It was extremely slow going. The streets were packed with abandoned cars and car accidents. Armed looters mobbed the streets looking to steal anything of value. She had yet to see any of these alleged military. You would think if the military had been deployed throughout the country that New York City would be a top priority. The Infected were another story. They shuffled around killing or infecting anyone slow enough, or too distracted, to get caught by them. The number of those things roaming the streets was insane and growing by the hour.
She continued slowly along, driving on the sidewalk at times. A few times she came to a mob of the infected that just looked too large to risk driving through, and was forced to turn around and take a detour. Due to the lack of traffic, one way streets weren't an issue anymore. The problem was the roads that were blocked by car accidents and impassible. Plus those things had an uncanny knack for homing in on her in their never ending pursuit of victims. It was almost as if they could sense her or perhaps smell her coming.
Madison Avenue was a pretty busy road and it was packed with cars. There was no way she was going to get her SUV through such thick traffic. Shit! What was she going to do now? She wasn't going to be able to carry all of this equipment on foot. She grabbed the backpack digging around through its contents. She decided she was going to need those things and reached for the duffel bag. She grabbed the granola bars, trail mix and fruit roll ups and threw them in the backpack. She also threw in the supplies from the gun store and the medical supplies. She had to take the sweater out and it barely squeezed shut but she felt she was just about ready to go. Katie had also taken a holster from the gun store and she put it on securing her new gun inside. She threw on the backpack and noticed she would have to either somehow carry both the machete and the shotgun or leave one behind. Deciding she didn't want to overburden herself, she chose to leave behind the shotgun and take the machete. At least the machete is silent and doesn't need ammo.
As she got out of the car, Psalm 23 came into her head. She had never been particularly religious even though her parents had made her and her sister attend Catholic school for half their lives. And yet, regardless, the words brought her a strange sense of comfort. "Ye, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: For thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."
She moved up against the nearest building. The Infected were everywhere. How am I going to make it all the way to the bridge? She looked around for anything that might be useful, there was nothing. She walked slowly along the buildings. Luckily the Infected hadn't noticed her yet. Katie came upon a little girl hunched over on the sidewalk. She was directly in Katie's path and as she approached the little girl stiffened, spinning around with a hiss. Her face was covered and blood. If not for that, and the dead eyes and pale skin, she would have looked perfectly normal, not a scratch or broken bone to be seen. Her pink dress flawless minus the blood smeared down the front. At her feet was the mutilated body of what appeared to have been her mother. Her entrails had been pulled from her abdomen and gnawed on.
Katie froze staring at the girl for a moment in shock and fear, but a moment was all she had. As the girl took a step towards her, Katie raised the machete preparing to strike. The girl took another step forward and Katie brought the machete down in one swift motion, severing the girl's head from her shoulders. It fell forward toppling to the ground at Katie's feet. She kicked it away in disgust. The body crumpled to the ground a second later. This was no time to get timid if she wanted to survive. She continued to make her way along the buildings. She had yet to see another living person since Tiffany had succumbed to the illness.
On a normal day, when the dead weren't getting up and killing the living, it would take about two hours or so to walk the six miles to the George Washington Bridge. Factor in the Infected and blocked roads and it could take quite a bit longer. She heard gunshots coming from the West of her, maybe they had come from Central Park. The Infected began moving in that direction attracted by the shots. Katie took this opportunity to pick up the pace a bit, making a left at East 97th Street and then a right at Fifth Avenue. She continued on like this for as long as possible, taking full advantage of the Infected in her area being temporarily distracted.
She came upon a small group of the Infected who were banging on a door of a large apartment building. Most of them didn't even seem to notice her but one of them seemed different than the rest, more alert somehow. Something about the way it moved, a little bit quicker than the others. The way its head was tilted slightly to the side as if listening for some sign of an unfortunate victim. Katie quickened her pace again keeping as close to the buildings on the opposite side as possible.
Coming up to a small store front Katie slowed down. She listened for any movement from inside the door. Hearing nothing she dared to take a peek around the corner. The front window was completely smashed out. If it weren't for all the blood, it would have looked like it had been hit by a tornado. Whatever had happened it was long over with and there were no Infected in sight. She had been walking for a while and decided to take the opportunity to take cover and take a break for a few minutes. Stepping over the window frame, Katie entered the store. Her foot crunched on the broken glass that lay inside on the floor. The window had clearly been broken from the outside. She walked down the front aisle of the store towards the front counter. She grabbed a bottle of water, opened it and took a few sips as she continued. At the front counter items were strewn all about. She grabbed a Slim Jim off the counter ripped it open with her teeth and took a bite. She grabbed a few more and some chocolates and threw them in one of the pockets of her backpack. She looked around again as she chewed her Slim Jim. The register hung open, the money left untouched. Guess there was no point in taking it what the hell would she do with it? She had to use the bathroom and figured now was the best shot she had. She found her way back to the bathroom without incident and when she finished was on her way again.
She continued following the route for what seemed like forever. She encountered a few small groups of the Infected here and there but no real close encounters. She breathed a sigh of relief when she finally reached Fort Washington Park from the Hudson River Greenway. She sped up almost sprinting to the park entrance. She started through the park trying to decide on her next course of action.
The pedestrian entrances to the George Washington Bridge are a stones throw from the George Washington Bridge Bus Station. She expected the bus station to be crawling with Infected. With the sudden spread of the illness and mass panic one could assume that people would have been trying to flee the city just as Katie was now, and would have flooded the bus station. It would be full of the Infected. She wanted to try to avoid it but she couldn't see any way to do that.
The park was empty, as far as she could tell, and she had time to think about the events of the past couple days as she walked along the path towards the bridge. She felt like she was in shock just blindly stumbling from one place to the next. She couldn't believe this was really happening but clearly it was, she had seen it with her own eyes. She was worried about her family and friends and she felt tears welling up in her eyes. This was no time to be emotional though, she still had a long way to go and had to be strong. She brushed the tears away and shook it off. She continued on, her thoughts wandering and made her way through the park surprisingly quickly.
Katie exited the park and was on Fort Washington Avenue. She was closer to the bus station than she would have liked. She readied the machete although she hadn't seen anyone yet. She still tried to avoid the bus station as much as possible. She had been right and the Infected moved all about within the bus terminal. She proceeded straight to the corner of West 178th Street, making a right and continuing two blocks to Cabrini Boulevard. About one hundred feet down on the left was the entrance to the South Sidewalk.
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