From the digital camera carried by Joan Welsh, found in Austin Texas, found on March 28

This video was found by a force of the Texas Freedom Fighters. The group was set up to find food for the fortified cities of Houston, El Paso and Dallas/Fort Worth. None of them have near the populations they had before the pandemic, but each houses an average of 40,000- 50,000 people. The TFF search any town or city that was taken over by the undead for food and supplies. The digital camera was found lying on the sidewalk outside the Darrell K Royal- Texas Memorial Stadium. The battery was dead but the memory was intact so the Fighter grabbed it for review later.

The screen turns from black to blue then wavy lines appear moving across the screen. The view is of the inside of a car on a city street littered with cars and other detritus. The camera is sitting on the middle of the dashboard facing the drivers seat. The first person you see is an over made up, bottle blonde with a smile that shows all her capped front teeth. Her voice comes from her nose with an over exaggerated Texas drawl. She is wearing a turquoise suit jacket with black slacks and four inch heels.

JOAN WELSH

My name is Joan Welsh from Fox 7 News, KTBC. I have come to the down town are of Austin to see for myself whether the rumors are true that the Darrel K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium has been overrun by the undead. I have come here against the advice of my superiors at KTBC.  This is my big chance to try for a day time Emmy. Well, once the government gets control and life returns to normal. 

She grabs the camera with her right hand and pulls the car door handle with her left. She gets out of the car, grabs a large bag for her left shoulder and closes the door with a loud click that echoes off the buildings around the stadium. She places the camera on the roof of the blue car and strikes a pose with her right hand on her hip and her barracuda smile.

JOAN WELSH

I am going to walk around the stadium to check the status of the building and see if anything is visible through the windows. Our living audience members deserve to know the truth about their loved ones who were evacuated to the stadium. I, Joan Welsh, will go to any lengths to find out the truth for our audience. 

She reaches for the camera and turns to walk towards the stadium smiling so wide, she shows her upper gums. She holds the camera in her right hand and places herself in view with her back towards the stadium between the recording camera and the ground floor view of  the North End Zone building. She focuses the camera and pauses to pull a pair of Opera glasses from the bag on her left shoulder. Then she dramatically turns to look at the windows in view of the camera.

JOAN WELSH

Well, shoot. I can't see anything in those windows. They are filthy! I will continue around the building to see if there are any signs of life through the windows. I am determined to find out the truth that the city officials don't want to be known. 

She pauses, smiles, and poses for the camera then continues walking along the sidewalk.

JOAN WELSH

It has been over a month since they declared down town off limits and evacuated anyone not in the stadium to other emergency centers. Barriers were placed around downtown and the area was sealed off from the rest of the city. Since then, there has been no word from city officials about those people who were taken to the stadium at the beginning of the pandemic. I, myself, have a cousin who was brought here and my family has had no word of what has become of him.

The journalist continues around the building, dodging debris and puddles of fluid on the sidewalk. The only sound that can be heard is her breathing and the click-click-click of her heels on the cement. Every few feet, she pauses dramatically and puts the Opera glasses to her eyes trying to peer through the muck on the windows. Some appear the have been painted with thick, dark brown paint. Others are covered on the inside by what appears to be large pieces of furniture or plywood. Joan continues walking around the third side of the building when she pauses because she sees a few windows that looked clear on the second floor. She almost started to jump up and down with a small squeal, but remembers the camera and visibly gets herself under control.

JOAN WELSH

Finally, I have a view inside the stadium and will see if there is anything moving inside.

She stands watching the window for several minutes before a shadow passes behind it. She turns to the camera with an ever widening smile and points with her other hand towards where the shadow had passed.

JOAN WELSH

I have seen proof that something is moving inside the stadium. I brought an air horn and am going to try to get the attention of whoever is moving in there.

She opens her shoulder bag again and pulls out a white and red can with a blue plastic top. Again, she pauses, smile and poses for the camera. Then she presses the button and a 120 decibel alarm sounds from the small can. The sound rings out for around five seconds and then she stops holding the button. Breathlessly, she laughs and continues speaking.

