Day One Hundred Nine:
Here’s the thing, I wouldn’t know how to find latitude and longitude coordinates before this whole end of the world thing happened, so I wasn’t able to give any real suggestions for how we could go about figuring it out now. Funny how if you take Google Search away you almost instantly have an entire country full of idiots.
Or almost. AJ and Victor apparently received real educations since both of them suggested Josh look for a world atlas in the library along with anything related to how to work with latitude and longitude. From there they figured once he had that, he could narrow it down and start trying to find either a state or country map My suggestion would have been to see if the government had somehow managed to download the entire internet before this disaster happened, and then run a search on it.
Everyone laughed and then Josh asked if Google Earth would work even without the internet? Before I answer that question, allow me to take this moment to say that apparently this entry is brought to you by Google.
After about an hour of trying to get a computer to load up that had Google Earth on it, we were saddened a little to find out that no, it doesn’t work very well at all. Stupid internet.
So while Josh is out scouring the Naval Bases library, we are all busy doing important things like… playing darts, and setting up bowling pins in the middle of the street and engaging in a rousing game of street bowling. Of course street bowling invariably ends up with us throwing bowling balls through the windshields of abandoned cars.
Why?
Why not?
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Day One Hundred Eight:
Day One Hundred Eight:
So here’s the problem. We found the safe and it looks pretty safey. I am confident that Josh could open it with his impressive thermite skills but Josh is confident that if there is anything inside the safe, the thermite will incinerate it.
Any suggestions?
Haha, oh man. Remember Social media where you could actually ask stuff like that? Good times. Or hey, maybe I will just Google “How to open a safe with a ten digit combination lock” oh wait, that’s right. No internet. No anything. I suppose the library might have some insight as to how to get inside this thing but, christ… without a librarian I’m not sure trying to navigate the Dewey Decimal system would be any easier than trying to open this safe with a plastic spoon.
Instead we went through the drawers of the desk and tried to figure out who this room belonged to. After we had a name, Josh pulled out the driver’s licenses and military id’s of all the dead bodies we buried and identified one Dan Ganderfield who apparently was the man in charge behind the desk until the world went to shit.
Next we looked through every scrap of paper in the desk, every trace of information we could find in an attempt to provide us with a combination to the safe. Birthday, no. Address, no. Security Id, no. EOD date, no. No no no no no no no.
While we were doing all of this, Victor said “I got it open”.
Apparently Dan Ganderfield wasn’t too worried about people finding his secrets anymore since he left the actual combination still on the safe. All Victor had to do was pull the handle and make all of us feel like idiots for not trying the obvious.
Inside were documents sealed inside of a red folder with all sorts of warnings about how the information was sensitive and not to be viewed by anyone without the proper security clearance and even though the entire world is dead or mutant… I think all of us were worried for a second about getting thrown in prison.
Once that moment passed we opened the folder and found exactly what Josh was hoping for. Well, sort of.
It didn’t necessarily explain exactly what happened, but it danced around the issue long enough to create an image at least. Apparently NASA had been teamed up with an international symposium… is symposium the right word? Anyway, a group of countries and NASA all got together with the intent to figure out a way to make deep space travel possible.
No one seemed to be able to figure out how exactly to make cryogenics a reality so they opted for examining the hibernation patterns of animals and tried to create a way for this type of action to indefinitely suspend a human’s activity while they traveled across the universe.
Only problem is it didn’t work or rather, worked in ways they weren’t expecting. Instead of allowing human’s to hibernate, they created some sort of virus that instructed the body to cut off all non-essential brain functions and revert to what we see now with the ex-humes.
From what we can tell, it looks like the outbreak started overseas but it’s hard to decide whether or not that’s factual, or just the beginning of the finger pointing process. The message concluded with information that scientists were trying to reverse what they had created but were struggling to make any progress. It also mentioned that the mysterious people we found dead in this bunker were supposed to try to monitor the outside world and report if they were able to find anyone immune to the disease.
Last but not least was a scrap of paper with 39° 16′ 32″ N, 121° 49′ 45″ W hand scrawled across it. Obviously some type of location but where or why we have no idea. I really hope wherever that fucking location is at is close though. Because if not, I’ve got a feeling we’re about to go on a journey.
So here’s the problem. We found the safe and it looks pretty safey. I am confident that Josh could open it with his impressive thermite skills but Josh is confident that if there is anything inside the safe, the thermite will incinerate it.
Any suggestions?
Haha, oh man. Remember Social media where you could actually ask stuff like that? Good times. Or hey, maybe I will just Google “How to open a safe with a ten digit combination lock” oh wait, that’s right. No internet. No anything. I suppose the library might have some insight as to how to get inside this thing but, christ… without a librarian I’m not sure trying to navigate the Dewey Decimal system would be any easier than trying to open this safe with a plastic spoon.
Instead we went through the drawers of the desk and tried to figure out who this room belonged to. After we had a name, Josh pulled out the driver’s licenses and military id’s of all the dead bodies we buried and identified one Dan Ganderfield who apparently was the man in charge behind the desk until the world went to shit.
Next we looked through every scrap of paper in the desk, every trace of information we could find in an attempt to provide us with a combination to the safe. Birthday, no. Address, no. Security Id, no. EOD date, no. No no no no no no no.
While we were doing all of this, Victor said “I got it open”.
