probably bite your face off when you show up at her door."

Ox frowned as his heart broke a little. He didn't know much about his aunt Rachel but the thought of her being one of those monsters made him sad. He didn't' want to see anyone else that he cared about turned into one of those things! He felt Evangeline's hand on his arm.

"I'm sure our aunt is fine." She stated pointedly. The ex-lawman shrugged and took a step back.

"I'm just trying to let you all know what you'll more than likely find. This damn world has turned upside down. These critters have been running around here for nearly two months now, eating every living thing they can get their teeth on and if you are lucky enough to get bit and get away then you turn in to what they are. This town used to be booming, mind you a lot of folks just took off hoping to find someplace better, but we're all that's left of the ones that stayed." He motioned at himself, the old man and the woman on the balcony.

"I had to kill my pa. He killed the docs wife and tried to kill me." Ox said sadly as he kicked at the dirty floor, the woman on the balcony forgotten as memories came back. He didn't have time to worry about bedding her just now anyway. He had to worry about keeping his sister alive and getting her somewhere safe.

"Sorry about that, big fella." The old man said and Ox thought he sounded like he meant it. "We've all been forced to do some horrible things since all this began."

Ox saw the haunted look that the two men shared and then the ex-lawman stepped forward. "I'm sure Lita's got some clothes that you can wear, Miss. You got the same pretty little body that she's got."

"What did you just say?" Ox growled, his fists clenching. He glanced down at Evangeline and saw that she had moved herself to be nearly completely behind him.

"Well.. I.. Uh..." the ex-lawman rubbed the back of his neck and the old man laughed.

"Don't mind him!" he stated, waving his hand. "He's just a bit neglected as of late. With only me and his sister up there for company, every time the man sees a pretty woman that's all he can think about and it gets him in trouble. He's harmless really."

"Ox..." Evangeline tugged on Ox's shirt sleeve and he turned to look down at her.

"What is it?" She pulled him a few steps away and he bent down so she could whisper in his ear.

"I don't trust them."

"Why not? They seem awful damn nice to me. Shit, Evie, that man didn't mean nothin' by what he said I'm sure. You know you're pretty. Prettiest woman for five counties at least." He saw her blush at the compliment but then she stuck out her chin.

"Ox, there's something off about them. You trust everybody too easily. It's always gotten you in trouble."

Ox rubbed at his neck and felt shame fill him. "Just cuz I trust folks don't make me stupid, Evie."

"I never called you stupid, Ox. You know I'd never do something like that. I just said you trust people too much and that I don't trust these people."

Ox's brow screwed up into a furrow as he looked at the three folks watching them with curiosity. He just couldn't see why Evangeline didn't trust them. But he loved his sister and he respected her feelings. She was loads smarter than he was so if she didn't trust these folks than Ox would respect that.

Ox brought himself back up to stand his full height and turned to face the men. "I believe my sister and I will just head to the mercantile and get some supplies. What direction is that in?" he asked the men.

"Now y'all ain't gotta run off. Clint didn't mean nothing by what he said."

"That's right." The ex-lawman, Clint, said as he stepped forward. "Thompson's right when he says I'm just a bit lonely around here. I sincerely apologize, Miss Evangeline, for what I said if it offended you or made you uncomfortable."

Ox looked down at Evangeline and saw that her ruffled feathers seemed to be a little eased with the man's apology but she still looked as if she was ready to leave. "We really should be going." Ox sighed and pointed toward the door. "We'd like to get to Tennessee, you know, before it's too late.."

"It's already too late," Clint said with a shrug. "But the mercantile is down that way next to the bank. There ain't a whole lot left there I'm afraid but you're welcome to try to get what you can." He snorted. "Just as soon as you don't wind up as flesh eater shit."

"It sure would be a shame for that good looking man to become food for those flesh eating devils." Lita called from the balcony.

Ox smiled up at her. "Don't you worry none, ma'am. I might not be a smart man but these flesh eaters are even more dumb than me."

"Watch how you look at my sister if you want me watching how I look at yours." Clint growled and Ox snapped his eyes away from Lita's full breasts.

"Calm down, Clint." Thompson scolded. "Ya'll can go to the mercantile and there's a gun shop a ways down from it too. You'll probably want to see about getting something better than a stick and an empty rifle. Your horse can stay here since it'd be better to go on foot and they'd eat your horse if ya left it outside of the stores."

"Evie, you should stay here while I go...."

"Ox, you'll need me with you to help watch your back." Evangeline argued and Ox shook his head.

"No. I can watch my own back just fine but I'll screw it all up if I'm worried about you. Shit, Evie, you're all I got. Just stay here where you'll be safe."

Evangeline looked like she wanted to argue more, which didn't surprise Ox. She had always been one to argue and want to get her own way all the time. It wasn't her fault, it had just been the way she'd been raised. Most folks had given her her way all the time. Even their pa had been guilty of it until it had come time for her to marry.

He fixed her with a sad gaze that he knew would get to his sister, who was a bit of a pushover when it came to pleasing Ox. She sighed and her shoulders sagged with defeat.

"Fine." She grumbled. "But you had better be very careful, Ox. You are all that I have too."

"We can watch him from up on the roof." Clint offered. "That way if it looks like he needs help we can provide him with cover fire."

Evangeline nodded and Ox watched her make her way up the stairs with Clint behind her.

"You be careful out there." Thompson warned. "And if you can bring back a few extra supplies we'd appreciate it." Thompson walked over to the bar and pulled out two empty sacks, each of them big enough to hold quite a bit. He placed them in Ox's hands and Ox nodded.

"I'll be back." He assured the older man. It was with quite a bit of fear that Ox held his empty rifle in his hands, opened the back door just a crack and made his way back out into the warm air and sunshine.