JOAN WELSH

Let's see if anyone responds from inside.

From inside the stadium, a pounding sound began to be heard. This sound is joined by a chorus of moans. The sound grew louder and louder as more undead inside the stadium are drawn by the noise the others are making. The windows around the stadium begin to show spiderweb patterns and juices are squeezed through these from the force of the undead being pressed against the windows.

JOAN WELSH

Oh, God! Oh, God! I think it is time to leave now. 

The camera view turns from the stadium and starts bouncing as the reporter heads towards where she left her car. Her panting and the rapid clicking of her heels the only sounds picked up by the microphone. She has only gone about ten feet when the sound of shattering windows is heard behind her. She turns and swings the camera with her body to look at the stadium. Four windows on the second floor have been pushed out and undead are pouring out the newly made openings. Several more sounds of shattering can be heard from around the stadium as the journalist turns to run for her car. The sound of bodies hitting the cement can be heard from behind her, as well as the moans echoing out of the stadium's broken windows. It sounds like thousands of voices raised in primal moans all at once. Suddenly, undead begin to stand up from the piles of those falling out the windows, the bodies have piled up high enough that some of the undead are not bashing out their brains when they hit. More sounds of windows breaking sound from the side and above the journalist holding the camera. The view swings wildly as she turns to see how close the creatures are to reaching her and then turns away again to run. The undead are within fifteen feet of the journalist and struggling to escape their completely dead brethren. Squeals can be heard from where the journalist is holding the camera. 

JOAN WELSH

Oh God! Oh, God! What do I do? What do I do? 

The journalist begins to panic as her path forward is becoming blocked by undead pulling themselves out of the pile of falling creatures. A girl of about ten in the remains of a purple flowered dress struggles to pull herself out from under a pile of undead adults, growling and snarling at Joan while gnashing her teeth. A large male zombie falls from the window on the second floor up ahead and rolls down the remains on the sidewalk before getting up and moving towards Joan. Moan can be heard from almost every direction. The sound of the air horn has drawn undead from other parts of the blocked off downtown area. The view in the camera spins around in a circle as the journalist begins to sob and make the sounds all trapped animals make. The circle of approaching zombies grows closer and closer with nothing to give the journalist hope that she will survive her trip today. The camera spins in a circle, around and around, then the first undead reaches Joan. The sound of screams and wet tearing noises replace some of the moans of the undead. The camera falls to the cement and spins from the impact. When it stops, the view is horrific and shows the outstretched arm of a woman being consumed while still alive. Her screams go on for a minute or so and then turns to a gurgling, gasping sound, before finally dying away. The moans of undead trying to get a taste of the journalist are accompanied by more wet, tearing sounds from those around her. The sound of slurping and teeth clicking together provides additional background noise on the recording as the undead continued to eat every last piece of the journalist. Once they had finished, they began to move away and search for other prey. After thirty minutes, the screen turns from the skeleton of the woman into wavy lines before going black.

The aftermath of this incident rippled throughout the surrounding area. The Darrel K Royal- Texas Memorial stadium could hold just over 100,000 spectators. The city had put people in the stadium but also along the hallways and in the any other rooms they could find. That meant there was closer to 160,000 people placed in the stadium as an emergency center. By drawing the attention of the undead inside the stadium, Joan Welsh had caused the windows to give under the pressure of hundreds of bodies pressing against them at once. The undead moved through the downtown area and past the barriers that were put up to hopefully keep them back if they ever were released.  

The Austin/Red Rock area had a population of over 2 million people before the start of the pandemic. The undead in the stadium overran the rest of the city in just a couple of days. By the end of the week, the newly protected fortified city San Antonio had been surrounded. Within the month, there were no survivors. The rest of the fortified cities made their walls higher and stronger and prepared to face down any of the huge herd that walked out of Austin, especially Dallas. They built a series of barriers and cleared them of as many undead as they could. These were deemed the four safety zones and only the Texas Freedom Fighters and the cities enforcers were allowed to move into and through them. 

