I could see the horror of what the ghouls inside were doing. I saw the whole family stumbling about. The little girl seemed to be moving a bit faster than the rest of them. She was climbing onto kitchen chairs and still kicking things around like a child does. The only thing more disturbing was seeing the coagulation and fungi mutated blood that was on the inside of the home. I soon did my job on the house. It was either made of wood or just had wood siding. Either way, I could see the paint thinner take to the wood, and it ignited with ease. I began making my way back to the Vista, and my plan was already working a bit. The home was well on its way to burning, and the smoke was filling the area. The smoke was starting to drive away the birds - not in huge droves, but the birds were starting to leave a little at a time. I soon entered back into the Vista where Cody punched me in the mouth, then walked away. I’ll give him that one, but I won’t forget it.
I quickly redressed into my own clothes, and we trash-bagged the jogging suit. Fred and I then got our shotguns and waited to see if the ghouls exited the farmhouse. Soon enough, their fiery bodies began stumbling out - we dropped them all with shotgun blasts.
DAY - 65
Fred and I were up again early, and soon enough this morning we were both watching what we couldn’t stand to see last night. Ellen and Beth were consoling and damn near pampering Cody as he sat sulking and just staring off into space. The little turd was getting on my nerves, and I’m pretty sure he’s been on Fred’s shitlist for a good while.
Upon looking out the windows at first daylight, we could see that only a few small groups of birds remained out in the field. The once red farmhouse is only a charred and smoking frame of its former self.
It wasn’t long before I again donned the bloodstained jogging suit. I went out with my sword this time. It was time to finish off our bird problem because I had another plan ready to put into action. Just before I was going to take out the last little group of birds a few yards from me, Beth came out and started blasting them with her shotgun. She smiled at me - surely she knew I was pissed about it, but she just kept smiling. Cody was walking around outside with her - his rifle in hand. Now, had Cody taken any shots towards me, I’d probably be pissed enough to cut his fucking head off. He didn’t though. He just kept wandering about damn near like one of those ghouls would. Fred and Ellen soon came outside as well.
Moments later I broke the odd silence in the air between us by speaking loud enough for everyone to hear. I spoke firm and probably a bit angry - either way, my point needed to get across. I told them that I didn’t plan on staying here anymore than I planned on waiting for another sign that things are getting worse. We all knew what was going on because I had already explained it and where it originated. I told them that I now wanted to push on towards Nevada. If the problem started there, then they surely had at least some options around to the solution. I told them that things were probably worse there, too.
I explained all that I’ve encountered the closer I’ve come west. I don’t expect it to get any easier, but I expect that with the five of us, we stand a better chance of holding on to our existence than if I were to go on alone. Beth was the first to come stand by my side. I noticed her eyeing Cody, basically asking him with her expressions. Fred was doing the same to Ellen. That’s when Cody just started walking away. We watched as the boy kept walking out towards the burnt farmhouse. Fred and Ellen both commented that the boy had finally lost it. I was a bit curious, but I didn’t care either way what was going on.
Beth decided to walk after him, though. We all kept watching Cody walking about in the burnt shell of the farmhouse. Beth just stood slightly away from Cody. Then, Cody reached down to one part of the ground and lifted what must have been a basement door. A ghoul was underneath the door and took him down quick. Beth began shooting her gun just as quickly. Fred and I went running to help. Ellen ran back inside the vista.
Cody won’t make it through the night. The ghoul bit and tore up his legs pretty bad. Tourniquets are basically keeping him alive for now - the best false hope we can offer. I’ve yet to see Beth cry, though, as I would’ve expected. She’s got a stone heart by now, I guess. I can tell she doesn't want to leave his sight, though, and her gun is ready in her lap as she sits on the tiled, kitchen floor where we’ve laid Cody. I wish I could figure out why the hell the boy never said anything about a basement or why he was so against putting down their ghoulish bodies. I guess you just can’t make sense of insanity. Now, we can only wait and watch his ferocious breathing.
DAY - 66
Fred and I spent a good bit of last night packing only our most important things ready to place them in the SUV for when daybreak came. We had a few changes of clothes, for cold weather mostly, then some food items and most importantly all of our weapons and ammo.
Beth had fallen asleep, so I moved her to the couch. I then tied Cody’s wrists and ankles together with lamp cords I cut off, and I shoved a pair of socks into his mouth. At that point, Cody wasn’t moving much at all, so I didn’t have to worry about him thinking to bite or scratch me. I was about to drag him outside, but I didn’t want to even bother with getting any of his blood on me. Fred then retired to his bed with Ellen, and I tried to stay awake, though, I fell asleep next to Beth - good thing those lamp chords held up.
A little while after dawn we were all awake and staring at Cody’s twitching corpse in the kitchen. I couldn’t help but smile as it looked like he was actually trying to eat the pair of socks. Beth started looking around in the kitchen drawers for something. She eventually found a steak knife and knelt down by Cody’s head. Fred took Ellen out of the room while saying that it wasn’t going to be pleasant. I stayed. I watched as Beth locked eyes with Cody - his ghoulish corpse was actually staring at Beth with wonder. Beth took a while dealing with it all, so much that I attempted taking the knife away from her. Beth shrugged me off, though, and then she pushed the knife blade slowly into Cody’s left eye socket. She pushed it as far as it would go and then started twisting it until Cody’s body stopped twitching. It wasn’t pleasant. Fred was right, but it was a lot less messy than Beth’s normal choice of disposing of ghouls. It seemed fitting for her that it should be that personal, too. I think she really clicked with Cody in terms of how his family all turned on him. One day, I think I’ll find out that Beth’s initial experience in all of this was just as bad.
We were soon loading up into the SUV. I took notice that even being re-animated and turned ghoulish, the birds still managed to shit on my car. The nanotech are really trying to rebuild creatures to their fullest. They understand that waste is to be expelled and don’t bother reconsidering it. I’m starting to realize that most of the ghouls that stank so badly were probably the ones that shit themselves after feeding. That’s why they wreak, but we should always know when a lot of them are near. I took care in cleaning off the bird shit, though.
It could sti
ll be potentially hazardous to us, and as I cleaned it, I noticed that it almost seemed to be acidic in that it faded the paint underneath. As long as it doesn’t get to the level of acid blood like in the movie ALIEN, then I’ll be fine.
Otherwise, I may have seen another obstacle in dealing with these fuckers.
After cruising the silent streets of Buena Vista, we stopped once again at a gas station to turn on the gas pumps and fill up the SUV tank. Fred and Ellen grabbed a lot of snacks, drinks and beef jerky from inside the store. I made it a point to grab a big handful of chewing gum. If only Bubbalicious knew that their gum would help fight the undead. Seriously, chewing gum is going to keep me awake and on my toes - it worked when I played baseball, so why not now? Anyway, we’re heading north on highway 24. We’ve got a roadmap from the store, and we’re trying to reach I-70, which should take us due west.
DAY - 67
Leadville, Colorado - that’s the town we stopped well outside of and pulled over to catch some sleep until daylight. We needed to fuel up again, so pushing on wouldn’t have been wise. Fred wasn’t too familiar with the area either, which didn’t make me feel any better about getting out in the dark. He and Ellen had only moved to Buena Vista five months ago. They said it was just before Halloween, but that the move was their early Christmas gift to each other. I seem to have forgotten that was only such a short time ago. I, too, had plans made. I remember wanting to buy a paintball gun and some gear because all of the guys where I worked were really getting into it. Funny how shooting, running, hiding and survival came so easy to me, and I saw that neither of those guys even made it out of the building at work. Our fucking janitor at work was the first one to turn, and I saw him tear into them all in the break room. I only made it out because I grabbed a folding chair and beat the janitor’s head about ten times. After that, I just ran out to my car and took to the streets that were surprisingly full of the fuckers already.
Apparently we were quite far enough from the town that we didn’t have any reason for ghouls to be about. Beth was acting as lookout anyway, though. I love that I’ve lucked upon such a smart girl. Fred and Ellen went inside the small gas station store and paroused around. I didn’t have to do much at all to get the gas pumping this time around. The pumps weren’t of the new electric variety, but however they work, they were on as soon as I flipped the latch. I filled up without any problems.
Soon enough we were back on the road. As usual a good day began going sour. We found ourselves driving into a late Winter snow storm. It was close to being a white out where I couldn’t see. Still I drove us onward albeit at a much slower pace. I started feeling the road getting icy before too long as well. I got us just to the last off ramp for a resort town called Avon, Colorado. It looks like a place that way too many people would have been visiting and are probably ghouls just waiting to thaw out and go on a hunger rampage. We were stuck, though, and we had no choice but to go out on foot. The worst of our luck was that we aren’t dressed for the extreme cold weather. We have our pants and several shirts to wear but we only have a couple of sweaters and jackets between us.
