From the digital camera carried by Joan Welsh, found in Austin Texas, found on March 28

This video was found by a force of the Texas Freedom Fighters. The group was set up to find food for the fortified cities of Houston, El Paso and Dallas/Fort Worth. None of them have near the populations they had before the pandemic, but each houses an average of 40,000- 50,000 people. The TFF search any town or city that was taken over by the undead for food and supplies. The digital camera was found lying on the sidewalk outside the Darrell K Royal- Texas Memorial Stadium. The battery was dead but the memory was intact so the Fighter grabbed it for review later.

The screen turns from black to blue then wavy lines appear moving across the screen. The view is of the inside of a car on a city street littered with cars and other detritus. The camera is sitting on the middle of the dashboard facing the drivers seat. The first person you see is an over made up, bottle blonde with a smile that shows all her capped front teeth. Her voice comes from her nose with an over exaggerated Texas drawl. She is wearing a turquoise suit jacket with black slacks and four inch heels.

JOAN WELSH

My name is Joan Welsh from Fox 7 News, KTBC. I have come to the down town are of Austin to see for myself whether the rumors are true that the Darrel K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium has been overrun by the undead. I have come here against the advice of my superiors at KTBC.  This is my big chance to try for a day time Emmy. Well, once the government gets control and life returns to normal. 

She grabs the camera with her right hand and pulls the car door handle with her left. She gets out of the car, grabs a large bag for her left shoulder and closes the door with a loud click that echoes off the buildings around the stadium. She places the camera on the roof of the blue car and strikes a pose with her right hand on her hip and her barracuda smile.

JOAN WELSH

I am going to walk around the stadium to check the status of the building and see if anything is visible through the windows. Our living audience members deserve to know the truth about their loved ones who were evacuated to the stadium. I, Joan Welsh, will go to any lengths to find out the truth for our audience. 

She reaches for the camera and turns to walk towards the stadium smiling so wide, she shows her upper gums. She holds the camera in her right hand and places herself in view with her back towards the stadium between the recording camera and the ground floor view of  the North End Zone building. She focuses the camera and pauses to pull a pair of Opera glasses from the bag on her left shoulder. Then she dramatically turns to look at the windows in view of the camera.

JOAN WELSH

Well, shoot. I can't see anything in those windows. They are filthy! I will continue around the building to see if there are any signs of life through the windows. I am determined to find out the truth that the city officials don't want to be known. 

She pauses, smiles, and poses for the camera then continues walking along the sidewalk.

JOAN WELSH

It has been over a month since they declared down town off limits and evacuated anyone not in the stadium to other emergency centers. Barriers were placed around downtown and the area was sealed off from the rest of the city. Since then, there has been no word from city officials about those people who were taken to the stadium at the beginning of the pandemic. I, myself, have a cousin who was brought here and my family has had no word of what has become of him.

The journalist continues around the building, dodging debris and puddles of fluid on the sidewalk. The only sound that can be heard is her breathing and the click-click-click of her heels on the cement. Every few feet, she pauses dramatically and puts the Opera glasses to her eyes trying to peer through the muck on the windows. Some appear the have been painted with thick, dark brown paint. Others are covered on the inside by what appears to be large pieces of furniture or plywood. Joan continues walking around the third side of the building when she pauses because she sees a few windows that looked clear on the second floor. She almost started to jump up and down with a small squeal, but remembers the camera and visibly gets herself under control.

JOAN WELSH

Finally, I have a view inside the stadium and will see if there is anything moving inside.

She stands watching the window for several minutes before a shadow passes behind it. She turns to the camera with an ever widening smile and points with her other hand towards where the shadow had passed.

JOAN WELSH

I have seen proof that something is moving inside the stadium. I brought an air horn and am going to try to get the attention of whoever is moving in there.

She opens her shoulder bag again and pulls out a white and red can with a blue plastic top. Again, she pauses, smile and poses for the camera. Then she presses the button and a 120 decibel alarm sounds from the small can. The sound rings out for around five seconds and then she stops holding the button. Breathlessly, she laughs and continues speaking.

