From the journal of Correctional Officer Steven Williams, March 5

March 5, 2017

     I made it home, but wasn't sure that I would. When I left the Detention Center, I was able to head straight home, as I always keep emergency supplies at my house. I thank God that I didn't need to stop.

    I remember watching riots on the news and protests turning into riots, too. I never thought that I would see this behavior in North Platte. People were everywhere. Brainless even before death, they were looting stores and taking T.V.s, radios, computers and game consoles. Occasionally, I would see a smarter someone who was taking food and water, but these were few and far between.

     Driving by the Walmart, I saw a couple of men try to take a woman and her daughter from a minivan and pull them to their SUV. The husband/father pulled out a shotgun and shot both me in the back as they were trying to drag his family away. Then, the family took their loot from the minivan and put it all in the SUV and drove away. This was only the first time I saw something like this on the drive home.

     Several times people tried to stop me on the street, some claimed they needed help and some just wanted to rob me. I did not stop. I know that I will dream about people begging for help and my not stopping but there were too many people who would have tried to get in if  I had stopped. Funny how one day, you are an officer of the law and the next day, you are like everyone else. Just trying to survive.

     It usually takes me a half hour to get home, but it took me three times as long today, dodging cars, people and the undead freaks. I saw a pack of them attack a man like a pack of rabid dogs. They tore him apart and ate him while the meat was still warm.

     I saw crying children running from their no longer living parents and parents trying to reason with their undead kids. "Mommy said no." "Daddy said stay back, princess."

     Turning into my neighborhood, the mayhem continued. People were fighting on lawns over everything from household electronics and artwork. On another lawn, there were two girls playing ring around the rosie with their undead sister. Circling her and singing, staying just out of her reach, no parents in sight. Cars were everywhere, running in the street, smashed into houses and telephone poles, smoldering on fire, high grounded on pile of bodies and undead, tires still spinning.
     Bodies were lying all over the place, some in the process of reanimating, some with too much gone to come back, and some with the recently deceased making a nine course meal out of them. Three blocks from my home, I watched a flaming family file out of their flaming house and become a group of walking torches to set their neighbors houses aflame. This made me glad that I owned one of the most secluded houses in the neighborhood and also glad that I had resisted selling the empty lots I owned that were surrounding my yard and house. Now, this empty space would provide a fire break from the rest of the neighborhood.
     I hit the remote on my truck visor and pulled directly into the garage, closing the door as soon as possible behind me. First, I had to make sure no one had gotten into my house, so I cleared it room by room. Once I knew everything was still secure, I closed all the blinds and curtains and prepared to stay as quiet and dark as possible while packing my 4 wheel drive truck with as many of the emergency supplies as I could get in there. Food, water, medical supplies, camping gear, every weapon I owned, including the shotgun from the Detention Center that was usually used to shoot bean bags during riots. I grabbed the ammo storage boxes that had all the ammunition I had on hand and the machete, hunting and skinning knives in my garage. Next, I decided all I needed to grab was some clothes, any maps and batteries I could find.
     After, I  changed my clothes, I ate some food and am now laying on my living room couch to sleep while I can. I know that this place will not be safe for more than a couple of nights, so tomorrow I need to decide what my next goal is going to be. Where will people head to start fighting back against this mass of undead kill joys? Will anyone want to fight?
      Sleep for now, planning tomorrow.

As a writer and artist, I appreciate any readers and their comments. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. Please, come read the other blog I write for our artisan collective, Raven's Castle Creations, on our website at www.ravencastlecreations.com. It includes posts on art, the mythology of symbols we use in our art, history and more! Also, come see the art we produce in our Etsy store at etsy.com/shop/RavenCastleCreations. Follow us on Twitter at @ravencastleart and on Facebook at @ravencastlecreations.