A lot has happened today. Let me get the not so exciting part out of the way first. After breakfast, Kat and I went to the recreation center and as promised, she was going to teach me how to swim. I have to admit, I was incredibly tensed thinking about entering that water. I was like a cat; I really didn't want anything to do with it. I also learned something about Kat today. She's an amazingly patient teacher. She really helped ease my trepidation about getting into the pool.
Once in the water, she took me through the basics. She had me practice breathing exercises, floating on my back, kicking while holding onto the edge of the pool, and the part that I really hated: holding my breath underwater. At first, I couldn't do it. The moment I had my head underwater, I instinctively tried to breathe and stood up out of the water coughing. So then, she had me simply put my face in the water and gently pushed me down a bit more at a time until I was completely submerged. She would go underwater with me, smiling while I was under, and that helped to calm me. In fact, the more calm I was, the more I noticed her in the bikini and I started getting aroused. She noticed too, and giggled underwater, the bubbles coming up from her mouth and rolling over her face. Thank god there were other people in the pool, which immediately reversed my state.
We were in the water for about an hour and a half and ended with me trying to do the freestyle stroke while being held up by Kat. I know it looked kind of silly for a grown man trying to swim, but I didn't care. I was having fun and it was something I needed to learn. We toweled off and decided to go for a long walk up the northern part of the neighborhood, and then it happened.
A group of teenagers were playing street hockey when a large flying monster descended upon them and was met with blood curdling screams. At first, it looked like a gargoyle, about twice the size of a grown man, until I recognized the leathery texture of its skin. It also had bits and pieces of clothing clinging to its body, reminiscent of Bruce Banner after he turned into the Hulk. Its wingspan was enormous, probably 15-20 feet, made from a stronger, more flexible skin than the rest of its body. It slashed and swiped at the kids until it caught one, a girl, and pinned her to the ground, snapping it her with an elongated jaw. The sound of the crunch as the creature bit down into the poor teen's head was sickening. As it turned its head, it noticed me and Kat, and we were both paralyzed out of fear. It reared is asymmetrical head back and roared, sounding like a mix of a lion and a siren. Its jaw opened, then opened even further like a snake's, exposing two rows of wickedly sharp teeth. It then ripped off an arm from its prey and dragged it through its mouth as you would a chicken wing, stripping the meat from the bone.
I tried to wake up from this nightmare, but I couldn't. It all happened in slow motion, and then I had the horrible realization that this wasn't a nightmare. This was actually happening! I took Kat's arm and we slowly began to walk backward when that brief motion of retreat triggered the abomination's predatory instinct. It dropped the leg, stood up from its crouch and walked towards us, one massive leg at a time. It beat its wings, rushing a burst of wind at us and beat it a couple more times and it was no longer on the ground, hovering mere inches above the solar paneled surface of the street. It leaned forward while flapping and flew towards us. That was enough to make us run away but its aerial speed was alarming. I heard the concussive power of his flapping wings getting louder with each stride Kat and I took, and just as the monster reached for us, I grabbed the back of Kat's head and took us both flat to the ground. The devilish creature swooped past us, just missing my coat by a half inch.
It shot straight up in the air and then dove back down, barely giving us the time to get up and move away. As it came down, I knew both of us wouldn't be clear of it, so I pushed Kat out of the way when I was knocked down by what felt like a mattress full of bricks. I felt sharp claws digging into my rib cage and my awareness was narrowed down to nothing but the space occupied by the monster and me. You know when people say they have near death experiences, their lives flash before their eyes? I was waiting for my slideshow to start, because I thought for certain my time was up. It took me a few seconds to register the snarls of another creature, the roars of something wild and feline and that's when I recognized those noises as Corey the Cougar. The winged beast on me didn't seem to care at all, and was set upon shredding me into ribbons when I felt the force of a leaping mass colliding into the creature.
Corey had the monster's wing in its jowls, thrashing it with his claws ripping tears into its tough dark leather, when the thing managed to whip its wing out of his mouth, blindsiding him with its other wing. It jumped into the air and landed on Corey, who bit and roared and scratched at the creature's legs. Not caring about further injuring itself, it fed the cat its arms as it attempted to pin the feline down on the ground. Corey even snagged the beast's throat, tearing it open, but to no avail. I watched, helpless, unable to do anything not because I didn't know what to do, but because my ribs and chest were on fire. Then, the monster was lit up in fire.