JOAN WELSH

Let's see if anyone responds from inside.

From inside the stadium, a pounding sound began to be heard. This sound is joined by a chorus of moans. The sound grew louder and louder as more undead inside the stadium are drawn by the noise the others are making. The windows around the stadium begin to show spiderweb patterns and juices are squeezed through these from the force of the undead being pressed against the windows.

JOAN WELSH

Oh, God! Oh, God! I think it is time to leave now. 

The camera view turns from the stadium and starts bouncing as the reporter heads towards where she left her car. Her panting and the rapid clicking of her heels the only sounds picked up by the microphone. She has only gone about ten feet when the sound of shattering windows is heard behind her. She turns and swings the camera with her body to look at the stadium. Four windows on the second floor have been pushed out and undead are pouring out the newly made openings. Several more sounds of shattering can be heard from around the stadium as the journalist turns to run for her car. The sound of bodies hitting the cement can be heard from behind her, as well as the moans echoing out of the stadium's broken windows. It sounds like thousands of voices raised in primal moans all at once. Suddenly, undead begin to stand up from the piles of those falling out the windows, the bodies have piled up high enough that some of the undead are not bashing out their brains when they hit. More sounds of windows breaking sound from the side and above the journalist holding the camera. The view swings wildly as she turns to see how close the creatures are to reaching her and then turns away again to run. The undead are within fifteen feet of the journalist and struggling to escape their completely dead brethren. Squeals can be heard from where the journalist is holding the camera. 

JOAN WELSH

Oh God! Oh, God! What do I do? What do I do? 

The journalist begins to panic as her path forward is becoming blocked by undead pulling themselves out of the pile of falling creatures. A girl of about ten in the remains of a purple flowered dress struggles to pull herself out from under a pile of undead adults, growling and snarling at Joan while gnashing her teeth. A large male zombie falls from the window on the second floor up ahead and rolls down the remains on the sidewalk before getting up and moving towards Joan. Moan can be heard from almost every direction. The sound of the air horn has drawn undead from other parts of the blocked off downtown area. The view in the camera spins around in a circle as the journalist begins to sob and make the sounds all trapped animals make. The circle of approaching zombies grows closer and closer with nothing to give the journalist hope that she will survive her trip today. The camera spins in a circle, around and around, then the first undead reaches Joan. The sound of screams and wet tearing noises replace some of the moans of the undead. The camera falls to the cement and spins from the impact. When it stops, the view is horrific and shows the outstretched arm of a woman being consumed while still alive. Her screams go on for a minute or so and then turns to a gurgling, gasping sound, before finally dying away. The moans of undead trying to get a taste of the journalist are accompanied by more wet, tearing sounds from those around her. The sound of slurping and teeth clicking together provides additional background noise on the recording as the undead continued to eat every last piece of the journalist. Once they had finished, they began to move away and search for other prey. After thirty minutes, the screen turns from the skeleton of the woman into wavy lines before going black.

The aftermath of this incident rippled throughout the surrounding area. The Darrel K Royal- Texas Memorial stadium could hold just over 100,000 spectators. The city had put people in the stadium but also along the hallways and in the any other rooms they could find. That meant there was closer to 160,000 people placed in the stadium as an emergency center. By drawing the attention of the undead inside the stadium, Joan Welsh had caused the windows to give under the pressure of hundreds of bodies pressing against them at once. The undead moved through the downtown area and past the barriers that were put up to hopefully keep them back if they ever were released.  

The Austin/Red Rock area had a population of over 2 million people before the start of the pandemic. The undead in the stadium overran the rest of the city in just a couple of days. By the end of the week, the newly protected fortified city San Antonio had been surrounded. Within the month, there were no survivors. The rest of the fortified cities made their walls higher and stronger and prepared to face down any of the huge herd that walked out of Austin, especially Dallas. They built a series of barriers and cleared them of as many undead as they could. These were deemed the four safety zones and only the Texas Freedom Fighters and the cities enforcers were allowed to move into and through them. 

Dallas never fell to the undead herd. They held out with help from the other fortified cities and then helped the others when they needed it. In this way, these three cities survived together.

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.