I was left to sleep in as everyone woke up and ate breakfast. I think I woke around 11 to 11:30 in the morning and for all intents and purposes felt a lot better. I tried some dry cereal and was able to keep that down, so I decided I was going to go with Jonathan and Hector to check out the medical center and the library. Timothy said he wanted to come along as well, but I told him we needed someone to stay back here with Kat and Sandra. At first, he protested but Jonathan pulled me to the side and said that he wouldn't mind staying back and watching the girls. He also said since I couldn't trust Tim with any weapon, it would make no sense having him stand guard. He was right, so I told Tim he could come along. That seemed to raise his spirits.
We set after the medical center first, but there was no need to explore the building once we saw what shape it was in. It looked like it was bombed to rubble. The weird thing about all this was the surrounding area looked untouched. If there was some kind of war here, the medical center was the only target. To think that a place that's supposed to help people becomes the only target of a bombing is just... unfathomable.
The library was just ahead, an old stone building about three stories high. We walked in through one of the busted front doors, and what we saw was chaos. Books were strewn about, defiant of their once orderly position on the shelves. Toys were out of their boxes, yet still looked played with. Computers and keyboards were lying in pieces, begging barefoot masochists to step on them. This was a huge library, and it looked well used.
I found the adult fiction section, while Hector took off to look for magazines and newspapers. Timothy went to the nonfiction section, my guess is to see if there were any books on zombies. I needed something that was science fiction or fantasy, not too serious with a good sense of humor. I caught myself nearly trying to find a librarian to ask for recommendations when I suddenly remembered where I was: in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
After grabbing a couple of books, one called Zordath: King of Light and another called The Lazarus Conspiracy, I went to find the other two to see if they found anything good. Timothy found a book, waving a copy of Max Brook's Zombie Survival Guide, but said he already read it a thousand times. Figured as much. Hector said the library didn't have any Playboys, and my only response to that was, "Really?" Then we heard shuffling.
The shuffling came from above us on the second floor. We slowly went up the stairs and began to look around for what caused the noise. More shuffling came farther down from where we heard it the first time, and I cocked my gun while Hector prepped the rifle. Before anyone had time to react, Timothy was struck in the head by a flying book. He fell over and the rest of us took cover behind some shelves.
"GO AWAY!" shouted whoever threw the book. I shouted back that we weren't going to hurt them, that we were only going to take a few books. It's not like they're expected due back at any time, and that made the person even angrier. It hopped on top of the shelf from where it threw the book and yelled again. "MY BOOKS! BELONG TO ME, RAT! GO AWAY!"
It called itself Rat. I had to hazard a look at this Rat to see what I was dealing with. It had the stature and build of a child, roughly Sandra's age, yet I couldn't make out if it was a boy or a girl. At first, I couldn't believe it, but Rat was wearing zombie skin! It looked like it came from a leather, and it was wearing it just like leather! It was so demented, so disturbing, but Timothy would later tell me it was actually a brilliant camouflage technique. His theory was that zombies identified each other by roughly scanning and smelling the quality of outer flesh, and by wearing zombie skin, you practically were invisible to them.
Rat's clothes were also impossible to tell what their original color was, so discolored with dirt and grime and age. Its stance was something almost feral, like it had been raised by wolves or jackals. The longer we hid behind these shelves, the more agitated it became. Rat was making it clear to us it didn't want us here, but I tried rationalizing with it anyway.
"Surely, we can just have a few books?"
"NO! RAT'S BOOKS! GIVE BACK OR I KILL YOU!"
Timothy then pulled out a candy bar, came from around the shelf and held it out to Rat as an olive branch with his right hand. He was slow and cautious in his approach to Rat, but I softly yelled at him to stop moving. Rat saw the candy and jumped back a bit at first, but then crawled along the top of the shelf to Timothy, Tim wiggling the candy bar to Rat like a bone to a dog.
Lightning fast, Rat grabbed Tim's hand and bit into it, tearing the flesh away from his metacarpal and Tim howled in pain. At that point, I raised up and fired at Rat, who had already jumped of the shelf and took off. Tim sank down against the shelf and Jonathan and I dumped our books and took after Rat but couldn't find it. It doubled backed on us and we heard another cry from Tim. When we returned to him, we found his left ear ripped raggedly off.
"LEAVE NOW OR I KILL ALL OF YOU! NO BOOKS!" it snarled at us. I yelled back at it that we were leaving, and we helped Timothy up. Just as we were walking to the stairs, Rat jumped on my back, jamming a pencil in my shoulder, and I reached behind me grabbing it and reflexively threw Rat over the railing of the second floor. It landed on its head with a crack and laid still. Jonathan trained his rifle on Rat as I helped Timothy down the stairs, his blood dripping on my clothes mixing with my own.
I lowered Timothy at the base of the stairs as I walked over to Rat with my gun out. I kicked the body over on its back and crouched over it, ever so cautiously. I pulled on the zombie mask made from the leather until it came off ... and revealed a girl. She looked very similar to Sandra, same hair color and facial structure. I noticed the pool of blood slowly gathering underneath her head, yet still felt for a pulse. Nothing. I killed her. Timothy got up and walked over to her, hocked and then spat on her following up with a kick to her already broken skull. I immediately got up myself and punched him square in his nose, breaking it and causing him to fall backward. Jonathan rushed over to hold me off Tim as Tim yelled at me, "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU HIT ME FOR!" We left, not bothering to go back for the books.
Timothy doesn't get life anymore. He has no understanding of what just happened. For him to so callously spit on a girl's body like that, a girl who was so mentally disturbed from probably living on her own for who knows how long. it means I can't trust him around Sandra. I can't trust him around any of us. I feel bad that he got attacked, and we patched him up, but he's not someone this group can rely on any longer. I would tell him tonight that he needs to go his separate way, but I'm afraid of what he might do to us in our sleep, so I'll tell him in the morning.
I finally felt good enough to sleep with Kat, and even though we haven't showered for days, I miss the smell of her. I told her what happened at the library, and she hugged me tight, waiting for me to cry, but no tears came. She asked if I felt bad for killing her, and I did, but I didn't feel bad about protecting my own life. I kept running scenarios around in my head, what I could have done differently but I decided that no matter what I did, Rat would have tried to kill one of us anyway she could. I treated her like a rabid animal, something I had to kill, yet didn't get any enjoyment out of it.
She asked why we just left her body there, and I honestly didn't know. The whole situation was just so bizarre, the only thing any of us thought to do when it was over was to just leave. Kat said she deserved a burial. It wasn't her fault we got attacked. She was made crazy by the world and she probably didn't have anyone to live it with for some time. Of course, she brought up the fact that she was someone's daughter, and wouldn't her parents - if they were still alive - feel better knowing we buried her daughter? I told her she was right. We'd make that a duty to do tomorrow. We would bury Rat.
I've only been in Columbus a few days and I'm ready to leave. It has not been pleasant at all. I've been sick most my stay here. Timothy nearly kills me. Timothy kills some stranger without giving him a chance to defend himself. I kill a young girl, in self-defense, after I get stabbed with a pencil. Now we're going to be one member less tomorrow. I knew all that luck we had on the way here came with a price.
Until tomorrow.
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