Kellie's Diary: Decay of Innocence (4 page)

Part 2

Chapter 12

December 4, 1993

              Hey Barbie!  I just got back from the library again.  I found a lot more good stuff, but the best part is that I brought back a bunch of road maps.   I know how I'm going to get to Grandpa's now!  Oregon really is a long way from Texas, but if the pioneer people did it, I think I can too.

             
First there's this long freeway that goes all the way to California, called the 10.  It's kind of far from here, I have to go on this other freeway before I find it.  Then I stay on there for a really long time.  Then one day, I'll make it to the beach in Los Angeles.  Then I just follow the beach all the way up to Oregon!

             
It's not a straight line, though.  When I drew a straight line, the freeway numbers kept changing all the time, and I can't memorize all that, and I can't stop all the time either.  I think that it would be easier to just go right to California and then up to Oregon.  Besides, if I ever lose the map, it's easy to remember how to get there.

             
It's going to take a while, but I hope that taking the bike wont make it so bad.  It'll help me carry my stuff too.  I keep wanting to take all my clothes with me, but there's no reason to.  I'm still growing, so they wont fit forever.  Makes sense, right?

             
Oh, when I was at the library, I found this book about myths and old stories... and it talked a lot about different kinds of creatures.  I found the monsters in it!  I couldn't believe it!  The book says they're called “zombies.”  Sounds scary, doesn't it?

             
Zombies are dead people, but then they come back to life without their souls to eat living people.  When a living person gets bit, they turn into a zombie too.  It's like a curse.  It explains why I haven't seen any real people in a long time.  They all got turned into zombies.

             
The book said there's lots of different reasons why zombies show up.  Sometimes it's the devil letting his demons take over the world, sometimes it's a curse cast by a witch.  Well, I guess it doesn't really matter anymore how they got here.  They haven't gone away, and I don't think they will.

             
Oh my gosh, I almost forgot to remind you!  Today is my birthday!  I turned 10 today!  I can't believe I made it this far!  I may not get a party this year, but its not a bad thing, either.  I'm a lot more grown up now, I don't really need to have a party to show that I'm older.

             
I think I know why it used to be so hard for grownups sometimes.  Taking care of a house, making sure its safe, making sure theres always food...... it's a lot of work!

             
It gets really hard finding food, but you knew that already.  It's why I need to go to my grandpa's house, he'll have a lot of food and a place for us to live.  I still kind of hope my family made it up there.

             
I should get the rest of my stuff packed up.  I actually found my old backpack with the broken strap, but I fixed it with a bunch of safety pins.  I can't bring my favorite dress though.  I don't want it getting stuck in my bike, and I don't want the monsters... I mean, zombies grabbing it.  It's weird.  I've been calling them monsters for so long.

             
I think all I need is two pairs of clothes and a jacket.  As long as I switch them a lot, I won't get too stinky.  I really want a bath right now, but that's not going to happen today.  I'm saving space for my road maps, flashlight, bedsheet, and you Barbie.  I can barely fit my bedsheet, but I know I might need it.  I'll just have to squish it in as much as I can.

             
I hope I have enough food to last a while.  I have a bunch of bags of chips, some of those protein bars, some bottles of water, those chewy vitamin C's in case I get sick, a spoon and some cans of soup.  I want to bring a lot more, but I don't have a car, and I can't drive.  I have to ride my bike with all this stuff.  Besides, it's not like theres much food here anyway.

             
You know what?  I need to take down all the notes I have in the house, and write some brand new ones.  You know, just in case.  These are the last notes I'm going to leave for them, since I probably won't be coming back here.  I still don't want them to think I got eaten up by zombies, so if I make sure that they see I went to Oregon, and how I'm going there, they can come find me.

             
It's really weird that I'm leaving.  I've been scared a lot before, but this is a different kind of scared.  Not like hiding from the zombies, but it's... I don't know.

             
Yeah, that's it.  I'm scared because I don't know.

             
I dont know how long its going to take me, I dont know if my family will be there, I dont know if I'm going to find any food.  But I think I'd rather be hungry forever than sit around here and wait for the zombies to find me.  There's way too many for me to try and stay here.  It's not safe anymore.

             
At least I'll have you and Mr. Floppy with me.

             
I'm going to go write those notes now.  Then i'm going to make sure I have everything I need.  I'll sleep one more night here, but then in the morning, I'm leaving.

             
I'll talk to you later, Barbie.

Chapter 13

Dec. 5, 1993

              Well, I just wanted to talk a little before I left.  I left notes all over the place in the house.  There's one on my bedroom door, one on my parent's bedroom door, another on my sisters door, in the hall next to the kitchen, on the TV screen, even the bathroom doors.

             
It sounds like a lot, but I really want to make sure that if they get back, there's no way they can't figure out where I went.  It's been a long time since I've been away from home for a while.  Besides Grandpa's house when I was visiting last year, this will be the longest I’ll be away from home.

