NaNo Progress

I haven’t made a whole lot of progress with my NaNoWriMo novel. All the past week, I’ve been, well, blowing it off. Knitting and spinning and hiking instead, I suppose. So, today I got back on the wagon and wrote over 4000 words, nearly doubling my total word count.

Whew! And I laid the groundwork for the zombie infestation. I have the bride’s parents overseas, having been bitten by “some wild animal” while on a hunting trip with aboriginals. “But don’t worry, dear– it’s not as bad as that time we both got dengue in Malaysia.”

I have the obligatory news media reference to “the rise in rabies incidents.”

And, just a few paragraphs back, I have the first member of the adventuring party getting bit by a zombie (it may be helpful to know that Jacob and Elsie are, in fact, dating, but their relationships seems to be a contest of Who Can Be More Self-Centered):

“Hey,” Chris said. “Is Jake still outside?”

Elsie leaned over toward the window and glanced out. “Yeah– he’s talking to some guy.” She sat down at the table and dove her nose into the menu, clucking over the lack of useful low cal low carb low fat options.

Chris, on the other hand, kept glancing out the window. Eventually, Tom looked up as well. Jacob and the “guy” were apparently exchanging words, with Jacob hurriedly strutting towards the diner, shouting at the man as he went.

Tom didn’t see Jacob come in, though, and figured he’d made a detour to the gas station to pay for the gas first.

“What can I get you all to drink?” the waitress asked abruptly, a black plastic pen in her right hand. She had practically sneaked up on the group of them– not an easy thing to do when there were six people sitting at the only occupied table in the entire restaurant.

“Uh…. waters all around, I think,” Tom said. “We have another person joining us, too.”

“I’ll have a diet coke with lemon,” Elsie piped up.

“Iced tea” Chris and Katherine said at the same time. They glanced at each other, and both smiled.

“Hot coffee for me,” Tom said. “I still have a few miles to go.”

“And I will stick with the agua” Joe said.

Eddie pointed to his water glass and said “same for me.”

Tom looked over at Elsie. “Anything for Jacob?”

Elsie glanced up. “Oh– I don’t know. Just bring him a diet coke, too. If he doesn’t like it, someone here will drink it.”

A moment later, Jacob came in. His face was bright red and damp, and he had a paper towel wrapped around his wrist.

“Oh my god, Jake. What happened?” Katherine asked, standing up immediately.

“That punk motherfucker outside fucking bit me!” he raged. “The gas station guy is calling the cops. They should just douse the motherfucker with gas and throw a cigarette on him. Bastard!”

Eddie stood up. “Lemme see the arm,” he said. “Shit, I know first aid, man.”

Grudgingly, Jacob pulled the paper towel off his arm. Two bloody half moons marred his skin, oozing blood sluggishly.

“Ew!” Elsie yelped. “Cover that up– can’t you see we’re about to eat?”