Diary of a Zombie Apocalypse: October 2017

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

From the journal of Carol Evans, April 13

April 13, 2017

I stayed at the Welcome Center for four days, just lazing around. It was so nice to not be moving around that one day turned into four. I spent time reading books from the little store here, first about the area, then animals native to the area, and then I read a book about edible plants found in Zion National Park.

I did find the keys to the trucks. One set was attached to each Ranger zombies, on their belts. I searched for them around the 10th and was able to go out to check on the trucks that afternoon. I took the gas from the one that looked to be in rougher condition and most of it in the new truck. I looked through the small garage behind the visitors center and found a couple of gas cans. I then took as much gas as I could get into them from all the cars in the back and in the parking lot. Then, I moved the good truck near the backdoor just in case I had to make a quick exit. I loaded up all the supplies I had put together from the visitors center that I would not need right away and made sure everything was secure.
The next day, I woke up to a banging noise on the front door. It sounded like someone had a couple of radios going with the bass turned way up on both of them and different music playing on each of them. I got up and cautiously peeked around the corner to look at the doors. There was a group of undead and they were hungry. The glass in the doors, and the large windows on either side of them, didn't look like they would hold for long. I went back to the office where I was sleeping and quickly gathered the last of my stuff.
Why would they think anything was alive in here? I didn't know why they would be trying to get in the building at first. Then I remembered that I had gone out those same doors more than once a day for the last three days. Could they smell me? Is that why they were pounding on the glass? I finally decided that I needed to concentrate on getting out of here and think about it later.
Shit! I remembered that I had gone in and out the backdoor too! I was ready in less than five minutes and made my way to the back exit. I listened carefully at the solid metal door and then rattled the roll up door next to it, just to make sure no undead were close enough to be attracted by the sound. I still didn't hear anything and slowly opened the door while keeping a close eye on the slowly widening crack of light. Nothing and nobody appeared and I made a mad dash to the truck with the keys in my hand.
When I turned around the side of the building I saw the size of the group and was glad I had prepared for a quick exit. I wouldn't have had time to get out if I had to pack up everything that I was taking with me and I would have had to leave some stuff behind. There had to be at least a hundred of them filling the entry way and half the parking lot. I had to slow down, swerve around them and even had to run a couple of them over. But I made it out of the parking lot and back onto the main road.
I turned West and got back on my way. I was rested and now I had wheels. I had decided to head to Aspen to see if I could find a place to hunker down since it was around 20 miles closer than Vale.

I am hoping to find a home with a really strong fence and solar power. I was really hoping for running water. I was really keeping my fingers crossed for hot water, a tub and some time to soak. But that was really too much to hope for.
I have been on the road now for about a day and a half. I already miss my little office and my couch. But it really is time to be moving on. While I was comfortable for a short stop at the Kolob Canyon Visitor's Center, there really wasn't a way to make it secure enough to stay long term. Better to find a place not on the main road that could be made more secure. Aspen, here I come!

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From the journal of Charlie Fast Fingers Pearson, April 13

April 13, 2017

I haven't felt like writing the last few days. Not much has changed for our situation. Every day our scouting party goes a little further, but they still have not found a way down the hill or mountain. They bring whatever food and water they find back to the rest of us and we live on that for the next day while they go back out scouting.
My leg is so sore I almost want to cut it off, but that would not help, so I deal with it. At least I am alive. We have lost a lot of people since we left the VIP room. We have several people who are out of fucking action for now because they got hurt, beside me. Will is looking better. His face is changing colors and should be back to normal skin color soon. His is able to open his eye but it is really sick to look at because the white of his eye is blood red. Jessie and Mick are using their slings still and Melanie has one now, too. She broke her right leg in more than one place and has a broken arm on that side. She was sitting in the isle seat and her right side was in the isle when the drink cart went flying by. Buck was hit by something in the head and can't stand up by himself without almost falling over. He also has a huge bruise covering his ribs on his left side that wraps around to his spine. We have become part of the group that stays around the camp and keeps the fire going. The other people who stay in camp gather wood and help the people who need it.

I could kill for some meat right now. All we have had to eat since the crash was either scavenged from the plane or from the island. We ate the few meals that survived the first couple of days and the snacks ran out right after that. We have plenty of water since it rains here every day and we collect what we can. But meat, there is no way for us to get any right now. Man, a huge fucking burger or a whole roasted chicken would be fucking awesome!
We have been talking about the scouting trips. If they want to really try to get off the hill or mountain, they are going to have to stay out there and not come back every evening. That means that we will have to be able to take care of ourselves for food. It is the only way that they will make it far enough to find out if there is a way down on our side of whatever we landed on and they might even be able to find out if there is anyone on this island.

No one has seen anyone from the island. You would think that someone would come to check out the crash site, even if they didn't want to find people alive but just wanted to find out if anything useful survived. No one has come up here to check and that makes me wonder if the island has anyone living on it. Or maybe, they are already undead and are slowly heading in our direction. Scary thought.

Saturday, October 28, 2017

From the journal of Correctional Officer Steven Williams, April 13

April 13, 2017

Everyone has been really quiet, ever since the group lost Stephanie and then Rose right after. Even the kids have played much quieter than they usually do, and that is saying something because we always have to be careful in case the undead hear us and swarm. Crystal, Stephanie's daughter, has been crying all day, every day since. Today is the first day that she joined the other kids for story time and she didn't cry for the hour of reading. But right after, she went back to her bed and started crying again. Pam is coming out of her "funk", as Jenna says. Taking care of Crystal is helping her to get past the loss of her own daughter, Debbie, although we all know that Crystal cannot replace Debbie. The two of them are learning to live together in their greif.

We are slowly making our way to Aspen. Linda and Aaron made the suggestion of either Vale or Aspen because of the amount of money people put had to put into their homes. We debated about both, but the majority agreed on Aspen. Especially since it would put us farther away from the
Denver Metropolitan Area and the thousands upon thousands of undead roaming there. We are taking our time and looking around for anything that might be useful.
The group didn't leave the area where we buried the two women until yesterday. Staying was the right thing to do for Crystal, the grave seemed to give her some comfort the first couple of days. She would lay next to it, cry and talk to her mother. She would talk about all kinds of things from before the shit hit the fan and about things that had happened since. I didn't know that a ten year old could have that much to say. She would drop her voice to a whisper if any of the group walked too close, but I don't think she stopped talking for almost four days. The day she kissed her hand and said goodbye to her mom, we packed up and left the next morning.

