August
19, 2017
I
finally got a few free moments to find another journal to read from
the archive. I chose one at random and sat down to read it after
dinner. It's now around 4 am and I had to finish it once I had
started. I couldn't put it down!
The
man who wrote it, Milton Tanner, started the journal the day the news
reported the pandemic to the public. He lived in a small town back
East and they were a close knit community that supported each other
through all situations. He wrote about the widow on the edge of town
whose house the town men painted right before the pandemic started.
He wrote about the mayor and his daughters, and how they always drove
through town too fast and got tickets he had to pay off for them. He
wrote stories for almost everyone in his town and the surrounding
area, then he started explaining what had happened since the news
report heard round the world.
The
first thing to change in Milton's world was the municipalities:
power, phones, gas, water and sewer. They saw the news reports around
March 1st and the municipalities turned of around the
10th. People were upset, but most everyone had a fireplace
or wood burning stove, so they could at least stay warm. The church
opened their pantry and made sure everyone had enough candles to
light their way at night. It was decided at a town meeting that some
people or families were going to be paired together and would move
into the best house between them, so less wood would be needed and
the elderly or sick could be moved in with others to help them.
It
took a week to get everyone organized and moved. Once it was done, it
did work better. The town decided that all the supplies should be
centralized and then passed out to everyone to make sure no one was
going hungry. They turned the town hall into the main distribution
point and even boarded up the windows and made sure the building was
secured to be the last point of defense, in case the worst happens.
Then,
things went well for quite a while. They sent out teams to scavenge
for everyone and were building a fence around the whole town. They
held meetings and made plans for the future for growing crops and
surviving as a group.
But
something happened to change everything. A horde came through and
they didn't have enough sentries to get enough of a warning for
everyone. By the time enough people knew what was coming, they didn't
have time to do more than run for the Town Hall. Over half the town
made it inside before the undead came into sight. Milton and the
other men secured the doors and went around to make sure all the
windows were completely secure.
The
undead surrounded the building and pounded on the walls while making
that creepy moaning and growling noise everyone now associates with
the zombies. The last entry is included below:
“We've
been stuck inside this building for two weeks now. The food and water
are getting low and so is morale. The noise from the hands of the
undead pounding on the outside of Town Hall never stops, just as
their moaning never stops. It's enough to drive everyone crazy and
makes it hard to get any restful sleep. The boards on the doors and
windows are starting to crack and split, so we know it won't be long
before the undead are breaking through and we're all goners. Now the
question is, do we just wait for it to happen? Or do we use the guns
we have and take ourselves out and just leave our meat for them to
eat? I know what I'm going to do, even if others decide to wait it
out. I'm going to shoot myself and make sure I don't feel it when my
body is torn apart by the monsters outside.
If
you're reading this, know we didn't want it to end this way. We would
have kept our community going and civilization going if this horde
hadn't come through. We should've had more guards and sentries posted
to give us warning. We should have had a plan in place for this
situation, but we didn't. We just went along, blissfully unaware of
what could come through. This is going to be my last entry. Tonight
we vote on what the group wants to do and tomorrow we follow through.
May God have mercy on us all.
Milton
Tanner”
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment