19

"Snow!"

Kathy groaned as she shifted in the bed. It has been two weeks since settling here and the kids were starting to find their voices, tearing about without a second thought for those still wanting their beauty sleep at … oh god. Kathy peered out from the covers at the clock ticking quietly by the bed to see that it was after ten actually. Someone had slept in.

She rolled over to find Douglas already up, the warm buzz of their lovemaking still there deep in her gut. The reconnection between them had been electric, this new life brilliant and as she lay there she grinned as she listened to the laughter.

Then the faint scream.

Kathy ran from the bed, grabbing one of the many rifles hung up on high pegs along the hallway where little ones cannot reach them but Grups can, slamming outside to find the kids standing there with open mouths as Sally ran towards them from the creek out the back, still screaming.

Blood.

Damn it. She ran for her with her bare feet sinking into the snow with each bound, then past her as the woman ran for the safely of the house where others were spilling out to defend and snatch the children inside. She found Ghost on the shoreline with his gun still in his hand, breathing heavily as he aimed at the water and the Biters writhing in it.

Oh no.

"ELVIRA" she screamed with horror and rage seeing the familiar hair rolling in the water as Ghost shook himself from his reverie and aimed again, this time catching her head behind her ear and the head whipped back, the body now rolling down the water with the two Biters on her.

"Shit" Kathy gasped, looking around "Who else wss with you. GHOST! WHO ELSE!"

"Tim" he croaked, waving the gun downriver "She tried to hook him back once they attacked. Came out of the water like fucking crocodiles or something … we didn't … I mean … shit."

"Are you bit?" she demanded grabbing his arm "Ghost… Garry. Are you bit?"

He turned to her. Holding out his arms and moving them around "No. no ma'am."

She stood a moment longer, letting her heart calm a bit then she nodded "So the blood on her was from Elvira?"

"Blood?" he frowned then his face changed and he started to run for the house as she cursed and turned to follow him. They ran. They found Douglas standing on the top step of the back door, his gin unwavering gas he aimed at Sally, refusing to let her enter the house. Kathy was sobbing softly as she knew what had to be done, the blood dripping down the woman's arm into the pristine white snow was pumping too fast for a scratch.

"Where are you bit" she finally asked, Sally turning to her with wide eyes.

"Sally" Ghost said softly "She asked a question. Is it a bite?"

She held out her hand then looked at her wrist with surprise like she didn't know she was bitten, staring at the large bite to her flesh, the missing hunk large. You could see bone. Her other nad went to coer her huge stomach as her almost due baby kicked inside.

"Oh. Oh… no" she whimpered looking at Kathy then saying inanely as she started to step towards her "You are in your nightgown."

Kathy didn't have time to be cold, didn't have time to look down at herself or even respond as Douglas' gun barked, the woman's head whipping back in an eerily similar way to Elvira's.

.

.

.

.

Mark was sitting with little Harry who was looking over his uncle's shoulder at the newborn baby that had bene cut form it's mother by an enraged Kathy. Her swift action had birthed the child within minutes of his mother's death. They were all in shock as everyone moved to secure the house and scan the area for any Biters that may have come ashore. Whatever had happened, it had caused many of the things to wash downstream and they could only what as a large lump washed past at regular intervals.

"The snow … might have been too heavy for an old bridge and it collapsed. These things are simply walking off it" Robbie pondered "They seem to have base things they do, no real thought though. Like sheep … just follow the leader?"

"I don't know and at this point I do not care" Douglas spat as he turned to see Kathy returning from the bedroom, now fully dressed and bundled up, her feet still stinging from the barefoot run in the snow. God, it was like running over broken glass. For what.

To be too late.

She sat heavily and shoved her feet towards the fire, even as she knew it would sting. Douglas sat and took her feet in his lap and started to massage them as she moaned softly, giving into the lovely pain.

"I … the kids need to find a way to grieve this. Maybe we do something like… ah…" Sierra sighed and stopped talking, shrugging as she really had no idea how to handle this … thing.

"They write letters to her and we send them up the chimney. Tell them Santa came in the snow, why the snow was red … she is with him now helping him because he needed extra help for Christmas or some shit. Let them get used to the fact she is not coming back" Geoff suggested.

"Elvira? Tim?" Kathy huffed "They went too?"

"Biteys got them" Harry said from Mark's arms, the little man reminding them he was in the room "There is no Santa."

Kathy let her head roll back to stare at the ceiling.

No.

No Santa Clause. Wishes do not come true.

Not here.