Chapter Three "It is better to be hated for who you are, than to be loved for someone your not" anon

A flash back for Dante. Please take note of the date, this will become key in the chapters to follow © Dawns

Dante's Parents house, Kingston Ontario, Canada, 2:30pm, June 13^th 2026

“Hello is anyone here?” I announced as I was walking into my parents house. “Mom, Matt, Dad? Are you guys home?” They better not have just left the door unlocked again, As i was walking past the kitchen I glanced over my shoulder into the living room. As I was just about to turn my attention elsewhere I noticed a splatter of blood on the wall as well as some on the floor underneath it. Okay something defiantly happened here. As I knelt down to get a closer loot at the blood on the wall and carpet I heard the front door up behind me. When I registered the noise, I spun around and with a stern voice I asked; “Who's there?”

“Dante is that you?” a woman's voice sobbed.

“Mom?”

“Dante its a good thing you finally came back. We need to talk.” The tone of her voice became much more harsh as she spoke.

“I know.” I sighed with some hesitation “What do you want to talk about?”

“Your little 'tactic' in North Korea.” She walked into the living room and glared at me with the tears still drying on her cheeks. Well at least she has stopped crying, that's a bonus, I thought to myself.

“Its resorting back to this isn't it?”

“You where the soul reason why over a hundred thousand civilians deaths, of course it will resort back to 'This'!” She began to yell

“Mom, we have already been over this once, I was just following my orders”. Come on Dante keep your cool.

“Don't you dare lie to me you low life murderer”. My mother spat at me as she began her approach. When she was walking towards me, she lifted up her arm and slapped me across the face.”You have brought so much shame on me as you mother”. I just stood silent for a moment as I gathered myself. You knew this was going to happen, come on Dante get a hold of yourself man. Do you really want this to be the way your relationship is with your only family? When she was looking at me, the tears began streaming down her face again.

“Mom you have to believe me I didn't cause that nuclear exchange. - I was just following my orders.”

“You still killed Kim Jong-Il, and that's what caused the North Koreans to launch those missiles”

“I had to, believe me it would have been much worse if he didn't die. He was planning a full scale invasion on South Korea after launching 2 ballistic missiles at Japan. If he didn't die the casualties would have been in the millions.”

“That's not what the reports said, and why should I believe you? You disappeared for 6 months to only God knows where, you can't tell me that's not suspicious”. She growled at me.

“I left to try to wait out the storm that was going to spawn from the media, because they don't understand that people die at war.” I snarled back.

“So? These people didn't have to die, yet they did anyways.”

“Your right they didn't have to die, but would you have wanted more people to die if he went through with his plan to attack Japan and South Korea?” Calm down, don;t let her get to you. You need to keep calm.

“I would rather have that happen then have to deal with my eldest son being known as a heartless killer.”

“I know you would, but I wasn't about to let millions die like that. You know I didn't want anyone to die, but i had to follow my orders.”

“Is that all you care about now Dante? Your f*****g orders? Do you not care that you where ordered to kill someone? Actually no, don't answer that question. I don't want to know your sick motives that justified murder.” She paused for a moment and looked me square in the eyes. “I know your here for a reason. So why don't you spit that out at me, because I know you always have a reason for your actions.”

I just stood and stared at my mother for what felt like an eternity. “I'm here because I want to mend my relationship with you guys. You are the only family I have, and you know that I hate fighting, especially with my own family.”

“Dante you've used that line on me so many times, yet every time you go back on your word, so now lets try the truth.” she snarled as she wiped the tears off of her face with the sleeve of her black windbreaker.

“That is the truth.” The sound of a car pulling into the driveway grabbed my attention. “Who is that?”

“Probably Matthew,” She snarled. “He was dropping your father off at the hospital. Some crazed man broke into our basement earlier today and pinned your father down and bit him in the arm. I was got called out of work because of this.” That would explain the blood in the living room.

“What? That makes no sense. Did he try to steal anything from the house or. . .” my mother cut me off.

“No from what Matt told on the phone, the man saw your father and in what appeared to be a drunken stupor walked towards him and bit him.”

“Oh, so is that that why you where crying when you walked in then?”

“Yes, as I said I got the called out of work because of this. He was taken to Kingston General hospital in case you want to go visit him”.

“Oh, aren't you still a nurse there? So why would you come home?”

“No, I got transferred down to Providence Care to help train the nurses. So I figured I should get changed before I see your father.

“Oh...” The front door opened. “Hey, Matt is that you?”

“Dante? So I see you finally decided to come home.” Matt walked into the kitchen holding his forehead. “Sorry I'm not feeling that great right now, I didn't think I would get so queasy from blood.” He looked up at me and smiled “But its good to see you big brother.”

“Its good to see you to Matt.”

My mother walked over to Matt and placed her wrist on his forehead. “Matt your burning up Hun, you really should go lie down for a bit, to try calm down, because you look incredibly stressed out.”

I noticed a cut on his left hand with some dried blood around it. “Matt what happened to your hand?”

“Oh, I cut my hand on some glass just before dad got bitten by that psychopath who broke into our house.”

“Oh... did you get someone else's blood blood in the wound during dad's fight with the man?”

“I think I got some of dad's blood in it, but next to that nothing comes to mind. At least I don't think so, because I only touched the bite on dads arm to apply pressure to try to slow the bleeding.”

