Chapter Four: A flesh eating husband or a colored man savior?
Silas was whistling a tune as he rode his mule down the winding mountain trail. It was dawn and the rain had finally stopped though his mule's hooves were sloshing and squishing in the thick mud. Silas had never wanted the daylight to come as badly as he wanted it to come right now. He wasn't whistling the tune because he felt lighthearted or happy, no he was whistling the tune just to hear something other than the quiet...
Honestly he had no real idea of where he was at the moment. He had been wandering for days, searching... hoping. Born the son of a slave and, having been one himself until just before his tenth birthday, Silas had seen some terrifying and horrific things in his life and yet none of that had even compared to the horror and sickness currently sweeping across the country.
They were called 'rabid', he had learned that when he'd stopped in Crockett Tenessee and met up with a man who seemed to know a thing or two. He'd come from the east and said the sickness had started there. Some sort of medicine had been given to the folks that way and instead of making them better, it had turned them into flesh eating monsters. And they spread their sickness by biting folks who hadn't taken the medicine.
Folks like Silas's brother Samuel whom Silas had been forced to kill. That had been the hardest day of his life so far but Silas had a sinking feeling that times were going to get harder. A lot harder. Five days had passed since Silas had killed his brother, three days since he had spoken to that old man in Crockett and Silas was losing hope that there was anyone else left. It was a scary feeling, an oppressive feeling, this loneliness. The knowledge of being alone pushed down on a man from all sides making him feel desperate.
Sure most folks were probably hiding, too scared to come out especially just to speak to a colored man whom the white folks around here tended not to trust anyhow. But Silas had a sinking suspicion that the reason he wasn't finding anyone was because they were all those monsters and they were wandering the woods, roads and town and looking for the same thing he was: survivors.
He just wanted to find one piece of land untouched by this madness.
His mule let out a frightened snort and Silas tightened his hold on the reins in his hand when he saw the barn come into view at the edge of the rolling fields on the left of him. Silas pulled his double barrel shotgun as he rode closer to the barn and called out. There was no response and while he'd been hoping to hear a survivor reply, it was better to hear nothing than to hear 'Gnaa!'.
Silas rode on further, hoping that perhaps the family that had lived here was perfectly fine and simply up at the main house.
Any hope of that left quickly when he rode through the open wooden gate and saw the jerking man clawing at the walls of what appeared to be a servant's quarters beside the large grand house.
"Gnaa!" The man called out as he turned and started toward Silas. Silas could still make out several tufts of white hair on the man's blood and sore covered head. He was wearing a blood covered nightdress and robe and half of his throat was missing.
"Lord be with us all...." Silas gasped and he pulled the trigger of his ten gauge causing the man's head to practically explode at such close range and the 'rabid' fell to the ground. Silas slid from his horse, deciding that he'd check around the house. Even if he couldn't find any living folks, there may be some supplies that would be useful. He was running low on food.
Silas reloaded the spent shot in his gun from the bandolier around his chest and then began to walk slowly toward the house. It was then that he heard a mewling cry from inside the servant's quarters.
"Hello?" he called out and he heard the cry get louder. Damnation, that was a baby! Silas ran to the servant's quarter door and beat on it when he realized it was locked. There were bloody handprints streaked all over the door and surrounding wall. Clearly the 'rabid' had been trying to get in for a while.
"Is somebody in there?!" Silas called out, the babies cries louder now that he closer. It sounded like a small baby.
"Who's out there?" a woman's weak voice responded.
"My name is Silas, ma'am. Do you need some help?"
"Are you sick?" the woman replied and Silas shook his head, though he wasn't sure why since the woman couldn't see him.
"I ain't rabid if that's what you mean."
"Rabid?"
"I ain't gonna try to eat you like that other fella was."
Silence reigned for several long moments and Silas wondered if she was going to open the door. After what felt like an eternity, the lock disengaged and the door opened slowly. Silas's breath caught when he saw her... She was beautiful. She looked like some kind of angel, all wrapped up in green fabric with tired circles surrounding her eyes and her brown hair hanging loose around her face.
Silas's eyes were drawn down when something appeared to be wiggling beneath the green fabric at her chest.
"Is that a baby, ma'am?"
Silas's pa had been a doctor among the colored folk and Silas could smell the blood in this room. He could also tell that this woman was naked beneath that green swatch of cloth. Her hair was lying in clumps and sticking to her drawn face. If he were a betting man he would say she'd had this child not too long ago.
"You're...." she bit her lip and stared down at his feet. "You're colored...."
Silas nodded, hating that that had to be the first thing she noticed about him. Though of course it was and it didn't surprise him. This was the south and his kind were still looked down upon by most and even hated by some. "Yeah, God made me that way, ma'am. Do you need some help?" Before the woman could reply she swooned and would have fallen if Silas hadn't reached out and caught her in one strong arm. He felt her shaking against him and at first he assumed it was because he was a colored man and she was frightened of him but then he realized just how hot she felt.
The woman had a fever.
"Did you kill them both?" she asked, struggling to remove herself from his arms and stand on her own two feet. Silas helped her stand, though he made sure that she and the babe were close to the wall in case her legs began to feel weak again.
"Both?" Silas asked. "I only saw one. He had white hair..."
"Jackson is still out there!" the woman exclaimed, fear shining in her eyes. And what beautiful eyes they were... Light green surrounded by brown rings.
"Who's Jackson, ma'am?"
"My husband. He came home last night and tried to.. he tried to..." The woman's voice broke and she stumbled backward.
"It's okay, ma'am. I can explain some of it to ya but first I think you need a bath and some rest...."
"I can take care of myself." She argued with a sharp shake of her head. Silas sighed. He was about to bid her farewell, knowing it was the color of his skin that had her backing away from him, when a loud 'Gnaa!' came from behind him.