Dallas never fell to the undead herd. They held out with help from the other fortified cities and then helped the others when they needed it. In this way, these three cities survived 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.

From the journal of Nathan Sanchez, March 25

March 25, 2017

 
   Today, we continued the search of houses nearby. When we walked into this big, white farmhouse, we found two undead in the living room. It was an older couple. She wasn't in bad shape, only one bite on her arm with her clothes covered in bits of meat and blood.. But the man looked like he had been mauled by a large dog. My bet, she turned first and he was her first meal. Most of the soft tissue on his face was gone and he was missing most of his throat so his head was flopping forward at an odd angle. They shuffled towards us, Mr. Floppy following behind Mrs. Snacker, teeth clicking together every few steps.
     Two of the cousins, Rodrigo and Diego, took care of them with baseball bats, while the rest of us kept out of the way. It was messy but necessary and finished quickly. We split up and started searching the house in teams of two. We had learned it is safer to be in pairs than alone. Darren and I started with the living room. On the side table, I found a letter addressed to whoever finds this and put it in my pocket to read later. (I have placed it in my journal with this entry.)
     We hit the mother load! We found a large stockpile of food, including canned goods and home preserved fruits and vegetables. There were two rifles and three pistols and a huge supply of ammo for all of them. The best find though was the wind and solar power systems and generators. None of the cousins who had come to this house knew anything about moving the systems, but Pedro had gone to school to be an electrician. He had studied all kinds of systems and would know how to move them as well as set them up at home. That's when we realized what that could mean. The freezers were working and that was a small miracle! We would have to transport all the contents and the appliances themselves, we had already moved the ones at the ranch out when the stuff in them rotted.
     There was a brief discussion about moving to this ranch because the power was already set up, but the house was smaller than ours and would need too much work to get it to the conditions we live in now. It took us an hour to load up everything we were taking home today, then we pulled out and drove to the next house.
    The rest of the day was ok. We found more food, weapons and even some medical supplies. After finishing our three locations, we returned to the ranch and unloaded what we had scavenged. Consuela came out and had her army of helpers put everything in the proper storage locations while I went to find Pedro.
     Plans were made to return with Pedro and a couple of the other cousins who were apprenticing with him to move the systems and generators. Our group of cousins will be going with them to show them what we found and because we can help carry the parts back home. It will be nice to have a day off from searching houses even if we would be labor for Pedro and his boys.
     Dinner was a feast! We had brought home several frozen chunks of meat and Consuela's crew had worked their magic. Everyone got a large portion and we had the tables set up in the yard. Lights were strung on the trees and the porch while the food was set up on tables. Food was eaten, spirits drunk, music played and everyone danced. The sentries were changed every hour so everyone could participate. What a night. We probably won't have such a full night for quite a while. I am looking forward to the sandwiches made from the left overs. Tomorrow is looking good.

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.

From a letter found in the Journal of Nathan Sanchez, March 25

     The journal states the letter was found on March 25 in one of the old farm houses near the ranch where the Sanchez family was surviving.

March 15, 2017

     To whoever finds this letter, if we have become one of the undead walking around, please put us out of our misery. Mindy was bit yesterday and has been running a fever ever since. I think she is becoming like Mr. Vertner, who is the one who bit her.  He used to be one of our neighbors and when he got here yesterday, he was acting strange. I thought there was something wrong at his place or he was hurt from the way he was staggering and so I ran towards him with Mindy right behind. Once we were within a couple of feet, he started making this moaning sound and lunged at us. I jumped back but Mindy tripped and he was on her in a flash. I pulled him off of her and pushed him as far from us as I could. But it was already too late.

