AJ: Mourning after

I woke up the next morning, as usual, with a start. Since things got hairy I had been waking up that way, and sleeping fitfully. Which was a normal response. I guess. What was normal any more?I awoke with plenty of time to spare till the sun came up. Most everyone else was still asleep, or at least pretending to sleep. Nodding to the camera I made my way to the bathroom. The water pressure was low, but there was still more than enough to wash up. I was trying not to hurry, I felt the pressure, knowing what I had to do, but I would be damned if I was going to hurry up about it.

After washing up I had a quick breakfast of strawberry pop tarts, the breakfast of champions. After my lone breakfast I started to prepare what equipment I would need. I checked, and double checked everything. The armour, the makeshift weapons. The one thing that made me feel good was my grandfathers knife. It was a nice little thing, not made for skinning rabbits or whittling. A working knife he had during the Korean war. Nicely weighted, and sharp as a razor. Everything looked good. It didn't take much time to suit up. I had the armour on, and the weapons ready. I also had a bag with some essentials, a few first aid supplies, some energy bars, and a couple of bottles of water. I wasn't planning on this being a long term thing, but it was better safe than sorry.

I quietly made my way to the car. careful not to draw any attention to myself. I couldn't see any of those things, but I knew they were there just out of sight. When the car started, the engine sounded like a tank engine in the stillness of the morning. There was a stillness to the air, and a thin sheet of dew on the hood of the car. I had a sort of slow motion surreal feeling. Everything looked so normal, the buildings, the lights in the distance, The sun was only just now coming up. It was like any other morning.

Things went from slow motion to regular really fast. My blood was already bubbling with the potential for an adrenaline rush, but when I heard the low moan I froze. It was like everything went from slow motion to full gallop in the blink of an eye. I still couldn't see it, but I could definatly hear it. I stopped, and carefully looked around. Nothing. Slowly I slipped the car into gear. and started to slowly push the accelerator. It didn't take long at all to get the car into the street. That's where I saw her, or it, well, I'm still not sure what to call them. I didn't know her, at least she didnt look remotely familiar. she had longish brown hair, and was quite thin. Her eyes were white and clouded. It was kind of an eerie feeling, aside from the hunched over walk and the white eyes she looked completly normal. Her clothes were wet with dew, and I could make out what looked to be a purse on her shoulder.

"Just another day" I mumbled under my breath.

It started to walk towards the car, arms outstretched, not in some mockery of a lugosi movie, but reaching out to me, like it somehow hoped that it would get to me faster that way. It was about 30 feet away, and I could make out its finger nails. the shade of her polish was a cheery pink. My stomach wretched as it slowly made its way towards me. the problem was that I had time to think. If it had ran towards the car I wouldnt have had time to wonder what happened to her, how she died. but she was walking, slowly, towards me. Her pink nailed fingers clawing the air. I pulled the car out into the street. I slowly rolled the car past her, she turned and tried to grab at the window as I passed just out of reach. Then she turned, and started to follow after me. Still walking, and clawing at the air. thick rivulets of bloody drool fell from her mouth as she watched me pass.

It didn't take long to get where I was going. Namely the Fish plant. Somewhere that had a couple of things I could use. The place was locked up tight, not a soul around. A few of the fishing boats were gone, and there were a few trucks parked here and there. Clearly someone had taken some boats, and beat a hasty retreat. Luckily, there were no victims around, no signs of struggle, no trails of blood. All good signs. Getting into the plant was easy, the over powering stench of fish making me wretch again. I went from room to room, bar raised, ready to whack whatever I saw. After making sure the place was secure, I started a search. I found a few interesting items. A few good knives, some food, and most importantly gloves. These gloves, the ones they used when processing fish were ideal. Specially made so that sharp knives couldn't cut them. doubtful that any of this things could bite through them. I found a nice box of those beuties in a store room.

After loading up the booty I decided to nose around. Now, I personally hated fish, despised it, but there were a few people in the building who would eat it, and probably enjoy it. The power hadn't gone out, so the freezers were still humming. I decided to be the nice guy and get some fish. the big door to the freezer was hard to open by myself, so when I was opening it, I had to pull really hard, when the door popped I fell flat on my ass. unfortunatly for me the thing that was in the freezer fell flat on its face, at my feet.

It was a bloody mess. It had a big chunk of its neck missing, and it was covered in blood. I didn't know who it was, or why he was in the freezer, but he was a gorey mess. He looked up at me, his one remaining eye milky and pussy, a low hiss came from his shattered throat. The expression on its face was horrible. It's teeth had gone black, and there were several missing. It had been some sort of businessman in life. It wore the bloody remnants of a grey business suit. It's fingers were worn down to a bloody pulp from pounding on the door for god knows how long. It clawed its way up and its head fell in an almost swift motion towards me. The pain as it bit into my leg was unimaginable. Its hands went to the side of its head, as its mouth bit my leg. I literally saw stars. I tried kicking it in the head. All this did was jerk its head, and cause me more pain. I felt around for my club, it was just out of reach. This all felt like it was taking hours, but it must have only been a few seconds. I didnt even think of my knife until it came out of its sheaf due to my thrashing around. Grabbing it, I stabbed towards the things head. Punching through a skull isnt easy, especially from this angle. I gouged big bits of flesh from the top of its head. Shearing off hair, and exposing its skull. It continued trying to gnaw through my leg. Knowing I wasn't going to get throuhg its thick skull, I had an idea. Taking the knife, I swung it towards the things temple... It went in with a sickening noise. Somewhat like what a can of pepsi sounds like when pierced with a nail, only wetter. The thing stopped trying to chew through my leg almost immediatly. Its body suddenly became limp, and as i rolled it fell off of me. I scrabbled backwards on the white tiled floor. Finding myself in the corner holding my knife towards the now motionless lump.

I must have sat in the corner with the bloody knife staring wide eyed at my attacker for about an hour. I didnt move, I dont think I blinked. The thing didnt move. The only thing I could hear was an odd whirring noise from inside the freezer. I don't know why, but I snapped to my senses. Quickly I checked my leg. The tape hadn't been bitten through , it had been sheared in sports, but nothing had made it through the denim. Standing, I walked to one of the cleaning tables, and used the hose to hose the things blood from my leg. It was thick like motor oil, and the colour was darker than normal blood. Under the flourescant lights it almost looked black. When I was all cleaned up I undid my jeans and checked the flesh of my leg. It had a series of bite marks from my knee to my ankle. It was a deep red, and it was already starting to bruise. That would hurt a lot in the near future. Looking towards the wide open freezer door I had a horrible feeling. There was no blood in the plant, but that guy must have been bleeding like a stuck pig. Whatever had happened to him had happened in the freezer.

I was a bit of a mess myself. I knew that I could just close that door and maybe write a note to whoever else stumbled on this. But, I had to know. What was in there? Could I handle it? Taking my make shift club, I walked into the open freezer. The first thing that struck me was that it was warm. The second thing was the smell. The fish was starting to go off. The freezer had obviously been off for days. I made my way through, carefully checking and re checking. Going down each aisle. Thats when I found something interesting. A makeshift bed, a bunch of water bottles and food wrappers. There were also bottle after bottle of over the counter medecines. This is also were the blood started. The bed itself was clear, but around the side of the bed was all blood, and there were two trails leading off. One way the shelves were knocked over, and the trail looked violent, the other led towards the door where mr exucutive was. Following the other trail It only took me a minute to find the cause of all this misery. A woman. well, whatever was left of a woman. It was covered in blood. None of it was hers. All around her mouth, and down her neck was covered in blood. There was a bandage covering her right shoulder. Luckily for me she had already been dispatched. Whoever that executive guy had been he had managed to kill it. A big chunk of the top of its head was missing. Everything from the top of its head, to its left ear was gone. Looking around, I couldnt see any clubs, or knives. Looking around the floor I saw it. some sort of gun had fallen under one of the shelves. Reaching under I felt around. It was just out of reach, as is usually the case. I fished around for a bit with my club and managed to get the gun out from under there. It was a nice gun, not being a gun nut I couldnt tell you much about it. It's a glock, at least thats what the engraving says. the gun was full, well aside from one bullet, that the late mrs executive had eaten. A quick search turned up a box of bullets. which were a nice enough fit for the gun. A good find, but not worth the bruises.