# 46

I woke up to the sound of voices and while blurry eyed I looked to my right and saw Leeya talking to someone at the door. I tried to move but my chest was stabbing me with a violent pain. I sunk back into the bed and took a few deep breaths. Leeya closed the door and noticed I was awake and came over to me, cupping my head in her lap. She was very excited to see me awake and smiling with a worry some look on her face. There was a lot to discuss and not really sure where I or she would even start. I asked her about the others and if she told them what had happened. She told me that she told them about Bob and his wacky attempt to kill me and how she did him in. Then she told them about my wounds and they said to keep me in the RV until it was healed better as they feared her lying and me being bitten. I was offended and also happy. Least they were thinking of salvation and not being blind to the problems. Then she told me Fred was the one she had talked with.... Fred wants me out here for fear of a bite? That was rich.

I told her to get Fred to come in here and talk with me alone and to go hang out with Jenn, Deb, and Linda. She kissed my forehead and then went to get Fred. A few minutes rolled by and I was thinking that Fred refused to come in here but my head said he would. I was the only one who knew about his wife and he didn't want to upset the apple cart that could tell the truth. The door opened and Fred came in , the face of the happy old man I had left was now different and he sat on the bed beside me as Leeya left us alone. Fred took a deep breath and swallowed his spit,"I knew that Bob there was bad news, at the pool I heard him a few times talking about you and that girl. None of it was good. Soon as he volunteered for the trip I had a feeling he was out for you. I gave him a gun with rock salt to give you a chance". I looked at the old man who wouldn't make eye contact with me and said "thank you for that."He then went one to tell me that he feared I would slip and say something and wondered if I told Leeya about it because she said something about having Chemo.

I looked at him and told him I had explained the chemo as my bright idea for possibly killing off whatever it was that made the people into "things". I also reminded him that I was never going to break my promise, his wife was free to live her life however she saw fit. She wasn't sick she was fine but dying from cancer. I then told him that if he wanted we could try with what I had to treat her and he turned me down. Then he said he was sorry for the way I looked and that maybe he should have given him real bullets. I was floored, "your rock salt saved my life why the hell would you say that." He just hung his head, " you think out there if you run into people they wont think your one of those things out there ? " I sat in that for a minute and then responded " any time I have now is bonus man, dead then or dead later on what would it matter, your my hero don't forget that, maybe your tired or something". Fred got up and said "yeah tired , maybe I'll go lay down."

Fred left and a few seconds later Leeya walked in. She kneeled down on the side of the bed and while looking into my eyes asked me if there was something she should know. I looked right at her and said,"there is something but I can't say just yet". She hugged me and whispered " I heard everything from outside". My eyes widened and I asked her to keep it between us if the others know someone will do her in. She shook her head in agreement and then told me that if I ever lye to her again she would never forgive me. In this world all we have is each other and our word and I could see what she meant. I told her I had nothing but trust in her and she would never hear anything but the truth again. She smiled and then I told her " you could have walked , you could have left with Bob, you stayed , you fought , you kicked ass for me. You helped me get back here. Helped me get better." She climbed into bed alongside me and kissed the wound on my face, we both laid there for the rest of the morning.

The afternoon came and it was starting to get colder, the RV was heated but fighting with its limited power to keep up. Leeya went into the Hotel and came back with blanket upon blanket and we huddled up in the bed with hats on and about five blankets. The hotel ones are always kind of thin. "Kind of kinky you , me and eighty other peoples DNA in the bed here together". I joked to Leeya. She laughed a good laugh and we stayed there for the day just curled up holding each other. Talking about our lives , our dreams, what this all could be from. Leeya was younger and had the party girl attitude but she was a good soul and heart. She changed like a switch was turned leading me to believe she was a party girl by act not by herself. The things she spoke of and dreamed of were that of deep rivers. I was hooked at this point and she even brought up why me in Target that day. I wont talk about that here that would be like giving out the secret to Dunkin Donuts coffee or Coke's recipe. I will just say it was something else and pretty cool to hear. We played games like twenty questions, and things like that. Even name that tune, which showed i cannot sing a lick.

Around the beginning of dusk the door knocked and Linda was outside with food for the two of us. She handed Leeya a tray and then a small bucket that used to be for ice. In the bucket was a bottle of wine and two cups. She then came in for a second and said hello to me and hoped I would feel better. I knew it was to get a look at me and then tell the others but she didn't have to bother. Eventually they will all see me. I had not held a mirror in a while and to be honest didn't want one. Me and Leeya say down to a nice dinner with wine and got to have a date. AT least it seemed that way. We drew the shades tight and lit one candle and had a long evening of eating and trying to figure out why we went through puberty. The night was getting colder and we had each others body heat but the cold would be worse the next few days and we had to get back in the Hotel.

All night long was wind gusting and branches behind us creaking, it made for a long night. Leeya once again was dead to the world and I was wide awake. The past few days had done a lot to us. Seen one family gone and another one give us hope. We had a member of the group go insane with jealousy and rage, and had been attacked . We even had the "things" walk right by us. Of all the things we had experienced the one thing that was in my head was the chemo. i could not stop thinking if the chemo was a poison meant to kill cancer than whatever this was had to be some type of a growth or infection. How else is Unice inside and fine and so many others wandering around eating anything that's warm and moving. I was no scientist Bob was right about that , but something had to be causing all of this and it had to start somewhere, and by someone. The other thing I couldn't get through my head was how the hell did it spread so damn fast, like it was almost already here and something triggered it. Even a cold takes a while to spread through an area but this was almost overnight and everywhere. Something was not adding up and I had plenty of time to think. Why if these things are so easy to avoid by us , was the military not able to control it? where is the damn military? My head raced through paranoid schemes where the entire thing was done by the government, or it was a biological weapon. Hell I even thought it was just this area and we were under a quarantine that's why it was fast and no help was around. 28 days later i thought , that was a quarantine. Things weren't making much sense and no one seemed to question any of it, they were just happy it wasn't them. Eventually I slipped into a sleep and the day of bed rest was finally past me.