Kellie's Diary: Decay of Innocence (10 page)

Chapter 33

              What am I going to do?? Bag-Man is here!!  I don’t know how he found me!  I'm hiding in the room again.  I don't know what's going on!

             
I heard this scary laughing, but I don't know how because I wasn't hearing anything all night!  The laughing kept getting louder, and then it sounded like growling at the same time.  It made my stomach feel weird and I got cold.  Then I heard some mumbling, and then I think something broke downstairs, like a crash!

             
I hear him again, he's walking around downstairs!  Why won't he leave?  He needs to leave!  I think I should just go down there and try to make him go away.

              Barbie, I need help!  He saw me!  I had to run again!  I came out of the room with my gun, I started looking downstairs to try and see him, but I didn't see him anywhere, but then I felt him walking around!  He's really big and tall, and every time he walks it makes the ground shake.  I keep hearing him laughing.  I started going down the stairs, and I could see the living room from the top of the stairs.

             
I kept going down the steps as quiet as I could, and then there was a bunch of lightning and thunder.  Then I saw his shadow!  He was walking towards the middle of the living room.  He started talking to himself, he was asking where the little bitch was.  I know he's talking about me, because he always calls me that, and a bunch of other bad names.  I never did anything to him ever!

             
So I kept going down the stairs, then I saw him knocking over a bunch of stuff and he started calling my name.  I went down the stairs a little more and shot at him when he was turned around.  But nothing happened!  He wasn't hurt!  Then he turned around and saw me!  He was even bigger than last time I saw him!  There was a big knife in his hand, he had on this white shirt but it had blood all over it, the bag on his head was ripping up.  His eyes are this really dark red color, and they kind of glow in the dark.  He laughed at me again, then started to walk up the stairs!

             
I ran back inside here and I'm up against the door.  He hasn't tried to come in for some reason.  Is he trying to trick me?  If I open the door, he might try to hurt me!  Maybe if I get up really quiet

              I need to get out of here... Bag-Man just tried to come into the room!  He was stomping around and then he was pounding on the door!  He said he knew I was in here, and that I needed to give him what was his!  I don't know what that means, I don't need to give him anything!  What is he talking about!?

             
I think he just walked away, the door pounding stopped, then his walking got quieter.  I can't just let him hurt me, but what am I going to do?

             
Wait a minute... I just heard... Tommy?  He was yelling for me!  What's he doing here?  I thought he was back in the town!  He was bitten, and Sarah said he was close to dying!  How is he here?

             
I can't really understand what he's saying... I think he's yelling for help!  He's calling for me and … oh my god, Bag-Man's going after him!  I have to go help him!

Chapter 34

              Barbie, I think there's something wrong with me.

             
Remember when I heard Tommy yelling for me?  I decided to get the gun and go back downstairs.  I needed to make sure he was okay, I didn't want him getting hurt by Bag-Man.

             
I went downstairs and I saw Tommy running through the house and he was still screaming for help.  I asked him where Bag-Man was, but I don't think he heard me, he just kept running.  Then Bag-Man came out from one of the walls!  He grabbed Tommy when he ran by, then he picked him up and pushed him into the wall!  It cracked the wall and I felt it shake the house!

             
I started shooting at Bag-Man.  I don't know how much, maybe 4 or 5 times, but he wasn't getting hurt!  He looked at me and laughed again.  I hate how he laughs, it sounds dark, if that makes any sense.  Like really deep, and with a growl, kind of like the zombies, but worse.  But he wasn't getting hurt.

             
Then he started stabbing Tommy with that big knife!  Tommy was screaming so much, and Bag-Man wouldn't stop!  I shot a couple more times, but nothing happened, and I think it made Bag-Man really mad.  He grabbed Tommy and started … pulling on his skin!  In all the places where he got stabbed!  Bag-Man Was trying to rip him up!!  Tommy didn't say anything anymore, because he died there.  Bag-Man looked at me and told me this was all my fault.  I felt like I wanted to cry, because it was my fault that Tommy got hurt.

             
Then Tommy looked at me too!  He woke back up and started growling at me.  He was turning into a zombie!  Then Bag-Man smashed Tommy's head into the wall and started coming after me!

             
I turned around and ran the other way.  I didn't know what else to do!  But then when I turned the corner to go upstairs, something grabbed me!  I started screaming, then I couldn't hear anything again!

             
I looked up and I saw Sarah!  I had no idea she was there!  I yelled at her to run, but she didn't.  I looked at her, and her mouth was moving but I couldn't hear her.  So I turned to see where Bag-Man was, but he was gone!

             
I told Sarah to let go of me and I went back into the kitchen.  She turned on the flashlight, and then I saw that Tommy wasn't there anymore, all the blood was gone, there was no crack in the wall.... nothing.  But there was a bunch of bullet holes in the wall.

             
It's like it didn't happen.  But how?  I know what I saw!  I wasn't shooting at nothing, was I?

             
Dan is here too.  He was trying to talk to me, but I said I couldn’t hear him.  They put their flashlight on me, they pointed at my head, then Sarah came up next to me and looked at my ears.  She pointed at them and gave me a really strange look.  I told her about me shooting the zombie and it hurting my ears, and that I can’t hear her.

             
I hope you don't mind Barbie, but I let Sarah borrow a couple of your papers.  It was kind of important.  Since I can't hear still, I thought that Sarah could write me notes if she needed to talk to me.  Now that she was there, I didn't feel like I was in so much danger anymore and I started to calm down.  I'm feeling a little better, but I'm really tired.

             
I asked Sarah if they found Lydia, and they did!  Guess where she was.  HIDING UNDER OUR BUS.  She never left the town!  We were all calling for her and looking everywhere, and she didn’t even go anywhere!  Sarah found her after she left the second time, so that wasn't very long after I sneaked out.  I’m really mad at Lydia for that right now, but I’m still glad she’s okay.

             
I went to sleep for a little while, but I didn't get much rest, maybe a couple of hours, I think.  It's hard to tell how much time passes.  All I know is that the sun's coming up now, so it's really early in the morning.

             
I still don’t get it, it's really bothering me.  Why did I see Bag-Man?  He’s only in my dreams, and then I saw him in real life.  It doesn’t make any sense to me.  Sarah doesn’t know who Bag-Man is, so she didn’t understand what I meant.  She just looked really confused when I talked about it.

             
Maybe I’m going crazy.

             
Sarah just passed me another note to look outside.  Be back in a minute.

Chapter 35

             
We’re in trouble out here, we’re surrounded by zombies.  We looked out all of the windows, and the zombies are being held back by the metal fence.  There are way too many of them to try and escape.  Now Sarah and Dan are talking more, probably about how to get out of here.  I don’t know, I still can’t hear.

             
Actually, it’s not as bad, I hear really low mumbling in my left ear now, but I can’t understand it very well.  I hope I get better soon.  I asked Sarah how my right ear looked, and she wrote that it isn’t bleeding anymore, but she can’t see much else.  She wants to get me back to Rita so I can get a good checkup, then we’ll know how bad it is.  Sarah wants me to stay close to her at all times so she can protect me.

             
This isn’t good.  It’s not good for me, and not for Sarah or Dan either.  I don’t want to cause them a problem because they have to watch out even more for me.  Part of me wants to stay here in the house until I can hear, but I know that’s a bad idea.  Those zombies aren’t going anywhere, who knows how long that fence is going to stay up… and what if my hearing doesn’t get better?  What if I stay deaf?

             
We have to get ready to go.  Sarah explained what we’re doing, and I'm nervous.  But I don’t think we have another choice.  They’re going to run around the yard and start leading the zombies into one spot so we can open the front gate.  From there we have to run for a long time to get back to the town.  I asked Sarah how far away from the town we were, and she thinks it’s a few miles at least.

             
It feels like a lot farther than that.  Maybe if there weren’t zombies around, this might be easier, but we have no idea how many more are out there.  There’s no way to find out either, we just have to take the chance.  I don’t think either of them want to do it, the way their faces looked when they talked, they weren’t happy.  I asked Dan if he had any other ideas, and he shook his head.  Sarah wrote that it was better we take our chances out there instead of being stuck in a house waiting for zombies to break in.

             
Its weird, I thought the zombies might have broken the fence already, but the fence is really strong metal, and it hasn’t moved yet.  But I understand what they’re thinking - I sure don’t want to wait around to find out if the fence will stay up.  Sometimes taking a chance is the better idea.  It’s better than doing nothing at all.

             
It’s time to go.

Chapter 36

June 24, 1995

              Barbie, I don’t even know where to start.  There's so much that happened and I'm having a hard time thinking about it all.

             
Sarah, Dan and I got away from the house we were stuck in.  Sarah and Dan's plan worked, even though it was taking a really big chance by making all the zombies follow them.  But they did it, and we were able to make it out the gate.  There were so many zombies around us, I wasn't sure we were going to make it.

             
At least it was light when we were going through the forest, and the storm was over.  I was still really tired while we were running, since I didn't get much time to rest at that house.  We just kept on running as far as we could, but then more zombies showed up!  It's like the farther we got away from the house, the more there were.  No matter which way we turned, there they were chasing after us.

             
Actually, I don't remember most of that time.  I kept trying to stay close to Sarah, but I was so tired, my legs were hurting, the inside of my head was pounding, and I still didn't hear much.  I know that I kept falling down and that Sarah and Dan kept picking me up.  But then... I remember there being a lot more.  A LOT more.  I kept getting even more tired, I fell again and had a hard time getting up.  The zombies kept getting closer, but Sarah picked me up and carried me.  I feel bad about it now, being so tired and helpless, but I'm still really glad she was there.  Still, we may have gotten farther if I'd have just tried harder to keep running.

             
I looked to my side and I saw Dan shooting at a bunch of the zombies, then he grabbed his knife and started stabbing at them!  It looked like he was screaming, and it was kind of scary.  I've never seen him like that before.  Dan's actually a nice man, you know, when he's not arguing with Mike.  He just kept on going after the zombies!  I was worried that he'd get bit, and that we'd be attacked too.  He wouldn't stop, even though it looked like they just kept coming.

             
Then a lot farther away in between the trees, I saw smoke in the sky.  I wasn't sure what it was from, but it didn't seem all that far from us.

             
Then we stopped.  Sarah tapped me and turned me to look through the trees, and when I did, I couldn't believe it.  There was a bus running over a bunch of the zombies!  Which meant that the road was close by!  The bus wasn't going too fast, probably because there were so many zombies.  Someone climbed out the top and started waving at us, and it looked like they were yelling but I couldn’t hear them.  All I know is that Dan looked like he was going even faster!

             
Sarah started shooting at the zombies too.  I was hearing it that time because it was close by, and it sort of shook the inside of my ears whenever it fired, but it wasn't hurting as bad as I thought it would.

             
I'm not sure how long it took, but after a long time of Sarah and Dan killing the zombies, we were getting closer to the bus, and I realized it was OUR bus, the one from home!  I saw Jack standing on top of it and he was shooting down zombies.  There were still a ton of them, there was no way we could get them all.  When we got closer we finally were able to get inside.  Sarah put me down on one of the seats and started talking to the others in there.

             
Then Lydia ran up to me!  She was crying and then she hugged me really tight.  I was so happy she was safe!  We hugged for a while, then she ran to the back area and came back with Mr. Floppy!  It's weird, but that was the happiest I'd been in a while.

