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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 5:17 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 5:24 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 5:35 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 5:39 pm
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Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2010 5:46 pm
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 4:14 am
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 9:41 am
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"Yeah," Shane said, "Here comes one now."
Sure enough, there was a man walking along the side of the road. No, not walking. Shambling. Shambling along the side of the road. As they drew closer, Nilla got a better look at him. He was wearing an Oxford cloth shirt with half its buttons undone. The cuffs of the sleeves hung loose as if he'd been trying to escape from his clothes when the change finally came. The change, she thought. God. His head was almost bereft of hair, just a few clumps left sticking up at random angles like obscene horns. His skin was the color of rancid cream and a thin sheet of black drool leaked from his lower lip. He turned to face them, and she saw that his eyes were completely empty.
Shane leaned out the window. He leveled his shotgun at the man's head. He pulled the trigger, and the man's head exploded in a sickening splatter of blood and bone and brain matter. She screamed, or tried to. The sound that came out of her throat sounded more like a retch.
Shane turned to her again and smiled. "Do you want anything else to eat?" he said, "You must be starving."
Nilla vomited up the contents of her stomach, whatever they were, onto the floor of the jeep. Rayde said something to her, but she didn't hear it.
A few moments later, Rayde pulled up to a roadside rest stop and parked. The rest stop had all the amenities somebody on a road trip might require: fuel stations, restrooms, even a restaurant. "Well, here we are," Rayde said, "The roadside Hilton of the day. Good a place as any to rest for a while until we move on."
Nilla reached under the seat and picked up the box Rayde had mentioned earlier, then struggled out of the backseat of the jeep. She put a bare foot down on the ground. It was cold. So cold. She tried to step down gingerly from the jeep, but her leg slid out from beneath her, unable to accept her commands, and she clattered down to the ground. Her body shuddered as she tried to put some weight on her feet, hauling herself upright by holding onto the jeep. She grimaced as she shifted her weight entirely onto her legs. Somehow she managed to stumble toward the rest stop, even though her knees kept locking up. Her muscles were still stiff.
She made her way into a restroom, Rayde's box held firmly under her arm. Once inside, she reached around her back and undid the twill tape ties of the hospital gown. The thin cotton garment fell to the floor around her feet. She looked at herself and the mirror and gasped: her body was covered in the same black and blue bruises as her legs. She figured that whatever incident had caused her to lose her memory had also caused the bruises. She rifled through the box and finally decided on a black tank top and a pair of gray slacks. She dressed slowly, carefully. The clothes hung from her frame rather loosely. So much for being the same size, she thought.
Suddenly, a gunshot sounded from outside. Nilla froze. A moment later, Rayde knocked on the door. ""Nilla, are you ready to go?" she said, "It's about to get rough out. Here I can feel it." She was about to speak when a series of groans cut her off. Gunfire sounded again. "Shane! Charlie! Let's do this!" Rayde shouted.
Nilla panicked. She didn't know what to do. She ran, clumsily but quickly, into the bathroom stall furthest from the door and locked herself in. She squeezed her relatively tiny body into the space between the toilet and the wall. She closed her eyes and covered her ears. She tried not to think about the chaos going on outside, but she could still hear it. Gunfire. The jeep starting up. Gunfire. Screeching tires. Gunfire. Shattering glass. Gunfire. A roaring fire. Gunfire. Gunfire. Gunfire. Silence.
The chaos had ended. Nilla opened her eyes and uncovered her ears. She felt something wet dribble across the side of her mouth. She reached up and found that she was weeping. She wiped the tears away and stood up. Unlocked the stall and slipped out. Approached the bathroom door, cracked it open, and peered through.
Outside, Shane was helping Rayde to her feet. There were corpses all around and a fire blazing nearby. Whatever had happened, they had won.
Nilla stepped out of the bathroom and took a seat on a nearby bench. In time, Rayde came and sat down beside her.
"I wish I'd never woken up," Nilla said calmly. It was true. She did.
Everyone else was sleeping, but Nilla was wide awake.
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 9:58 am
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:44 am
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 11:42 am
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 12:17 pm
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 1:47 pm
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 1:50 pm
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 2:12 pm
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2010 2:18 pm
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