When we looked at the map, I realized that we were closer to Aspen when we left the camp than we were when we left the airport. I wish we had decided to go to Aspen instead of going to the airport. It would have saved us a lot of lives, miles and time. I guess you live and then you learn. I forget who said that but it really fits now. I learn something new everyday. Sometimes, it is something that someone else knows and shares. Other times, it is like the nightmare trip to the airport, and we all learn the hard way.

From the journal of Sean Glover, April 7

April 7, 2017

Been checking out the houses close to my home base. None of the ones I have searched so far are as cool as the house I found at first. Some of them had solar power, but not as good as my house. I found some other cool stuff and have taken it back to my place. I have a bitching movie collection now since I added whatever I find on my searches. Most of these people had so much money to burn on things like DVD's and it's making my apocalypse! Any movie that I have ever wanted to see in the last few years, but couldn't because of money issues, I've been able to find. I have movie night every night!

Food is not an issue since all these houses were stocked with non perishables. I guess most of these people only "vacationed" here. You wouldn't want to go to your vacation house and find it full of spoiled food. I even found powered milk in a couple of the places, so the hundreds of boxes of mac and cheese won't taste too bad. At one place, I found powdered butter, buttermilk, cheese, eggs, sour cream, and a variety of freeze dried vegetables. I guess the person who lived there was, like, a survivalist or something. Good thing for me! I will be feasting on these dehydrated products for weeks to come!

I also found one of my favorite movies at the next house over from the food find house, the 'Boondocks Saints'. It's an awesome movie and has one of my favorite actors in it from the Walking Dead, Norman Reedus. I usually think about what Carl would do, but Daryl is a good character to use as a guide, too. Besides, he's a bad-ass. I wish I had the entire series of the Walking Dead to watch. I have the time and I even have an indoor theater, to watch it in.
I wish I had someone else to watch stuff with, too. I would even take on of my shitty foster siblings, if that was the only choice. I have enjoyed being alone, but it's starting to get old now. I would love to be able to have a conversation with someone about anything. I would even discuss school subjects, if I had to, just to talk back and forth with someone else. I am so desperate for someone else, I would even take one of my many case workers for someone to talk to.
Well, for the moment, it is just little o' me. Time to make some dinner, mac and cheese with green beans on the side, and watch my favorite movie. I am better off than any of the people I was living with in my last foster home, what with them all being the walking dead and all. Guess I should stop bitching, and get back to enjoying, my time in this awesome house.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

From the journal of Jenna Bless, April 10

April 10, 2017

It has been a really hard few of days. No one thought Stephanie would last as long as she did. Her daughter, Crystal, had to be seperated from her in the really early hours of the 8th. Her fever had spiked and she could hardly breath because her lungs were so full. We had to set up a different area for her and Rose because they had to lay down and the vehicle just didn't make that possible. Linda had a tent set up for them and Doctor Ben moved his car right next to it, so he had access to any medical supplies he has.
Crystal screamed and cried when she was pried from her mothers arms. Stephanie had been talking to for a while. They had talked about Tim, Crystal's brother who died on the 4th. They talked about life before the pandemic and other people who had been lost. Then Stephanie started to talk to Crystal about why they were going to be separated. Crystal cried and kept crying "No", but she had to listen. Finally, Stephanie motioned for someone to take her daughter away. Pam, came and pulled Crystal away, curling the crying little girl up in her arms. Pam had lost her only kid, her daughter Debbie, on the 4th and we were all hoping that taking care of Crystal would help pull her out of her funk.

Later that morning, Stephanie got even worse. She started going in and out of being awake. She would wake up with this weird gurgling scream. Her lungs were worse and she had to be propped up in a sitting position to try to help her breathing. Her fever was so high, she was burning to the touch. She started to throw up anything she tried to eat or drink, and then she was throwing up even with nothing in her. Her eyes started to go cloudy and she was moaning. No one could tell if she was awake or not because she just kept gurgling and moaning and wheezing. Finally, by around noon, she died. Doctor Ben called Linda and Aaron over and Williams took care of her brain. The men dug a grave right outside our circled vehicles and we held a quick service fr her, well, more for Crystal than anyone, really.
Rose was still not as far along as Stephanie had been, but watching what was going to happen to her had to be terrifying. From the time that Stephanie died, every hour seemed to make Rose worse. First, her fever went really high really fast. Then her cough got worse and worse. By the time most of us went to bed, she had to be propped up to breath.
From what Doctor Ben told everyone the next morning, all that night him and Rose sat up talking. They talked about anything and everything from stuff before the pandemic to everything that had happened since. Around 3 a.m. in the morning, Rose asked the doctor for a gun to kill herself. He said no, at first, but she told him how watching what Stephanie had gone through, she just didn't want to have to go through the worst of it, if she could do something else. It took her about an hour and a half to talk him into it. He got his pistol out of his car and handed it over. Then they sat and talked for a few more minutes.

Around 5 a.m. everyone heard a gun shot. People jumped up, grabbed their weapons, and ran to the tent. Doctor Ben stopped everyone and told us what had gone down. He looked like 10 years older and his face was grey. It must be hard trying to help people you know have no chance.
We were going to try to move on today, but everyone agreed it would be better to stay. The men dug another grave right next to Stephanie's and again we had a short service, this time for Rose. Crystal had been sitting with Pam at her mothers grave all night and she cried even harder when Rose was buried. She is one of the reasons we are going to stay for another day or so. She needs a chance to morn her mother and the grave is all that she has now.
Man, I hope it gets better than it has been. It has really sucked having to see this stuff happen.

From the journal of Nathan Sanchez, April 6

April 6, 2017

Well, that was fun. The meeting was scheduled for right after lunch, so almost everyone could come. I thought most of us would be on the same page about needing to plan out our scavenging missions more thoroughly. Boy, was I wrong. It turned into a shouting match right from the start. Emilio and Javier jumped to the defensive, like we were saying they had done something wrong. That is not what we were trying to say. None of us know what we are doing when it comes to all this survivalist stuff. No one could have known that the place they went yesterday would have a person still alive and ready to defend his shit!

