Kellie's Diary (Book 5)

by Thomas Jenner

  Kellie’s Diary #5

  Written by Thomas Jenner and Angeline Perkins

  Cover Artwork: Angeline Perkins

  Copyright © 2014 Survive Entertainment. Published by Survive Entertainment.

  Other Available Titles by These Authors:

  Kellie’s Diary #1

  Kellie’s Diary #2

  Kellie's Diary #3

  Kellie's Diary #4

  Kellie's Diary: Decay of Innocence – A collection of Kellie's Diary #1-3 in text form, The Downfall: Survive Chronicles #1 and 2 additional shorts in the Kellie's Diary universe (also available in paperback)

  The Downfall: Survive Chronicles #1

  License Notes: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This story is entirely fictional, and all characters and events are creations of the authors’ imagination. Any resemblance or similarity to actual persons or events, alive or dead, is purely coincidental and unintentional.

  CONTENT/PARENTAL ADVISORY:

  CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE AND SITUATIONS, ALCOHOL/DRUG USE, AND REFERENCES TO EXTREMELY DISTURBING AND VIOLENT EVENTS. READER DISCRETION ADVISED.

  Special Thanks to our family, friends and our fans. You keep us going!

  Chapter 1

  November 11, 1999

  I missed you Barbie, it's been a long time. It's been about 6 months since we last talked. It's like I lived a whole other life, and somehow I'm back in this one.

  I'll give you the good news first – if there is such a thing anymore. Sarah didn't die that day. The right side of her face has this big scar that wasn't there before, but she survived. She didn't tell me what happened to her... she wants me to talk first.

  I don't really want to, but I may have to sooner or later. So here's what I'll do: I'll tell you first, then you can tell Sarah.

  I guess I should just read where I left off and go from there.

  The apartment. I remember the apartment now. You're going to have to be patient with me, I'm trying to remember everything, but parts are missing.

  Wait, we were out of the apartment already. We got out of there and we were in that drugstore. I was finding stuff to take care of Lydia's bite, and I took some painkillers for my ankle. There were a few zombies in the store, and we were stuck trying to get out.

  When we got out, there was a gift shop next door, and I heard talking. I didn't like the way the voices sounded, so we kept moving. I was trying to be quiet, but I don't think we were quiet enough. Some big guy came out from another store and pulled Lydia away from me! I shot him before he could get too far from me. I grabbed her hand and started running, but then... something hit me in the face. Something or someone. I didn't see it, I just felt it, and it hurt like hell.

  I don't know how much time passed, but when I woke up I was moving. Lydia and I were in the back of a covered truck. Our hands were tied together. Jenny and Matt from the train were sitting across from us. They looked like they'd been beaten up real bad, and they were tied up, too. There was another big guy in the back of the truck with a rifle, just sitting there not saying anything.

  Lydia looked scared out of her mind. I held on to her hands, and I asked Jenny what was going on. Then Matt gave me this look, like he kind of shook his head at me and stared. I felt sick looking at him. He was bruised all over his face, and he had blood coming out of his mouth. Jenny had a black eye and scratch marks on her arms. At first I thought they were lucky to get off the train after the outbreak. I think about it now, and I'm not so sure anymore.

  We were driving for a long time, but I couldn't tell you how far we'd gone. It felt like time had slowed down. Nobody said anything the whole trip.

  All I could think of was how I was going to get us out of there. There was only one of him and 4 of us, so I thought somehow we could gang up on him. But I wasn't sure how I would have tried to plan something with Matt and Jenny. They looked too terrified to do anything anyway. It's like they were already dead inside.

  Chapter 2

  The truck finally stopped. When they opened the door it was almost sunset. I kept Lydia as close as I could as we got out of the truck.

  This place... god, it looked like shit. In some spots it looked like someone stacked trailers on top of each other, there were busted cars all over the place, walls and fences were being held together with ropes and chains, and there were some houses around the street. There was a huge bonfire in the middle of the road too. I still don't know what they were throwing in that fire, but it reeked of something horrible, like how hell would smell. Maybe they threw zombies in there. There were mostly men walking around. You didn't see too many women, and when you did, they were kind of grouped together close and keeping to themselves.

  Another group of gunmen came up and one of them pulled Jenny away from us. I tried to watch where they were taking her, but then another one grabbed Lydia. I held on to her hand as tight as I could, but the others held me back while they yanked her away. There was a trailer house right near us, and they brought her inside there. I kept trying to pull away to get her, but then he held a gun to the back of my head.

  I heard her screaming. Then crying, then screaming more. But then I heard a guy shout something about her being bitten. They pulled her back outside, and she was missing her jacket and part of her shirt was ripped. They threw her on the ground and yelled to the other guys in the area that they had an infected. One of them pulled a handgun from the holder and a group of people gathered around us.

  They were going to kill her! I panicked and I kicked behind me into the guy's legs. I hurt him bad enough that he let me go and I ran to Lydia and covered her the best I could. I screamed at them to leave her alone.

