Memories Are All Thats Left

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2012-02-17T09:00:00.002-05:00

look this upcoming monday for more to the story thank you for waiting.

# 66

2012-02-03T21:30:00.000-05:00

I fell to the ground holding my neck, dammit , dammit, dammit she friggin bit me. How the hell could I get sucked into that poor little girl shtick. Damn you Leeya you bit me. I leaned back and aimed my gun at the top of her head. Anger was flowing through me so badly I wanted to squeeze the trigger and end her so much it burned. I fell for her and now I'm food for her , I should just take her head off. I aimed the gun and my hand started to shake, I pulled it down with my other hand. I can't give up on her, it wasn't Leeya that bit me it was the other version that did. If I squeeze the trigger I am no better than the "thing" that bit her. I couldn't give up it was my promise to her , in this world there wasn't much to hang on to or many people to either. My word was all that was left, if I kill her or let the "thing" inside of her win her over I will lose everything that I have left. Everything worth living for. I started to feel so depressed that I contemplated turning the gun on my damn self. Maybe that would be better, I wouldn't kill her I would take myself out of the equation. I thought a long time on it looking down the barrel. I can't say if it was a change of heart or chickening out, at this point it was a blur. I started to see double and then heard branches snapping behind me. I turned to look and the man in the blue robe was standing over me looking down. "I see the snake has bitten you! My friend you will have to see the darkness now before any chance of light". I looked back to Leeya and she was gone. I tried to find her but blacked out.

I started to come to with a buzzing in my ears, my head was hurting me so bad that I wanted to just put my hands on it and squeeze. I tried to pick up my hands but found out rather quickly they were tied to my sides outstretched. I started to open my eyes and it was so bright I had to squint for a minute and let my eyes get used to the brightness. When I finally got them somewhat adjusted I could see the man in the blue robe leaning over me with a huge spotlight beaming into my face. Behind him and the light I could see the silhouettes of people presumably tied in the same position as me. I could see they had themselves tied with their arms outstretched and legs as well and come to think of it I could feel my right leg like that too , my left leg I haven't felt for a while now. The man was leaned over next to my side and then I felt a sharp pain and yelled out. He got up and looked at me "Oh I see you have woken up, well then allow me to show you some of my work" he said in a very easy going voice. I said "what have you done to me? why am I tied up? where are my friends?" He smiled " Ah yes the rebels, no need to fret they will join you shortly, however whether or not your still alive to see them is entirely up to you now". I started to get confused "How is it up to me? you have me tied up what is it you want?" I asked in as nice a way as I could in my present predicament.

"Do you know where your girlfriend is? the half thing? do you know where she ran off to?" He asked in a very quizzical sort of way. "No we had fought just before you found me, I don't know where she went". He started a cocky laugh "Oh it is going to be a long night with those particular answers, tell me something? do you like pain?" He asked in a way that was obvious had no fair answer. "Well I am listening to you so ...yeah I must" I said and I almost regretting being such a smart ass as soon as it rolled off my lips. "I will test your bounds my good man, you will know after this session what you can and cannot handle, I will touch all of your thresholds and you will give me the answers I so desire" he said in a creepy , I know more than I want you to know sort of way. "Wait " I begged off for a moment trying to buy some time before the coming torture. "Why do you want her so bad whats the deal?" I asked in a half ass way of seeming like maybe I knew something I could make a deal with. "You know something?" he asked me in a strange way. " I think anything you say now is to save your own skin, and I don't want to hear lies. I think that the only way you'll be honest is if you believe me so let me show you what Father Whitecross has in store for you".

I heard the humming , buzzing sound again and then could now see what was making the noise. He had a large bone saw in his hand. Wait a damn minute what was he sawing when I woke up I thought. Then he leaned into my side again and started to saw at my ribs right through the skin. The pain was so intense I screamed an unholy hell of a scream and yet I felt it was too soft, and damn near passed out. He then leaned up and said to me "Now you see I can continue sawing at this one rib until i get to the heart of the matter or... I can stop." he said in such a calm manner it was almost like two pieces of footage pasted together. "Now I would rather keep going because the human anatomy has always interested me so, however if you wish me to stop a simple answer gets the machines shut off and the medication applied". I gasped for a breath and looked at the light once more. "Ill never give up on you baby" I whispered. The man leaned in and asked "What was that? are you telling me what I need to hear or what you need to say?" I leaned down to my chest as far as the ropes allowed then murmured again " Ill never give up on you baby". He said with a smile in his voice "We shall see how big your heart really is in a moment so don't say another word, I will let you have one request and it shall be done as for honor" the man looked at me and made sure I had him eye to eye. "What would you like for a last request? hmm? " I leaned over and said "give her my heart and go to hell". He turned the saw on and started to lean in, I felt sick to my stomach and just the light breeze from the saw next to the previous area he cut was more pain than my leg had ever been. I was thinking passing out was a good plan but didn't get the chance.

# 65

2012-02-02T13:50:00.001-05:00

We started out the doorway and headed down the hall with the desk we had already dealt with. I had Leeya leaning against me and with my leg and her it was all I could do to keep upright. Fish was leading us and I had faith he wouldn't lead us into a trap or group of bad folks. We reached the end of the hallway and Rusty peered out the doorway and could see it was clear. He turned to us and whispered his findings and we all got ready. "As soon as the door opens everyone run straight ahead fast and stay low, no looking back for anything just haul ass" Rusty had a good plan I just hoped it wouldn't be for nothing.

He opened the door and we all started running as fast as we could. The air was full of the scent of burning wood and the darkness in front of us had a strange glow from behind us that made shadows of us all as we ran to the trees. Despite what I heard from Rusty I managed to peek behind us while helping Leeya run. The building we were inside of was what appeared to be an old hunting lodge in the woods and just past it was a bonfire surrounded by people. I honestly wish I never looked back because in the crowd of people was a man in a long blue robe next to the fire with white long hair and a beard, and he was staring directly at us. I could hear him say something and then point, the entire crowd of people with him started running in our direction. "Move everyone we've been spotted" I yelled.

The rush into the tree line was quick yet once I could see the crowd after us I felt like we had our feet in molasses. I was running past the pain and Leeya was leaning so bad that I stopped and threw her over my shoulder caveman style and continued running. She was swinging around on my bag murmuring something but with my adrenaline screaming and my heart rate through the roof I wasn't able to decipher what it was. Rusty and Fish were what seemed like a mile ahead of me and Deb who was probably the fastest of all of us was out of my sight already Linda was just ahead of me and as much as I wished I could see how far behind us the group was I couldn't take another second to look with Leeya on me. My chest started to get heavy and my leg was in so much pain I could barely feel it , to the best of my knowledge I was going into a weird form of shock. I knew it was in bad shape but to go numb to the point of me feeling like I was running on a foot that was asleep was just brutal.

I could start to hear something behind us and it wasn't anything I was going to stop and check out. I kicked it into overdrive and started to haul even more ass. Behind me the trees limbs making cracking sounds and the snow and ice that was remaining over the leaves was making a crunching noise, I knew we were losing ground on the crowd behind us. I was starting to run out of steam and with all of my injuries and Leeya on my shoulder I knew we weren't going to be able to outrun them. I started to see a glow to the trees in front of me and it was a wake up call that they were even closer than I suspected. I started looking around while running and spotted an old tree that was rotted and leaning over quite a bit. I headed that was and darted behind it and collapsed to the ground and then put Leeya down on me so the leaning tree hid us. I watched in horror as a group of about twenty people with flames on torches ran past the tree and they were in full sprint. They were wearing next to nothing and appeared fine in the cold and snow it was very odd.

I wondered if the rest of the group I had lost view of would be able to get away or if they would start slowing down but I wasn't going to dare and move just yet.We waited a good half our and when I was sure no one was coming and the flames had long vanished I tried to wake Leeya. She was in rough shape the guys that had caught her worked her over pretty rough. I got her to come to a bit and she went right back to a kind of sleep if you will. I did my best to get her back on my shoulder and whispered to her " I'm not gonna give up on you" and I started to go in the direction heading to my left figuring behind me was the bonfire and in front of me was the group of people but to my left and right were unknown and to my best ability the left of me led to the area that we ditched the RV and the "things" were.

I started to get a bit of a sprint and the numbness in my leg was now heading to the hip and waist area. I also started to feel a sting in my neck and that was when I realized I was being bitten by Leeya. I stopped and put her down and she went into full attack mode on me. "Leeya what the hell you were biting me? Why would you bite me?" I asked her in a panic. She didn't even acknowledge me and started trying to jump on me and bite me again. "Baby this isn't kinky it's just bad , I don't want to hurt you" I pleaded but she continued to try and bite my and she was snapping like a dog trying to get the mailman. I leaned back and knocked her to the ground with a left hook and she started to cry. "Why did you hit me baby" she said while crying. I leaned down " I'm sorry Leeya you were biting me I didn't want to" I said and she turned and bit me on the neck hard. I hauled off and knocked her out. Dammit she bit me am I going to turn now?

# 64

2012-02-01T16:38:00.002-05:00

We started climbing up the hill and being about as quiet as a group of people running for their lives in the cold could be when they were all equally out of breath, Linda was having a full blown asthma attack it seemed and Deb was redder than an Irish man on St. Patricks day. I was hobbling up behind everyone with my leg leaving a nice bread crumb like trail of blood. Leeya was just in front of me and was walking up the hill with such a relaxed posture it appeared she had just joined the group. We were all completeley wasted physically and she looked like she just started walking. Rusty was at the top of the hill now ahead of all of us and Fish was right behind him. They both stopped and stared at something as if they were in shock, I could hardly wait to see what it could be. Leeya stopped moving and I bumped into her while staring at my footing climbing up. "What's the matter baby you tired already?" I said to her as I regained my footing. She didn't say anything and started moving backwards brushing against me in the other direction this time. "What are you doing?" I asked "were going this way!" She looked at me for a moment then right back at the top of the hill. I wheeled my head around to see what was at the top of the hill and watched as Rusty , Fish and the girls were putting their guns down and their hands in the air. What the hell was up there?

I turned to look to Leeya and caught her in full sprint mode going down the hill. "Baby where the hell are you going?" I asked loudly so she could hear. Then I felt a sharp pain in my back and the feeling like I was hit with a stray foul ball. "What the hell?" I said out loud. In front of me Leeya looked back to me for a second then mouthed the words "I'm sorry" and disappeared behind a tree. I tried to turn around and see what the hell hit me and got kicked right in the face. That was all I remembered until I woke up.

I started to come to and looked around me. My knee was hurting so bad now I was probably awakened by it. The only thing that hurt as bad was my back in the right kidney area where the baseball type of pain was that slowed me down. I started to try and rub my head and realized my hands were behind me tied to whatever I was leaning against. I started to take a better look around and get my bearings. In front of me was what looked like fencing , almost like a dog kennel at the pound and to my side was another area where I could see Fish and Rusty. Across from us in the makeshift hall were Deb and Linda. I asked " Is everyone OK?" Fish cleared his throat and said "Yeah but any idea where your girl ran off to?" I thought for a minute then just muttered "NO" and started trying to move my wrists. "It's no use man I been trying for an hour we got tied up in cables, you'll just end up cutting yourself." I tried a bit more until I started cutting myself, shoot Fish was right. Deb called out"Why are we here ?why are you doing this to us? what do you want?" Her questions were unnoticed and I could here people talking just out of the doorway next to my "pen' I was tied up in. We were captured by someone and why is a better question. I yelled out " What the hell is going on give us some answers you dumb son of a bitches" I figured subtlety was best. It worked too , at the end of the room in the doorway a man appeared. He was dressed like someone who raided a camouflage store and wanted to look like Rambo only he wasn't pulling it off.

"Why don't you degenerates shut the hell up before I start putting my foot in your asses one by one". I looked to him and said " Sorry no disrespect intended sir, I was trying to just get someones attention I...." The man cut me off and said "Shut the hell up, do you think I don't know what blowing smoke up my ass feels like? Well I do. You people are trespassing on our land in the middle of world war 3 and want us to honor your every request? I will say it like this and only once , The next time you get my attention I will take a chunk out of your ass and hand it to you got it?" I looked to Fish and he was shaking his head no, so was Rusty but I had to try something, sitting in here waiting for whatever this moron was trying to do was no plan at all. "So what your highly educated camo wearing ass is saying is if I get your attention even one more time that you will come in here and attempt to make me impressed with your lack of physical ability to even make me notice you throwing a stiff breeze at me?"

The man headed instantly for my cage and started to fish out the key to the lock. While he was doing this I was still trying to get my hands untied and managed with a great degree of pain to myself and fear as my motivation to get my right hand out and as soon as I did that my left hand with what tied them together still around it slipped out from the fence links behind me. The man came in and spit on my foot then kicked me in the knee that was dark and wet with blood. I said in a pained voice "you lean down to me and so much as smile I will rip it off your face". He looked astonished and then removed his hat and leaned down and said "you mean like this dead man?" I leaned in as if I was going to kiss him and said " yes just like that dummy" I swung my hands from behind me and grabbed his ears then pulled them down to my uplifting knee giving him what I always referred to as a stop sign. The crack of his mouth on my knee hurt me as well as some of his teeth dug in. He fell back almost instantly and I leaned into the fence behind me to help me get up to my feet.

"Now what was it you were gonna do to me again? What was it deadman?" I said as I skulked over to him . He held his hand out in a wait or no movement but I buried my good leg steel toe boot first right into his groin while he had his other hand holding his mouth together. The sheer force of it made him gurgle and cough and then proceed to throw up. From the looks of it he was eating well in this little area we were trapped in. Fish said loudly "Holy crap man get the keys quick." I reached down and the man made some effort to stop me. I grabbed his hair and did a wrestling version of the "bulldog" and rammed his head face first into the concrete. Instantly the fight was over as the man stopped moving all together. He was either knocked out or dead, either way I won and had the keys and looky here a new gun too. I made my way to the cages of the girls and unlocked them then untied them and then they helped me with the guys.

"What happened while I was out?" I asked the group. "They searched us all and started to talk about testing something on us." Deb said to me, "I could hear everything real good from where they had me tied up so I heard a lot of the plan". I looked at everyone "what plan?" Linda looked at me " They want to inject us with something and have a zombie bite us to see if we become one or were fine". "Are you kidding me ? What the hell is this redneck science lab time?" We needed to get out of their and fast. Rusty said there were about thirty of them and that the place was set up like a military base. Only he had not seen anyone who looked military. His thought was they took this place over when the military ditched it. I took the gun and started to move slowly to the end of the hall where the doorway was the man came from. "Shhhhh everyone stay back and be silent" I whispered. We made it to the door jam and I could see that from one side it was the end of the hall with nothing to it, I peeked to the other side and could see someone at the table just to the side of our hall and they were reading something. I swung around the doorway and aimed the gun at the mans face. "Move and I will end you" I said sternly. "Hands where I can see them and real slow" I ordered as I signaled for the group to follow me.

We took the man and I had Fish and Rusty tie him back to back to the man i had beat down and then gag them both. We locked them in the pen and started making our way down the hallway to see if we could get out of here. Fish had the new gun from the guard at the desk and I was already feeling better about our situation. We got to the end of the hall and the only place to go was through the door in front of us. I did my usual lean into the door as I pulled it to control its movement as slow as possible. At the first crack of it being open I could feel the air hit me, it was outside and that was OK by me. I looked into the distance and could see two men heading this way and they were carrying Leeya. I shut the door and yelled "everyone back in you cells and act like you tied up fast". We all ran back and I went into the cell I was in that now housed the two men and took the beret and coat from the man we got at the desk. I turned them so the man I knocked out or killed was in the corner and then ran back to the desk and acted like I was the man we had grabbed and faced my back to the door the men would be coming in from.

I heard the door open behind me and the cold air blast in. The men came behind me and I could hear Leeya's feet dragging. "Hey Jim got the last one and boy is she a fighter." I nodded and kept my face down. They moved past me and I got up behind them and followed them inside. One man turned to open Debs cage and said "Hey why is this one unlocked Jim?" He turned as he asked and looked at my gun. "You boys put her down gently and get in that cage right there after putting your guns on the floor using only your index finger and thumbs, fist one to disobey me gets to look like the big dude with Jimbo over there" I pointed to the cage I was in. The men did what I asked and everyone got up and came over to help tie and gag them. "You wont survive out there" one of the men said. "Father Whitecross will find you and then youll wish you were bitten". I looked at Fish and we both smirked " Father Whitecross will get you and give you a wedgie" Fish said mimicking the mans voice. I smiled and said "they make too much noise" and slapped the guy in the face with the gun. We got up and I said to everyone "We have to get out of here and fast and not look back, whatever this father crap is lets be gone before it gets to us". Rusty helped me get Leeya up who was sporting a blackeye and split over the bridge of her nose.

"Which one of you hit her" I said to the men that dragged Leeya in. One man with his eyes signaled the other one was the culprit. I said "OK it was you hey tough guy ? well hitting a woman is about as bad as you can get so here is my response" I leaned back and kicked him in the face so hard with my steel toes that his nose was into the back of his head. He started to wiggle and spaz out like he was seizing. "Lets go" I said and walked to the door way.

# 63

2012-01-30T18:36:00.000-05:00

The idea of going back to the RV was tempting but not a solution. Windows had been blown out of it and we were in the middle of no where here with a few miles to go in either direction. Each side of the highway was wood lined and no matter what I thought of running into the woods, not knowing what was in the woods was stopping me from heading in that direction. "Back to the RV everyone!" I yelled to the group and we all started to run back to the motor home. I trailed behind the crowd and and had my eyes and gun aimed at the oncoming demons. We had a huge head start and would make it back no problem but I wasn't going to take any chances. We got to the RV and I climbed in behind the wheel. I flipped the dual tank switch and turned it over a few times. It finally caught and the gauge read almost empty. I figured it ran out on one tank but never on the other so maybe it can go far enough to not leave us in hell.

Throwing it in gear it started to chug along, and we started moving to the crowd of "things". I bared down on the wheel and buried the pedal accelerating into the small group. The "things" did what they always do and ran right into the front of the RV trying to get at the people inside. The thud and bang were stomach churning but necessary. I looked over to each side checking the mirrors and could see the beasts trying to get to their feet and turn to come after us. Leeya was standing to the back of me holding on to the CB above my head for balance. I glanced at her for a quick second and she looked back with a glimmer of her old self. I was suddenly in the RV with just her and we were on our way to a southern plane. It was a nice moment but the thudding in the front of the RV made me turn back to the roadway. My eyes widened when I looked ahead of the RV. Hundreds if not a thousand of the "things" everywhere you looked and an airplane, a large one like a 747 broken apart across the highway. It must have brought them all out to feed with the noise of the impact whenever that was. I yelled out to everyone "Hang on it's about to get real bumpy!" I shoved the throttle down and started cutting through the massive crowd.