     I had to use the shovel by the porch to fight him off. He would not stop trying to get at us but mostly at Mindy. It was like the smell of her blood pushed him into a frenzy and he couldn't stop chomping his teeth and making that sound. It's like something between a scream, a moan and the sound a wild animal makes when cornered. I get chills just thinking about it now.
     We knew some of what was going on through the news programs stopped. We knew that people were coming back from the dead and were attacking people around them. I think the news said it started somewhere in Southern California so I didn't think it would spread here so fast. We had been doing fine on our farm. I had gotten into the habit of picking up canned food whenever it was on sale so we would be ok if we got snowed in and Mindy had been canning and making preserves for years so we had an ample supply of food. Our son had come and switched us to solar and wind power while he was in college going through a faze to save the planet. This turned out to be a blessing because with the power we created, we have been able to keep the fridge and freezer on, as well as continue to pump our well water to the house. I really thought we would be safe here until the government got control of the problem. I should have known that the undead would be everywhere, even here.
     We came right inside and cleaned the bite with hydrogen peroxide before putting antibiotic ointment on it. Within the first hour, Mindy was coughing like a lifetime smoker and the bite on her arm was throbbing. Not long after that, the fever came and she had me close all the curtains because her head was pounding, which is unusual for her. Within four hours of being bit, she was throwing up everything I brought to her. I decided to unwrapped the wound and saw that it was really bad. The area around the bite had turned a dark purple and green color like she had been bitten a couple of days ago instead of today. The skin at the edges of the bite had turned black and looked like it was way past infection to already dead tissue. I have no idea what the right thing to do is. I thought about trying to cut away the really dead stuff, but I have no idea how to do it. I wish I had taken that first aid class with Mindy two years ago, although zombie bites were not on anyone's radar back then so they would not have taught us about them.
     I know I should do something, tie her to the bed or lock the door. Maybe I should leave, or put her out of the state she is now in. But I love her so much and still see our life together every time I look at her. We have been blessed with the farm, children and enough money to not worry every month about how to pay the bills. We have had a happy marriage and taught our children how to be a good partner to someone else. I just can't see her as anything other than herself yet. This is the woman who gave me three beautiful children and kept our house a home while I worked the farm and provided for us. I just don't think I have it in me to kill her, even if she is already infected.
      If anyone finds this letter, I hope that it is not our son or either of our daughters. I wouldn't want any of them to have to be the ones to put us down like I had to put down Mr. Vertner. I don't any of them to have to live with the memory of doing that.
     If we are already completely dead, please make sure we get buried or burned. I don't want our kids to find our bodies or skeletons once they can get through. Please, feel free to take what food you need or stay in our house if we are not here anymore. It makes gives me a little bit of joy to think that our house might save someone else's life, ours has been a happy one here.
     If whoever finds this letter is one of our children, know that we were together until the end and that is how we always said we wanted it to be. I could not leave your mother and know that you understand how much we love each other. Remember the good times and all the laughter we shared as a family.
     Frank, you brought the sun into my life the day you were born and it never stopped shining on you. You were  the best son any man could ever have wanted. I found the Lord the day I looked into your eyes because you were my miracle and I knew that He had to exist because he had chosen you to be my baby boy. I became a better man that day and have you to thank for that.
     Erin , you made me so happy the day you were born. Mindy was so sure you were going to be another boy that she had already decided to name you Aaron James. Well, it changed to Erin Jamie when we saw that we had been blessed with a daughter instead. You made us all laugh at your silly impressions and kept your mothers spirits up when she went through treatment for breast cancer. Without you, our life would have had so much less joy.  I knew in the first moment I looked into your eyes that I had been put on the Earth to be a father to you and your brother. My life felt more complete than it ever had before.
     Shelley, you were our best surprise. You came when your sister was five and we thought we were done with diapers. You came into our life like you live, full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes! You showed us how to live every day like it is the only one you have and to find happiness in even the littlest things. When you were placed into my arms, I knew that I was meant to be there for you through all of life's lessons and my heart grew fuller than it had ever been.
     Know that your mother and I love you all so much and have felt you three were blessings sent by God to fill us with love. Please, don't be sad about us. We lived our lives and you need to do the same, no matter how hard it ends up being. Remember, the Lord does not give you anything you cannot handle and know that we will all be together again in the Kingdom of Heaven. Lord, watch over my children and keep them safe during this very dangerous time.