Uncle Ramon

Everyone ended up yelling and arguing, for like, an hour. Then Uncle Ramon whistled loud enough for Satan to hear him down in hell. The silence that followed seemed as loud as the whistle had been. He followed up with a rousing speech about working together and not turning on eachother. Then he turned the meeting back over to the entire family with another reminder to talk it out, not shout it out.
Uncle Nicolás, who is the youngest sibling of Uncle Ramon, stepped forward and said that no one had done anything wrong yesterday. But in the future, we needed to plan out where we are going and think about scouting out the locations for a while before hitting them.
I stepped forward and pointed out that we had yet to find anyone else alive while scavenging, so yesterday was an anomaly. But we needed to think about how we pull up to a place, too. If all the cars go in together, there was no one to watch the back of the ones doing entry. We should think about how cops would do it. They would send people to the front and the back, but also keep some back for support. Maybe, we needed larger groups for scavenging and within those groups, there should be assignments.
Maria said we needed to train the people who were going to be a part of the scavenging missions and they needed to be excused from most other duties to be at their best. Her son, Fernando, had been almost done with the police accadamy when the pandemic hit. She suggested we have him train the teams and pass on his knowledge to them. Also, he should be a leader of one of the teams that went out, since he had the most experience.

Consuela

The rest of the meeting went really smoothly. Everyone took turns making their suggestions, Consuela wrote them all down. We decided to have them all written up and posted in the main house for everyone to read. Since we still had to have people on watch not everyone could be at the meeting, this would give everyone a chance to read them. Then we would get together again after dinner and make the decisions about what we were going to do going forward. The people who were going to be on watch after dinner could give someone their vote and have their say that way.
There were some good suggestions and some that would never work out there in the new real world. But the fact that we were able to get everyone to stop fighting and to come together to look for solutions, well, that was just amazing. Hopefully, tonight after dinner, we can keep it going and have a plan to start putting into action tomorrow.

Saturday, October 21, 2017

From the recovered journal of the Battle of the New Alamo, April 16

April 16, 2017

I have named my three female cattle. Beef, Chicken and Fish. Tonight, I am going to slaughter one of them and prepare some meat. I ate vegitables from the garden yesterday and I fed the cattle some dog food. They were lucky to get anything at all. The only reason I even fed them is that I want them to have some meat on their bones when I slaughter them. I don't want only bones. I don't like soup and don't have the right stuff to cook it.
It has been pretty quiet in the rest of the Alamo. I think most of the others who had holed up to survive have been ferreted out by the undead. Of course, most of them were yelling back and forth with other groups like them, instead of being quiet like us. Dumb asses! If they had remained quiet, they might have lived through the initial invasion of undead. They would have died from starvation or dehydration in a few days. But that would have given them time to try to think of something else, some other way to survive. No one else was smart enough to plan ahead. I am the only true survivalist in this place!

I have very few cooking utensils in here and will have to use the fireplace to cook my cattle in. That means cutting pieces that will fit in the cast iron skillet. Maybe, I should just cut off part of a leg or an arm and then cauterize the wound. I don't think I can cook and eat a whole person, by myself, before it would go bad. If I can keep my food alive for longer while just taking smaller portions, I will be able to stretch out how long I can eat and stay alive. I am going to think about this today and put off the possible slaughter until tomorrow. I have enough vegetables and canned foods to eat well today. This is a very important issue and I need to really think it through.
I should have thought to sneak some spices into my room. I have a few salt packets from a fast food joint, but a whole container of it would have been nice. I really wish I had some onion powder or garlic powder. The real stuff is too much to hope for these days, but powdered would still have been nice. They would have given my meat more flavor but I really only need it edible, anyway.
I had just finished writing the stuff above when I heard a burst of gunfire and the undead swarmed one of the barracks. The fight didn't last long because whoever it was didn't have very many bullets. From the screams after the gunfire stopped, I would guess there were at least five people there. The undead pulled them apart and when I peaked through the crack of the door, I could see those creatures fighting over body parts from the fighters. Poor bastards didn't stay quiet enough.

Speaking of being quiet enough, Fish was crying earlier and I could hear her through the make shift door. I had to go in there and quietly threaten to push her off the room to the undead below if she didn't shut the fuck up. The others just laughed and whispered that there was no way to get onto the roof from in these rooms, but I just smiled. No one knows about the trap doors by the chimneys and I intend to keep it that way. Even if the cattle find out about it, I nailed theirs shut and nailed boards on the rooftop to keep it closed. Beef and Chicken thought they were brave and told me to back off. But I used the taser on them both and everyone shut up. Every little while, I can hear them shuffle around in their cell, but no more sobs. Now is the time to be extra careful not to draw undue attention to my rooms.

From the journal of James Cohen, Somewhere around April 14

Somewhere around April 14, 2017

I have been driving around for a couple of days now. I found a housing complex on the ourskirts of a small town yesterday afternoon. I searched some of the houses for supplies and have found that Tricksey is a great alarm for the undead being near us. As soon as she smells one, she runs straight back to me and when I pick her up, she shivers and makes these little cries of fear. I know as soon as she does this that we need to leave the place we are in. She has saved me having to take on some of those creatures a couple of times just yesterday and today.
The houses look like they were barely lived in and the sign is still up for selling them, so I think some of them might still be empty. I haven't made it through all of them yet, so I might find some like that. I think I will stay here for a few days and continue to look through the rest of the houses.
Without Dorris, it has been really hard to keep going. Even after we knew how bad it was, she still kept a positive attitude. She swore that the world would right itself and go back to the way it was before this disease. She said that no matter how long it took, everything would be right again some day. She would talk about retiring from trucking at our house Louisiana, after a cure had been found.