Apparently Dan Ganderfield wasn’t too worried about people finding his secrets anymore since he left the actual combination still on the safe. All Victor had to do was pull the handle and make all of us feel like idiots for not trying the obvious.
Inside were documents sealed inside of a red folder with all sorts of warnings about how the information was sensitive and not to be viewed by anyone without the proper security clearance and even though the entire world is dead or mutant… I think all of us were worried for a second about getting thrown in prison.
Once that moment passed we opened the folder and found exactly what Josh was hoping for. Well, sort of.
It didn’t necessarily explain exactly what happened, but it danced around the issue long enough to create an image at least. Apparently NASA had been teamed up with an international symposium… is symposium the right word? Anyway, a group of countries and NASA all got together with the intent to figure out a way to make deep space travel possible.
No one seemed to be able to figure out how exactly to make cryogenics a reality so they opted for examining the hibernation patterns of animals and tried to create a way for this type of action to indefinitely suspend a human’s activity while they traveled across the universe.
Only problem is it didn’t work or rather, worked in ways they weren’t expecting. Instead of allowing human’s to hibernate, they created some sort of virus that instructed the body to cut off all non-essential brain functions and revert to what we see now with the ex-humes.
From what we can tell, it looks like the outbreak started overseas but it’s hard to decide whether or not that’s factual, or just the beginning of the finger pointing process. The message concluded with information that scientists were trying to reverse what they had created but were struggling to make any progress. It also mentioned that the mysterious people we found dead in this bunker were supposed to try to monitor the outside world and report if they were able to find anyone immune to the disease.
Last but not least was a scrap of paper with 39° 16′ 32″ N, 121° 49′ 45″ W hand scrawled across it. Obviously some type of location but where or why we have no idea. I really hope wherever that fucking location is at is close though. Because if not, I’ve got a feeling we’re about to go on a journey.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Day One Hundred Seven:
Day One Hundred Seven:
If I read the bible this would probably be a good time for some type of belly of the beast quote. But, since I don’t I will fake it.
And Ezekiel said to Jebediah, thou shalt return to the scene of the horror. And yay we did. And yay we did.
Actually, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t use the phrase “Return to the scene” back in bible times but oh well. With Josh as our Junior Cadet leader we all went back to the house of death. Despite burying all the bodies there was still gore and rot everywhere we looked. Par for the course I know but, still something you never really enjoy walking through.
So we looked. Every desk was scoured, every table turned, in fact before we buried the bodies Josh demanded that we search everyone’s pockets for keys. At first there was nothing, and then… more nothing. We found a print out that looked promising at first until we realized it was just a really fancy worded inventory. Room by room until several hours later we ran out of rooms. At which point Josh asked if we would help him move all the furniture out of the bunker.
And that was when AJ had enough. He said “No, we’re not going to do that. There is nothing here. I’m sorry, I really am. I wish there was a magic lamp I could rub to explain everything but there isn’t. Not here, maybe not anywhere Ok?”
Josh said ok. Then he started pushing a desk towards the exit.
I wanted to take AJ’s side except, what did it hurt? If Josh wanted to empty the entire fucking complex, by God we would do it. Why? Because why not.
We didn’t finish today, but we didn’t have to. After emptying about ¼ of the place, we found something underneath a massive desk. I would have never even noticed it, but that’s the advantage of believing in yourself I suppose. Because somehow Josh noticed the faintest outline of a square in the floor. After closer examination (With a crowbar) we found a safe in the ground.
A safe, underneath boards, underneath a desk. We haven’t opened it yet, but we will. And maybe next time we won’t doubt the kid.
If I read the bible this would probably be a good time for some type of belly of the beast quote. But, since I don’t I will fake it.
And Ezekiel said to Jebediah, thou shalt return to the scene of the horror. And yay we did. And yay we did.
Actually, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t use the phrase “Return to the scene” back in bible times but oh well. With Josh as our Junior Cadet leader we all went back to the house of death. Despite burying all the bodies there was still gore and rot everywhere we looked. Par for the course I know but, still something you never really enjoy walking through.
So we looked. Every desk was scoured, every table turned, in fact before we buried the bodies Josh demanded that we search everyone’s pockets for keys. At first there was nothing, and then… more nothing. We found a print out that looked promising at first until we realized it was just a really fancy worded inventory. Room by room until several hours later we ran out of rooms. At which point Josh asked if we would help him move all the furniture out of the bunker.
And that was when AJ had enough. He said “No, we’re not going to do that. There is nothing here. I’m sorry, I really am. I wish there was a magic lamp I could rub to explain everything but there isn’t. Not here, maybe not anywhere Ok?”
Josh said ok. Then he started pushing a desk towards the exit.
I wanted to take AJ’s side except, what did it hurt? If Josh wanted to empty the entire fucking complex, by God we would do it. Why? Because why not.
We didn’t finish today, but we didn’t have to. After emptying about ¼ of the place, we found something underneath a massive desk. I would have never even noticed it, but that’s the advantage of believing in yourself I suppose. Because somehow Josh noticed the faintest outline of a square in the floor. After closer examination (With a crowbar) we found a safe in the ground.
A safe, underneath boards, underneath a desk. We haven’t opened it yet, but we will. And maybe next time we won’t doubt the kid.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Day One Hundred Six:
Day One Hundred Six:
After yesterday, I was 99.9% certain I would never set foot in those rooms ever again. The neat thing about life though is that there is always room for error.
