No matter what she tried her newly fitted walking boot seemed to just clash. Its ugly black velcro straps might as well have been red  duck tape, to Rita.  She could not remember the last time she had tried on something so outright hideous.   Well at least it had a platform sole, she thought to herself some more. Yes, I can still wear a heel on my other foot. Her lips curved slightly to a semi smile, an almost seductive smile.  She glanced over to the wall that neatly displayed her collection of boots.   Her eyes resting on a striking pare of black western boots.  She had developed quite the love affair  over the years with foot wear. Her obvious preference for boots could be easily noted by her  extensive collection.   The pair she had chosen for tonight had  a modest heel that would pair nicely with that "thing she begrudgingly wore on the other foot". 

Her only option tonight really seemed to be  skinny jeans she decided and carefully slid her foot with the  injured ankle through the leg.   Her jeans  tucked neatly into the monster boot.  She was pleased  she  did not have to worry about wrinkles in the fabric or bunching.  Slowly  she began reconnecting  the velcro straps until her ankle rested snuggly   between its padding.   Each sound of the velcro ripping reminded her the 6 weeks would seem like a very long time.   But after a serious talk with her Orthotist   she  had reluctantly promised him she would grow close to it in the next month and a half they would be spending together.  Her only reprieve was that they would not become intimate.  Her foot and ankle would be hers in the night.

It really was not a tough choice the hideous boot or no walking at all. Of course she knew she would never surrender to becoming a prisoner.  They would have to take away both legs and an arm for that to even be imaginable.  In reality if she had to be stuck with the monster boot winter was the best time, well the was until she felt  the first blast chill on the  tips of the open toe orthotic.

None of this she thought to herself would dappen her spirits.  She was filled with joy to be getting Josiah finally out of the house.  For this was the first outing  since he broke his knee a month ago.  Watching the wild Game in a catered suite was absolutely the best way she could think of to celebrate his coming out-so to speak.  She had just finished tucking a blanket around his lap before he entered the van when she heard a voice behind her.  "Hi there" she looked up to a smiling face that she could not place right away.  "I have something of yours."  He held out a white envelope.  "Came to my house by mistake." She took the  mail from him.  Searching her mind quickly to place the voice while she glanced at the envelope.  Quickly she asked, "are you my new neighbor?" His smile widened.  Yes I am.  She felt his eyes travel up and down quickly then rest on her eyes again.  Before she could even respond he said.  "We also dated for a while a few years ago."  She knew the voice sounded a little familiar.  She looked back at him.  Yes, the blue eyes, there  was  no mistaking him, it was Billy.  Oh no she stood there half smiling back .....it was,  Bill Cry Eyes. Oh geez....  this day was certainly turning out to be plump full of events.

Eve and Doc sat in silence watching Zach for anymore signs that the antidote was working.

Zach was not certain if his eyes were actually open as he  stared at the grey haze in front of him.  It seemed like he was seeing something off in the distance other than his own eye lids.  He felt a surge of warmth envelope him.  It started with his toes and moved quickly to his head. He just could not see past the  grey haze in front of him as he  embraced it.   He  twitched  slightly welcoming the feeling and then realized he no longer felt the  crippling pain that had left him unable to move.  The horrific spasms that made him curl up into a  fetus position and wish for darkness to embark on him.  Yes it was gone.  He felt light.  Light -as though he had become one with the air. So light that he was almost certain his arms and legs were the air.

He could hear the faint sounds of whispering somewhere behind him.  They were more like muffled sounds than words.  The kind of whispering you might hear at doctor office. "Dr's  office' Zach thought to himself.  He was puzzled was he sick?  His mind was blank.  "Why could he not remember anything".   he thought to himself.  He tried to turn his head to hear a little better.  He moved it from side to side but the sounds seemed to drift farther away.    He wanted to call out to them.  He wanted to know who they were and why was he here.   And then  something else distracted him.   A slight flicker.

