My Song

Chapter 14

I woke up with the sun, kind of. The brilliant light poured through the thin curtains of the living room, and the white upholstery and walls added to the brightness. My eyes burned a bit from the brightness but they adjusted after a bit and I wiped them thoroughly, and stretched. I found most of my body to be sore, pretty much every muscle in my body was keeping me alive earlier. Thank God I made it here, I had so many close calls. But oh how my body aches! My knees hurt really bad and my thighs felt tight and sore from all the moving around. I ran harder and longer than I ever have in my entire life. My arms felt sore, not terribly but they still hurt.

To my right lay Douglas on another couch, unmoving and quiet. His back faced me but I could imagine him smiling in his sleep, thankful for even a wink of sleep. It is surprising how appreciative you become of sleep when all you're running on is fumes when you find it. I know that I was very thankful for any sleep I got, and I soaked up every bit of it I could. At least my body did, once I woke up I felt fully refreshed and ready to keep fighting. It was the best sleep I've had for a long time.

Smiling, I rolled off the couch almost silently then stood and stretched. Several popping sounds resounding from my back and reverberated off the walls of the room, and I froze in place waiting if Douglas reacts: he doesn't move a muscle. My attention is ripped from attempting to be quiet to the light. The sun wasn't coming in through the curtains at an angle like it would in the morning hours. I stepped towards a window and pulled a curtain away slightly, and sure enough it had to be at least three or four in the afternoon.

After waking Sleeping Beauty I helped him get some necessities together for his trip, and walked him through some strategies on fighting zombies, avoiding enemies as a whole, and overall survival on the road. I told him to keep moving during the day, don't try traveling at night unless you absolutely must, keep silent, and leave no tracks of any kind. We had a little break before we would go to the tracks, and we sat in the living room quitetly talking about what we want to do when we each find a place to call home. All he wanted was to live in a house in the woods, on his own. He wanted to hunt his own deer and fish, even grow some vegetables. Douglas mentioned that he knew a perfect place and it would be far from town, safe from too many zombies. He mentioned something about searching a nearby town under his breath but I couldn't understand any details.

I know that I want to find a place for my immediate family and live together. Somewhere remote is what I would prefer for a home, a space with plenty of woods. But I can't always have what I want, maybe my family won't be fully united. I can't do much, but I can do my best to help what I can and who. I hope that I can find a great place somewhere outside of Genesee county, perhaps north or west. But surely somewhere with acres of woods.

We set out as soon as possible. I wanted Douglas to get as much time as possible for his leg of his traveling today, however long that may be. No guarantee he will find good shelter by nightfall if he doesn't have enough daylight to do so. It could be really dangerous where he is going, or it could be a cakewalk. But it's good to get travel time in.
Along the walk to the train tracks we remained silent, but still highly alert. The silence drove me nuts though, because there was hardly any sound coming from anywhere besides a very distant chaos of nearby Flint. A few gunshots and plenty of screaming, just your average disorder. Yet this town was silent. No screams, no gunshots-- nevermind, there goes a handgun round maybe a mile away. I digress, it all is so unsettling, it makes me feel more paranoid. I hope I don't begin hearing sounds of things that aren't there...

We arrived at the train tracks without any occurrences, which was even more unnerving for Douglas and I. We didn't need to confirm between each other how eerie this all was, after everything we have been through- no more than eighteen hours of this mess- it isn't normal. Perhaps it's only second-guessing.