I continued through the group and at first it was smiling each time I made eye contact with one of the "things" and then ran it down but a funny thing started to happen. The more I ran them down the more the sound and feeling of the RV rolling over them made my stomach turn. I was thinking one of these "things" was in the same boat as Leeya. Would I run her down this easily, do any of them deserve this? Then I started to think about all of the people who have been killed , bitten, or eaten by them. Memories of my mothers house went through my mind, and then memories of Leeya biting Brent a few times did as well. I started to wonder if Leeya was Leeya at all or if the "thing" she looked like was using parts of what she was and who she was to fool me, and all of us. What if Leeya really was gone and the chemo I had given her only kept part of her alive for it to use and I hadn't really saved her at all. I had only cursed her with a life of being half trapped in the hell of the "thing" and not being able to be free to move on to whatever was next , if anything. I was never much of a religious man but with everything that was happening in the world it was hard to think "god only gives you what you can handle". If that were true the world was pretty weak.

"Thump, Thump, Thump", the bodies across the front end of the RV went flying as I continued through them. I felt an ice cold pair of lips on my neck as Leeya reached down and kissed me and then whispered in my ear, "Kill them all baby , kill them all". I smirked and kept on trucking through the crowd more and more of the thudding started to roll off me like water on a duck's ass. You can push yourself through a lot in this world when you have a woman behind you, even if shes only half alive. The RV started to surge a bit and I realized we were going to run out again but this time in the middle of a crowd of the things. I cut the wheel to the RV sending everyone in the back flying around and shot into the woods towards the side road we were almost to the exit for. "Were going to either run out or get stuck in here so get ready with the guns and legs, we need to run and start shooting!" I yelled to the back. The RV was chugging when I hit the water run off culvert and it sent us airborne for what can only be said is way too long for an RV of this size. We crashed down so hard I thought I may have broken my tailbone and the RV pummeled through a large grouping of trees before getting hung up on the last few.

"Everyone get you stuff and run come one quickly their on their way" I yelled as I got Leeya back to her feet. I glanced out the door as everyone started coming up behind me and could see a sea of "things" coming towards us. They mostly were moving very slowly and not running this time and I felt a bit better despite the fact that it looked like a concert just let out and we had free T shirts. I grabbed Leeya's hand and started out of the RV with everyone right behind us. "We have to get moving and find somewhere to either hide or better transportation". Leeya said to me in a regular voice like she wasn't scared at all "No baby we need to just keep running". I looked back at her and could see she was serious as a heart attack. We continued running with Leeya's words on my mind, she knew something and maybe she was right but it was getting dark and colder by the minute. We could run until we were out of energy and then what? I started in gasping breaths to talk with Leeya about what she said and she just insisted we keep running.

We ran until I had heard enough bitching and moaning from the rest of the group and trust me they did a lot of it. I didn't want to run at all my leg was screaming at me and my boot was feeling warm with the blood starting to fill it. We were in big trouble if those "things" had any of the runners in the pack with them. "Hang on a second man, let's just wait and listen are they still behind us?" Rusty asked in a panting voice. We listened and I couldn't hear anything. I looked around and we had run pretty far into the woods not, we ran right past the side road and into the woods on the other side of it and deep in. I could see a pretty decent size hill off to the left of us. "Come one lets get up top and see if they are still back there" I said to everyone. We climbed up the hill and I hoped there would either be nothing in the distance chasing us or something in the distance to head for that was safe.

# 62

2012-01-27T14:35:00.004-05:00

Fish ran to the kitchens of all of the rooms they had all been staying in and started filling a couple of pillow cases with any food that could stay fresh and whatever we could try and stuff in the refrigerator. Rusty went around and rounded up any and all weapons the dead intruders had left behind and ammo that they had on hand. Deb and Linda took off for the clothing they had and Jenn and Leeya went to help with the rest of the blankets. I started getting everyone of the guns Rusty started dropping on the table in front of me ready with fresh ammo as we had it and having them lined up to grab. The entire time I had my eyes stuck on the entrance to the parking lot just in case we took too long. Rusty came by with few more clips of ammo and handed me a vest. "Here man you need this with your damn luck." he said handing me the bullet proof vest he had pry ed off of one of the dead men. I guess it only helps bullets but when a missile enters the room your done as done. Leeya headed to the RV and started helping get everything inside of the mobile house we had been using the past few days. Fish came back by me and said "It's good having you back man, we all missed you. Specially when Brent freaked out on the rest of us and started trying to hold us hostage. If Rusty hadn't of done what he did we would all be dead probably." I looked at Rusty doing whatever needed to be done and said to Fish " guys who just get the shit done seem to be the ones you can always trust huh?" Fish smiled "yeah buddy no shit huh".

We got everything we could from the Hotel and climbed aboard the RV. I turned the key and just as I started the RV down the road a bit you could see an old school bus heading towards us with enough heads in it to look like a football team heading to an away game. "That's our cue" I said out loud. Fish looked over and said out loud "O man were dead". I looked back" that was positive , everyone listen to Fish he will lead us in prayer". Fish called out asshole and punched my shoulder. I jammed the pedal down and the RV lurched forward. "We're bigger than they are so we will win if it comes down to it" I called out as we started hammering on to the roadway. The side of the bus had a few windows drop down the way they do on the old bus's and I watched several machine guns and another arm cannon start aiming out of the bus and in our direction. "Everyone get the hell down to the floor immediately!" I yelled and then told Fish "Get that arm cannon and line it up man, It's us or them". He looked more concerned then ever and grabbed for the missile launcher.

"Wait how the hell do I use this thing???" He asked frantically. "Grab the wheel Ill do it Fish". He grabbed the wheel and I jumped into the back and started getting the last missile we had into the launcher. Just as I started to get ready the side of the RV was getting riddled with bullets. They were already firing at us trying to hit Fish. I jumped back up and leaned out the side window they had just blown out with their bullets. " Hold her steady man for just a second!" I yelled to Fish and then checked to make sure no one was behind me. "FWOOOOSH" it was off like...well a rocket and it was a direct hit to the side of the oncoming bus. "BOOM" the bus shuddered in the explosion and even the RV did as well and everyone on the floor screamed. "YEAH YOU DID IT MAN YOU GOT EM" Fish yelled out excitedly. "Good driving man WE got em" I called out to him. I watched as we drove by the burning wreckage of the bus as people were flopping around inside of it on fire screaming. That was gonna leave a mark I thought.

"Everyone OK in here come on now call out when I yell your name, Jenn?" I started doing a check on everyone. "Jenn? " I yelled out again. I turned and looked back and saw everyone huddled around Jenn who was laying still with her eyes open and a hole in the center of her chest. "Shit Jenn? Jenn you OK?" Leeya looked back to me and shook her head no. We all had to have a quick gut check on it. Jenn was gone , she was unfortunate enough to have been too close to the side of the RV when they fired on us and caught one in the oddest place. Deb was crying and Linda too but Leeya just sort of moved past her and leaned over to kiss my neck. It was a bit surreal and I think had Rusty giving us a weird look. "Fish just keep going man anywhere just get us away from here fast." I yelled over to him. He nodded and kept on moving through the blocked intersection. I looked back at the bus that was burning and thought to myself that maybe this was the group that had a hard on for me and Leeya with the woman we had hit. They had a lot of people in the group it was odd and they seemed so hell bent on getting to us. I felt mixed about Jenn. She was gone and it was a hard one to take, especially when she died hiding from the thing that got her. But in a way she was free. She would never be a thing and she didn't suffer. Hell I don't think she even yelled when she was shot, maybe that was the way to go.

We moved down the road and I told Fish to keep making some distance since we didn't know where those freaks had come from and would hate to stop near the home base of these freaks. We had to get a big distance between us and the Hotel and then find somewhere to bury Jenn. To leave her out would be letting the "things" have a free dinner and I couldn't do that. I was more concerned right now with the chance that Leeya would go and take a bite out of her old pal right in front of everyone, then what do I do? No way that was going to end well. I had my gun at the ready for any unsuspecting "things" and pirates while constantly eyeballing Leeya to make sure she wasn't getting any evil thoughts towards Jenn's body. She caught me watching her and gave me this knowingly yet sexy look with a slight squint. It made the entire situation crazier than before after everything we had been through in the past few hours.

I was nervous about stopping to bury or attempt to bury Jenn. Although I never got to know her too well she was one of the original group me and Fish hooked up with and her friends here had known her for a lot longer. She deserved a little more respect than being tossed out of the RV and left for the "things" to feed on. I know if it was me I would appreciate a little respect hell, find a bridge and toss me off and send me down the river. But don't leave me for dinner. We didn't get very far down the road when Fish started asking me for a hand and when I went in the front he pointed to the fuel gauge which was empty. I told him about the switch and when he hit it the other tank read even lower. The attackers at the Hotel had drained the tank on me when we were sleeping more than likely, dammit. I looked around and we were in the middle of no where on the highway heading towards where the rural area was located out this way. I knew if we choked out on this stretch we were in trouble and then as I tried to think of a back up plan the RV died.

We coasted to a stop and Let it sit right in the middle of the lane. I rounded up the guns and told everyone to dress as warm as possible. We got out of the RV and carried Jenn to the side of the road next to the tree line. Then with the ground frozen up from the frost I had everyone hunt for rocks and we would give her a rock grave, basically covering her with rocks and leaving her there. It took quite a while to round up the rocks but we had nothing but time on our hands. After we covered her the girls thought the "things" would still be able to smell her and just dig her out. Fish came up with a great idea but no one else would bite. We could cover her with urine. Maybe like with hunters it would keep them away for a while. No one would go for it so I did the next best thing and headed to the RV and took out some gas from the back for the generator. Covering the rocks with it I said a little prayer for her as best I could not being a religious person and we lit her a blaze much like I did at my mothers house.

Deb and Linda wanted to stay and watch but Rusty had the right idea and we got moving. If they could smell a body covered in stones in the middle of no where they sure as hell could smell one burning. We got moving and fast the next exit was a good six miles up and we had to get to stepping. We started walking down the side of the highway towards the next exit. It was starting to head to sunset at this time of year it gets dark all too early. With the sun going down the temperature was plummeting as well and we all had to get somewhere warm and safe fast or we were in big trouble out here. Down the highway a piece a man came running out of the woods. He stopped in the low speed lane and looked back and forth. Once he spotted us he started heading our way and he wasn't walking he was running. "Holy crap I never seen one run before have you?" Fish said aloud to me. "Yeah I have" I responded as I got my gun ready. Suddenly about four or five more came out behind him and joined in on the run. "Maybe we should go the other way" Linda said in a shaky voice. If she was getting nervous we may be in for some big trouble here.

# 61

2012-01-27T14:30:00.006-05:00

We were in a room that was safe and yet I felt trapped with them waiting patiently for someone to materialize in a hallway on one of the floors. I knew it wouldn't be us and they better have some time on their hands if they want to wait us out. I had hoped they would be looking in the woods if they thought we had actually gotten off the roof. I still had to wonder what they had seemingly been waiting for at the pool. They acted like they were in wait for something but what? Was whatever they had been waiting for sitting in the room with them? What or who could it be? Why even wait? The questions were in my head right along side the questions like how the hell did this all happen and so damn fast? And why did it seem like no one was running or trying to escape? None of this made any sense. I wanted someone on a radio or television to just appear and hand me the information like CNN always did so badly. Maybe a newspaper that stated what happened just before the lights went out everywhere.

There were no answers and being just a regular guy I had no idea where to go to get any. I remember movies with this type of situation where they go to military bases, but they always ended badly. I also remembered people running to the CDC and having the same end, a bad one. I wondered if going to the state capital building or city hall would be anything of consequence. Where do you go when nothing is left? The military was straight sticking people like me and Fish in the line of fire, I still don't know if they were running out of men or if they were running out of options. Fish, Fish, I wonder where he is right now? The note in the room said be back in a while does that mean that Fish and the rest of the gang could come rolling in here any minute and be ambushed? If these guys are looking for a girl Fish will have three of them with him and Rusty, and that wouldn't be good. I was making myself ill with all of these thoughts. I should just stop thinking and start reacting , but that keeps getting me shot.

Leeya found some food in the cupboards and we were having a feast of a can of tuna a tube of pringles and a pack of hostess mini muffins. I know your thinking that thanksgiving came early but it was what we had on hand. We were at the table when I heard someone walking down the hallway outside the door/painting. Leeya stopped chewing her food and slowly put her hand down to grab at the gun next to her. I put down the water and listened carefully. I got up and slowly and I mean slowly moved to the floor in front of the T.V. and switched it from one channel to another until I found the camera in the hall in front of us to the side a bit. A man with a rocket launcher type of hand cannon was standing in the doorway to the gym next to us staring at it for a moment. Then he slowly walked past the painting and over to the room after us and stood there looking into it as well. I nodded to Leeya and she nodded back, go time was about to happen, we had a fellow here who did some math.

He looked at the wall and I was pretty sure he deduced that the space between one room and another left a pretty big gap for nothing to be in between them. I watched him raise his gun to the wall of the room next door to us. I grabbed Leeya and tugged her with me to the floor then ripped the mattress over us. "BOOM" the explosion was so loud I thought I lost my hearing for a second. Something extremely heavy landed on the mattress pinning us to the floor. Leeya looked to me and with my finger signaled the shh sign. I heard the man walk into the room and look around and I patiently waited. I saw just the hand cannon on him so maybe he had a hand gun on him somewhere to but I needed to know where he was before I so much as flinched. I heard his feet crunching through the rubble as he headed to the bathroom. A loud crumble and crash was to the front of me and I imagined it was chunks of the wall falling. I used the sound to hide the sound of me moving a bit as I got my gun ready. I peered around the edge of the mattress and to his eyes we must have looked like simple rubble. I could see his back looking in the closet now next to the T.V. and he reached for a two way in his pocket. "All clear here I found a room but it's empty". Some static and then a broken up " O.K. we will prepare to make off then." Odd way to say that I thought are they foreigners?

The man walked to the door that was the painting from the side we were on and stopped. He waited a second and then picked up the radio again "Second thought someone is here the safety latch is on from inside". And I hung my head for a second "dammit we had it locked from inside". He turned slowly and said aloud " I know someone is in here somewhere. If i have to get you I will get you"all cockily. I told Leeya to stay put and started to get up. He drew his gun on me almost immediately. He was about seven feet tall and built like a wrestler. I was pretty sure it was going to end badly here for one of us. He smiled and said"You alone?" I nodded yes and he laughed shortly and said "I guess my guys imagined a girl with you huh? Looks like I have to kill you slowly to get some answers". I looked past him like someone was behind him and acted like I was signaling with my eyes. He turned quick and I slipped out from the back of my belt my sawed off shotgun. He turned back and I dropped to my knee and fired hitting him in the throat and chin. For once I had a good line and kept it he went over shooting into the wall behind me.

Leeya climbed out from under the mattress and I reached down to help her get up and we dusted each other off. We walked over to the hulking man that was fighting for air and the ability to swallow. I summoned my best Clint Eastwood line and aimed my gun at his face "Why don't you lay there and bleed a while , before you get up and taste some real pain". Leeya looked at me in shock at the line, but I was always good at quotes. He gasped a few more times and I pulled his gun off the floor next to him, as well as the hand cannon. I grabbed another missile from his mini duffel bag he had and loaded it. Leeya leaned over and took aim spitting on his face and making me smile , what can I say it was cooler than my line I thought. We waited and eventually he stopped trying to breath and went still. I grabbed his two way which was constantly being clicked with questions like "should we come up" and "did you get them" but never a hint they had the cameras working. I looked at Leeya and smiled "they cant see from that room they are in". She smiled back and we headed to the stairwell. We went to the first floor and slipped out into the hallway.

I told Leeya that I was going to go room by room down the hall and get close to them with the hand cannon and she said she would be one step behind me. I looked down the hall and then ran over to the small two foot section of privacy wall between room doorways. Leeya peeked out and followed. One room at a time we would dart into rooms that had doors open or behind the privacy walls between them. We were close enough now where we could hear them talking in the hall now, we were about one room away. I placed the two way inside the room we were about to leave and turned it back on full blast and we darted to the room diagonal from it. We made our way to the room across from theirs, if they hadn't kept the door half closed they could have seen us. I waited and then heard it, they said on the two way "Cm on are you OK where are you?" The door started to open as the men heard the two way down the hall and one of them was standing in the door looking down the hall. He glanced in the room we were in for just a moment and could see his final act. It was me with the hand cannon aimed at his doorway. He barely had a second to digest the information his eyes were giving him "Lookout guys" he shrieked.

I squeezed the trigger and watched the man , doorway, and room become a plume of smoke and fire. Leeya ducked down and we instantly were covered in debris again. " That is one bitching gun" I said. Leeya said "Hells yeah" We got up and with my gun drawn headed into the room we removed from the directory. Bodies were everywhere and a few guns, amazing what that gun just did. I counted nine bodies so apparently when we were asleep more people came. The carnage was astounding and I felt a little bad in a small sort of way for doing it this way and not giving these people a fighting chance. It was short lived however as they were looking to kill me and do god knows what with Leeya. The damage to the bodies was even worse, chunks of people missing, and I mean chunks. In the corner I could hear movement and Leeya was on top of it in a heart beat. A guy maybe 20 years old sitting in the corner when the cannon went into the room was now sitting on the floor with no legs or right arm. He was just struggling to move and looked in shock staring at his lack of legs. Leeya aimed her gun at him and asked "Is this all of you?" The man nodded no and mouthed the words "many more coming". Leeya said "Good I haven't killed enough assholes today", and shot him in the head. She put her gun in her belt line and walked away cold like a real warrior, I was impressed.

Then we heard something out near the RV. I moved to the doorway of the room and peeked around the corner to the hallway. "Hey you guys come back?" A familiar voice called out. We got this issue resolved just in time I thought. Me and Leeya headed down the hallway to the opening to the lobby. Rusty was walking into the Hotel and stopped , dropping the bag he had with him. I thought at first it was because of the pool in front of us with Brent floating in it or the dust and debris coming from the hall we were standing in that made him stop but it was something else that I wasn't even noticing any more. He pulled a gun out and yelled to me "Get down I got her" aiming at Leeya. I moved in front of her "No man shes fine trust me" I said realizing he had not seen her like this yet. Matter of fact I would have done the same thing in his shoes, she did look like a thing a little bit . Leeya looked at Rusty and said "Put that thing away before I get mad". Rusty looked at us confused and slowly put the gun down. "She can talk? " He asked confusingly.

Fish came in behind him with Linda, Deb and Jenn behind him. "You guys are back, I wish you would have stayed Brent freaked again and we had to pollute the pool with him. Lee do you need to do some tanning?" Fish said without missing a beat. I looked at everyone and told them about Fred and Unice and about Leeya and the bite and also about the festivities that had just gone down before they had gotten there. Rusty ran past us to check thinking we had lied to him. "Holy crap man they ain't lying" He said in a weird southern almost accent. Fish looked at me and said " This place is wide open and now under attacks, what do we do now boss". I looked at everyone and I was guessing that Fish was out of plans and I was being stuck in leadership again. "Well one of the guys just before he died had told us there were many more men and they were on their way here so grab whatever you can blankets , clothing, and food and get to the RV, we gotta move and move fast".