Today as we were getting ready for the day, all of us still in an almost hung over depressed mood from our discovery of death the day before, Josh walked in holding a shovel for each of us. We asked him what he was doing and he said he was going back to check out the room we kicked him out of yesterday.
We told him not to, told him there was nothing to see. He told us that the people in there might not matter to us but, he had buried half the people on this island and was going to bury the ones we found whether we wanted to go back in there or not. He told us that if we didn’t want to go in there we could use the shovels and start digging some holes outside.
That put us all in our place.
He then explained that burying the bodies wasn’t the end but only the start. Once we were finished with that we needed to scour the entire room. There was a reason why those people were there and a reason they were behind an enormous metal door. And that reason is not because they were trying to quarantine themselves. If they were, where were the gas masks, the filtrations systems, the… he didn’t know what else you need to isolate yourself from disease but he was pretty sure it required more than a bank vault door.
Josh thought we would find something if we looked hard enough. Wishful thinking perhaps, but it was a distraction at least. Something to take our minds off the gruesome task of carrying out several children, women, and men who were literally falling apart.
I wish I could tell you we found something amazing but, after we spent several hours moving and burying bodies we decided we would spend the rest of the evening decompressing and focus on whatever it was Josh thought we would find tomorrow.
One interesting thing I forgot to mention though, is Josh didn’t recognize any of the people we buried. He kept saying over and over again, “I knew almost everyone on this island. These guys couldn’t have already been here, and if they weren’t, why were they here now. I don’t understand.”
Me neither, and I didn’t want to break it to him but… I think now more than ever we have entered a world of mystery and ignorance where not everything can be solved by searching for the answer online. Especially since the only thing online refers to now is maybe, clothes that are hung out on a line.
After yesterday, I was 99.9% certain I would never set foot in those rooms ever again. The neat thing about life though is that there is always room for error.
Today as we were getting ready for the day, all of us still in an almost hung over depressed mood from our discovery of death the day before, Josh walked in holding a shovel for each of us. We asked him what he was doing and he said he was going back to check out the room we kicked him out of yesterday.
We told him not to, told him there was nothing to see. He told us that the people in there might not matter to us but, he had buried half the people on this island and was going to bury the ones we found whether we wanted to go back in there or not. He told us that if we didn’t want to go in there we could use the shovels and start digging some holes outside.
That put us all in our place.
He then explained that burying the bodies wasn’t the end but only the start. Once we were finished with that we needed to scour the entire room. There was a reason why those people were there and a reason they were behind an enormous metal door. And that reason is not because they were trying to quarantine themselves. If they were, where were the gas masks, the filtrations systems, the… he didn’t know what else you need to isolate yourself from disease but he was pretty sure it required more than a bank vault door.
Josh thought we would find something if we looked hard enough. Wishful thinking perhaps, but it was a distraction at least. Something to take our minds off the gruesome task of carrying out several children, women, and men who were literally falling apart.
I wish I could tell you we found something amazing but, after we spent several hours moving and burying bodies we decided we would spend the rest of the evening decompressing and focus on whatever it was Josh thought we would find tomorrow.
One interesting thing I forgot to mention though, is Josh didn’t recognize any of the people we buried. He kept saying over and over again, “I knew almost everyone on this island. These guys couldn’t have already been here, and if they weren’t, why were they here now. I don’t understand.”
Me neither, and I didn’t want to break it to him but… I think now more than ever we have entered a world of mystery and ignorance where not everything can be solved by searching for the answer online. Especially since the only thing online refers to now is maybe, clothes that are hung out on a line.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Day One Hundred Five:
Day One Hundred Five:
We should have left well enough alone. I don’t know what we expected to find. Surely if they had found a cure they would have shared it with others instead of locking it in a room on an island guarded by a juvenille. Maybe we expected to find some way of communicating with others, or a map where the government had created a quarantine zone safe from the sickness.
Instead we found death.
Death stacked on top of death stacked on top of death.
We stopped Josh before he could see all of it, but he still saw some. Some of the worst. The first room we opened were the children. All left to rot, most likely drugged. We should have known. The smell was there but, they had been in there so long it wasn’t enough to stop us. Because honestly at this point, we were all just used to that smell and didn’t even think anything of it.
But sure enough, after the children we found several rooms full of high ranking officers and their wives or in some cases, alone. The ones with the women took the clean way out, the ones by themselves opted for a messy end. Whatever we hoped for, we should have expected this. But we didn’t/
Hope blinded us. Made us think that this isolated island was only the icing on the cake and we were about to find the mother load. Instead, we found an endless well of depression. If morale wasn’t already low, we just kicked it off a cliff and set it on fire.
I always try to find the plus side to situations like this but this time, there is none. Sorry world.
FUCK!
We should have left well enough alone. I don’t know what we expected to find. Surely if they had found a cure they would have shared it with others instead of locking it in a room on an island guarded by a juvenille. Maybe we expected to find some way of communicating with others, or a map where the government had created a quarantine zone safe from the sickness.
Instead we found death.
Death stacked on top of death stacked on top of death.
We stopped Josh before he could see all of it, but he still saw some. Some of the worst. The first room we opened were the children. All left to rot, most likely drugged. We should have known. The smell was there but, they had been in there so long it wasn’t enough to stop us. Because honestly at this point, we were all just used to that smell and didn’t even think anything of it.
But sure enough, after the children we found several rooms full of high ranking officers and their wives or in some cases, alone. The ones with the women took the clean way out, the ones by themselves opted for a messy end. Whatever we hoped for, we should have expected this. But we didn’t/
Hope blinded us. Made us think that this isolated island was only the icing on the cake and we were about to find the mother load. Instead, we found an endless well of depression. If morale wasn’t already low, we just kicked it off a cliff and set it on fire.
I always try to find the plus side to situations like this but this time, there is none. Sorry world.
FUCK!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Day One Hundred Four:
Day One Hundred Four:
Turns out that if you mix Etch a Sketch with Burnt Steel Wool in the correct ratio you get Thermite. Now, in case you don’t know what Thermite is since I didn’t know what it was, Thermite is basically what you would get if you mixed an actual dragon’s breath, with the surface of the sun, with an active volcano, with the center of the Earth with… you get the idea.
For some reason Thermite has a hard time burning through ceramic. Josh explained this, but before he got anywhere near to being finished I asked him how he knew all this. All he said was, “Kids have easy access to the internet these days.”
With that said, he rigged up a piece of ceramic at an angle on the door where the lock was and put some of his magical mixture on top. Then, using the worlds cheapest sparkler he ignited his homemade lava which mostly ran down the door but did appear to have made a small hole. That was when Josh turned to us and said, “This is going to take a while, I’ll let you know when we’re in”.
Aj and Victor wandered off but I stayed since, this was probably the last fireworks show I would ever get to see. What started as a small hole turned into a dent, the dent grew into a crevice and the crevice turned into a crag. Also, if those words aren’t in the correct order, sorry but you get the idea of where I am going here.
Before long Josh didn’t have to use the ceramic, he just packed the hole with powder and ignited it. Some would burn down into the door while the rest burned at an angle through it. I asked how much of the stuff he had made and he only laughed.
After about 3 hours of work we could see through to the other side of the door. It was still locked, but Josh said it was only a matter of time before we were through. And with that, I am going to sleep where I will probably dream of volcanoes.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Day One Hundred Three:
Day One Hundred Three:
Row row row your boat gently down the stream,
Merrily Merrily Merrily Merrily
Life is but a bombed out possibly radioactive still smoldering dream.
The first Toy Store we went into was non-existant. Just trying to figure out where it might have originally been was a challenge since any way of telling what street we were on, or lot we were in had been vaporized. I think at one point I was able to find what might have once been a Tonka truck, but it also could have been a wheel chair or a car or who knows? On a positive note, there were no ex-humes either which was nice.
After canvassing the area to make sure there wasn’t an entire toy store hidden underneath mounds of glassed over rubble, we went back to the boat. Before we got to our next destination we knew we might be in luck. Several of the buildings on the far end of the island were still standing along with various cars, trees, items you would expect to see in a world that didn’t need to explode in order to protect itself.
Unfortunately, this also meant there might be monsters waiting to rip our faces off but we made it to the half toy store without incident. I say half, because the other half was completely collapsed. After searching for about an hour we found a very dirty giant stuffed panda bear, a couple functional bicycles that we goofed around on, Optimus Prime, and drum roll please…
3 Etch a Sketches!
At first we were thrilled when we found them because we figured we’d hit the mother load. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an Etch A Sketch supply warehouse and because of that, the store wasn’t carrying 26,000 of them. Just three. One of the three was cracked open but we figured maybe it would still be usable so we took it as well.
With our top secret mission accomplished we returned back to the naval base. You might be wondering why Josh didn’t go with us on this voyage, because I know I was suspicious as all hell when he said he wasn’t joining us. But, according to him, while we were out scavenging for Etch a Sketches, he would try to gather up the rest of the necessary items he would need to make whatever can combine with an Etch a Sketch to open an impenetrable vault door.
Either that or he would set up some type of trap and we would be slaughtered the second we set foot on the Naval Base. Then again, he could have killed us day one if he wanted but, I don’t know. Still having a hard time trusting someone new I guess. Part of me still thinks Victor will try to cut my throat in the middle of the night. AJ is the only person left on this planet that I feel comfortable with.
Speaking of AJ, he’s been much more quiet than usual. I don’t know what is going on in that big head of his but, I hope he is ok. Can’t really afford to have the only person I trust go insane.
Back at the Naval Base we weren’t gunned down, but we weren’t greeted by our new friend either. He was back inside, along with a bunch of cheap sparklers, a mound of steel wool, some various ceramic pots, and what looked like a drug dealer's scale.
Either Josh really does know what he is doing, or he's on some drugs and we've been completely wasting our time. Guess we’ll find out tomorrow.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Day One Hundred Two:
Day One Hundred Two:
Josh showed us a fairly detailed map of the area today. Apparently, the map was the militaries before the military got sick like everyone else and showed pretty much everything that had been destroyed and/or quarantined. Is quarantine the right word? Hmmmm, it showed all the houses that had been cleared from top to bottom by soldiers.
At some point they had pretty much gone from Big Coppit Key on the East end of the island and worked all the way across to the bridge that connects the Naval Air Station to Stock Island. Similar to Sugarloaf Key to the East, they also flattened Stock Island with whatever ordinance they had on hand. According to Josh, on the plus side they did evacuate the entire island before blowing it to hell. Not that it mattered, everyone besides Josh died anyway.
