I'm Baaaack!

Okay, honestly, show of hands, who thought I was not coming back? Seriously? That many? Wow, feel the love. Okay I am tapping this out on a touch screen so any mistakes in spelling are purely the machines. Heh. Where to begin, where to begin? Well I am not home yet, so Odessa, you have to hold the fort a little longer babe.

I will hit some high points while I got time (If you have noticed my writing style has changed, it’s my diet that did it. We found some Jolt cola, pop-rocks, and all sorts of high sugar bad for you things. I feel like Hammy in Over the Hedge) and I will upload some cool action shots, however I did blot out the faces (sorry guys no movie deals for you) so we cannot be picked out of a line up if we do some infiltration work.

The drive to the Richmond area was pretty uneventful. We did see some normal folks moving about on their farms, etc. but as we neared them they hid. Ran into a few packs of Zak nothing major, the most of the hazard was pushing wrecked or empty cars off the road. (again I ask, why leave the car?).

We came in on route 52, which I happen to think is one of the worst roads I have ever been on. Not because it was rough, because of the twists and turns in it. At the edge of town we radioed our new ‘allies’ and we were given directions where to meet them.

Houses along Route 52, bandits, zombies or nature?

Which we promptly had to back track. Apparently the new ‘warlord’ is using the university and the stadium as head quarters and we were damn close to driving up to their front door. Luckily they were busy up north at the BGAD.

Our friends were hiding on a large farm south of some industrial plants including a glass factory. Once we got proper directions, we discovered why they had not been discovered. Talk about off the beaten path!

We pulled into the farm lane and were immediately called to stop by a few guys with assault rifles of all makes. After a few minutes of mistrust by both sides, we realized we were who everyone said they were. The Major went with the 3 men that had lead their own factions,  one group was from Lancaster, who were more than likely the only people still alive to claim that, and the other two groups were from here in Richmond.  I must say we were vastly outnumbered, but we were much better armed, than these people. A lot of women here, makes me almost feel chauvinistic now, helping with the fighting. We were a force of about 500 people. The dead were not much of a problem out here it seems as they seem to like Richmond better. It is also to be noted, that in unlike other places only about 4 or 5 in 10 people died or got the disease. Most all other places it is more like 7 or 8 out of 10 have been afflicted, so a lot of ‘food’ is still loose up that way.

We started unpacking ourselves out of our vehicles as other people came up to greet us. A lot of people here could do with a good meal and a shower. Just from general conversation we found out the power this far west from the dam, nothing worked. Seems the warlord dude has generators and fuel, mostly from taking them from other people. Most of these people were only armed with scatter guns, old hunting rifles and some even had black-powder rifles. I did notice a lot of bows mixed in with everyone. John gave me the look and we went around to the front of the APC where there were no people.

‘Man, and I thought we had it bad…’

‘Goes to show, someone else always got it worse than you do.’ I replied.  We were all just standing around shooting the shit and catching up on news. Seems like the further west and hillier it got, the worse it got. Seems the dead don’t mind the forest and open spaces and since the population density goes down so fast as you move west, we feared for anyone out there alone. One old guy, had to be close to my Dad’s age was sitting at a wooden table some distance off by himself, I pointed my chin at John as he was talking to someone and wandered over there.

His name was Roger. He was 84 years old. He served in WWII. I asked him what the hell was he doing out here?

‘Fighting, what do you think?’ was his reply. His wife long dead, his only son dead in Viet Nam, no other relatives to speak off, he decided to end his time here. He was still clear of eye and quick of wit, but his body was just not there for him anymore.  I tried to get him to come with me on the APC and run the 50 but he declined. He had a few people here he would stick with. I said okay and left him alone with his thoughts. Greatest Generation. Ever.  Word came down we would be moving at dusk, so everyone got their gear ready.

I was moving through the make shift camp when I heard my name being called. I didn’t know the voice but they were insistent.  A guy came up to me and rapped me on the back. It took me a minute to recognize him.

‘Have you forgotten me already?’ he smiled and laughed.

‘Ben? Is that you?’ I said smiling back. He nodded and told me to follow him up to the farm house. Inside was a mess of people and all kinds of electronics. A small generator chugged along just outside the door, spewing fumes into the air. I adjusted to the scarce light in the rooms as I was being dragged from area to area, Ben looking for something. He stopped and pointed over his shoulder. Sitting at a table, working with an old PC hooked to other equipment was Ashley, Odessa’s brother.

‘Damn boy, we thought you were dead!’ I yelled, scaring half the people in the room. Ash looked up and then grinned, and nearly knocked the table over getting out of his chair to come around to us.

‘Is Odessa okay? How about Bruce?’ he asked as we ‘man-hugged’.

‘Odessa is fine, she’s back at the Depot.  I haven’t found Bruce yet. I was more worried about you. I called and left you a message while back.’ He laughed and fished an object off the table. His iPhone. Cracked and broken. Well that explains that. Between him and Ben I got the story. He left Cincinnati a few days before all hell broke loose to visit Ben in Richmond. Ben was a part time bartender and some of the time student. He dropped his phone the day Cincinnati went crazy and broke it. He stayed with Ben and when the virus hit, they kept moving from place to place until they found these guys.

‘Don’t tell me they let you have a gun?’

‘No. I work with the radio equipment, such as it is. Ben here, however, is a pretty mean shot.’

Ben smiled again and grabbed his rifle from the corner. He had an M14. A good long distance rifle. Nothing  fancy but hard hitting. People started moving about with a purpose and we decided it was time to get out. Ash went back to the radio; he would stay here with a few others to keep communications open to us and the BGAD. Ben followed me, shook my hand and went off to find his people.

John was waiting at the APC with Jake and the Major.

‘We are going to spear head the attack on this warlord person. We will wait until dark and Jake and a few others will sneak up and take any sentries out. Seems the attack has stalled. The people in the Blue Grass don’t have enough people to risk an attack, and the bandits are running low on ammo.’ The Major looked around at all of us as he was speaking.

‘From the looks of what we got here to work with Major, I kinda figured we would lead. Half these guys are carrying bows for God sake.’ John looked around and waved his hand at the assembled men in the far field.

‘Yeah, a lot haven’t had a decent meal in weeks either I bet.’ I echoed everyone’s sentiment, ‘so what are we looking at?’

‘About 200 people with fully automatic weapons, maybe more maybe less. They even have some kids in with them about 14 or so all the way up to adults. Apparently they also have some LAW rockets, one or two mortars, but afraid to use them around all that gas.’ The Major replied.

‘That’s more than we got weapon-wise, but we out number them. But 5 to 2 odds, figure in the weapons we come out about even.’ I said doing some quick and dirty combat math. Even is never good, you want the advantage.

‘I place them at better than even, they know the area, are already dug in and will hear us coming. They won’t be afraid to turn the rockets and mortars on us though. I just don’t know how good they are with them, mortars are tricky weapons.’ I didn’t think of that. It is starting to sound like suicide a little voice in my head screamed. I ignored it and listened on.

‘We are going to send Jake and crew on foot the last few miles. They are going to recon the area, I am going to hold everyone else here until I get a report.’

‘Wouldn’t it be smarter to be closer, so Jake can cause a little chaos and while they think they are being attacked from one side we hit them from another?’  I asked, just using some common sense tactics. The Major raised his eyebrows at this thought, like he hadn’t already thought of it. We just starting to have a talk on the best course of action when a man ran up to us out of breath.

‘Our scouts just got back we have a problem…’

On the road again

Just a quick note, we pulled the APC over to the side and I got some pics with my digital camera of us going through town. Everyone thought some pics now and then would be a good idea. We shall see.

We were drawing a crowd, so I had to quit taking pictures and get inside. We didn't waste ammo on Zak today, we just ran them over and kept going. And it was such a nice quiet morning until we showed up...

Time to roll out

Just received another Good News/Bad News message on the AF band radio.
We had originally been told the Blue Grass Army Depot was overrun and burnt in the 3rd week of this chaos. Seems today that is not the case. We got a message for help.
From what we gather about 100 or so people are using some of the buildings and empty 'igloos' as homes there. They set fire to the perimeters and admin buildings early on as a camouflage to make people think it had burnt.
A little history before I gotta go.
BGAD stores volatile weapons, such as Mustard gas, Sarrin gas, and other nerve agents, thus anyone from around these parts would steer clear if there was a fire there in case of leaks. Now, however, a local bandit warlord out of Richmond discovered the ruse and wants some of the weapons for himself. Not a good idea for anyone, even us, if he gets his hands on some. We are going to help, and we were also promised some supplies, as they also have several BUNKERS full of ordnance at their area. The Major says the codes they supplied were right and it doesn't feel like a trap. Me? I am as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
I am still not 100% but they need help so off I go, most of the able bodied women are holding down the fort but a few decided to come with us. (I maybe even worse, but I made sure Odessa was not coming out to this. She is a great killer of Zak, but its hard on her to shoot at humans, even now.)
They even gave Odessa the reins while we are going since she keeps her head in a crisis. I am so proud of her.
She will soon learn to hate responsibility over other peoples lives like I do.