# 60

2012-01-27T08:49:00.001-05:00

We sat and waited , Leeya had her eyes glued to the television. She was staring intently. I am not sure if she was nervous of being found or if she was waiting to get a chance to fight , she had me completely confused. Usually she was an easy read, but now it was harder almost like a poker face. Great Lady Gaga in my head just what I need now, there was something that could have stayed dead with the old world. The group of men that had arrived were searching but the actions as they searched , the little things like body language and order of things they looked at made me think they weren't the sharpest knives in the drawer. All the people we had lost , scholars, scientists, leaders, and these dumb asses had to make it. They would walk by something ten times then finally check it and only half ass check it. I watched thinking "wow if he had hid there we would be fine right now" they just continued their assault on the dumbest things. They punched walls and kicked beds, I was well aware that injuries and infections can kill you in this world without hospitals, these dummies were looking to injure themselves on purpose.

Finally they made it to the staircase and although the Hotel had a security camera aimed up from the fourth floor it was so dark the only thing I could see on the monitor was a crack of daylight that the brick made available as it held the door open. Leeya looked at me with a certain calmness and relaxingly said "They are coming ". It was odd to see her seem so mellow but she was definitely having her troubles. She was starting to scratch at her arms an awful lot as well and they bared the signs of it. I looked around the room for anything that could be used as a weapon in case of full scale war if the guns became ammo less. I could use the shotgun like a bat but otherwise we were out of weapons at that point. I counted seven guys if it comes down to it I could maybe handle two but that would mean we clipped five and if not that is three and no one, I mean no one was getting to Leeya.

In the small bathroom that was attached to the room we were in was a shelving unit that was standing over the toilet. It was made of steel and was quite sturdy for a bathroom storage unit. I started breaking it apart as quickly and quietly as I could and ended up with two six foot long metal pipes that were the main supports for the unit. I threw them on the bed behind Leeya and started making sure we were fully loaded and ready to rock and roll when the time came, if at all. Leeya said in almost a whisper " They are in the exercise room next door if they see it like you did they will be here soon". I looked with her at the television and whispered "maybe not these guy are sloppy , they could come back to the painting at anytime, they are morons tho".

The men were throwing down exercise bike's and kicking over treadmill's. It was almost comical to watch , like we were hiding behind them. They really were dumb, tiring themselves out trashing every room they went to and to top it off when they had an idea where we were hiding they left to get more guys and just waited. With a gun in his lap the genius who was left to watch the closet never thought we could harm him. These guys were priceless, and even tho Leeya waited with almost anticipation for them to find us I had it already figured these men weren't sharp enough to. They continued the assault on anything that was stationary and useless the entire time we watched on. Leeya was starting to harden again somewhat and I wondered what was going through that head of hers.

I want to say they found it and we had an epic battle with me and Leeya killing them all and walking out the Hotel's front door unscathed but it wasn't the way things went down. They searched high and low and then moved on to the rooftop and from what I could gather must have thought we went up there and escaped some how. They were up there for an awful long time. Probably trying to figure out how we got off that roof. I know one thing , seven men went onto the roof and only six came off. They pulled the brick when they left the roof, which meant they thought we could still be up there hiding or something and locked us outside. Not only that it also meant the seventh man wasn't up there waiting to surprise us. I didn't know if he jumped, was pushed, or slipped off the roof. Maybe he even found some weird way off the damn thing and was trying to somehow track the roof escapee's they thought we were. Whatever happened up there only those six men and number seven know about, I just know we were down to six and they were heading back to floor number three.

They spent an awful lot of time on floor three and I assumed they thought after floor four they didn't check it thoroughly but they were on it for a good hour. Leeya had gotten some water out of the fridge and was sitting on the edge of the bed sipping it while eating crackers from the nightstand. When your this hungry you don't even question food you find in a nightstand you just eat. I was actually grateful she was chewing on food and not a corpse for once. The thought of what she had done in the pool still lingered in my head and I was hoping she would bring it up so I wouldn't have to. If she was the softer Leeya she would make the conversation easy , if she was the harder Leeya she would make me feel like an ass for even mentioning it. Maybe even take a bite out of my damn arm who knows? I did know she was pretty hardcore when she was bitchy and that was what I was feeling out for before the pool incident made it's way into the conversation.

Eventually she passed out, either due to the lack of activity anywhere near us or the fact that she was sleeping a lot and hadn't in a bit. I was tired myself as well but managed to stay awake as long as it took. I dreaded the men finding us let alone the thought of it being while we both were sound asleep. I finally submitted to the sleep demons when i could see the men taking slumber at the side of the pool on the lounge chairs. They had dragged out blankets from the rooms and pillow and were having a miniature hoodlum slumber party down there. It almost seemed to me that they were waiting for something, or someone the way they refused to leave. I started to wonder if the RV still being parked there was why. Maybe they figured if we had escaped we would have took off in it and because it was there we must be too? It was hard to figure what they were thinking they seemed brainless enough. I also noticed the seventh man never reappeared and had to assume he was no longer among us. I curled up next to Leeya and closed my eyes hoping for at least a few hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Feet on a beach , toes in the sand. Umbrella overhead and a cocktail on the side of me. In the distance I could see someone wind surfing. A cruise ship off even farther in the distance , wow it was like some sort of postcard. I felt the warm breeze across my face and the waves crashing in to the shore , but mostly rolling in. Behind me I could hear someone playing a reggae tune on a radio. People randomly laughing as they talked somewhere off in the distance behind me, ahhh I miss the simpleness of life before all the B/S. The dream sure was a nice break. Funny how when you dream now it's of some huge adventure and when your in the adventure the dream is the simple life. I guess the grass is always greener.

Me and Leeya slept for a good solid three hours and it was well deserved. When I awoke the men were no longer in the pool area and after careful scanning I could not find them anywhere. I looked at every floor and every room the camera's could peek into but saw nothing. In the back of my mind I smelled a trap, almost a set up like they were in one of the rooms waiting for us to come waltzing by. I needed hard proof they were gone before we gave up our little "panic room" we had here. I moved over to the small vent that looked like it was for an air conditioning system and peered through the slots to see if there was anything outside that would give me a clue to their whereabouts. All I could see out this side of the Hotel was tree's and woods. Leeya started to move around and when she came over to me I explained the situation. She looked down at the monitor and started staring intently while switching from one camera to another.

"They are in that room right there "she stated emphatically. I looked at the T.V. and saw nothing but the room's half open doorway. "How do you know from that?" I asked. She pointed to the T.V. in the room that was one of the old big back style T.V.'s "You can see their reflection on the T.V. screen if you look closely, their on the bed see?" Wow she was right i don't know how she caught that but she was right but the worst part was that they were in the room next to the office, and probably had the other T.V in the backroom and were watching the same monitors we were. They were looking now too. I panicked for a second and looked around. They don't have one in here do they? Looking around the entire room I got the answer I wanted , No they didn't this room was safe in so many way's but one. It was too far up , we were stuck on the top floor.

# 59

2012-01-24T18:06:00.000-05:00

Leeya wiped her mouth on her arm and then rubbed it in the pool to clean it as she slowly waded past me leaving a wake in the water of blood. I looked down and tried not to look her in the eyes, those eyes right now wouldn't make me happy with what I had just seen them doing. My head started spinning and for a moment I thought I was about to black out, notice how I said black out....men don't faint I guess huh? All kidding aside my head was throbbing my stomach was upside down and the room starting to spin, which is never good standing waist deep in a pool that you were trying to stop cannibalism in. That is something I never thought I would have to put in a sentence. I reached down in the water and splashed some of it onto my face and everything started to clear up. I was still foggy a little but much better. I turned to get out of the pool and Leeya was standing at the top of the stairs that led into the water. She was leering down at me with a look that made it more unpleasant than what I just witnessed her doing. With the way she was starting to look and now all of this, I was starting to doubt Leeya could be saved at all. If she couldn't maybe none of us could maybe we were just prolonging the inevitable.

We were all like a football team down by fifty points trying to get out of bounds to stop the clock. We were going to lose but wouldn't let it end easily. There is something I do miss , football. Something that was seemingly so important and now it doesn't even exist. The stadiums, the teams, the players, all for what? Sunday afternoons now you watched a field to see if something was coming across it for you not for a first down. Baseball there was another one. The only green monster I feared wasn't in left field but was in the room with Fred dead. So many things we as people used as a distraction from our daily lives and issues that we saw as so terrible. All gone, the issues too. I stood there and finally looked her in those hazed silver grey eyes and looked deep for the girl I was falling for. Was she there? Did she already leave and ditch the shell I was staring into? Leeya had to still be in there if not I had a gun and she had a head.

"You OK now?" I asked her. She smirked and walked to a chaise lounge and lay on it. "I need to rest a bit, I don't feel so well" she murmured. I started to climb out of the pool and the weight of my clothes being wet let me know my knee wasn't enjoying the task of pulling me out of the water. Leeya started to throw up on the floor beside her and it was equally nasty that it was chunks of Brent she was barfing all over the floor. I walked over to her and Leeya suddenly sounded like herself but sick and crying "Why didn't you stop me ....why did I do that ..O God O god I can't believe I did that O god get away". I looked at her but she shoved me away and started getting hysterical. I started to come to the conclusion that she was stuck half way between and the other half was trying to reinfect itself to complete the process. Maybe that was what happened to Unice. I think Leeya had the same feeling.

I ran to Fred and Unice's room and started rummaging through the drawers looking for the chemo packs I had given for Unice. If he had any of the packs I gave him I was using them right now. I glanced over at the two of them and thought it would be me and Leeya in due time. I looked everywhere then realized he was an old school kind of guy. I ran to the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. There it was two packs with needles left. I grabbed them and while heading back to Leeya started opening one. She glanced over at me and before she could say or do anything at all I plunged the needle into her collarbone area and gave it a full injection. She freaked out and ran from me with the needle hanging out of her. "Why did you do that asshole that hurt." She then ripped it out and threw it into the pool.

I was about to answer her and she ran off down the hallway towards the bedrooms we all had used. "Leeya wait" I yelled as I ran after her. If only I had better peripheral vision I would have noticed the van pulling up in the back of the Hotel to the side of me. "Leeya wait where are you , I had to! come on now don't get pissed it had to be done." No answer but I could hear crying. I followed the whimpers and in the fourth room on the left I found her huddled in the closet crying , hugging her knees. I sat on the floor next to her and put my gun down. " You know I never meant for this. For you , for us. I just wanted to get to my brothers and save everyone. I never wanted to fall for someone, let alone during all this bullshit. But I don't regret it. None of it, you have been a good thing for my soul. And if you turn into one of those "things" out there, well I guess you eat me. I wouldn't have the heart to kill you." She stopped crying for a moment. " I mean If I can find some way to make you better, right or wrong I'm doing it. If that's something to be mad at me for, then get mad. I would stab you with that needle again if I had to." She hugged me and kissed the side of my neck , but it was short lived happiness as we heard the noise in the hallway.

"Shhhhhh someones out there" I whispered to Leeya and slide the mirrored closet door shut in front of us. "Boom ,Bang, slam "things were being thrown around out in the hall or other rooms, I have no way of knowing where it was really coming from and I could hear some sort of muttering. It sounded like people talking or arguing I couldn't tell. I lifted my gun up and aimed it about nuts high to anything or anyone who opened the closet. Leeya started looking better already as she covered her mouth and looked at me with bluish silver eyes. Hey those do look better. Her skin even had less of a pale tone to it she was just goth looking now. I kept my gun pointed and heard something crashing into the room we were in. "BLAM the mirror on the outside of the closet door broke as something slammed the door. "Nothing here man" A deep voice called out from the other side of the door we were behind. "Check real good he had a woman with him and we need one of those" A voice called out from a few rooms away. "You got that right I want her first after we kill his ass" The voice in the room called back out in response. Leeya started to cry but kept her mouth covered with tears streaming down her face.

I pulled out my hand gun and had it on my stomach waiting for a quick swap if I have to go for the gold and ran out of ammo. Leeya grabbed the gun off my stomach and aimed to the door with me. I nodded to her and she nodded back, it was nice having her back in some capacity. I leaned over and faintly whispered " Don't do anything unless they do we don't know how many there are or what they have". She nodded but looked ready to start shooting. Finally I could hear the room behind us against the back of the closet getting ransacked. These dimwits never checked the giant closet door facing them? I wasn't bitching it made our day easier.

"Wait guys ,wait I found people in here but there old and dead" Someone yelled out from Fred's room. It took them a bit longer than we wanted but eventually they muttered and murmured as they walked out and we heard the van drive off. As soon as the van drove off Leeya opened the door in front of us and we got a nice burst of fresh air. But sitting on the end of the bed facing us was a man with a huge gun across his lap. "Think I missed the closet did ya?" He asked sarcastically with a giant grin. Leeya didn't even flinch and blew a better part of his head off into the wall behind him. Wow he hadn't planned that too well had he? Sitting there with a relaxed look and the gun across his lap, not too sharp. We got up and got ready, he couldn't be all alone and that shot would bring company. We ducked down behind the side of the bed and waited.

"Tim what was...O crap Tim " Someone was freaking out and I hopped up as best I could and yelled "Drop it" The man in the matrix style duster decided against listening and raised on me and I thought I had a good line on him but grazed the side of his head when I fired. He flopped to the ground and started frantically trying to hold or grab the side of his head and face to ...sort of keep it together. It was disturbing and made me want to just finish him off for his own good. He was gurgling and spitting now and the pool of blood under his chest from his head area was growing. I leaned over him and dragged his gun away "How many more of you are there huh ?" I asked while staring out the doorway. He couldn't answer I don't think and finally stopped moving.

Leeya came to me and she grabbed the giant hand cannon from the dude that she wasted and we got ready to see what else was in the Hotel. As I peered out of the door frame I could hear the van pulling back in. I grabbed Leeya and we raced down the hall and into the stairwell leading to the second floor at the end of the hallway. I peeked through the skinny rectangle window on the door knowing no one could see me in the dark I was in but I could see them. I counted seven men now, I think they had these clowns wait and went for more idiots and were going to drop the hammer on us so to speak. Whatever was going on we weren't finding out the hard way.

I grabbed Leeya's arm and we started up the stairs, I told her to follow me to the top if they were searching room by room it was our best chance to have some time to figure out what to do or hide. At the top of the stairs was a small door marked roof access. I thought for a moment and opened the door and looked around. It was just the roof and it had a small brick on the other side so I grabbed it and placed the brick in the door jam holding it open, must have been used for smoke breaks I bet to hold it open. I hoped it would be just enough to confuse them. Then me and Leeya went to the fourth floor and started searching on the fourth floor for somewhere to be safe and hidden. No drop ceilings crap I was getting good with those, least until I was shot. It was the same as every floor under it but with one exception, it had an exercise room where the pool was. We ran in and I started checking mirrors. Leeya was staring at me and finally said "what the hell are you doing?" I said "This room is smaller than it should be the next room is a solid wall and too far away." Nothing here I tried the hallway and there it was, A picture that was door size and an inch off the floor. I messed around and click it opened. Inside was a room like the rest only nicer, much, much nicer. Leeya climbed in with me and we closed the painting door and locked it behind us.

The room was set up for either a person the Hotel was keeping in secrecy like a star or it was for police when they have witnesses to protect. Whatever the reason I knew it was secret, Fred didn't seem to know about it and he worked here so he said. We looked around it was very well appointed with a king size bed and a full size fridge and it had a huge flat screen that we turned on and it instantly showed all the hallways. It was rigged to the security cameras. We watched the men searching the second and third floors and knew eventually they would be on the fourth. Leeya asked if we were safe and I nodded, but to be honest I wasn't too sure. I had noticed the gap in rooms maybe they would too. Leeya didn't so maybe it wasn't as obvious as it seemed I just didn't know. They seemed to want Leeya and for reasons seemingly evil. I knew if they figured out this room was hiding here we were having a gun fight, I wasn't handing her over to them and they weren't taking her. So far I hadn't done such a bang up job with protecting her and this was my chance to prove to myself and her that I was still a gamer.

# 58

2012-01-24T16:03:00.000-05:00

I hobbled down the makeshift stairs that supposedly move out automatically when the door is opened but these were only opening half way, leaving you with half the step to use. On a normal day it would be a piece of cake but with my knee being ground beef it was extremely hard to get down without looking slightly drunk. I looked back and watched to make sure I was locked out and then gave Leeya the signal to duck down. If whatever happened here was still going on I wanted whatever it or they were to think I was alone. I started to limp towards the gaping hole of a doorway and with a gun at the ready and my head mounted on a swivel so to speak I was prepared for anything. The entrance was pretty shelled out and I had to make my way through quite a bit of debris to get inside. There were chunks of drywall , pieces of what looked like cement blocks and glass everywhere. Just past it was the reverse side of the lobby and it looked somewhat untouched , if I wasn't previously here I would hardly notice it but the light over the front desk was hanging and flickering on and off. I looked around and for a second thought to call out for anyone but stopped myself. No telling if there is unfriendly's here and no telling how many if there are.

I made my way to the hall leading to the rooms we had all taken and walked very slow and deliberate. I didn't want there to be any accidental shootings in my direction if someone hiding from whatever did this thinks I'm the perpetrator. I leaned into the first room and whispered "Rusty, Fish, Fred, anyone ? " But nothing, not a peep. I walked into the room and looked for any sign of life but got nothing. Moving on to the next two rooms was the same thing. I then moved slowly back to the room that Fred and Unice had shared thinking they would still be here one way or the other he came here to be at peace and Unice wasn't in a traveling condition. I made my way behind the lobby desk and into the back room where they were staying. That was when I found Unice in bed wheezing desperately for a breath. I leaned down " Unice it's me what happened here ? " she looked over at me and faintly smiled and whispered in a failing voice "almost done here". I looked around for Fred but didn't see him and asked her again and she said "They took them and left me here, they didn't have the heart to kill me and didn't have the heart to take me." I looked down she was much like Leeya now with hazed silver eyes that were pupiless and pale skin that shown dark veins. I asked if she needed anything and she nodded no. She was making peace with the end and Fred wasn't here for her, whatever happened and whoever took them was going to pay for it. I didn't know Unice that well but I knew what was right.

I told her I would be right back and looked around a bit and found Fred in the bathtub tied up with what looked like injuries sustained from a beating. I pulled the rag from his mouth and gave him some water and he asked about Unice. I untied him and helped him over to her and watched them embrace. It was sad to watch and sweet at the same time, these two had found each other decades ago and were saying good bye after all that has happened. I patted Fred on the shoulder and got up and headed out to the lobby to look around and give them some privacy. I went to the pool area and found Brent floating face down in a pool of murk that lead me to believe he was bleeding from somewhere when he went for a dip. I hate to say it but I didn't miss that prick. I took the net for fishing things out and dragged him to the side and used it to roll him on his back while he floated. He had a sizable gunshot wound to the chest and was purple, a day at least I imagined he had been here. I leaned over and closed his eyes and pushed him back out into the pool. "Prick , you had to ruin the pool didn't ya" I muttered to myself.

