Blogger from the 9th Floor of the Tower
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(Perspective of Michael's)
It is the deep, throaty sound of a mid-sized V-engine that made me curious. It came from one of the smaller streets leading to The Colony. While I watched during my guard duty out of the window, a mintgreen, old-schoolish butter and bread motorbike came around the corner and drove nearer to the main entrance. The person sitting on it wore heavy boots, simple, but tough looking jeans, a heavy motorbike-jacket with plenty of those protectors woven into it, and a white helmet. Dark sunglasses hid his eyes. Somehow he looked slightly too big for this motorbike; but considering the average look of the bike, this guy was like the guy next door as well - so after all the picture was just normal.
On his back he had a huge rucksack - packed with plenty of stuff. The rucksack hat several extensions fitted to it - small bags filled with whatever tools and items this guy thought would be useful. The motorbike itself was equipped with a case-system at the sides and a huge windshield on its front. With ropes different bags and sacks were tightly fastened to those cases. It looked like this guy would have had everything he needed to survive on a backpacker-tour with his motorbike. And somehow this stuff must've been enough to survive out there in this zombieworld for such a long time.
When the driver with his bike slowly approached the entrance, it was obvious that he was not armed. Only a crowbar and a hand-axe were fastened to both sides of the rucksack. Dry blood covered them.
The motorbike stopped. The guy got off his bike and slowly moved to the entrance. Now that he has left his bike, he readied the crowbar for whatever he expected to come. Now I realized that all his clothing was suitable as kind of a first line defense in close combat - the jeans was this kevlar-kind with protectors woven into it, just the kind stuntmen wore; heavy leather gloves protected his hands; and the jacket and helmet offered some more protection; and all of his clothing showed that a lot of trust was put into them. And they have proven it - obviously several times, although some parts had received some fixing or needed some more.
He exchanged some words with one of the tower-guards; I received a call what to do; and I told the guards to let the guy into the lock where Kelly, Pegs and I were degraded when we entered this place for the first time.
(Saul at the lock)
At first I thought: "Woah! What a huge guy!" But he was in these motorbike clothes that showed signs of deadly combat, and I relaized that these maybe made him look bigger then he probably was. He looked like he had jumped out of one of the Mad Max movies, or shit. His rucksack was heavy, but the guy didn't seem to care - not while he walked, stood, or when he finally put it down. He moved slowly; and although he wore his helmet and the sunglasses, I recognized how he cautiously observed the room; the crowbar rested in his hand. At the moment I was glad to be on the safe side of the glasses; there was so much patience and danger alike in this guy that I hardly believed he wouldn't be able to defend himself; although his moves showed that there was no combat drill in his bones, his experiences in close combat with zeehs and strength reflected a deadly danger in the way the crowbar was readied and resting in his hand.
So, there he was on the outside and in the lock, and here I was on the safe side of the window.
I asked him to put off his helmet. He did not hesitate. Fluently he took the heavy thing off - together with the glasses. His brown hair with first glimpses of silvery-white streaks showing was wild and needed some serious care. His face was unshaven for what must have been at least half a year. Dark rings were below his eyes. And his skin looked unclean and sweaty. "Oh, man. You look like shit!" He looked at me without emotion, but at least the left corner of his move indicated a sarcastic smile.
Then there were his eyes. he was barely able to hold an eye-look. It was not so much unease or kind of being alarmed; he just didn't look into my eyes for longer then just brief moments. His eyes displayed a mixture of delusion, sadness, kind of a distanced way of looking, but also the burning desire to live and to fight for survival. He rubbed his unshaven face and massaged some of the sweat of his forehead.
Then I asked him to put of his clothing; and I explained him that I would have to check him for any signs of bite-marks or woundings. Funny. Although he seemed to be alarmed, he did as I told him - again without hesitation. And it was quite amazing to see that although he put off all his motorbike clothing with all those protectors woven into it, the guy still was of an impressive size; but neither athletic, especially muscular, nor 'fat'. Just big like tall with a huge chest and pillars for legs.
When I told him that he looked alright, he started to put on things again. I asked him what he wanted at the Colony. He looked at me for what felt like a long time. Then he said: "A glass of water and maybe a corner to rest for a night ..."
Zombie Story:
- raises the acceptance of killing humans in huge numbers,
- reveals everything bad and and even worse about human behaviour and psychology,
- is fun.
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