She would talk about family members coming over for meals, family that we didn't even know if they were still alive. She would talk about our friends that lived in our neighborhood and how it would be great to see them. Again, are any of them still alive? We had no idea, but she would talk about it. The future to her was not going to be this horrible place with undead things stalking anyone unlucky enough to still be alive. No, to her, it was going to be like it used to be. With family and friends. With electricity, phones, and T.V. Summer Bar-b-que's and winter parties.
Now, that is all gone. Even more gone than it was only a week ago. God, it's only been a week but it feels like so much longer. It feels like a lifetime since I held her in my arms as she died. God, I miss her.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

From the record kept by the twins Jenny and Barbie Crow, April 13

April 13, 2017

Today is the first day that I feel like myself again. I have not been that sick in a long time and I really hope that it doesn't happen again soon. The only thing I can think of is that we caught something from one of the apartments we searched. It must have been a really hardy little bug to live this long. But, we haven't come into contact with anyone but the undead in quite a while. Can the living get sick just from coming into contact with the undead? Neither of us have been biten or scratched. Sometimes we get a little bit of fluid on us when we take them out, but I wouldn't consider it blood since it is thick and black. I don't know if anything can survive in them to make us sick besides the virus that caused this whole mess.
I wish I had access to the labs we used at med school. I could take samples and see if there is anything to see. Are there any cells alive in them? Or are they completely dead? Is the virus even alive in them? How does it kill people if it's not alive? There are so many questions. I told Barbie that we need to look for a microscope at the least. Someone in the building had to have a kid who needed one for school or got a chemstry set for a present, or something.
We are starting to run low on water. We still have enough food for while since neither of us have eaten much in the last week. Today is too soon, but we are going to have to go out and search more apartments soon. We can only wait a couple of days at the most.
Thinking about water made me think about the planters on the pool level. Right before Barbie got sick, we had planted some seeds in the flower pots there hoping to get some fresh food out of it. The seeds were past their expiration date, but we still thought it was worth a try. It hasn't rained much, only a sprinkle here and there, while we were sick. I don't know if that would be enough to keep anything like that alive or not. Luckily, we didn't plant all of the seeds, so we can try again if they all didn't do anything or died.
I was really hoping to get some tomatoes out if it. I have my old Grandma Anna's recipes, so I know I could make something edible. The carrots, lettuce and cucumbers would be nice, but I really wanted the tomatoes. Maybe we will get lucky and find some other seeds that we can keep trying. But, I am not going to hold out any hope. None of the apartments in this tower have a balcony. The other tower was more expensive, so some of them have one. We were going to have to get into the other tower, before we finished our entire tower even.

From the journal of Sarah Richards, April 10

April 10, 2017

Yesterday, Mandy and I went to Buckner.We took some supplies and checked out the undead situation over there. We saw a couple of them just standing near the base, but they weren't acting anything like the ones around Towers. It was almost like they were sleeping on their feet, waiting for something to get their attention. I bet Mrs. Edison, our science teacher, would call it something like a 'dormant state'.

We snuck past them and into the nearest stairwell. It was harder getting up the stairs when we had to be as quiet as possible. The stairs are falling apart and some of them aren't even strong enough to step on. We know which ones to skip and which ones creak the loudest, but it still makes it harder when your life depends on it.
There were no zombies in the stairway and we didn't see any on the fifth floor. Our hang out was clear and everything was just as we left it. I put the supplies in our hiding spot in the wall of the bedroom and we crept back down the stairs and into the tunnel. It was really dark on the way back down the old maintenance part and back to the main tunnel between the Towers and the port. No one got in our way on the way back. We had decided that our trip to Buckner had to be a secret, because others might try to go there if things went bad. That building doesn't have very many places that are secure enough to be behind walls and a closed door. We needed it to be our backup place, not someone else's because they had followed us. I also didn't want the supplies we took over there disappearing. Some people didn't have a lot of food and they would do anything to get some when they get hungry. Even brave the old maintenance tunnel and the falling down stairs to get to Buckner. We needed those to be there if we had to evacuate the Towers.

When we got back into our building, there were tons of people around on the first floor. This only happened, usually, when there was going to be a meeting of the town and I hadn't heard about one today. Neither had Mandy. Then we heard the sound. It was louder than usual and had a weird sound to it. Like the building was starting to give. But that couldn't be possible, this building was made to survive our harsh Alaska winters!
Everyone was heading to the same place, so Mandy and I went, too. I saw my mom and went to sit beside her while Mandy went to sit with her family. The mayor got us in front of everyone and told us all that the undead were basically climbing on top of eachother because they were pressing so tightly against eachother. They were going to reach the bottom windows at some point. Not today, probably not tomorrow, but they would get in eventually.
Mandy and I looked at eachother and we both knew we would be going back to Buckner with whatever supplies we could scrounge tomorrow. We would probably be going back every day that we could until the zombies got in. That way, out hang out would be better prepared for us having to run there.
The rest of the meeting was just the usually blah, blah, blah. Once it was over, everyone scattered. Mom and I went back to our apartment. I sat her down and told her all about the hang out spot and what Mandy and I were doing. She was mad at first, but then she realized that it was a good idea. If this place gets overrun, our home would not be safe for long. We made a pile in of supplies for Mandy and I to take tomorrow. Then we ate dinner and I did my homework. I hope we can get enough over to Buckner before the zombies get in. I really hope so.

Saturday, October 14, 2017

From the journal of Carol Evans, April 7

April 7, 2017

Kolob Canyon Welcome Center was mostly clear when I got here late yesterday. I only had to take out two former Park Rangers who had become undead creatures. One of them, a young female, was very obviously pregnant when she turned and her stomach continued to move, even after I took out her brain. I ended up stabbing the area until the movement stopped. I didn't know if the fetal zombie could claw it's way out of the lady and try to come after me. I know it would not be much of a danger to me unless I was sleeping, but better not to take the chance.
There was a small conveniece section in the store that had some snack foods and junk food. I also found a larger backpack and put all of my stuff in it, along with some of the food and a few waters from the store. Then I searched around until I found a mildly comfortable sofa in one of the offices that had a lock on the door. I set myself up in the there with more food and water and even a couple of books on the area. I grabbed clothes to use as covers and settled in for the rest of the night. I read for while, until the light gave out, then I layed down and ran through ideas of where to go from here until I fell asleep.
This morning, I still have no idea of my final destination. I am thinking about Aspen or Vale because people who lived there before would have had enough money to put in solar power and other useful stuff like that. They shoud also have had some nice houses to stay in. Those places are in the mountains and I think the cold would be harder on the undead than the heat found in the desert. When I walked through the Rockies, the few zombies I saw seemed to move a little slower than the ones in the desert around Vegas. I am hoping it was because the air was cooler in the mountains and not something I am not taking into account.
I have decided to stay here for a few days to rest up and be ready to move on. I have been walking for weeks and I could really use the rest. The couch is ok, better than the ground has been, but I think I will look around for more cushioning to make it more comfortable. There is enough junk food and water here to stay for a couple of weeks, if I want to. I don't think I will stay that long, but it's nice to have the option.

