June 5, 2017
Late this morning, we heard an old
truck pulling into town. We built up four platforms in the post
office so we can look out a high slit window on each side. I climbed
up to look out the window facing the main street and saw this old,
beat up, brown truck rumbling down the street. From the shadows
through the windshield, it looks like there are three people
traveling together. I told Conner and Alicia what I saw and watched
the truck go past us and continue down the street until they got to
the diner.
When I told my friends what the people
in the truck were doing, getting out of the truck and going into the
diner, Conner jumped up on the platform with me and grabbed his
binoculars. He started telling us his observations. The big guy
walked like he had military or police training, you know, like
characters on the TV are trained to imitate. The other guy was very
protective of the woman, and she looked really tired and scared.
The couple waited outside, him with a
machete in one hand and a pistol in the other. Her, standing right
behind him and keeping an eye behind him. The military guy made his
way into the diner and was gone about 10 minutes.
Now, Conner, Alicia and I had tried to
get into the diner to get any food still not spoiled, but there were
at least 15 undead in there and it was not worth it to us to take
them on. We just hit the corner market and then started on the
houses. We don't really know what we are doing, it's not like our
school offered classes in how to kill zombies. So far, we only know
what we have learned through trial and error. Conner told us to go
for the brain, since that is information available in every zombie
movie, like ever! We know that's the right thing to do, since Alicia
got one in the chest and it did nothing. We also know they can still
somehow hear us, or smell us, or something, when we aren't being
sneaky enough. We've learned to move really quietly and to not use
any products that have a scent and we rub garbage on ourselves when
we head out.
When the military guy came out, he was
covered in black blood and goo. He said something to the couple and
then they all went inside the diner. We climbed down and had a quick
discussion about what we should do. We know that we need to find
others we can survive with. The three of us just don't know enough to
do it on our own and there just aren't enough 'how to' books in the
library to get all the information we need.
The three of us decided we needed to
know more about the three people in the diner and the only way for us
to learn about them is to sneak into the back of the diner and listen
to them. We went out the back door of the post office and made our
way a couple of blocks over, across the street and down the back
alley to the diner. We knew the back door was unlocked and was quiet
when you opened it, so we made our way into the hallway behind the
kitchen. Very quietly and slowly, we made our way down the hall, in
the dark, and worked our way close enough to the people in the
kitchen so we could hear what they were talking about.
We listened to them for over two
hours, while they went through the food in the kitchen and then
prepared a meal for themselves. They talked about some people who
were after them, but said they hadn't seen or heard anything from
them in about 100 miles. They talked about places they had driven
through and some of the cool things, not zombie related, that they
had seen on the way. Like the stone cottage they had stayed in six
nights ago. It looked like it should be in the English countryside,
not near the Rocky Mountains. There was this cool honky-tonk club
they had searched and it still had power and hot water! They found a
full bathroom in the dressing room in backstage and took turns taking
a hot shower.
They also talked about a horrible
experience they had in some small town where some really bad people
had been through a couple of weeks before and had tortured and killed
everyone in town. The woman cried and told the men she still could
see the bodies of the little girls tied to their beds every time she
tried to go to sleep. Both men comforted her and both admitted they
had nightmares about it, too.
Then the conversation turned to where
they should go next. The woman took off the small back pack she was
wearing and pulled out a couple maps. All their attention was turned
to the maps as they talked about what options they have on which way
to head.
I motioned for my friends to quietly
pull back and go outside. We made our way a couple blocks away and
then back on our side of the street before I stopped moving and
turned to the others. We had another conversation about what we had
heard and we all agreed we should try to meet the three people in the
diner and see if we can go with them. Better to try than to wait and
end up running into the people they were trying to stay ahead of.
We made our way out to the main street
and then walked down the sidewalk where they should be able to see us
from across the street in the diner. It didn't take long before the
military man came out and called out to us. I answered that we were
the only survivors in town and just wanted to talk. He kept looking
around, like he was looking for others we might have with us. We held
our hands out and walked across the street toward him. I could see
when he realized how young we actually are, and his whole body seemed
to relax. He broke into a smile and held the door open for us. We
spent the next hour telling them about Prom night and what we had
done since then. Then, I cautiously brought up the possibility of us
going with them, and they all immediately agreed it was a good idea.
Once he heard about how we had secured
where we were staying, the military guy, Manny, suggested we stay at
the post office tonight. He also said we should probably look for a
bigger vehicle, like an RV, so we would be more comfortable while
traveling. They fed us and we all went to the post office to settle
in for the night.
I really hope this is a good idea,
going with Manny, Alex and Marny. But from what they've said about
what they've seen, it sure seems like a better idea than staying
here. Who knows who pulls into town next, it could be the devil
incarnate and his minions, as Father McGraff would say.
As a writer and artist, I appreciate
any readers and their comments. Thank you for taking the time to read
this blog. Please, come read the other blog I write for our artisan
collective, Raven's Castle Creations, on our website at
www.ravencastlecreations.com. It includes posts on art, the mythology
of symbols we use in our art, history and more! Also, come see the
art we produce in our Etsy store at
etsy.com/shop/RavenCastleCreations. Follow us on Twitter at
@ravencastleart and on Facebook at @ravencastlecreations.
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