Once Bitten: Twice Mad

Chapter Thirteen

"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."