There are a couple of official looking Ranger trucks in the parking lot and I am hoping that one of them will work. If I take the gas from them both I will be able to make it farther. I'm going to have to search the bodies of the ones I took out yesterday to see if the keys are on them. Otherwise, I will have to search all the offices and all the desks to find them. I have no idea how to hot wire a vehicle, so finding the keys is my only option for taking one of the trucks.
Right now, I am going to open this bag of chips, a candy bar and some water, then read about the surrounding area for a few hours. Who knows, maybe I will find some information that will change my idea of heading for Vale or Aspen. I am open to any suggestions about where to go.

From the journal of John Archer, the Archivist, April 6

April 6, 2017

Stephanie is doing a lot worse this morning than Rose is doing. I wonder if it has to do with the location of the bite. Stephanie was bit on the upper right arm when she reached out trying to grab her son. Rose had been bit on the right calf by a crawling zombie when she stopped to help one of the other women. Stephanie had a higher fever and she has a really wet cough while Rose has a fever, but it did not come on as fast or as high. Her cough is also not as wet sounding as Stephanie's. Neither of them have an appetite, but Ben keeps trying to get them to eat and drink fluids. They both are going down the path we have all seen someone go down when bit, but at different speeds. It has only been around 36 hours since they were bit, but I can't see Stephanie lasting another 36 hours. We are going to have to have another meeting to decide what to do about Stephanie's daughter and what to do about with the women. It better be soon, too.
On a brighter note, our saviours from the other night seem to be decent people and have started to fit in with our group already. I can just hear Jonathans' voice in my head, God rest his soul, that we should not trust them so quickly. But really, if they wanted to do us harm, they could have just let us all die the other night and then taken what they wanted of our supplies when the undead were done devouring us. He is one person who I will not miss, even though I didn't want him dead and surely not the way it happened. I wouldn't wish being eaten alive on my worst enemy.
Wow, that turned out to not be on a brighter note at all. I will have to endeavor to be lighter for the rest today.

Jenna, the teenage girl who helped to save us, is a real favorite with the kids already. She is young enough to still play so they are almost constantly asking her to do so. She doesn't seem to mind and seems to have a good time playing with them. Although, there have already been times when she put her foot down and joined the adults for a meeting.

The man she came with, Steven Williams, also seems to be a good person. He saved her and has kept her with him since. He taught her how to shoot and wants only the best for her. He told me about how he found her when we talked alone last night. I heard all about how her family was already turned when he took her home after rescuing her from the playground and how he had to put them down. He also told me how he hopes to find someone to finish raising her that would be better for her than he is. I think he is mistaken about needing someone else to do so. I think he is just what she needs and if they can find others to be a group with, that would be even better. I hope they decide to stay with our group, we could use people like them.

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

From the journal of Charlie Fast Fingers Pearson, April 8

April 8, 2017

It rained for most of the day. All of us are sore and have been feeling every bump and bruise we received during the crash. My leg is swollen and hurts like hell. I am glad the pants were cut with the leg, because they would have had to be cut. My leg would have taken way too much to wrap up, so they had ripped blankets into strips. Meg has also made a couple of slings from blankets for Jessie and Mick. The girls have used all the bandages that were in the kits already. Red, our drummer whose real name was Randy O'Toole, died this afternoon. We think he had internal bleeding because his stomach got real fucking big since last night. He also had something hit him in the head hard enough to flap his skin and hair on top. He was hurt worse than anyone else, so it wasn't a big fucking surprise. I will miss his bad jokes and his practical jokes.
We had over 30 people in our group when we were in the VIP room. Now we were down to less than 20. All of us had been hurt in the crash in some way. There was no way I could go scouting around with my leg so I stayed with most of us at the crash site. Frank, Marty, Terry and Sally all set out together to see if there was anything or anyone near us. They were also looking for anything that could be edible as well as a source for water. The rain had helped, but we didn't know how often that would happen, so we needed a better source.

Some of the people who stayed decided to scout around for anything that might be useful that survived the crash. At this point, we were all wet and in need of more clothes to wear, blankets to cover up with and more food. A pile was started near our fire and anything still good was brought over. Will and I sat keeping the fire going. He had a broken wrist and probably a concussion. The drink cart had flown past him and one of the wheels had hit him on the way by, he even had the small tread marks in bruised relief on his cheek to prove it. His eye was swollen shut on that side and his nose was now crooked. Will would not win any beauty contests in the near future. Not that we would be anywhere near where they might have one.
A couple of hours later, our scouting party returned with some weird looking fruit, a couple of coconuts and some water in the bottles they had taken to fill. Marty reported that they did not make it as far as they wanted to go, but the terrain became too hard for them to keep going. They had figured out we were on the side of a large hill or mountain in the middle of an island. They could see where we had crashed the entire time because the plane had pushed a cleared path through the forest and dug up the ground. Where everything else was green, the ground was almost black where the plane had hit and slid. Thank fucking God we were facing uphill when we hit, there was a cliff with a drop hundreds of feet high not far down from where we hit.
At least we have supplies for the rest of today and probably tomorrow. Frank and Sally have talked about trying to find a way further down the mountain tomorrow. But I all our injuries will be even more sore tomorrow than they are today. We will have to see how much any of us feel like trying tomorrow. For now, we are going to collect firewood and try to heat us some of the meals we found that weren't completely destroyed. I am so tired and my leg fucking hurts too bad to do more than sit here for now. Shit, where are we? Is there anyone else on this island? Has the virus gotten to the people here, too? We will have to find out the answers in the next few days, for our own safety.

