Silent Night

Warm Welcoming

"Who the hell are you? What are you doing here?!" This man yells with a raspy voice, similar to Carver's.

The man puts me in headlock to constrict me to the ground.

"Ken, stop. Ken!" This woman worriedly cries out.

I elbow the man in the side of his gut. He painfully grunts and reacts with a hard drive from his knee into my back.

"Think you can come in here and hit on me? Give up my family's safety! You're gonna get us all killed!" The man angrily shouts as he clenches his grip tighter against my throat.

I struggle to stand up on one foot and flip over his shoulder allowing myself to move my head to the side to where it wouldn't snap. Now, I carry the advantage! I slam the man down to the floor and see that he has a woman and a little boy with him. It must be his wife and son.

The mother hides her son's eyes from the sight of me beating his father. The man sweeps me off my feet with a swift blow to my legs. Before he could get on top of me, I kick him back. I quickly get back up and we begin punching each other in the face. I duck down and grab the man's arm. I use my other arm to grab his throat and lift him in the air.

"I'm just trying to survive! Just like you! I would've died out there! You hear me? I would've been dead!  What the hell is wrong with you? Attacking an innocent! I should—

Click! I hear a gun cock back beside my ear. My heart is pounding out of my chest. Each beat feels to enlarge as the seconds fly by.

"Put my dad down! Now." The son sternly says.

I look back and see the boy aiming a pistol at me as he quivers in fear.

"Alright. Alright. I'm putting him down and this will be the end of this. Just calm down, kid. You don't have to pull the trigger. Your dad is ok." I say as I lower the man down to the floor.

As I left go the man gasps for air. His wife rushes over to him and the boy lowers the gun.

"Ken!" The woman worriedly cries. "Dad!" The boy says as runs over to him.

I look at the three of them, they seem like a good family from the looks of it. He was only trying to protect his family. I cool myself down with a few breaths and walk over to the window to get a glance of the streets, they're still filled with those things just roaming around.

"So who are you?" The man asks as he gets back up. "I'm Jayden. My so called friend just left me to die. I'm sorry for barging in, but I needed to get off those streets. They don't know where we are, I just checked." I say trying to make a truce.

"Well, that's good enough for me. The name's Kenny. This here is my girl, Katja. That's my boy, Ken Jr.. We call him Duck for short." The man says with a reach for my hand. I firmly shake his hand and nod.

"How long have you been here?" I ask.

"We got here just last night. It was horrible, man. This is Kat's sister's house. Was... We found her..." Ken sadly informs me.

"I'm sorry to hear that. I just lost a good friend of mine as well. It was unbelievable to witness." I say while looking out the window.

Immediately, I catch a glimpse of Spencer's limbs becoming bloody chunks of meat.

"You got any idea on what you're doing? Long term wise. Got anywhere to go? Friends? Family?" Kenny asks.

"I'm sure I do somewhere out there... It's just me— has been for many years..." I reply.

"You're more than welcome to stay with us." Katjaa offers.

"The way I see it is we have a few options. We could stay here and wait for the military to do it's thing. Let them sort shit out. Or we can check around the outskirts of the city for any other people who made it out. I know there's a police station about three miles from here that could be promising. Guns are going to bed hard to come by so we should stick up while we can. Me and my family discussed this already so what's your take on this?" Kenny says.