October 26th, 2021

We woke up freezing this morning.  The temperature took a major drop over the night.  The clouds were grey and heavy, threatening to lay a blanket of snow down on us, but only a few flakes fell.  Fortunately, we missed what had the making of the first real snowstorm of the season.  Fortune favors us in another way as well.  We have bikes!

After walking about 10 miles west on I-74, we came across what must have been 15 or 20 bikes scattered across the road.  There must have been a pack of bikers touring down the Interstate when they ran into some zombies and made several of them of crash.  With so many riders close together, it was one massive domino effect.  Most of the bkes were ran over, but some were on the side of the road and perfectly usable.  There were a couple of them that had airless hard rubber tires and we took those.  We towed Kat behind us with an extension cord and she was having the time of her life!  Amazing what a little good luck can do for the spirit.  Even Johnathan seemed happy.

We've been managing about 15 miles per hour, so we covered a huge amount of distance today.  100 miles in fact.  That puts us just south of Bloomington where we're now staying at Center for Hope Ministries.  It's a one story modern church building, and it was spray painted with several different messages.

WHERE IS GOD?

REPENT OR YOU WILL BECOME ONE OF THEM!

NO SANCTUARY

SATAN HAS WON! 666

END OF DAYS ARE UPON US!

Those were just a few.  Once inside, we found several draggers that we had to clear out.  It really is too easy with these suits on.  They see us but to them, we're just another group of zombies.  Then the ax and machete come down on them and the other zombies don't seen seem to notice.  There was a small group of leathers down the street that watched us, but they made no sign of acknowledging us as anything but zombies.  It makes me wonder, though.  Either we're getting more and more used to the smell of the zombie skins we've been wearing, or the stink is slowly going away.  I thought back to Rat, and it looked like she was wearing hers for at least several weeks.  I mentioned to the group that we shouldn't take our suits for granted and still keep our distance from any zombie encounters as best we can.

There was a really nice stained glass window of Jesus Christ praying, which seemed to be the only window that wasn't either smashed in or boarded up.  There was a piano in the pulpit and the pews looked well-worn.  This must have been a very busy house of worship, but look where worship has gotten us?  I still haven't forgotten that I owe you an entry about how I feel in regards to God.  Since I'm in a church now, I figure it might as well be the perfect opportunity.  So, my thoughts on god.

I consider myself to be agnostic, leaning towards atheist.  I was raised Christian, but the moment I turned 18, I discarded the church in exchange for a more liberating free-thinking stance.  I adopted science as my source for answers, more interested in how the world works than why we were put on it.  I always felt that a good modern society doesn't need religion to operate.  Not being dicks to each other just seemed like common sense.

However, I could never discount the possibility of there being a God.  You can believe in science all  you want, but science doesn't really disprove a god's existence.  If anything, it's only explaining how that god is working.  Let's say, though, there is a God, and He's a Christian God.  Well, God's an asshole right now.  We were taught to believe that God loves us and God protects us from evil.  I don't see that love and I don't see that protection here in this world today. Instead, I've only seen people relying on each other, not some deity that was described in a book written thousands of years ago by a group of men.

"God works in mysterious ways" is one of the largest cop outs in history.  It's a Christian's go-to excuse when they've been confronted with a question they can't answer.  If there is a God, then why He let this happen to His world truly is mysterious.  He's supposed to be a loving father, but every loving father I've ever known has always protected their children.  They played football with them and read with them and taught them how to take care of pets.  They've cured their illnesses and taken them out of schools when bullying wasn't being addressed and yanked them out of the street before a car narrowly ran them over.  Loving fathers don't let a population turn into the walking dead and let them eat the living.

As far as I'm concerned, if there's ever a God, I refuse to accept Him.  If I'm at the Pearly Gates, I'll spit in St. Peter's face and turn back around on my way to Hell.  This may sound blasphemous to you if you're the religious type and if it offends you, I'm sorry, but that's how I feel.  If you still pray to God, if you love God, if you still believe that this.. this whole apocalypse is just part of His grand scheme of things?  Well, more power to you.  But that's enough for now.  Even though I'm agnostic, I still get a weird feeling going on a rant about God in one of His houses.

There really wasn't much else to write about today.  I'm so happy with our progress today, I think I'll let everyone sleep in tomorrow.  We could all use the rest.

Until tomorrow.