Chapter Sixty-Four:
"What's going on here?" Rachel gasped as fear clutched at her heart. Doctor Harris had a revolver grasped in his meaty hand and aimed straight toward her. Rachel knew the knife she held in her own hand would be no match and she wasn't nearly fast enough to hope to pull her own gun before the doctor could get a shot off.
"Why are you in my home?" the doctor demanded angrily, his gaze darting back and forth between her and the rabid tied to the bed.
Rachel swallowed hard. "Why is there a rabid tied to this bed?" She pointed back toward the struggling flesh eating monster on the bed.
Doctor Harris glanced over her shoulder and his gaze softened as he looked at the monster struggling against the ropes holding her down. "That is my dear, Judith."
"Your wife?!" Rachel felt bile rise in her throat. This man was insane and this was the single most twisted and disgusting thing she had witnessed so far in all this madness. "Doctor Harris, please put the gun down—this isn't right. She is not your wife any longer. She's a monster."
"No!" Doctor Harris bellowed. He lunged forward and Rachel was so surprised by the motion that she stumbled backward and her knife slipped from her hand. The doctor's big hands closed around her arms and then he yanked her gun from her holster and threw it across the room. "How dare you!" he snapped, his cheeks reddening and his jowls shaking with his rage.
"I'm sorry!" Rachel gasped but her meager apology seemed to have the opposite effect she had hoped. Instead of easing his temper it only seemed to aggravate him further.
Doctor Harris moved one hand to the back or Rachel's neck and spun her around before shoving her toward the bed. Rachel couldn't manage to do anything more than whimper as her face was forced down toward the rabid's lying on the bed and panic caused her body to freeze.
The rabid moaned and bit at the gag on her mouth and arched her back off the bed in a desperate attempt to reach the meal that was so close.
"What do you want from me?" Rachel managed to ask as she trembled and a tear ran down her cheek.
"Apologize to my wife." Doctor Harris hissed. Rachel could feel his soft gut pressing against her back as he pinned her down. She licked her quaking lips and frowned.
"What...?"
"You hurt her feelings!" The doctor's grip on her tightened and the pain shot through her body like a bolt of lightning through a tree trunk. "Now apologize!"
***
"Colt, there is a problem." Colt dropped the mule's leg and stood straight as he turned to face Comanche. The look on the Indian's face told Colt more than his words had. Something was very wrong.
"What is it?"
"This town is not what it seems. There are rabid here but they are underground."
Colt frowned. "What do you mean, underground?"
"They are locked up in cellars. The cellars are straight drops down. He has obviously found a way to capture them or lure them into falling into the holes and then he closes the doors and chains them."
"Shit." Colt yanked off his hat and shoved his hand through his hair. "Can they climb out?"
"Yes. The holes are not very deep—however they seem secure as long as the doors are chained." Comanche glanced over his shoulder. "That's not all though, Colt," he admitted as he turned back to face him. "There is a person here other than the Doctor but I think it is only one. I saw the tracks, a man judging by the stride though a much smaller one than the doctor. And I found some disturbing evidence that we may not be the first survivors that found their way here—the other groups did not make it back out."
"Shit."
"Colt we have to leave this town. Something is not right and there are hundreds of flesh eaters. More than we've seen in any herd so far. If they get loose—"
"We're all dead," Colt finished. Colt was sick and damn tired of all this bad luck. Just once he'd like to have the sun shine on his ass. "Alright, you go ahead and get the horse and cart ready and I'll go get everyone. We'll leave immediately. Something has felt off about this place from the beginning and I got a feeling the doctor might just reckon we're food for his sick friends. Let's make sure we prove him wrong on that one."
Comanche nodded and Colt strode from the stables. He went to the hotel door and knocked. "Evangeline, let me in."
It only took seconds before the door opened. "What's wrong?" Evangeline asked with a frown.
"Get your things and let's go. We have to get everyone together."
"Why?" Evangeline demanded.
"Because this doctor has the sick people locked in cellars all over town and he feeds survivors like us to them to keep them alive."
"Oh my god—" Evangeline gasped.
"Yeah, now let's find everybody and get the hell out of here."
"Colt, my Aunt Rachel—"
"What about her?" Colt demanded, dread washing over him.
"She went to the doctor's house a while ago to ask his wife for something."
Part of Colt wanted to say to hell with the woman but another part, the part that was still desperate to save everyone knew he couldn't sacrifice Rachel that simply.
"Evangeline, you get Jedidiah, Susette and Ox. Get your shit and get to the stables. Comanche and I will go get Rachel."
"Colt, you better be careful." Evangeline warned with tears in her eyes.
Colt kissed her lips gently and then took a quick step back. "I don't plan on dying, sweetheart; at least not for your aunt."
***
Evangeline went to the roof first and warned Ox that they had to leave. He nodded, told her to get Susette and Jedidiah and then slid down the roof to help load the cart. Evangeline searched the second story bedrooms and finally found Susette and Jedidiah inside one of them.... Though the scene she was met with was not what she had been expecting.
Susette was crouched on the floor beside Jedidiah who was looking very pale, sweaty and in pain as he lay on the floor clutching at his chest and arm.
"What's going on?" Evangeline demanded with shock as she dropped to her knees beside the man as well.
"My...heart..." Jedidiah gasped.
Evangeline glanced at Susette who was wide-eyed, pale and clearly scared beyond speech. Evangeline turned her gaze back to Jedidiah's pain-filled eyes. "What can I do?"
"I'm dying." Jedidiah replied.
Evangeline shook her head as she laid her hand on his brow. Not Jedidiah! Not another loss to their group! Why was this happening? "You have to get up, Jedidiah. We're leaving. I'll help you get to the stables."
"I'm not going anywhere, Evangeline." Jedidiah replied quietly. "I... am dying."
"But..." Evangeline began and Jedidiah shook his head to cut her off.
"Go...Evangeline... Get out of here...Get the girl to California; that's where you have to go." Evangeline fought back tears, knowing that tears would not help Jedidiah nor the situation they were currently facing. Something about the sound of Jedidiah's voice and the way Susette refused to meet her eyes unnerved Evangeline.
"Jedidiah, what aren't you saying?" Evangeline urged as she placed her hand gently over his cheek. His breaths had become more shallow and labored and his eyes were losing focus.
"Just...go...fast..." he whispered. "There's...not...much... time..."
***
"Uncle Harris, we have a problem!" Rachel was yanked away from the rabid as a young boy of probably no more than fifteen came bursting into the bedroom.
Doctor Harris whirled around, keeping Rachel pulled tight against his shaking stomach. "What?"
"They found the cellars and they're getting ready to leave."
"They can't leave!" Doctor Harris bellowed. "The townspeople have to be fed! What about the pie?"
"No one ate it. I checked."
Rachel stared at the boy with shock. The pie? The pie was what? Poisoned? And how had this boy gotten in and out of the hotel without being noticed? It was Colt's fault for leaving someone like Ox in charge of keeping watch.
"This is not acceptable." Doctor Harris grumbled. "Gregory, go release the townspeople. They will eat today."
"Uncle, two of those men are coming here for the woman. What are you going to do with her?" Gregory asked pointing at Rachel.
Doctor Harris chuckled and tightened his hold on Rachel's arms. "Go Gregory and I'll worry about her." Gregory nodded and ran from the room. Doctor Harris turned once again and Rachel found herself staring at the rabid in the bed. "Gregory needn't worry. You and Judith were just about to sit down to dinner, weren't you dear?"
As Doctor Harris reached down and removed the gag from his wife's mouth, Rachel did all she could think of to do.
She screamed.