From the journal of Sarah Richards, May 15

May 15, 2017

We've been on the road to Buckner now for two days and we've only made it a quarter of the way. The road is overgrown and there are a ton of downed trees that have been rotting for years. It makes getting them out of the way a little harder because they turn to mush as you try to cut them up, or they're hard as stone and there's no way the chainsaw will be able to cut them at all. I think we might have been too optimistic about our chances of even getting close to Buckner on this old road. Sucks.
Matt said he thinks we should send out a scouting party for a couple of hours to see if there is an easier path to get through. He says sometimes when people clear trees for firewood, they can make clear paths that aren't really roads and so won't show up on any maps. He says there might be old logging or mining roads out this way too that might not be on any maps.
Mom says we'll talk about it tonight, after we see how far we get today. I'm think we should all go for a scouting mission. We shouldn't split up since there's only five of us. That way, if something happens and it all goes south, as Dad used to say, we're all still together and we only have to head for Buckner through the trees, not try to make it back to get part of out group. Maybe, we can try it first thing tomorrow, I'll talk to Mom about it today.

I can't wait to get everyone and everything ready and moved. We'll have lots of room and not be in a crumbling, drafty old building that stinks of mildew and rot. I know Mandy's family will be a lot happier since all her Mother and sister do is complain. They're alive, aren't they? So the place we stay for safety isn't ideal, it's worked so far. I know the place in town will be better in some ways, but will it be as safe or safer than Buckner? I don't know.
Being in Buckner has kept us just far enough away from the Towers and from the town so we went unnoticed by the undead from the cruise ship. Most of them are still in the Towers building and I don't know if they are smart enough to all get back out and look for live food in the wild. There are still some in the port, but not a lot that we've seen. I don't think anywhere is really going to be safe if the ones in the Towers get out or if another ship runs aground here. If that happens, the only thing to do will be to head into the wild and hope they can't follow you.
It's going to be weird being on the very edge of the port. There will be places to search for supplies and we won't have to go through the tunnel any more. I wonder if there are any other people left alive anywhere in the port? The guys said they didn't see anyone else, but if someone was really quiet and didn't want to be seen, they could probably do it. We're going to have to come up with a system for marking the houses and buildings as we search them. And we're going to have to make a list of what the houses have that we might need at a later date, like clothes or blankets. We don't want to weigh ourselves down with them, but we need to know where we can find them if we need them.
We should also gather all the medical supplies we find. We need to know what we have and have it available in case of an emergency. It won't do us any good if we need bandages and they're halfway across the port.
Wow, it's going to be a lot of work to get our place set up and stocked. Gotta go, time to start trying to clear the old road.

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