Lord bless you,
Mark Sharp

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.

From the journal of Correctional Officer Steven Williams, March 25

March 25, 2016

     We have been stuck in the Post Office in Fort Morgan for a three days now. I had looked up the population of the cities on the way to the airport and decided that Fort Morgan seemed like the best option based on that information, almost 14,000 people. The other cities on different routes had a lot more so we thought this was the safest way to go.
     Turns out, they have an Amtrak stop in Fort Morgan and it looked like two passenger trains had collided. This probably overran the town right afterward. Both trains could carry about 300 people and from the wreckage, most of them did not survive. If someone did, the dead would come back and come back fast. I know, I saw how fast the doctor turned at the Detention Center. I was only out in the hall for a very short time before he rose. The newly reanimated corpses would have been hungry and any living people in the wreckage would have been a handy snack to get started on.

    The townsfolk, being right neighborly, would have come running to try to help any survivors. From the weeds around the twisted metal, this probably happened right in the beginning. No one really knew about the undead then, they would not have been prepared for what they found. It looked like the town had been hit with a tornado of human bones and there was not much else left besides the undead.

     We drove into town and thought everything  fine. The street only had a couple of moaners that we took out quietly, then we headed for the front of a J.C. Penny's. I guess the sound of the truck reverberated off the buildings because when we looked out a few minutes later, the empty street was shoulder to shoulder full of the undead. They were sniffing around, trying to figure out where the sound had come from and where the live thing they could smell was hiding. We were screwed!
     The entire front of the store was windows so I grabbed Jenna and threw us both to the floor. I whispered to Jenna the danger we were in and we crawled towards the back of the building. The alley ran behind the building and we ran towards E.Kiowa Ave. The safest looking building was the Post Office so we worked our way down the block and when we saw a break, we made it across the street. Of course, we were seen so we headed for the front door to the Post Office. The glass doors and front windows had been broken and covered with ply wood at some earlier point. It looked like someone was going to try to fortify it and make a stand. I know that I was praying for the doors to not be locked as we raced down the sidewalk and for once since this shit started, my prayers were heard. We pushed through the doors and a pile of 2 by 4 posts and a couple of nail guns and no undead in sight. We secured the doors and turned to make sure the rest of the room was clear.
     The rest of the building was clear of people and undead, but it was not empty.Someone had thoughtfully brought a large cache of supplies. Plywood had been placed over the front windows but had only made it next to the rest. Food and water was stacked in one of the banks of mailboxes. Bedding, clothing and other non food items were stacked in the other bay of mailboxes. It sucks that we were stuck, but at least we knew we would not starve or freeze while we tried to come up with a plan to get back to the truck.
     That was three days ago. We had to brace the doors with anything we could find because there were so many undead pounding on them and trying to push their way in. There was so much pressure that the edges of the plywood ran with stinking zombie juice as the ones in front were pulverized by those pushing behind them.  We found three desks and a big table and pushed them against our side of the door. They were all old and heavy, but we managed to get the door relatively secure. Then we started on the windows. We spent the rest of that first day, the 23rd, and reinforcing the covered windows and covering up the rest. Lucky for us the windows on the sides and back did not have a porch and were higher than most first story windows. We finished securing the building by boarding up the doors on the side and back. The roll top doors became our next worry so we pushed bags of mail against them  to add strength to the metal doors. Again, we got lucky because it looked like the mail had piled up but had not gotten any further for a while before the delivery stopped for good. The bags looked like they had been pitched in from outside and then pushed back to the edges as far as possible. There was plenty of mail and the next day we added some of the bags to all the doors to add weight and help the wood stay in place.
     The sound was overwhelming. Hundreds of moaners all making their horrible cries constantly. They were so loud that they were drawing more from the surrounding area. These new undead had no idea what had drawn the initial moaners, but they were as rabid as the ones who did about trying to get into the building. It took hours for the ones on the outer edges to start loosing interest, but three days later, we are down to a ring around the building 10 to 15 deep. These undead were not going to give up. These were the ones who had seen and smelled us before the stink of their kind overpowered the living smell. They know we are in here and pound on the outside of the building creating a thumping background sound for the moans to accompany.
     Now, besides the sounds from the moaners, boredom is our worst enemy. Whoever stocked up this place did not make it to thinking beyond necessities. Maybe that is what they were doing when they never made it back, looking for books or games or something.
     Gonna try to sleep for a while because it is one of the only things to do. Maybe, I will open some mail to entertain us later. I don't think anyone is left to complain their mail was opened.

