From the letter from Marianna Frakes, April 13

This letter was found in a small town community college stadium. The building itself was old and ugly, but for the people in Shelbyville, it was supposed to be a sanctuary. The letter was found by James Cohen, Rebecca Martin and their group on their journey to the Greenbriar. It is included because it shows how fast a good situation can turn deadly.

April 13, 2017

To whoever finds this letter,

The people of Shelbyville thought they would be safe here at the Shelbyville Community College stadium. It was built in the early 80's and it is an eyesore, made of concrete and metal and looking like it belonged somewhere in the USSR instead of small town USA. But it's sturdy and has iron gates that can be closed and secure the stadium. We had a meeting in the auditorium for the whole town and it was decided that anyone who wanted to band together would meet at the stadium. It could fit 5,000 people in the seats and the field and locker rooms could fit at least another 4,000-5,000. Our community has somewhere around 14,000 but not everyone was still alive, around or interested.
We all went home and packed all the supplies we had to put in the pot for everyone and then we started showing up that afternoon to stay. There were more than 7,800 of the townspeople who came to the stadium for safety. The first week was ok, a little cramped, but since there weren't a bunch of undead around, we would go outside the stadium during the day and the kids would play on the lawn around it. People made trips to the library to get books and we sent a group to the store and cafeteria to get all the food supplies on campus.
Then the first small horde of zombies came. There weren't more than 150 undead, but we didn't have many people experienced in taking out the undead. We sent a group of 180 or so out, the people who seemed to know what they were doing, but it took them a really long time to take out the zombies and we lost at least 20 of them. But one of them had been bitten and didn't tell anyone. I don't know what he was thinking, putting everyone in danger like that. Before he got too sick, he moved himself to an equipment locker and that's where he died and turned.
The day he was let out started like all the days since we moved into the stadium. It was nice out and there was talk of taking out the 50 or so undead milling around outside and taking the kids outside. Breakfast was being served to the third group, since there were too many to feed in one service. The screaming started at the back of the field. People started running and no one knew what was happening.
From what I have figured out, talking to the few people who lived through the initial attack, a group of kids opened the door to the equipment room and were attacked by the now undead guy. The room is far enough in the hallways from the door that no one really heard them being bitten. One of the kids ran to an emergency exit and opened the door to get away from what was happening, but there was a small group of 25 or so undead right outside the door and he ended up letting them in. They swept through the group of kids and followed one of the hurt kids out onto the field. That's when the screaming started in the stadium.
Chaos followed and other people opened other doors and let other undead into the party. The screams were drawing more and more of the zombies from the surrounding streets and they came through the open doors to enjoy the carnage. I locked myself in the snack shack with a couple of other people and we hid and covered our ears, trying to block out the sounds of screaming, crunching and the moans of the undead.
It took hours for it to start to quiet down, hours where I was sure I would go mad from listening to the townspeople being killed and eaten. While I was huddled in the corner, covering my ears with my face on my knees, one of the people in the snack shack died from wounds she hid. I don't know how long it takes most people to turn, but she turned within an hour or so and started biting those of us in here. I ended her undead existence, but she bit all four of us in the struggle.
We know what is going to happen. We talked it through and since I was an English major, I was elected to write about what happened here. The others are already dead, and going to stay that way. None of us want to turn into one of those things, so we drew straws and I was the one who had to shoot them in the head, one by one, and then kill myself, after writing this down.
Whoever finds this, know that we tried and failed. We should have been way more vigitant about checking people for bites and we should have never had the doors able to just be opened, they should have been secured in some way. Please, don't blame us for our failings.
I hope you are able to survive and maybe, some day, if anyone survived this whole thing, maybe our experience will help them in some way, Be safe, be vigilant, be alive.

Marianna Frakes
Former English Major

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.