  I looked at how messed up Lydia had gotten in just seconds. I thought about Crane again, and I got even more mad. I'm still glad he died. He deserved a worse death than being eaten alive, but I've settled for that.

  I said I was going to kill anyone that hurt Lydia, and I really was going to. I killed Paul, someone I thought I cared about. Like I'm going to give a shit about some nobody that hurt my sister.

  I didn't have my gun anymore, so I would have had to hurt them some other way. But more of them showed up and put their guns on us. All of them had to have been over 30 years old, they all had these weird tattoos, a lot of them looked like slobs. Quite a few of them looked kind of fat, somehow. They were all nasty-looking, but they had this strange look in their eyes, like they weren't sure if they wanted to kill us, or... whatever.

  Then Victor showed up. I don't know how many men I've seen over these last 6 months, they're all kind of a blur. But I'll never forget Victor. He's tall, about 35, short dark hair that always looks perfect, his clothes were pretty clean compared to the other jerks there, tanned skin, scruffy face, really muscular, and greenish gold eyes. If I didn't know better, I'd think he looked pretty good for an older guy. I'm telling you this to tell Sarah.... just in case we ever see him again. If we do, it'll be the last time anyone sees him.

  Victor was the town's leader. Everyone paid attention to him – he spoke, everyone stood still and listened. The guy had a way with words, he made all these big promises that everyone believed... he was disgusting. When I saw him for the first time, I felt like I was shrinking. Something about him makes him look powerful, but it's like a costume. It feels like he's poisoning you whenever he's next to
you, but everybody in that town loved him.

  He came up to me and just looked at me without saying anything. I heard a few guns click, but he held up his hand and said to wait. They all put their guns down.

  The one I kicked walked up to him – not very well – and said that I had hurt him. The ones that threw Lydia pointed to her side and said she had bite marks.

  He said that we could "easily be handled."

  I was still freaked out, so I just started talking. I told them that she was bit through her clothes, that it happened days ago and she hadn't been sick at all. We were just tired and hungry from all the running. I kept begging them to leave her alone. I said that I'd do anything to get them to leave her alone. I wish I'd never said that.

  I felt Victor staring at me. I could see it obviously, but I could feel it too. He had this weird almost-smile thing going on, and it made me shiver. He was staring at me for a while, not just at my eyes, but... everywhere else. And at Lydia.

  Finally he said something. He said that he liked me, and he liked my energy. Then he told two of his guys to take us to his room. At the time I didn't know what he meant, but all I knew was that I didn't want to go. I don't think Lydia did either... the look on her face scared me probably more than I was scared for myself.

  As they were taking us away, I heard him yell for the "young man" to come forward. I saw Matt walking slowly toward them, and he was crying. Barbie, I don't think I've ever seen a man cry before. Jack got close when he thought Sarah died, but he didn't go through with it. This was different. I could actually hear him sobbing. Matt was not the kind of guy you'd ever catch crying. He was the youngest scavenger on the train, and he was learning to be a real badass.

  Victor grabbed Matt's hair and yelled out to the other guys, asking them if they "wanted to have some fun." I swear there had to be about 30 guys surround Matt. Victor threw him into the crowd, and they all swarmed in on him, punching and kicking and cheering. It looked just like a zombie attack, except they were all living, breathing people. It was sickening.

  I never saw Matt after that. I hope he survived somehow. Now that I think about it, maybe not. After all the shit I've seen and been through, it wouldn't surprise me if he died in the attack. Or killed himself later. I can't wish something like that on someone who's lived like I have. Well, maybe only Victor. I wish the worst possible death for him. Something so incredibly painful, neverending, something worse than a dozen zombies ripping him to shreds.

  ...I need to take a break, I'm shaking a lot and I need to calm down. I can't do this all at once.

  Chapter 3

  I haven't been feeling all that great the last week or so. Sarah says that it's probably normal what I'm going through, but I still feel like shit. Last night I got sick again, and I was craving bad. Jonathan stayed with me and brought me some food, and we talked for a while. It helped keep my mind off of things, but I was starting to freak out. He stayed with me until it went away.

  Oh yeah, Jonathan is alive. He told me a little bit of what happened that day on the train. I DID see him get on the train, so it's nice to know I wasn't going crazy. But he wasn't on long. He said that as soon as he got on, he saw Sarah lying on the ground after the attack, but she was moving and trying to get up. So he jumped off the train to go help her, but they never made it back on. They stayed together the whole time. Which makes sense, now that I think about it. The three of us made a great team.

  Go figure that the two people I really depended on were nowhere around when I needed them. Then again, how the hell were they supposed to know where I was? We were miles apart. I still don't know what happened to them in the meantime, because they keep telling me that I need to talk first. It's kind of irritating. It's not like it's going to change the past, it doesn't change that I've been hurt by a bunch of psychos...

  Maybe Sarah's right and I need to tell her everything I know. Then maybe they can learn what kind of people these assholes were.

  They weren't really people now that I think about. They're more like demons from your worst nightmares come to life.

