Seems I'm traveling with someone now. Her name's Katerina and I bumped into her as I was exploring the terminal. Well, more like saved her life. I heard a screech from a freshie, a freshly made zombie as I call them, followed by the shriek of a woman. Normally, my gut would direct me away from the yells, but I had a sudden urge to play hero, so I ran to the source of the distress. There she was, backed up against a trashcan in the food lobby, fighting back a zombie with a crow bar trying to bite her. He lept on top of her and grabbed the crow bar pressing it down on her, cocking back his head to bite when Mr. Goodwrench said hello. I had to apologize to her as bits of zombie skull and hair splattered on her shirt.
I looked her over quickly, seemed to be in her early 20s, red hair, brown eyes. Usually, red heads have freckles on their faces, but hers was spec-free. Couldn't tell how tall she was with her laying on the ground. I held a hand to help her up, but she was reluctant. I asked if she was bit, and she shook her head without saying anything. I thrust my hand forward again, introducing myself as Martin Fowler, and she finally took my hand, saying her name was Katerina Holmes...Howell... Howard... always bad with names.
Now that she stood up, she was about a half foot shorter than I was, so I'd put her at 5'4", no taller than 5'5". I told her we needed to get back to the shop where I was staying it, because we had about 20 seconds before the rest of the zombies would come to investigate. She stayed close to me as we sprinted back, and once in, I closed the gate. I wanted to make sure she wasn't bit though, because I've been in situations where I was helping someone who was bit, but hid it from me and then turned while we were sleeping and damn near got me . I still have the shirt where he managed to tear the collar off.
So I asked her to strip down, and of course she got offended. She accused me of being some kind of pervert, and yelled at me what kind of asshole would have a woman strip in the middle of a zombie infested airport. I urged her to lower her voice or she'd alert them to us, and she caught herself, but her look of distaste did not leave me. I insisted, and stated my reason why. I said I couldn't trust her, and that I wasn't some kind of pervert. She could keep her underwear on, but I had to make sure that no bites were on her body. It was the only way I could trust her. I promised her I wouldn't do anything and I'd stay ten feet away from her. I gave her my wrench and told her she could swing it at my head if I got close.
She stood there, staring at me for a long time, and I kept eye contact with her, meaning I was dead serious. Finally, she pulled her off her shirt, an iron-on of a band I never heard of, and she instinctively covered her chest with her arms. I told her I wasn't interested in seeing her breasts; just interested in seeing if she had any bite marks. Reluctantly, she lowered her arms to reveal a pattern-less cotton bra. It was unstained with blood. I told her to turn around and she did so, again reluctantly and again, no bite marks. I told her to move her shoulder length hair away from her neck. So far so good.
She asked if I was happy, but I said only halfway and she immediately guessed that I was going to ask her tot take her pants off. She cussed at me and said she wasn't going to play any more of my games and that she was going to leave. She didn't need me and I had to remind her that she already did need me. She was more than welcome to leave and try to survive on her own, something she already failed to do, but there was no way I was trusting her - will trust anyone - who says that they weren't bitten unless I looked them over. I told her about my situation back in Vermont when a person I was staying with lied to me, died in his sleep, turned and nearly ripped my throat out.
So she asked me, "Alright, well, how do I know YOU weren't bitten!?" and without answering I stripped down to my boxers and turned around for her. "Well, you could have been bitten on your crotch. How do I..." Before she could even finish the question, I pulled my boxers down, my humility exposed to this woman I've never met before. She glanced down, eyes wide, not believing I'd gone buck naked in front of her so quickly, but when she looked up at me, she was more shocked to know that I was still focused on her eyes. She looked down again, I guess double checking that I wasn't being aroused by staring at her bra and after wasting several minutes, finally realized I was not only serious, but not trying to be perverted about it. I was being professional, and I honestly wish I didn't have to resort to going Full Monty to demonstrate it.
She undid her belt and zipper, and pulled her jeans down, revealing yellow panties, like the bra, unstained with blood. I took my attention off her face so I could examine her legs, and she turned around without being asked, and her backside was clean, too. The one thing that I noticed about her body is that she was rather thin, almost malnourished. I told her that was enough and she could put her clothes back on. I did the same. I apologized to her for asking her to do such a thing, but she actually ended up forgiving me, saying she understood. She said it made sense and now that I was able to trust her, she should trust me.
I offered a bag of trail mix and a bottled water that I took off the shelf, and opened up another nasty Power Bar for myself, and we hunkered down across from each other and began talking. I asked where she was from, and she said Ottawa. She was on a roadtrip to Florida to meet her grandmother right when the outbreak happened. I asked if she was still headed to Florida, and she said she didn't know. She was just trying to survive now. She also heard that the retirement home her grandmother was living in was attacked. It sounded pretty important to me that she keep heading down there to find out, but she told me she pretty much believed she was dead.
She asked about me, where I came from and where I was headed. I told her I moved to Maine, but after the outbreak, I was going to try to reach California. She actually asked me if she could come, and I was hesitant at first. I've been used to traveling alone for a while, and I don't like the idea of worrying about someone slipping up where I wouldn't, but it would actually be nice to have someone to talk to, so I accepted. She ravaged the bag of trail mix and I gave her another one, not commenting on how I noticed she hadn't been eating much lately. She tore into this bag as well, but eventually slowed down and began to savor the nuts and raisins and chocolate candies.
I couldn't find much else in the terminal that the souvenir shop didn't already provide, so I grabbed some more water and food, and gave some to Katerina as well. I told her I'd be right back. Just needed to grab my tablet that was charging in the sun outside. She never seen of one these before, a tablet with solar panels, and I told her I didn't either until I found it. I was extremely lucky that I did. This journal's really helping me keep my thoughts together.
I told her we needed to leave tonight. There was a Holiday Inn just down the terminal road that I felt might be a bit safer, so that's what we did. We had a couple of scares along the way, with a freshie running at us from behind a terminal bus, but to my surprise, Katerina killed it with her crowbar before I even raised my wrench. Maybe she isn't as helpless as I thought. If the both of us can remain focused, then I'm sure we'll be perfectly fine.
We reached the Holiday Inn and entered from the back, as there was a lot of feet draggers congregating in the front. I told her that is usually because they think there's living humans inside, and they're waiting for them to come out. If we found any zombies inside, we had to kill them as quick as possible. We did find a couple in the hallway leading to the concierge, but for the most part it was clear. I wasn't going to bother looking for keys to any of the rooms because hotels like these use card keys and you need to code them, but since there's no power, that shouldn't be a problem. We should be able to get into any room we wanted, and we did. We stayed on the first floor, and I took room 128, and she took 130 across from me. We said good night, and I told her to be ready to be up early. I wanted to get a head start on the day.
Bed's calling. Been a rough day today.
Until tomorrow, if there is a tomorrow.
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