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.

From the record kept by the twins Jenny and Barbie Crow, March 25

March 25, 2017
   
     Barbie and I have started watching our street outside at least once a day to see if there is any change in the numbers out front. We have now seen the milling around behavior many more times and have discussed what it means. I think it is the state they stay in until they get a stimuli and then they become active and predatory. The dog is still the only live being we have seen on the street and we don't even know if it made it through the streets or became a buffet on legs.
     We have decided to try to get into the administration part of the building because the security office is located there and they might have more ammo or weapons. Also, I am hoping that we might find some plans or something about the towers and we could learn about the areas that tenants don't go to often. I wanted to know if there were generators somewhere in the basement or anything else that would be useful to us.
     Boredom is something we have to fight daily so we tried to keep busy searching apartments and watching the undead outside. It was our only form of entertainment and it was not really that entertaining. But it was something to do besides scavenging and laying around our apartment. I have started looking for books that I have not read so I have something to do besides not sleep or lay around. What I wouldn't give for the chance to watch stupid reality television with Barbie. I would let it rot my brain and be happy to feel my I.Q. drop.

     Yesterday, we made it to the 9th floor and were getting ready to break into the first apartment from when the hallway filled with the moans of the undead. When I looked down the hallway, I could see 4 doors already open and knew we were in trouble. There were 10 of the undead in the hall and we would never be able to keep the door to the stairs closed if we made it there before they got to us. I forced the door open on the apartment and pulled Barbie inside. I slammed the door behind us and turned to face the living room. There was nothing in sight so I headed down the hallway after Barbie and I pushed the couch in front of the door. Good thing it was one of those really heavy wooden ones with only the seating area cushioned. We almost couldn't move it fast enough, but got it in place before they pushed the door in. It would not hold for long, but we could check the rest of the apartment and decide find the best place to take on the ones at the door. Barbie walked down the hallway and called my name in a really weird voice. When I got to the bathroom, I could see what was disturbing her. In the bathtub, there was one undead. It looked like she had slit her wrist while in the bath and had turned while still soaking in the water. She was now just bones and woman soup from the waist down and a sloppy, waterlogged zombie from the waist up. Her arms were in tatters and she kept trying to reach out of the tub to grab at us. Barbie grabbed her flailing arms while I went in for the kill, but the skin just pealed off the bones and left Barbie holding almost nothing. She got one hand in Barbie's shirt and tried to pull her into the tub. I jumped forward and slammed my knife into her skull from the top. The zombie stopped moving immediately and Barbie pulled away with a sob, bit of skin and tissue hanging from her hands. When we looked at each other, I could see the horror in her eyes and pulled her into my arms for a quick hug. She cleaned her hands, as best as she could with the water in the back of the toilet tank and we searched the rest of the rooms.
