Dead Land Journal October 8th 2027

it's 4:13 am.

billy is still getting stitched up over in kathy's motorhome.

jewels truck is shot full of holes.

as i look out my window i can see that micheal's truck has finally stopped burning.

i am typing this one handed as there is a hole in my right arm big enough to smuggle cantaloupes in. sorry about the lack of caps but using the shift key is difficult right now.

i really don't know who shot me.

i stepped out of the uni expecting to have to stop a brawl between jewels and billy. what i actually walked into was a god damned firefight. a wraith was bouncing to and fro around the circle of vehicles, its shadow magnified horribly in the firelight. jewels was trying to get a clear shot with his 12 gauge, micheal was directly across from jewels trying not to be shot by katherine, who seemed to be firing almost at random, yet somehow managing not to hit a damned thing. billy popped out of the divco across from katherine about the same time i was exiting the uni. he was carrying some kind of gun with a barrel large enough to stuff a grapefruit into. he pointed the gun at the creature which was by this time was on the hood of micheal's truck. the gun made a loud foomp! sound and something shot out of the barrel leaving a trail of luminescent smoke behind it. it hit the beast squarely in the chest. stuck there for a moment, then burrowed into the wraith's chest before exploding. blood and gore rained down on everyone.

everyone else was looking on stunned, while billy gleefully shouted "it worked, it worked!"

that was when a second wraith attacked him from behind. billy reflexively tightened his grip on his gun and fired a wild shot. this shot flew neatly into the half open window of mike's truck where it bounced off the ceiling and then burrowed into the back of the passenger seat before exploding. in his rush to get away from his rapidly burning truck, micheal tripped and fell over a folding chair and dropped his hunting rifle into the fire. the heat of the fire caused the round in the chamber to fire. the rifle soon emptied its 15 round clip into jewel's truck. kathy and beverly were firing at the wraith trying to get it to let go of billy. neither one of them giving any consideration to the van load of explosives behind him. for an insane moment i found myself jumping up and down between them and billy trying to get them to stop shooting before we all suffered the same fate as micheal's truck.

jewels at this point had got in his truck and was ramming mike's truck, pushing it out away from the other vehicles so they would not catch fire too.

billy who was, i beleive, more afraid of being shot by beverly or katherine took matters into his own hands and began knifing the wraith in the gut with a large hunting knife he kept on his belt. it finally let go and ran away.

as i said before i don't know who shot me or even when it happened. the painkillers are not really doing much except make me lightheaded. i think i might send some liquid reinforcements down to help them. i'm sure katherine would not approve.

was worried that the rukus would have waken dee, but she tends to sleep with her head wrapped up in blankets so thick she can't hear anything. she slept right through it.

© 2009 R. Keith McBride