Diary of a Zombie Apocalypse

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

From the journal of Correctional Officer Steven Williams, May 8

May 8, 2017

Two days ago, Gary and I went to scout Aspen. We figured with it being just the two of us, we could get in and out without being seen if anyone was already there. We drove to the edge of downtown and left my truck hidden there, we didn't want the sound to draw any undead or even anyone alive. We wanted to watch anyone to make sure if they looked like good or bad people. The group also gave us a list of stuff to look for that we might find easier in this rich town.
First, we went downtown and went through some of the stores. We used a couple of shopping carts to get the stuff back to my truck and stored. Then we started going down the streets and checking random houses for any signs of life.
We had only gone down five or so streets and were checking out this really sweet house when I saw a couple of young men walking down the street towards us. We ditched inside really fast and made our way quietly up the stairs to an upstairs bedroom. Gary handed me a granola bar, since we hadn't eaten yet, and we spent about 30 minutes watching them. They seemed to be on patrol, but were not doing a great job of looking around. If they had, they would have seen our footprints in the yards of a couple of the houses they had passed.
Gary and I talked about it and decided to leave the house and try to follow the boys to see where they were staying and if they had anyone else with them. It was a good thing too! They must have seen movement in our window and although they tried to act all calm, we could both tell they were freaking out a little bit and figured they would come check out the house we were in. Gary said we should leave our garbage so they would know someone was here, for sure, and then we could see how they would react.
We had just ducked into the house across the alley when they came down the alley and went into the place we had been. When they came out, they immediately headed back the way they had come from. I could tell from the way they were moving that they thought they were being really suave about it, like there was nothing out of the ordinary. But, it was obvious that we had rattled them.
Turns out, they are staying in this compound three streets from where they saw something. They made it back there in like 15 minutes and shortly after, they came back out with three girls. They spent the rest of the afternoon reinforcing their fence, gates and house. We really must have freaked them out.

From what we saw, they seem to be good people. Most of them are pretty young, maybe a little older than Jenna, and they don't know as much as they think they do. It seems like they got most of their information from movies and T.V.
Gary and I waited until the sun started to go down and then snuck back to my truck. Then we drove back to our group and had a meeting to discuss what we saw. It has been decided that as soon as Henry is able to be moved, we are going to go to Aspen and see if we can get in touch with the people we saw there. The compound they are staying in would be perfect for both of our groups to stay in together and we can really help them get the place way more secure. I hope they are as nice as they seemed. I'm sure Jenna would enjoy having people closer to her own age around. I know she gets along with the kids and the adults, but she must miss people her own age.

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 Sean Glover, May 7

May 7, 2017

I haven't written anything lately because there really wasn't much happening. We have been scavenging more houses and have found some food and stuff. We even spent a day downtown looking through the stores. The girls got a real kick out of it because there are some stores that had some really high end stuff they would never have been able to afford to wear before the shit hit the fan. Elisabeth found a really great leather jacket that must have been made for some Hollywood starlette to buy, but everything fell apart and it was still in the store. I don't think she has taken it off since she found it, except to shower and sleep. Carol found this dress that reminds me of something one of those fifties housewives would have worn. It even has the puffy part under the skirt! She calls it her house dress and wears it when she is home. Carol found a couple of pairs of really cool cargo pants and a really thick jacket that will be great when it snows. Eric and I had fun looking at all the bikes and skateboards. We took one of each for us both and have been racing each other down our street and trying to learn tricks on the skateboards.
We found some really cool movies at this big house. We found a couple of awards and photos and I think it belonged to a director. He had a couple of movies on reels that were not done being edited yet and we brought them and the player back here. Eric seems to know how to set it up and we plan on trying to watch them this week, if he can figure it out. One looks like a western comedy and one looks like some kind of thriller. I can't tell who is in them from looking at the negatives, but I hope there are some big name actors in them!