This only left a few unknowns. Right off the Eastern Coast of the Naval Air Station is another Key called the Shark Key. From the map it looks like there are maybe 30-40 houses although if they were like everyone else then, the occupants of those houses all took shelter at the Naval Base like everyone else. A second question AJ had was whether or not Josh knew if the military knocked out Cuba. Although it's at least 100 miles across the ocean, you have to figure that some of the 11 million people over there might be uninfected and as a result, might be heading North to escape. I don’t know why they would wait this long to try to escape North but, a threat is a threat.
That leaves the underground portion of the base I mentioned yesterday. We were all set to explore it. We got our flashlights, weapons, protective padding, shoelaces tied, everything! Then after opening a door with all sorts of security clearance warnings that Josh had never ventured past, we walked down a flight of stairs and…
And found another much more serious door. A door that would probably need to use dynamite as a doorbell. On the plus side, whatever is in there definitely isn’t getting out. On the negative side, now we are all really really curious. And although there might not be any cats left for curiosity to kill, it is bound to annoy us to death if we don’t figure out how to get in there.
Josh mentioned he might be able to get past the door if we could find a toy store. According to him, there were two on Key West, if they hadn’t been completely bombed out. Pending that one of the toy stores was still standing, we would need to rummage around inside and find as many etch-a-sketches as possible. When we asked him why he only replied with, “I will explain why if you actually find them otherwise, who cares.”
Strange kid.
Well, it’s official. To paraphrase Chevy Chase if you remember who that was, “We’re on a quest, a quest for fun! Praise Marty Moose!” Also, I’m going to try to track down a copy of National Lampoon’s Vacation. Might be fun to have a movie night on this island.
Also, sorry if I fucked that quote up. It’s been a while since I’ve seen that movie, or a working television for that matter.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Day One Hundred One:
Day One Hundred One:
You know how I can tell I feel safe here? My biggest concern today was whether or not to titled the 101st day One Hundred One or One hundred AND one. I decided on the first since I think and is supposed to represent a decimal point.
Yeah, life on the island is good.
At first we were all thinking of requisitioning some of the nicer houses on the island but the more we thought about it, the more we thought it would be more prudent to stay together inside the confines of the Naval Base. Eventually we might branch out if we decide to stay put but, for now this makes the most sense.
Plus, during the last few months Josh was able to make the place pretty cozy. At first he was using gas powered generators to keep things running but then he managed to set up a pretty decent solar grid. Even has a makeshift shower in one of the rooms which is nice.
Victor was thrilled because we were able to give him his very own completely sterilized sectioned off section of the base. Josh even had a few leftover hazmat suits which he cleaned up and gave to Victor. A nice replacement for the filth and stench encrusted gear that we've gotten to enjoy for the last couple weeks.
Tomorrow we're going to explore the lower depths of the Naval Base with Josh. I can't imagine any ex-humes surviving down there for however many months they would have been stranded but I never would have imagined humanity turning into whatever it is now so who knows.
You know how I can tell I feel safe here? My biggest concern today was whether or not to titled the 101st day One Hundred One or One hundred AND one. I decided on the first since I think and is supposed to represent a decimal point.
Yeah, life on the island is good.
At first we were all thinking of requisitioning some of the nicer houses on the island but the more we thought about it, the more we thought it would be more prudent to stay together inside the confines of the Naval Base. Eventually we might branch out if we decide to stay put but, for now this makes the most sense.
Plus, during the last few months Josh was able to make the place pretty cozy. At first he was using gas powered generators to keep things running but then he managed to set up a pretty decent solar grid. Even has a makeshift shower in one of the rooms which is nice.
Victor was thrilled because we were able to give him his very own completely sterilized sectioned off section of the base. Josh even had a few leftover hazmat suits which he cleaned up and gave to Victor. A nice replacement for the filth and stench encrusted gear that we've gotten to enjoy for the last couple weeks.
Tomorrow we're going to explore the lower depths of the Naval Base with Josh. I can't imagine any ex-humes surviving down there for however many months they would have been stranded but I never would have imagined humanity turning into whatever it is now so who knows.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Day One Hundred:
Day One Hundred:
If anyone reading this still remember the band Pearl Jam, for the entire day I haven’t been able to get the chorus of their song “Alive” out of my head for obvious reasons.
100 days, or more importantly, 100 not deaths. Cue the fireworks.
To celebrate our 100th day alive, we took a tour of a mostly dead island! Apparently, the people inside the Naval Base had held on longer than most but like the death camp that Aj, Victor, and I got to be part of eventually the sickness got through. When it did, every single person on the island either killed themselves or had this poor kid Josh do it for them.
Fortunately for him, some of the people in the Naval Base had enough strength to take care of his parents and siblings when they got sick. I obviously didn’t mention it to him, but it is interesting that one person being immune to this disease doesn’t necessarily mean anyone else in the family will luck out as well. Must be some type of recessive trait that… wow. Look at me talking like a scientist. Yeah, must be the third helix of the DNA reconfiguration of the Saturn Moonbeams celestial pull.
Right, back to talking about what I actually know about. Namely, our current situation.
So after the tour Josh showed us where we could set up shop if we wanted. Like everywhere else, food isn’t much of a problem. Everything we could ever want within reason can probably be found on this island. The only real hazard seems to be the fact that some of the lower levels of the base might have some Ex-humes still alive and kicking but other than that… for all extents and purposes this is paradise.
I haven’t talked with AJ or Victor yet, but if I had to guess I would say we will all be staying put for a while here and getting to know our new barefoot friend.