I headed back to the opening and limped over to the RV to get Leeya. She opened the door when I was halfway there and came towards me holding a shotgun. "They all dead ?" she asked in a Dirty Harry sort of way. "Fred and Unice are inside , Brent is dead and the rest are missing from what I can tell". She smirked "Brent's dead huh, funny I didn't hear you shoot him". I leered at her "wasn't me he was offed a day ago at least, thanks for that" I shook my head. Leeya walked past me and into the Hotel's new entrance like it was fine. " Wait , Unice is dying in there we should leave Fred to his privacy with her". Leeya looked at me and smiled " Relax that bitch can't die she's like me, she only dies from a head shot now". And she continues to walk inside. I stood there for a moment and said " Wait you cant die?" And ran after her through the maze of debris. Leeya had two good legs despite the bite mark that looked to be 4 years old already even tho it was just a day or so ago.

"Wait up, when did you learn all of this?" I asked her. Leeya looked at me coldly and said "shoot me and see, why do you think my wrists didn't work? Do you think you saved me? You can't save me , no one can I'm half dead and waiting to be finished, like Unice". I looked at her and said " But Unice was so weak and tired she looked to be on her death bed". She said in a dry voice " she isn't on her death bed she is just hungry, hope for Fred's sake he isn't too close." My face fell and I rushed past her to the lobby to get to the front desk. I made my way around it and to the back room that lead to their apartment. I opened the door to their room and heard Fred screaming for his life with what little voice he had left. As soon as they came into view I could see Unice with a huge chunk of Fred hanging out of her mouth and Fred holding his throat while blood streamed from between his fingers. He only struggled a little then stopped and went limp. Unice ignored me and headed right for Fred and started to feast on him. "Unice what the fuck are you doing ?" I yelled and she turned to me and started to move at me with an old ladies walk and a demonic hunch that creeps me out just remembering it.

She got as close a foot from me and I apologized to her , making her stop for a moment and give a look of confusion while blood was drooling from her mouth. "BOOM i let the round fly out of my barrel and Unice swung backwards into a heap next to Fred's legs. Most of her face was stuck now to the wall behind her and she stopped moving instantly. "Told you she wasn't dead" Leeya murmured from behind me as she stood there with her gun fixed on Unice. " Wait tho she isn't done yet" she announced. Unice started to move again , holy crap Leeya was right. "You didn't hit her in the brain that won't do" she said matter of factly and blew Unices head clean off, all that was left was a neck with a water bubbler of blood coming out of it. "Now shes good" Leeya said and walked off. Where am I?

I moved to Fred and he was done as done but had a note in his hand. I pulled the note out of his hand and unraveled it while keeping my eyes fixed on him "Sorry we will try and get back" is what the note said , it was in Fish's hand writing , he could barely spell. They left why would they leave? This makes less sense. I asked Leeya to come back but she was no where to be found. I got up and started to search for her and then I found her, she was in the pool up to her waist walking towards Brent's body. "Leeya what the hell are you doing?" I asked. She looked at me and said "If you don't want us to end up like Fred and Unice your going to have to accept this about me baby, I'm just too hungry and your so warm". With that statement she leaned over and took a bite out of Brent's arm. I aimed my gun at her "Leeya stop don't do this please don't" I said in desperation. She calmly looked back at me with blood on her lips " don't do what be me? I thought you had my back? I thought you would never give up on me? Is this it? you giving up already?" I looked into her hazed eyes and lowered my gun while she took another bite. I leaned back to a chair and fell into it. Can she be saved? Is it too late? Is what Unice just did to Fred the end of us in the short term future? I couldn't shoot Leeya she was still there somewhat, just not herself. I cringed at the thought of her realization that she ate part of Brent she seems to be aware of what she is doing just unable to stop it. She is gonna be so sick later. Sicker than I was now.

I sat and held my head in my hands with my gun at my side and just tried to not look. About ten minutes later I felt a cold hand on my neck and opened my eyes while facing down between my hands to see two pale feet dripping with water in front of me. "If your going to kill me do it now Leeya because I can't kill you" I said. She kneeled down next to me and started to lean into my neck, then I could feel her Brent breath on me and waited for her to sink in and she said "I would never kill you baby , why do you think I just had lunch".

# 57

2012-01-23T18:50:00.000-05:00

In the back of my mind I was deliberating if I should tell Leeya about the mix up with the unmarked switch I never noticed. My head was throbbing just going over the different ways the conversation would even play out. She would get mad and try to kill me turning into a full on "thing". It was unlikely but the other play that ran over and over inside of my head was that she would never trust me again or even be able to depend on me. I sucked it up and swallowed the pill hard and came to the conclusion that while it would be an epic man up situation to own up to the error it would lead to other issues down the road. I knew if she was none the wiser to the switch that she would still listen to and trust my judgment....the judgement I was beginning to doubt my damn self. So far i had been shot several time and Leeya had been bitten. Not to mention Bob freaking out and having to be offed, or his friend Brent wanting my head as well. Was my judgement so great that I need to protect myself from scrutiny? I knew one way or the other she was going to judge me as well when she learned of it and decided while heading down the road the path I would choose.

The road was still pretty clear on this end and I could not for the heck of me figure out where the massive panic was. What happened to everyone running for their live? Where is the hordes and throngs of vehicles all running for safety? Non of this was making sense and it was even less likely I would ever find out what caused all of this and why.

A stumble and thud behind me signaled the awakening of Leeya and she was struggling to get out of our bed. I half wanted to turn around and see her and keep my eyes on her but also knew that to have her trust me in all of this I would have to show equal trust and not worry where she was like she was on the verge of biting me all the time. To say it was easy was a lie because in the back of my mind every time she woke up I expected her to be a "thing" and try to kill me. But she walked up behind me , planting her cold , cold hand on my shoulder and kissing me on my gruesome neck with her frozen lips. "Hey baby you want something to eat ?" She asked in a cold emotionless voice. "Sure what do you have ?" I replied in a monotone voice as well. She got back up and walked to the kitchenette and started rummaging through everything in the cupboards. "Not much but a few odds and ends, want a pop tart ? " It sounded like a good idea so I agreed and Leeya brought over a pack of them and handed them to me. I reached over to open them but they were already half opened. "Thanks baby" I said with a smile and reached inside to pull one out , then handed it to her. "No thanks I really don't have much of an appetite" she proclaimed. I looked down to her wrists and she got nervous and moved them from view. "Are you alright ? You had me scared to death. We should talk a bit." I said and started to pull the RV to a stop.

She nodded no with a side movement and stated " It really is non of your concern what I did or why". I looked at her in almost disbelief " You have to be fucking kidding me. You sliced your wrists and now it's non of MY concern? What then should I have let you bleed out? Is that what would have been more in keeping with my concerns? " She looked at me and then had a colder than already apparent look and spit "If you were so concerned you wouldn't have let me get bitten would you ? Wasn't it your concern then to keep me safe? Or is it just now? Did you need me to be as fucked up as you to be OK with me?" I was stumped wow where did this come from, but before I could finish my thought she started to cry hysterically. " I"m so sorry I'M so fucking sorry that I just said that to you, I don't know why I just said that what is wrong with me, Baby please don't listen to that i didn't mean any of it" She wailed while clawing at my arm and trying to get me to put my arm around her. I did because I am a guy and a sucker for this whole damsel in distress act what can I say. I held her tightly and she cried for a solid five minutes the type of cry you expect to hear from someone who learned of a terrible tragedy. She was taking it hard and from her response and cries of forgiveness I could tell she was not only sorry for hurting my feelings but also for not being able to stop from saying it. This half transformation or half infection or residual effects from the bite with chemo had her losing her ability to control what she said and what she thought from merging.

I held her tight and prepared for the storm that was awaiting my confession of the dual tank switch and if she would tear me for it or wait and slip up later. First thing was first and I waited until she had stopped crying and held her about 12 inches from my face and looked her right in her hazed silver eyes. "Leeya I am with you one hundred and ten percent and will not I repeat will not give up on you ever. I need you to stop trying to give up on me , us and specially on you. If there is some way to sure this or get you back to the way you were before the bite know this one thing I WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES and that is my promise to you". She stopped crying and looked at me as a tear started to frost on her cheek "I will but you have to help me I don't have control over myself all the time". I nodded and pulled her into my chest and she sobbed a bit more.

When she stopped I looked her in the eyes again and told her about the dual tanks and how they had a switch that was not marked and I had not even noticed it before. She nodded and then went back to my chest and fell silent. I had the inclination she was going to be pissed or even light me up with another hateful word or two but she didn't she just cried a bit and then pulled away and looked at me a bit. " I remember reading that in the manual at some point while you were driving I just forgot to tell you, so it's not your fault, it was just an accident". Then she kissed my neck and started to get real touchy feely. I let her do what she needed to feel better and then we headed back out to the Hotel. In a way it would be nice to see the old gang again and get some information from Fred. We had plenty of gas to make it there and it was still early enough to find us there before nightfall. I put the pedal down to make up some time and we headed to the Hotel and whatever else was a ahead for us.

It didn't take long for the whatever to happen as a group of "things" came out of the side of the road where a car was overturned to charge at the RV. I just kept my eyes forward as the clunk of bodies slamming into the side of the RV were making the sickening sound of people whacking a bus and going under the tires. Leeya put her head down and sobbed some more but more of a sniffle here and there than a full cry. I tried to keep my head in the drive as just the feeling of her grasping the side of my arm made me tingle with feelings for her and the plight of what she was facing and going through. I had a feeling I was falling in with this girl and that only complicated things since she was half "thing" and half herself.

The rest of the ride was pretty easy as it was the way down this time. We made good time and we were almost at the exit for the Hotel by the earl onset of the sun setting. Leeya was asleep in the bed behind me, she slept a lot now and I wondered if some part of the whole thing was incubation or if she was just beat from her internal struggles. We took the exit for the Hotel hot and heavy I wasn't going to go easy and let that group from before get any chance to see us going into the lot of the Hotel. We pulled into the lot and headed straight into the back where the entrance we had used before was. When I turned the corner something was definitely different. The entire doorway we had barricaded was now gaping hole, like a grenade or bomb had removed it and the rest of the surrounding area was blackened as if burned by something. I told Leeya to lock me out and went to look around.

# 56

2012-01-23T10:50:00.002-05:00

My feet are on the beach and I am sitting in the sand again. Wind is crisp and blowing softly through the palm trees. In the distance I can hear someone laughing and people splashing water in the surf. The sand is still so hot and welcoming that I keep moving my feet around while buried to get more hot sand to touch them. Reaching over I grab an ice cold one and start to take a few drinks. To my left is my lady and she has a huge brimmed tropical sun hat on with big sunglasses. She sips a mixed concoction that has an umbrella sticking out of it and looks like a sunset from the side. Ahhh life isn't any better than this as I close my eyes and hear the waves crashing down on the shore. Just feeling the sun on my skin and the wind in my face I could be anyone anywhere warm it wouldn't matter. Right now with my eyes closed I am in heaven.

Leeya shook me awake and her cold hand woke me before the shaking motion did. I started to roll out of bed and she stared at me with those silver hazed eyes. "How is the leg" she said almost boss like to a subordinate. "It's sore but looks better than yesterday" I retorted. It was getting better little by little but the infection was the part that scared me, I was doing everything to stop it. The night before was a strange one , sort of made me understand what necrophilia must be like... if the body moved and was into it. Sounds creepy I know but it was how it was and I wasn't about to say anything about it to her. She was trying her hardest to be herself but there was an inner struggle she wasn't telling me that was obvious. I don't think she could get it into words but I would be there to do whatever I could to help her win the battle. The chemo appeared to have stopped her from turning into one of those "things" but she either had been bitten for too long or the chemo wasn't quite enough, whatever the reason she was like stuck between Leeya and the "thing". I hoped there was some way of stopping it from either staying this way or progressing.

Leeya went to the shower and took an abnormal amount of time as usual in there. I never went inside to see what was going on but there wasn't any noise or commotion so it seemed to be fine inside the bathroom. I limped over to the kitchenette and started the process of taking off the bandages and soaking my leg in peroxide. We were almost out of peroxide but I did have Epsom salts so it was going to be a different burn soon enough. I grabbed the little mirror that Leeya had for make up and while soaking my leg I checked on my face. Wow if I were a dog I would shave my butt and walk backwards was a fitting description. After a quick exam of my face I checked out my neck which looked like my face but not as bad. Overall I was starting to wonder if we ran into a couple that looked like us would we start shooting? What would I think? We sort of look like a zombie and the guy she bit at this point. i had to smirk at the thought of it.

The shower finally stopped and then I heard a thump in the bathroom. I got up and called for her but got no answer and started walking if you can call it that. I turned the knob for the small bathroom and the door was stuck. I pushed hard and couldn't get it to open but an inch. I pushed hard and had my leg burning with pain and as i got it open a bit more in the mirror over the sink I could see Leeya was against the door and appeared out like a light. I wedged myself into the jamb and finally popped my body through it and got into the bathroom. Leeya lay there naked and unconscious with both of her wrists slashed, she was paler than ever. Fortunately she slashed them side to side if it were up and down I think she would have needed a surgeon. I Grabbed her and got her wrapped in a towel and brought her to the bed. Then got every piece of first aid kit we had and started to work on her. I cleaned the cuts and then did what I could to bandage them up. Why she did this is beyond me maybe she was losing her battle or had a moment of submission. Maybe the weight of the world caught up to her, or she just had enough. We lay in bed while i stroked the cold woman next to me's hair. I had her wrapped in a towel and three blankets and yet she was ice cold.

I nodded off after an hour and went back to the beach. Leeya woke me up when she moved against me trying to sleep. I was relieved that she was moving at all, she had a faint heartbeat and slow pulse, something I had not really got a baseline for. She must always have a slow pulse that is faint, she is damn near see through. I checked it on the side of her neck again and it was unchanged but she seemed fine. Taking her hand out of the covers I peeled the bandages back and the slices in the wrists looked like scars already , like they healed. How can that be? I thought to myself. Is it because of her being half way? I don't get it the fully changed ones don't heal at all why is she rapidly healing? The changes to her were more than my public school educated mind could fathom and I wished I could bring her somewhere that greater minds than mine could see what was going on. I wanted to protect her and make her better but in the world we were in, being alive was as good as I could do.

It was time to make the donuts so to speak and unlike yesterday it was much easier to keep my back to Leeya now having had an entire night of sleeping next to her , to now have her behind me sleeping was no big deal. I fired up the RV and started to back it out. The awning made a god awful noise scraping across the hut we were wedged in. I used the back up camera and got out out of the hut, but now with the day ahead of us and not such a panic to park I was much more aware of the chance of cutting a tire on the scraps of metal everywhere in the junkyard. I managed to maneuver through it all and get us back on the road to the highway. Fortunately it was right there and we were out in a matter of minutes and down the highway. The road from here back was clear last time so I had a moment of comfortable sigh and started to make up some time. While driving I scanned the dash and looked in awe at the switch I wish in my panic of being out of gas earlier I would have noticed it said A-B and went to either side. My stomach dropped and I slide it to B and watched the gas gauge move to full. The RV had dual tanks and I had fuel this whole time. The guilt of not seeing this earlier made me hate myself. Leeya was attacked getting fuel , it was all my fault.

# 55

2012-01-20T16:27:00.001-05:00

The old Leeya gave me a small spark of what she was like but it was the new version that had me worried. She was sleeping behind me while I started back onto the highway and she was thrashing around, much different then the sleeping Leeya on the ride down. I must have looked in the back over a dozen times every minute or two just to see what was going on. It was like a linebacker was trying to break through the side of the RV. Each time I was greeted to a visual of her rolling back and forth almost fighting the bed to be able to stay asleep. The other reason I wasn't even fooling myself as to why I checked so much was that I couldn't trust her sleeping behind making so much noise. In the back of my head I kept on thinking that she was turning into a monster right behind me and that she would be attacking me at any minute. Had I known then what i know now I wouldn't be so scared of her but what can you do? I was nervous about the whole situation and wondered if Fred at the Hotel had been hiding these little snip its of information from us and that Unice was just as bad or maybe even worse.

The highway was as clear as it was when we headed this way on the way down. We were driving in the wrong direction and for good reason the lanes on this side were clear on the ride down and I wasn't going to find out the side I could randomly not see through the center of the highway was blocked anywhere. I hoped that when we hit the section in the highway that was blocked I could jump back on the side road like last time and scoot through and be on my merry way. About a half hour of driving later and about five hundred spot checks of Leeya later I was well into the state and ran into the obstruction but this time I was past any exit ramps when it came into view. I looked to the median and it was too deep of a ditch to roll the RV through and had to either get out and walk around , abandoning the RV or I would be turning around and heading back to the last exit ramp. Since Leeya was asleep and the RV was such a feather in my cap at this point I started to back up. The RV was a fully loaded beast and through a monitor on the dashboard I could see where I was backing up to. It made it fairly easy to back up but I still had to check over my shoulder in case my paranoia wasn't made up and I was about to be eaten.

A few miles in reverse looking at a 6 inch monitor can make anyone a bit unhinged and I was getting there fast. I continually thought I saw something behind a car or near a tree and would slow down and stare into the monitor and end up seeing nothing but my own nervous reflection off the screen. I brought the RV to a stop and went to the back of the beast to grab the bottle of scotch that was in the cupboard. I didn't even bother looking for a glass as I sat back down and started to back up again taking swigs off the bottle and starting to try and loosen up. The rustling behind me was getting out of hand and half the time I would check the monitor again thinking I had just backed into something only to find that it was the noise of Leeya having an out of body experience in the bed while "sleeping". The RV was almost to the exit behind me when I heard something in front of me. I looked out the windshield which I had been completely ignoring while backing up and saw two of the "things" coming after the RV, only they were running like track stars looking to hand off the baton.

I gasped for a moment and said out loud "OOOOO CRAP!" After which I slammed down the pedal making the RV lurch and started looking at the monitor the things in front of me and Leeya. It was a whirlwind of a three way view but I didn't want anything to surprise me and so far I was being complete crap at it. The things that were running almost as fast as humanly possible only inhuman were right up to the front of the RV and I was seriously wondering what my options were here. If I see the exit and stop to take it they will be all over us and if I pass it they will just chase us as far as I go. I could see the exit coming in the distance on the monitor which meant it was a lot closer than it looked. I looked back at Leeya who was still thrashing but had slowed down a bit and then did the only thing I had in my head. I slammed on the brakes. The things came at me and were completely caught off guard as the rammed into the front of the RV. I waited till it had come to a stop and then rammed the shifter in D and stomped on the gas. The RV jumped at this and the two things that had ran after us were instantly trying to get to their feet as I ran them down. As I passed over them I caught them in the monitor still moving, they just never stop going do they?

