We made it to Rhinelander today. Just after sunset, we saw the first length of Highway 8 light up; it was the solar powered roadway. These things were real after all! The lines that made up the lanes were lit up with LEDs. Thousands upon thousands of hexagonal panels were connected to one another making up the surface. The surface was made of a special kind of glass covered in nubs for traction that made the ride some what bumpy.
The town itself was a literal fortress. Highway 8 was the main road of which was guarded by two 15 foot tall steel doors. Breaking off in each direction where trenches 10 feet wide and at least 20 feet deep. The town was surrounded by lakes and the Wisconsin river, and these trenches connected each lake making for an impenetrable barrier. The trenches had sluice gates that held lake water back and when opened, they would instantly flood the trenches and wash away any zombies who tried to breach the barrier. Walls leaned out across the trenches at an angle making them impossible to climb should any zombie try to jump the gap. It was a remarkably smart design.
As the gate began to appear in the distance, we stopped and I pulled out my binoculars and scanned ahead. There were two guards patrolling the top of the wall, so I had us take off our leather suits thinking back on what happened to us in Terre Haute. We started walking up the gate announcing ourselves when one of the guards looked like he was pulling a drawstring back. Before I could react, he fired an arrow where it hit Kat in the chest, taking her down. She started convulsing and just when I realized she was being shocked from the arrow, I got hit with one as well. They shot us with tazer arrows! TAZER FUCKING ARROWS!
The voltage ran its course knocking us both out. When I came to, I was in some kind of tent. Bright lights were everywhere. My vision was blurry and I couldn't make out anything my eyes were trying to see. I started moving my arms, but they felt like lead weights and then I registered something tugging on them slightly. My eyes started focusing and saw the tubes sticking out of my arms. They were filled with red fluid; my blood. I followed the tubes until I saw the machine they were connected to. The tube in my left arm was going into the machine while the right arm was leaving it. My blood was being pumped out of my body into this mysterious grey and white box and then fed back into me.
I noticed a man sitting at a desk when he turned around. He was in green scrubs wearing one-piece safety glasses and a facial mask. Looking at his mask, I suddenly became aware of mine, but it was a plastic one, like a respirator, and my ears turned on. I heard the echoing of my breath, sounding almost like Darth Vader. I heard the beeps from the heart monitor and the slow humming from the machine that was pumping my blood. Just when my vision was beginning to clear and adjust to the light, he shone a penlight into my eyes lighting my optic nerves on fire. He checked other parts of my body. I was too groggy to track his progress. He brought a chair around, placed it beside me and sat down.
"Welcome to Rhinelander," he spoke through his mask. I tried to speak through mine but didn't have much luck. It wasn't the mask; it was my tongue not quite awake to perform the task of forming syllables. "Don't try to talk just yet. You've been temporally paralyzed. We're purifying your blood right now, so please keep your mask on until the process is finished." Purifying? They were purifying my blood? Does this mean they were curing me? I suddenly had a thousand questions to ask and became so excited that someone I didn't even see on the other side of me injected me with a needle bring me back down to Earth. I was out again.
I've only been up for about a half hour now. I noticed the tubes were no longer in my arms, and the machine was also gone as well as the respirator around my face. The man in green scrubs returned to my tent and he introduced himself to me as Saint Anthony. Saint Anthony? Is that how he thought of himself? I knew instantly that whether he was self-appointed or this was a title given to him, he was an important man.
My first question to him was where was Kat? I wanted to see her. He told me she was okay, in a tent just next to mine, but that I wouldn't be able to see her tonight. She was undergoing the same process I just went through and I blurted out that she was pregnant, but he assured me that they knew and were taking the appropriate precautions. My next question I asked he already answered before I was able to finish getting it out. I was cured. What ever process they were doing to my blood had eradicated the virus from my system. I simply had no response to this. I was stunned. That means Kat was cured too! There was a cure!
I asked how this was possible, and he recited a lot of medical terminology I didn't quite understand. When he saw the confusion on my face, he broke it down in laymen terms. Basically, they formulated an enzyme that identified the virus, latched on to it, altered its DNA and caused it to replicate itself with the properties of that enzyme. In other words, the vivensmortua virus began turning on and eating itself like the zombie population it created. I still had a problem grasping the fact that there was a cure!
