I've always believed in yin and yang. When there's a positive force, there's a negative force usually on the other side. I present to you the case of Hector and me. I've struggled for a restful night's sleep for days, and Hector's always been able to sleep like a log. (just an FYI, light sleepers tend to live longer). I finally had a perfect night's sleep from the time I zonked out to the time I woke up nearly nine hours later. I hate to say this, but it was at the cost of Hector's discomfort.
The pain kept him up, even through the drugs. His shoulder, missing the arm, was throbbing, and he was in need of something much stronger than Temperance had to offer. Temperance got up several times during the night to check on him, and had to change his bandages. He told me he had crazy dreams as well. One was about his arm crawling around the floor and climbing up into peoples' beds and choking them in their sleep. Sounds like one of the nightmares I would have had.
Jonathan was going stir crazy. He needed something to do, and he realized it was the fact that he hadn't fixed anything in some time. He loved making and fixing things. It didn't matter what it was; if it belonged in a house, he could fix it. He even once bet a friend a thousand dollars that he could build a small house, complete with water and electric, faster than his friend could. The bet was on, and John lost the thousand dollars, but the joke was on his friend. Jonathan's house remained upright. His friend's housed collapsed in a thunder storm. John broke down and asked Wallace if there was anything that needed repairing. He nearly giggled when Wallace told him about a couple of cabinet doors that didn't quite close right, and a table that was uneven. Off he went to occupy himself.
Kat appeared to get along with Temperance alright. The two talked for some time. Kat learned that Temperance was a restaurant manager in Baton Rouge. She was working swing shift when a customer began throwing up after eating some hors d'oeuvres. She thought he must have had an allergic reaction or something, She called paramedics, but the customer's condition rapidly declined. He couldn't breathe and passed away before the medics arrived. When the coroner came to examine the body who was covered under a silk tablecloth, the body sat upward and bit the coroner on the carotid artery tearing it out. That was Temperance's first exposure to zombies, no longer a hoax like she and everyone in Baton Rouge believed. Also, Kat sounded like she was having a serious discussion with Temperance, but the two of them hushed up when I came within earshot of them. I wonder what they were talking about...
Wallace was a firearm dealer, a better salesman than a sharpshooter, he admitted. When his wife called him at work about the attack, he rushed over to take her home. They turned on the TV and watched the local news for hours. Very slowly, more and more reports of zombie attacks were happening, not just in Baton Rouge, but in all places in Louisiana. They drove back to his shop and began to load up on guns and ammo. Being an owner of a gun store was a double-edged sword, though. He had enough weapons and ammo to take down thousands of zombies, but everyone wanted his weapons at the same time. He ended up in his store at the exact same time the town began to be looted, and his shop was the primary target. He killed far more humans than he ever did zombies. They decided to abandon the shop after too many people rushed it. For many months after that, he never bothered to even pick up a gun. He said even if Temperance and himself ever became cornered by zombies, it would just be their time. Six months ago, Temperance revealed to him that she was pregnant, and that changed everything.
Wallace spoke of a town in Wisconsin called Rhinelander that supposedly was a pilot town for the Solar Powered Roadways project. The mayor of Rhinelander won his state's Powerball and instead of spending the money on himself, he invested in what could have been the nation's greatest self-efficient energy source. I've heard of these before. Heavy duty solar panels are connected together to form a roadway and apparently, you can tap into the roadway to power your grid. He heard rumors that there's a small community up there, living entirely off the energy from that roadway. When Kat and I heard about that, we both looked at each other and grinned. California would have to wait. We HAD to check out Rhinelander!
We told Wallace we wanted to head up north and see these solar roadways ourselves. We thought it was so important, we wanted to get moving first thing in the morning. He asked, "Well, what about Hector?" That's when I asked him if the two could please look after him. Hector would need at least several days to heal up and we could be halfway there by then, provided we couldn't find any faster methods of travel other than walking. Hector didn't seem to mind, although I wasn't quite sure if he had on a poker face. Wallace and Temperance agreed, and actually said they'd owe us a huge debt of gratitude if we'd check on Rhinelander for them.
So it's settled. Tomorrow, John, Kat and I will be traveling north towards Rhinelander, WI. If this town turns out to be accommodating (I hope it's not under military lock down like Indianapolis), then it would be the perfect place to settle down. The mountains still sound a bit safer, but if this town has electricity, then it means it would most like have water as well. It could even have security, like electrified fences or something! It's a huge risk deviating from our course, but it could really pay off!
Until tomorrow.
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