Today, Eric and I were out doing our usual rounds, checking to see if anyone else alive has been around, checking the houses around us to make sure no one has been in one of them, that kind of thing. We want to keep an eye out, you never know who will just show up. We all know that we got lucky when we found each other and don't want to be caught with out pants down if someone bad shows up.
I could've sworn I saw something move in one of the windows in a house three streets over. I did a double check, trying to not be too obvious, and thought I saw something move again. I told Eric and we decided to keep moving, like we hadn't seen anything, and double back down the alley behind the houses.
It took us about 10 minutes to make our way carefully to the back of the house and when we went in, there were two sets of footprints on the floor in mud. We checked the whole house and in the upstairs room I had seen the movement in, we found some granola bar wrappers and an empty water bottle. There really had been someone there!
We made our way back to our house as quickly and quietly as we could, trying to stay as much out of sight as we could. When we burst through the door, the girls were suprised and had no idea what was going on. We told them what I had seen and what we had found. There will be more patrols now and we made a schedule so someone is always watching the gate to our place. We made sure no one can get through the back entrance and made sure the fence is really secure all the rest of the way around the property. It took us most of the rest of the afternoon, but we need to make sure we are as safe here as possible. I wish we had more people to keep watch, it would make us safer, but at least there are now five of us and not just me!
Carol and I are going to take turns walking around our neighborhood during the days, instead of the once a day that Eric and I have been doing it. Now, there will be two patrols a day and we are going to set up some booby traps in the house closest to us, so we will hear if anyone tries to get inside them. I said we should also set some up all along our wall around our place and Carol agreed. We are going to have to collect some cans and see what else we can find in the store tomorrow to use, maybe we will get lucky and will find something that takes batteries and will make lots of noise. One of my foster sisters had this little personal protection device that had a button that would make a really bad noise if you pushed it. It also had a cord with a little metal plate to put in a window and if the window was opened, it would make the same loud screeching sound. She used to use it in her bedroom door because our foster father had a habit of wandering the house at night and he would try to go into the girls rooms.
I sure hope whoever was in that house is a good person and not some mutant biker looking for a place to score supplies. I checked all the guns and we put them by the main doors and windows, just in case. I really hope we don't have to use them.

Saturday, January 6, 2018

From the journal of John Archer, the Archivist, May 5

May 5, 2017

We are still near the same place we have been for almost a week now, someplace called Basalt. Henry got really sick, really fast. He has been sick since the 29th, and I mean really sick. He had a fever, chills, nausea, throwing up, but he hasn't died yet. He just keeps suffering but he refuses to kill himself or have anyone else do it. Doctor Ben and Henry talked about it on our first day here. That night, Ben told us that in all epidemics and pandemics, around 2-5% of people are naturally immune. After Henry heard this, he decided to take his chances because he says he has always either not gotten a virus going around or it takes him half as long to get over it as everyone else.

The rest of us just scavenge the area directly around us. We found a small housing complex and have taken over one of the houses for our people. Henry and Ben took the den area and the bedrooms have been given to the women with children. The rest of us are bunking in whatever space we can find. There was some talk about taking more houses, but the best safety is in numbers, so we are staying together.
The houses look like they weren't lived in long, but we have found some non-parishables in the cabinets to help supliment what we have one hand. Two of the houses had small gardens that had been started in the backyards. We found a few scraggly vegitables that had been growing mostly wild and we served them to the children with their dinner. They are the ones who really need more veggies. The rest of us will just deal with canned corn and green beans.
It has been really hard to keep everyone from going crazy being this close to our destination, Aspen, but being stuck here. But Doctor Ben says we've got to stay and keep Henry resting. Doctor Ben says that after observing Henry for the last six days, he is starting to believe that Henry might be one of the 2-5% immune to the virus. He says that if we move him too soon, it might set him back or help to kill him, if not from the virus, then from the symptoms.

