From the journal of Earl Thompson, June 3

June 3, 2017

     I think we're in North Eastern Pennsylvania near the Allegheny National Forest. We're going to try to find a cabin to rest in for a few days. The more remote it is, the better. I know there should at least be cabins for the Rangers that used to be assigned to the park. If there's a visitors center, they should have information about any buildings in the forest. This would severely cut the amount of search time we'd have to spend before finding our rest.

     Annie, Lisa, Phil and I have been driving on back roads for two days now with little to no rest. Even a night, we drive slowly, with the lights out, and hope that nothing jumps in front of us. We haven't seen a lot of undead on the roads, especially since we've made it a point to avoid all cities and towns. We need to take a few days to sleep and look at some maps to chose a route and a destination.

That's not to say we haven't had our share of problems. We've had a couple of run in's with groups of 10-15 undead, but nothing like the numbers that were roaming Boston. Twice, we were able to just drive over and through them, then pick off the hangers-on. But the third time, we had to change our course and take the time to take out at least half of the ones in our way before we could make it through. The debris made it a bottleneck but we made it through.

     There were several places that had road blocks we had to clear. About half the time, it was a naturally fallen tree or a car crash blocking the way. But the other half of the time, the road blocks were made by people and we had to be extra careful and watchful. The three times we found man made road blocks, we didn't see anyone still alive. We even found a small cabin one time but the only person there looked like they'd been bit and had taken their own life. We searched the place and found several rifles, a handful of hand guns and a bunch of ammo. We also found MRE's, which are filling and nutritional, but not my favorite, and lots of canned goods. This find more than doubled our supplies and I felt better about our situation.

     We even ran into a man who acted like a zombie when we tried to talk to him. We could tell he was alive since he didn't have any wounds, blood or missing bits and he still had color in his face. But when we spoke to him, he started imitating the groaning and moaning sound the undead make. Then he lunged at us and tried to bite all of us. I kept trying to talk to him, kept looking in his eyes to see if there was a spark of intelligence, but never saw any. We ended up having to kill him to shut him up, the noise he was making drew five undead that we had to take out.

     I never thought I'd see someone acting like the undead. I remember reading about them in zombie novels I'd read before all this began, but I didn't think it would reallly happen. Seeing it was disturbing and I will remember that guy for the rest of my life. And I won't make the same mistake again. While he looked alive, he was really dirty. He had bits of whatever he'd been eating down his front, his pants and shoes were covered in mud and leaves and sticks. His hair was filthy and had the same debris as his pants and hadn't been combed in way too long. He walked like one of the undead, just stumbling along until he heard us, then he came “alive” and attacked. We'd keep our eyes open and if we ran across anyone else like this, we'd treat them like we did the undead. Besides, they were already undead in their minds.

     The others are starting to wake up. Once they eat we'll head for the main entrance to the Allegheny National Forest and hope for a visitor's center. From there, we'll know if we have to search for a cabin, or if we know where to go. I'm looking forward to being in one place for more than enough time to sleep. I also want to figure out where we're going and plan a route to get there. I'll feel better once a decision has been made and since I'm not alone anymore, we need to decide together.

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.