Wednesday, September 26, 2018

From the journal of Alanna Morgan, July 3


July 3, 2017

     I let Leslie read my first entry and he said I should explain why I'm writing this down. I was voted by everyone else to write down how we got to where we are. I don't know why I'm the one that was chosen, but I agreed to do it.

     Well, let's see, we left the little New Mexico town we had been staying in, I don't remember the name. I'd stayed in dozens of them over the years of making low budget horror films, all of us had. That's the life we lived. Moving from place to place with each new production, not making enough to always go home between movies, living from a bag in hotels and eating food other people made.
That night, we made it to this old, abandoned adobe house just over the Colorado border. We huddled together and made a fire in the middle of the roofless living room. We had set up a watch schedule and the ones on duty had the two pistols I owned and had brought with me for personal protection.
None of us slept very well. Every little sound made us jump and any movement made the ones on watch turn on their flashlights, which would wake up any of us who had managed to get to sleep. Most of us had given up before the sun rose the next morning and were up, making camp coffee over the fire. By around 9 am everyone was up and ready to move on.
     We got back in the truck and headed out after breakfast and by around 1 pm, we had found a compound of people who, while suspicious, were willing to take us in. They called themselves Alive Farms and had around 30 people already in their community. We met with their leader, Jose Pina, and were interviewed about who we were, where we came from, and what we had experienced so far. Jose thought it was amusing that when the zombies attacked, we didn't know because of the extras in make-up. Then he wondered if we could use this skill, along with something he'd seen in the Walking Dead, to get around the undead. In the show, they cut open a zombie and rubbed its smelly decomp on themselves to fool the zombies sense of smell. Jose wondered if this would work and we decided to try it sometime in the near future. They had tried to just do the smell thing, but the zombies could still pick them off, so if we do the make-up too, maybe, it will fool them.
     We spent a week settling in, everyone was given a job and a schedule for patrol duty, and we became part of their community. We've been here ever since and most of our skills have been appreciated. Jason, who was one of our carpenters to build sets and set pieces, has been teaching people how to properly build and fix the buildings that are already here. We also brought people from the catering team, who know how to cook and they've been working with some of the older wives to come up with recipes for what we have to eat.
     This place, so far, has been safe and secure and we are grateful they took us in. We had no where to go, since we all lived in Southern California, and we were going to die if we stayed out on the road. Whether it would've been death by zombie or death by mishap or death by people who turned to the dark side, it wouldn't have mattered. We would've been dead. And now, we have a chance to be part of this group, surviving and living. Please, keep us safe, anything listening out there. God, the universe, Odin, anyone listening. Please, keep us safe.



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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