From the record kept by Jenny (Jennifer) and Barbie (Barbara) Crow. They brought it with them when they left their building on Green Street in Jersey City, New Jersey. From there it passed through many sets of hands before being placed in the archive.
March 20, 2017
Barbie and I have decided to keep a record, in case we do not make it. It has been a little over 2 months since the first know case of this pandemic, somewhere in Southern California. We have seen no one else alive in 33 days.
I remember that I was not happy to have Barbie move into my apartment in October last year. Now, I am so grateful that there is no way I can express it to her enough. I was in med school and did not have time to do anything but eat, sleep, study and work. She was a waitress who wanted to be an actress someday. While I studied my ass off, she watched T.V. shows on prepping and survival. I know that I laughed at her the day she started stocking our apartment up on food and water. Last year for Christmas, she got us both a big box of MRE's instead of something soft or pretty. I told her there was no reason to wasted her meager pay on something that we would more than likely never need or use. Boy, was I ever wrong.
I would have starved by now without her planning. I thought she didn't know anything as useful as medicine. She has taught me so much over the last couple of months, I have her to thank for being here.
We had a good stockpile of food and water in the apartment when the shit hit the fan. We both figured it would be crazy for a couple of days, weeks at the most. Then the world would right itself and life would return to what we considered normal. We stayed in our place and kept quiet. I kept expecting the National Guard or Army to come evacuate our area. No one ever came though. January finished, then February came in with a bang when the water and electricity turned off in the building. No refrigeration, no air conditioning or circulation, no showers. We made it through February on the supplies we already had on hand. When we ran out of bottled water and juices, we took the water out of the tanks on the toilets and boiled it before drinking. Then, about 2 weeks ago, we knew it was time to start scavenging from the surrounding apartments. The MRE's were getting old and we needed some variety in our diets. Fresh fruits and vegetables are too much to hope for, but canned food is better than nothing.
I bought an apartment on the 14th floor when I got my inheritance from Gramma. It is really the 13th floor though, and I bought apartment 1413, just to mess with my mother who hates the number 13. When Barbie moved in, I thought she would have a heart attack. No such luck, though.
It was decided that we would start across the hall for our first scavenging mission. We chose apartment 1411 for a couple of reason. Mrs. Jackson, the lady who lives there, is really old and stocks up on canned food like other old ladies stock up on doilies. She would have her daughter take her shopping at least once a week and she always came back with at least 2 bags of cans. Yet, she ate most of her meals from Meals on Wheels. This led us to hope that we would find food to eat in her apartment, we would just have to check the best by dates to be safe.
I was not sure if Mrs. Jackson was still in her apartment, or if her daughter came and took her to the suburbs. When we opened the door, the smell of death was over powering. I have had to deal with the dead in med school, but Barbie threw up in the hallway right outside the door to 1411. We left the door open and stayed in the hallway for a bit, but it did not help as much as either of us wanted. At least we could breathe.
Before we left the apartment, I had taken down the sword given to me by me ex-boyfriend as a gag gift. It is really pretty, and heavy. I put it on the mantle and promptly forgot about it and him, except to dust it occasionally. Barbie took the fire axe from the end of the hallway. Neither of us had any experience with using these types of weapons.
All I can say is that we got really lucky. Mrs. Jackson was sitting in her chair in her living room. She looked dead and was not moving when we walked in, but once she heard or smelled us, she became a 100 pound, 98 year old predator with a bad hip. If we had chosen any other apartment and had to take on anyone bigger or stronger, we might not be here.
It took both of us hacking and slashing at her and what felt like an hour for us to take her down. We searched the entire apartment and what we found was pretty strange. The only dishes we found in the kitchen appeared to stay in the dishwasher. All of the cabinets in the place were full of canned goods and non perishables, even under the sinks in the kitchen and bathrooms. It took us a couple of hours to pack the cans across the hall and more than 10 trips total. We now had a good stock pile of food, but no bottled water. We made one last trip across the hall and emptied the toilet tanks into jugs for boiling and drinking. After returning to our apartment we discussed going to another apartment, but decided to wait until another day.
By the time we had cleaned out the apartments on out floor, we felt much better prepared. There were waters and juices, as well as more food than we could fit in our kitchen and the closets became storage areas too. Our building, or buildings to be more correct, has 2 towers that each have 48 floors. We knew that meant there was food and water available close to our place and would hopefully minimize our risk while getting it. Most of the people in the towers were like myself and purchased their apartment alone or as a couple. Children are not restricted, but this is not a very child friendly building to live in. There are not many other kids to play with and no place in the neighborhood to play anyway. This meant that most apartments only have one or two people living in them. That is better odds than what we would find out on the streets of Jersey City. The most people we found in one apartment so far was on the 10th floor. There were parents and a set of twin girls around 10 years old. They were already undead when we found them and by then, we had a lot more experience with out weapons. It took no time to take out the girls and their mother. The father was a big man though and we had to work together to take him down. We found juices and fruit snacks galore and bottled water too. There were cookies and crackers and we were thrilled to get these treats.
Now, Barbie and I take turns keeping watch in the living room while the other one sleeps in the master bedroom. The second bedroom has become our pantry and by keeping the curtains and doors closed, we can control the temperature and keep it more even for our supplies. We also are better armed now as well. We found a sawed off shotgun, two 9 mm pistols, and one .357 service revolver. We try not to use them, unless there is no other choice because they are so loud and the sound draws the undead to our street. There is no longer the sound of traffic or other people to help drown it out. The last time we shot one off, we 34 days ago on the 10th floor. We found a man, still alive in his apartment. He had lost his mind and tried to kill us and threatened to eat us. I had to shoot him before he could hurt Barbie. We had not cleared all the apartments on that floor and the sound made the undead try to get out into the hallway. This caused a chain reaction that drew the attention of undead on other floors as well. For hours, all we could hear was banging on doors and walls from the floors around us. This has made me think that we should be more quiet when scavenging in the apartments. If we are still lucky, we will not find anyone else like him in the towers. Eventually we will have to decide to decide what our next plan is. There are a finite number of apartments and we will run out of supplies at some point. For right now though, I don't want to think about it.
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