Saint Anthony said the procedure was entirely new only just being developed in the past month. They turned away people coming to Rhinelander before then. Now that they had the cure, they were admitting anyone who showed up at their gates. I asked why they had to tazer us with the arrows, and he said it was for their protection. Before anyone even entered, they needed to be pacified and undergo "purification" immediately. Only then were they allowed to take up residency in Rhinelander. I asked him if he was going to let the rest of the world know he had a cure, and he shook his head. I asked, "Why the fuck not?" His answer made a lot of sense, although I didn't like it. There wasn't enough time to make enough enzyme to cure everyone who would show up to their city at once. People with guns would try to overtake the city. Chaos and anarchy would erupt endangering the lives of the townspeople. No one outside of Rhinelander knew there was a cure, and he intended on keeping it that way until the time was right.
Then, he told me something that I always suspected. He told me the virus was not of this earth. I FUCKING KNEW IT! I KNEW this virus was alien! There's simply no way that nature as we know it could ever produce something like vivensmortua. Even mankind, as evil and twisted as itself, would be unable to manufacture a virus that takes over the bodies of the dead. No, the only explanation for this virus is that it came from some other planet that observed a far different set of biological laws. He continued on.
It's not the virus that we needed to be afraid of. It's what the virus was creating. I already knew what he was getting at. I told him I saw how the zombies where changing, how they were mutating. Not only did they develop leather skin and stop decaying, but they also grew smarter. I had him read the entries in this journal where I talked about my observations of their appearance and behavior. When he came across the parts where the leathers were biting draggers, he asked me if I knew why. I told him I wasn't sure, but I thought that maybe they were infecting them with a new strain. Saint Anthony said I was right.
The vivensmortua virus began to mutate some months ago and created an almost self-aware version of itself. It began altering its host body, shutting off its decaying process and rebuilding it cell by cell. Saint Anthony described it as a hyper speed form of evolution. This new form of zombie virus could only be spread through biting, so it started biting any zombies, and people, it came in contact with. Humans would turn in just a matter of hours skipping the decaying process entirely, while zombies immediately began repairing themselves. There was still the need to feed, so these leathers would seek out humans to eat while also biting any humans that turned as a result of the older strains.
I told him about Rampert, and about how he eats leathers. He didn't seem disgusted by it, more intrigued by the fact that anyone would prefer rotten meat to fresh human meat. Even the basic idea of normal human cannibalism didn't seem to phase him. He was truly a man of science. He went on to explain that the vivensmortua virus is unlike any virus known on Earth, so its properties were quiet unique. It was strong in certain facets while being weak in others. If we were to eat infected meat, say with Ebola, we would contract that virus, but this virus simply gets dissolved by our stomach acids.
He also came across the entry where I talked about the zombies that crouched down on all fours, and he said he saw this as well. Their physiology is also changing, but at a much slower rate. His people caught one and brought it back so that he could do an autopsy on it. He stated that what he saw from the skeleton alone suggested they were changing their form to become more agile predators.
Then he asked me where I had come from, and I told him Terre Haute, and he also asked me if I passed through Stephen's Point. I said I wish I never did, bringing up the account of seeing so many zombies concentrated in one area. He told me something that I never expected. There was a nest there in Stephen's Point. I asked what did he mean by nest? He said something was growing there, which attracted leathers from all over. He only heard reports from a couple of people, but it sounded like a new mutation was happening, something immobile that had to be guarded. He had sent a few men down to investigate and see if they could find it, but I told him if they were the ones shooting when I was there, then they weren't successful.
He hung his head for a bit. They must have been good men to him. He brought his head back up and said he need to take his leave. He had other matters to attend to and I needed rest. I told him I had many more questions to ask him, but he said tomorrow. All would be answered tomorrow. Before he left, I begged him to see Kat just once tonight. He turned around swiftly with a cold expression on his face and said that is simply impossible. Tomorrow when the procedure is finished, I can see her but if I leave this tent, the guards outside are ordered to shoot to kill. I leaned back in bed silent from his sudden abruptness. Seeing that I had nothing to add, he left.
Kat's in a tent right next to me, and I can't see her! I hate that, but what else can do I? It would be pointless to try to sneak into her tent, because as Saint Anthony said, I would be shot and killed. Plus, what if I still pose a health risk and get someone else sick? I finally just admitted to myself that staying here for the night's the best option. I have loads of questions to ask him in the morning, after I see Kat first, if I'm allowed to that is. I also can't wait to see what Rhinelander has to offer. This place seems extremely safe. It could be the bastion that humanity needs.
Until tomorrow.
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