From the Journal of Rebecca Martin, April 25

This journal was written by Rebecca Martin, an employee at the Jaspar County Circuit Clerk's office. She was inside when their town was swarmed by a group of undead that had come from a emergency center near Greenup on Interstate 70. She survived on food found in offices and in the cafateria. The building had been overrun, but she slowly cleared it out and boarded it up, with the help of several other employees who did not survive the process.

April 25, 2017

     Today, Alice died. She was the last of the group that I had holed up with in the Jaspar County Circuit Clerk building. There were 15 of us at first. Most of us were already in the building when the horde came through two months ago. We knew that the rest of the world was gone, but it really hadn't hit Newton hard. There were only a couple of people in town who turned and they were taken care of by their own family. The rest of the town set up patrols and we kept the few that wandered through from infecting anyone else.
     Then, last month, a horde came from the north and swept through town. There must have been a couple hundred of them. I was on the second floor when the shots outside started. I looked out the window and saw the end of our little community. Alice was in the office next door so I ran into her area and together we headed for the attic. It is the only place that has no windows and is able to be completely closed off from the rest of the building.

     When we got there, Kenneth was manning the door and there were already 10 others inside. By the time the zombies could be heard breaking into the first floor, there were 15 of us in all: Judge Ronald Heager and his baliffs, Charles Haydown and Marcus Altwood; Marianne Northon, the Prosecutor, Matthew Madison, the Defense Attorney and his client, Everett Baker; Annie Hall, the court reporter; John Smith, Tony Pascal, Martin Farmer, the deputies who manned the doors downstairs; Carl Marker, the man who ran the coffee cart in the lobby; Alice Porter, Stephanie Mason, Sandy Mayhew and myself, secretaries and transcribers for the courts.
     No one else came to the door to the attic. At least no one still alive. When we first closed the door, everyone looked around for anything that could be used as a weapon. Charles, Marcus, John, Tony and Martin all had sidearms, but the sound might draw more of them. We all looked through the junk that had been discarded up here over the years. I took a leg off a broken desk. We all huddled together as far from the door as we could. We could hear screams from the people stuck in the building below us. The undead also make this horrible moaning, growling sound when they are going after prey. It went on for hours and all of us just prayed they didn't figure out we were in here.
     Some of the undead in our building were eventually drawn back outside by the sounds of gunfire, screams, cars trying to drive away and all the other sounds from the chaos on the streets. We stayed in the attic, quietly, the rest of the day and all night. When the sun came up, Judge Heager whispered that we needed to make a plan. We all whispered and debated and finally decided to send a scout out to see if the building was completely overrun. John volunteered and quietly snuck out the attic door. He was gone about 20 minutes and when he returned, he said there were around 20 left throughout the building. Some of the ones on the first floor were at the windows and trying to get out at any sign of movement, even other undead. But he said the ones on the second and third floors were in an odd way. They just stood in one spot and looked like they were asleep, like they were waiting for something to move before they wasted energy on moving themselves.
     The next couple of hours we talked and planned and everyone finally agreed on a course of action. We cleared out the building, floor by floor, over the next couple of days. We searched all the offices and found enough food to live until we made it into the cafateria. It took longer than we thought it would, with having to find ways to sneak up on them out of sight, and then take them out quietly.  But, if they saw someone, they would start that horrible noise again and draw others to where they were.
     Once the second and third floors were clear, we blocked off the stairways and moved our sleeping area from the attic to the adjoining judge's offices. They were really nice and had couches, comfortable chairs and more room than the other offices. We had decided to stay as a group and not spread out, just in case the zombies made it up the stairs. Together, we could fight more off than by ourselves. This was made very clear when we lost Annie and Matthew. They had snuck off to find a moment alone together and somehow one of the undead found them while they were in the middle of fooling around. They both died and we all heard their screams as they were ripped apart. Charles and Marcus rushed to help them, but by the time they figured out where the screams were coming from, it was too late for anyone to be able to help them. All they could do was take out the undead who had found them and make sure that Annie and Matthew could not come back as one of the zombies.

     Next, we worked our way through the ones on the first floor. As we cleared rooms, including the courtrooms, we covered the windows with whatever we could find and closed them off from the rest of the uncleared part of the building. It took over a week to clear and secure the first floor and it was not without casualties. We lost four more clearing the rest of the rooms:  Carl, Sandy, Tony and Marianne. Our group that started at 15 was down to 9.
     The rest of us made sure all the openings were secured and then we went to the cafateria. We had a good meal that day, but not huge because we knew we would need to make the food last. From there, we spent our days surviving and trying to keep our little place secure.
     Eventually, we had to go out to find more food. We lost more of our group on scavenging missions. Charles and Everett were bitten. We all tried to save them but still ended up watching them die. We made sure there was no chance of them reanimating but couldn't even bury them because there are way too many outside.
     Now, I am alone and have no one left to talk to. Alice has not been able to provide much company since she was scratched on the last scavenging mission. She as the only one who came back alive and it was down to just the two of us. We didn't know that she would die like Charles and Marcus, and just from a scratch. It took longer, but she died horribly.
     I don't know what I am going to do now. Should I stay here or should I try to go somewhere else? I have no idea. That is why I wrote this down. In case anyone comes looking for someone who worked here. At least, they will know what happened to their loved ones. Who knows if I will survive or not.

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