So, we stay here and Linda and Aaron send people out in teams to scavenge stuff we don't really need. It keeps us busy and helps the rest of us feel useful. Yesterday, Williams and Jenna found a really stocked medicine cabinet. It had aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, cough medicine, anti nausea and anti diarrhea medicine, and much, much more. It took a huge hiking back pack to pack it into. The rest of the house was a bust, but whoever lived there must have been a hypochondriac. Doctor Ben was happy, because the stuff they found can make Henry more comfortable and will help others who might get sick with the symptoms, if not whatever ails them.
Aaron is going to hold a meeting tonight to discuss taking a scouting party to Aspen in the next couple of days. That way, we won't be walking in blind. If it is too overrun, or if there are bad people already there, then we can go somewhere else. But we will know what we are getting into and I think it is a great idea. They can scout locations, check on the amount of stores and see if they have been cleaned out already. They can even hopefully find a place for us to secure into a compound for us to survive in. I am all for it and will say so at the meeting.
For now, I am going to rest, maybe even take a nap.

From the journal of Marie Costa, May 3

May 3, 2017

The plan went down, just not quite as planned. Frank teamed up with Andrew and Will worked with Alex, that way, there was someone who was experienced on each team. The signal was given and they all started out at the same time, but did not get to the doors that way. The rest of us spread out around them with out make shift spears and took down the undead that came at us.
The problem happened by the deli, a group of undead, that we hadn't anticipated, came around the corner from the bakery department and the people protecting Frank and Andrew were almost overwhelmed. We only had enough people for two of the two man pallet jack teams and two teams of five to protect them.
The group of undead from the bakery had seven in it and the protectors were hard pressed to keep them back. Then a couple came down the frozen food isle and added themselves to the hungry undead trying to munch on our pallet jack team.
By then, our group had completed our part by pushing the stack of pallets to block their doors and we heard the call for help from Lisa, who used to work in the dairy department. We turned our attention to getting to the other team and found at least eight zombies between us and them, then we went to work. We made good time and got to the others to find they had used some of the display cases to make a partial wall between them and the undead. They were trying to take them out, but the cases were pretty wide and some of the make shift spears were pretty short.
Will motioned for them to not draw attention to us and we snuck up behind them. It didn't take too long to take them all out and only with the last two did they even realize that we were behind them.
Frank and Andrew maneuvered their pallet stacks into place and we all turned around to go back and get a pallet of canned good to put behind each stack of pallets. Behind us, on the other side of the display cases, there were another six undead trying to get to us. We took them out and pushed the cases out of the way of the pallets and made it to the back. Then we took a short rest before doing it all over again with the pallets of cans. This time, we only ran across two undead and easily took them out.
Once the doors were blocked, we started a sweep of the entire store in teams of three, looking for any stuck or hidden undead or anyone that was still alive. We found three people still alive, Jackie in the pharmacy, Isabella in the office and Jorge in the deli storage room. We also found seven more undead, three in the employee break room, one in the mens restroom, one in the bakery proofer, one stuck in the freezer and one at one of the registers.

The one at the register, Mark Grundel, was the former store director and he had been eaten to the bone on all his limbs and his abdomen was just an empty cavern. His limbs no longer worked and he had been spread out on the conveyor belt like a sacrifice, unable to move more than waving his arms of bone still attached to his body by thin strips of muscle and tendon. When I looked at his face, at first I thought he was wearing a mask. But then I realized that I was looking at his skull showing through where his skin had been eaten away.
We now had the store secure and we had more people to work with. The rest of yesterday was spent resting and eating. We had a small party to celebrate our victory over the undead. Tomorrow, we will have to make plans for the future, but today we celebrate.

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

From the journal of Rebecca Martin, May 8

May 8, 2017

We sure are lucky to have found the Frank T. Weathers Senior Care Center. My hand needed a lot of help when we got here and Jackie was able to take care of it. The glass was halfway through my hand and the floor of the car I got hurt in was really dirty.

This morning at breakfast with everyone sitting together, Jackie told us about all the people here in the Care Home and their experience since the world fell apart. Apparently, they had all been in here since the pandemic hit their city. Jackie Morton and Jim Johnson were Medical Assistants here at the Care Home, Brad Crosby and Rick Alda were orderlies, Melissa Burns was the cook and Brenda Cummings ran their front desk. They were all working the night shift when the horde of zombies stumbled through their town. They blocked up the windows, reinforced the doors and got all of the patients to the second floor. The first floor was abandoned and it was quite a chore moving all the kitchen appliances to one of the exam rooms, as well as all the food and medicine supplies.
There had been a doctor on duty, Dick Butler, but he was bitten by the first patient to die and turn. He in turn bit one of the two nurses on duty, Beth Hall. She scratched the second nurse the night she turned and Marcy Stubbs turned five days later. They were just the staff that turned. There were 18 patients placed in this Care Home when they barricaded themselves inside.

