From the recovered journal of the Battle of the New Alamo, May 19

May 19, 2017

I am alone now. For the last week, Michelle has been slipping further and further away from reality. When we first made it over here, she started out spending all her time reading. We had brought the few western books we found in Samuel's things and then we found the small library in one of the offices. She stayed in that room, pretty much all day, from the first day we found it.
Then, about 6 days ago, I caught her talking out loud to a character in one of the books she'd read. Michelle wasn't reading out loud from one of the books, either. When I heard her talking, I snuck up to the doorway and peeked inside. She was just having a one sided conversation with someone who wasn't there. She was facing away from the door and was even gesturing with her hands like she would if she was talking to me. I walked back down the hallway and called out to her like I was just looking for her and hadn't seen her talking to nothing.
She responded like normal and she acted like nothing was wrong. At fist, I thought I had maybe just imagined or exaggerated in my mind what I had seen. But the next day, I heard a really loud voice and when I went to check on her, she was arguing with someone who wasn't there. I had to almost shout for her to hear me over whatever was going on in her head and she sort of snapped out of it once I got through to her. She apologized and said it wouldn't happen again.

But it did, just not as loud. That same day, I caught her in the kitchen talking someone through her demonstration of making stir fry. She didn't even see me walk in and I just watched her for a few minutes, then walked away. It seemed like every hour, she slipped farther away from me and into the world in her mind. There were more people there, she said some names like Jerry, David, Tony, Elisabeth and Lisa. I don't know if there were all characters in the books or if they might have been people she knew before the pandemic. I guess it doesn't really matter.
Yesterday, I tried to get her attention but she just couldn't seem to see or hear me. I yelled at her, I waved my arms, I'm ashamed to say I even pushed her. But, I'm just not in her 'reality' anymore, so she either really can't see or hear me, or she just ignores me.
Today, when I got up, I found a note scribbled on the desk in the office about going to the beach with her friends and she'll be back before dinner. She's gone. The doors were all closed, so she at least knew to close them behind her. I looked out all the windows and saw a group of feasting undead on the back side of the chapel office. I know there wasn't anything out there for them to eat last night, so I can only imagine it was her they were eating. Did she know what was happening? Did she come out of her delusion when they started eating her? Did she feel what was happening? I just don't know.
All I know is I'm now alone. What the hell am I supposed to do now?

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.