From the journal of Marie Costa, May 22

May 22, 2017

Sarah, Alice and Jake have just gotten back. Sarah's best friend was not alive when they got to their apartment. Jake put what was left of her friend out of her undead misery and then they headed over to Alice's home.
Alice's sister, Terry, was alive and there were three other ladies there from the neighborhood: Cindy Garcia, Brenda Moon and Sally Wilson. They piled into Terry's little car and followed the truck to Jake's home.
When they got there, they were met with the business end of a  couple of shotguns, until Jake called out to his father and grandfather. There was a very happy reunion that included three male cousins , two female cousins, an aunt, an uncle and two spouses of family members. It was quite a group and they decided to stay there for the night.
I had mentioned the need for more living space and they sat down to make a plan for picking up a couple of RV's or trailers before heading back to the cabin. They were asked to stop at one of the nursery's to look for seed for crops and vegetables and anything we might need to get them started. We have to start thinking ahead about fresh food. I had also asked them to swing by the store and see if they could confirm that Jackie and Andrew really are dead, or undead, and if so, how they died, but only if it is clear.

Sarah told me that the next morning, Jake and her went on a scouting mission, looking for the RV's or trailers. They took a couple of Jake's cousins, Josh and Sean,with them and headed to the store first. When they got there, it was pretty quiet, with only a couple of zombies milling about.
They pulled up to the front of the store and honked the horn to get the attention of any undead in the store. It only took a couple of minutes before five undead stumbled out the breach in the window where the truck stuck out of the building. Sarah said she started crying when Jackie and Andrew were right behind the first group of undead. They both had been shot in the midriff more than once each and both had a bunch of bite marks and bits of skin hanging from their limbs.
Jake used a pistol his father had given to him to put them out of their ravenous misery, then they left the parking lot and went in search of movable living space. They were more successful than they had hoped and brought back four RV's, three trailers and one fifth wheel. They had to appropriate a few trucks to get the trailers back,  but we are in a lot better shape living space-wise now.

When we left the store, there were 11 of us. It felt like a lot of people, especially when we first crammed into the cabin. Then, the guys brought Miguel and Danny back and we were 13. This last trip, they brought 15 people back with them and we now have 28 people here at the cabin. With the movable living spaces set up, we are not as crowded as we could've been.
We still need to find a few more RV's or trailers so we have room to expand and we need to have a meeting with everyone to talk about the future and set up our little community. With this many people, we are going to have to agree on a set of rules and give everyone a job to get us set up and working together to survive.

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.