With all the crazy shit that's been happening, I thought I would have had more nightmares by now. I actually did have a nightmare last night. Obviously, it was about Kat biting me. I don't really remember what we were doing before she bit me, but it was a vicious bite. It was her pulling skin and muscle from my shoulder, right where I was actually bit. I just love when people try to tell me that you can't feel in a dream, because you certainly can. What I felt was fire. It was fire accentuated with needles. Millions of needles moving along the edges of the bite mark, like I was being tattooed by Satan himself.
I snapped awake at that point, thankfully not having to dream what would happen next. The first thing I did was inspect the bite mark. It was red, but faint. Tender, but not throbbing. I swear, it felt like it was burning like in my nightmare, but it must have been psychosomatic. The first thing I noticed after my shoulder was fine was Kat not in bed. I yelled out, "Kat?" but got no answer, so I got out of bed and went looking.
I found her in the kitchen standing in front of the sink. I said again, "Kat?" She said she was so sorry, and that's when I noticed the knife in her hand. I didn't know if she had already cut herself or not. I simply reacted and ran to her, grabbing her arm with the knife and flung her arm to throw the knife away as I heard the thunk of it sticking in the wall behind us. I checked both of her wrists, exhaling deeply as each one was whole. I kissed both of them and then I kissed her.
She said she had to do it. She loved me so much, she just had to. She didn't want to risk hurting me again. She wasn't feeling like herself, and then she told me she had a nightmare. It was about her biting Torsten, but he was already a zombie and the moment she did, she turned as well. The two of them went around eating people. She managed to have this horrific nightmare and woke up and got out of bed without waking me? I must have been out of it. Even though she volunteered to bite Torsten, I still wish I never brought up testing that theory on him...
I told her it was nothing but a dream. A bad dream. I had a lot of them, but all I could do was live and deal with them She said she was scared about losing her mind, like becoming Rat or Torsten. Now that she knew she could turn people by biting them, she didn't want to take any risks at all. I told her I wouldn't let that happen, and she asked how I could be so sure, and I said she'd just have to trust me. I had to remind her that she said she'd be the one to live for me after I was gone, that she was supposed to be the stronger one. I made her promise that she'd never try this again.
We went back to sleep but didn't really sleep. I felt her tossing and turning, so I tossed and turned as well. We both shared the same worries and understandably so. Finally, when we entered deep sleep, roughly six in the morning, Jonathan and Hector woke us up banging on the door. Apparently, we had company. I told Kat to stay in the room, lock the door and hide in the closet until I returned.
Four leathers were rapping on the windows downstairs. I can't figure these things out. They knew we were in here, yet they'd rather taunt us instead of break through the glass. It's like - this sounds crazy - they were playing with their food. Jonathan was armed with a two-handed scythe and Hector had a fire ax. I had Carmello's Alligator, which I was really starting to become fond of. It replaced my old reliable bat as my go to weapon.
Four against three, but four against three well-armed and experienced survivors. I was pretty happy with the odds. We lost sight of all but one through the window. We focused so intently on the one we did see that we were surprised when the other three crashed through the glass backdoor. The one leading the charge was a massive 400 pound woman. She smashed through the door, stumbled and fell over while the other two leaped over her as if competing in the Long Jump. Their speed was insane. They were on us before all three of us could turn around.
The tallest leather was the first to attack, and he reached out at Jonathan who only had enough time to react by ducking to the side. John tried to turn around with the scythe and slice the zombie - he didn't care where - and almost got Hector for his troubles, who now had his own zombie to worry about. Hector fell backward with the leather on top of him, but he rammed the head of the ax under its chin and that was enough time for Hector to kick it off. He had to duck yet again as John's scythe came sailing at him, right where John's zombie use to be. John was panicking, unable to get proper distance between him and the leather, so he was swinging wildly, actually more of a threat to Hector than the leathers.
The huge female leather got up from the ground with a nasty sloshing sound coming from her many folds. It charged at me without outstretched arms, not slowed down by her bulk at all, and I sidestepped her while swinging the machete in a downward arc in one sooth motion cutting off both of her hands. I swear to God she smiled at me, like she was saying, "Is that all you got?" and reached out to me again like her hands were still there.
In all the commotion, we didn't even notice the fourth leather break through the window it first saw us from. It went for Jonathan as he cocked back for another wild swing, missing his initial target for the umpteenth time, but connected with his newest target he didn't even know about! It was like one of those Pink Panther movies where the assassin tries to take out the inept Jacques Cousteau who isnt even aware of the assassin and takes him out by accidentally opening a door on him. I would have laughed if I wasn't so busy fighting a 400 pound zombie. John caught that zombie across the torso, cleaving it in two but almost as soon as the torso dropped, it started crawling towards his legs. Just inches before it could grab him, Hector brought his ax down on its head and screamed at John to look alive.
As Hector turned back to face his zombie, it grabbed his ax and butted him in the face with it knocking him down. It lunged on top of him where a whistling crescent shaped blade sliced the head off at the ears where it landed on Hector's chest. "Take your own advice!" John yelled back. I felt like I was in some kind of movie. John still had his own zombie to take care of and finally dispatched it by slashing upward as it leaped towards him, catching it by the crotch, the blade traveling up the spine until it exited from the face. It was almost a compete dissection.
As for Fatty and me, there was too much mass moving at me for me to take stab at her head. Every time I tried, she would flail her arms at me and I would only end up slicing off more of them. I waited until she charged again, and this time I charged at her as well. I jumped at her with my feet forward and arms raised as she caught me in the midair, bear hugging me with what was left of her arms. She cocked her head back and opened her maw to bite and I rammed the machete down her throat at at angle severing her spine. She fell forward on top of me, bleeding all over me and I yelled for help. I think I said, "GET THIS FAT FUCKING UNDEAD BITCH OFF ME!" Something along that nature.
I had everyone disrobe, including myself (remember to do that). We checked each other out just to make sure none of the leathers sneaked in a bite while we were fighting. We put our clothes back on and I went up to get Kat. She got out of the closet when she heard me open the door and ran to hug me. She forgot her leg was still trying to heal, so she cried out in pain. I put her back on the bed and just told her to rest.
We were going to burn the bodies but I came up with an idea. I remembered Rat wearing a leather's skin and suggested it might be worth trying to make suits out their skin as camouflage. Once we start traveling again, it could come in handy so we could just walk past the zombies and not have to fight them. It was a repulsive idea, but after some consideration, we decided to give it a shot.
Two things had to happen. Someone one had to skin the zombies and then someone had to stitch the skin into suits. John, Hector and I drew straws to see who would do the skinning. Johnathan got the short one, and I could have almost seen his face going green as a result. We got Kat involved for the next round of straws. I actually ended up with the short one this time, so I would be doing the stitching.
As much as I wanted to wash the gore off he skins, we needed the stench. If this was going to work, any approaching zombies were going to identify us first by smell. I made four suits with enough scrap left over from Fatty to patch up any tears that we might encounter from traveling. I wasn't looking forward at all to trying them on, but if it meant reducing the risk of being attacked, it was worth it.
We'll be getting back on the road tomorrow. I already have all our packs stocked as tight as possible with food and supplies from the ambulance. We couldn't find any gas whatsoever so it's back to walking. I just wish we still had Sandra with us...
Until tomorrow.
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