He was not sure where he was or how long he had been there, but it felt as though he was floating.  Floating slowly through the air towards a dim light.  A soft glowing light in the distance, that he now seemed to be following.   Yes  following, he was sure he was following it.  It beckoned him as it moved, dancing before him like a ballerina.  He could not help but  continue towards the ominous light.  His limbs laid limp at his sides as he floated along.  Almost as though he was no longer in command of his body.  All he knew was it  felt good in this place.

Eve and Doc loomed over Zach.  They watched his color slowly turn from an ashen grey to a pale flesh.  Eve whispered to Doc and they watched his body twitch while  his lids flickered slightly. "We definitely have a response".  Eve softly said.   He was coming to, Eve just knew  the injection was working and he was gaining consciousness.

Lisa  had just turned off her outside lights when she heard the doorbell.    It had been 30 minutes since the last trick or treaters had come by.  She was almost certain when she looked down the street she had not seen any more walkers.  It was only 8pm , but for her small quaint suburban neighborhood they usually did not have many children come through and by 7:30 they were usually done.   Perhaps the warmer temperature has attracted some more children to stay out longer, she thought to herself.  "Must be a few more still out there." She said softly to Bella her  Pomeranian.  Bella followed her closely as she approached the door. Her tail wagged playfully as she waited for the door to open. Bella loved when they had visitors.  She happily greeted everyone.

She looked through the window of  the door to see how many more treats she needed to gather.  A pair of black eyes looked back up to hers.  He looked to be about ten years old or so and alone.  He wore a dark beret and his face seemed a bit dirty.  When she opened the door she noticed he was dressed in knickers and a  ruffled shirt. ' Trick or treat' he said with an English accent as she opened the outer door.  Lisa smiled at him as she dropped a handful of candy in a tattered looking  cloth bag he held out to her. Just as quickly as he appeared he ran off into the darkness.

Bella gave a low growl and stepped back behind Lisa.  She had not noticed  the mysterious dark man that had been standing  off to the side and was now standing directly in front of her.  He wore a black top hat and a black crisp cape that cascaded down to his knees.  Her eyes met his and she felt a chill slowly run up her spine. He smiled at her with dark piercing eyes that  seemed to see right through her. She felt almost naked as his gaze traveled up and down.  He parted his lips slightly, displaying  perfectly straight teeth that sparkled in the moonlight.  His very strong handsome looks were  hauntingly  alluring, she could not help but study his face.  He raised his left eye brow slightly as he spoke in a soft low  seductive voice.  "Good evening Lisa my dear, how are you?  It has  been a  time a very long time.  I have been waiting for you patiently. You probably don't remember me but a last I am now free again.  I only desire a moment with you to help you remember." 

Before she even had time to respond in one quick swift move he was inside, closing and locking the door behind him.   "Who are you?" she heard her self say.She was frozen with fear and fumbled backwards awkwardly not sure how all this had happened so fast.  She could feel her heart begin to race and her throat tighten.  Her eyes stared into his.  It was if she had known him before and yet did not.  She was captivated by his presence, almost drawn to him.

  His  eyes stayed  fixed on her even as he made some motions with his hand toward her dog Bella, commanding  her  to sit silently.  Lisa's  beauty was breath taking and the site of her throat sent a sensation spiraling through him.   He shuttered slightly, and breathed in deeply savoring the vision before him.  His hypnotic eyes slowly traveled from her neck back up to her eyes.  Delicious he thought silently and succulent.  The wait  had been  long but now there she was.  As beautiful as ever.  A bit more modern than she was in the past, but her beauty was unchanged.

 Lisa was to frightened to look away or to move.  He stepped toward her and held out his hand.  This will not take long my love.  Before she even knew what was happening she was in his arms.  Gently he brushed her long blond hair away from her neck slightly tilting her head back to expose her slender long neck.  She felt helpless,  unable to move and a dark unexplained yearning towards this stranger.  She waited in his arms for what was next. Almost wanting more from him.   It was like he had her under a hypnotic spell .  She could feel his breath travel from her cheek down to  the nape of her neck.  Chills of excitement and fear tightly entwined together traveled through her.
.
She felt his moist lips gently brush against the soft skin of her neck and  then a slight piercing, followed by an explosion of warmth .   Ever so slowly Lisa  felt herself falling  as she surrender to the  darkness.