Vinnie Caldera, one of Teresa's deputies, shot the winged monster with a tracer bullet from his rifle. The round ignited after it left the barrel, which in turn ignited the winged leather's blood, causing it to erupt in flames, The flames spread so quickly, it singed the fur on Corey, who sprung out from under it and ran off. As it burned, it tried to beat its wings it vain, only spreading bits and pieces of its fiery flesh across the street. It collapsed in a sudden lump as the fire consumed all it could, leaving nothing behind but a barely recognizable corpse of embers.
"What. The. Fuck. Was. That." Vinnie's reaction. Mine and Kat's as well. If the rest of the kids who were playing street hockey were still around, that would have been there reaction as well, and there would have been no admonishment for their language either. The commotion brought everyone out. One look at me, and Saint Anthony immediately brought me into his home to patch me up. I ended up getting about 30 stitches when all was said and done. Luckily, the damned thing's claws didn't damage anything internally.
Since I had Saint Anthony alone, I decided it was now or never. I asked him flat out, "There isn't a cure, is there?" At first, he laughed and tried to say that was absurd, but I've seen people lie before. I know when they jerk their head back and scrunch their nose and pffft their lips, they've been caught in a lie. I got up off the table he patched me up on, despite the pain, and walked to him and asked again. "There is no cure, is there?" He looked scared now, being confronted for the truth he didn't want to give. He ran to the phone in the kitchen, but I cut him off and punched him in the stomach. My patience was done. "ANSWER ME!" I yelled at him. After he started blubbering, I smacked his face to get him to focus.
And so he answered. "No, there isn't." My rage was boiling. I wanted to pound his face in until my knuckles collapsed, but I controlled my anger and allowed him to talk. He asked first how I knew, and I said it was the exiling of Calista and Chole after Chloe was sick. It was also the mentioning of Corey having killed zombies WITHIN the town. I suspected it all along and his horrible poker face only confirmed it. I asked him why the ruse? He said that when the wall was first formed, Thaddeus had a hard time keeping people in order. People were scared out of their minds and wanted to leave. It didn't matter how secure this place felt on the outside; it was the people on the inside everyone was worried about. They felt there would be a zombie outbreak inside Rhinelander and it would eventually claim them all. That's when Saint Ant... fuck the Saint. That's when ANTHONY here decided to come up with the idea of presenting a cure. He used a fancy dialysis machine and hooked up everyone in town to it and gave everyone a psychological placebo. With everyone thinking they were cured, people began calming down. Then I realized Kat and I weren't cured, and my anger rose again. I understood why Anthony did what he had to do, but that didn't stop me from punching him so hard, I broke his nose. He tried to speak through the blood pouring down his face and said I can't tell anyone. I wasn't going to. There was no need to cause a panic. And as much as I wanted to see the town turn on him and Thaddeus, I couldn't rob people of their sense of security, even if it was so thinly veiled. I just left him bleeding. He'll be fine. He's a doctor.
We had an emergency town meeting. Every major player in the city except Anthony was present. We discussed the attack on the teens today, and no one knew what that thing was. No one ever saw it before, but quite a few people had an idea of where it came from. The nest of Stephen's Point was brought up. I spoke up and believed I had a theory. I felt the attention of every pair of eyes on me while I spoke. I said that that for the past several months, I've been witnessing the zombies changing. I assumed that everyone did too, and was met with nods and "mm hmms". The vivensmortua virus is evolving, not just mutating. It's making its host bodies tougher to kill and making them smarter. The virus figured out a way to stop the rapid decaying process and created leathers. When leathers found their prey harder to catch, their physiology changed to become stronger and more agile. Now that they have no way into Rhinelander, the virus adapted again and grew wings, as ridiculous as that sounded. But this virus came from another planet. We don't understand a single thing about it. It could be that whatever life form it originally came from is slowing evolving itself back into that life form here on Earth.