If anyone reading this still remember the band Pearl Jam, for the entire day I haven’t been able to get the chorus of their song “Alive” out of my head for obvious reasons.
100 days, or more importantly, 100 not deaths. Cue the fireworks.
To celebrate our 100th day alive, we took a tour of a mostly dead island! Apparently, the people inside the Naval Base had held on longer than most but like the death camp that Aj, Victor, and I got to be part of eventually the sickness got through. When it did, every single person on the island either killed themselves or had this poor kid Josh do it for them.
Fortunately for him, some of the people in the Naval Base had enough strength to take care of his parents and siblings when they got sick. I obviously didn’t mention it to him, but it is interesting that one person being immune to this disease doesn’t necessarily mean anyone else in the family will luck out as well. Must be some type of recessive trait that… wow. Look at me talking like a scientist. Yeah, must be the third helix of the DNA reconfiguration of the Saturn Moonbeams celestial pull.
Right, back to talking about what I actually know about. Namely, our current situation.
So after the tour Josh showed us where we could set up shop if we wanted. Like everywhere else, food isn’t much of a problem. Everything we could ever want within reason can probably be found on this island. The only real hazard seems to be the fact that some of the lower levels of the base might have some Ex-humes still alive and kicking but other than that… for all extents and purposes this is paradise.
I haven’t talked with AJ or Victor yet, but if I had to guess I would say we will all be staying put for a while here and getting to know our new barefoot friend.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Day Ninety Nine:
Day Ninety Nine:
To say that someone decided to blow up the Interstate 1 bridge thing in the keys would be an understatement. I don’t know if they were worried about the ex-humes somehow figuring out how to make concrete and get engineering degrees and then rebuild the bridges but, someone at some point decided to completely obliterate about 20 miles of bridge. Then from there, they went and blew the shit out of mile long stretches of bridges for several of the nearby islands.
We weren’t able to tell for sure, but on my map there is something called the Sugarloaf Key which is probably the closest location to that Naval Air Station and it looked like they not only blew up the bridges but… destroyed the entire fucking island. Granted, at the time of the bombing 95% of the place was probably ex-hume central but does that justify killing people that potentially could have been like AJ and I?
This in turn presents another serious problem. If the Naval Air Station was responsible for blowing an entire community to hell and back, how likely would they be to welcome us ashore? Especially considering the fact that we observed several boats washed up on the shore that looked like they’d been riddled with bullet holes.
While AJ and I were trying to figure out what to do next, Victor put the boat in drive and started our approach towards the Naval Base. Before we could ask what he was doing he said, “We didn’t come all this way not to find out and I‘m not about to become a fisherman so let‘s get going.”
How do you argue with that?
About a mile from the Naval Base we were surprised to see absolutely nothing. Half a mile out, I was expecting some type of heat seeking missile to blow us up but no. Closer and closer we got without even the slightest amount of death blowing us to bits. It wasn’t until we got to shore that a bullet exploded in the sand in front of us.
This was followed by a voice, a voice that yelled. “I don’t want any trouble and I don’t want to hurt anyone so if you want to make it any further please leave all your items there until we can verify your identity.”
I think we all would have been more than willing to do this if the last time we agreed to such measures hadn’t result in us being locked away in a room and then infecting and slaughtering everyone Victor knew. So we agree, but before we agreed we all made sure we had a pistol in the back of our waistband and then yelled, “What now?”
The voice instructed us to walk away from our boat and then to sit down once we were about 100 yards away from it. We complied and after about five minutes we saw one skinny kid walking towards us decked out in soldier gear with an M4 rifle at the ready. At first glance he looked to be about 20 but as he got closer I realized it was just all the military gear making him look older. He said he was 18 but if I had to guess I wouldn’t put him a day over 16.
Not that it matters. Alive is alive.
He said his name was Joshua and the first thing all of us noticed immediately after noticing how young he was, was the fact that he was barefoot. When pressed on this issue he smiled and simply said “Always wanted to start a barefoot revolution, why not start now. Follow me”
And we did, always expecting for him to rendezvous with someone else, but after getting in his car and driving back to the Naval Base it became apparent that unless there was some type of underground bunker… this kid was all that was left here.
To say that someone decided to blow up the Interstate 1 bridge thing in the keys would be an understatement. I don’t know if they were worried about the ex-humes somehow figuring out how to make concrete and get engineering degrees and then rebuild the bridges but, someone at some point decided to completely obliterate about 20 miles of bridge. Then from there, they went and blew the shit out of mile long stretches of bridges for several of the nearby islands.
We weren’t able to tell for sure, but on my map there is something called the Sugarloaf Key which is probably the closest location to that Naval Air Station and it looked like they not only blew up the bridges but… destroyed the entire fucking island. Granted, at the time of the bombing 95% of the place was probably ex-hume central but does that justify killing people that potentially could have been like AJ and I?
This in turn presents another serious problem. If the Naval Air Station was responsible for blowing an entire community to hell and back, how likely would they be to welcome us ashore? Especially considering the fact that we observed several boats washed up on the shore that looked like they’d been riddled with bullet holes.
While AJ and I were trying to figure out what to do next, Victor put the boat in drive and started our approach towards the Naval Base. Before we could ask what he was doing he said, “We didn’t come all this way not to find out and I‘m not about to become a fisherman so let‘s get going.”
How do you argue with that?