Eve looked at Doc several minutes before she spoke.  Her eyes were red and tired.  She brushed back a few strands of tangled tresses cascading loosely around her pretty face.  She bit her lower lip as she whispered softly to Doc.  "Zach does not have any time left.  I have to try the serum now." Doc laid  his hand gently on her arm.  He could feel the fear she was holding back.  She reminded him so much of his own daughter.  A lovely young woman like Eve also  blessed with  brains and beauty.   Full of dreams and hope and like Eve struggling to find her way up the corporate latter. Wanting more from life as fast as possible. "Lets begin." he said. "Its his only chance."

Eve filled a syringe with the serum she had mixed together.  Her hand trembled slightly as she pushed fluid to the tip.  Zach, her colleague and friend life was now in her hands.  This was her only chance to save him.  It had to work she thought to her self. It just has to. Doc helped roll up his sleeve so Eve could get to a vein in his forearm.  He carefully wiped a spot clean on the young mans  arm. He also examined the bite again on his hand.  It had stopped bleeding now.  But a dark red ring had formed around the wound.  A ring that concerned Doc.  He also noticed his  breathing had become more shallow.  He no longer felt warm to the touch and his color was so pale, almost gone. Zach laid motionless with his eyes still shut as the needle pierced his skin. "Now we wait and pray".  Doc said as he put his large aged hand on her shoulder and gently gave it a squeeze.  Eve hung her head down and rubbed at her  eyes. ' Please God'. She  felt her self whisper.  "Please let this work." This gruesome  nightmare could begin to end  if this worked she thought to herself.  Everything was riding on Zach being saved.

Upstairs Cody and Josiah carefully laid the sheet down next to Blake.  "On the count of three we slide him onto it". Josiah said.  Blake cried out in pain as the two men adjusted his body on to the large cloth."  "'Give me your tie".  Cody yelled to Tony who stood watching.  "I need to make a tourniquet to keep his leg from moving while we transport  him."  Tony handed him his tie with out hesitation.  Cody slipped the piece of wood he had taken from the lab under Blake's leg.  "This is going to hurt like hell but, I have to try to set your bone straight before I can tie this splint on." Cody had to help splint a few dogs before on the ranch that had become  injured.  He only hoped what he knew from those experiences was enough to help Blake now.   Josiah gave  Blake his belt and told him to bite down  while they straightened his leg.   Blake bit down hard on the leather and screamed through his clenched teeth.  The  pain almost made him pass out. Quickly the two men tied the tourniquet on and then let him rest for a few seconds.  Tony stood waiting for an order.  Not knowing what else to do. The three men slowly lifted the sheet and began carrying Blake down the stairs.


Eve was the first to notice twitching in Zach's left hand.  The side they had given him the shot.  She watched silently afraid to move for another twitch.  She called to Doc.  "I think something is happening.  His hand moved - I saw it twitch a few times."  Doc squeezed her hand slightly as they waited together watching for signs.


  

Josiah  reached the lab door just as Cody was coming out. He immediately noticed a 5 inch long, deep open wound across Cody's right fore-arm.  He stared at it briefly.  It was jagged at one end. He was not sure if it  resembled teeth marks and that frightened him.  Bright red blood trickled slowly down to Cody's large farm hand. From behind him in a back corner of the room he could see the rabid female thrashing her legs and arms as she sat strapped with some kind of cords and a mans belt to a chair.

