I went back to Kat, her shirt soaked in her blood, and I saw something moving underneath it. I ripped it off her, exposing her breasts and stomach, and there was a bulge pulsating just above her unpierced naval. It grew bigger and bigger until I saw tiny hands pushing beneath the skin. They clenched and grabbed hold of as much tissue as they could, and they ripped Kat's belly open. Out emerged an undead zombie, its skin glistening from the embryonic fluid, eyes stained a yellowish green. It looked at me, opening its mouth already filled with sharp teeth, and shrieked at me, just like the leathers. I grabbed the abomination out of Kat's belly, put its head in my mouth and crushed its skull with my rotting molars.
This one, I woke up screaming. I scared everyone in what's left of our group. I was drenched in sweat and breathing hard. My head began to throb and my forearm began to ache. I apologized to everyone for waking them, and they quickly went back to bed, but Kat stayed up with me. I kept rubbing the bandage of my arm, not bothered by the aching, but the worry that it might turn me. I told her about my dream, but left the part of the baby out. It was too monstrous to repeat, regardless of our deal not to keep things from one another. Kat, if you somehow read this, I'm so sorry.
I finally drifted off to sleep shortly past six, and then instantly awoke to the screaming of Sandra. She had her own nightmare and at that point, we all decided to get up and stay up. Kat and I hugged Sandra trying to calm her down, but she kept crying. She hasn't said a word all day, most likely in shock. She did see her mother eaten by zombies after all. That would traumatize most adults. She didn't want to do anything either. Hector had a pack of well-loved playing cards and tried to play Go Fish, but no dice. We tried to prod her into drawing some flowers, but the idea didn't grow on her. Kat took Sandra's watercolor set and began painting flowers on Sandra's face, and I got to see Kat's own artistic talent bloom (I am so sorry for puns). She showed Sandra her face in a compact mirror, but got no response. To see the life of a once lively child stifled so was disheartening.
Some of use were getting hungry, so I volunteered to sneak out of the basement to the kitchen and get some food. I took the gun with me no longer confident in my ability to defend myself with just a bat. Luckily, there was no sign of any draggers, freshies or leathers. I grabbed what I could out of the kitchen pantry, things that didn't require cooking: a package of cereal flakes, some toaster pastries, a can of peaches and of course an opener for those peaches. I also went to one of the examining rooms and grabbed a half-full bottle of rubbing alcohol and some bandages. I headed back to the basement, and we ate.
After we ate, Kat changed my bandages, and she poured some of the alcohol down my forearm. It felt as if someone stitched my wounds with cannon fuse and lit it. My knuckles turned white from the clenched fist I had made. Hector came over with Jonathan and Timothy and suggested we play some poker and talk to take our minds off the solemness. I said that would be a good idea and he started dealing.
We talked about the future, if things took a turn for the better and we were able to lead normal lives. Hector said he'd have to find something new, as he's done with entertainment law. He was tired of how fake many of his clients were. MC Yung Gunz was a fabricated persona of a kid they found on YouTube who just happened to act tough like a street thug. Gunz was only 17 and never even had a criminal record, but his label suggested that he commit a few crimes for "street cred". Of course, Hector was right there to get him out. Hector wasn't sure if he wanted to still do law at all. He might try his hand at writing, maybe write up stories about how he survived the apocalypse, kind of like what I'm doing with my journal.
Jonathan said that if he makes it out alive, he's going back to school to finish his degree in architecture. He wants to design and build public works buildings, like courthouses and libraries. He said he would love to have his work displayed in the middle of the city with thousands of people going in and out every day.
Timothy didn't hesitate to answer when it was his turn. He wanted to make a movie out of all of this. He wanted to write up a script, sell it and retain creative control so he could make it just the way he wanted. He would get the biggest Hollywood names; actors, producers, directors. He then asked Hector if he would be his lawyer. We actually started laughing, but it was short lived. It just didn't seem right laughing at a time likes this.
Kat made me blush, because she said it didn't matter what she did, so long as she was with me. The three guys went "Awwww," and I felt myself turning red. I hugged Kat tightly and then it was my turn to make her blush. I said all I wanted to do in the future was Kat, and then the guys broke out hooting and hollering and Kat tried shriveling up in her clothes like a turtle, but then sprang out and slapped me hard across the arm. Everyone laughed, but this time we just let it go. It felt good; a nice tension breaker. But I answered seriously saying I still wanted to DJ. Kat answered seriously as well saying she still wanted to build websites and make commercials and whatnot.
After several hands of poker, no one really paying attention to who was winning, I had to bring up a couple of serious topics of discussion. First was what to do about Sandra. She was without her mother, and none of us had kids so we had no idea where to proceed. We all decided to take turns watching her in hour shifts and talking to her just to see if we could get her to snap out of it. Second was what to next as far as staying here or leaving. I had Jonathan take a look at the ambulances and he said he didn't know much about cars, but knew that the batteries were dead and there was no way of charging them unless we found new batteries. I then remembered the truck across the river and asked him about it. As far he knew, it was still running. That was the plan then. I would go across the river, take the battery from the truck and just hope it would work in the ambulance.
We also decided to get out of the basement as we were getting a bit claustrophobic. It was rough seeing blood stains across the floor from people who were just alive yesterday, but already seeing the sunlight shine through the windows was therapeutic. We ate dinner in the cafeteria, and Timothy offered to cook... something. No one knew what it was, and everyone felt it rude to ask, so we just ate it. Sandra didn't seem to care one way or another. She was able to feed herself, which is a good sign at least.
Everyone retired to our rooms, I suggested piling up as much furniture as they could against the door. Once I got our door secured, I climbed into bed with Kat taking up our usual positions with her sleeping on my chest and me writing in this journal. Even though we practically did nothing today, I feel even more tired than I did yesterday. Maybe if I could stop getting FUCKING NIGHTMARES, I can feel rested for once!
Until tomorrow.
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