From the journal of Nathan Sanchez, April 5

April 5, 2017

We have spent the last few days building up our defenses. Diego told us we should tear down the nearest houses and out buildings so no one could use them to sneak up on us. We took everything from them that might be useful and then we took whatever building materials we could use from the demolished buildings. We made a new perimeter at the far end of the driveway and used that distance to make a new perimeter line around the ranch. There were a couple of old country back roads that went through our new perimeter area, so we took out a couple of old bridges and cut down trees to block the roads. This territory was now ours and no one was going to use these roads if we could help it.
Everyone felt free to make suggestions about ways to make us safer and we would use any of them that might help. New lookouts were built in concealed areas where all obvious points of entry might be. All the schedules were reworked to include these new posts and everyone had at least two shifts of four hours every day on watch. Anyone who felt they needed more practice with the firearms was given the training they wanted, even the older kids. If things went to shit, they might have to keep the younger kids alive.
Yesterday, we sent out the first scavenging group since the bikers attacked us. The houses around us had already been picked over for supplies before we tore them down, so they had nothing good left in them. We needed ammo more than anything else, but medicine was also important to find. Alonso and Emilio chose a small group, took two cars and headed out this morning. The rest of us spent the day reinforcing the ranch buildings and building other defenses around the perimeter. A group of the women spent the day preserving all any fruit we had been able to find and preparing food for the meals.
Right around dusk, we could hear a horn honking on the main road and the radios came alive from the look outs. Emilio was driving like a bat outta hell and honking the horn. His car was being closely followed by the our cousin Javier. They flew through the gates and down the driveway. When Emilio screeched to a stop, I could see Alonso laying on the backseat with his wife, Lorena holding his head in her lap. They were both covered with blood and she was crying.
Apparently, they had gone to a house on the other side of town because the guy was a known gun nut. Well, he hadn't died when the pandemic hit and had kept himself alive since. He took exception to our cousins coming to his house and opened fire before they had all gotten out of the cars. Alonso didn't have a chance. He had been hit in his chest and blood was bubbling out with every breath.
The cousins in the other car had fared a little better, but Lupe had been hit in the left leg through the door and Rosita had a shoulder graze. Javier was bleeding from a cut on his left cheek, but it was from the glass shattering in the drivers side window. A couple of others in both cars, Luis, Martín, and Manuel also had cuts from flying glass.

Everyone rushed to help anyone who had been hurt and Uncle Ramon went to talk to Lorena. She didn't want to let anyone touch Alonso, but we all knew that someone was going to have to make sure he didn't turn, and soon. It took some coaxing and Consuela had to talk to her a while , with Uncle Ramon. Eventually, she let the men pull him from the backseat. Consuela and Maria took Lorena inside while Rico used his machete to take care of Alonso. Then some of the cousins went to dig him a grave. We held a short service with Uncle Ramon saying the eulogy and leading the family in prayers. Lorena had to be carried back to the house where she was put her bed with her sisters, Lupe and Rosita, crawling in with her to try to comfort her.
Tomorrow, we are going to have a family meeting about scavenging and set some rules. No one was going to go barreling in unprepared again. We are going to have to change how we do things when out searching and make sure we have more information about any suggested targets.

Saturday, October 7, 2017

From the journal of Jenna Bless, April 5

April 5, 2017

After all the excitement last night, we all slept late this morning. When I woke up, it was wierd to hear voices and laughter around our truck. It had been so long since we had been around anyone else, it made me feel really shy for a few minutes. I looked into the bed of the truck and saw that Williams was still sleeping and decided to wake him up so I didn't have to meet all these people by myself.
He didn't wake up easily. I had to crawl into the bed and shake him. He never really slept long when it was just the two of us so I felt kinda bad about waking him up. But from how light it was and how many voices I could hear, I thought it was probably late morning. He grumbled as he opened his eyes and glared at me like his look alone could make me disappear. Then he looked up and realized how late it was and grumped "shoulda woke me up earlier". Whatever!

The kids noticed us first and started running towards us and yelling for the adults. Two little girls grabbed my hands and pulled me towards the largest group of people walking towards us. We were introduced to everyone and I know I will never remember everyone's names. The group is pretty large. One of the leaders, I think her name is Linda, said they still have 44 people. She was really sad when she said it and there was a little moment of silence. Then she said they used to have 63 before last night.
Williams and Linda walked a few feet away with her husband, Aaron. I was surrounded by kids and Williams told me to go play with them for a few minutes. It was really weird playing after having to be a grown up for so long. It took me a few minutes to really feel like I wasn't doing something wrong by laughing. Then I got into it and it became fun. There weren't any other teenagers here, so I had to play with little kids, but we jumped rope and played hide and seek in the circle of vehicles. Some of the other adults joined Williams and the others after an hour or so and it became a group discussion about whatever around the fire.
I watched them for a few minutes and was just starting to feel left out, I mean, I should know what was going on! I helped save these people, too! Then he motioned for me to join them and I felt silly. He was trying to give me a break and I should be grateful. I still went to join them, though. The kids were disappointed and tried to hang onto me to make me stay. But I told em I needed to go. They groaned, but let me go.

I sat down in the spot made for me by Williams and tried to pick up the conversation. He leaned over and whispered that they had two people that got bit last night. One was a young mother, Stephanie, whose son was killed last night while she was carrying her daughter. For now, the little girl was being left with her mom. The other was a girl, Rose, who didn't look much older than I do. They had been moved into one of the SUV's and were being watched by their doctor, Ben, and his only nurse, Kim. Last night, the other nurse had been killed while carrying Stephanie's little boy, Tim. We all knew what would happen to them but no one knew what to do. Everyone talking about any ideas. Should we make them leave? If we did, did Crystal go with her mother or stay with us? Could we force them apart, even knowing that Stephanie was going to become one of the undead? Should we try to save them? Was there any point? Had anyone heard about someone surviving a bite or did everyone turn? We didn't know the answers to most of these questions so it made making a choice hard.
The area we were circled up in seemed pretty clear of undead. Everyone was tired and unsure of what to do next so it was decided that we would stay here today, unless we had to leave because of a herd of zombies coming. Food was made, everyone ate and the kids went back to quietly playing. I didn't know what to do with myself, until Williams told me to do what I wanted to do. I could play or stay and be listen to the adult talk. He told me he would tell me what was said later if I wanted to play, so I did. After lunch, we took turns reading out loud from one of those popular wizard book series and it was really nice to relax for a little bit. Tonight, we are going to have a hot dinner and I can't wait. The food is so much better with Amanda and her guys cooking. Williams just heats things up from a can and I never learned how to cook anything, so I am not any better.
The little kids are laying down for a nap right now, so I am just laying her writing. I might even take a nap myself. Yeah, I think I will.

