No snow today, but high winds and horrendously cold temps made our hunt worse than it was yesterday. It managed to drop to -10 degrees Fahrenheit, and that was with the sun out. We got six more zombies, though, bringing the count up to 19 workable bodies for suits. One of the young wall guards, Franklin, got excited when he made a kill, but it was a dragger. I had to break it to him that dragger skin is about as worthless as a fur coat to an elephant. In order for zombie leather suits to hold up while being worn, they need to be tough... like leather. He said he tanned leather once back when he was 15 living with his father, but I just held my head low and shook it.
I talked to Thaddeus today and proposed my limitation on the number of men we should bring along. I also said we need to hit Stephen's Point tomorrow, or there's no telling how much worse it could be. If these gargoyles are growing, they could become a serious problem, not just attacking our town but also infecting other zombies and turning them. He said that while we were out hunting, the town actually got attacked by two more, but they were picked out of the sky by guards. He didn't seem concerned about the gargoyles attacking us now that they're using tracers and can shoot them down as easy as clay pigeons. I had to reiterate what I JUST said to him about the fact that these creatures may be flying to other towns looking for other zombies to infect. I said, "Sure. The way things are now, we can defend against them for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, but imagine what happens when one of those massive hordes of leathers becomes a flock of fucking gargoyles." I hate having to make my cases again. After a few minutes, he conceded and agreed to my proposal.
Since Kat and I made the suits before, we took point and taught a few people how to skin the bodies and prepare the skin, and how to stitch all the components together. Before we actually started sewing them into suits, I suddenly had a thought. I remember the zombies were staring at Kat and I frequently when they saw us riding a bike and towing a wheelchair. They knew something was up, but they couldn't quite figure out what it was. If they're getting smarter like they're getting stronger, then I'd wager to say there's a good chance they'll notice 19 zombies carrying rifles and treat it as a threat. I asked Rachel, the owner of the clothing store, if she had any trench coats or any other long jackets and she said quite a few left over from last Halloween. Everyone wanted to be Neo from the Matrix that year. Rachel had EXACTLY 19. Talk about frigging luck. I came back to the group and passed the trench coats around and told everyone to stitch the skin directly to the coats. Of course this means each one has to be made perfectly, When we go into Stephen's Point tomorrow, we do so concealing our weapons in the coats. This should buy us much needed time to find the nest.
Oh, while we were out hunting, I inspected a boathouse on the southern tip of Lake Julia. What I found, I didn't share with anyone else, because they didn't need to know. I found Calista and Chloe. Chloe had turned, still fresh showing no major sign of decay yet, and she came at me like a lumbering dog eager to jump up on me and lick my face. Instead of licking my face, however, her intent would be to eat it. I slung my rifle and reached for the Alligator and swung down as she jumped up, cleaving her almost clear down the middle. Her undead carcass flopped to the floor, and a sudden sadness set in. I knew she was already dead, but this was the second time I had to kill a zombie child. I looked her over and I noticed something on her right hand. There were teeth marks. They didn't look extremely deep, but I did notice a couple black marks that indicated exactly where she got infected. I found Calista at the back of the boathouse, in the corner under some tool shelves. Chloe had been eating her from the head downward. All that was left from her waste up was her skeleton. I've never seen a zombie eat like this. Normally, they just ravish the body chowing down on random parts.
I told Kat this today, and her mouth dropped open in shock. I asked her what happened that day she noticed Chloe sick. Did she see or hear anything about Chloe being bitten by any of the other kids. Kat then recalled that one of the kids, I believe she said his name was Michael, was teasing her and they got in a fight. She didn't see it happen. Margaret was the one who handled it, but she didn't say anything about Chloe being bitten. Kat said now that I mentioned it, she did notice a Yo Gabba Gabba! band-aid on her hand. So that explains it. Fuck. Michael bit Chloe, who got sick and freaked out Thaddeus and Anthony, which caused them to exile her and Calista. It makes me wonder if Margaret even knew what Michael caused. Of course not... the town's "cured"! Just out of curiosity, I asked if she noticed anything unusual about her eating habits, and all she could think of was that she nibbled her sandwich very neatly from one side to the next. Kat asked me why I wanted to know, and I said it wasn't important.
I decided to pay a visit to Anthony today and told him about what I saw in the boathouse. I asked him if he knew we were all carriers, and he did. I asked him if he knew that bites from one carrier to the next causes the victim to catch a strain he wasn't immune to and turn. The blank look on his face said he didn't. He thought the virus's airborne strain was mutating again, and he wanted Chloe out before it spread further. He needed to kick Calista out as well, because it would have looked far worse to just send the girl out by herself, and that's when I lost my temper and struck him in the jaw. He sent Calista to her death just to maintain his cover up! Chloe wasn't going to infect anyone else! She could have just been pulled aside and put down, and then they could have just come up with some medical excuse about a rare birth defect or something, but instead Calista had to die for his ignorance! Her blood was on his hands, and I punched him again to accentuate my point. He held up his hands and pleaded with me to stop, and I caught myself. This was the second time I've assaulted him. I know I'm holding something over his head, but I half expected some form of retaliation by now, considering he once ordered guards to shoot me on sight if I left my tent that night. Yet, I beat him up again today. Whatever "man of importance" I once thought of him is gone. He's just a pathetic coward.
The town needs to know. This can't happen again, but I can't reveal the truth just yet. I need my car. Soon as Stephen's Point is done, I'm exposing both Thaddeus and Anthony. I don't necessarily like who I am right now. I feel like I need to tell the truth now to prevent this from happening to someone else, but at the same time, I can't do it yet. I also feel like shit for wanting to go back on my word, but what meaning does a word have when you're keeping it with a bunch of lying assholes? Does that make me a lying asshole myself? They lied, though, to protect the town, but at the same time that lie is condemning it. I asked Kat what she thinks, and she said that we need to think of ourselves We have friends who need us. Yes, some more innocent people might get hurt, but we don't know them like we do our friends back in Terre Haute. We come first. I closed my eyes on that for a bit, feeling a tear seep out, and then feeling her soft lips kiss it away. I nodded. We come first.
After dinner, I went to the radio station and after playing a few requests and a golden oldies playlist I put together, I broadcast the plan we were going to do tomorrow. I explained in detail that 19 of us were going to Stephen's Point in attempt to locate and neutralize the threat to our great town. I stated that we still needed bodies, so anyone who has any experience with firearms please meet us at the police station at six in the morning. I closed my eyes and let the dead air hang for a good several minutes. I wanted to blurt out, "Also, there is no cure. There never was," but Kat's voice repeated in my head. "We come first. We come first. We come first." I should have said it. I really should have. Withholding this information is not like me. Such is the cost of love. You sacrifice a bit of yourself for the person you love. So after all the silence, I selected a very apt song to play: Power of Love, by Huey Lewis and the News.
Kat expressed again to me that she wished I wouldn't go tomorrow, but she wasn't going to ask me not to. She knew I had to do this. I told her everything's going to be fine. The plan will work. We'll find what we're looking for, destroy it and return home before dinner. I promised. Of course, in times like these, it's never really a good idea to make a promise like that. No way you can keep it, but I'm going to die trying. Ok... bad choice of words.
Until tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment