Z Day is Here (12 page)

We decided to stop again this evening after
traveling all day. Today, we stopped at a hotel right on the
outside of an amusement park. From the room, you can see the rides
that months ago would fling people into the air or have them spin
around in circles until they got sick; today, those same rides are
skeletons, old reminders of what life was like. The hotel we
stopped at is a very swanky hotel that, fifty-eight days ago, I
would not have been able to afford; now I am in the biggest, nicest
suite they have. This room has around 1800 square feet of living
space and a balcony that stretches the length of the room and faces
the amusement park. On the inside, the room has hardwood floors
throughout, except for imported Spanish tile in the bathrooms and
kitchen. There are four rooms: two master suites with a king-sized
bed and hot tub. The other two rooms both have two queen size beds
and Xbox 360's hooked up to thirty-five-inchinch HDTV's.

The room is located on the seventh floor of
the resort. We stopped the elevators and blocked the stairwell, so
no unwanted intruders can get to us. Earlier, we stood on the
balcony and watched one or two zombies make their way towards the
amusement park. They would wander around, never focusing on
anything, just kind of
there
with no place to go. Every now
and then, one of them would get a whiff of us, then turn and look
directly at us. I am not sure how many there may be, but I do know
that at least four have made their way into the hotel after us.

Cole has been in the living room all
afternoon, pacing the floor, trying to think of ways to find Tonya
and, I am sure, what to do once we find her. I have no doubt she is
long gone. I just don't have the heart to tell Cole. Dustin refuses
to even think that Roger would have done anything to hurt Tonya. I
still don't know what to think.

Tomorrow we are planning on setting up a
watch on the balcony most of the day. Hopefully, we will be able to
see something that will help lead us to Tonya or safety.

We have been sitting on the balcony for hours
and have seen nothing new or out of the ordinary. Dustin and Cole
have both been taking turns throwing plates and silverware at
zombies that have been passing by below us. We all had a good laugh
at a fork that got stuck in one zombie’s cheek. Cole yelled till
the zombie looked up at us, then he dropped it straight down. The
fork went straight into the zombie’s cheek like a knife going
through butter. Cole jumped up and down cheering for himself and
yelled, “Extra points! I get extra points for it sticking!” I guess
they have their own point system that I have not been able to
figure out.

I am not sure how many of the undead there
are in the hotel now, but if I had to guess, I would say somewhere
around ten to fifteen. For some reason, I haven't been worried
about it. I guess it's because I am comfortable here and feel very
safe. The only problem we have right now is lack of food. I am
starting to become concerned about that little problem. Sure, we
can invade the snack machine down the hall, but that will
eventually run out. We have been through worse, and I am betting we
will go through even harder times soon enough. Darcy always told me
to only worry about the things I can control, so that is exactly
what I will do.

Cole said he just saw Tonya running away from
someone (or something) down in the theme park! Crap! Now we have to
find some way to get her.

We have all seen Tonya alive now. She is in
another building across a pond from us. We have no way of
contacting each other, so we don't know what happened. We are
working on a plan to go get her, but I know there are quite a few
zombies in the hotel, so any rescue attempt will be very
difficult.

After quite a bit of debating, it was decided
that I would be the one to go get Tonya in the morning. I have
known her longer than Dustin, and I just can't trust Cole to stay
alive long enough to save her. For some reason, Dustin very much
wants to go. I don't know if he just really wants to help or if he
has an ulterior motive. Either way, I don't quite trust him enough;
after all, he is the one who brought Roger into our group.

Well, I am going to go ahead and get to bed
tonight. I have a very long day ahead of me tomorrow and need to
get as much sleep as possible. I don't plan on taking the laptop
with me. I am going to just bring what I need to survive and some
medical supplies for Tonya, just in case she is injured. As long as
everything goes good, I should be back on here tomorrow evening
with an update. Wish me luck on my mission. God knows I am really
going to need it!