  After all that, and after seeing the insane shit Pastor Paul did, I'm convinced there is no god anymore. If there is, he abandoned us. There's no other explanation for why people like Victor are allowed to walk around like they're a king. God either hates us, or he was never there to begin with.

  ...Okay, you're right, I'm sorry. I'm getting off track. Truthfully I don't want to talk about it, but Jonathan and Sarah are in the other room, and it feels like they're waiting on me. They have to know sooner or later.

  Okay, so let me try this again.

  Victor's guys brought us to his house. It was a nicer house than the rest of the place, at least it was cleaner, and it was kind of small. There was only 2 bedrooms, with a tiny kitchen and this little area in the front that I guess was a living room. He had a TV in there. A working TV. There was some black and white movie playing that I didn't recognize.

  Victor told us to sit on the couch, and I kept Lydia close to me the whole time. Then Victor had one of the guys bring food in, while the other was at the door. Then Victor sat across from us and started asking us a bunch of questions, like what our names were, where we were from, and other stuff. I felt really weirded out by the whole thing. Lydia obviously didn't talk much, so I kind of had to speak for her, but I wasn't able to say much either. I had no clue why Victor was being so nice to us, when he was being a monster just ten minutes earlier.

  We weren't touching the food at first, but Victor kept telling us that we needed to eat something. I kept feeling him stare us down, but he wasn't doing anything. I really wasn't sure about trusting him. I was so freaked out by the whole thing that I couldn't even get myself to ask about Jenny and Matt. I was sure Matt was pretty messed up by then, and who knows where Jenny ended up. I still don't know where she is. But the whole thing was just too weird for me, so I kept quiet.

  Victor got up and talked to his guys in the kitchen... Richard and... Greg... those were their names. So he was talking to them, and he said something about me and Lydia being under his protection, and that no one was allowed to touch us. Honestly, I kind of felt a little better about it, but it was still too much for me to try and understand. Nothing about this place made any sense. One minute Victor is throwing Matt into the pack of freaks, then he's feeding me and Lydia.

  I kept telling Lydia that she needed to eat as much as she could. I didn't want her starving, just in case something else happened.

  Victor came back, and he started talking to me about a bunch of other things. I don't remember the whole conversation, but he asked me if I knew what "survival of the fittest" meant. I knew enough about it, so he went on about how people like me and him were survivors, and that we were meant to take the planet back from the dead, and that it was up to us to save humanity from extinction. I still couldn't figure him out, but some of what he said made sense. There was still something that was scaring the hell out of me about him. I kept wanting to get up and hit him for what he did to Matt, but I was frozen most of the time. He had this weird effect on me like that.

  Lydia and I kind of sat around for a few hours, not really talking, while Victor was on and off talking to his guys and leaving the house and coming back. Later on, he said he wanted to talk to me. Alone. He said he had a present for me. I wasn't going to leave Lydia alone, but he said that he had cartoons that she could watch, and that Richard and Greg wouldn't let anything happen to her. I kept feeling like they might try to kill her, and I figured they were still on edge about her bite. I didn't have any other choice, I couldn't fight them, I had no gun or anything. And I thought if I said no...

  So I followed him to his room, and he locked the door. Hang on...

  Okay, sorry, was feeling sick again. So Victor locked the door behind us. He went into the closet and brought out a short green sparkly dress. Like, it was REALLY short. He handed it to me and told me to put it on. I didn't want to, but I had a hard time saying anything, so I just s
tared at the dress. He started getting irritated, telling me that I should be more grateful that he was taking care of me and my sister. He said something like, "is this how you treat someone when they give you a gift." I remember feeling really sick and nervous. Victor said that I needed to respect his wishes since he was doing me the service of protecting us, when he didn't have to.

  I didn't know what else to do, Barbie. I took the dress and tried to find somewhere to change, but there was no bathrooms or anything to hide behind in the room. So I went into one of the corners to change. It was so quiet, except that I could kind of hear his breathing. I tried to do it as fast as I could. When I was done, I tried to keep pulling it down my legs... it wasn't very comfortable. He said to turn around, and then told me how beautiful I looked. I don't think I've ever been that nervous. I would have rather been in a room of zombies.

  Victor called on his radio for Richard and told him to bring up some drinks. Richard brought a bunch of bottles and a few glasses, and Victor locked the door again and poured me a glass. It was dark red wine, and it smelled really strong. He convinced me to drink it, but as soon as I tasted it, I wanted to puke. He gave me that irritated look again, so I just gulped it as fast as I could. It burned my throat pretty bad. Then he gave me more, telling me that I needed to relax more and that the drinks would help. After the second glass my head started feeling lighter. Kind of dizzy. He kept giving me more. I don't remember how much he got me to drink, but I know that the more I had the dizzier I got and I kept trying to stand up and it wasn't working. I'd seen a few people get drunk before, and in a way I can understand why some people might want to... but not like this.

  Then later... it's kind of hard to remember every little detail, but I don't want to think about the parts I do remember.

  Chapter 4