So that's it. we are on a mercy mission, however, chatter suggests we will have some help once we get there. Several groups contacted us from the south, seems this guy from Richmond has been pissing off a LOT of people lately.
Gotta run, wish us luck, it may be days before another update.

Over.

Someone has a case of the Mondays

Nothing exciting so far today, so I will just hit a few high points.
We started pouring are ‘Giant Jersey’ walls today after the fog left. Nothing makes it more like a horror film than the creeping fog before the sun burns through. We have repaired the gates as best we could without more parts. My Dad wants us to make him a machine shop so we can build our own parts and things when we need it. We (I) had to turn him down, as we just don’t have the room or the equipment at the moment. The Major said we were planning to annex the building ‘next door’ to us, about 200 feet to our left, but it was an old factory and FULL of broken windows, would take weeks just to get the first floor secure. But much of the equipment is still serviceable and since we still have power it will mostly likely all work.
Up and across the road from us is an old Coca-Cola bottling plant. All concrete block and huge vehicle bays, this is our next annex, but I do not like splitting our people up too much. We just need more help is all. Come one, come all, we have plenty of room for expansion, just ignore the walking dead.

John, J.T. and crew just got back with a 6X6 loaded with firearms from Cook’s Collectibles, a local pawn shop. He had more weapons in one place than I had seen, including a few gun shows. He had been raided but we were looking for shotguns, so we got them and everything that was left, including a few unexpected surprises. They went back out a little later and raided Curtsinger’s outfitters. It had mostly fishing supplies but I remembered they had a shit load of bows and arrows. They grabbed what was left, which was still a good amount and some scent masking liquids to see if the Zs could be fooled. Unfortunately neither place had much ammo left; we did get a few hundred shotgun shells, mostly skeet or bird shot though. Not much damage to a person unless real close. That’s Dad’s new job, reloading the shotgun shells. John stopped long enough at Ace hardware to grab a few boxes of ball bearings so now we are turning bird shot into buck shot. It’s going to look a little kludged, but they should work. I guess bow hunting school starts soon. I used to be pretty good at shooting targets, but man, shooting something in the head that is coming to eat you puts a whole new spin on things.

Doc is still studying the left-over’s from the Kurt incident, and from what he can tell there are definitely two strains of the virus. Scary stuff that. I tend to stay away and always ask he wash his hands before he inspects my leg. I worry about the guy but it’s good he has a hobby I guess. I am up and about again today the leg seems to be holding me much better and I am no longer dizzy. John has been bugging me to come out with him doing a patrol of the town looking for survivors. I was vetoed by the Major and Odessa. So for now either J.T. puts up with his dad or poor Jake when he is not busy instructing wannabe snipers.

The Prisoners. Funny to say that in print. We have yet to check their information out completely, but Jake’s guys say they can see some activity that way. So far none have died from their wounds and we are keeping them feed, probably better than they were before.
We have been meeting to try to decide what to do with them. One faction says shoot them even if the information is good. One just wants them to go or ask them to join us. The last option is turn them loose naked into the wild. Josh’s group had a situation where they had to let people go from their Compound. I have two things to say. One; an enemy killed today cannot kill your friends later. Two; they know your base and have inside intel on how things work and what your assets are. I am not sure I could kill them by hand (Knife, baseball bat) like some said should be done, but I could be convinced to use a gun. I don’t know, moral issues are not my thing. I am not religious, never had a thought either way about it.

Well, that’s all I can think about today.
Over.

