This morning we woke from the woods and decided to head first towards the garage to check and see if anything had changed. Therion’s heart is set on working at this place, I think he’s looking for a distraction from what’s going on here, he just wants to feel like nothing has changed.

We get there and of course the place is deserted. You could see the look on his face he was so bummed. We turn to leave thinking maybe we’ll go look for a place where we can sleep that isn’t in the woods and what appears before us? Biters. I guess the one the father put down just the day before wasn’t the only roaming one left. There are more.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, there were two of them. What used to be policemen? Maybe guards? We have no ammo for our weapons so I grabbed a piece of rubble and attacked one of them, I bashed it over the head until I heard that satisfying crunch of it’s skull before I dropped the piece of cement and turned to see Therion.

That man and his damn wrench. I turned around to seeing him beat the living crap our of a biter. It was long dead, maybe he just needed to get it out of his system. When we were both satisfied that they weren’t getting back up, he was all over me checking for bites or scratches. He practically pulled my arms out of the sockets in his frantic haste.

We moved from there after getting our bearings, deciding now more than ever, we needed to find a place to stay that wasn’t the woods. We ended up near the hospital, around back. A woman in scrubs was standing near the garbage bins smoking a joint. Oh man, how I wanted that joint. Once a street kid always a street kid I guess. She seemed really stand-offish. Therion tried to joke with her and if anything she got defensive. Then she kinda lost her shit as soon as she noticed that I had blood on my clothes, she pulled a fucking knife on me! What kind of nurse is this??? Therion stood in front of me and shouted at her that I wasn’t bitten, trying to reason with her. She said in order to believe us that we weren’t bitten we had to walk towards her in a straight line while touching our nose. Was she serious? Suddenly if you’re bitten by one of these things you have to take a sobriety test and if you pass you’re all good but if not you’re fucked? What if you are actually drunk?? What kind of reasoning is this? Therion wasn’t going to do it, but I did it anyways. This woman is clearly a little unstable and pulled a knife on two strangers, we don’t know if there are people in that hospital that will come running out to help her or not.

Therion questioned her on whether she was even really a nurse or not, she was getting a little hostile so we said we were leaving. She said nothing more other than telling us she was gonna finish her break and wait for her boyfriend. I’m beginning to not trust anyone here. Nurses are defensive and almost aggressive, apartments are being raided, biters are still here even on an island. I’m beginning to wonder if we really should leave or not.

So fine, we left nurse ratchet where she was.

We ended up finding an abandoned building, a truck is parked in front of the front door and the back door is completely gone, but it’s in a small alley and you really need to know where the door in order to find it. Seems safe enough for now.

I woke up after a few hours sleep and decided to get up and do some scavenging. Therion hates it when I leave on my own, but it’s daytime now..how much trouble can I really get into?

I ended up at an abandoned carnival. Surely there has to be stuff in here worth scavenging. My clothes are covered in dried biter blood, I need a cleaner shirt, the stench is turning my stomach, smells of decaying meat.

I walked through the gates aaaaaaand….there you have it, another fucking gun in my face!

He tells me not to move a muscle and asks who I am. I put my hands up immediately, this guy doesn’t have a mask like the other two did, he looks like he’s just untrusting and on edge, like he’s waiting for someone to jump him and take all his shit. Knowing now that the short guy from the raid didn’t have any bullets, I was fairly confident that this guy didn’t either, though I did mention that he probably didn’t have any bullets and if he wanted to shoot me he would have done it as soon as I passed the gates. When he asked me if I wanted to find out, I was pretty sure I didn’t so I didn’t push him farther. I gave him my name, and in return asked him his, he didn’t seem to like this question much and asked why it mattered. I didn’t want to tell him that usually I like to know who’s pointing a fun in my face, but I just told him I was curious to know. He wouldn’t tell me. We talked for maybe a few minutes, he told me I wouldn’t find anything here…thinking this guy can’t be here forever I started to back away slowly. He didn’t yell at me not to move, he just watched me back up.

He let me go.

I came back to our spot and Therion woke up, he’s out there now scavenging. I’ll tell him about the crazy carnival man later. He’ll just get mad and run over there trying to find him.

The eights is no good, the hospital has crazy nurses and the carnival have sketchy men who stick guns in people’s faces. Where do we go now? There isn’t much left of this place we haven’t explored yet. We have yet to go down to the church where Father what’s his name and that sister lives or even go IN the hospital. Maybe the doctors who work there are less quick to the blade, unlike crazy nurse lady.

Something is stiring up here. I can hear biters on the streets out there. More seem to be appearing as time passes, they haven’t picked up our scent. I guess it’s good we haven’t changed out of these biter ridden clothes. They probably can’t even tell we’re here. They seem to just be passing through and attacking anyone they see. I’m ready for them if they come for us.

Am I really though? Maybe I’m ready for a monster who can’t think, but am I ready for another monster with a weapon and the desperate need to survive? Am I ready for another terrifying run in at the carnival, the place where happy faces of children once peppered the walkways as they ran with their friends getting on rides and trying the games.

Maybe it won’t be at the carnival this time. And maybe this time, I won’t get away as easily as I have. Next time Therion may not come to my aid, and next time maybe the psycho with a gun will not be so quick to let me walk away unharmed.

I don’t know if I’m ready for that. But, I guess I have to be, because ready or not, the shit storm is getting worse.