About a mile from the Naval Base we were surprised to see absolutely nothing. Half a mile out, I was expecting some type of heat seeking missile to blow us up but no. Closer and closer we got without even the slightest amount of death blowing us to bits. It wasn’t until we got to shore that a bullet exploded in the sand in front of us.
This was followed by a voice, a voice that yelled. “I don’t want any trouble and I don’t want to hurt anyone so if you want to make it any further please leave all your items there until we can verify your identity.”
I think we all would have been more than willing to do this if the last time we agreed to such measures hadn’t result in us being locked away in a room and then infecting and slaughtering everyone Victor knew. So we agree, but before we agreed we all made sure we had a pistol in the back of our waistband and then yelled, “What now?”
The voice instructed us to walk away from our boat and then to sit down once we were about 100 yards away from it. We complied and after about five minutes we saw one skinny kid walking towards us decked out in soldier gear with an M4 rifle at the ready. At first glance he looked to be about 20 but as he got closer I realized it was just all the military gear making him look older. He said he was 18 but if I had to guess I wouldn’t put him a day over 16.
Not that it matters. Alive is alive.
He said his name was Joshua and the first thing all of us noticed immediately after noticing how young he was, was the fact that he was barefoot. When pressed on this issue he smiled and simply said “Always wanted to start a barefoot revolution, why not start now. Follow me”
And we did, always expecting for him to rendezvous with someone else, but after getting in his car and driving back to the Naval Base it became apparent that unless there was some type of underground bunker… this kid was all that was left here.
Day Ninety Eight:
Day Ninety Eight:
The good news! We found a nice 45 foot boat along with the keys and as an added bonus it had an almost full tank of gas.
The bad news: Within minutes of finding it, roughly half the population Florida decided to attack us which resulted in us leaving 90% of or supplies in our cars. In the movies this would be an incredible problem, in reality though… all we had to do was drive about a mile from shore, anchor the boat, and wait for nightfall at which point we drove back and heeding Elmer Fudd’s advice to be vewy vewy quiet, we managed to recover everything we needed without anymore attacks.
I guess it was kind of a bummer since we wasted an entire day doing this but, since I’m pretty sure the entire fucking world isn’t really adhering to any type of time schedule anymore I figure, one mostly wasted day is par for the course.
Tomorrow we will do our best to follow Interstate 1 or Highway 1 or whatever you call the damn road that drives over all the water in the Florida Keys. Hopefully the boat doesn’t get stuck.
The good news! We found a nice 45 foot boat along with the keys and as an added bonus it had an almost full tank of gas.
The bad news: Within minutes of finding it, roughly half the population Florida decided to attack us which resulted in us leaving 90% of or supplies in our cars. In the movies this would be an incredible problem, in reality though… all we had to do was drive about a mile from shore, anchor the boat, and wait for nightfall at which point we drove back and heeding Elmer Fudd’s advice to be vewy vewy quiet, we managed to recover everything we needed without anymore attacks.
I guess it was kind of a bummer since we wasted an entire day doing this but, since I’m pretty sure the entire fucking world isn’t really adhering to any type of time schedule anymore I figure, one mostly wasted day is par for the course.
Tomorrow we will do our best to follow Interstate 1 or Highway 1 or whatever you call the damn road that drives over all the water in the Florida Keys. Hopefully the boat doesn’t get stuck.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Day Ninety Seven:
Day Ninety Seven:
We've been sticking to I-75, passed through Georgia today without any issues and decided to camp right near the Florida state line. Managed to liberate a more detailed state map of Florida from one of the now infinite number of abandoned gas stations. Victor now believes the most probable place for a government quarantine to take place would be at the NAS Key West.
I had no idea what NAS meant, apparently it is Naval Air Station. The problem is, since it is in the Keys if they did quarantine people there then they also probably blew the living shit out of the bridges that lead to that area. This concerned Victor until I pointed out that the entire boating population of Florida is now either dead, quarantined, or Ex-humed... and that we will have the pick of the litter when it comes to aquatic vessels he cheered up a little.
Also, AJ informed us today that he doesn't know how to swim and is terrified of the water. So that should be fun.
We've been sticking to I-75, passed through Georgia today without any issues and decided to camp right near the Florida state line. Managed to liberate a more detailed state map of Florida from one of the now infinite number of abandoned gas stations. Victor now believes the most probable place for a government quarantine to take place would be at the NAS Key West.
I had no idea what NAS meant, apparently it is Naval Air Station. The problem is, since it is in the Keys if they did quarantine people there then they also probably blew the living shit out of the bridges that lead to that area. This concerned Victor until I pointed out that the entire boating population of Florida is now either dead, quarantined, or Ex-humed... and that we will have the pick of the litter when it comes to aquatic vessels he cheered up a little.
Also, AJ informed us today that he doesn't know how to swim and is terrified of the water. So that should be fun.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Day Ninety Six:
Day Ninety Six:
I just realized I never really explained how we are surviving. I mean, obviously with guns. But the way I have been writing it just seems like we are driving endlessly when that is definitely not the case. We average between 300-500 miles a day which doesn't seem like much at all but, we pretty much only travel during the day and once we are in the later part of the day we start branching off into different towns to find where we will be staying for the night.
Once there we decide which building offers the most safety and requires the least amount of modifications to keep it safe IE boarding up windows, locking a gate, etc...
Then if need be, we find a local hardware store or Home Depot and spend an hour or two fortifying our shelter. AJ has been marking every location on the road atlas as well so if we ever need to come back this way we will be able to possibly travel twice as far with the knowledge that we will have a safe haven ready and waiting for us.
