# 49

The faces I could make out pieces of were staring into the ceiling tiles and me and Leeya were ready to rock and roll. I am not sure if it would end well for us but I knew we would take a piece of them with us if we had to go. Leeya was staring a hole in the woman and the one hand she wasn't holding onto the edge of the wall with was aiming the gun straight on top of her head. I was doing a pretty good balancing act and had both guns aimed at where the other folks seemed to be. The woman looked a bit more and then said "Lets go even the rats are trying to leave here."I looked at Leeya and gave a big sigh. She settled in for a second and was looking paler than ever. That was a good scare and I was glad the rodent problem saved our asses.

The woman left with the two men and we heard the truck start to drive off. Leeya was ready to climb down but I didn't quite trust it yet and made her hold up a second. Just then the woman came back in alone. She looked up again and then looked down at the floor. I leaned over a bit more to see what she had her eyes on, it was our footprints of mud from when we came in. She called another guy over and asked him to show her his boots. Then she looked at the prints again. "OK , you can go. It was rats I guess, but just in case." Then she took out a gun and fired several shots into the ceiling. I covered Leeya's mouth and took one in the forearm. Then the woman said "OK now we can go." Leeya started to well up and I started to feel the burn in my arm from being shot.

The truck drove off and we waited still yet for a while waiting just in case. Leeya leaned over and tied a rag around my arm and I bite down hard on my other hand as my knee started burning. We waited it out a few more minutes then I moved a tile and fell out onto the floor with Leeya dropping onto the desk behind me. "Oh my god you got shot baby are you OK?" I leaned over and showed her my knee and Leeya started crying. "What luck lately huh ?" I said with a smirk. I always find humor even at my own damn expense. She helped me up and sat me on the desk and started tying rags around my knee. I couldn't have planned that to go any worse than it just did. She had me lean over on her and we started  hobbling back into the woods, but this time I told her we would follow the woods by the treeline all the way back to the Hotel. It was a long walk with us shuffling through the woods and me leaning on her but we were moving along. Leeya asked me why I covered her mouth and all I could respond with was "To shut you up" and we laughed. I really did want to shut her up I thought when the lady started shooting she would yell or cry so I capped the well so to speak. Little did I know I stopped her from getting shot in the damn head , a hero's work is never done.

We finally could see the hotel in front of us through the woods and the bus was there finally. I had a little bit of peace in me knowing our friends were OK. We broke out of the treeline and I was starting to feel dizzy and cold , so damn cold. Leeya couldn't pull me anymore and I had her put me down and go get help. She was reluctant to leave me but knew she couldn't carry me and I wasn't moving anymore and left crying all the way to the door. Rusty and Brent came running out and grabbed me and Fish was behind them with a gun as cover, from what I have no idea but he was like a warrior that way. I lost a lot of blood mainly because we didn't know anything about tying the wounds up correctly and then having to walk a good mile in the woods. They dropped me on the couch in the lobby and while they were looking over the wounds and getting water Leeya was frantic and babbling about what had happened. Then I blacked out, it's getting to be a habit I hope to break.

I woke up and not being sure what day it even was had a dry mouth and headache. I looked around and Leeya was passed out on my lap sitting to the side of the couch. This girl has no quit I thought. I cleared my throat and she woke up and started kissing me, I could feel the bandages were finally off my face. I had that going for me at least. I finally got the words water out and got a glass with a straw,drinking all of it to the point of choking and coughing my brains out. Hey my side and chest felt better but my knee and arm sucked, badly. Everyone started coming around and giving me congrats on waking up and being OK, and Leeya had a look in her eyes like I just won the super bowl. Guess that's what happens when you take a bullet for a lady, you get to be the BIG MAN ON CAMPUS. Sorry I had to do it, my humor has no tact.

I sat up and then Fish told me what was what. He got the bullets out which for my sake were only .22's but the knee shot hit a bunch of stuff and Fish said being no doctor he did what he could but couldn't guarantee any of his work. I had ice on it and Leeya said she had been changing it the past few days...few days? WTF. I found out I had been out for four days , with water being poured in my mouth and Leeya being a nurse to her own fail, she had passed out twice for not eating. Rusty made her eat he proclaimed or she would've been laying right next to me. I thanked everyone for everything they did , even Fish's crappy medical work. And then sat around the rest of the day talking with everyone catching up on things and finding out Fish and Rusty had gotten another truck while I was out full of fuel and the heat was bitching.

I settled into the couch with Leeya and a group of friends and we had beers food and laughs. It wasn't often we all had smiles so when they came it was good for the souls. I just hoped my leg would be able to hold me up and soon, laying around gets you dead. Fred came down finally and was smiling at me as opposed to last time. Unice he said wasn't feeling well and was laying down and he had to attend to her. I told him I gave her my best and to have a good night and he was off. Rusty said they went out two days ago and found the oil truck in mid delivery sitting in the road with almost a full tank. They filled its tank up to run it and brought it back and emptied it here. They guessed the delivery guy was attacked while doing the delivery and the truck ran out of gas. Luckily he hadn't flipped the lever to fill the house yet or it would've filled the cellar and been empty too.

We had heat and electricity for certain things and every time someone went out we suddenly had more beer, ahhh college kids. It was good to be here warm and safe. We had a good thing here and the other people said they had not seen the group me and Leeya ran into three times now and shot me. My guess was they had somewhere to hunker down like us and needed fuel like us. In a way it was good they found the truck and took it from me or they might have spotted it behind the Hotel and that could have brought all sorts of trouble down on us. With that Rusty went outside and fired up the fuel truck they had taken and drove it deep into the woods. I guess he put two and two together and didn't want anyone sniffing around either.

With everything that had been happening it was like we forgot about the "things". I was worrying about heat and the mob but out there somewhere are "things". Maybe the cold has them hiding as well, who knows. I would love to find out what this was and why it was spreading so fast. Classic zombie movies be damned why was this happening, was it a form of rabies? or a chemical weapon? I didn't have a clue but I knew i would have .....One more beer.