     We found no one else in the place and we decided to move some furniture around to make a walkway for the undead to walk through. We made a couple of protected areas for us to hide and be able to stick them in the head as they passed by and decided it was the best we would be able to manage. It took us 45 minutes to take out the zombie and set up the walkway. The undead were pounding on the door the whole time and slowly moved the couch farther into the room. When we were ready, we pushed the couch farther in from the back of the door and ran to our hiding spots. The walkway worked like we hoped and the two of us were able to take them out one by one until there was no zombie still standing.
     I was so tired I could hardly stand and from how she looked, Barbie felt the same way. We had learned a lesson. Don't just blindly walk out into the hallway. From now on, we would look and make sure there were no undead in the hallway before leaving the safety of the stairs. We staggered back to our apartment and I collapsed onto the couches. Barbie went right to the kitchen and put a big pot of water on to boil. I knew she wanted to scrub her hands and arms until the skin was gone. I heard her say she would never feel clean again before the propane stove clicked as she turned it on. Once the water boiled we both washed the undead blood and bits off of us and talked about what to to next. We decided to stay home the rest of the day and return to the 9th floor today.
     We had no problem this morning and only found 3 undead still moving on the entire floor. We found some good food, a .9 mm pistol with 100 rounds and some books that were how to books. Barbie grabbed a couple of board games and I found an electric keyboard with a bunch of batteries. We both had lessons while growing up,  so it would give us something else to do to pass the time. I pulled Mrs. Jackson's grocery cart with most of the stuff we had found while Barbie carried the games and keyboard. It was hard work getting the cart up the stairs but we had found this was easier then trying to carry everything back, either in bags or just in our arms.
     Once the supplies were home, we went for our daily walk around the pool area to watch the undead. Today, there were more of them out front than any day since we started watching. We keep a log of whatever we see so we can look for patterns. We watched for a couple of hours and even went to other points to look around the building and saw that there was a  building on fire a few blocks down and the fire was drawing the undead like moths to the flame. We watched from the street next to the pool and realized it could be sound, smell, or heat that drew them. This was something to keep in mind in the future. That way when we see something else draw their attention, we could figure out what draws them. We wrote what we saw down in our log and made our way back to our apartment. I know the fire made Barbie nervous. If our tower was to catch on fire, we might get stuck and be unable to escape. Even if we made it out, where would we go and how would we get there? The streets were filled with undead and we had no idea what was going on in any of the other buildings around us. We are going to have to come up with a workable plan for how to get out of our building and where we would go. This is going to take some thinking about.
     Time for bed so we can try to get into the administration area tomorrow. Maybe we will find something to aid us in planning our escape. It is getting harder and harder to have any hope that our situation will work out for the best.

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.

From the journal of Nathan Sanchez, March 22

March 22, 2017

     I have never been so scared in all my life. I thought rescuing Darren from the detention center was the scariest thing I would ever have to do, but today was so much worse. The ranch was swarmed by a group of around 25. It took all of us to defend the place and we had to secure the kids, and those too old or infirm to fight, in the basement. Luckily, there is the old boot legging tunnel so they could escape no matter what happened to us defending the ranch. We only have 5 rifles and ammo was pretty thin. The swarm made it clear that we were going to have to make guns a big priority in our scavenging missions.