             
There weren't a whole lot of people in the bus.  There was me, Lydia, Sarah, Dan, Howard, Jack and Misty.  Sarah brought me over to Misty and started talking to her and pointing at my ears.  Misty nodded and pulled me away to another part of the bus and she started cleaning my face and ears.  It hurt a little, but when she was done, I started hearing a little more!  Misty tested by covering one of my ears and then talking, and then switching.  My left ear is getting better, but I still don't hear anything on the right.  I looked behind me, and it I saw the other adults arguing about something.

             
Misty tried to check inside my ears to see how bad they're hurt, but she couldn't tell that well because she didn't have the right stuff, it was all back home.  I still can't hear anything in the right side, and she said that sometimes it can take weeks or months to get better!  She said there is a chance that it might be permanent.  I really hope not.

             
The bus was moving by then.  I found Sarah and told her that I could hear better in my left ear now, and she smiled a little and said she was glad.  I asked her if we were going home, but she looked sad again and said that we didn't have a home to go to anymore.  When I told her I didn't understand, she said she'd explain later and that I should try to get some sleep.

             
I spent the rest of the day trying to rest.  I could hear a little bit of some of the others talking, and from what I can figure out, someone started a fire in the town, and somehow a bunch of zombies got in.  No one knows who did it or how it happened.  Mike and a few other people stayed behind, but they tried to get him to leave too.  They didn't find Rita either, but they think she stayed with Mike.

             
Our home is gone, Barbie.  We can't ever go back there.  I didn't have much stuff anyway, but now it's almost nothing.  This is the second home I've had to leave.  I guess...... well, I don't really know how I feel about it.  I just hope that Lydia is going to be okay.  I don't know how much she understands about having to stay moving for this kind of stuff.  She was really little the first time the zombies came, and she once told me that she still doesn't remember what happened, just that she lived in the town for a long time before I got there.  The town was all she knew.  She barely remembers Jennifer, but she kind of remembers Mom and Dad.  It's weird, I haven't thought about them in a while either.

             
I finally went to sleep, and I woke up not too long ago.  I didn't see any zombies anymore.  Jack was driving and Sarah was in the front passenger seat.  Right now we're in a parking lot, because Jack said a little while ago that we were running low on gas, so we stopped here to see if the cars around have any gas left in them.

             
I can't believe all this trouble that's happening.  It got really bad in just a little bit of time, and I think everyone here knows that.  It feels really uncomfortable right now.  No one's talking much, and we're all just kind of staying by ourselves.  Now I'm really starting to think this was my fault.  I think back at everything that's happened and it keeps going back in time to earlier stuff I did.

             
If I hadn't been so tired, Sarah wouldn't have had to carry me around trying to get away from the house.  I wouldn't have gotten tired if I'd fallen asleep instead of running away from Bag-Man all night.  I wouldn't have even been at that house if I wasn't running around the forest looking for Lydia.  She wouldn't have run away if Kitty wasn't thrown over the fence.  Max wouldn't have done that if I'd have just saved Tommy like I should have.  If I stopped them before they went through that fence, then no one would have gotten hurt or in trouble... or if I would have just told on them from the beginning, then maybe someone could have fixed the fence.

             
Maybe it would have been better if I never came to the town.  I feel like all I've done is cause problems for other people.  Sarah shouldn't have to be stuck with me.  I feel bad enough that she had to take care of Lydia before I was ever there.  Lydia might have been fine without me.  I feel like no matter where I go I either have bad luck or other people get hurt.

             
Maybe he was right about all those things he said back at the mall, maybe I am a bad person.  Whenever I'm around people, bad things happen.  The others probably don't care anyway.  I was better off by myself, trying to stay alive at my home.  At least no one else was getting hurt or dying because I did something wrong.  What if my family really DID go back home?  They're probably long gone by now.  All my notes said I was going to Oregon.  But I'm nowhere near there.

             
But this means that me and Lydia are probably the only kids left from the town.  Lydia is still asleep, and I'm not going to bother her right now.  If she can sleep, I'll let her.  She has Mr. Floppy with her, it looks like they're becoming good friends.  I guess they have to.  We'll probably never find Kitty now, so I think it's good that she