From the journal of Sean Glover, April 2

This entry was brought to me by the author, a young man named Sean Glover. He survived on his own from January until he met up with our group in late April.

April 2, 2017

I just found this really cool, hand made, leather journal in some artsy store in Aspen, Colorado. Never been here before, but since I am heading West, I thought I might find some cool shit here. I was so right! I found a really cool minus temperatures sleeping bag and a really sweet crossbow, like the one Daryl uses in the Walking Dead with arrows for days. I replaced my crappy tent with a deluxe tent that woulda cost more than my last foster family got a month for "housing" the five of us foster kids. That place was a gold mine! I even took a bunch of MRE's and some cooking stuff. And then when I left, I replaced the old Toyota that I took from my foster home when I left. There was this sweet Lexus SUV right out front with no one in it, but the keys in the ignition.
I had only been in the Simmons' family home for six months when Shelby, the oldest daughter, came home from work at the urgent care clinic with a bite from some elderly homeless dude. It didn't take long for her to get really sick and she died the next afternoon.
By then, the news was pumping out information being fed to them by stupid government employees. The wrong information they told us and the stuff they didn't say really fucked us all. I mean, no one knew that getting bit was a death sentence and a guarentee of coming back one of those things.
Lyndsey, our foster mother, and Glenn, our foster father, didn't know what to do. When they tried to call for an ambulance for Shelby, the lines were busy. They couldn't reach anyone and so they just left her on her bed, covered her up and closed the door. Right after dinner, there was a weird moaning and growling noise coming from her room. Lyndsey walked down the hall and called out her name. Something started to banging into the door from the inside and the sounds became more like a hurt animal would make. The door was shaking in its frame with every hit and Lyndsey was leaning on the wall across from it, crying. Glenn pushed past us foster kids and pulled the door open. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
The thing that used to be Shelby launched herself at Glenn and attached herself to her father, latching onto his neck with her mouth and wrapping her arms and legs around his torso. Blood squirted the hallway and Lyndsey screamed bloody murder over and over with every breath while sliding down the wall! Glenn dropped to his knees and Shelby turned to look at her mother but there was no recognition. She jumped on her mothers crumpled form and sank her teeth into her shoulder. The other fosters started running down the hall, I think to try to help Glenn and Lyndsey. Me, I dove into my room and shoved my shit into my backpack. None of us had much, so it only took me like a minute.
When I looked out into the hallway, everyone was either dead or dying. Shelby was feasting, taking a bite from Glenn, then a nibble from Anna, one of the fosters, followed by a bite from someone else. It kinda looked like a zombie buffet. I waited until she turned her head to take a bite of Randy, another foster kid, and they I booked it down the hall, grabbed Lyndseys purse for the car keys and ran out the front door.
I slid to a stop on the front porch and couldn't believe what I saw! The house across the street was on fire and the lady was eating one of her kids on the front lawn. Next door, the car was on, the radio was playing Kenny G, and the guy was sitting in his underwear, eating his dog in the driveway. As far was I could see, people were running, fighting or being eaten. Screams were coming from most of the houses and smoke was coming from more than a few.
I heard a wet, sliding sound behind me and when I turned, there was Lyndsey or what was left of her. She was dragging her upper body along and trailing a stump for one leg. Glenn and Shelby were following behind her. I guess the others hadn't come back enough to come with them, but the three of them were enough for me. I turned and ran to the car, got in, started it and drove away.
That was January 12th. I have been on my own since then. At first, I went to the grocery store in town, but there were too many walkers around. So I asked myself, what Carl would do in my situation. I mean, everyone made fun of me for watching the Walking Dead, but now it has been , like, training for what to do to survive. I remembered him searching houses for food, keeping on the move, and being a bad-ass. I have tried to do the same. I even found a giant can of pudding, but I couldn't finish it all at once.

Now, I am sitting in this primo house in Aspen. It has solar power and still had food that was edible in the freezer. It didn't look like the house ever lost power for long. I was so stoked to be able to take a hot shower. Whoever lived here had a huge movie collection, so I think I will just hang out here for few days, unless a horde comes through. I found some earphones, so I can listen to the movies as loud as I want without attracting any walkers in the neighborhood. Shit, I might just move from house to house here for while. These places are the shit!

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

From the journal of Correctional Officer Steven Williams, April 4

April 4, 2017

We made our way towards the Denver International Airport and it was not easy. We had to use the truck to push hundreds of vehicles out of our path. It took us a couple of days when it should have only taken hours. By the time we had made our way to where the 70 met the 470, I knew we would not be able to drive all the way to the airport. We would have to stop at some point because the concentration of cars would just get too overwhelming for the two of us to move around.
I was ready to call it a day when we finally got to the intersection of the 470 and Pena Blvd but that is when we found the small convoy of vehicles. It looked like they had cleared a path from the North all the way to the intersection and then took what they could carry towards the airport. I was already having doubts about our plan to try to survive in the tunnels because of the number of vehicles stuck on this former interstate that was now a parking lot.