At the bottom of the exit I turned to get on the side road and we headed down the familiar road away from the highway as I hoped we had better luck in this portion of the trip. The fuel gauge was still doing somewhat well and we were getting a pretty good amount of traveling done. I knew that once it was dark and with me and Brent's relationship or lack of as well as Leeya's current condition we would not want any attempt to roll in until at least daylight. The night time was slowly closing in and I was trying to think of a place for the RV to spend the night. So far the highway was the best place but out here I knew a few places that were off the beaten path and had room for us as well as a bit of protection. I rolled to the next on ramp and headed by it and through a small gate at the side of the road busting through it and into the lot on the other side. It was an old junkyard that was abandoned by the family that had inherited it when the old man who spent a lifetime filling it with oddities had passed away. It was a bit of a legendary place out here as most people could see it from the side road but not a lot of people knew the story behind it. My career paths had led me many times into it and the old mans graces before his passing so I knew a bit about it as well as the Quonset hut he had in the back that the RV would fit into and be hidden.

I drove through the lot as quick as I could dodging everything from a small child's unicycle to a complete Mustang Mach 1 from the 70's that all had been there for decades rotting away. I thought back in the day the tow truck was tough to maneuver in and out of here with but with the RV it was a whole new world of pain. I made it to the Quonset hut and nosed the RV in. It barely made it inside while it scraped the side the awning hung off of, glad I didn't pay for it. It was nice because it was so tight that you couldn't get to the door or front once I had it nosed it. That meant we were safe from anything trying to get in over night and I liked that. I sat back in my seat and took a long chug off the bottle of scotch and thought what a day indeed. Then a cold hand grabbed the side of my neck gently and an even colder almost ice like pair of lips kissed the opposite side of my neck. "Are we back yet baby ?" Leeya inquired. I said "No we have to crash here tonight before it gets to dark we can make it back tomorrow." She gave me an odd smirk that I think was a smile and the did a "Stagger like I am trying to be sexy" limp back to the bed. "C'mere sweetie" she purred. I got up "Nut up or shut up" Woody Harrelson said in my ear from Zombieland. I got up and staggered to the back as well. Heck it can't be much worse can it?

# 54

2012-01-18T13:18:00.001-05:00

I leaned down to see how her leg was where she had been bitten and she pushed me off of her. I was shocked , she was not only OK but very odd acting. I asked her if I could look at her leg and she turned back at me with those eyes. The eyes were so silver, so creepy I damn near jumped out of my skin and she said softly "Why are you going to make me all better?" I have the willies just repeating it here. I tried explaining she was dead and the chemo was injected three times and yet she wouldn't wake up and she Cooley responded with "I look awake now don't I ?" Then she leaned over and looked right down at my knee. "Does it hurt a bad as it looks ?" in a tone of not care but odd curiosity. I said yes and she smiled, it was surreal.

She announced to me that she was tired from all of the walking and was laying down and when she did I went to the foot of the bed to check her bite. The bite was bad but strangely not bleeding, it was more like a red outlined scar and when I tried to touch her leg it was almost ice cold and she looked right at me when I did. "Can I be of some sort of service or are you trying to stop me from resting?" she said in a get away from me voice. I said "No go ahead and sleep, don't have me keep you up". She turned and closed those dead eyes and I sat in the chair in the kitchenette and put my face in my hands. "I must look almost as bad as you do" she said aloud as she went to sleep. I sat there thinking she was not Leeya, but some odd form of her. I thought of Pet Semetary and how they come back but not all the way back and thought it was what I had on my hands. "Sometimes dead is better" the voice of Herman Munster said in the movie, I was starting to think he was right for a moment. Should I have killed her? No that is crazy talk shes right there laying down, not trying to bite me. But she is different, she went from having that clueless innocence I wanted to protect to being harder than a marine in the war. What the hell is going on. I knew one person who may have a few answers and he was Fred and back at the hotel. As much as I hated it I was going to have to get us back to the Hotel and see if Fred knew what was happening.

I snuck out of the RV and headed back to the bus hoping my gas cans were still there. That someone didn't come along and take them, not that I had seen anyone since the running "thing". I stopped a few times adding duct tape to my knee and limping some more. I felt I had let Leeya down and she was bitten because of my stupidity. She wasn't as aware of everything as I was and maybe didn't even look under the damn bus. No matter what she was bitten and the look on her face that helpless, why didn't you protect me look was in my head. She had my back on an occasion and I had hers . But I couldn't help but fee I let her down this time. I finally reached the bus and the first gas can was already full the pump had been running this whole time. I hoped the tank hadn't drained and had enough to top off the second can, if it did I would drive the RV here and use the bus to top me off with whatever is left in it.

The smell of the fuel was headache inducing and once I ad them both full I took them and limped back to the RV. Leeya or whatever example of her was there was sleeping like the dead...no pun intended and I filled the tank with my two cans of fuel and started it up. A diesel like this you don't want to run low in cold weather and I was grateful it caught and fired up. Priming the system on the road here with what had happened wasn't going to be fun and I was glad.......the RV died again. Crap just as I thought one thing it goes and craps out on me. I got out of the RV and went to the engine in the back and looked for a fuel filter. I found it unscrewed it and filled it back up with the fuel in the cans that I couldn't get into the RV because of the poor angle when pouring. I climbed back in and bam fired it up and this time left the throttle down for a moment.

A cold hand was on my shoulder and a cold breath in my ear as Leeya had crept up behind me to whisper in my ear, "Sorry about before I don't feel real well". She kissed me on the cheek that is road rash she had earlier picked on and then went back to lay down. She was a bi-polar zombie , just great. I ran the RV down the road to the bus and hooked the pump from the bus to the RV and let it run until the bus was empty, I ended up with over half a tank and was glad as turning around now I could make it back to probably the Rhode Island line and hit up the truck stop there again, if that running thing isn't around. I turned around in the middle of the highway and started heading back to the Hotel. Hopefully Brent has calmed down and Fred can give me some help or at least some idea what was wrong compared to Unice.

Leeya slept the entire drive back to the line , at least I think she slept either that or she died again. No snore no movement she was laying completely still without so much as a flinch or twitch. I wondered if I didn't give the first or second shot enough time and maybe overdid it. Maybe I had too long of a gap between the bite and the shots. Whatever it was she wasn't Leeya like she was that morning and she was already missed. I wanted her to be sitting next to me with her playful attitude playing 20 questions or name that tune. She really had a way of making everything seem quite OK. Now with the stress of the world before me and her behind me asleep, I felt the pain of this situation like I had back at my mothers house.

The drive to the line was a little bit slower than the ride the first time but so quiet. It was strange how different the ride was when I was all alone this time with my thoughts. Thoughts can drive a man crazy if they have some time to really run them over and over again. My thoughts were just dark and dreadful. Thoughts of Leeya becoming a "thing" if she wasn't already. Thoughts of the end of life as we know it . Thoughts of my brother and his family and how they are right now. Every aspect of what I was thinking was torn apart with the best and worst case scenarios and also what I had thought was an escape plan. If anyone could tear my ideas apart and make them seem bad it was me, and I was on top of my game.

I took the last exit in Connecticut and turned off the ramp to the gas station that was waiting where the running thing had been. I pulled up to the diesel section and parked next to the pumps. Looking back I could see Leeya sleeping with her back to me, at least I hoped she was sleeping. Climbing out of the RV I walked over to the store and walked under the arm bar you use to push it open, the glass was gone on the lower part and I climbed through to the inside of the store. The store had already been pilfered pretty good but it had a few useful things and I grabbed a slim Jim and some soda and had a snack. I waited inside and listened again for any sound of anything and kept a keen eye on the RV in case anything moved outside or in the RV. Leeya was out like a light but I recalled that Unice was always resting too, maybe it was a side effect of the virus or whatever the chemo was fighting. I got up and walked behind the counter and grabbed about five cartons of smokes and then noticed the pump lights were on, this place had a generator somewhere and the pumps were live. I ran to the door and ducked under the handle and scooted over to the RV and let the handle fill it while I looked around some more.

The RV shook and I heard something moving inside so I left the handle locked and pumping and walked to the door to check on Leeya. As I tried to open the door it popped open into my face and Leeya came stumbling out. "My legs are killing me " she said and fell to the ground. Her legs had once been like porcelain and now were grey with dark purple veins showing like varicose veins. I helped her back up and she staggered into the store while I asked unsuccessfully what she needed. She ignored me and continued into the store. I leaned against the RV and thought more, man the thoughts I have and think about will drive me nuts. She came back out with what looked like two paper bags filled with things. I asked what they were and she pushed by me and climbed in a drunken haze filled stagger to get into the RV. I leaned in and watched her pull out the oddest things like nail polish , chewing gum, and gauze pads. She fell to the ground and started crying and babbled " I don't know what I'm even doing baby". I walked into the RV and held her , she was confused and I think being messed up from the bite and chemo had her going in too many directions mentally and emotionally. "Tell me whats wrong" I asked her. "I can't feel my legs, I'm tired all the time, I'm hungry but not hungry at the same time and my head kills me, and last I keep wanting to say and do one thing and find myself doing the exact opposite and not even saying sorry or correcting it!" I smiled and said " you've been through a lot and we don't know what the effects are or how they work, how much chemo you had. If it took too long. We only have what we know and have done, and I hope it's enough". She continued crying and laid into me and asked sobbingly " You wouldn't kill me would you? Not if I was turning you wouldn't would you baby?" I said " NO you never gave up on me when it was all too easy to. I sure an hell won't give up on you Leeya, not for a million years. I may have to muzzle you though". She started to laugh and then said she was tired so I helped her back to the bed and finished the fuel up. It was a tough day indeed and I was glad to see a spark of the old Leeya .

# 53

2012-01-17T00:10:00.001-05:00

I climbed behind the wheel and fired up the RV, it started a bit hesitantly and then started to purr. I let it run a while, reminding me of so many of the cars I had owned in the past that never ran well in the cold. Funny that an RV that costs more than most houses would be the same way. Leeya was in the back putting things away and i started moving slowly with an eye on the fuel gauge. It was reading below the orange section and dancing on the empty mark. I was sweating it out hoping we would make it to some sort of gas station or fuel in some form. My mind was wandering with the freshness of the foaming knee as I drove to the great beyond of empty highway thinking about the friends we had made and left behind. Despite the situation breaking down and Brent wanting to kill me in disbelief of his friends demise from irrational thinking , I truly missed them. I knew that no matter what front she put up Leeya had to be missing them as well, she knew them for years. Yet she walked away so coldly when I had to leave it was a good feeling in a way to know someone was on your side like that.

The highway was like any highway if it was late at night only this was daytime, early morning. No one was around and there was no noise it was like we were all alone in the middle of the desert. I watched like a man possessed for a sign for the next exit and the longer I searched for it the longer it seemed to take to find. I remembered the pot never boils while you watch it. Smirking I looked hard and still couldn't see any sign of an exit. My eyes went from the side of the road to the gas gauge, back and forth back and forth. Where the hell is the exit , back and forth back and forth. I started to worry if there was an exit coming or if I was in a Twilight Zone episode.The exit that never was or something to that end. I was starting to ramp up into the upper phase of panic, but didn't want Leeya to see it. She had been by my side through some rough things and was still sweet at heart for me and to me. I couldn't let that change or let her start to harden. I was starting to realize she was going to harden at some point but not on my watch, she was sweet and should stay that way as long as possible.

Finally the RV gave out and stalled. It crept to a stop and died, leaving us in the middle of the highway. I looked around and for the life of me could not figure out where on the highway we actually were, and I was pretty good at being a human GPS with all the driving I have done. Leeya went into full panic mode when the RV died and started freaking out. I had to put my game face on like it was no big deal and we had it under control. She started to calm down but sadly I was as freaked out as she was inside, I just would not show her. I told her to get suited up with as much coverage as she had , it was cold out after all, and then we sat at the small breakfast nook and started to wind up the weaponry. This took a bit longer than it should have but I suck with guns and really we searched through the ammo boxes to find the proper ammo for the right guns. Once we were set loaded and ready to rock we hopped out of the RV and started heading to the road we were aiming in the direction of with ammo guns and 2 gas cans. I had hopes with these cans and the syphon system I salvaged earlier we would find something with enough gas to make us reach a pump somewhere.

The walk I was finding was heavier than all the walking we had done in the past. I had the weight of both of us on me now and the knee was all but giving me the finger. I was limping along and Leeya was in front of me looking back and forth as if she was protecting me , and who know maybe she was. About a half hour into the walk and we came upon something that made me smile, a bus off the side of the road. That means two things, it has diesel and it was running when it did this crash to the tree line. I told Leeya to wait a second and eyeballed the situation. If that bus had things in it or anywhere in the vicinity I didn't want to walk up as if I was serving the both of us on a menu. I started slowly and told Leeya to keep an eye behind me as I plodded along. I heard a gasp and turned to see Leeya looking down at my feet. I was leaving bloody footprints and a snail trail of blood from the knee. "Funny that doesn't hurt that bad" I said with a smirk. Leeya just shrugged it off and we kept moving towards the bus.

We reached the bus and I moved slowly down the side of it making sure to keep my eyes open to all possibilities. Leeya was behind me and I asked her to check under the bus, as I couldn't bend down with my knee. She said she did and to just get some fuel quickly. I got to the door of the bus and took a peek inside. It was broken glass , coagulated blood and a few bodies, but there was nothing moving inside of it. I moved to the fuel door and got out the syphon and put down a gas can. I got the syphon to start working for about a minute and filled half the gas can when Leeya started screaming. I looked over at her and she was screaming for her life and as I looked down I saw IT.

She had checked under the bus she said but either missed this one or it was not under it yet. The "thing" was biting her in the ankle and she was just losing her mind. I acted as fast as possible and butted it in the head with the shotgun handle , making it stop biting and spit teeth out. Leeya collapsed on the ground and the freak thing started right after her again not even acknowledging me. I turned the gun around and blew its face completely off leaving a garish hole that the brain started pouring out of. I quickly got Leeya off the ground and threw her over my shoulder, the bad one. I started to do a limp run back to the RV and ignore all of the pain that is shooting through my entire body. Leeya was crying and saying she was so sorry and I was mumbling all the things I could come up with to keep her upbeat as I headed to the RV and the chemo. I was praying I wasn't taking too long. In my head I was beating myself up thinking why didn't I take it with me where is the chemo in the RV right now. I wanted to hit the door and grab it fast. We could see the RV in the distance and each step seemed to be coming on slower and slower. Leeya had passed out and I was probably not far from doing the same. Pain was surging through my leg and my face was yelling at me as well with Leeya leaning against it. I wanted to switch which side she was on but my knee was on the other side and wouldn't take the weight on it over there.

I finally hit the door to the RV and we barreled through once I unlocked it. I lay Leeya down on the floor and she mumbled something and was in and out of consciousness. I started a frantic search for the chemo and was losing it quickly screaming to myself where it was. Then I sat next to Leeya and looked at her front pocket of her jacket, she had the chemo with her the whole time and didn't say anything to me. I dumped it out and grabbed a bottle and as I injected an entire vile of it she started to have a seizure and was convulsing. I waited a second and tried to get a pulse but heard nothing. I looked at the vile and grabbed another one and filled the needle. Looking at her I was talking to her telling her to wake up and not let go and then I gave her the second injection, not knowing exactly how much to give . I listened some more and still no pulse, so I started some CPR. I wasn't exactly sure how to do CPR but i was giving it my best and not getting anything I reached over and gave another dose of the chemo.
I was fearing I had lost her and would have to kill the version of her that would wake up that was when she moved and then opened her eyes, the once blue eyes were now silver and hazy, and looked at me. I stepped back a bit and asked her if she was OK I mean she was looking a bit different with her eyes and her skin was pale with dark veins, and she looked back to me and coldly said "Why wouldn't I be".

# 52

2012-01-06T23:49:00.001-05:00

We were on the road and everything was looking up, we had a safe vehicle. We had some food , water , and beer. And we had each other life was good. The road was somewhat clear and still I couldn't figure out why no one was trying to run, where were the cars? where were the mass exodus of people running for their lives? I had to figure it was so fast no one could get an escape together. How the hell could it be so fast. Me and Leeya talked at great lengths about this. What did we eat or drink before it happened. Where were we, what did we do before it all went down. Neither of us had anything in common except for one thing. Right before it had happened I was drinking my fourth coffee, and Leeya said that the night it went down her and the crew she was with when me and Fish found them had been out partying all night and at one point wanted to keep going and popped a bunch of gas station caffeine pills. Could a large dose of caffeine have actually saved all of us? Not logical I thought but what was logical now?

We tried to make sense of it , how fast it came and how quickly everyone seemed effected. If it was caffeine it could explain why my brother left, he drank more coffee than even me. Caffeine stops the trigger chemo stops the effects from a bite , it almost seemed like a virus or infection. I wish we would have figured this out sooner to see if Fish had coffee or caffeine. Thinking about it Fred would have been drinking coffee at the hospital to stay awake while his wife was being treated and she had the chemo and was safe. Could it be something that was air bound? Or in the water? I wanted answers so badly but I was never a book smart sort of guy. Leeya took over driving a while so I could straighten my leg out a bit on the couch and rest. She pulled out her backpack and started putting Cd's in the radio and listening to some weird club music that I couldn't deal with. I leaned back and closed my eyes and started slipping into the dream again, a beach , feet in the sand, waves crashing down.

Leeya woke me up a while after, I have no idea how long it was but she said it was getting dark and wanted to know what we should do for the night. I checked her gas gauge and it was low so I figured we should stop on the next exit for gas and go from there, the one issue we had was the next exit was 23 miles away. We were in the one area of 95 where the exits were spread out. We were going to have to spend the night on the highway. It had been done before but not knowing the area well it was a tough gauge on where to stop. We rolled a ways more where it seemed there were no cars broken or abandoned and shut it down. I locked all the doors and we got some guns at the ready and lay them out all over the RV near every window and door. If something was going to come we would be ready and waiting. We had some food fast while we had light still and we kept noise to a minimum. The bad had a lot of blankets and it was considerably warmer where we were already. As the night rolled in me and Leeya headed to bed and sat a while listening to the night and holding each other. I was more curious but they way she was curling into me had me thinking she was scared of the dark.

The night was quiet for the most part we heard some things but most were things being blown around I had figured. I never heard what seemed like footsteps or heard anything that would drive or anyone. But I kept thinking of the runner. That freaky 'thing" that was different than the rest it ran to us. It was something that stopped me from falling asleep for quite a while. Leeya held out for a while but in the end she was out like a light. I continued thinking about the runner. Fast "things" were just a freak thought to me. Terrifying I thought to be running into the things and have one running fast , how do you get away? We had seen a few of them in Providence but most of them never actually saw us and from what I could remember I never had a lot of experience with them in big areas to see if they could run. Crap what if they all could run when they needed to?

I finally was whisked away to dream land with that beach but it was a darker dream this time. The blue water I dreamt of rolling in with big crashing waved was now black. The sand I imagined between my toes was now blood and the happy people all around me were now undead. The worst part I thought was that the dream seemed to never end, much like our lives now. I woke to a terrible noise and looked around but it was dark and quiet, Leeya was sleeping next to me and soundly. I sat up for a while thinking that couldn't have been in my head could it ? I waited and waited but nothing. I laid back down on the bed and settled back in, maybe that was part of the dream I thought. I started to get cozy with Leeya and was falling asleep again when I heard it and it seemed to shake the whole damn RV. "BOOM" Leeya woke up this time and said in a half asleep voice " what was that?" I got up as fast as my body would allow and went to a window and peeked through the blinds. Nothing here , one by one I checked the windows and nothing was anywhere. "BOOM" again "what is that" Leeya said worried. I grabbed a gun and leaned to the windshield but stayed far enough back to not be seen if something was out there. "BOOM" I could see it that time.

Off in the distance was a huge industrial type building and it was on fire now , the last explosion caught something. "It's some building blowing up about two miles to our northeast"I said. I kept my eyes on it making sure it wasn't the type of building you need to be clear of, but it looked more like a processing plant for a gravel company. I thought for a minute, why would that explode? Those type of things when they aren't running are not prone to nuclear meltdowns its all belts and pulleys and crushers. I stayed for a while watching it burn , another night with more questions than answers. I stayed up for a good two hours watching it burn down and making sure there was no night walking things around. I eventually joined her in dream land again and the rest of the night was off without a hitch. I awoke or so I thought to the dream again, or nightmare I should say of me waking up with Leeya dead by police and the world was fine. I hated that dream and it seemed like whenever we slept on the highway I had the darn thing.

I woke Leeya up and we both got cleaned up and dressed she helped me again with the bandages and she was starting to worry about the knee. The bandage came off with a bit of effort to remove it and the wound was so bad it was hard to tell where the bullet actually went in. Fish did a number on the knee trying to dig the bullet out and I had Leeya get the peroxide for me. She put a towel under my leg and I poured it on.There are few things in this world that feel that bad and let me say I have felt them all lately. The entire wound started foaming like ginger ale in a glass poured too fast so I poured some more. It continued foaming I emptied a whole bottle on it and then had Leeya put some antiseptic spray on it and wrap it. I was wanting to yell or scream but I held it in. After I got up and we started out the new day heading for the next exit and some gas hopefully.

# 51

2012-01-06T16:18:00.001-05:00

Brent had the shotgun aimed at the back of my head and I knew with so much as a finger wiggle I wasn't going to worry anymore about anything. I also looked in front and thought that everyone was going to be like the front row of a Gallagher concert if he does shoot. Leeya had him in her cross hairs I suppose, I couldn't see what was going on back there but sounded like he was in a spot as well as me. "You put that thing down now or you can have long talks with good old Bob in the afterlife" Leeya said to him angrily. Brent said in a stern voice "Please Lee, three weeks ago you didn't even know this clown and now your like his soul mate , give me a break. Three weeks ago and the last three years in school all you ever cared about was body shots ,dancing and acting like a tramp. Now all of a sudden you found a guy who changed you? Put your gun down and be Lee again, this old crippled freak faced moron isn't worth it." Leeya must have got mad because i heard a spitting noise and then she said "You want to live in the past go ahead , the world a month or so ago isn't like it is now, and this man you call a freak is more of a man than your ass will ever be. Drop the gun or on three you get a major haircut."

Brent must have thought better because he took the gun off my head. Fish came up to him and grabbed it from his hands then gave him a pimp slap. Brent started to apologize to everyone but no one was listening. I looked at him and said "Well don't apologize to me unless you got flowers." He came at me with such anger I laughed. Fish and Rusty corralled him to the other side of the room and I got up and stood on my bad leg. " You ever want to come at me Brent you just do it, no games, I'm right here and don't plan on apologizing in this life or the next for that prick Bob." Then I sat back down. Leeya came over and hugged me and whispered things about us I wont say now. Lets say they were personal and about how she felt.

I got up and headed back to the room , and started packing. It was obvious this wasn't going to get any better and what Brent did now he would try on a more subtle level later. The fact that now Leeya was in his sights was even worse. Leeya came in behind me and saw what I was doing and started to pack without even questioning it. We took all our stuff and a bunch of the ammo and guns we had and the chemo we had managed to get and we headed to the back door. Rusty stopped us and said "Wait where you both going?" I looked at him and said basically what it was, things weren't gonna change and I didn't want to put anyone including Leeya in a bad spot here. Brent was a loose cannon and then some and no one wanted to make him answer for anything. It was just stress. Yeah that's what it was. Rusty was a good guy and I had no doubts he would be OK in all of this. The rest were being sheepish with Brent who didn't have much in the way of survival skills and seemed to lack common sense.

We shook his hand and left quietly and told him to say bye for us. I didn't want to make a big bye out of us leaving and have Brent do something wacky again.We got to the RV and I fired it up. Jenn and Linda came out followed by Fish they all wanted to know what was up and we told them. Fish was pissed but I knew that the place was a good spot to stay until winter ended and couldn't argue with him about his staying it was a smart move. For me I had been shot 3 times and almost killed on the fourth , it was time to move on. Leeya hugged her friends good bye wishing them luck and we started to drive off. I moved slow and quiet so I wouldn't make anyone or thing alert to our spot here. Despite Brent I wanted the rest of them to stay safe.

Leeya looked at me and said "Just the two of us so now what should we do?" I thought a second and said "We head down the coast to Florida and then the Keys , heck who knows maybe find that island we talked about." She smiled and hugged me and we motored down the road, no winter sounded good to me. The road was mostly clear and we rolled through Providence this time and went to the split and headed south. Having driven so much I knew we would need to find fuel at some point and that required a syphon of some sort. When we reach the Ct state line I'll look for a truck stop , the mechanics should have something there. We rolled down the highway and there were no cars really it was too odd. How does it happen this fast. There were no cars until we hit the off ramp for route 4 which led to Narragansett and then we hit a damn blocked road. I doubled back and headed to route 2 which would lead to a side way to route 3 that ran the length of the highway and to the state line as well.

On the road it was rough leaving everyone behind but that situation was just getting worse. Rusty was good people and so was Fish aside from the dad thing. The girls I would have to take Leeya's word on I never really got to know them too well. Fred and Unice were weird but cordial. Brent was a different version of Bob and that was too much , the hair on the camels back I guess after the week I had been through. We now had a chance to head south and maybe find some sort of life to live, I just wished my leg wasn't killing me so badly. Leeya ended up going in the bed and taking a nap while I motored on. I wasn't the smartest guy in the world but I managed to move around without being killed so far, I just needed to do it without being shot so damn much.

We hit the state line and I pulled off route 3 and into a gas station. It was pretty beat up but around here the population wasn't big numbers wise so my hopes were this place still had gas. I told Leeya to wake up and handed her a gun,she was groggy but followed me outside. We went to the garage attached to the gas station in search of a syphon of some sort. I found a small one usually used on oil drums and about 30 feet of hose. We went outside and looked for the covers that the fuel truck fills and the workers stick to check the tanks ,I pulled the cover off the middle one. I was not sure which was regular so the middle was always safe. I dropped the hose down as far as it would reach then pulled it and a good six feet of it was wet. Perfect I had Leeya pull the RV over to the other end of the pump and stuck it in the hose again. I started spinning the hand crank and there it went, I was extremely happy and knew we would be taking this kit with us for our journey. I filled both tanks and a reserve on the bottom for the generator, things were looking up.

I threw the pump and hose into the storage area next to the generator and locked it up tight and we were off. Leeya went right back to the bed and I checked the back and bathroom to make sure things were cool. We headed out some more and that was when they came. As I started pulling back out onto route 3 I could see them up ahead next to where the old Tim Horton's was. There had to be fifty of them if there was one and they were coming towards the station. Our attempt to be quiet was not working out so well I thought and started towards them. Between us and them was a side street that led to the exit ramp for the highway, and hopefully after the huge detour the road was clear again. I put the pedal down and headed into the crowd hoping to make it to the turn off before they did and that was when I saw one for the first time, a runner. A "thing" that wasn't just walking but running, like an athlete in a track meet. It was so different I found myself staring thinking maybe it was a regular person running from them. The closer I got the more I realized it was a thing alright. The ghoul had one arm flailing around like it was ready to fall off and was running like a child in a field.

We made the turn off and I swung it quick and Leeya rolled right off the bed. "Hey what the hell!!" Leeya yelled from the back and then I heard "THUMP" to the back of the RV. She looked to me and said "What the hell was that". I said "Oh nothing just a "thing" that was running at us". She said what I had thought "They can run?" Judging by the noise they cant stop too good. I said " You found out just like me, tonight " She came up front and asked where we were she just laid down and we were at a gas station, lol now we were on the highway. I explained what happened and she was shocked. I was glad we found out about the running type now and not when we had no way out fast. We headed down the highway, newly refreshed and full of fuel, I was good to go if the road allowed it, we headed towards the New York line and hopefully clear highways.

# 50

2012-01-06T10:47:00.000-05:00

The next day was a bit rougher than the one preceding it as far as my knee was concerned but it was a day with out lives safe just the same. The morning was looking up though compared to the day before. Leeya was asleep on my somewhat healed chest and the couch had awarded me a comfortable bad. I could hear a rustling behind the couch we were perched at and figured Rusty and Fred were doing something in the kitchen behind the lobby. I tried to look around the couch without moving Leeya and was being unsuccessful so gave up the attempt. The noise was like pans moving around or maybe it was dishes. Sitting there I still felt like I was in a different world, a lot had happen in the past few weeks and it was time for me to take a mental list and sort through it all on the couch. I had met people who died in front of me, watched the world dissolve in the span of a coffee, fall in with a girl who wouldn't give me a second look on a good day, been shot ...three times in a week and managed to do all of this while avoiding zombie like things that wanted to kill me. All in all it was a busy few weeks but for the most part I wasn't cracking up yet. I was also thinking of my mother and my brother and then thinking of all of my other relatives spread out across the region and country.

"You want some breakfast ?" Rusty shouted out from the other room. "You bet guy." I replied and started to twist to get up and replace my back with Leeya's front as she slept. I got up to one leg and tried to put my weight down on the other and had more pain than I was ready to deal with. I made peace with hopping on the one good leg and my arm was starting to give me the high sign as well. I was so concerned with this balancing act I didn't realize I was basically naked. Fred took a peek to see what the noise was and yelled "This isn't one of those Hotel's cover up will you". I looked down and smiled and grabbed some boxers. It was a real act of cirque De soleil , getting them on without falling over but I got it done. I staggered over to the bathroom in the back of the front desk and tried to take a bloodless piss. After which i went to the sink and washed my hands and then tried to wash what was left of my face. God damn I looked like a bucket of monkey crap, won't be needing a costume this Halloween I thought. My face was something of a bad nightmare and I started to feel bad for anyone who had to deal with looking at me, wished I hadn't seen the mirror at all.

I hopped over to the kitchen and sat at the chair near the counter. Rusty looked over and asked me how I wanted my artificial eggs. As he put it "do you want them scrambled or scrambled?" I bet he thought that was funny, OK I laughed a bit. Eggs were nice and when you haven't had them in forever you can't tell they are fake. I asked Rusty how I looked and he smiled and responded with something that rhymes with Bit. I had to laugh and Fred did too. Rusty said he was surprised how fast Lee had taken a shine to me but after seeing how much I had taken to keep her safe he was no longer surprised. He called me a hero for what I had done and patted me on the back. I was confused and told him I was no hero, just a guy doing what he had to as it came at him. " A regular John McClane" he said with a smirk referring to the Die Hard movies. In a way I guess that was more accurate than a hero, only this was real. For all we knew Bruce Willis was a zombie right now.

Leeya woke up finally and came in to lean over and give me a kiss and a hug. Rusty handed her a plate of his finest scrambled and she ate it as fast as I did. The day was looking to be a lazy one and I for one was looking forward to it. One by one everyone shuffled into the kitchen and started eating Rusty's famous eggs. I made a hop out of the kitchen and headed to our room ,Leeya was right behind me trying to help me. We got to the room and she asked me why I left the group and came back to the room. I just looked at her "Look at me, I know I wouldn't want to be eating eggs with this face in the room. Hell my leg is still soaked with blood." She smiled and said she would eat eggs off my face. There's a thought for ya huh? She was being loving and loyal and gross all at once. I could see her saying it but for the other people in the group I wasn't dinner fodder.

I lay down on the bed and had a big sigh of relief. Leeya came on to the top of me and started a purring noise and the whispered how she was going to change the dressing on my knee and arm and then show me a different way to groan. I was all for it and didn't bother moving, however as she changed the bandage on my knee it started to become obvious to me my leg from my knee down was either asleep of sawed off because I couldn't feel it at all. I would have said something but, why kill the mood. After changing my wraps she put the do not disturb sign on the door and gave me a real run for my money at twister, without the game present. After she told me she had never been happier and I lay there on the bed thinking "Woman it only took the end of civilization to make her happy". It was funny to me to think this way, I knew what she meant I had not been this happy in forever too but was too stone faced to give it away.

The afternoon came and Leeya was taking a shower and doing her hair and whatever else it is that takes an eternity in the bathroom. I had the feeling that if I didn't hit the men's room soon I was going to have a problem. I got up and got some bowers on and then tried my damnedest to put a pair of sweat pants on. I grabbed a shirt and believe me it was the easiest part of the whole deal and threw it on as I hopped out of the room and into the hallway. I headed to the lobby and into the bathroom again but this time I fell right over and onto the floor behind the front desk. I put too much weight on my leg and it failed me badly, I still couldn't feel it. I dragged myself up using the edge of the desk and finally got into the bathroom. Ahh blood free urine, it is a good day i thought. I cleaned up quick and came out to Brent who was facing me and we were all alone.

"Me and Bob had been friends since grade school. I know he had a thing for Lee , he had for a while. But I don't think he tried to kill you. Bob was not the guy to do that." I sat into the chair at the front desk and looked at Brent and then pulled my leg up onto the desk and said "You didn't know your pal as well as you think you did because he ran like a girl from those "things" and after me and Leeya took care of them he shot me. You can try and turn it around all you want but I never got a round off on him, truth is Leeya took Bob out after he blew me across the hall with Fred's shotgun." Brent looked at me with what seemed like anger and then said " That's just you and Leeya's story but I think things went down differently." I looked at him and said "What you think is what you can't get your head around your buddy being as wacky as he was. But if you think I will sit here and take your crap when so far you have done nothing but watch things go down your wrong. You want to take a shot at me Brent, then take your shot I haven't flinched yet and don't aim to start." He kind of grimaced and walked away. Leeya came around the corner a short while later and asked why I left and I told her it was the bathroom and nothing more.

Fish came over to me and wanted to talk, in private. i told Leeya I would be in the room in a few minutes and she headed that way. Fish leaned in and told me Brent was putting in motion with everyone the beginning of a full on eviction of me for thinking I killed Bob maliciously. I was smirking and Fish warned me, the things he was saying and how he was saying them were making the others think I was crazy. My face was making it an easy sell. I underestimated the jock apparently he was a good debater too, specially when he had no one debating with him. I told Fish I wasnt concerned , me and Leeya knew what went down and if Brent was going to try and remove us he better have something more than his words. That was when Rusty came over and leaned to me and said "Brent is a nut man, me and the others have been humoring him, I think hes losing it." I couldn't figure out why Bob freaked out and now it was seeming Brent was as well.

Clunk the barrell of a shotgun was up against the back of my head. Brent was on the other end and he was shaking as he reared down on me. " I thought today was going to be a lazy day.." I said. Brent yelled for me to shut up and told everyone to get in front of me so he could see them. They all moved over and the Brent told me to admit what I had done to Bob. I heard a click and Leeya was behind Brent with her gun aimed to his head. "I blew his head off for shooting my baby" she said and then added " And if you don't put that gun down you can ask him yourself in a minute." God I dig her I thought.

# 49

2012-01-05T22:05:00.000-05:00

The faces I could make out pieces of were staring into the ceiling tiles and me and Leeya were ready to rock and roll. I am not sure if it would end well for us but I knew we would take a piece of them with us if we had to go. Leeya was staring a hole in the woman and the one hand she wasn't holding onto the edge of the wall with was aiming the gun straight on top of her head. I was doing a pretty good balancing act and had both guns aimed at where the other folks seemed to be. The woman looked a bit more and then said "Lets go even the rats are trying to leave here."I looked at Leeya and gave a big sigh. She settled in for a second and was looking paler than ever. That was a good scare and I was glad the rodent problem saved our asses.

The woman left with the two men and we heard the truck start to drive off. Leeya was ready to climb down but I didn't quite trust it yet and made her hold up a second. Just then the woman came back in alone. She looked up again and then looked down at the floor. I leaned over a bit more to see what she had her eyes on, it was our footprints of mud from when we came in. She called another guy over and asked him to show her his boots. Then she looked at the prints again. "OK , you can go. It was rats I guess, but just in case." Then she took out a gun and fired several shots into the ceiling. I covered Leeya's mouth and took one in the forearm. Then the woman said "OK now we can go." Leeya started to well up and I started to feel the burn in my arm from being shot.

The truck drove off and we waited still yet for a while waiting just in case. Leeya leaned over and tied a rag around my arm and I bite down hard on my other hand as my knee started burning. We waited it out a few more minutes then I moved a tile and fell out onto the floor with Leeya dropping onto the desk behind me. "Oh my god you got shot baby are you OK?" I leaned over and showed her my knee and Leeya started crying. "What luck lately huh ?" I said with a smirk. I always find humor even at my own damn expense. She helped me up and sat me on the desk and started tying rags around my knee. I couldn't have planned that to go any worse than it just did. She had me lean over on her and we started hobbling back into the woods, but this time I told her we would follow the woods by the treeline all the way back to the Hotel. It was a long walk with us shuffling through the woods and me leaning on her but we were moving along. Leeya asked me why I covered her mouth and all I could respond with was "To shut you up" and we laughed. I really did want to shut her up I thought when the lady started shooting she would yell or cry so I capped the well so to speak. Little did I know I stopped her from getting shot in the damn head , a hero's work is never done.

We finally could see the hotel in front of us through the woods and the bus was there finally. I had a little bit of peace in me knowing our friends were OK. We broke out of the treeline and I was starting to feel dizzy and cold , so damn cold. Leeya couldn't pull me anymore and I had her put me down and go get help. She was reluctant to leave me but knew she couldn't carry me and I wasn't moving anymore and left crying all the way to the door. Rusty and Brent came running out and grabbed me and Fish was behind them with a gun as cover, from what I have no idea but he was like a warrior that way. I lost a lot of blood mainly because we didn't know anything about tying the wounds up correctly and then having to walk a good mile in the woods. They dropped me on the couch in the lobby and while they were looking over the wounds and getting water Leeya was frantic and babbling about what had happened. Then I blacked out, it's getting to be a habit I hope to break.

I woke up and not being sure what day it even was had a dry mouth and headache. I looked around and Leeya was passed out on my lap sitting to the side of the couch. This girl has no quit I thought. I cleared my throat and she woke up and started kissing me, I could feel the bandages were finally off my face. I had that going for me at least. I finally got the words water out and got a glass with a straw,drinking all of it to the point of choking and coughing my brains out. Hey my side and chest felt better but my knee and arm sucked, badly. Everyone started coming around and giving me congrats on waking up and being OK, and Leeya had a look in her eyes like I just won the super bowl. Guess that's what happens when you take a bullet for a lady, you get to be the BIG MAN ON CAMPUS. Sorry I had to do it, my humor has no tact.

