From the journal of Rebecca Martin, June 15

June 15, 2017

     We stayed in the farmhouse for a couple of days. Brad, one of the former orderly's from the Care Home, is sick and we've had to quarantine him from the elderly with us. We don't know if he's contagious or if we should give him some of the precious antibiotics we brought with us. If has the flu, or another virus, the antibiotics won't do him any good. But if he's got a bacterial infection somewhere in his body, then he needs the antibiotics. We're going to discuss it today at lunch and see what everyone thinks.

     A couple of days ago, we explored the barn out back and found some furniture, not much, but a table with chairs, a wooden bench, and a couple of old cots. The cots were too damaged to use, but the wood was burnable. Rick, the other former orderly, found some tools and cleaned the chimney. He said it a little rough, but shouldn't kill us and so far, it hasn't. We're able to keep the front room warm for Walter, Ralph and Ginger. The other rooms are too cold for Brad or the elderly of our group at night, so we put Brad in the RV, with the propane heater to keep him warm and Jim and Jacky take turns taking care of him. We're doing the best we can with what we have.

     Brad started to feel achy on the 12^th and by the time we found this place, he was down with whatever he has. His fever went over 102 degrees and we had to put him in the bathtub and pour some of our water over him to cool him down. He started coughing on the 13^th and has been completely bedridden since. He's so weak he can't even get to the bathroom on his own and has had to use a bedpan a couple of times. He started throwing up and hasn't really kept anything down in two days. Jackie even gave him an IV to keep him from getting dehydrated.

     I haven't slept well since we drove through Shelbyville. I have nightmares about that stadium. All the body parts, all the blood. In my nightmares, the body parts start to wiggle and put themselves together into people shaped beings, before coming after us. Then, we saw what was left of those bikers and the nightmares tripled. Now, I go back and forth between the stadium nightmares and ones where the ghosts of the bikers are zombies and come after us. I guess even in my dreams, I know there wasn't enough left of them to even make zombie piles of parts.

     Before the pandemic, I didn't like to read scary books or watch horror movies. I got nightmares from them and just stayed away from them, reading romance novels and watched romantic comedies. After the undead started to appear, I started reading Stephen King and other scary books and hadn't had nightmares from them. At least, not like when the whole “dead rising” thing started. I did have nightmares for the first couple of weeks, but I'd gotten over them, until Shelbyville and the bikers.

     Sadly, I'm not the only one. Jackie and James have also been having nightmares and we've woken each other up a couple of times. Thankfully, we kept the others from seeing most of the really bad stuff and they've been able to sleep, except for our occasional outbursts.

     Hopefully, Brad will start getting better and we can get moving. If the roads were clear like the old days, it would take us less than six hours to reach the Greenbrier. But now, it could take us a couple days at best. If we're lucky, we can do a mostly straight shot to it. Here's to hoping.

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.