"It's Jackson!" the woman screamed, her baby beginning to cry again beneath that cloth. Silas turned and threw the gun up, shocked when the woman grabbed his shoulder.
"No don't!"
Silas looked away from the approaching 'rabid' and looked down into the woman's eyes. She was confused, scared, sick and horrified. It was a hard pill to swallow, Silas knew, acknowledging that your loved ones were no longer who they had once been and realizing you had to kill them in order to survive.
"Make up your mind, ma'am. It's either a flesh eating husband or a colored man savior. Which do you want?"
The woman clung to the child hidden from Silas's eyes and released her hold on him as she took a step back and closed her eyes tight.
"Kill it."
Silas didn't need any more permission than that before his finger was squeezing the trigger of his shot gun and the 'rabid' who had once been a man named Jackson, fell dead, for good this time, to the ground.
He turned to check on the woman and cried out, barely managing to catch her before she hit the floor. He scooped her up into his arms, realizing she was truly unconscious this time and the green cloth she'd been wrapped in fell away, revealing her body and the tiny little baby curled up to her chest.
Now Silas had been raised to be a good Christian man and so he tried hard not to look at the pretty woman's bare flesh all laid out for him. What he did notice was that she was covered in blood and sweat.
He needed to get her cleaned up, dressed and hopefully get this fever broke. He'd just bet she'd have a fit and a half another one once she woke up and realized a colored man had been caring for her but he didn't care. He was just damned glad to know that he wasn't the last living person in the world.
***
Charlotte groaned and swatted at the bug currently flying around her face. She snuggled up deeper in her blankets, enjoying the warmth and softness.
"Ma'am...." Charlotte's eyes flew open at the sound of that voice and she found herself staring into the deep brown eyes of the man who had come to her rescue.
"My baby...." Charlotte gasped and the man smiled, the gesture so pure and good that it made Charlotte's heart feel a little lighter. It had been a long time since she'd seen a man be anything other than harsh or mean. Jackson had been stern that she was to have no contact with anyone other than him. He had kept her locked up in the big house and he was all she knew.....
Jackson. Jackson was dead now. This man had killed him. This man had saved her life and the life of her daughter.
He laid the sleeping girl against her chest, and it was then that Charlotte realized she was in a sleeping gown and she was in the house, in she and Jackson's bed as a matter of fact.
"You cleaned us...." Charlotte whispered, realizing that she and her baby were both clean and smelled much better. She flushed red when she realized that meant this man had seen her naked, had touched her body with those big hands......
The man appeared uncomfortable as he stood and rubbed at the back of his neck with his dark hand. He gave her a sheepish grin, his full lips pulling back at the corners. "Well you was unconscious ma'am and you had a fever. Now I'm a good Christian man and I can promise you that I didn't do anything improper while you was asleep. I had to care for you is all. I just did what I had to...."
"Thank you." Charlotte cut off his nervous rambling. "Thank you for saving me and my baby."
"You're welcome ma'am."
"Charlotte. My name is Charlotte. I was certain that we were going to die.. I was so sure that Jackson and Britton were going to find their way in or that we would starve to death in that tiny room... You were like a miracle."
"Never been nobody's miracle before, ma'am."
"What's your name?"
"Silas."
Charlotte watched him as he crossed the room and picked up a steaming bowl of soup. He carried it toward her and sat down in a chair beside the bed, blowing the soup and stirring it with a small silver spoon. Charlotte couldn't get over how dark his skin was against the white sheet and he caught her staring.
"Does my skin bother you, ma'am?" Silas asked and Charlotte took a moment before answering. Did it? Honestly she'd never been around anyone that was colored. Her parent's hatred of those they called terrible names had kept Charlotte from speaking to people of his color in her younger years and she'd been a prisoner of this house for eight years now and hadn't ever been around a man like Silas.
Those names, (Charlotte would not even do them the honor of thinking them), that her parents had always called people of color didn't seem to fit Silas. He seemed a good man, a man who had risked his life to save she and her daughter. A man who had obviously taken care of her during her time of need and kept her daughter safe as well. He certainly didn't seem like a man who deserved her hatred or her fear simply because he was darker skinned than she.
"No. No it doesn't bother me."
A smile split Silas's face then, his teeth contrasting sharply with his dark skin. "Glad to hear that, ma'am. Here's your dinner." He sat the bowl on the bedside table. "Why don't you eat and see to that little girl there and I'll go patrol around and make sure things are still quiet then I can try to answer any questions you have about what happened to your husband."
"Silas...!" Charlotte called out and the man stopped in the doorway and turned to look at her. He raised one thick black brow expectantly. "Just... be careful."
Silas tipped his worn brown leather hat and winked at her, his brown eyes sparkling. "I do believe you're the first person ever took the time to be worried about me."
With that he slipped from the room, closing the door behind him. Charlotte laid her sleeping baby on the bed and scooted herself up against the headboard before taking up the bowl Silas had laid on the bedside table and sampling the soup.
Her eyes widened as the delicious concoction washed across her tongue and she moaned, her stomach growling eagerly.
She looked at her daughter and marveled at how much life had changed since she'd gone to bed the night before. Her husband had turned into a monster and he was dead now. She had given birth to her daughter and there was a man, a stranger, but somehow not a stranger, here taking care of her. Sometimes life threw you for loops that you would have never imagined in your wildest dreams.....
"Thank God for Silas." Charlotte whispered to her sleeping daughter. She knew if not for that man they would have both died. "He was truly our saving grace."
The little girl's eyes opened wide and Charlotte smiled. "You like that name? Grace?" The little girl yawned and kicked out a leg causing Charlotte to laugh lightly. "Okay then, little one. Grace it will be."