It was cold outside and Sam had a terrible infection. On his way home from work at Compro he had stopped by the local coffee shop to grab a quick warm drink and be on his way. He had some spare change in his pocket and walked his way over to one of Cleveland's many homeless. Bending at the waist to drop a few cents into the man's cup was the last thing he remembered. Days later Sam awoke at the hospital to find his wife and son waiting for him.
As his eyes opened the light of the treatment room blinded him temporarily. Seeing his family next to him he was comforted. The doctors told them that Sam could be released, he was tested for rabies or any type of contagious disease and was medically cleared. The swelling from the bite mark on Sam's right hand was still dominant and caught the eye even if you weren't looking for it but the nurse told Sam that it should go down soon, and that he was allowed to go home.
Three months later Sam lay on the floor of his kitchen, part of a broken broom handle lodged into his skull. Sarah tried to calm Mark down. He sat next to his father's body deliriously shaking from shock, blood pooling it's way into Mark's socks. At seven years old Mark was not in any way prepared to watch his mother insert a wooden stick into his father's head. Tears rolled down his face from his eyes but he didn't make a single whimper, he just sat there clutching his knees to his chest staring at what was once his dad.
"Mark, I need you to listen to me". Sarah was pulling together all the strength she could to not react in the same manner as her son. "That was not Daddy okay? He became one of them sweetie, he wasn't going after you for who you are. He wanted what you are." Mark nodded his head in some semblance of understanding. "Your father loved you very much baby. That infection made him like all those others you see on TV, but we are okay you and I. Mommy's not going to let anything happen to you alright?" "Okay" was all that Mark could muster, but Sarah knew he understood. "Listen Mark, we have to move your father's body out of here. In a few days it's going to get bad and we don't need it any worse". Mark wiped his eyes and stood up, he looked to his mother for the next set of instructions. "Why don't you go watch some TV honey, Mommy's going to take care of this, just go relax." Mark agreed and walked to the couch, curling up under a blanket. He didn't turn on the TV, he didn't want to. All he wanted to do was to go someplace else in his mind.
Sarah took a sheet from the linen closet of their apartment and covered her husbands body. She then grabbed a set of dish washing gloves from the kitchen and walked back over to Sam's covered body. Carefully she tucked the sheet underneath him and rolled him over to his back. She then tied the sheet over his front and began to drag the body to the front door. The apartment they lived in was not a very large one, Sam's job paid well enough to cover the cost and Sarah would work random jobs as a Temp but they made things work. Struggling with all of her strength Sarah pulled Sam across the kitchen and into the living room towards the front door leaving a trail of blood behind following her path. "Mark, I'm going to bring this outside, I want you to lock the door as soon as I leave and don't open it for anyone but me do you understand?" Mark nodded and crawled off of the couch. As soon as Sarah was outside into the apartment hallway he locked the door, deadbolt and all, and ran back to the couch and under the blanket.
Mark was a bright boy. He did well in school along with normal childhood issues he was overall a good kid. Both Sam and Sarah were very proud of him and all he had accomplished. He had longed for a brother but knew that it wasn't up to him and even though he voiced his opinion on the need for a playmate his parents still won the argument. As he sat on his familiar couch, absorbing all that had taken place he remembered back to just three days prior when his father was extremely ill and complaining of all the pain he was in. He had been on bed rest for the past two and a half months after trying to go back to work and displaying that he was too weak to do his job. Dad would come home defeated, sit with Mark for a few minutes on the couch watching TV and then tell him he needed to go to bed. A few days later Sam was too sick to even visit the doctor and would spend all of his time sleeping or resting, waking only to eat and then go back to bed. Sam's skin had turned a pale white and his veins were beginning to show through his skin.
Mark would stay home from school because of his father's condition and would watch the news even after Mom would tell him to turn it off. He watched as the news began to report about a disease that was spreading faster than anything the world had seen before. The people on TV would say things like "this makes the swine flu look like a hang-nail" or whatever that meant. All Mark knew was that a lot of people were getting what his dad had and the world seemed to be going crazy. Sometimes he would quietly walk into his dad's room and just watch his father struggling to breathe. He wasn't the strong man that Mark remembered him to be, he was much smaller now, much more fragile like a broken action figure.
As Mark sat on the couch, trying to clear his young mind of everything that had happened he heard his mother scream. It was loud enough to startle him right off of the couch. Mark ran to the door and pressed his ear up against it. The door was metal and cold and made him feel like he was laying on the kitchen floor. The walls of the apartment were not very thick and many times you could hear voices walking down the hall or people laughing above and below you. Ever since people started going crazy Mark knew that it wasn't safe outside. He listened anxiously as he heard foot steps running towards the door to their home on the 7th floor of the Spring Valley apartment complex. "Mark, open the door!" it was his mother. A child will always knows his mothers voice. "Mark, now hurry!" Sarah rapidly pounded the door with open fists trying to rush her son into action. "I'm trying Mom I promise!" Mark unlatched the bolt as Sarah swung the door open almost knocking her son down. Immediately she took position up behind the door and with all of her body weight she pressed against it to close it. The young boy fumbled with the lock for a few seconds trying to bolt the door shut. That's when something hit the door. It was hard like a football player rushing a tackling dummy. It pushed a crack into the door and frame just wide enough to reach it's hand inside. Mark watched in complete horror as the hand groped and grabbed for anything it could reach but this hand was not like a normal person's hand. There was skin missing from it and it's color was of a light purple like bodies that Mark had scene on TV. As the thing pushed and struggled for whatever it's objective was it growled and and hissed like some sort of injured animal. Mark had never seen a monster before, but he was pretty sure that this was what his nightmares were made of.
