Friday, December 16, 2011

The 20th Entry

I walked over to the green soldier and yanked the gun from his trembling hands, he half smiled at me and stated " I got one". I checked his weapon and handed it back to him like I knew what I was doing in a half nervous wow you almost blew my head off sort of reaction and said back"Yeah you did but almost killed me and Fish too, be careful you kill someone innocent I shoot you myself".He looked at me smirked and ran away obviously still pumped about shooting a "thing".

Fish handed me a cigarette and even tho I was never a smoker I gladly accepted it . He fumbled for his lighter, a Zippo I had to assume by the cover and the chrome. He tied flicking the cover back one handed but his hand was shaking so bad the lighter flew out and down the drainpipe. "Shoot my lighter"he said. I thought for a second as we both watched the lighter disappear into the sewer and then said " I know someone who has a lighter" and smiled.Fish looked baffled and then it must have hit him because suddenly he started smiling too. I think we both know someone who was smoking a pipe and maybe just maybe had a lighter we could alleviate from him.

I said to Fish that I would watch the back if he wanted to run and get it from the man in charge and he agreed and took off for his prize. While he was gone I checked my gun out , making sure it had a full clip and was clean, I didn't know much else about them. Looking out across the lot and There wasn't a thing or a "thing" to be seen. It was also a huge relief that the sun was out, your mind plays tricks on you in the dark just like when I was a child playing in the swamp. Plays tricks on you alright, time and time again I swear I would be staring down a "thing" and then on closer inspection was looking at a leafless tree moving in the night air.

I decided to move around a little and inspect the ambulances and maybe even look for a decent flashlight and look for Fish's Zippo, maybe I could still retrieve it for him. It all depends on if this was a normal storm drain or a main lead in to the big pipe, those seems to go forever. But first the ambulance's and I will try my hardest to get what I can from them, it doesn't look like they will be used like they were in the old days , when people would call for one and it would be safe to drive out to help someone. I opened the first ambulance door and it was torn apart , the radio was gone, CB,everything. I looked in the back and it was worse with blood everywhere and for all I know body parts.

I went over to the second ambulance and opened its back doors and it was untouched. Apparently it was new to this area or it was never used at all. I pilfered the back of it for a flashlight gauze anything that could be of use to me, hell the hospital had all it needed.After raiding the back of the ambulance I stepped back over to the storm drain. It was nothing but darkness and I started to wonder just how deep it was. I remember walking over them in the daytime all the time before this all happened and I could always catch a glimpse of the water in the bottom, stagnant and putrid , or rushing when the rain was around, but this time it was still and dark. The bottom was an abyss and nothing was visible. I cracked out the flashlight and tried to get the light to start shining, it didn't want to work at first but i banged it on the side and screwed the top on a hair tighter and it clicked to life. I aimed the flashlight down the grate and it started to reflect off of something that was moving. I tried getting a better look but between the grates and thru the dark it was just movement.

I reached down and tried to lift the grate off but it was heavier than it looked. Fish came up from behind me and said the head honcho was nowhere to be found and the door was locked so we were screwed until we found someone with a lighter. I explained to him something was moving in the drain and he thought it could be the lighter flickering with it's shiny chrome. We decided to give it the old college try and lift the grate off to see if the lighter was a viable option. We reached thru the grate and it wouldn't budge. Fish looked around and ran over to the building for something ,when he came back he had a gigantic pipe that was pretty thick so we jammed it into the side of the iron beast. Prying and struggling we got the edge of the cap for the sewer off and then we spun it to the side until it was completely off the drain.

Fish grabbed the light and leaned in to see what was in the drain and grab his lighter for a bit of peace. It was almost like the lighter was more than a lighter to us at that point, it was something we needed and could obtain , it was a chance at civility. We could light our smokes and stand there relaxing while the world around us continued to fall apart. We needed that lighter for our sanity , for our chance to be normal even for a second. Fish reached over and a hand grabbed his shoulder trying to pull him in.

My eyes almost bugged completely out of my head and I grabbed back for Fish yanking him out of the hole. We both fell backwards and went into shock , we had seen a lot but this caught us in a moment of completely off guard , going for the lighter with hopes of normalcy and a smoke and bam the arm in the sewer grabs you. As we sat there they started to climb out, two "things" as far as I could see and they weren't handing Fish his Zippo back. I asked him quickly if he was bitten and he looked all over his arm and hand nervously. "No, no , no I'm good". We turned our guns to the sewer and sawed the "things" into pieces, it was going to be a long ass day.After we clipped them I had Fish lower me by my legs into the sewer and retrieve the Zippo, we didn't go thru all of this to have to throw the smokes away.

He started lowering me in by my feet and as i got closer to the Zippo I could hear something in that sewer with me. I know your thinking "hey dumb ass why are you in there to begin with" well if you were in my shoes that Zippo was worth dying for, now I can say no, but then it was all we had to fight and save for ourselves and for normalcy. I twisted while hanging from my feet and aimed the light in the western direction of the sewer to see probably twenty to thirty "things" in a giant area that the pipe I was in and a bunch of other pipes emptied into milling around like it was a Zombie dance party or a break room for a bad zombie film. As my light beamed in one of them looked over and started to moan. I yelled up to Fish "get me out of here man quick". Fish yanked me out and was stunned, he said" where the lighter". I waved him off and said " get the grate there a bunch of them coming". He dropped everything he had and grabbed the pipe and we started to wiggle it back into place. Just as we did the "things" hands started coming thru and they were actually getting it to move a bit so I jumped into action.

I hopped into the clean ambulance and fired it up driving it to the grate and parking it with the front tire on the top flattening a few "thing" fingers that were sticking thru trying to move the cover off. We looked at each other and Fish started for another smoke, just then a nurse came out the door. She lit her cigarette and looked over at us, me and Fish started laughing and went over for a light. As we started to join the woman I calmly asked if the sewer had a way of getting into the hospital and she said " yeah it has a giant access in the basement but we never go near it, stinks down there". Me and the Fish man ran dropping the smokes...nasty habit anyway almost got me killed.

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