One guy, I believe his name was Randolph, one of the farmers, stood up and called bullshit. He scoffed at the idea the virus was alien. I had to remind him that he was forced to believe in the walking dead. He saw with his own two eyes corpses reanimate and eat people. He saw them change and become worse things, even worse still with what landed in our town today. I asked him what other explanation he had. He had no answer and sat back down. I had to admit, even saying it out loud in front of all these people, it was hard to believe. I sat back down when Thaddeus motioned to me that he wanted to speak again.
Mayor Shaw suggested that it was time to send another team to Stephen's Point. It wasn't a suggestion that anyone took lightly. The last time they sent men to that town, no one came back, but he said now that whatever threat Stephen's Point harbored, it was something that no longer could be ignored, and it was something that we had no defense against. He wanted to send an army into Stephen's Point, but I knew that wouldn't work. I had to stand up and object. Again, every pair of eyes turned to me.
He objected to my objection and said this time it would be different. We had several boxes of tracer ammunition freshly made, and we'd light up the zombies. I cut him off saying that it would be a great way to waste that ammunition before we ever got to what we were looking for. He asked if I had a better plan, and as a matter of fact, I did. Only the two guards, Anthony and Thaddeus knew Kat and I wore leather skin on the way to Rhinelander, so when I suggested that we all do the same, I heard wave after wave of ewwws and ughhhhs and even a woman gulping for air as she tried to prevent herself from vomiting and failed. I told them, though, as disgusting as it was, it worked. The stench of zombie blood on us immediately discounts us as threat to them. That's why they don't end up eating their own kind in a feeding frenzy. I suggested a plan of hunting some leathers, bringing them back and skinning them, then wearing their skin as undead camouflage until we find what we're looking for. THEN we can proceed to mow them down with our tracers.
Thaddeus thought it over a minute, and then proposed a vote. It was unanimous. We'd catch as many leathers as we can tomorrow, make suites for about 100 men, get them equipped and then head to Stephen's Point. I have no idea how fast these gargoyles grow (my new word for them) or even if a gargoyle can bite and turn another zombie into a gargoyle, but if we believe they're coming from Stephen's Point, we need to act immediately.
After the meeting was adjourned, I managed to grab Thaddeus and waited until everyone had left the hall. I told him I knew there was no cure. His eyes went wide and then before he was about to speak, I told him I wasn't going to tell anyone. I knew why they had to do what they had to do, but now I had to do something that I didn't want to do. He called it blackmail. I called it leverage. I said after this whole Stephen's Point business was done with, I wanted a car to go grab my friends and bring them back here. I even said they could do the whole purification charade to keep up appearances. I didn't care anymore about the fact that we were lied to; I just wanted my friends safe. If he didn't give me a car, I'd expose them, and I said I'd have proof and he wouldn't want to see exactly how. He huffed and puffed a bit, but seeing the determination in my eyes, he recognized my strong character and yielded to my request. We shook hands, and then he apologized for everything. It wasn't supposed to be this way, but I just patted his shoulder and left.
Of course, when I told Kat, she was furious. She wanted to kill both Anthony and Thaddeus for their deceit, how they had the audacity to build up people's hopes only for it to come crashing down, and I had to restrain her from running out of the house and carrying out what she wanted to do. It took several minutes of trying to calm her down until she broke down and cried a new level of painful tears that I haven't experienced from her. She was so looking forward to a world without the undead so that our baby could grow up and have a normal life. That wasn't going to happen. Killing Anthony and Thaddeus honestly wouldn't have solved anything. I had to explain to her that it would only make it worse, shattering the town.
She asked me if I planned on going to Stephen's Point with the rest of them, and I said yes. She didn't want me to go, even forbade me to, but I said I needed to see this done. I knew I was endangering myself, but I had to make sure that whatever threat was out there was thoroughly eliminated. I wouldn't feel safe here otherwise. I also said I struck a deal with Thaddeus, that he would give me a car to get Hector, Wallace and Temperance. That made her feel somewhat better. I also promised I'd come back. I had to. She still had more swimming lessons to teach me. She smiled, said she loves me and fell asleep on my chest. Sleep sounds real good right now, so that's what I'm going to do.
Until tomorrow.
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