The zombie leather suits actually did work, although we didn't come across any leathers. We spotted a few groups of draggers and a couple of freshies and they looked at us, but disregarded us. The stench, though, was overwhelming, and if it wasn't enough to make one of us throw up, Johnathan losing his canned cherries at least made Hector throw up. I nearly lost it myself and Kat, well, Kat was too tired to care. I could see she just wanted to rest.
We ended up reaching a Pilot Travel Center off I-70 and State Road 76. This would be just on the edge of Terre-Haute. The sun was just setting, and I wanted us in the building before it got completely dark. There were a couple of semi trucks parked outside with several cars. The building's windows were boarded up including the front doors. Hector, John and I took turns kicking the board, shoulder ramming it and eventually just hacking away at it with Hector's ax until we finally got a hole large enough to put an arm through. I felt around and felt the iron bar that fastened the board securely against the door and jiggled it. It wouldn't move and then I realized it was it was threaded through the door handles, so I slid it down until it fell and clanged on the floor. We then continued to kick the door until the nails gave way and we were in.
Four zombies were inside, but they posed absolutely no threat. They were in an advanced state of decay, at least a couple of months by the looks of it. Three had varying degrees of flesh missing fro legs and arms, and one had hardly any face left. They laid on the ground, unable to move, their muscles withered as if they were living mummies. They saw us and started moaning out of extreme hunger, but with their throats all but gone, those moans amounted to nothing more than dry wheezing.
We removed them from the building, not yet dispatching them. They posed no harm, so there was no sense in destroying their skulls and mucking up the place we were going to spend the night in. After they were all outside, Hector took his ax to each one of their skulls while I went in to be with Kat. I asked how she was doing. She said she was okay, just mentally and physically drained. She wanted to walk around a bit, so I helped her up and acted as a crutch while we roamed the travel center.
I had Johnathan explore the other side while Hector finished up outside. I expected with four people holed up in here that there wouldn't be any food left, but there was a lot more than I thought. Packages of crackers and cheese, beef jerky, dried fruit, canned soups, salted nuts, granola bars. Nothing that could really be considered "food" food, but things that provided more nutrition than what you'd find in typical vending machines.
My thoughts returned to the four people who stayed here. I couldn't imagine them all getting sick and turning at the same time. One of them had to have turned and then attacked the others. Who knows? They might have gotten sick at the same time and became too weak to fight back or flee when the first turned. Then, after they all became zombies, they were trapped inside the building, unable to get out and track down live food. They wasted away in here, yet their zombie brains kept them "alive". What a horrible existence...
We either got used to the smell or we were just too tired to notice, but Hector remembered we were still wearing our zombie suits, so we took them off. I checked the showers in the back, but of course there wouldn't be running water. The showers were also completely filthy with mildew caked on the tiles so thick, it might as well have been paint. I did find a package of soap in the supply closet, so I grabbed several bottles of water and was going to have to a makeshift shower. I wanted to have this stink off me at least for the night.
I figured what the hell and asked Kat if she wanted to join me. She said she could use one as well, so we picked the cleanest looking shower we could find, put down a layer of newspaper so we weren't standing in filth and then took each other's clothes off. She favored her good leg, but the few instances she had to stand on her bad leg, she didn't seem to wince. I began to pour the first bottle of water on her and then lathered her up. I washed her body with my hands while she poured a bottle over me and began doing the same. This intimate moment was something she needed to break free from her depression. It was something I needed to break from my worrying to death about her. If she wasn't receptive to something like this, I'd be even more concerned about her. I was contemplating spending extra time washing her pelvic area, but the thought of making love in a mildew laden shower just didn't seem all that sexy. Several bottles later, we were rinsed and clean, but the smell was still there. At least having the scent of soap on us helped to cut it.
We brought out all the towels tucked away in the supply closet. After shaking all the dust from them, we started piling them on top of each other to act as bedding so we wouldn't have to sleep on the hard floor. I told Jonathan and Hector there was enough towels to do the same if they wanted. There was also plenty of bottles of water if they wanted to wash up as well. Johnathan sprinted up and grabbed water so fast, it was like a cartoon where he left a Jonathan-shaped cloud in his wake.
After they cleaned themselves off, they set up next to us and we just talked about random stuff until we got tired enough to fall asleep. Of course, that didn't take very long. We were all beat from all the walking. In fact, I'm beat as well. Kat's already asleep next to me, so I think I'm going to join her.
Until tomomrrow.
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