Dustin left before I got out of bed
yesterday. When I woke up, I went to grab my bag, but it was gone.
I ran into Cole's room, where I found him sleeping. When I ran into
Dustin's room, he was not there. On his bed was a note. The only
words on the note were, "I cannot let you go out there. I have
gone. Wait for me. I will be back."

Once I got over the first wave of anger, a
slight sense of relief also passed over me. I had been the one to
always go after the hurt and wounded. I was the one that went to
find Cole and then went to find medical supplies. Maybe Dustin was
right to do this. But I could have gone. My hand is one hundred
percent healed, as is my shoulder. For the most part, I am healthy
and getting really fit, thanks to the diet and exercise I have
gotten. (I guess I could call this The Zombie Fit Diet; if the
world hadn't gone to shit, I could have marketed this and made
billions.)

Once I read the letter, I ran to the balcony
and scanned the grounds around us, looking for any signs of Dustin
or Tonya. There is no telling how long he had been gone, so I
wasn't sure where to look. I ran in and woke up Cole. After I
explained what had happened, he joined me on the balcony to help
look. After about an hour of scanning the grounds, Cole yelled, "I
see them, I see them!" He was pointing to a building directly in
front of ours. I wasn't sure, but I could have sworn that I had
seen three people. I could definitely make out Tonya and Dustin,
but I couldn’t see the third person until he walked out into the
light. The third person was Roger.

Something was wrong, though. Roger was tied
up; his hands were behind his body, and his feet were tied together
just far enough apart that he could walk but not run. Across his
face were rows and rows of duck tape and a shotgun attached so that
the barrel was facing the back of his head. I could not make out
what had happened, but I could see Dustin holding the handle of the
shotgun and Tonya quickly following behind them both. We watched as
they all three made their way into the hotel, careful to avoid any
zombies.

Before I could even get to the hotel door, I
heard the elevator ding, indicating that it had arrived on the
floor. I peeked out just enough to see them step off and head
towards us. Dustin told Tonya to block the elevator and double
check the doors leading to the stairs. He and his prisoner made
their way inside, and Tonya soon followed.

Once in the room, Tonya ran to Cole and me
and hugged us for what seemed like hours. I could tell she had been
crying because of the heavy red bags under her eyes, and her wrists
were black and blue and raw, where it appeared she had been tied
up. I wanted to ask what had happened. I wanted to know why Roger
was now a prisoner. I wanted to know it all. I asked about a
million questions, but they were all exhausted. No one wanted to
talk yet, so I didn't push the subject. I can piece together what
happened in my mind. On my final question, all Dustin would say
was, "Tomorrow."

I could hardly sleep last night. I had to
know the story. I don't think Dustin slept at all. When I would
wake up, I could hear Dustin in the sitting room, pacing back and
forth in front of Roger; he was cursing under his breath. Roger
looked frightened. Tonya and Cole slept like babies all through the
night.

When everyone got up, we all met in the
sitting room. Roger was down on his knees. His face was bruised and
bloody. Dustin stood over him with a metal curtain rod. We all sat
on the couch in front of them both. Tonya began to speak, but
before she could say two words, Dustin grabbed Roger by the back of
the head, pulled his face up so they were looking directly face to
face, and shouted, "I am going to show you more pain than you could
ever imagine. You killed my wife, and you tried to kill Tonya. Now
I will kill you myself."

The room seemed to drop twenty degrees. We
all just stared at them both. I couldn't believe what I was
hearing. Before I could protest, Tonya turned to me and nodded her
head. “It is true what he is telling us," Tonya murmured. "The
night we were drinking, I passed out, and when I awoke, I was in
the trunk of a car.” She told her story about how Roger took her to
the amusement park and tied her up. He would walk around naked,
talking to himself repeatedly and even talking about Dustin's wife.
She she fought him off as much as she could until one day she just
gave in. She told Roger she would do whatever he wanted as long as
he didn't kill her. Roger quickly untied her and began stripping
her clothes off of her until she was standing in just her panties.
As Roger lowered his head to remove her panties, Tonya hit him as
hard as she could on the back of his head/neck area. Once he was
down, she found a knife Roger had been carrying. She tied him up
and left him in the room with all the doors open. She had hoped
zombies would have come in and ripped him into pieces.

