Dec. 21, 2009

Dec. 21, 2009

Walking was the worst idea ever, but none of the cars we run into seem to have any keys in them.

I can't figure out why we decided to take Diana with us. She's a sweetheart but I really think we should have left her at the daycare. I can appreciate that she probably wants to stay close to us since we saved her and all, but she's really slowing us down. Then again, none of us thought we'd get into a car accident, so....

Because Diana's so young, we've been having to walk for an hour and rest for half. This is seriously going to become a problem. We got up early and left at around nine, and even still we're only at a place called Riverside Albert. There are a lot of zombies in this village, surprisingly. In fact, as soon as we got to the village limits, we were met by a horde of people. I don't know what was going on the day all these people turned, but whatever it was, it looks like ALL of the residents turned.

As we walked into the village there was this unsettling quiet. It was the stereotypical "too quiet" you see in movies. I don't know if the zombies got our scent or what, but the next thing we knew, we were surrounded by them. I shoved Diana back and whipped out the pistol and the machete, and I started to attack. I didn't even look back at the other two.

It was ridiculous! The population of that town couldn't possibly be more than 300 people! But there they were, and there were so many of them it was making my head spin.

Diana pulled the smart move and climbed a tree. The boys and I made a line and shot, kicked and sliced our way through. The first wave went down simply enough, but the second wave wasn't far behind, and despite not having any amount of conscious thought, it was like they were taking advantage of our exhaustion. The three of us banded together nevertheless, and we tried to press forward as best we could. We could hear more zombies moaning in the distance, coming closer.

We fired off several more rounds and I heard Bruno grunt.

"Melee weapons," he suggested. "Save your bullets."

"For what?" Derek snapped. "Killing ourselves? Because that'll be the last option if we don't get rid of these zombies, Bruno!"

"Will you both calm down?" I shouted over the din, rushing into the oncoming horde with my machete and sheathing my pistol for now. I started cutting through the pack of zombies, and limbs were flying everywhere. They just seemed to keep coming, though.

After a long struggle, Bruno knew we couldn't continue. We were all starting to get careless and clumsy. I fumbled the machete twice, and the second time nearly cost me my life. Bruno was right there to kick the zombie out of the way.

"We need to pull out and find a place to rest," he said at length, in between attacks. "There's a pharmacy about fifteen minutes' walk from here. We're going to have to run." Diana made an uncomfortable noise from atop the tree.

"No time for that, kid," said Derek, rushing to the tree. "You've made it this far. You can run the rest of the way."

With Derek's help, Diana climbed down the tree, and Bruno and I covered them all the while. Zombies were gaining on us. As soon as Diana was down, though, Bruno crouched and she jumped on his back. Then he started running. When we saw this, Derek and I weren't far behind.

Thank God zombies are slow. Even though Bruno's in such good shape, running with a kid on your shoulders is never easy. Away he went, and we followed, catching up easily. Every few minutes, Derek and I would turn around to fire off a few shots at any gaining zombies.

We must have looked ridiculous--not that anyone saw us, but you have a group of four people leading a good hundred zombies, all running headlong down the road. Like freaks chased by an angry mob, without the torches. And we weren't the freaks.

But we made it.

The pharmacy's sign stood tall, as though it was watching over us. It was our beacon. And as we rounded the corner with the trail of zombies behind us, we almost crashed into the building, like a boat in a storm.

"What do we do?" I shouted. "What do we do?!"

"Shut up!" Bruno snapped. We all turned to him, shocked. He took a deep breath and squeezed Diana's hand, which was resting on his shoulder. "I'm sorry," he said through clenched teeth. "I meant to say calm down. Sounds like I need to obey that a little myself."

Nervous laughter all around. A bit of lost time, but it was needed. Zombies were lurching around the corner we had just turned. The door was locked.

"There must be a back entrance," Bruno said. "We can bust the door down and board it up while they're looking for us." He took off, running behind the building.

"Do we have time for that?" I called back, taking off after him with Derek.

"We have to."

We ran around back to find that in that short time, Bruno had unloaded Diana from his shoulders and was already hard at work trying to bust the door down. Derek joined him and between the two of them, they had managed to knock the door down within a minute.

This was good, because it was all the time we had.

I started firing again as zombies rounded the corner. I managed to knock a few down before I felt Derek grab my wrist and tug me through the doorway.

We barreled in and found the following door leading from the warehouse to the actual pharmacy to be mercifully unlocked. We shut it behind us as we went through, and the boys started moving shelves in front of it. Diana fell down to her knees and I watched her, feeling somewhat annoyed at her but also pretty sorry for her.

"You okay?" I asked as I approached her, crouching down to meet her. She looked a little pale.

"Y-yeah," she said. "Just tired, is all." The boys dusted off their hands in a almost comical unison as they finished moving a second shelf against the door.

"Should keep 'em out for awhile," said Derek, removing his face mask with a grin. We, too, followed suit, removing our own masks and goggles.

Which brings us to now. The pounding on the blocked off door has been steady for awhile, but we found some candles and provisions. It's a bit cold in here but we've lit another fire and we're heating up cans of pasta and tomato sauce. I ate my first chocolate bar in weeks today and it was delicious. We'll camp out here for the evening and we'll head straight for Alma in the morning.

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[unspecified date]

[the following is written in a shaky and chaotic manner, most of it spanning the entire page]

no no no no no no NO NO NO no NO NO NONONO nooo no

[it is repeated many times, sometimes with such harshness that it tears through the page entirely, and the following three pages are ripped out.]