It had about eight or nine faces from what I could tell. They were lumped together at the center of its body, each one screaming and protesting against its own existence. Some of the faces shared eyes with one another, and one head's skull was open, its brain exposed and pitted with decay. The skin of the entire beast was almost like it was molting, coming off in thick patches, not necessarily being replaced by fresh skin, but by a slimy mucus membrane. Under that membrane, throbbing veins of dark red almost black blood were layered across muscle tissue taking on an orange brownish tint.
I don't know where I was, or what brought me to this... this thing. No one was with me; I was all alone. I don't recall my surroundings. It was almost like I was in a state of suspended animation, like some kind of giant alien uterus. This frightening monster moved by flopping a part of itself over and twisting around another part of itself, almost like a starfish whose arms were tangled up in a ball. It was coming for me. I couldn't react; I couldn't move. I didn't speak or scream. My eyes were frozen open in terror as I watched this thing slowly move in pain and anguish trying to get to me. Knowing I was just out of reach, it only tried harder until finally, it was able to slam me down to the ground as it reached over itself and laid a wet and pulpy appendage made out of ill-formed arms and legs. It was like a tentacle, and as it had me, it coiled me up with it as it brought me to the center of its body.
The faces began to twist around until all the mouths aligned in a circle, and the mound of rotting flesh that was its giant head made of heads peeled back like a flower opening, blossoming towards the moonlight. Row upon row of badly shaped, yet jaggedly sharp teeth pierced their way out of the newly exposed maw. I was forced into it, the monster so savagely and ravenously eager to eat me, it didn't care that it was going to devour its own tentacle that held me. The teeth began shredding me, bits and pieces of me falling into its gullet, and I felt myself being absorbed into it. My flesh was being repurposed, sucked in and threaded into existing flesh, my bones supporting new skin making arms and legs and my face was crammed impossibly in between two other faces as the mouth folded itself back together. My face, sharing an eye of each face next to me, began screaming.
And I screamed myself awake drenched in cold sweat. I scared Kat awake, who put an arm around me and tried to comfort me. I told her all about it, all the details I could remember, and she lowered me back down, gently shushing me holding my face to her chest. I'm sick of nightmares. I don't want anymore of them! I already live a nightmare day by day. It's enough to be haunted by these things. Normally, my nightmares are based off something that's happened to me, but nothing I've experienced thus far explains why I had this kind of nightmare. That horrible monster that I dreamed up. What caused that? What meaning does that nightmare have? I just hope to god nothing like that exists out there.
We got going about nine o'clock My leg was feeling much better and my aim was for 90 miles I wanted to round it up to 100 but I didn't want to be overconfident and overdo it. As we were traveling up north on I-90, we noticed that the leather population was growing. We spotted more of them along the road, so many in fact that we had to stop and start killing them or they would follow us in groups that would be too numerous to handle. The suits just weren't working anymore. The stench of the zombie skins must have been wearing thin enough to allow our bodily scents to come through. At that point, we just took off the suits and left them behind. I was contemplating making new ones, but every time we thought we were safe enough settle down for a few minutes, we'd spot another leather or a dragger and would have to move again.
At one point, we came across the carcass of a hiker and we were lucky enough that his binoculars weren't already taken by someone else. I added it to my pack. Those would come in handy later on. I also picked off a far better utility knife than my pocket knife, which I handed off to Kat. Kat got out of the wheelchair several times today to walk around on her leg testing it, and she seems to do okay. She has quite a noticeable limp, but it's nice to know that if for whatever reason we need to run, she could be able to. I'm sure she'd only reinjure her ankle in the process, but at least she has a fighting chance to get away if something happens to me.
I've also been suffering from headaches today. I've forgotten how any times I've been hit in the head while writing this journal. When Kat would see me suffering from one, she would order me in the wheelchair and take over pedaling for a while. A couple times, even riding in the wheelchair over a relatively smooth road was enough vibration to bother me to the point where we just simply had to stop for me to rest. Needless to say, we didn't make my goal of 90 miles. We got 75, though, which was more than double that if had we just been walking. I'll gladly take that.
So that brings us to Rest Area 12 in Dekorra, WI. There are several vehicles still left in the parking lot, but I'll check them tomorrow when its light out. For now, I just want to get to bed. Having a really bad headache right now, and I don't want to stare at this screen anymore. We had to fight off a few leathers on our way to the rest area, so Kat's going to take first watch and wake me up around three so I can be up and alert in case any zombies are still slinking around. The fact that we have to do this has me unnerved. Hopefully, it will be a peaceful night.
Until tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment