From the journal of Manny Stone, May 20

May 20, 2017

We have been traveling slowly for three days. I guess we have to be that we are in the mountains and not near a major city. The cars blocking the roads are a problem here and I can't imagine how bad they are in and around the cities.
We moved fairly quickly, at first, since there weren't many people living in the area near my cabin. The first day we made a good thirty miles and found an old farm house to stay the night in.

When we pulled up in the yard, I honked the horn and we waited to see if anything moved. It didn't take long. A zombie shambled around the corner of the house from the direction of the barn. It had been an older man dressed in overalls and a short sleeved plaid work shirt. He was short and round and had a pitchfork sticking out of his chest, presumably from someone trying to protect themselves from him once he turned.
A short distance behind him came a small female zombie in a torn and dirty housecoat. Her abdomin was a dark, bloody hole with bits of her intestines and other organs sticking out and dragging on the ground behind her with every step. Her left arm was hanging on by strips of flesh, muscle and tendons, but the bones were broken and useless. Marny gasped when she came into sight and Alex and I told her to stay while we took out the undead farmers.
Once we had them taken care of, I moved the truck behind the house, so it wasn't visible from the road, and then we went into the house. My first thought was that it smelled a little musty, but not as bad as it would have if the couple had played out their little dying and turning drama inside. You've got to be thankful for the little things.
The rest of that night and the next day were mostly uneventful. There was the occasional zombie to kill and the occasional block on the road from cars or trees to remove. But other than that, we made a respectable twenty two miles. We found an old gas station and general store at a cross roads to sleep in the second night. From the way it looked and the amount of deterioration, it was abandoned long before the pandemic hit. We had to pry one of the back windows open and there was nothing useful inside except a concealed place to sleep.
This morning, we ate some instant oatmeal and piled back into the truck, hoping to make at least another twenty miles. That was wishful thinking, though. We had only been on the road for a mile and a half when we hit the first road block created by a four car crash where one of the cars knocked a tree down onto the road as well. There was no way to go around the blockage because the sides of the road were solid forest down to the edge of the asphalt. It took us three hours to clear enough space to get the truck through and we still managed to scrape paint off the sides as we squeezed by.
A little over two miles later we found ourselves stopped on one side of a downed bridge with no way to keep going forward. We back tracked to where the crash had happened and searched the cars for any maps we could find. Alex had to kill a zombie that was smashed behind the steering wheel but found a local map that showed us a round about way to keep heading west. We had to drive back to the gas station and take a different direction, but it would eventually get us back to the road we wanted on the other side of the downed bridge.

Three traffic blockages, four downed trees, one flooded creek and at least fifteen undead later, we had only made it fourteen miles and it was already late afternoon going on evening. I made the command decision that we needed to stop for the night and we started looking for somewhere to sleep. Who knows what we would run into in the dark if we kept going, it just wasn't worth the risk.
This time, we found an abandoned hotel, again abandoned long before the shit hit the fan, and we parked around back. By searching the rooms, we found one with two beds that wasn't completely open to the stars or torn to pieces. We going to use sleeping bags on the old mattresses and hopefully, we won't end up with any small visitors looking for warmth in the middle of the night.
Today just sucked the big one, no other way about it. Tomorrow better be a better day.

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, May 19

May 19, 2017

We finally took them out this morning and were able to retrieve the cart and wagon. We won't have any problems moving between the apartments on this floor. Now, we only have to worry about the the ones that might be in the apartments and we should be able to take them out a lot easier than the group that was in the hall.
Barbie and I had to use most of the sparse furniture in this apartment to make our barricades and hiding places. It took us almost all day yesterday and by the time we were set, we were exhausted. We had moved the bed into the living room as part of the whole shebang, so we just ate some food and lay down to get some rest.
This morning, we ate breakfast, took one last look at our work and then put our plan into action. It took us about twenty minutes of hacking, stabbing, hiding and attacking to take out the eleven undead. It was dangerous and scary but we were getting pretty good at building what we need with what's on hand to get the job done. It worked at the security office and it worked here just as well.
Again, once we were done we were exhausted and filthy from all the undead blood that was flying. We used some of out water to wash up and found some really cool clothes in the bedroom. They were tight on both of us, since neither of us are a size two, but we were able to squeeze ourselves into some of the knit clothes. Tight clothes were way better than the gross ones we were wearing and we could always check the other apartments for clothes that fit better or that can be belted or altered to fit better.
Once we were cleaner, and had eaten again since killing zombies really does work up an appetite, we gathered our stuff and went to the next apartment down the hall. This time, Barbie had the keys ready, just in case we somehow didn't attract one of the undead and it was lurking in the hallway, but we must have gotten them all.

The apartment we walked into was amazing. Not as sparse as the one we had been stuck in, but still, wow! My entire place could fit in the living room alone! From the personal pictures on the walls, it looks like some young CEO owned this place and he traveled all over the world. There was artwork from Europe, a Katana sword from Japan in a case, textiles from South American and statues from several countries.
I had to stop myself from getting absorbed in looking at the cool stuff around us and reminded Barbie, and myself, that we needed to clear the apartment first. We closed the front door to the hall, so nothing could wander in behind us, and then went room by room. Barbie was on point and when she went into the hallway bathroom, she cried out. There, on the floor, was the torn up, desiccated remains of a little hairy dog. Looked like we might have company in one of the un-searched rooms.
We went back into the hall and there was still four doors left to open. I whispered to Barbie that we should make a loud noise to see if anything started banging on the other side of one of them and she used the butt of her machete to pound on the wall three times. We didn't have long to wait before the door at the very end of the hall started to vibrate from the impact of a undead fists on the other side of it. We waited a couple more minutes to make sure nothing was slowly making it's way to one of the other doors, then held another conference.
It was decided that we would still clear the quiet rooms first, just to be safe and then tackle the one we knew had something in it last. It took us about ten minutes to clear the other rooms and then we were standing at the shaking door.

I had my sword that I have had since the beginning and Barbie had taken the Kitana from the living room and we decided that Barbie would throw the door open with both of us standing to the sides of the door in this super wide hallway. Hopefully, the undead would rush out and we could take him out quickly and with no trouble.
Of course, this world doesn't seem to work like that anymore. She threw the door open and the thing in the bedroom rushed out and lunged right for her, following her arm back out of the doorway. He grabbed her arms and started to pull her  towards his snapping mouth and I jumped forward, putting my sword through the left side of his head. He dropped to the floor and took my sword right out of my hands. I just stood there breathing hard and that' when I felt the clawed hands grab my left arm and pull.
I screamed and tried to pull away, but the undead female was stronger than any human would've been. She was making that moaning and growling noise as she snapped her teeth together while pulling me closer still. Her face had no skin on the right side and that eye was hanging out of the socket on the cheek. Her neck and shoulder was just one raw, chewed up mess and her right arm was mostly bone and strips of cloth and skin.
I saw a flash from the corner of my right eye and then her head was rolling back away from us towards the bed. Her body fell over but she still had a hold of my arm and I fell on top of her remains, still screaming.
Barbie pulled me from the now dead zombies grasp and pulled me back to the living room, patting my shoulder and saying things I couldn't understand. It took several minutes before I could calm down and then I started grumbling about how stupid I was for not making sure nothing else was in that room. Instead, I had just frozen when I should've turned to look. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Barbie agreed that we had both been dumb and we made the choice to stay in the living room while we were in the apartment, except to search the closets and bathrooms one time for useful items. We did that fast and then pushed the male zombies remains back into the bedroom and closed the door. That room looked like a crime scene, with black, old blood smeared all over the bed, walls and carpet. He must have turned first and from the looks of it, she was sleeping in the bed when he started eating her alive. She must have run around and tried to put up a fight from the overturned furniture and blood spray. Poor woman.
I'm getting even better at compartmentalizing than I was in medical school, so I put the two undead out of my mind and started looking through the interesting stuff from around the world. Barbie went through the movies and then we moved on to the kitchen and ransacked it for supplies.
The amount of supplies we have found so far, in a couple of apartments, made me realize we will probably have to go floor by floor and go back to our place to drop off supplies between each floor. Unless we find a place we want to move into permanently. So far, I didn't want to live in any of the apartments we had been in. We'll have to wait and see.

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 Nikki Feather, June 6

June 6, 2017

Well, I made it to town and back without much trouble. I left yesterday, right after sunrise, and only found a couple of undead milling about the bottom of my tower. I think they might be able to smell that something live is around here somewhere, but can't figure out the whole ladder and climbing thing. Thank God.
It only took me a few minutes to take out the few undead quickly and quietly, then I got into my trusty old 4x4 truck and headed into town. I hadn't made the trip in almost 45 days, since I had just been resupplied by Mrs. Abbey Milner's crew two days before the undead horde rolled through. I was glad I grabbed the chainsaw, two trees had fallen across the road and I had to take the time to clear my path.

I made it to town with no other problems and it only too me about a hour. My first stop was the grocery store. There was a group of five undead in the parking lot, so I took them out then headed into the store. I grabbed a cart and started filling it up while keeping watch around me for any zombies that might be around. I found one in the cereal isle, a woman with a zombie baby on her back standing in the middle of the isle. When my cart rounded the end of the isle, she turned towards and and I could see she was missing half her face and her right arm. She opened her mouth and started that weird growling sound they all make and stumbled down the isle with her left arm stretched out, reaching for me.
I waited until she was about four feet away, then used the cart to knock her down and hacked the back of her head with my machete twice, just to be safe. She stopped moving on her own, but her body kept twitching due to the undead toddler still strapped to her back and underneath the now completely dead body. I looked around and listened to make sure her growlind hadn't drawn anymore in the store to us. Then I used the toe of my boot to push her body over and reveal the little undead ankle biter.
It used to be a boy, I think, since it was in a little blue onesy. He head was mishappen, like she had backed into something hard and his head had made contact. There was an odd crease and flat spot on the right side of his head and his right eye had popped out of the socket, just hanging out on his cheek. It's right shoulder had obviously been broken before death and its arm just twitched, but didn't reach out like the right one was doing. It was making that weird growling sound mixed with these weird mewling sounds and smacking it's lips. I couldn't leave it that way and with one slash, smashed what was left of its skull, making it go still.
I stood up and stayed really still again, listening for any other sounds of movement. I didn't hear any, so I continued gathering what I wanted or needed. Mrs Milner was in charge of supplying the lookouts and since she had always been a health nut, out supplies were so good for us, it was sickening. No chips, no cookies, no sodas. So that is what I loaded up, as well as some stuff better for me. Afterall, a balanced diet is the key. And really, how long is some of this junk food going to last and then its gone. No more Hostess, no more Doritos. Oh the humanity!
Next, I headed for the library. I spent a joyful hour or so purusing the shelves and ended up with a sellection of how to books, interesting history, and a few novels from some of my favorite authors, like Stephen King and Terry Goodkind. I didn't want to leave the peace of the library, but my plan was to stay at Michael's tonight and head back tomorrow morning.
So, I left the library and headed to Michael's house. It is on the opposite side of town  from my tower and took me a good ten minutes to get within a couple of blocks. There, I ran into a group of almost twenty undead blocking the road. I sped up and drove through them. Most of them were flattened or left behind, but five of them managed to hang onto the outside of my truck and start pounding on the windows. I drove a couple block further, to put room between us and the ones I drove through, then pulled over and dove out my quickly opened door. It took me almost ten minutes to take out the ones I brought with me on the outside of my truck and I finished not a moment too soon.

The rest of their group was almost on top of me. I quickly turned and took out the seven left with a lot of slashing, running, rolling, jumping and pure luck. I got back in my truck and continued on my way. When, I pulled up into his driveway, I was relieved to see his Volvo wasn't there. I hoped that meant he had made it out before the horde rolled in.
I used the key under the Welcome mat, the one I had used a bunch of times before to water his plants when he was out of town on a dig. The house was dark and was already starting to smell musty and abandoned. I went to the sliding door and pulled back the curtains to let in some light and almost died of a heart attack when the undead man in the backyard started pounding on the glass. I laughed at myself and started to turn back to the office, not noticing the zombie had a rock in it's hand. The glass shattered on the third strike and I turned back just fast enough to grab the thing by its throat as it came for me, both of us falling to the floor and rolling around.
It kept trying to bite me and I kept trying to push it back to get at my knife. I just couldn't quite reach it, if I could only get another three inches between us, it wouldn't have been a problem. Then I heard a footstep and though "Oh, shit, I'm dead!"! I thought it was another zombie, but lucky for me, it turned out to be a guy from our neighboring town, Jackson Flynn. I realized I was saved when I saw the hatchet come out of the shadows into the light from the open door and bury itself in the head of the undead on top of me.
I pushed the stinking body off of me and Jackson helped me up. I remembered him from when we were in high school. He was their quarterback and I always thought he was really good looking. I know I blushed and then we exchanged pleasantries. He told me that he was listening to our radio chatter for a few days and was relaying any information to people in his town. He was listening in the day the horde came through and our warning helped his town evacuate in time, too. But his father refused to leave their land and he couldn't leave without his father. They stayed and his father was still at their cabin while he came to check on me. He had been hearing my occassional attempts to reach others and thought it would be better if we teamed up.
I agreed and we spent the rest of the night securing the house and telling each other what had been happening since the pandemic hit in our respective towns. It was a really nice night and this morning, we headed for my tower to gather the rest of my supplies and possessions. I thought we would stay in the tower, but he pointed out that if the undead figured out I was up there, I would be stuck and would eventually starve while they clambered for my flesh.
I am going to go with Jackson and his father, Richard. I don't know if it is smarter than staying in the tower, but it's better than being alone. Here's to hoping it all goes well.

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 John Archer, the Archivist, June 6

June 6 , 2017

Well, it has been a really interesting time since we made it to Aspen. I know that Jenna wrote about the kids and their play area, she told me she did. I still have to say I was really impressed with their imagination and innovation in putting those structure together and not necessarily in the same way they were originally put together. I was also impressed with the way that Jenna and Sean and the way they stepped up and helped the younger children get what they wanted and needed. They helped the children design, plan and build their ideal play area and it's one that might come in handy if we are ever attacked by the living or overrun by the undead.

Jenna and Sean

Those two have been providing us a lot of entertainment since we combined groups. First, they both mooned over each other. Taking turns staring at each other when they thought no one was looking. Then they started flirting and "hanging out" as they like to call it. It was like watching a Lifetime TV movie happening right before out eyes. Now, they are at the hand holding stage. It's adorable.
Others are starting to have goo goo eyes at each other too. Kim, who used to be an LVN was one of the people assisting Dr Ben and had been spending a lot of time with Mike, the man who was bit. They had started having feelings for each other, but haven't been able to act on them because Mike has been so sick and on the brink of death a couple of times. The other person helping Dr Ben, Carol S. who was our secretary while we were at the camp, and the doctor himself had started dating, when he wasn't hidden in his lab. They have been spending hours since she was in school to be a pathologist and was only a year and a half from graduation before the pandemic hit.

Ashley and Gary

Then there's Ashley, one of our teachers, and Gary were looking at each other with stars in their eyes. And two of our mothers Donna (who's son is Kevin) and Michelle (who' son is Eric) have started spending time with Richard, a former button pusher, an Steve, one of our leadership committee members and a former fire fighter.
I guess for a community to grow, this has to happen, and we want out community to grow. For all we know, we are the last piece of civilization left and if the human race is to survive, we have to keep having children.
Dr Ben and Carol S. seem to be making some progress on figuring out what alllowed Henry to survive while everyone else has died who has been bit. The little bit they have accomplished just seperating out the plasma from Henry's blood and then giving it to Mike is why Dr Ben thinks Mike is still alive. He hopes that if they can do more tests and figure out exactly what is different in Henry's blood, then they can cure Mike or the sickness that is lingering still. I hope they are right.
Well, our lives are moving forward. We are making our compound more secure, teaching everyone to defend themselves and the rest of the group. People are filtering into the best positions for them and the children are getting settled in. Civilization is still in the world as long as we keep surviving.

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 Sarah Richards, May 13

May 13, 2017

Yesterday morning, we convinced Mom to go with us to the Port to search for a place to stay. We packed up what gear we think we'll need and left this morning with the guys. The plan is to take a car and drive through the port from the tunnel to the outskirts of town. There, we'll look around at the places we find, both house and other type of buildings, and choose the best one of the ones we find.

