July
5, 2017
Our
new people are settling in well. They're finding their place, whether
it's in the kitchen, garden or the construction crew. Our community
is really getting organized and getting more people here, and in
places where their skills and knowledge can be assets to the whole
group, is the key.
I
asked our new people to write brief notes about their experiences
since the pandemic started. I thought I would include some of them
here, as practice for the archive I'm starting. So far, I have notes,
letters and journals from over 100 people from a handful of states.
Mary
Taylor is one of the newest members of our group and provided me with
a letter of her experiences.
“My name is Mary Taylor and I
lived in Bishop, California and was a guide for rock climbers. I
loved my work, even when the people who hired me were idiots. The
town sits right between the Sierra Nevada's and the White Mountains.
It's well known for bouldering problems. It's the reason I'm one of
the lucky ones, I was in great physical shape.
When
the undead made it to our town, I was out bouldering with these corporate business types and had just gotten them all about 10 feet
off the ground and heading up. Thank God they were already out of
reach! I heard people screaming at the area where people would wait
for their loved ones to finish. Then the stampede started heading
right by us, all running in panic and not really thinking about
survival. I immediately started climbing and by the time I was just
out of reach, the zombies started taking out the people at the back
or the crowd. The ones who didn't exercise or were injured or just
slow. The screams were horrible.
I
just kept going, trying to block out the sounds from below. The
screaming, crunching, slurping, tearing sounds accompanied by the
moaning and growling from the zombies trying to get their piece of
flesh. I just kept going up. Hand hold, secure, move, find foot hold,
repeat. I heard someone above me lose his hand hold and the scream
passed by me to the left about five feet. Lucky bastard, the fall
killed him and he didn't feel the zombies eating him. Finally, I
reached the top and found five of the seven members of our group, the
other two, the guy who fell and one who refused to stay up there and
started down the other side.
They
all started asking me what we were going to do next, so I told them
to sit down, stay quiet and hope the zombies left after they finished
their snack below. It took at least two and a half hours for the
undead to completely finish their meal, then they got up and looked
around but they didn't move. Now I know there wasn't anything to draw
them like sounds, smells, or the sight of something not undead
moving. We were up shit creak.
I
passed around the bottles of water I had and everyone got half a
granola bar. I made sure to tell them that the bottles were all I
had, so the one they got had to last. But of course, someone always
just does what they want and one of the men drank over half his
bottle in one go. Hey, it's his funeral, not mine.
I
sipped my water and ate my part of the granola bar and kept quiet. I
spent some time securing ropes to the rings for that purpose, making
it easier to get out of shape executives down if they made it all the
way up here. Then I settled down to wait and looked around.
I could see some other people who were on nighboring bouldering
problems. There had to be at least 50 people either on the tops or
working their ways up that I could see. What the hell were we going
to do? We were all stuck up here until something drew the attention
of the zombies around us. I know I didn't plan to be out here longer
than the day and only had 10 bottles of water and 10 granola bars,
just a snack for my group before climbing down.
That's
when the fighting started. One of the bouldering problems was really
getting crowded and someone started yelling and pushing and two
people fell off the edge and screamed on the way down. Everyone else
froze. Then the biggest guy over there grabbed the guy who had
started it all, dragged him to the edge by his throat and threw him
over. No one tried to stop him and no one did anything after.
The
undead below up followed the sound of the screams and our area
cleared out. I told the guys lets go and threw the ropes down. We had
practiced the way to rapel down, and they all did it well for
beginners. I made it down first and pulled out my knife, ready to
defend myself if any zombies were around. The men made it down and we
headed for our cars. We ran into a couple of zombies, but were able
to take care of them and get to our cars. Several other groups made
it out, too. I ran into a couple of other guides and we decided to
take our four wheel drive trucks around the bouldering problems and
use sound to draw the undead away from the rest of the people and
give them a chance.
Once
we had drawn them far enough away, we split up and went our separate ways. I went home and hoped to find my girlfriend, Erica, home, safe
and sound. Her truck was out front but when I went in, I found what
was left of her in the kitchen. The glass doors were broken and she
was being devoured by two undead construction workers. I kinda
blacked out for a second and when I came back, the zombies were dead
and I was kneeling next to Erica on the floor. I cried for I don't
know how long, before it came to me that I had to take out her brain,
or she'd come back and I didn't know how long that would take. I
don't remember doing it, but I know I did.
I
stumbled out of the kitchen to our room, closed and locked the door
and just went away mentally for a while. I woke up, curled up in the
middle of my bed, covered in Erica's blood. I changed clothes and
packed some bags with my personal possessions, a few things of
Erica's to remember her by, and grabbed the .9 mm pistol from my
nightstand. Then, I left the bedroom, packed what I needed in the
rest of the house before going back to the kitchen last. I packed up
all the food I could and started taking everything I packed into my
truck. I siphoned all the gas from Erica's truck into an empty gas
can and grabbed the five full ones we kept on hand for the generator
we have for winter. Then, I drove away from my home, heading East.
I
was really lucky that I made it all the way to Aspen in my truck. I
stuck to as many back roads as I could, scavenged and slept mostly in
my truck. It felt safer than staying in houses by myself. I would
find somewhere to pull my truck, like a garage or alley somewhere I
was protected on at least two sides, preferably three.
I'm
really thankful that I found this place and this group. I was really
tired of being on my own but was scared to try to find a group
because of some of the things I found on the way here. Women, dead
and still tied to beds they were raped in. People crucified, hanged,
burned, or just stabbed and left undead. Sick things and I was really
lucky to not meet the people who did them.
It's
good to see some civilization exists still in this world of chaos.
Mary
Taylor”
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.
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