 He felt a shiver of fear run through him as he waited for Cody to speak.  He knew what he wanted to hear from him, but as much as he tried to fight it the sting of a  deadly fear began enveloping him.  "Its not a bite. In my struggle with her" he motioned toward the lab with his head "one of the cabinets shattered. Pieces of glass flew everywhere.  I am thinking my arm must have took the brunt of the hit. Its not bad. It does  not feel like there is any  glass in it." He said wanting to reassure Josiah. "Man -We have to stop the bleeding." Josiah ripped a large strip of cloth from the tattered sleeve that hung on one of Cody's massive arms.  Cody made no movement as Josiah  made a tourniquet  for the wound.  Quickly he scanned his new friend for any other possible wounds.  "Are you sure she did not get you anywhere?' "No,  she put up a good fight for a little thing but  I held her back. It was her thrashing limbs that caused us to dance a bit."  Josiah looked at Cody.   The man was huge he could have easily crushed her skull with his hand he thought to himself.  But he didn't.  Even in danger Cody remained a true cowboy.  A gentleman to the ladies.  Cody almost felt a bit embarrassed that  a filly had given him that much trouble.  Even if she was a crazed  flesh eating one at that,  she  was a female and he had been taught how to treat a lady.

 He could almost still hear the words of his wise  Grandfather Frank.  A huge cowboy like himself.  A man who loved the ladies and they loved him back.  "See son its our job to protect the woman". He told him,  one day when he was about 5or 6.  He and his  older sister Missy had began wrestling over an old hand me down hat of his.  Missy  had felt her two years Senior over Cody had out ranked any right he had to claim an item as valuable as the old stetson.  She needed it to be like calamity Jane.    Cody had no intentions of letting his sister romp around in the great mans hat.    "Even if they get on our last nerve we got to treat em right.  We gotta treat them like a lady even  if they are not always acting like one.   As men its our job to keep them safe and always be a gentleman to them.  They are soft and pretty and well one day you are gonna see how valuable they really are.    God made it that way, Its just that simple."  Cody lived by those words. 

Josiah now feeling a bit relieved replied.  "Those gnashing teeth just don't stop.  "They are like a piranhas.'  Cody answered back. "  "She came close a few times but she secure for now.  And I didn't  see anymore of those beings. Lets just let her sit there for now until we get Blake help and can decide whats next."

Tony could hardly look at Blake as he stood next to where he laid.  The smell filling the hallway was intense. It was taking everything he had to not hurl again.  If the smell of death and rotting flesh was not bad enough the site around him was even more gruesome than the smell. He was not sure what direction to even look.  He was disgusted that things had gotten this out of control.  He needed to get out of there fast.   Further more he could not understand what was taking Cody and Josiah  so long to get back.  He looked down at his now stained Armani slacks. " Ruined ' he murmured to himself.  "Christ".  He brushed at his legs as if somehow it would remove the droplets of blood that had sprayed him earlier.

Every so often a surge of pain ripped through Blake's legs and traveled  up his back.  He winced inwardly with each wave and felt nauseous as he road it out. It felt almost like several jagged knives were   being shoved deeper into his thigh muscles.

I am not even sure there is a word for what I was feeling.  I was beyond feeling joy.  I kept my eyes fixed on Josiah as he sat on an adaptive water ski between 2 skiers.  His smile told me everything I needed to know.  He was on his second lap around the lake and beaming.  What was even more incredible was that they were not holding onto the back support of his ski.  He was skiing himself.  Hints of water began to moist  my eyes.  How was  this even possible I thought to myself.  It was incredible.

It is moments like this when it just does not matter how we got here.  Just that we did.  Maybe just maybe this really is all part of that big master plan the man up there has for us.    One thing for sure  its  during  times like this when I don't think about all the sleepless nights I spend up caring for them.  The unending hours spent at medical  appointments and Hospital stays.  The heartache and sorrow that almost drowns me at times, while I watch my sons  fight for enough muscle strength to simply lift a fork to feed themselves.  Because its at times like this when that all fades. I embrace the joy and simply know every step we took to get here was all part of this journey for reasons I am not sure of the we were chosen to  travel.