I sat up and then Fish told me what was what. He got the bullets out which for my sake were only .22's but the knee shot hit a bunch of stuff and Fish said being no doctor he did what he could but couldn't guarantee any of his work. I had ice on it and Leeya said she had been changing it the past few days...few days? WTF. I found out I had been out for four days , with water being poured in my mouth and Leeya being a nurse to her own fail, she had passed out twice for not eating. Rusty made her eat he proclaimed or she would've been laying right next to me. I thanked everyone for everything they did , even Fish's crappy medical work. And then sat around the rest of the day talking with everyone catching up on things and finding out Fish and Rusty had gotten another truck while I was out full of fuel and the heat was bitching.

I settled into the couch with Leeya and a group of friends and we had beers food and laughs. It wasn't often we all had smiles so when they came it was good for the souls. I just hoped my leg would be able to hold me up and soon, laying around gets you dead. Fred came down finally and was smiling at me as opposed to last time. Unice he said wasn't feeling well and was laying down and he had to attend to her. I told him I gave her my best and to have a good night and he was off. Rusty said they went out two days ago and found the oil truck in mid delivery sitting in the road with almost a full tank. They filled its tank up to run it and brought it back and emptied it here. They guessed the delivery guy was attacked while doing the delivery and the truck ran out of gas. Luckily he hadn't flipped the lever to fill the house yet or it would've filled the cellar and been empty too.

We had heat and electricity for certain things and every time someone went out we suddenly had more beer, ahhh college kids. It was good to be here warm and safe. We had a good thing here and the other people said they had not seen the group me and Leeya ran into three times now and shot me. My guess was they had somewhere to hunker down like us and needed fuel like us. In a way it was good they found the truck and took it from me or they might have spotted it behind the Hotel and that could have brought all sorts of trouble down on us. With that Rusty went outside and fired up the fuel truck they had taken and drove it deep into the woods. I guess he put two and two together and didn't want anyone sniffing around either.

With everything that had been happening it was like we forgot about the "things". I was worrying about heat and the mob but out there somewhere are "things". Maybe the cold has them hiding as well, who knows. I would love to find out what this was and why it was spreading so fast. Classic zombie movies be damned why was this happening, was it a form of rabies? or a chemical weapon? I didn't have a clue but I knew i would have .....One more beer.

# 48

2012-01-05T17:10:00.000-05:00

We had a good day and everyone got plenty of sleep. I never even checked the road for the group of people, maybe I was slipping or just so damn tired I didn't remember. Waking up I noticed Leeya was in a state of zombie herself with a night snore. I got out of bed and headed to the window to take a peek and see what I could see. Nothing again nobody , nothing , just silent. I got dressed quick and headed tot he back of the Hotel where our main entrance was. I hoped that the bus would be back there and everyone would have pig piled in the RV over the course of the night. Looking out the window through the boards blocking all of the windows and I could see nothing. I had a bit of worry for a second there thinking they had been taken by the group of wacko jobs. Or that they had encountered a large group of the zombie things like we had only they never got a chance to get it in reverse. My head was throbbing again, it seems I was going to be a migraine machine with all the worry of this crap. I turned around and Rusty was right behind me.

"Hey man your up early , any sign of them yet ?" Rusty asked me with a chipper attitude. "Nope no one and nothing out there this morning. Maybe they just shut it down on the road and they will be back this morning at some point." Rusty shook his head and then pointed at me and had the " I have an idea look " on his face. " Maybe they all died yesterday and they will come back to eat us." He said in a weird thinking he was funny sort of way. "Not too funny there Russ." I replied. He shrugged it off and then asked if I wanted coffee. " You have coffee? Well shoot yes I want coffee ." I said in a shocked manner. I had no idea this mother eff er right here had coffee. He waved me to follow with his head nod to the side and I walked with him into the kitchen.

"Your face feeling any better ?" He asked while his eyes were on the task of coffee. "I'm sort of getting used to the pain. My teeth are hurting a bit but it's just some pain." I commented in response to him. He smirked "Real tough guy huh? Well tough guy you want to tell me what exactly happened with Bob so I can see if this story is on the up and up ?" He asked. " Sure thing man but I have to warn you after the shooting it was all a bit of a blur". He nodded and I told him word for word what I remembered as it had happened. He listened and nodded and at one point during the moments leading to Bob shooting me stopped what he was doing to pay full attention. When I was through he started the perculator on the stove and then said " Sounds like what Lee said so I guess it is what happened. Unless you worked the story out." I looked at him and then said "I got no reason to lie to you or anybody here. Truth is Fred gave him a shotgun loaded with rock salt because he heard the dumb ass talking to you about me. Is there anything you want to tell me red ?" I said sarcastically. He looked like my eyes were melting him and nodded no and said squeamishly " No I don't and I didn't know he was gonna do that to you , I swear ." I nodded and said "Well with him dead I guess I have to take YOUR WORD now don't I ?"

Rusty sat down and waited for the coffee and then put his face in his hands and wiped it like he needed to wake up. Fred and Unice came in moments later and Fred commented how Rusty was getting good with the coffee maker he showed him. Piss me off , how the hell do you have coffee and not say anything. This new world we are living in is full of butt heads I thought.I sat down and started to think of a way to get oil to the Hotel for the heat and hot water. Trust me you don't want to lose the hot water it was king around here. We had about ninety gallons of fuel for the generator and Fred said it would last a good month so I wasn't concerned yet about that but the heating oil for the water and heat was epic , and needed to be done now. Winter was settling in and we didn't want to freeze. The Hotel was about a mile from a company that did heating oil and car sales. A weird pairing but it worked for them for years. I just had to hope they had two things. An oil truck that was full and that also ran.

I had coffee, actually three coffee's the creamers were OK but not like half and half and talked with Rusty about my chance for oil for the place. If the truck was full it could supply us the rest of the winter and then when the weather broke I would make a dash for some sort of escape. That dream I keep having makes me think the tropics were in the cards. Leeya finally woke up and came out of the room and down to where we were all sitting and poured a coffee. She sat on my leg and kissed my bandaged face and asked what was the conversation. We filled her in and she said she needed a half hour to get ready. I tried talking her out of going but she told me I was never going anywhere without her. Chic's...lol. I kid, it was beyond cool having someone want you in their life that bad that going out in a frozen zombified landscape was a better choice than waiting for them to return.

I went to the room with her to get geared up and she took a long shower and got dressed. We wore heavy clothing with scarves and got the weaponry and ammo straight. We got everything together and headed to the doorway. Rusty was there with a shotgun and a beer, I have to say I really like this guy lol. He wished us luck and opened the door for us and locked it behind us. Leeya was on my wounded side because she insisted I would have trouble seeing with the bandage and she had my blind spot. We walked on the edge of the treeline to the roadway, I was convinced that the group of wacko jobs were around somewhere and didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb. Slow movement on the treeline was what was best. Leeya was being a regular tactical soldier walking with her gun barrel aiming down slow and steady, it was impressive how far she was coming along so quickly. Then again a little over a month ago I was having a coffee in my tow truck so I was no measuring stick.

The road we called route 6 was empty as far as I could see with cars scattered randomly. No dead , no alive , just emptiness. Leeya sighed and I asked what was wrong. She thought we would spot the bus coming but no luck it wasn't in the distance anywhere. We stayed along the treeline at least until it ran out and we were crossing the parking lots of various business's. We were tracking well and then we heard something off to the left of where we were heading. "Get down " I said to Leeya and we squatted down and started shuffling to the little hut in the parking lot that house a cell phone retailer. We stayed against the side of it ducking down and listening. Leeya looked nervous and started getting me nervous looking at her. I peeked up over the ledge where the side windows were and looked through the interior of the cell phone place to the street across from it. I couldn't see anything and pulled out another gun in my left hand. Something wasn't right and I was getting a bit antsy.

We headed around the back of the little shack we were along the side of and headed to the edge of it. I peeked around the corner but still nothing. And the noise persisted, sounding like a whining of some sort. I looked ahead of us and we had a good fifty yards to go to the next building, one of the chain sit down restaurants Applebee's. I whispered to Leeya to stay right with me and stay low and quiet and we ducked down and while hunched over and guns down and ready scampered across the lot to the side of the restaurant.

The noise was still happening and I finally spotted what it was. A car was rammed into the Burger King across the way and was revving and randomly spinning it's tires trying to drive while slammed against the building. I smelled a trap of some type and told Leeya to keep her eyes peeled for anything, because this wasn't some weird accident. We slid around the back of the restaurant and to the other side. When we reached it I too a slow peek around the edge and that was when I saw it, The group of people from the week before and they were hunched down staring at the car as well next to the Donut shop just past the Applebee's. Thank chicken I didn't just run that way. I told Leeya to follow me and we went back to the cell phone building. My idea was to go far into the woods and behind them to the other side. Passing them from a safe distance was better than trying to sneak right by them. I counted at least thirty of them and they were pissed at us for the lady we clipped no doubt.

We headed diagonally away from where the were with Applebee's as our blocker from their view and into the woods. Me and Leeya snuck deep inside but not so deep we lost eye contact. I wanted to know where they were at all times. We snuck through the woods and watched them finally start hunting around the Applebee's , thankfully we didn't stay there, and then the cell phone place. I loved it the further they went one way we were going the other. The bad news was they were heading one place at a time towards the Hotel and if everything works out it will look abandoned to them as well and they will move on. Either that or if we get fuel we will have to run more people over , and kill the rest.

We made it to the destination Columbus Oil and they did indeed have a truck out back. I ran to it and checked and it had a full tank, must have been ready for a new day when it never got started up. Hopefully I get some keys for this beast. Leeya came over to me and said "Hurry". I looked and for whatever reason the group was heading this way and were about 200 yards away. I ran over to the building and kicked the door in and did a mad dash for keys. Dammit I couldn't find them. The group was only a hundred yards away now and I grabbed Leeya " quick get in the ceiling" I said and gave her a boost as she lifted the tiles and climbed in. I made sure she had a good spot with a ledge to stand on then followed her into the drop top. We were curled up in the drop ceiling like I had been before with Fish and the group started rummaging through the lot and four people came into the office and started rooting through the desks. I'm not sure what they were searching for but they had something specific in mind.

Outside I heard the truck we came for start up and one of the guys under us said " forget it hes got it running." You have got to be kidding me, they wanted the same damn truck. Leeya pointed her gun downward and I put my hand on it and nodded NO to her. And gave the shhhh sign with my finger to my lips. Then a woman who was apparently in charge came into the office and started shuffling through things. Leeya's foot slipped a bit and made a scuff noise. The woman under us from what I could see through the lighting stopped everything and looked up. Crap I thought we were dead, and I aimed both of my guns downward as well.

# 47

2012-01-04T23:57:00.000-05:00

The morning got me to awaken to my breath being visible. the heater had finally quit over night and if it wasn't for a pile of blankets we may have frozen. It was having trouble keeping up I thought but now it had become obvious it was broken and limping along. Last time I pay this ind of money for an RV and have it break in the first week, I'd be a little upset if I was the guy who bought this tank. Leeya was already up and out, probably getting breakfast or something and I got up with a bit of pain but not like the day before. I was stiff for sure and slow in my movements as I tested my limitations and headed to the bathroom. A nice bathroom indeed with a tub shower that was triangle shaped and could fit two. Nice for a camper I thought, shoot the hotel room isn't this nice. I took a bit of time and peed a bit of blood but figuring what I had been through I wasn't questioning it yet. If I still had blood in a day or two then I better have a hole dug. I shook and headed to the sink and started washing my hands and looked up in the mirror. Oh lordy I was at least grateful the bandage covered most of my face. I cleaned up as best I could and tried to brush my teeth, but my cheek wasn't allowing much space on the inside which I think led to the outside in some spots.

I got dressed as quick as my movements allowed me and found the shirt going over my head and arms to be the hardest. At least I thought it was the hardest part of dressing until I unknowingly tugged it down over my chest and remembered the chest wasn't good either. Stars and unicorns as Zolak would say, that's what I saw. I got some shoes on and headed to the windows to check the perimeter and make sure it was all good. Grabbing my jacket I SLOWLY and I mean SLOWLY put it on and then headed for the door. I know the guys were scared but after a day and a half they can't still think I'm bitten can they? I opened the door and the cool crisp air hit me. The sun on my face was nice but the wind was going right through me. I took a step away from the RV and heard a noise to my right. Looking over I could see Rusty under the flip out trying to fix something. I staggered over and gave a hey to him and he climbed out from under the overhang.

"Hey Rusty what the heck you doing under there man"? I asked him. He looked skittish and said without much eye contact " Trying to fix the heater for you guys but the thing is all high tech I dunno what I am looking at under here." I asked if I could give a look and he held his arm out for me to try. I climbed under the overhang and could see the heater and it was quite the unit for sure. Electronic and I would have guessed gas of some sort but nope electric. I followed the wiring and it led to a box that faced away from me. I looked at the diagram and it was a fuse it said. I reached up and the button I felt on top of it was out , I clicked it in and the heater started. "All set man, unless it keeps tripping off." Rusty looked at me finally eye to eye and said "shoot you know a few things don't ya, I been under there over an hour not knowing what I was looking at". " Yeah I know a few thing's" I said. I told him maybe the unit was breaking in or something and we just overloaded it and he ran inside to turn it to about 60 degrees. he came out saying it was set to 80, Leeya must not have known you cant have 80 when its 12 out the heater would blow up. Oh well we would see if it can keep it comfortable now.

Rusty put his arm under my left one and gave me a hand walking in and asking how I felt and small talking. He was an OK guy and I had read him that way from the get go. He helped me inside and got me a seat by the pool on a chaise lounge type thing. "I'll get Lee for ya man be right back" he said and I thanked him for the help. The place was much quieter and I almost suspected that something was afoot the way it seemed I was the only one around. Leeya came over and she was looking much better than the past few days. Amazing what some down time can do for you, she had a glow and was smiling a goofy smile like a love sick puppy. I asked her where everyone was and she said around but her answer was kind of underhanded so I asked again. She said that Deb, Linda, and Brent as well as Jenn were on a trip to scavenge and Fish might have gone too. "So you me Rusty and the old folks are all that's here"? I asked. She nodded yes. WTF are these people seriously going out there in a large group, I thought back to the RV and yes the bus wasn't in the lot. Oh crap Fish knows about the group of people why is he being that stupid.

Leeya talked with me alone for a bit and she assured me Fish wasn't taking chances and most of the heavy artillery was in the bus with him. My stomach began to flutter, that would mean we were the sitting ducks , not them. Leeya went to get me food because I was weak and the blood loss was getting the better of me. While she was gone I heard a hello from above me. Fred and Unice in the perch above as usual. I yelled hey back but didn't move much , the soreness was limiting. Eventually Leeya returned and we had some food and drink it was nice to be able to relax with her and not in the cold RV.

Fred finally came down and joined us and started right away with the business at hand. "The heat in here isn't going to last much longer. I have every floor but this one shut off and the water up there as well but the boiler is running low on oil." I thought a bit and then asked what size the tank was in the basement. He said it was a thousand and huge but at about a sixteenth and maybe had three to four days left in it tops. I asked why oil in such a big place and he told me it had three differnt ways of heat it used gas which was off now, it had oil which he was switched to and it had electric which was impossible since the generator was operating basic things like the fan on the heater now and the limited lights and refridgeration we had working. I told him to give me some time to work up a strategy and then I would let him know. He smiled and left us to the company of ourselves.

Rusty came over and jumped cannonball style into the pool soaking our legs and I had a good laugh. He brought out some beers and was just easy going good company. Me ,Leeya, and Rusty had a great afternoon of just shooting the breeze and having some suds and laughs. Times like these made us forget about the real world and just smile a bit, this Hotel was infectious for it and made me worry it was too easy to forget while here at the pool. I had some anxiety for the others as I hoped they would come at any minute. Inside I kept thinking that the group of scavenging freaks we had run across were going to overcome the group and another part of me thought they would take them back here. I feared they could get them to talk about this place if they got them, but that was crazy they wouldn't get them , Fish had his stuff together didnt he?

The day came and went just as easy as the time by the pool. Funny how all the fretting and worrying doesn't change anything as the clock keeps ticking away. I wasted the entire day with my head in the clouds thinking of heating oil and a bus full of people and groups of pirate like people. Rusty and Leeya had no worries that they showed and my head was starting toward sthe end of the day to throb with activity. I showed no signs of my issues and kept to a smile here and there and a nod. Leeya could tell I was different and my pee was telling me at each bathroom break that I was healing. My face and neck were still bandaged but needed changing and Rusty wanted to sit in on the event for the view I suppose. Fred even leaned over the rail to take a peek. The reaction from Rusty had it not been my face would have been priceless but for my own sake it made me wonder what was happening. He asked what the others feared and wanted to know if I was sure it was not a bite of any kind on my face and neck. Leeya looked at hime with evil eyes when he asked and answered for me. She kissed my wounds and dressed them and Rusty comically added "now that is love". I had to smirk even though Leeya wasn't smirking.

The night fell and we left the same note and unlocked RV for the crew and locked up the perimeter. They had done a great job making the first floor basically impenetrable and we all went to bed with warmth and full stomachs that were butterfly filled for our friends. I hoped they were just running late and as I fell asleep with Leeya I dreamt about oil trucks and heat.

# 46

2012-01-04T09:43:00.002-05:00

I woke up to the sound of voices and while blurry eyed I looked to my right and saw Leeya talking to someone at the door. I tried to move but my chest was stabbing me with a violent pain. I sunk back into the bed and took a few deep breaths. Leeya closed the door and noticed I was awake and came over to me, cupping my head in her lap. She was very excited to see me awake and smiling with a worry some look on her face. There was a lot to discuss and not really sure where I or she would even start. I asked her about the others and if she told them what had happened. She told me that she told them about Bob and his wacky attempt to kill me and how she did him in. Then she told them about my wounds and they said to keep me in the RV until it was healed better as they feared her lying and me being bitten. I was offended and also happy. Least they were thinking of salvation and not being blind to the problems. Then she told me Fred was the one she had talked with.... Fred wants me out here for fear of a bite? That was rich.

I told her to get Fred to come in here and talk with me alone and to go hang out with Jenn, Deb, and Linda. She kissed my forehead and then went to get Fred. A few minutes rolled by and I was thinking that Fred refused to come in here but my head said he would. I was the only one who knew about his wife and he didn't want to upset the apple cart that could tell the truth. The door opened and Fred came in , the face of the happy old man I had left was now different and he sat on the bed beside me as Leeya left us alone. Fred took a deep breath and swallowed his spit,"I knew that Bob there was bad news, at the pool I heard him a few times talking about you and that girl. None of it was good. Soon as he volunteered for the trip I had a feeling he was out for you. I gave him a gun with rock salt to give you a chance". I looked at the old man who wouldn't make eye contact with me and said "thank you for that."He then went one to tell me that he feared I would slip and say something and wondered if I told Leeya about it because she said something about having Chemo.