I checked the vehicles and the engines were still warm. We were not far behind whoever belonged to these vehicles. I then looked inside all of them and was given a little bit of comfort when I found the stuff for the kids spread throughout the vehicles. Hopefully, this meant there were families in this group.
Then I thought about it and realized that these people should not have taken the kids with them to see the situation at the airport. Why would they not send scouts out first? What were they thinking? They had no idea if the place was crawling with the undead and they took their kids with them to check?
Jenna and I talked about what we should do and we both decided the right thing to do was to go find the people and make sure they were safe. Hell, maybe we would get lucky and the place would be clear and ready for survival. I wasn't counting on it, but it wasn't impossible.
We grabbed a couple of backpacks and filled them up with as much ammo as we could carry. We loaded ourselves up with a rifle apiece plus several pistols each. We might be the only thing between this group and being consumed by a pack of undead. Then we hiked our way through the car graveyard to the airport.
We positioned ourselves with a view of the front of the terminal and waited. Sure enough, I could see undead converging on the terminal from every direction. Jenna and I were pretty secure but the people in the terminal were sitting ducks. Then the shots started from inside the terminal and shortly after the group started running back towards their convoy. I told Jenna to wait to start shooting until they were close.
When they got close enough, we started shooting. First with single shots taking down the undead closest to the people.Of course, there was just the two of us helping, so some people were taken by the zombies. Finally they were close enough to hear Jenna shouting fo them to head our way and then it was just aim, shoot and repeat. It seemed like it took hours for them to reach us, but once they did, I realized just how unprepared they were. Most of them were runing out of ammo. Thankfully, Jenna and I came over prepared because we had to share with the group. We made our way back to the vehicles and backed our way out on the same trail they had created on their way in.
We spent hours driving away from the airport and only stopped around midnight. By then, I was so tired, I couldn't put two sentences together and everyone else felt the same way. There were some women who had lost their kids and they were busy comforting each other while the other mothers comforted their kids on the loss of their friends.
Jenna and I bedded down in the truck, her in the cab and me in the bed. This was our usual routine and just because there were others around, I saw no reason to change it. Tomorrow should be an interesting day.

From the journal of John Archer, the Archivist, April 5

April 5, 2017

It ended up taking us a week to get to the airport. The closer we got, the more tightly the cars were packed. It became harder and harder to make a path through for our little convoy. And that should have told us something. We weren't the only ones who thought about this place, even though it wasn't declared an emergency shelter. It should have at least made us more cautious in our approach. But we were too excited to have made it to the Denver International Airport and so we just blindly went forward.
By the time we were at the intersection of the 470 and Pena Blvd, we had to leave the vehicles and take just what we could carry. The way was blocked by hundreds of vehicles parked end to end. There was no way to make a clear enough route to get our vehicles through. Again, looking back, this should have been a large clue for us about what we were getting ourselves into. Aaron pointed out that we could come back for whatever else we need from the vehicles once we took a look around, even if it was tomorrow or the day after. Why didn't we send in a team of people to look investigate the situation first? Why did we take everyone, including the children, in with us? One of the main reasons we had decided to come to this place was because of the tunnel system that was supposed to have supplies stored somewhere in them. If we knew that, then everyone did.
We made it to the first terminal and forced the doors open. They made a screeching sound as they slid in their dirty tracks. Gary Bruce, a former Sherriffs Deputy, and Steve Moore, took point on entering the building and chose several of the others to go with them. The group of ten, including Jonathan, our old camp admin, and fellow former button pushers Ed and Adam, went ahead while the rest of us stayed by the doors with weapons pointed out in a circle for protection, children in the center.
We had been waiting less than ten minutes when we heard the first shots and saw Gary, Steve and Adam running ahead of too few others yelling and gesturing for us to go. Behind them, we could see a wall of surging undead. Gary and Steve were taking turns turning and firing at the closet approaching zombies to cover the others as much as they could. From could see right off, the ten men had been pared down to six. Then panic ensued in our group. Mothers grabbed their children and started to run. Some of the adults formed a firing line and fired into the group of undead following our initial entry group.

I stayed with the firing line and tried to take out as many of the hungry dead as I could. I watched as Adam was jumped from behind and dragged to the floor. His screams echoed off the ceiling for a few seconds then ended in a strangled grunt. He was quickly hidden behind the crowd feasting on his still warm flesh as the rest of the creatures swarmed past.
I just kept firing while first Gary and then Steve came even with our line and turned to fire. Russell, a former tire salesman, tripped fifteen feet from us and that was all the undead needed to make a meal out of him. Steve yelled for the rest of us to "get the fuck outta here" and we turned to go after the rest of our group. Paul, the last man to fire, was pulled down before he could take more than four steps. He pulled the pin on a grenade he had been showing everyone since the begining as he was covered by a blanket of biting undead. The last thing I heard him yell was "Fire in the hole!" and then the ground shook and pieces of bodies were flying through the air.
Once the world righted itself again, I could see the rest of our people running about 50 yards ahead of us, but I could also see the undead coming towards them from all sides. We were screwed. Marjorie was near the front holding her daughter, Catherine, and pulling her son Matthew behind her. One of the undead, a pilot by his uniform, tackled her and before she hit the ground, her and the girl were covered by the creatures. Henry, a former PE teacher, grabbed Matthew from the side and pulled him away from his disappearing family and tucked him under his arm like an extra large football. There was no where to go, though, we were surrounded and our group started to circle up. Women and children were crying and even the men were making scared noises that they would later deny were cries of fear and despair.
Suddenly from our left, a burst of semi-automatic gunfire took out a large group of undead and a young female voice yelled "This way!". This was followed by continued bursts gunfire as we all started racing for our unknown rescuers. People were being culled from our group by the zombies. I saw Jessica, our camp assigned RN, carrying Tim while his mother ran next to her carrying his sister. I saw a large zombie, wearing a chauffeurs uniform, lunge out of the crowd of undead and pull her down. His mother, Stephanie, started to stop but Henry grabbed her arm and dragged her along.
Time seemed to slow down. I just concentrated on fire, step back and repeat. I saw others in our group fall to the mass of undead. I watched Debbie, a four year old, pulled from her screaming mothers' arms. Gordon, who was a lawyer before the pandemic, did not allow Pam to stop for her daughter and pushed her from behind before succumbing to the undead creatures himself. After that, I my mind fogged over and I just looked where I was shooting. My world became fire, step back, and repeat with the occasional break for reloading. We fought our way out of the area around the airport step by retreating step.
When I finally caught sight of our rescuers, I was suprised to see only two people. One was a large man who looked very capable with the firearms on his person. The other was a teenage girl who was doing her best to cover our fleeing people. We worked together to make our way past the mile long traffice jam back to where our vehicles had been left. Without our rescuers, we would have run out of ammo and been devoured long before we made it back. As we began to run out, the guy started throwing ammo to whoever was in need from his backpack. When we got back to our convoy, there was a large truck sitting at the rear and I knew it belonged to the strangers. We all piled into the vehicles and backed out the same path we drove in on.
We drove for hours and finally stopped around midnight. Everyone was so tired, we agreed to put talking off until this morning. I am looking forward to learning about our new friends. We also need to take stock of who made it and who didn't. What a day.