As his eyes opened the light of the treatment room blinded him temporarily. Seeing his family next to him he was comforted. The doctors told them that Sam could be released, he was tested for rabies or any type of contagious disease and was medically cleared. The swelling from the bite mark on Sam's right hand was still dominant and caught the eye even if you weren't looking for it but the nurse told Sam that it should go down soon, and that he was allowed to go home.
Three months later Sam lay on the floor of his kitchen, part of a broken broom handle lodged into his skull. Sarah tried to calm Mark down. He sat next to his father's body deliriously shaking from shock, blood pooling it's way into Mark's socks. At seven years old Mark was not in any way prepared to watch his mother insert a wooden stick into his father's head. Tears rolled down his face from his eyes but he didn't make a single whimper, he just sat there clutching his knees to his chest staring at what was once his dad.
"Mark, I need you to listen to me". Sarah was pulling together all the strength she could to not react in the same manner as her son. "That was not Daddy okay? He became one of them sweetie, he wasn't going after you for who you are. He wanted what you are." Mark nodded his head in some semblance of understanding. "Your father loved you very much baby. That infection made him like all those others you see on TV, but we are okay you and I. Mommy's not going to let anything happen to you alright?" "Okay" was all that Mark could muster, but Sarah knew he understood. "Listen Mark, we have to move your father's body out of here. In a few days it's going to get bad and we don't need it any worse". Mark wiped his eyes and stood up, he looked to his mother for the next set of instructions. "Why don't you go watch some TV honey, Mommy's going to take care of this, just go relax." Mark agreed and walked to the couch, curling up under a blanket. He didn't turn on the TV, he didn't want to. All he wanted to do was to go someplace else in his mind.
Sarah took a sheet from the linen closet of their apartment and covered her husbands body. She then grabbed a set of dish washing gloves from the kitchen and walked back over to Sam's covered body. Carefully she tucked the sheet underneath him and rolled him over to his back. She then tied the sheet over his front and began to drag the body to the front door. The apartment they lived in was not a very large one, Sam's job paid well enough to cover the cost and Sarah would work random jobs as a Temp but they made things work. Struggling with all of her strength Sarah pulled Sam across the kitchen and into the living room towards the front door leaving a trail of blood behind following her path. "Mark, I'm going to bring this outside, I want you to lock the door as soon as I leave and don't open it for anyone but me do you understand?" Mark nodded and crawled off of the couch. As soon as Sarah was outside into the apartment hallway he locked the door, deadbolt and all, and ran back to the couch and under the blanket.
Mark was a bright boy. He did well in school along with normal childhood issues he was overall a good kid. Both Sam and Sarah were very proud of him and all he had accomplished. He had longed for a brother but knew that it wasn't up to him and even though he voiced his opinion on the need for a playmate his parents still won the argument. As he sat on his familiar couch, absorbing all that had taken place he remembered back to just three days prior when his father was extremely ill and complaining of all the pain he was in. He had been on bed rest for the past two and a half months after trying to go back to work and displaying that he was too weak to do his job. Dad would come home defeated, sit with Mark for a few minutes on the couch watching TV and then tell him he needed to go to bed. A few days later Sam was too sick to even visit the doctor and would spend all of his time sleeping or resting, waking only to eat and then go back to bed. Sam's skin had turned a pale white and his veins were beginning to show through his skin.
Mark would stay home from school because of his father's condition and would watch the news even after Mom would tell him to turn it off. He watched as the news began to report about a disease that was spreading faster than anything the world had seen before. The people on TV would say things like "this makes the swine flu look like a hang-nail" or whatever that meant. All Mark knew was that a lot of people were getting what his dad had and the world seemed to be going crazy. Sometimes he would quietly walk into his dad's room and just watch his father struggling to breathe. He wasn't the strong man that Mark remembered him to be, he was much smaller now, much more fragile like a broken action figure.
As Mark sat on the couch, trying to clear his young mind of everything that had happened he heard his mother scream. It was loud enough to startle him right off of the couch. Mark ran to the door and pressed his ear up against it. The door was metal and cold and made him feel like he was laying on the kitchen floor. The walls of the apartment were not very thick and many times you could hear voices walking down the hall or people laughing above and below you. Ever since people started going crazy Mark knew that it wasn't safe outside. He listened anxiously as he heard foot steps running towards the door to their home on the 7th floor of the Spring Valley apartment complex. "Mark, open the door!" it was his mother. A child will always knows his mothers voice. "Mark, now hurry!" Sarah rapidly pounded the door with open fists trying to rush her son into action. "I'm trying Mom I promise!" Mark unlatched the bolt as Sarah swung the door open almost knocking her son down. Immediately she took position up behind the door and with all of her body weight she pressed against it to close it. The young boy fumbled with the lock for a few seconds trying to bolt the door shut. That's when something hit the door. It was hard like a football player rushing a tackling dummy. It pushed a crack into the door and frame just wide enough to reach it's hand inside. Mark watched in complete horror as the hand groped and grabbed for anything it could reach but this hand was not like a normal person's hand. There was skin missing from it and it's color was of a light purple like bodies that Mark had scene on TV. As the thing pushed and struggled for whatever it's objective was it growled and and hissed like some sort of injured animal. Mark had never seen a monster before, but he was pretty sure that this was what his nightmares were made of.
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