Right as Tonya finished her sentence, Dustin
slammed the metal pole across Roger’s inner thigh. Roger screamed
in agony. Cole began to cry a little.

Tonya said she moved from hotel to hotel
trying to cover her tracks, but Roger had somehow escaped and found
her. She had locked herself in a room, which was when we saw
her.

Dustin interrupted her story at this point
and began to tell how he had arrived at Tonya's hotel room to see
Roger banging on the door. He was so angry that he was foaming at
the mouth, desperately trying to get in the room. He overheard
Roger telling Tonya through the door that he would butcher her just
as he had done many other women before her. Dustin snuck up behind
Roger and knocked him out. He and Tonya together fount the duct
tape and tied him up, making sure to keep the shotgun in a place
where all he would have to do was pull the trigger. Tonya said she
convinced Dustin to bring Roger back here instead of killing him
right there. She said everyone deserved a fair trial.

We removed the tape from Roger’s mouth. He
was drooling and had a large amount of blood flowing over his lips.
He begged for forgiveness and even said that Tonya was lying, that
she was the one that kidnapped him. We didn't buy his story.

I asked Cole and Tonya to leave the room.
Once they were gone, I asked Roger to look at me. As his eyes
locked onto mine, I could see the guilt and remorse...though I am
sure it was only because he had been caught. "I am going to let
Dustin do what he sees fit. You have hurt a lot of people, one of
which I have grown to love. You deserve no mercy, though I will
agree with whatever Dustin decides," I said to Roger.

He began to cry and beg for his life. I
nodded to Dustin and walked toward the door. I asked Tonya and Cole
to go into another room down the hall, then closed and locked the
door.

I am not sure that I should write about what
took place next. I could go into graphic details, though I am not
sure I even want to remember what I witnessed in that room. Dustin
got the vengeance he so desperately wanted. Roger did not die
quickly; he died in excruciating pain. His pain ended only when,
after knocking out all of Roger’s teeth with the metal bar, Dustin
placed the shotgun into his gaping bloody mouth and pulled the
trigger repeatedly.

We left his body lying on the floor and moved
to a new floor in the hotel. We have not spoken about what
happened. That chapter is closed for good. Tomorrow, we head
towards the city.

After the past few days’ worth of excitement,
I am happy to report that nothing out of the ordinary has happened
so far today. We were going to head a little closer to the city but
have decided to sit back and do a little planning. Tonya and Dustin
could also use a little break. I have determined that the easiest
way is to go straight through the amusement park. I am a little
worried about this, because they have always given me the
creeps.

Our first step will have to be getting out of
the hotel without being seen. Dustin says he knows a way that will
keep us undetected. I just hope he is correct.

We got up early this morning so we could make
our way through the park and get it over with as soon as possible.
We took Dustin's route, which, as he said, was zombie free. Once we
reached the door leading out, we ran as fast as we could across the
lawn until we came to the entrance of the park. The front gates had
been torn down; I don't know if that means people were trying to
get in or out. Either way, we all got a little more prepared for
what we could face ahead.

We walked through the ticketing booths and
through the turnstiles. There were giant cartoon characters staring
at us with larger-than-life smiles spread across their face, their
hands up, waving at us, inviting us in...or were they daring us to
enter?

A happy cartoon song played over the
loudspeakers throughout the entire park, lending to the eeriness of
the experience. I remember as a kid walking those same streets with
my parents. I remember being so excited to see those characters
smiling and hearing that song play in the background as I ate my
cotton candy and waited in the eternal line for forty-five minutes
to ride a two-minute "thrill" ride that would always make me sick.
I remember the people dressed in the mouse and cat costumes that
used to sign autographs as if they were the actual cartoon
characters I watched so intently on the TV. All the happy kids and
exhausted parents are now long gone.