Apocalypse - 10. Chapter 10: Back to Basics

For a while my mind just stumbled dumbly though a haze. Like a drunken idiot trying to find his way out of the bar, it just kept tripping over itself, keeping me safe in the realm of unconsciousness. Now, probably I should have heard the glass break, or the screams, or felt people shake me, but as the past few hours have taught me, probability doesn’t mean shit anymore.

So, basically I have no idea how long I stayed there, but I can tell it was at least a day or two from a few things. Firstly our room was in kind of bad condition. The cheap little painting were torn, the window shattered, and the door seemed to be kicked open, at least that’s what I assumed from the bent hinges. Now, I know that could have happened in just an hour, but what makes me think it was longer was the condition that my body was in. My joints felt as though the bone had fused together; they were so hard to move. With that lovely discovery I also noticed that the neat little x’s on my cheek were leaking a mixture of blood and.. I don’t want to know, and of course I desperately needed a change of clothing. I suppose I was lucky that I didn’t get any bedsores, but I certainly felt like my entire body was one bloody lesion.

At first I found myself crawling around the floor, until I ‘remembered’ how to walk. That may seem kinda like an exaggeration, but I assure you, that was my reality. After I began to get the basics down, I managed to stumble my way around the room, trying to piece together what happened. Well.. my conclusion was about the same as yours. I assumed Ashi and Ling were kidnapped, but why was I left? Hell if I know, and really, I was still a little too hazy to care. Pretty much the only things that cut through the fog of my mind was: Get Supplies. Get a Weapon. Get Ashi.

So that’s exactly what I did, or at least the first two.

After I spent about an hour searching for my original supplies, I gave up, because either it wasn’t there, or I was too delirious to find it, but either way I was getting too frustrated for my own good, so I gave up. I remembered seeing a department store on our run to the motel though, so I (slowly) made my way over to it.

Oh right, I forgot to mention, all of those specters and undead things and shit like that didn’t seem to be around, in case you were wondering why I seem so relaxed. Well, I’m sure some where nearby, so I was a little cautious, but nothing really ‘jumped out at me’.

Anyways when I got to the store and pried open the dusty door, I made my way to the restrooms in the back, grabbing some soap along the way. After a much needed ‘shower’ in the sink. Why didn’t I just use the shower at the motel? I think I was just on the verge of panicking so I was bein’ a little irrational. But when I was cleaned to the best of my ability, I got pair of black jeans and a tight leather jacket, underneath which I wore a black T-shirt. You see, my logic was if I wore black, I could hopefully blend into the night.. or day, considering they seemed to be the same now. And I chose a jacket because I knew the snow was coming, and also I wanted something to be between my arms and any teeth and/ or claws.

Now that I had gotten some new (and fashionable) clothing I went in search of some supplies. I was about to grab a backpack like before, but instead I changed my mind and decided I wanted to travel light. Whether I was influenced by a well thought strategy, or just idiocy from a fever, I was committed to going light. I figured if I had to run like hell earlier, I would probably have to again, and I didn’t want a giant backpack weighing me down, or supplying a handhold for anything chasing me. Also I figured that I could just hop into another store whenever I needed supplies, considering everything seemed to be a free-for-all now.

I ended up just grabbing a small metal water-bottle that I could clip onto my left side of my jeans (making sure the metal was painted a dull black), a small travel first-aid kit that fit into my pocket, a flash-light (again, fitting into my pocket), and a lighter.

Finally I decided it was time to pick a suitable weapon. I made up my mind that I would avoid guns, considering they were so loud and might draw a crowd, and considered finding a sword like Ling, but then thought my arms weren’t muscular enough. I would have pondered the perfect weapon for hours, had my survival instinct not kicked in and told me to move my ass. So instead I just swiftly walked through the aisles until something caught my eye. Now, it wasn’t anything spectacular, but I thought it was a good idea when I reached out and cradled a bow in my arms. It really wasn’t anything special; just crafted from wood that was painted black and filed to a smooth finish. When I tested the sting it seemed sturdy enough to trust with my life, and so I grabbed a pouch (or quiver? It was hanging next to the bow anyways), and filled it with twenty three arrows. Why that number? Because that was all that was in the display. I figured it was good enough though. The way I saw it was I had twenty three chances to save my life, and I prayed I would make the best out of those chances.