The first to die were the patients that were oxygen dependant, those that needed dialysis and those who had to have their medicine to survive. They lost four patients in the first three weeks and three staff in the first month. After that, they lost at least one patient every two to three weeks for a couple of months, then it slowed down and we haven't lost anyone in the last six weeks.
The Care Home had been there for over twenty years and when they were opened, it was a great neighborhood. But in the last ten years, it went downhill and most of the houses and apartment buildings were torn down and replaced with either buisinesses or wharehouses so there weren't many places for people to live around. This kept the number of undead down in this area, while other parts of town had been over run.
The people at the Care Home survived by sending a few people out the back to the stores near them.There were at least seven corner markets and two deli's to feed the people who worked in this part of town. It was good luck for them that the horde rolled through in the middle of the night when all the businesses and wharehouses were closed. The stores were still stocked and the wharehouses had food, water and supplies that were being shipped through Belle on their way to larger cities. They had only had to go through a couple of stores and one wharehouse so far and had plenty of places to scavenge up supplies in the future.
We were the first live people they had seen in months, which made them lucky. After dealing with those bikers the day I found Rebecca, I knew some people would do whatever they needed to do to stay alive, even kill others to take their supplies.
James and I told them about our journies so far. He told them about Dorris and had tears in his eyes when he did. I told them about the Jaspar County Circuit Clerk's office and all the people I had been with there. Then James told them about the Greenbrier and the tunnels underneath. After that, it became a meet and greet while we were introduced to all the other people here. We have decided to stay here for a few days and go on a scavenging mission with them to stock up for our trip.
The plan for the rest of today is just to rest and keep my hand as immobile as possible. Jackie is going to change my bandage and check my wound at some point today. One of the elderly patients was an English Professor and had a small library. I was looking forward to checking out the selection and settle down with a book. I hope the rest of our time here is uneventful.

From the journal of James Cohen, Somewhere around May 7

May 7, 2017

We ran into a little problem this afternoon while moving some cars out of the way. Rebecca had just steered a Toyota off the road and had gotten in the backseat to check for anything useful when she yelped. I got out of the rig and ran to the open door. Her right hand was bloody and a piece of glass was sticking out of the palm. I know basic first aid and it looked really bad. It is way out of my league and I didn't know if I should remove the glass or not. I decided that it would be better to remove it so the glass would not wiggle deeper or cut more of her palm. Then, I tore up my last clean shirt and used strips to bandage the gash as best as I could.

We were out of real bandages since I had used them all on Dorris before she died and hadn't replaced them. I should have listened to Dorris months ago and put together a more comprehensive first aid kit, but there always seemed to be more time. Now, time had run out and so had the medical supplies. Hospitals were really hard hit with the undead since the bit were taken to there, at least at first. They turned and then attacked people who were too hurt or sick to fight back. The hospitals were one of the first breeding grounds for large number of undead, then they spread out from there. Once the undead went in search of more food, live people hit the hospitals for supplies and took whatever they could find.
I pulled out the map and looked to see what town was coming up next and see how big it was. We should be able to find someplace to get supplies. We pulled into Belle and I looked for somewhere that would have a yellow pages book to look for medical places but not hospitals. That's where I found the Frank T. Weathers Senior Care Center. It was even close to where we were and should still have some medical supplies, hopefully.
When we pulled up to the place, I could see at least five undead pounding on the front of the building. It seemed really wierd, since there were no other buildings we had passed had any undead doing the same. I thought I saw something move in one of the windows on the second floor, so I stared at the front of the building. It took a couple of minutes, but sure enough a curtain moved in another window on the second floor. There were people in there, live people!
We needed to get inside and I told Rebecca that if we showed the bandaged hand, maybe they would help. I had her stick it out the window and the middle curtain moved aside to show a woman in scrubs. She motioned towards the back of the building and I took the rig down the alley between the Care Home and the store next door. It was a tight squeeze, but we made it to the other side and pulled up next to a sturdy, six foot fence made of stone with an iron gate. There, the woman from the window was waiting, impatiently dancing from foot to foot. When she saw us, she motioned us to hurry and used a large key to unlock the gate. We ran from the now quiet rig to the gate and the lady locked the gate behind us before taking the lead up the path to the back door of the building.

