From the journal of Manny Stone, June 23

June 23, 2017

     We pulled into this little town yesterday and it was really “cute”, as the girls called it. We turned off on one of the first side streets and made our way to a house that looked fairly secure. We've learned to not go downtown anywhere, since that seems to be the place that most people and zombies congregate, and by avoiding it, we save ourselves a lot of work. Whether it's killing the zombies or out running the live people with bad intentions, it's still work.

     We found this little gingerbread house that was behind a big wrought iron fence and made it our temporary home. When we went inside, as a team, to clear the house, we found it empty and it was a relief. After we cleared the house, we all chose rooms to sleep in and put our stuff in them, before preparing a meal. I was given the master bedroom and in the bathroom, on the counter, I found a journal that was pretty short.

     In the journal, the person who used to live in this house had written about themselves and some of their neighbors. There's only one entry, so I read it to see if I could figure out what happened.

“March 3, 2017

My name is Sally Stephens and I've lived in this town my whole life and am amazed that we haven't had more happen in here since the pandemic started. All of my neighbors are still living and we've been helping each other stay that way. Mrs. Duchovny, in the house on my right, and I have been trading canned goods back and forth so we both still have variety. Mr. Brown, in the house on the left, has been doing a patrol every two hours around our neighborhood, to make sure we're all safe.

Everyone has gotten together for meetings at the community center and we've set up a call tree, using walkie-talkies, for if something happens. That way, everyone can be notified within ten minutes. We did a run through and timed it last week, just to be sure.

The ladies auxillary club has been spreading out their preserved foods to all the towns people and baking bread for everyone. The Shriners have been checking on all the elderly in our town, and making sure they have enough food.

We have always been a close town, and this has only brought us closer.

Wait, there' a weird noise coming from outside. Kinda like a moaning movie ghost mixed with a rabid dog. I better go check it out. Be right back.”

     That's the end of the journal. I'm pretty sure it was the undead. That's a sound we've all become familiar with since the dead started to rise. I hope when we go scavenging tomorrow that we don't find the whole town undead and hungry. We better go really well armed and maybe we should take the truck instead of going on foot. I better mention the journal entry and talk to the others before we go. Better to be safe than sorry.

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.