Day 26

I wake with the sun in my eyes. I am sore from sleeping on the hard chair. Before getting up my mind wanders to my grandparents. Chad had not seen them in the tent and I had not seen them while making my way from the Hummer. Where had they gone?

My gun is laying on my lap and as I stand it falls to the floor loudly. I wince at the noise and then stretch my arms while yawning. I glance out of the window. There walking by the glass, looking away from me is a zombie. I drop to the floor behind the waiting room chairs and try to look through the cracks between each to watch the thing walk by. I can see several others nearby. I look around but do not see anybody else. The door into the ER is in plain view through the window which makes me nervous to try and get to.

The zombie stops. It doesn't look around, it just stops. I watch it for some time but it is not moving. I notice then that it is not breathing. It is perfectly still, not swaying, twitching or even blinking as if it has forgotten some how how to do these things. There is blood, dried and brown around his mouth and I can see that it is missing an ear and a large potion of its neck. Blood soaks its entire right side.

There is blurred movement coming from the other side of the street and I glance over to where I saw the movement. There, huddled behind a car trunk is a man, holding a pistol looking around frantically for a better place to hide. There are zombies loitering near the man, but they have not seen him. I watch, trying to think of a way to help him but I cannot justify giving away where we are staying to help him. I cannot risk my family's lives.

He runs to a building nearby and I can tell the doors are locked, but he backs up against a wall out of my sight. The zombie is still standing in front of the window, not moving and I wonder if this is a form of sleep. Whatever brings them back uses their bodies pretty heavily from what I have observed. So perhaps they have to "shut down". I want to test this idea and it is driving me nuts that I cant. Maybe just through a pen at the window to see if it responds. But then I'd need another moving zombie to make sure that they would respond at all, normally.

I take my chances and stand up, walking over to my gun I'd left on the floor where it had fallen. The zombie doesn't move, although I'm not sure if it could see me anyway. There are others lingering and so I walk quickly to the double doors and go through them.

To my surprise everyone is still asleep. There is an analogue clock on the wall that reads eleven twenty-one. I think it is easier to sleep with how the world has changed. Easier to forget in drowsiness. As I am walking out I hear Charlotte whisper something. She is laying on a cot in the hall. Her gas mask has been removed but she has not changed. There is a gun at her side as well.

"Where are you going?" She asks.

"There is a guy out there. I'm going to try to help him."

She opens her eyes. "What?"

I don't repeat what I said, but just look at her. Finally, I say, "can you stay in the ER office, where you can see out of the reception area?"

"What? Why?"

"I am going to run a ways down the street and fire off a few rounds. Once the zombies leave, following the sound call out to that guy." I explain where he is.

"Shouldn't I just wait in the lobby?"

"There are some near the window that cold see you. After they leave, then run around and get him in here." Without waiting for a response I start walking quickly towards another exit.

Outside it is bright and somewhat warm. I think to myself how I am glad it has been a warmer winter, even on the northern California coast it can get frigged. There is a large lawn in front of me and some cars parked in the parking lots. One is in the middle of the lawn. There are some zombies off a ways, to my right. I can't tell if they are coming towards or away from me, but I assume that they will not be able to see me well enough to try and attack. Out at the front of the building there are several more, and so I decide to move closer to the ones on the right. There are some buildings just across the lawn and that is my first priority. Once I get to them I should be able to make a run for it for several blocks before firing off several rounds.

I make it to the buildings after sprinting (or rather half sprinting, half hobbling) and can tell that some of the zombies off a ways saw me. I can see them running in my direction and I know I need to keep moving.

I start down a street in which I will be able to fire off the shots and watch until I see the man get into the hospital. Once he is in I will make my way back.

There are no zombies from what I can see down the street and so I walk down the middle. Hopefully giving me enough reaction time if one appears suddenly. I am about half a mile away when I hear rustling to my left. The buildings look touristy, and old fashioned. There is a giant banner draped from an over-hanging roof that reads, Pen's, Button's, Guitars. I am tempted to go in and grab a guitar but think better of it. Maybe once back in Utah, or back somewhere safe I can find one. I use to love playing the guitar, but hadn't for a year or so. Now it seems like a lifetime ago.

There is rustling again and I see a small child, no more than ten emerge from a small alley beside the guitar shot. There is blood on his face and he is missing his left arm. I look at him and almost collapse. He looks so young. And still, the scene is horrifying. He looks at me and grunts, stumbling forward. Finally he is at a run, screaming. I pull out my pistol and shoot him once in the head. I crouch down. I can't do this. I pull his hair behind his ear. It is long and brown and I feel that it is important for me to remember this. Remember that this boy was once happy. Maybe he was a sports player. I guessed soccer. He had a life and, although it seemed to be easier to kill these things now, I can't forget what they were and forgive them for being what they are now.

I fire several more shots into the air and stand up, looking towards the hospital. There are objects moving towards me and I know they are zombies. I wish I had a scope. I try to watch carefully to see if that man runs across the street.

It takes several long seconds while these things are running towards me until I see him cross. I run back down the street, and into a side alley to go around the oncoming zombies.

It takes ten minutes to get back to the hospital. By the time I'd gotten to the large lawn the zombies had cleared off, following the gunshots I'd made. I walked in through the door I had exited and down the hall into the main nursing station that seemed to be the mid point where everyone was sleeping. When I exited the hall I was greeted by the man I had seen, hiding from the zombies. He had his arm around Charlotte and was holding his gun to her head. Upon seeing him I raised my pistol up threatening the man we had just helped save. "Shit."

Josh, and Chad had their guns pointing at him, Dawn was behind Josh, Holding both kids in her arms.

"All I want are your weapons," he said, almost desperately. "Give them to me and I will leave you in peace."

"So," Chad says, his gun is pointed at the man as well, "fighting zombies isn't enough."

"Shut up!" He says, firing a round high into the air, raising his arm up. It is Josh who takes advantage of this. He had had his gun trained on him and as he raised his arm, Josh pulled his trigger, hitting his forearm and causing him to drop his gun. The man screamed in pain as he let go of Charlotte to grab his own arm.

I ran up and grabbed the fallen gun, walking back from him, still pointing my own. He is screaming in pain and I can see blood running down his arm. I go around the desk and grab some bandages and gauze and throw it at him.

"Here you go. Now get out!" The bandages hit him and fall to the floor. Charlotte goes and picks them up puts them in the crook of his arm and pushes him towards the door.

"So," I begin, looking at Josh, "What happened?"

"Charlotte got him in and he just took his gun out and grabbed her. There was a lot of yelling. Mostly between Chad that that guy. I don't know if he would have really killed Charlotte, but I wasn't going to risk it. There are different rules now. Nothing is the same."

There is a small dark spot on Josh's shirt that I can tell is blood. "Charlotte better look at that," I say, pointing to his shirt."

"Oh," he says looking down. "Stitch must have broke or something."

We stay the whole day. The place is safe. There is food and drink, albeit all from a vending machine, but it is still enough. We all need rest. My leg aches constantly, and I can tell everyone else is still exhausted.

Near the end of the day Connor and I play chase over the whole hospital. I think he needed it. With all that is going on, I think some good playing time was needed. He laughed and screamed when I'd grab him and throw him up on my shoulders, spinning in circles. I hold his feet and hang him over my back, wandering around asking "where'd Connor go?" He laughs at this and says, "behind you!" making me spin, saying I couldn't find him. It was nice to forget the world we now live in. I think children have that effect. I lose myself that afternoon while everyone is recouping, while dangerous things now roam around and simply play with my son, allowing him to feel some normality in a world far from what he should be growing up in.