The inside of the building was dark because all the windows were boarded up and covered. The lady whispered at us to follow her up the stair and be really quiet. Once up the stairs, we moved down a long hallway with rooms on either side. Most of them were empty, but I was really surprised to see at least five elderly people, a couple with wheelchairs, and at least the same number of younger people.
She took us into the last room on the left and it was set up like a medical examination room. We learned that her name is Jackie and that she was a Medical Assistant here at the home before the pandemic hit. She examined and cleaned Rebecca's wound, then she used steri-strips to close the gash before bandaging the hand in clean gauze. Then, she took us to a kitchen area where they made us the first hot meal we had eaten in days. By then, both Rebecca and I were exhausted, so Jackie assigned us rooms and told us we would talk more in the morning.
Man, what a day. I can't wait to find out how all these people, especially the elderly people, have survived this long. I am really amazed to see this place and see that the people here have kept their humanity and helped us when we needed it. Thank you to whatever is out there, whether God, or the Universe, or whatever!

Saturday, December 30, 2017

From the journal of Rebecca Martin, May 5

May 5, 2017

I have been traveling with James for almost a full week now. It has been good for both of us to not be alone anymore. He has been really nice and very helpful. We are somewhere close to Huntington and the going is getting a little tougher. We have run into more and more places that are just impassable with cars and you have to be really careful when getting throught them because there are zombies in some of them.
Two days ago, we were using the rig to push some of the cars out of the way. I was the one getting into the cars, when needed, to steer them out of the way. James, being the only one who can drive a big rig, was pushing the cars to clear a path. He had just pushed this little Mazda Miata out of our path, then he yelled at me to go to a little truck and get it ready to move. I did what I always do and walked up to the drivers door and was reaching for the handle when a face appeared in the window. I jumped back about three feet and froze.

The thing inside the truck had been a teen girl, probably pretty, too. But it was really hard to tell. Her hair was blonde, but looked darker from the blood and other bodily fluids caking it. The left side of her face was almost perfect, except for the bite on her cheek. The right side of her face was shredded and strips of flesh were hanging off her jaw. Her neck was missing most of the skin and her right arm was missing from the elbow down. Her stomach was a gaping, empty hole and pieces of her intestines were strewn around the cab like festive ribbons at a party.
Beside her in the passenger seat at a zombie kid that was not much older than five before she turned. She was in much better physical shape than the teen. The little girl was also a blonde, and from what was left of the older girls face, I would guess they were sisters. The child was dressed in a pretty pink dress and she was wearing little patent leather dress shoes. The dress was now covered in blood and bits of her sister and she had a wound on her left hand that could have been a bite.

The teen was eaten on the side where the passenger sat and the child wasn't eaten like her sister. I would guess that the little girl was bit before they got into the truck, maybe by a parent back at home. They got as far as the traffic jam and the girl probably turned and attacked her sister.

James saw me jump back and climbed down from the rig to see what was going on. I passed my hand over my face and told him it was ok. He walked over and saw the girls in the truck and just shook his head. We worked together and got them out and put out of their misery. Then we moved the truck and the day went on.
I don't know why, but those two girls have been in my nightmares the last two nights. They keep coming after me and I can't seem to get away! I don't know why they have stuck in my head like this, no one else I have seen has so affected me.
I mean, I watched Alice turn after she was scratched. That was really horrible and disturbing thing to see. But for some reason, these girls haunt me. Hopefully, with time, the memory of them will fade. I really hope so.