* * * * *
It is just past ten in the morning. I’ve dozed off and on. Erin has shown no change. Beth and I had a little argument about restraining her mom. I guess we’ll leave her for now. If she wakes up and starts acting violently, we’ll do the tying-up thing.
I’m pretty sure I heard screams and gunshots nearby. The phone is still down and I’m not leaving my daughter alone to go look.
Christ! I don’t know what to do! Other than the one EBS announcement, there has been nothing. I keep hearing sirens, but nothing has come close enough that I could try and flag down for help. Erin shows no sign of getting any better…if anything, she’s getting worse. Beth won’t leave her side.
* * * * *
It is dark outside now. Just past nine. For the past hour the EBS has run a loop announcing that martial law has been declared on a national level. Anybody caught outside after sunset will be shot! I didn’t think the government could do something so harsh. I mean, if they said you would be arrested, then sure. But they’re killing people. I know they are because I’ve heard gunfire almost non-stop since that alert began.
Saturday, January 19
Erin’s awake!
Sunday, January 20
There has to be somebody out there that can help me. I don’t know what to do. Nothing is making sense.
The pounding. The relentless, never-ending pounding.
Maybe if I put this down…relate what happened… then, hopefully, I’ll understand. This nightmare will unravel, and the world will make sense.
Okay. So Erin woke up. Beth had screamed and run out into the hall. She kept insisting her mom had died. I was still hugging her when we both heard that thud and the sound of glass breaking. Then this low, sickly moan sorta drifted out of the room, growing louder.
Erin stepped into the doorway and I was so shocked that I just knelt there, staring like an idiot.
Then the smell hit me.
I actually gagged. I covered my mouth as Beth ran to her mom. This is where things just fell apart.
I still see each fraction of a second of what happened with a clarity that makes me shiver. My hands haven’t stopped shaking in the last twenty-four hours. (Of which I’ve slept none of, not even a catnap)
Erin’s face looked blank, like that astronaut that had the lobotomy in Planet of the Apes. She jerked like she’d been shocked. I mean her movements were real herky-jerky like. With absolutely no warning, she bit Beth! Just leaned down and tore part of her ear off! Then, as Beth is screaming, blood pouring down the side of her head, down her neck, Erin just gulps it down. The piece of our daughter’s ear!
By now Beth is trying to get away. Erin has her by the arms with both hands, like claws, digging into my little girl’s flesh. I’m still just kneeling on the floor at the top of the stairs like an idiot. Finally, and this is a blurry part, I jump up, shoving Erin back into her room as I rip Beth free.
I pulled the door shut and spun to where my daughter is curled up on the floor, against a wall. She had her hands pressed to that torn ear, wailing like I’d never heard before. Honestly, that sound is trapped in my head and won’t go away. That scream…
* * * * *
Sorry, I had to stop for a few. God! I wish the pounding would stop!
Anyways, to continue where I left off. Beth is crying. I realize by now that I’m crying. Erin starts moaning louder and pounding on the door. (That was almost a full day ago and it hasn’t let up for one second.)
I grabbed my daughter, carried her downstairs, and took her into the bathroom. The best thing about Erin being a nurse is that her medicine cabinet and first aid kit are a-freakin’-mazing! After the initial clean-up and bandaging, Beth wanted to change clothes. She was so unnerved, she actually begged me to stay. Even with my back turned and eyes closed my little girl has not wanted dad anywhere in the vicinity if she was in any state of undress since about the age of seven.
After all that, I rummaged around and found some Valium. I gave her a half of one. She fell asleep holding my hand. I sat on the floor by the couch all that night and she never once let go.
I sat there. In the dark. I listened to my daughter’s breathing, Erin’s pounding, and the intermittent gunfire, sirens…and screaming.
The screams were the worst. I’ve never heard anything like it. It was like taking the worst pain-scream and the worst fear-scream and combining them. One time, I thought I heard something outside the house. Whatever it was seemed to bounce off the walls a few times, then…nothing.
* * * * *
Some nut-jobs managed to break into one of the local radio stations. We’ve had the television and radio on this whole time in case the EBS had anything helpful. So, whoever these guys are, they start carrying on about ‘walking dead’ and ‘zombies’! They were saying that police, and fire, and military are almost gone because they fell in ‘the first wave’! Well, I was almost hooked until I heard commands of, “This is the United States Army. We are ordering you to cease and desist all activities this moment!” Then…
Silence.
So much for the first wave.
I think writing this helped. I’m gonna take a little nap.
Monday, January 21
Early morning
I may lose my mind entirely. The pounding just keeps going on, and on, and on! People say that after a while you can get used to a sound and your mind will block it out. Like, if you live next to railroad tracks or an airport, in time, you just stop hearing it. Well, that is not the case here.
I’ve decided that I have to do something. If you are reading this and in the area, I’ve hung a blue bed sheet out of a second floor window. Please…help my daughter. If I fail, she’ll be all alone. She is so sick, showing the same problems, or symptoms, or whatever, that Erin had. But I must do something. I’m going to try and tie Erin down so she’ll stop the pounding. God forgive me, but I will try to gag her also.
Evening
It worked! I managed to get Erin tied down. But damn, I strongly suggest you take that EBS recommendation about restraining anybody you know that is possibly infected. Erin was more like an animal than a human being. Oddly, her expression barely changed except when she opened her mouth wide and tried to take a bite out of me. That only came in handy when I had to stuff the hand-towel into her mouth, which, by the way, was not very easy to secure; I managed by using a ripped pillowcase. So, the Erin “problem” is at least under control. For now.
The radio and television have had repeat warnings about Martial Law. It has now been set for 5 p.m. There have also been recommendations that you not leave your home at all. But if you do, several FEMA crisis centers have been set up. Mostly at high schools. There is no way I’m leaving Erin. Beth is too sick to move right now. And, honestly, I don’t really relish the idea of being jammed into a big open room full of strangers.
Here is something strange. I keep seeing people wandering around. They look like Erin. Sick. Discolored. They are alone mostly. Sometimes a group will pass by. What is most distressing is that some of them look pretty bloodied up.
I’m starting to wonder about those guys who took over that radio station for a brief moment.
But really. Zombies?