Chapter 8
"It was not your fault..."
Rainier stood horror struck in the center of the bedroom. His father slowly stood and turned to face his son.
Blood covered every inch of the man. What looked like some sort of meat-tissue clung to his hands like a horrible kind of cotton candy and his face was dripping with thick globs of intestine. The man looked like some sort of horror freak show that was on a late night movie.
This man was his father.
His father cried in agony, and with a rush, barreled into his son, knocking them both to the floor. Familiar thick fingers dug frantically into Rainier's chest but only grabbed fistfuls of white dress shirt. Angered, the man sunk his teeth deep into the flesh of Rainier's earlobe. Rainier didn't even have time to register that his father was on top of him. He only had time to ponder his father's last message. The frantic message he was not sure about but somehow knew-
"But know in here."
With a sickening crunch of cartilage, his father had successfully yanked the bottom portion of his ear clean off his face. Only with this sound, did Rainier realize just what was happening to him. He knew he was stronger than this man that had been shrunken by a crippling illness almost two months ago. This man he watched waste away under the jungle of tubes and wires. This man that was now going to kill him unless he did something.
With a cry of effort, Rainier was able to shove his father off to the side and stumble his way back to his feet. He clutched the bleeding mess that replaced his perfect ear and sprinted down the hallway, down the stairs, and into the foyer where he had started this horror story. With each solid step he took, an echoing step of frantic hunger followed in tow.
Something ungodly was stocking right behind him.
He slipped his now blood-slicked fingers into his pocket and pulled out a jumbled mess of keys.
It was so close, he could hear the grunts of the monster's running labor.
He started to cry because he had to pause enough to scramble the front door open.
Slap, Slap, Slap! His father's bare feet struck the hardwood floor.
A rush of hot air hit Rainier with a force he feared would shove him back into the arms of his stalker. He pushed against the current and almost fell down the front steps in his haste. He almost-
The plug.
On himself because of his carelessness.
A inhuman growl filled his senses. He was crying uncontrollably now because he had to, yet again, stumble with a stubborn door, this time the door to his old sedan that he had driven up here. The door open, he hurled his body onto the worn driver's seat and slammed the door shut just in time to catch the monster's knuckles in the door's death grip. The zombie pounded his free hand on the window, smearing blood across the pollen covered glass. Rainier cried out in frustration, hot tears flowing freely down his face from the shear terror of it all.
He slipped his now sticky fingers around the door-handle and quickly opened the door enough to push the fingers out and to slam the door back shut before they could find their way back in.
He started the car and drove to the only other safe haven he knew in this part of the country.
To an old friend's house.