I can’t even imagine how long we were out in the cold and snow, trying not to bust our asses walking down the off ramp into Avon. It felt like forever, and holding the guns didn’t help either. They got cold real quick and seemed to burn if you held them barehanded for too long. Still, we made our way onto a main street and busted into a huge store called, RUGGS BENEDICT CARPET STORE. We scouted the place as best as we could, but more importantly because we had broken a glass door to get inside, we quickly gathered huge rugs to cover and insulate the door from the cold air. So far it’s working. Wrapping ourselves in the rugs like blankets is working quite well, too. The place does sell some furniture, so we do have couches to sit and sleep on. The worst possible scenario for us here is that this store seems to be one huge warehouse, but visible only its first half is the lobby for sale items where we are. The back half must be more of the warehouse, stocking environment. We haven't seen or heard any ghouls yet, but I guarantee we won’t sleep too well until maybe tomorrow’s light when we can sweep this place and fully secure it. We’ll all just hang out here by the front door for tonight.
DAY - 68
Fred and I slept in shifts, but we were both up and moving about with the first lights coming through the front windows of the building. We got Beth and Ellen up and ready for fighting. So what if they were groggy - we needed to get this place secure. Fred and I had finally taken a bit of time to install the laser sights on top of our four shotguns. I didn’t care about putting one on the Tommy gun. We only needed to be accurate enough from thirty feet or so. It would seriously help Ellen, too, from what I hear. And, well, I still had to have my sword in my belt loop. I gotta have my sword.
Deja-Vu hit me hard. We did find some ghouls in the front part of the store just behind the main desk - in what was the store's break room. I didn’t let anyone fire at them. It was only two ghouls - well dressed ladies. I just didn’t want the break room to get splattered with brains when there seemed to be working soda machines and snack machines in there. I handed Fred my shotgun and removed my sword. I showed Fred and Ellen for the first time what I was really made of and how brutal I would turn to survive and get what I want. I ridiculed the ghouls as usual and then hopped atop one of the break room tables to get a good down swing on them. I sliced their heads in half, each at odd angles and watched them stumble for a moment before falling limp. I immediately recall turning to Fred and Ellen and seeing their faces drop.
We then took to the back of the warehouse. There were a handful of ghouls there. One of the ghouls was seated in and trying to get the forklift working. It kept grabbing at the steering wheel and side shift. Fred started laughing at it.
Ellen just pushed Fred aside and took two shots at it - the second shot took its head off. Beth and I both saw a good bit of ourselves in Fred and Ellen, then. It was a nice comfort to see another couple deal with things in the same manner. Now, if only we can make it to their age, and still going strong.
We made a mess of the few ghouls in no time. In fact, all of the ghouls were in pretty bad shape anyway. They were falling apart and slow moving. I would think that they should have been quite frozen in this cold ass store over all of this Winter weather and well kept. For some reason, though, they were pretty torn up. It almost seems like the nanotech didn’t even reach them until maybe a few days ago.
Somehow, their bodies were allowed to deteriorate much more than any of the other ghouls we’ve come across. I thought of everything I could. Maybe rats had begun chewing on them recently. Worse yet, though, maybe they were perfectly closed off from the outside world until we broke the front door.
Maybe they were all just killed or committed suicide - their bodies left inside this place while whoever e
lse locked them in here, if not themselves. It just doesn’t feel right from what I know about the nanotech, and as we get closer to Groom Lake, I feel like things are going to get much more complicated. I’m starting to wonder if we are being changed as we get nearer and just can’t tell. I’m also wondering if eventually living underground is the better option - somewhere air tight and tucked away. Groom Lake should be that place, though. I’m quite sure that it’s an underground facility with so many people interested in it.
We’re all eating candy bars and drinking sodas, now in the break room. I moved the headless corpses from in here to out back in the warehouse. The floor cleaned up nicely in here, too.
DAY - 69
Fred and I got curious and began looking for a way up on top of the building. Sure enough we found a ladder in the back of the warehouse that led up to a hatch and onto the roof. We knew it was going to be cold, but we bared it anyway - glad we did, too. In any other case we’d have probably never cared to see what was behind the building and would have missed our new toy. We found ourselves a metal shed of sorts and a nice sized snowplow. It has tracked wheels like a tank. It fucking works like a dream, too. Add in that it has working heat in the cabin, granted not much, but it’s better than no heat.
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