And the hits keep coming

The alarm was sounded because of a bandit attack. They came at our gates with some armored trucks, you know like they use to get money from banks? They came at our front gates, guns blazing, spread out behind the slow moving trucks. We took cover behind the jersey walls as the trucks and men opened fire on us. Between the rain and the concrete dust from the bullets, we were miserable, not to mention the bullets zipping over your head.
We let them get to the edge of the moat and opened up. Our hidden 50 calibers on the Depot’s roof turned the trucks into Swiss cheese, the heavy weapons pealing the metal away and punching completely through the vehicles. Once that happened, the bandits tried to scatter, but by then it was too late for them. Jake and a few guys picked off the fleeing men (and women) as they made for the road or the woods. The Major gave us orders to try to capture a few, so the snipers were going for leg shots making their shots extremely difficult.
Some of the bandits decided to take cover behind the now burning trucks and started throwing dynamite at the gates. Two landed close, tearing the gates off of their hinges and we lost a man in the resulting explosion. Chain link makes for great shrapnel as it spirals through the air. Why are these idiots attacking us with such a vengeance? Order came down to secure some prisoners before Zak got them and make sure no one escapes this time.

After the brief firefight we went into the field and checked the downed bandits. Anyone too hurt to talk or would not live long was put out of their misery. We found 4 men and 1 woman with leg wounds who gave up when we approached. They were all rejects from a Mad Max movie, armor made out of scraps of metal and tires. We were dragging them into the depot when the zombies came, drawn by either the gunfire or the smell of blood.

We pulled back into the depot past the flaming trucks. Even with the rain, they sill burned and actually helped us as Zak would not come near them. That gave us time to pick and choose our targets, conserving our ammo. We had a count of 36 dead humans, bandits and 27 dead heads. We lost 2 men to the bandit attack. Our prisoners were held in the last spare room we had, next to Kurt’s death room. I stayed and made sure we got a new gate up and in place, and had a backhoe push some jersey walls against them so they could not be pushed in. The guys also ran some aircraft cable through the gates and padlocked the cables to the backhoe. This would keep any zombies out until we fixed the gate correctly.

Inside I was admonished by several people for risking myself again. I blamed it all on John and left to find the Major. He was in with the prisoners, all them zip-tied to metal chairs, the only furniture in the room. I hate those metal chairs, circa 1950’s military office furniture, and uncomfortable in the best conditions. The bandits were all dirty, and had really torn up clothes on under the armor, which we had relieved them of, and in the process found several knives. The smell was also enough to turn your stomach. Is this what happens in 2 months after society breaks down? The woman and one man were obviously Latino, the other three men look to be related. White skin and blonde hair, all had similar facial features.

‘Why did you attack our home?’ The Major asked, looking over the tied down people. No one even looked up at him. He repeated the question.
‘We’ve got nothing but time here you know. I think the woman may live, her wounds not that bad, but the rest of you? You’re bleeding all over our nice clean floor.’ J.T. entered the room past me. I leaned against the door frame, my head swimming again. They looked up at him. The Latino man said something in Spanish. The woman laughed. J.T. answered him back. In Spanish. They both looked wild eyed up at him. Oh, it would get better.

I left after about a half hour. I didn’t speak Spanish and I was just plain tired. I went back to my room and Odessa and Doc were waiting on me. The Doc believes the infection has gone down and my leg wound is started to heal again. The dizziness is the anti-biotics and no sleep. He recommended me to take more time off and stay out of the rain. Kentucky in May? More like the tropics, cold and raining one day, hot and humid the next. No wonder I was sick. The Doc excused himself to check on the ‘prisoners’.

I was nearly asleep when John stopped by an hour later. Odessa frowned but made an excuse to leave. He told me he was over near the interrogation, listening. Apparently the Major had okayed a little torture to extract information from the bandits. I am not sure how I feel about this. But then I remembered all the people that fell to their gunfire, in a world full of the walking dead. My resolve came into focus a little more. We found some information; we will check it out later. In the meantime we are keeping the prisoners alive and fed.

I was ordered by the Major to stick by my Dad the next few days until I am healed. I am not sure what I am being punished for. Anyway, I am tired to the bone and I need some rest.

Over.

Dark Times

Well yesterdays report will have to be today. Things are happening here that concerns us all.

Yesterday morning, we all awoke to the sound of screaming, inside the Depot. One of the men and women that came in the vans to the base had bunked together in one of the few remaining rooms we have. No one thought anything of it as we have ‘it’s not our business unless it hurts someone’ attitude.
Well, anyway, the screaming was coming from their room. Not the excited, ecstasy-type screaming, but blood curdling, fear racked screaming. It woke me up from my medical induced slumber, luckily my fever has broken, but I am still dizzy if I move fast or try to exert too much, not to mention my leg wound is still very much an acute pain. I stumbled down the hallway using the wall to support, people, mostly women, were moving past me to see the noise. I had grabbed my 9mm in case the base was compromised and had it held down at my side as I stumbled as fast as I could. Near the back of the base, were two women with their back to a door, bracing it. The door would pound and move then stop. The screaming had stopped a few seconds ago. Blood pooled at the bottom of the door. I quickly looked at the women, neither which I knew by name, over and noticed no wounds. In my fogged brain I also noticed a distant lack of guards or men. The door started to pound again and the women around me all gasped or screamed. The ones holding the door looked ashen, but held their feet apart and pushed back at the door. That is also when I saw the door knob was broken and hanging by one bolt.

‘What the Hell is going on?’ I asked looking around; wild eyed women looked back at me. The one closest to me, one of the women also from the van convoy from, Friday? Was it? I can’t remember now, answered me.
‘Kurt must have been bitten and never told us, Mary was his girl, and they were both in there..’She stopped as the pounding started again with more force. By this time, Odessa and the Major had gotten here. The Major looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders. He echoed my question, and we figured out Kurt, which I really don’t remember too well, must have been infected and must have either bitten or killed Mary his girlfriend. When the screaming started, the closest people, two women from their group, Missy and Jenny, came to see what was up. They opened the door and immediately pushed it back shut and were now holding it. Kurt ‘turned’ apparently and had, most likely from the amount of blood, torn Mary apart in the room. The Major got the hallway cleared as I asked Odessa to get her shotgun, and I moved up to the door to have a look. The skinny chicken wire reinforced window above the door knob was shattered and blood spattered. The Major joined me and relieved one of the women holding the door. I could just barely see Kurt moving around the room, turning the cot over, tossing the small desk around then he came at the door again. BAM. He hammered at the door. I caught a glimpse of his face. I will never forget it. I have seen the face of madness; I can truly believe that now. Blood was flecked from his mouth; his eyes were red, like all the blood vessels had broken. He did *not* move like a Z. He was quick, almost like a lunatic at high tide on a beach lit by a full moon. Reminded me of all those werewolf movies I saw as a kid.
‘What is it?’ The Major whispered to me as the pounding stopped. The other woman, Jenny, was a stocky woman with thick arms, and I could see her straining to keep the door closed. I gave her a grim smile and turned to the Major.
‘I am not sure, he’s crazed looks like he killed the woman in there. He looks like he has rabies not some kind of zombie virus.’ The Major nodded grimly. The door was impacted again and this time gave a little as Jenny slipped in the blood. I slammed against the door, leaning all my weight on it until the pounding stopped.
‘Where in the Hell is everyone?’ I asked the Major as the stars cleared my eyes.
‘Everyone but the few men we have on wall duty are out on missions to get materials today. I am afraid to call in the ten men out there to handle this. We can handle this on our own.’ Odessa came around the corner in a hurry with her 12 gauge. The shotgun was a Mossberg with a ‘Spec-Ops’ stock on it. The stock took about 70% of the recoil out of any shot. It was a great gun to use without making your shoulders bruised for days. She pumped the gun and loaded a shell into it. I motioned her over and traded my pistol for the shotgun.
‘Major, get the hell back. You don’t need to be here in case this goes south. Odessa, help Jenny with the door.’ I traded places as the Major started to speak.
‘No offense, but get clear Major, now!’ I moved back up the hallway about five feet. The Major drew is pistol and moved back around the corner. He would not go far, but he was at least out of the way.
‘When I say so, both of you let go of the door and run past me, okay?’ Odessa and Jenny both nodded. The door started to pound again with more force than last time. When it stopped I looked at them both and yelled ‘Now!’

Both women moved off to my right as fast as they could without falling on the slick floor. I waited. I could hear things being tossed around in the room. The door flew open and there he was. He was covered in blood, his face contorted in a strange grin. His wild eyes spotted me and he made to move. I pulled the trigger. The blast staggered me into the wall and I slid to the floor. I pumped the empty shell out and loaded the next one. The double aught buckshot at the mean distance of five feet shredded his face and nearly decapitated him. The body stood, arms flailing for an eternity, before falling with a wet splash to the floor. The Major was there helping me up when movement in the room made us both stop moving. Mary, or what was left of her was struggling to rise from the bloody floor in the room.
‘Shit.’ Was all I could say as we watched more in awe than fear. Her entire stomach cavity was missing and her neck was chewed open. Dead white eyes looked at us and her mouth started working, making that robotic chomping motion. I stood there braced against the wall as the world was tilting out of balance when the Major took the shotgun from my hand and moved to the doorway. The sound seemed louder when someone else pulled the trigger. Jenny and Odessa came around the corner at that time, and I thought they were both going to be sick. The Major handed Odessa her shotgun back and helped me back to my room. He gave orders to have the room sealed and posted Jenny and Odessa as guards to keep people from sightseeing. He also sent for the Doc, one of the older women who normally watched the children went to fetch him.

Back in my room. I settled back down on my cot and the Major grabbed a chair and turned it backwards to sit in it.
‘Damn foolish what you did.’
‘Why?’ I asked closing my eyes as the world spun again. I then noticed somewhere along the walk back we had both left our bloody shoes in the hallway.
‘You already have an infection; you could have caught that shit doing that. Your immune system is already compromised.’
‘And you should not risk yourself in stupid shit as that. Next time call in a couple of guys form the walls. Damn foolish not to have enough people here anyway. Ten guys and these women, could not hold this place. I am in shape to do shit and the older guys working on the Depot are just too old or out of shape, would be suicide for them.’
‘You done? Good. You are right. I was stupid. I just want to get as much done as possible as quickly as we can.’
‘Why? You don’t think this shit is going to end soon do you? We will *always* have more to do. Zak to kill, food to find, people to help. We are trying to be the good guys here. The world is a Bad Place now.’
I was tired and my whole body ached. I turned to get some more anti-biotics and Tylenol. The Major helped me and stood up.
‘That is why I like you. No Bullshit. You are right of course. Maybe I am getting too old for this shit. Maybe someone else should lead or be commander, whatever.’
‘Stop feeling so damn sorry for yourself. No one else *wants* the job, don’t you get that? You’re trapped here with us. Now let me get some rest old man.’ He laughed at that.
‘Oh yeah, get Odessa away from that blood, will ya? She gets really ill being around anything like that. Or your food is going to taste funny the next coupla days.’ He nodded to me and went out. I passed out then until today.

What happened while I was unconscious.

The Doc said the same viral strain was in Kurt’s’ blood sample as was in the body he was studying earlier. Which is not good. However, Mary’s blood did not contain the same virus even though she was killed by him. She did have the ‘common’ virus which we all call the ‘Z strain’. The Doc is making some theories but the base case is this; The ‘Z strain’ seems to be an offshoot of the other virus, and the main virus which he has yet to name, is in the Fast Zombies. The Fast Zombies are misnomer. They are *not* dead, just infected humans. The ‘Z strain’ re-animates dead bodies and makes them crave other humans. Doc believes the main virus is manmade as it contains properties that are find in Rabies, Aids, BSE(or Jakob Desease )and hemorrhagic fever. He said it is too much of a super-bug to be a natural one. But alcohol and bleach kill it outside the body rather easily which is good, because if it was a protein like BSE it would be near impossible to disinfect an area where blood was spilled. He tried a few samples of dog blood, and it seems the virus does not take to them. He said if he had some fresh pigs blood he could do more but this is really not his field. He says he also needs more equipment to be sure, thus the hospital raid.

Jake’s reporting Zak is moving in packs through the town and they seem to be centered on the hospital. We have started pouring the walls today when the rains came forcing us inside. The dogs started barking around noon, and luckily everyone was back on Sunday to defend. We got hit by a large wave of deadheads. They seem to be testing our defenses now. They don’t spread out and mob like before. Although a good deal fell into our moat and we dropped some gas on them and burned them.
This was a bad thing to do. Apparently the smell of burning zombies draws others. We counted in the neighborhood of 500 or so before it was all over. We had to put the dogs inside as they were driving us nuts and seem to be bringing in more zombies to us. The moat around the depot made the road to the gates a choke point and we used it to good effect.

At this time we have men out in backhoes burying the dead. We did not lose any people on this attack but our ammo situation on our rifles is getting serious. I was able to go get my own food today and the throbbing dizziness in my head has calmed down. While my leg is still a constant reminder I can at least function again. John stopped by and we were going over ideas of making more Zbaits and placing them up the road from us in all directions to keep the zombies from getting close to the Depot. The alarm is going off again; well we gotta go see what is up.

Over.

Freedom for all.

Just some data while I am lucid enough. John got me some anti-biotics from the local animal shelter.
Good news was someone let all the animals out before they abandoned the shelter. J.T. did find some dogs hanging around that were not feral and were glad to see normal humans so we now have 4 more mouths to feed. They will earn their kibble, because they can smell the dead before we can and have been very useful in predicting attacks. Funny side note is that John reports the coyotes are now attacking the zombies. He saw one poor old zombie dude get pulled to the ground and torn apart by a pack of coyotes. Unintentional help with our problem it seems. The dead heads however do not attack to eat the coyotes only defend themselves until the threat is gone or they are torn apart.

Josh’s team from Frankfort passed near us today on a mission for supplies. I wish them luck. He reported Zak is now acting smarter than before. We have noticed they are developing pack hunting skills and we have also noticed the newer the dead, the faster they are.

Good News/Bad News time…
Bad News; we have encountered the dreaded running Z, like the ones in 28 days later. We have only encountered a grand total of 5 but that means they are out there.
Good News; head shots are not necessary to bring them down. Four hollow points to the cheat stopped the latest one. Our Doc has a specimen in a metal shed in the parking lot studying it. I would have voted against this idea, but I was unconscious. He is thinking this is some form of human BSE and not part of the virus that has taken hold of, well I guess, the entire planet now. I am hoping the virus is not mutating into different strains.

Home front report. People have settled into routine and are actually getting along again. We had our fair share of fights over stupid shit, which was solved by a choice; Get Along or Get Out. We are not Fascist or anything, but we are maintaining a martial law-like existence so we all have a chance to survive. We have set aside rooms for worship, however you want, and we rotate times, days, etc. to keep everyone happy. We will not tolerate intolerance (is that an oxymoron?) in our home. Race, creed, etc. does not enter the picture, we are all Humans (Alive) then Americans, that’s it. Right now our enemies are in Priority;
1. Bandits, Slavers, Warlords, Marauders, etc.
(People that cannot let others live or will not allow them to live their lives in peace.)
2. Zombies, deadheads, Zak, Zs.
3. Starvation
4. Thirst
5. Boredom
These could be re-arranged at any time.

We have replaced all the windows in the Depot that were destroyed by gunfire, we also added a layer of Plexiglas to the inside to keep shrapnel down the next time we get shot at. We are not building concrete walls any longer; my Dad came up with a better idea. We are making ten foot tall movable barriers, kinda like really tall and thick jersey walls. We are putting rebar in them in cross sections, and layering the outside with steel plate. The genius part of this is on the inside the barriers we are attaching loops of steel. With these loops we can attach a bulldozer and move them anywhere we want. Once we have them in place we will run cable and chain through all the loops so one section will not be able to be pulled out of place as all the rests’ weight will be holding it there. We can then move them and replace them one at a time as needed and as we expand. We also will not need such large forms to make them nor a lot of ground work to set them into place. I thought it was rather ingenious.

We have made our first run to the Dix River hydroelectric plant today. The Major took two Humvees on a fast tour to make friends with them. They have engineers there that can shut down various substations around the city so only the places we need get power, thus conserving the output, and so we will be able to update the power grid here. The idea is also that an electrical fire or overload be avoided so no more unnecessary fires around the counties. Hopefully anyone still out there with power needs can contact us or them before this gets into full swing. We are giving the people there supplies in return for the power. The barter system lives! We handed over a small supply of medicine, ammo, weapons, some reading materials and a small supply of food as a good faith gesture. We also are going to get communications between them and us with sat-link phones, and a long range radio, so far, the bandits have pretty much ignored them, but who knows about the future.

Seems like a lot was going on while I have been down. Courtesy of a quick idea/raid by Kelly we have 16 new deep freezers. Lowes gave up the supply they had in back. Now our cattle culling will not go to waste. He even brought us 3 drink cases, so we can have cold drinks. Thank that man when you see him for me.

Well I am about asleep at the switch, I am going to lay down again.

Over.