“Okay, What happened to the guy who attacked him?”

“John came over from next door when he heard dad scream when he was being bit. He pinned the guy down while we waited for the cops to show up.” Matt shivered at the memory. “But man, that guy was like a ravage animal, constantly trying to bite him and stuff.”

This sounds so familiar to something I have heard of before but what was it exactly?

“That's odd.” My mother added.

Could this be the plague they where talking about in Australia? No that was just some sick rumour that people were spreading just to scare people.

“Umm... Matt? Did you notice anything odd about the man who attacked dad?” I asked

“ ... Come to think of it yea, it looked like he was bleeding. Although it was under his jeans, there was a fresh blood stain on where his calf would have been.” Matt replied with some hesitation.

It fits the description but... N0! Stop thinking so irrationally. There is no way these are zombies those are only a thing of fiction. Even thinking that zombies exist makes me feel like a naïve child. I shook my head. “That's weird maybe he cut himself breaking into our house?”

“Maybe, but his jeans weren't cut so I don't think that's it.” Matt began to blink heavily. “I'm really sorry Dante, but I need to go to the bathroom I feel like I'm going to puke. Can talk later?”

“Okay” Matt then began to make his way to the bathroom using the wall as a guide. He appeared to be in some kind of drunken or dazed state. “Mom you should really get him to the doctor.”

“I think its just he shocked at what happened today. He should be fine in the morning.” She replied with some concern present in her voice.

“Your the one with the degree in medicine, not me.” I smiled softly. ”Just keep a close eye on him okay?”

“I will, don't worry, but Dante?”

“Yea?”

“Can you at least have the decency to tell your own mother where you where for the past 6 months?”

“Yea I think at the very least I owe you that much... I was in Australia, trying to avoid the situation completely. Although there is one more thing I need to ask you.”

“I knew you had an alternative motive on why you where here, but I'll try to answer it for you.”

“When I was in Australia I heard rumour of some kind of super disease that was spreading in the Korea's as well as China. Do you know anything about this?”

“... As always you know whats going on in the world, and yes I have heard of it, but before you ask. No I don't know anything about it, now lets change the subject.”

How Did I know I would get an answer like that, I rolled my eyes. “Okay, I can tell that's a touchy subject.”

“Yea... If I could tell you more I would, but I really can't If my boss finds out I even mentioned it to you I would get fired.” My mother looked towards the bathroom as the sound of regurgitated food began to hit the water. “Where are you going to stay?”

“I've rented a hotel room for now. I'm probably gonna call Ron tomorrow to see if I can move back in with him”

“Okay, but I should really go help Matt out.”

“I understand, would it be okay if I popped by in a few days to see if we can work out our differences?”

“Sure, I think your father would appreciate that.”

“Okay, but I should go try to find some people. I owe them an apology for what I did, and try to make amends with it.”

She laughed, “Rielle?”

“Yea,” I looked at my feet momentarily as I remembered how she reacted when I told her I was going away for a bit. “I had a feeling you knew, well I should be off, I talk to you later mom.”

“Bye , don't forget we still need to finish talking about you little... event.”

I sighed, “Believe me I know. Tell Matt I hope he gets better.”

“I will” She then walked towards the bathroom to see if Matt was okay or not.

Then I turned my back to my mother and made my way to the front door. This isn't good I really should go stop by the hospital or something to see how dad is doing. While I'm there I may be able to see what's going on with this, there has to be a logical explanation for whats going on... Wait don't get ahead of yourself man, first I really need to make amends with Rielle. “God I hope she has calmed down since the last time I saw her.” I whispered to myself as I exited the house and closed the front door behind me.

Author's Note

This is the newest chapter in the novel, its still rough but yea. I did a little bit of surface editing, but if you notice any please tell me. I would appreciate it a lot.

Reviews

[ChloeKirk]

Well, it starts out like every zombie movie I've ever seen, what with the ''oh that's weird some crazy dude tried to bite me", which is your staying true to your roots is fine, but if you are looking to go off the beaten path that's maybe something you might want to consider changing. Kim Jong Il will be about 82 or so in 2026 or so, but I love the idea of that old conflict still causing trouble. Also the mother confrontation is hard to visualize for some reason, I think it's because she's not happy to see her son at all.

[Dawns]

Thanks, And yea I did kinda type this chapter up quickly xD, But thanks for the critisism I really enjoy hearing what people think of my work, as long as it is constructive xD.

[Y.]

I do like where it's going. :)
I liked this chapter better than the previous one because I learned more from it = always good!

But, I think you ought to run your chapters through a Word processor before posting them on here, there are quite a lot of little spelling mistakes that I guess came about through typing it up fast.

Oh and since it's nice to have a break from the conversation (you know, all that information), add bits and pieces of description. < not so sure whether I want you to do that... just a thought?

I see you edited it! :D Definitely better now!

[Dawns]

I know the mother thing is hard to visualize, but in the chapters to follow it will be explained a little bit better, there is a lot of back story that I'm revealing in the next chapter. On the note of originality I have an idea that is slightly different but I'm not going to spoil that quite yet.

[Luna Northstar]

Another interesting chapter, I just get more hooked every time. Its slightly confusing, but all the information is coming slowly. I like this, mostly because its a slow process. Its not like the type of zombie book that goes 'all of a sudden zombie's popped out of the ground and started biting everyone.' Your book is really interesting so far, keep it up :)