We left just after the sun came up this morning. It was chilly in the tunnel and we moved as quickly and quietly as we could to the Port end of the tunnel. I motioned everyone down and quiet, then Matt and I crept up to the end of the tunnel. When we looked out the our end of the tunnel, there was a small group of undead just a few feet from the entrance we needed to go through.
We moved back to the others where there was a quiet discussion about how to handle the small group. It was decided that we would go as a group and take them out with out knives. I called out to them quietly and they turned and moved towards us to find what had made the sound. Matt, Jeff, Alan and I took them down, making as little noise as possible and then we moved towards the closest vehicle, a delivery van with the sliding driver door open, keys in the ignition. We piled in, started the truck and pulled away.
It took us a good twenty minutes to get through town without drawing too many undead in our wake. Before we made it to the streets we were going to look at, we stopped and took out the undead that were close enough to follow us down any further. Then we parked the truck and walked down the last couple of blocks before turning onto the last street.
We searched through houses and buildings for hours. The first place was a beautiful old Victorian that was way too open with too many doors and window to defend and without a fence around it to help make it secure.  Next, there was an old brick carriage house but it was too small and again didn't have a fence.
After that, some of them started to blur together. We stopped for lunch in this cute little adobe house and then gathered what little was there that we might use. While searching the master bedroom, I found a journal from the lady who lived there. I took it with me and might read it. We didn't find any undead in the house, so maybe she was still alive, somewhere.
After hours of searching, we found this nice old brick house that had a fairly strong iron fence and gate. The fence was made of iron posts and rails, but we can make it stronger with other fences in the area. Mark and Alan both know how to weld and there is a place they can get the equipment a couple of blocks from here.

The house had been turned into a museum at some point and they had installed shutters to cover the windows in the off season. This makes it perfect, we can leave the shutters on the windows on the first floor to keep us out of sight of any undead who come down this way. But we can open some of them on the second floor and in the attic, but we still have to be careful not to be seen.
The inside was beautiful. Period furniture and kitchen. They had put a cast iron oven and stove in it and even an old style ice box, perfect for the current circumstances. The house was large and perfect for what we need. We settled in for the night and had a quiet celebration for finding a good place to live.
Tomorrow, we go back to Buckner and start getting ready to move over here. The guys are going to get a big truck and we are going to  take the old road out to the building. It will have to be a four wheel drive and we are going to stop to get a couple of chain saws on our way out of town. The road hasn't been used in years and we know it will take extra work to make it passable. If we're lucky, we will get all the way back to the building. But even if we can just get close, we can walk through the trees to Buckner and back to the truck with the supplies. Just in case this happens, we're going to get a bunch of metal carts with big tires made for working outdoors and left them in their boxes in the back of the truck.
At least, that's the plan. Hopefully, everything will go well. Time for bed.

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 Nikki Feather, June 3

This journal comes from a young lady who survived in an Rangers tower in Northern Washington. Nikki Feather had been staying up the tower while being the local communities lookout and had an ample suppy of food and water, supplied by all the people she was watching over. When the horde came, she was unable to leave. That was at the beginning of May.

June 3, 2017

Well, I have now been up here a full month and let me tell you, it sucks. Everyone left ahead of the horde so my walkies are no use anymore. I think the only thing keeping me sane up here for the three months before the horde came was being able to reach out and talk to everyone in my town whenever I felt the need. Everyone kept their walkies on and would talk to any of the three of us lookouts whenever we needed to the company.

I spent hours talking to my best friend Amanda. She would tell me jokes, usually bad ones, and tell me stories about what was happening in town. I heard all about old Mr Dumphrey side swiping the mayors truck parked downtown. He did it when the Harvey's little dog ran out into the road. The dog wasn't hit, but the mayor's truck was not so lucky.
Amanda told me about the kids at the high school pulling their senior prank by putting all the desks, chairs and tables on the roofs of the building. It looked like the classrooms had jumped throught the ceiling and set themselves up on the roof. I laughed for at least ten minutes as she told me how all the teachers and parents  were reacting when they saw it.
I talked to Michael, the town historian, for hours about the natives who lived here long before the white man had made it to this part of the world. I learned how not 100 feet from where I was perched, there used to be a hunting camp used yearly when it was time to hunt in this area. I learned what plants in the forest they collected and ate and what plants were used a medicine. Michael came out here and spent a week teaching me their hunting techniques, fighting techniques and gathering practices. It was a great time and I would talk to him almost every day about something or other.
Jason, he was my neighbor, spent hours with his radio on next to the TV while he watched old stand up comedies he had downloaded to his computer. It was really cool, being up in the forest, up in the trees, listening to old George Carlin, Eddy Murphy or Jeff Dunham. I spent many nights laying on the roof of the Tower, looking at the stars, listening or talking on the radio.

Then the horde came and everyone left. I had to stay to get in touch with everyone, even the guys in the other towers. I found out that they were clear and made sure they got out of the area. By the time I got in touch with the last people, Clara and Marcus Clark, the horde had already reached the bottom of my tower. I wasn't able to leave and the horde rolled by for a week. Once they were gone, I decided to wait here to see if anyone came back. I kept the radio on, and transmitted every four hours for two weeks. No one came back.
Since then, I haven't left because I don't know where to go. Here, I have food, water, safety and a warm place to sleep. I'm gonna have to to go into town for supplies in the next couple of weeks, maybe I'll go sooner, just to have something to do. I need to go by the library for some newer and better reading material. I should go by Michael's place too. I can grab to bow and some other hunting and surviving supplies. Tomorrow, I'll plan out where I need to go and what I need to find. If I'm lucky, someone I know will be in town an maybe the just lost their walkie along the way. I sure hope so.

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 Sarah Richards, May 10

May 10, 2017

It's weird having the guys here, especially after it being only my Mom, Mandy and her family and me, for so long. The guys, Mark Green, Jeff House and Allen Farrow, Matt Rockwell, all went to school with us, although Matt was a year ahead of us in school. They've been making  a larger part of the floor we live on into livable space. We now have a living room and kitchen area, five bedroom areas and a semi working sanitary facility where the old laundry shoot was. It works with gravity, but they built a secure seat over the shoot so we can sit and do out business. It's better than the bucket we used to use and then dump down the shoot. This way, no one has to carry the honey bucket and risk getting splashed.
Even though they've been making this area more livable, they said we should move to one of the houses or buildings on the outskirts of the port. They said this building is falling apart so badly and that it might not be safe. I kinda agree with them. This floor is the best one in the building, the one that has the most actual floor left to walk on, and not all of it is really solid. We've marked the places to avoid on the floor with spray paint and have reinforced some places that we can't avoid. There are holes in the roof in several places where water drips through when it rains. The outside of the building is almost completely gone, so even with us patching all the holes we can in our living space, the wind still whistles through sometimes. And while we don't have to worry about zombies making it up here, since we set up booby traps and simple can/string alarms, we do have to worry about rats. They know we have food and I think they know the undead will try to eat them, so they have started to make paths through what is left of the walls, to get to our supplies.
Mandy's father is more than halfway convinced that we should move and I know his wife is already pressuring him to get us out of Buckner. Michelle wants to go since she considers this place "yucky and dirty". Mom is really not sure what we should do, but doesn't want to make a decision with little to no information about what we might find on the outskirts of the Port. Mandy and I want to go scouting with the guys and see if we can find a place that is secure enough for us to survive, or at least a place we can make secure.
Now, we just have to convince Mom to let us go back to the Port. This time though, we'll have the guys with us. They've been surviving there since the Towers got overrun with the undead and their parents pushed them into the tunnel before closing the door for the last time, well, unless the undead learn to pull on handles and pull doors open. They say the Port doesn't have too many undead and that we could thin them out, make a system to clean them out street by street if we have to. I know we could do it if we put our mind to it.
It will suck to have to move all our stuff and supplies. We have quite a bit and it would either take a truck or several trips, even with all of us helping. We have all the water left from our trip to the Port, canned food, clothes, blankets, cooking utensils, pots and pans, and personal possessions. Like I said, it will suck to move them. But it might be worth it.
If we can find a house with a yard and a fence or wall around it, that would be perfect. I've always wanted to live in a house with a yard, not in an apartment in the Towers. I know we'll have to deal with the zombies more than here. Although, we've been having to clear them out daily on the ground floor or around the bottom of the building. But I really think it will be worth it to be closer to the buildings in the Port where we can get supplies when we need them. If we can find a place near the Port, we can bring more water back to for us to use and also find more food. Our supply won't last too long with even more mouths to feed now.
Now, I've got to work on Mom and get her to let us go or even go with us. I would love to have her there when we look for a place.  She will have to approve any place we find anyway. It would save time to have her look at the places with us. Maybe that will make her happier, if she goes with us. I'm going to have to think about this and figure out just how to bring it up tomorrow.

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.