   We placed Uncle Ramon and two of his brothers upstairs and had them take out as many of the undead as they could with the ammo they had. Of the 25 or so in the group, they were able to take out 13. The male cousins all prepared to go out to fight hand to hand while the women prepared to defend the windows with whatever they could find. We found some old hockey and football protective gear and a couple of old leather jackets and we added duct tape to the sleeves. Then we grabbed all the large knives and blunt objects we could find.  Ten of us slipped out the back windows and made our way around to the front where the undead had grouped together. We each chose one and started the work of taking them out. This part brought back memories from the detention center and again I found myself in the grey world between life and death with only my own strength and reflexes to get me through. We put our backs to each others and kept hacking and swinging at the undead. It felt like hours passed while we kept moving through the swarm.
     A couple of the undead made it onto the front porch and were taken out by the ladies while the rest of them were dispatched by us. Only 10 minutes had passed when it was all over. I was covered in black blood and pieces of the undead. When I looked around, the other male cousins were covered as well. The front yard and porch looked like a slaughter house floor. Rico went inside to tell the family to keep the kids inside until we could get it cleaned up. Consuela came out to take stock of the defenders and that's when I heard that Joaquin and Alejandro had both been bitten during the fighting. Mateo had been killed by the undead and had to be stuck in the head so he would not come back. None of us knew what would happen to Joaquin and Alejandro. They were put in the downstairs bedroom where Maria cleaned and dressed their wounds.
     An hour after we had finished with the swarm, the family was in the cleaned up yard discussing what we should do about the two who had been bit. We talked for hours and got nowhere. Finally, Papa said we should take a wait and see position and keep them locked in the bedroom. We made a family schedule to routinely check on them and always in pairs. I had myself and Darren put on in the middle of the night and got something to eat. It felt like the middle of the night but was only around noon. We had decided to take the rest of the day to work on our defenses. Ditches were dug so the undead would hopefully fall in before making it into the yard again. Fences were reinforced and platforms were built at the corners of the yard so we could keep a better watch. Again, a schedule was made and Darren put us on right after our turn to check on the bitten. I found a spot to sleep for a while and am looking forward to falling asleep. I wanted to write this down before I slept so maybe it will help me not relive this morning. Hopefully, I will have some dreamless sleep, but that has not happened since the detention center. Here's hoping.

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.

From the journal of Jenna Bless,March 22

March 22, 2016

     We passed through a lot of small towns in Colorado over the last few days. I remember Julesburg, Crook, and Iliff. They were all small and cute while we passed through. There were not a lot of people is some of the towns along the 138. Sterling was the largest place we have passed through so far this side of the state line. It said the population was almost 14,000 people, but it seemed like there were twice that many undead creatures walking around. We did not stop there, it was too risky for the two of us to think we could handle a really big group of them. Williams said it was smarter to wait and scavenge in the smaller towns on the way while avoiding the more populated areas.

     It has taken us a lot longer than Williams thought it would to get this far. There are cars abandoned everywhere. We have had to stop and move more cars than I can count and we haven't even made it there yet. I bet there are going to be more and more cars as we get closer to Denver and I am not happy about it. I am so sore from pushing cars and walking and just getting by. I want to be at the airport already and I really want there to be other survivors there. I might still stay with Williams even if there are others there. I will have to wait and see what they look like and decide what to do from there.
     Tomorrow we leave again at first light and will be passing through a place called Fort Morgan. I looked it up in the map book we found two days ago and it says the population is over 11,300. We are not going to stop but keep pushing through to Wiggins since there are less than 1,000 people there. I just hope that we don't run into any groups we can't handle on our own. It would be different if we had more than 20 other people with us. There would someone to watch everyone's back. It would be better even if all we had was around 10. Really any more than the 2 we have now would be an improvement. Hopefully, we will find others at the airport and we can all team up together.
     I never thought I would say this, but I miss school. It was sure a lot better than the way things are now. I miss my grandparents and I guess I miss my mom. I wish everything was back to way it used to be. I would even be fine with the people in town calling me names and being mean, as long as I got Pops and Gran back. I would be OK with Mom not coming back, too. As long as Pops and Gran were OK.
     I have never been this far from Brule before and definitely not for this long. I miss my room and being in the living room watching stupid T.V. shows with Pops. I really miss the smell of Gran's cooking and would eat anything that she made right now, even the sauerkraut!
     I better go to sleep soon as Williams will be getting me up at the butt crack of dawn and insist on leaving within 10 minutes. I have not idea how he keeps watch most of the night and still stays awake all day long. So far, he has not trusted me to drive, but he told me he will teach me when we get to the airport. I sure hope so. It would be another skill that I don't have now and it might save us sometime if we get in a jam.
     Time to sleep. Tomorrow is gong to come soon enough and it should be really fun getting through Fort Morgan.

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.