Not much to talk about today. It's been raining mostly all day. When it wasn't raining, it was cloudy. There wasn't much sunlight to charge my tablet, but thankfully, I did manage to charge the spare battery the other day, so I have enough juice to write a little tonight.
I try not to think about being depressed, because depression is a very dangerous state of mind to be in during these kinds of times. Normally, I'd just keep walking, hunt for supplies, search houses and buildings, do something productive and physical, but I've been in this car mostly all day. I could have walked in the rain, but another survival tip for you. Don't do that. Don't get wet if you can absolutely help it. A cold won't kill you, but it can definitely can make it easier for you to be killed. I once heard of a guy who had a sneezing fit and alerted a freshie. Just try your best not to get sick with anything.
And Kat keeps running through my head. I did dream of her. I dreamed that I found her dead and naked, bitten all over. It disturbed me quite a bit. Guilt is really getting to me. I was hoping I'd have a nice dream about her, like we finally found each other again and were having a picnic in a non-zombie infested forest.
I searched the glove box and found nothing but an owner's guide and a pack of playing cards. I lowered the backseat down so I had some surface space and I started playing solitaire, but then stopped after losing 10 games in a row. You got to be some kind of idiot to lose in solitaire 10 times in a row! So, I resorted to reading the owner's manual. I was that bored.
When the rain was falling down at its hardest, I watched the rivulets coming down the windshield. Patterns would form then get washed away as new patterns rushed in to replace them. The wind would sweep them up and make new designs of their own, until it would blow the other direction as if it changed its mind and shook the windshield like an Etch-A-Sketch.
I nearly shit my pants when a big crack of thunder boomed directly over my car. It was so violent, I felt it in my chest. It rattled the rear view mirror and rumbled on for a few seconds afterward. Several times it would clap, just slightly further away from me each time. I saw a brilliant white flash off in the distance, and it looked like a lightning bold struck a tree in the forest.
When the rain let up, I got out to relieve myself and damn near tripped over a body near a bush I was going to. I don't really know why I was bothering with a bush. No one drives this interstate anymore. The body looked to be of a 40ish year old woman, rather heavy set. She was on her back with her head on its side facing me. She had a short sleeve shirt on with a skirt that was offensively too tight for her. I don't know, maybe it was the bloating. I don't know much about forensics, but if I had to guess, based on the state of decomposition, I'd say the body was roughly five days old, maybe a week at most. I leaned over to inspect her, and saw nothing unusual. No bite marks, cuts or bullet wounds. I turned her head over with my bat, and that's when I saw the cause of death. A wedge-shaped pit was in the back of her skull, maggots busily working away trying to filling that recess. If I had to guess, she was hit in the back of her head with an ax. No bite marks anywhere I could see, so maybe she got infected with a blood borne strain and was killed before she could turn. I'm guessing she was riding with someone and then they stopped, got her out and then whacked at her with the ax.
That's the ugliest part of having to survive; recognizing someone turning and then taking care of them before they have a chance to turn and become a serious threat. Johanna was shot for that very reason. I was so angry back then because I thought she could be saved. I wasn't even sure it was the vivensmortua that was making her sick. I know now there isn't a cure. If there was, there would be an army going all over the country curing everyone. But what kind of government would leave their people sick unless there were no corporations around to benefit from the cure?
I was tempted to move on after I finally took a piss after examining the body, but I looked at the clouds and it just didn't look promising. Plus, the wind was kicking in heavily, and the temperature must have dropped 20-30 degrees from yesterday. It was getting colder. Fall's here in full force. At the rate I'm going, I'll be lucky to make it to Colorado before it starts snowing. I don't want to be on the road when it snows. I need to think about maybe finding a temporary shelter that I can spend the winter in. Then again, the sooner I get to California, the sooner I can be with my family.
I'll talk about my family some day. I'd do it tonight, but all this rain hasn't helped my mood. I've just been too tired and mopey today. I just want to sleep now. Too bad this wasn't a satellite tablet, because as far as I know, satellite internet is still up and I could check my weather app. For now, I'll just have to hope that the sun is out and stays out tomorrow....
... if there is a tomorrow.
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