             
I'm a little scared.  Okay, I'm a lot scared.  I've been working really hard on figuring out how to get to Grandpa's.  It's really happening now.  I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to leave.  I never thought about it much until now.  I may never come back home.

             
It's just not safe here.  I know I talked about it a lot already, and you know everything that's happened since the beginning, but I kind of feel like I have to keep telling myself that.  A lot of this still doesn't feel real, like it's one of those dreams that feels like it lasts forever.  Those are usually the scariest.

             
I really have to just go now.  I have you and Mr. Floppy with me, I'll be okay.

             
All right, here it goes.

Chapter 14

Dec. 6, 1993

              Hey Barbie.  I finally found a good spot to sit down for a while.  I'm almost outside the big city now.  It took a while to get here because there were a lot of the zombies in the downtown part of the city.

             
I found this park by the river and I climbed up to the top of the playhouse thing.  I should be safe for a while as long as I stay quiet.  I saw a couple of them around but they're really far away, so I'm not too worried right now.

             
It's really weird around here.  There's no kids anywhere, but I see a couple of backpacks around and some shoes.  I guess nobody's been here for a long time.  The grass is really tall, kind of like those meadows way out in the plains.  Except parts of it are dying because it's starting to get cold.

             
Yesterday was pretty scary.  I was riding on the freeway, but when I got close to the downtown part, there was a lot of cars in the way.  I had to ride around a lot to find a way out, and I went back to where I could get off the freeway and on the street.  The map said there was a street that was right next to the freeway, so I wouldn't get lost if I came off.

             
Right when I got off the freeway, I saw a zombie.  I got scared and I fell off my bike and I cut my arm on the ground.  The zombie saw me and started walking to me.  I spilled a bunch of stuff and I was trying to pick it up, but it just kept getting closer.  I was picking up my bike and then it made that yucky sound and tried to grab me.

             
I dropped my bike and ran around the other side to get behind it.  Zombies don't turn around very fast, so then I got behind it and pushed it away really hard.  It fell over, then I picked my bike back up and started riding really fast.  I saw a lot more zombies around, but I've been practicing with my bike, so I got around them easy.

             
I'm really glad I'm not in the city anymore.  That place is scary.  There's so many zombies there!  My dad used to talk about traffic a lot, and that there was a lot of people walking around downtown and it was hard to get anywhere.  I kind of know how he feels now - there was all these crashed cars, some of the buildings were broken, I even saw zombies stuck under cars.

             
I haven't felt safe in a long time.  Even when I was at home I was still worried that the zombies would find me.  They never did, I'm really good at getting away from them, but I also had a lot of bad dreams that they got into the house and ate me.  I always kind of had a feeling that they might get me one day.

             
Zombies aren't very smart, and I'm glad for that.  They're also slow, so I don't have to run very long to get away from them.  They can't jump, or climb, or open doors.  Well, there was that one time a bunch of them broke the door and got inside that store, but the door was already kind of broken, so it wasn't that hard.  So they just kind of break things to get what they want.

             
I haven't thought about it a lot until now.  I wonder if there are other kids like me.  I haven't seen anyone else since it happened, but are they just really good at hiding?  I got good at hiding after a while, but it's nothing like hide-and-seek.  I don't have any friends coming to find me, I just stay hiding until it's safe to come out.

             
I can't be the only kid alive... can I?  I can't think about that right now.  It makes me feel lonely, and then I get sad and want to just go back home.

             
But there isn't anything left for me to do there.  My family never came home, I didn't have a lot of food or water, and there were too many of the zombies.  I tried, Barbie.  I really tried to stay there just in case they made it back.  I don't know how far they made it, but they probably didn't want to go home.

             
If they ever do, they'll see my notes that I went to Grandpa's.  Maybe we'll see them again soon, if they ever get back to the house.  But then they'd have to get back out of the city, and I had a hard time getting out of there, so it probably won't be easy for them either.

             
I just looked around and I saw a baby stroller over by the bench.  It looks broken with parts of it ripped, and it's really dirty and knocked over.  I just.... I hope they got away.

             
Sorry, Barbie.  I don't know why I keep thinking about that stuff.  It already happened, and I don't think anyone else is here.  Everyone either ran away or got eaten.  It's a waste of time to think about it.  I dont have a time machine so I can't go back and fix it.  I dont know what I'd do anyway, maybe try to save people.  Go back to the night before and take my family far away.

             
I guess it doesn't matter anymore.  I'm here right now, and I just need to keep trying.  I'm going kind of slow right now, but it's because I'm still in the city - theres still a lot of cars and zombies and stuff.  But I'm going to find the freeway really soon, then I have a really long ride before I find the 10.

             
I'm going to go over to where the food stand is and see if there's anything safe to eat.  Maybe not, they probably had things like hot dogs, and those probably went bad by now.  But maybe there's some chips or something I can find.

             
Love you, Barbie.