Chapter 2

20 Feb 1200hrs
I’m still shaking from this morning’s events. I woke up to the sound of someone banging on my window. For a moment I had forgot where I was. I thought I was back in Iraq. But as soon as I turned to look out my window I saw the demon! It scared the shit out of me. His throat was hanging down his shirt. There is no way this man was alive. He was something else. I fired up the Hummer and drove off as fast as I could. Luckily the roads were clear in this area. We could see people wandering around in the fields. We assumed they were like the others we had seen. No sense risking our lives to find out.
As we drove I knew we needed to find gas soon! As we were driving down an old county road we saw a semi truck that had been used as a roadblock. We pulled up alongside of it near the gas cans. There was no one around. Bullet casings were littered all over the road. Signs of a last stand gone wrong. I started siphoning out the gas while Smith covered me from the .50 cal. We got lucky and got enough diesel to fill our tank. As we drove off Smith started to open up to me. His parents and sister live in Fargo N Dakota. He has a girlfriend there too. Like me, he is hoping to find them alive. We have no idea how far this thing has spread. It only took 5 days for it to spread from Florida to New York and destroy the East coast. Please God let my family be alive.

21 Feb 1500hrs
Today Smith was quiet and didn’t look well. I asked him what was wrong and he said his stomach hurt. At that moment I realized that neither of us had used a restroom. We had been so freaked out to leave the confines of the vehicle that we had just been pissing in empty water bottles to prevent getting caught with our pants down. Literally! I decided we should try to clear a gas station to use the latrine and scavenge for supplies. God knows we need to find something else to eat other that MRE’s.

2130hrs
We found a truck stop right before we hit the Ohio border. We have been staying back roads to avoid being seen or heard by the infected. We found the truck stop from a map I took from the semi truck yesterday. It looked to have business going on with 10 trucks parked out back. As we drove around we couldn’t see any people or infected. The trucks all looked empty and there was one car still at the pumps. The gas pump was still sitting in the car and the driver’s door was open. It looked like everyone here left in a hurry. We decided to park around back. We fixed our bayonets to our weapons to keep any kills quiet. I would have loved to have taken one of the SF team’s suppressed rifles. But hey people in hell want ice water. Who am I kidding I am in hell.
As we rounded the building we didn’t see movement inside the truck stop. Then we both stopped in our tracks. The front door was covered in bloody hand prints. I wanted to turn around right then and there. But we needed supplies. As we went in we locked the door behind us to not allow anyone or thing to sneak up behind us. At this point my heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my ears. We used the shoplifting mirrors to clear the isles. However, there were gore marks leading to the back. We were wearing our NBC masks just to be safe, but the sensory deprivation could be fatal. There was no one or thing in the main store, and we proceeded to the back. That’s when we saw them. There were two of them. Well more like one and a half. One of them was only a torso and head. It looked like the stock clerk had made a meal of the gas attendant. As soon as they saw us they tried to run to us. Smith shot the clerk twice in the chest and he just kept coming. I quickly put a round in his temple and he stayed down. We dispatched the other ghoul with a bayonet to his forehead. Smith looked green even through his mask I could see he was going to lose it. I can’t say I blame him. This is beyond disgusting.
Once we were certain there were no more creatures in the store we were able to relieve ourselves. Even with an armed guard at the door I have to admit I still felt vulnerable. As if one of those things was going to come up thru the seat. After we did our business we grabbed what we could in water bottles and can food. Only options were beef stew and chili. Everything else in the store was gone. But we also had a new problem. There was now five or six of the infected banging on the door. We must have made too much noise. We took a chance opening the back door. The coast was clear. Parking the hummer in the back just paid off. We loaded our new supplies and got the hell out of there. As I pulled out onto the highway there were more of them and cars abandoned everywhere. Good thing we have 4 wheel drive. It made for a rough ride but better than getting stuck on the road with those things. But after awhile there were more and more of them and we could no longer just drive around them. I had Smith take the wheel, while I jumped up to the .50 cal. I had to clear a path before this got out of hand. More than once I had to use my 9 mil to execute the ones trying to climb up the hummer to get to me. But after a few miles we were able to get clear of the mob.
There were far less walking dead as we got further into Ohio. In fact most of this state has reminded me of a ghost town. We parked near an abandoned school for the night. I’m sleeping light tonight and my finger on the trigger. After a day like today I will never be the same again. I killed countless people today. I have to keep telling myself that it was me or them. I had no choice.