I looked at him and told him I had explained the chemo as my bright idea for possibly killing off whatever it was that made the people into "things". I also reminded him that I was never going to break my promise, his wife was free to live her life however she saw fit. She wasn't sick she was fine but dying from cancer. I then told him that if he wanted we could try with what I had to treat her and he turned me down. Then he said he was sorry for the way I looked and that maybe he should have given him real bullets. I was floored, "your rock salt saved my life why the hell would you say that." He just hung his head, " you think out there if you run into people they wont think your one of those things out there ? " I sat in that for a minute and then responded " any time I have now is bonus man, dead then or dead later on what would it matter, your my hero don't forget that, maybe your tired or something". Fred got up and said "yeah tired , maybe I'll go lay down."

Fred left and a few seconds later Leeya walked in. She kneeled down on the side of the bed and while looking into my eyes asked me if there was something she should know. I looked right at her and said,"there is something but I can't say just yet". She hugged me and whispered " I heard everything from outside". My eyes widened and I asked her to keep it between us if the others know someone will do her in. She shook her head in agreement and then told me that if I ever lye to her again she would never forgive me. In this world all we have is each other and our word and I could see what she meant. I told her I had nothing but trust in her and she would never hear anything but the truth again. She smiled and then I told her " you could have walked , you could have left with Bob, you stayed , you fought , you kicked ass for me. You helped me get back here. Helped me get better." She climbed into bed alongside me and kissed the wound on my face, we both laid there for the rest of the morning.

The afternoon came and it was starting to get colder, the RV was heated but fighting with its limited power to keep up. Leeya went into the Hotel and came back with blanket upon blanket and we huddled up in the bed with hats on and about five blankets. The hotel ones are always kind of thin. "Kind of kinky you , me and eighty other peoples DNA in the bed here together". I joked to Leeya. She laughed a good laugh and we stayed there for the day just curled up holding each other. Talking about our lives , our dreams, what this all could be from. Leeya was younger and had the party girl attitude but she was a good soul and heart. She changed like a switch was turned leading me to believe she was a party girl by act not by herself. The things she spoke of and dreamed of were that of deep rivers. I was hooked at this point and she even brought up why me in Target that day. I wont talk about that here that would be like giving out the secret to Dunkin Donuts coffee or Coke's recipe. I will just say it was something else and pretty cool to hear. We played games like twenty questions, and things like that. Even name that tune, which showed i cannot sing a lick.

Around the beginning of dusk the door knocked and Linda was outside with food for the two of us. She handed Leeya a tray and then a small bucket that used to be for ice. In the bucket was a bottle of wine and two cups. She then came in for a second and said hello to me and hoped I would feel better. I knew it was to get a look at me and then tell the others but she didn't have to bother. Eventually they will all see me. I had not held a mirror in a while and to be honest didn't want one. Me and Leeya say down to a nice dinner with wine and got to have a date. AT least it seemed that way. We drew the shades tight and lit one candle and had a long evening of eating and trying to figure out why we went through puberty. The night was getting colder and we had each others body heat but the cold would be worse the next few days and we had to get back in the Hotel.

All night long was wind gusting and branches behind us creaking, it made for a long night. Leeya once again was dead to the world and I was wide awake. The past few days had done a lot to us. Seen one family gone and another one give us hope. We had a member of the group go insane with jealousy and rage, and had been attacked . We even had the "things" walk right by us. Of all the things we had experienced the one thing that was in my head was the chemo. i could not stop thinking if the chemo was a poison meant to kill cancer than whatever this was had to be some type of a growth or infection. How else is Unice inside and fine and so many others wandering around eating anything that's warm and moving. I was no scientist Bob was right about that , but something had to be causing all of this and it had to start somewhere, and by someone. The other thing I couldn't get through my head was how the hell did it spread so damn fast, like it was almost already here and something triggered it. Even a cold takes a while to spread through an area but this was almost overnight and everywhere. Something was not adding up and I had plenty of time to think. Why if these things are so easy to avoid by us , was the military not able to control it? where is the damn military? My head raced through paranoid schemes where the entire thing was done by the government, or it was a biological weapon. Hell I even thought it was just this area and we were under a quarantine that's why it was fast and no help was around. 28 days later i thought , that was a quarantine. Things weren't making much sense and no one seemed to question any of it, they were just happy it wasn't them. Eventually I slipped into a sleep and the day of bed rest was finally past me.

# 45

2012-01-03T16:44:00.000-05:00

I remember a shotgun and a girl but why am I on a beach sipping umbrella drinks. The wind blowing over me , still warm and calming. The sound of the waves crashing on the beach down before me. The beauty of that water so crisp and blue like eyes on a brunette...brunette...brunette. Where is the girl? what girl? I look around but it's all smiling faces of people enjoying the day. Why am I thinking of a girl? As I look into the sun it's a bright clear day. The sun begins to darken though and turns to a face, not clear ,fuzzy ,but a face. I looked into the eyes on the face but couldn't make them come into focus. Blue I think , maybe blue. I hear "baby, baby, you awake? please be OK". soft and echoing.

SLAP across my face and I woke up fast from my fog. Leeya dove in for a hug and then whispered in my ear to never leave her. My face was on fire from the shot and now the slap but I was coming to my senses. I told her to see if she could wipe away the shot and blood and get me a mirror. She ran for a mirror first then started wiping at me. The coats I had on no doubt saved my life I had a few pieces that were really in there but for the most part not bad. The neck was another story I had so much carnage there and a jugular vein somewhere in it that I didn't want to mess with it too much but I think I lucked out and Bob missed my main vein. The face well lets say the Hex comment wasn't far off. My cheek down to my chin on the right side was like raw road rash and shrapnel from the salt and my ear was missing the tip up top. So much for beard of the year, I thought. My sick humor knew no boundaries.

I tried wiping gently in the neck area and Leeya was trying to wipe the side of my face but between her fear of hurting me and crying I think she was just upsetting herself. I tried to keep her mind off the task and asked her if she came here often. She smiled and then I asked if she knew Bob was that nuts over her. She said she went on a date with him once a year ago but he was too controlling and she bailed. I didn't see it personally, he seemed so together. I smirked thinking of this. She asked why and I lied saying I smirked because of the beach dream and described it to her. She kept on cleaning the wounds and asked about the dream. She thought what if we found an island that was clear or we cleared of the "things" they cant swim can they? We would be safe to be on the island. Imagine Tom Hanks in Castaway actually wanting to be there. Now it seems like a good idea.

Definitely something to think about I told her but we would have to get to wherever it was and that would take some doing. I didn't know anything about sailing and if it had an engine it would be thirsty. Limited gas resources were available and what was around was in demand for generators and such. I had a new thing to focus on, how to get somewhere safe that we could call home for a while, least until this all blows over. Banana's , coconut's, go to the mainland and bring back booze and food and just wait this whole nightmare out.

Leeya said "OK see how that is" and she handed me back the mirror. It wasn't good but then again I was no poster boy that was certain. I leaned on her and had her help me up and then I headed to the room with the key card door and blasted it open. Inside were chemo in pill form and liquid and also bandages and gauze and gel to keep clean. I grabbed as much as I could and so did Leeya. We packed it all in the backpack that we had emptied in the car and were loaded and I felt better having proper clean wounds to make me feel a little like I was OK.

" We have to find a new ride" I told her and we walked out the opposite side to the parking lot and started trying doors. A few hundred feet away was a house with two cars in the driveway. I pointed it out and told Leeya whoever lives there had keys inside I bet and we headed for the house. I booted in the door and to my immediate left was a key rack. Leeya grabbed the keys and helped me to the car. We loaded it up with our stuff and ourselves and headed for the Hotel and hopefully beating curfew.

Leeya drove and told me to sleep and I didn't argue at all. I mumbled wake me if you have any troubles and passed out. It was a ride back but I don't remember any of it I awoke in the RV bed. The guys left a note on the back door saying RV unlocked see you in the morning. Thank god they gave us an outlet, I don't remember what time it was when we got back but I awoke on the bed naked with Leeya sponge bathing me and the wounds had already been redone. I looked at her she smiled and I blacked out again.

I didn't come to until almost the break of dawn. I looked over to my left and Leeya was sound asleep with makeup run on her face. She looked like she had been crying and I only hoped it wasn't anything I had done. I went to get up and had such a sharp pain in my neck from the strain of getting up to sitting that I dropped right back down. The pain was more than I was ready to bear, I felt weak and tired and probably lost too much blood. I looked over at Leeya again but she was out like a light. I wasn't about to wake her she was too good while it all went down. She clipped Bob then helped me out of the car and into the RV here then cleaned me up and probably watched over me until she crashed. I laid back into the pillow and rode the pain out until falling back asleep myself.

# 44

2012-01-03T14:29:00.001-05:00

Down the road we headed and Bob shut up for the most part. Leeya was stroking the side of my arm, she must have thought I was having a rough time after my brothers house but i was happy. All signs pointed to him leaving on his own accord and that means there was still hope. That was all I needed, that or to find them hiding in the basement. The hospital signs were leading me further down the road, I had no idea where it was exactly so the signs were the only chance I had to find the damn place. I turned another corner and almost drove into a crowd of about forty to fifty "things" that were seemingly wandering around in the middle of the road.

The brakes were locked up and the screech coming from the tires got every single one of the things attention. "Holy sh@@" Bob yelled and the back corner of my seat seemed to bend back from his energy. Leeya started screaming and I slammed it in reverse. I backed it up into the street we were just on and took off further down the road. No doubt the Hospital was around that general area so this one was a no go. Leeya started to cry and then turned into laughter of a nervous style. Bob took the moment to profess his hate for me once again. " See Leeya he is going to get us killed he isn't gonna protect you!" Leeya glanced back at him and then gave me a big kiss on the neck. "My baby just got us out of it, you screamed like a bitch" she retorted to Bob in the back. He calmed a bit and sat there muttering to himself. I took the moment to let Bob know how futile he was in the situation. " Hey Bob good job with the gun there buddy!" He just gave me a look and sat back even further.

We were heading down the road and were next to a giant building that was some sort of clinic heading the back way into route 146 and the minivan had a light come on the dashboard. I looked down and it was an engine light, not good and nothing I would be fixing this thing was all computerized. I didn't tell anyone and pushed on hoping the van would make it back to the Hotel that was now a good hour away on a clear day, let alone in the apocalypse we were in. We made it another thirty or forty feet and the van stopped running. I rolled it to a stop and then it died. Turning the key it would turn and turn and that was it , the van lost either fuel or spark not sure which but it was dead. I let it roll back and slammed it in park and listened. Nothing, it was out of gas the gauge was broken. Bob started pooping and moaning and Leeya cut him off saying at least it hadn't happened in the crowd of zombies.

I got out and popped the hood, least that way no one else tries using it in an emergency. Bob climbed out of the side door and instantly started complaining about my "leadership" and ability to keep them safe. Leeya gave him the talk to the hand sign and we gathered up all the things we had brought with us. Looking up at the building beside us it was indeed a clinic, a clinic for cancer treatment. I would rather be lucky than good I thought, this place has to have some chemo. "We go in there they have chemo I bet". Leeya grabbed my arm and we headed to the door and Bob complained some more following behind us.

The door was glass and impact resistant and as I approached it i thought it would be a tough nut to crack. I looked it over and as I was about to shoot it out Leeya pushed it open. "It isn't locked " she said. I smirked , guess I should check next time. Walking into the building it was the reception area and I moved to the back of it and to the treatment area. In the back there were rooms like a hospital ward but I was more interested in where they kept the treatment so I continued looking. Leeya was with me but Bob wandered off looking for god knows what. Me and Leeya made our way to a lab of some sort and found a big room that was locked with key card access only. No power no access, damn I thought.
As soon as I noticed this we heard a yell from Bob down the hall. I ran to the door and saw Bob running from three of the "things" and heading this way leading them to me. "C'mon out , ole painless is waiting " I quoted from Predator and Bob ducked down as I unloaded into the lead "things" head. He dropped and the other two continued towards us. The furthest one back fell over the one I dropped and then Leeya shot four rounds into everything around but not the Monster.

I grabbed her arm and said " just squeeze baby". She looked at me then down at her gun then back out and "boom" the head of the thing coming at us disappeared. I cocked my shotgun and took out the last one as it got up from it's fall . Just then Bob took aim at me."What the hell are you doing Bob" Leeya said in shock and anger. "BOOM" his shotgun discharged and I flew backwards about twenty feet and lost my breath. Everything went fuzzy for a minute and my chest was on fire. I heard two quick Bangs that came from Leeya's gun and then she ran to me and leaned over me crying for me. "No,No, your OK right baby, your OK, please be OK." She was crying and shaking and all I could do was try to breath. In my head this was it, no doctors around no medical help, I am done right here. I looked at Leeya and tried to talk but could barely speak, air was an issue. I finally mouthed the words "RUN" to her, and she shook her head no and then started crying "I won't leave you no, I'll die too I won't leave you not ever." I lay there for a while just watching the ceiling and Leeya , wondering why Bob wigged out so bad. And if I was going to make it another minute. Leeya said she got Bob as soon as he shot me she put her gun to his head and he was down.

I leaned up and could see Bob laying there with most of his head gone. Leeya was a foot away when he did the shooting and she shot twice. She was no marksmen but she didn't have to be at that angle. So much for Bob being the smart one. I looked down and could see I was losing blood and had what looked like.....wait a minute that wasn't shotgun blast....it was rock salt. Damn Fred gave Bob his gun and it was loaded with rock salt. Holy crap I was relieved thinking if anything I wasn't digging lead or buckshot out of my chest. I leaned to Leeya and said to get me rags and water from wherever she found it and to take the gun in case. While she was gone I started peeling layers of clothing off to see how bad I got it. Lucky he didn't hit me in the face I thought as I started to get my wind back, boy was I wrong. He must have knocked the wind out of me that's all. I leaned against the wall and tried to get myself straight.

I could hear Leeya in the room down the hall searching for something and wondered if rock salt was fatal like this. I reached to my chest and realized it hit me in the face and neck as well. I touched my neck and it had little holes in a scatter on the side and my face was what felt like ground beef on the right side. I thought I was the new Jonah Hex and smirked which hurt badly to do. Leeya came running to me and her face was telling me all I needed to hear while her mouth told me a much more upbeat story. I grabbed the towels and had her spill water on them and then ....WOW I blacked out.

# 43

2012-01-03T12:21:00.000-05:00

We headed out onto the roadway and moved quick, if the group of weirdos were out here anywhere i didn't want them seeing us leave the Hotel. Not much movement around so I headed back to the highway and figured with how clear it was the day previous we would roll through Providence and head to route 146 that could take us all the way to route 20 and from there it was back roads to my brothers. Bob sat silent in the back and I had the rear view mirror angled so I could see his face but cut just before his eyes so he couldn't see me. Every time Leeya leaned against me he would seemingly cringe, this guy was wound too tight. I guess he has some issues and to be honest having him behind me with a shotgun wasn't my idea of comfortable. I distracted him by saying he should keep a keen eye on the sides of the van and if anything went down shoot through the windows. He started looking left and right but still stopped to stare holes in Leeya every so often. I wondered if she knew how wacky he was getting for her?

The road through Providence was quiet with almost no traffic , further pushing my confusion of why no one seemed to try running or leaving. The split after the Point street bridge was likewise quiet and we headed to the exit for route 146. The exit was a split exit between 146 and the state offices so I half expected some kind of congestion there but once again, nothing. This made me more and more confused, I wanted to see a car, any car driving so I would know someone else was out there. We did have to be careful, with so much dead silence our car driving down the highway could be heard for miles and anyone or "thing" would pay notice to it. The last thing I wanted to do was wake the dead literally.

We headed up 146 and the road had sporadic cars here and there laying in various forms and every once in a while a "thing" would be wandering either in the road or off to the side. It looked like they were lost almost and when they heard the van would start towards us to no avail. By the time they even had a lock on our position we were past them or about to. Bob finally said " This is too messed up we need to head back, your bother is dead you know he is!" I adjusted the mirror to catch his eyes and said " nice pep talk Bob, you should think of coaching". He gave a dirty look and said " you know what I mean , look around , there's no one, nothing, everyone is dead". I just replied with until I know for sure, then he and his family are alive and that is all there is to it". He sighed and sat back like a child told they cannot go to the mall.

The trip was generally non eventful , just various walking things and that was about it. No survivors or grouping of either type. I had hoped for a survivor or two , heck maybe a group like we had. But if there was a group out there that we drove past they stayed hidden from us. We reached route 20 by around 2 in the afternoon and I told everyone in the van if we didn't make tracks we would be locked out of the Hotel again. Bob instantly argued that we could just knock or some crap but I told him that we wouldn't put them in a bad situation for a chance to get inside. He was mad again and I could tell that Bob would either have it his way or I was a prick.

Route 20 was a lot tighter and more congested, it was as if everyone was running everywhere but not to a highway. Very confusing and hard to navigate through. We got to the mall and just as we reached it Bob said "we should go and check it out there could be things we could use in there". I stopped him and said "I am sure there is things we could use in there but Ive seen this movie and the ending blows." Leeya laughed only adding to the anger behind me. We drove past the mall and headed up the road towards my brothers and as we got closer the signs were everywhere that it was a bad deal all around out this way.

We headed down the main road leading to my brothers and my stomach was turning thinking of the things I could see. I feared the worst and as we turned up the hill the house looked fine, with no cars in the driveway. No cars, that was a good sign right? We pulled in and Leeya asked if this was his place and I nodded. I told them to stay put and keep an eye out and I would check it out. I grabbed the shotgun and headed inside. The door was locked and I booted it open and walked to the kitchen yelling for anyone. The house was empty and I wondered if they were out there somewhere. I ran up the stairs and when I got to the bedrooms the bureaus were open and empty, another good clue right? I had my hopes up that they got away and were somewhere safe, maybe they headed to Florida where my brothers wife's sister lived? Maybe the small town had an evacuation and they were all somewhere safe? The thoughts made me dizzy with hope and sadness that I had missed them. I sat on the foot of the bed and melted in my shoes for a moment. Please be safe was all I could think.

I looked in the house a bit and grabbed a picture of the whole family together. Maybe they left for a better place, maybe they were safe. I knew one day if they were i would find them and if they weren't I would find out. It was a better answer than I had feared could have been there and that was something to give me hope and a reason to keep moving on. I walked out of the house with a bit of pop in my step , thinking of what could be. Leeya smiled at me and asked what was inside. I told her and Bob instantly went into they are gone mode. Leeya was like me she said it was a good thing that gives you hope. I liked Leeya's thought better, Bob just sucks.

We headed out of the driveway and down the road. I turned down the main street and headed right past the street we had came from and Bob instantly picked up on it. "Where are we going you missed the turn". I said calmly " heading to the hospital for chemo". Leeya looked at me worried and I said "no, no, not for me but I have an idea". Then went on explaining why and not mentioning Unice or her bite but just that it was a thought I had. Bob started with the usual negative you are no scientist and don't bother. I ignored it and pressed on.