Josiah placed his phone back in his belt holder and wiped at his brow.  He looked over at where Eve was working with Doc.  She had mixed some of  the  vials she had retrieved from the lab up stairs together and was now studying them under a microscope.  Doc sat closely next to her in silence.

"You are coming with me upstairs to help Cody."  Josiah ordered at  Tony.  "There are more of those things up there.  I am not leaving this room."  Tony said stepping back  from Josiah, almost cowering away.  "The way I see it you are responsible for all of this. I am not giving you a choice."   Josiah placed his hand on his pistol as he spoke.  His eyes glaring at Tony as he felt  its  hard handle  against his fingers. He was almost daring the man to give him a reason to shoot.  Tony stared at the officer.  There was no back up man for him to call now to do his dirty work.  He felt nausea rising from the pit of his stomach.  The sites and smells he had scene filled him with a fear he had never known. "
then I need a weapon."  he almost hissed back at Josiah.  Josiah ignored his request and walked over to Doc.  He handed him the second gun he had tucked in his back.  "Doc use this if you have to.  Don't  take any risk...... if you and Eve want to get out alive."


Josiah pulled the other gun from his  holster.  "Lets go."  He said to Tony motioning  towards the door with his head. "Don't do anything stupid and stay close to me, you will be fine."  Tony followed the man.  Part of him wanting to flee.  Yes flee,  leave the country, he thought silently  to him self.  He could make a mad dash to his vehicle, get the hell out of this nightmare.  He could phone his assistant Vanessa to have a plane ready, some clothes and cash.  He had money stashed in a Swiss bank account,  he could live off that for a while.  He could hide out in some little resort in Mexico till this all fades.  A car yes I need a car.  He fantasized a bit more.  His thoughts were abruptly brought  back to reality for a moment.  Shit he thought to  himself,  he did not have the keys,  his driver had them.  They were with his driver.  His dead driver.  His color went ashen.  He did not have a chance in hell to escape with out a car.  The two men walked in silence up the stairs.  Josiah called out to Cody as they reached the first landing.  "Were just around the corner on the  second landing".  Cody called  back. 

Cody had  been planning  how they were going to move Blake.  They had to get him  out of there safely.  He had remembered  seeing some sheets in one of the closets in the lab, when he and Eve were looking for the vials.  They could stretch Blake out on one of them he thought to himself.  Easily they could get him back downstairs and wait for help.

Just as Josiah and Tony reached the scene Josiah heard is cell phone go off.  He looked at the name it was Eve.  "Eve whats happening?" He quickly said as he answered.  "I've  got an antidote.   I want to try it out on Zach.  He is getting worse.  If there is any chance at saving him we need to try it now."  He could hear the desperation in her voice. "What does Doc think?'  She handed the phone off to Doc he  spoke with a low soft tone.  Its his only chance to keep him from turning into one them."  "We are with Cody now. We will head back as soon as we get Blake ready to move.  Do it.  But keep a close eye on him."  He ended the call and turned back to Cody.  "His leg is pretty bad we are going to have to move him carefully.  Wait with him." Cody said to Josiah.  " I saw sheet in one of the labs we can use it to help move him.  Josiah agreed with a nod and knelt down to asses Blakes injuries better.

Tony could no longer contain his nausea.  The site of the blood soaked half headed corpse just a few feet from where Blake rested  was to much for him.  He tried desperately not to look at the splattered brains and human tissue that  hung loosely from what remained of the shattered skull.  He turned his back to the men and released the contents that had built up in his throat.   He kept his back to them as he tried to regain control of himself.  Beads of sweat dripped from his forehead as he spat out the remains of fluid and bial left in his mouth.

The loud sounds of objects being tossed around in the direction of the lab immediately caught all their attention. "Stay with him.  Do not leave him    Josiah said as he cocked his gun moving  toward the direction of the noise.  Tony stood frozen realizing he and Blake were now defenseless.  "Are you mad you cant leaves us here like this, defenseless." He called out after him.  "Its your job to keep us safe." he screamed.