If there is time we will track down something good to eat and since there wasn't any real looting worth mentioning we usually find something good once we get past all the once fresh stuff that has rotted away to gross.
This entry isn't very exciting or thought provoking but, whenever I used to read stuff like this I would always get annoyed when the focus would be solely on all the action without anyone ever taking the time to write in a scene where the people have to take a shit, or sleep, or refuel, or whatever.
So anyway, on a more interesting note. Since we are going to Florida, I wonder if the gators are doing their part to help control the local ex-hume infestation? I hope so.
I just realized I never really explained how we are surviving. I mean, obviously with guns. But the way I have been writing it just seems like we are driving endlessly when that is definitely not the case. We average between 300-500 miles a day which doesn't seem like much at all but, we pretty much only travel during the day and once we are in the later part of the day we start branching off into different towns to find where we will be staying for the night.
Once there we decide which building offers the most safety and requires the least amount of modifications to keep it safe IE boarding up windows, locking a gate, etc...
Then if need be, we find a local hardware store or Home Depot and spend an hour or two fortifying our shelter. AJ has been marking every location on the road atlas as well so if we ever need to come back this way we will be able to possibly travel twice as far with the knowledge that we will have a safe haven ready and waiting for us.
If there is time we will track down something good to eat and since there wasn't any real looting worth mentioning we usually find something good once we get past all the once fresh stuff that has rotted away to gross.
This entry isn't very exciting or thought provoking but, whenever I used to read stuff like this I would always get annoyed when the focus would be solely on all the action without anyone ever taking the time to write in a scene where the people have to take a shit, or sleep, or refuel, or whatever.
So anyway, on a more interesting note. Since we are going to Florida, I wonder if the gators are doing their part to help control the local ex-hume infestation? I hope so.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Day Ninety Five:
Day Ninety Five: I wonder what will happen on my Day 100 entry? Will we reach the island off the coast of Florida? Will we all be rescued? Will a vaccine be found? Will a movie star make a cameo appearance and save the day?
You know what is odd? Every movie star, or at least I assume every movie star is now one of those things. And the award for best Ex-hume goes to...
Actually, the Oscars would probably be more entertaining with these beasts. Anything is better than watching the movie no one has ever seen or ever wanted to see win best picture year after year after... oh wait, I guess the Oscars won't be on this year huh? At least this apocalypse has some benefits.
You know what is odd? Every movie star, or at least I assume every movie star is now one of those things. And the award for best Ex-hume goes to...
Actually, the Oscars would probably be more entertaining with these beasts. Anything is better than watching the movie no one has ever seen or ever wanted to see win best picture year after year after... oh wait, I guess the Oscars won't be on this year huh? At least this apocalypse has some benefits.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Day Ninety Four:
Day Ninety Four:
Still headed south, hooray for road atlases! I wish I had more to write. We all laughed today about all the shit we used to worry about. Global warming, gas prices, inflation, job stability... OH NO! God we were all so fucking stupid. Save the planet? Go fuck yourself.
I started laughing to the point of tears today when AJ mentioned that every vegan on the planet is now a meat eater. Oh the irony. These days PETA stands for "People Eating Tasty Anything".
Still headed south, hooray for road atlases! I wish I had more to write. We all laughed today about all the shit we used to worry about. Global warming, gas prices, inflation, job stability... OH NO! God we were all so fucking stupid. Save the planet? Go fuck yourself.
I started laughing to the point of tears today when AJ mentioned that every vegan on the planet is now a meat eater. Oh the irony. These days PETA stands for "People Eating Tasty Anything".
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Day Ninety Three:
Day Ninety Three:
We're headed south, cruising along, making a day out of it. Victor driving one very very sterilized car, AJ and I in the other. Got the walkie talkies on, making jokes, pretty much existing like we used to. Everything was going great. Then Victor got a flat tire.
You know how sometimes when you're in the woods you get that feeling that someone or something is watching you? Well, ever since the ex-humes turned into stealthy packs of feral ninjas I have had that feeling. Everywhere we would go I couldn't help but feel like we were being watched, stalked, and sized up.
Today, that suspicion was verified.
Victor let us know he had a flat so we all stopped together. While he quickly put his bio-suit on, AJ and I got out to check the damage. We were outside all of about 25 seconds when we saw them coming towards us.
Except coming towards us is an understatement. Running full throttle, flat out, at 300 miles per hour, with the fires of hell in their blood would be a more accurate description of what we saw. First there were maybe 5 coming out of the trees in the distance, then they were joined by 10 more, and by the time Victor had his suit on we had at least 50 Ex-humes closing in on us.
Before they were even close AJ and I began firing out rifles in an attempt to scare them off. It didn't. They ran at us like that scene in Aliens where the sentry guns aren't able to deter the bugs at all. As they came into range we began dropping one after another after another... but it became quickly apparent that we had about 45 seconds until they would be on top of us.
All of us piled into the good car and took off. We had hoped that they would follow us and then wander back into the woods. Unfortunately by the time we looped back to Victors car it was obliterated. Additionally, the ex-humes we had been damn near stripped of every inch of meat on their bodies.
The lesson?
Time to mount a big ass gun on the roof of our car.
We're headed south, cruising along, making a day out of it. Victor driving one very very sterilized car, AJ and I in the other. Got the walkie talkies on, making jokes, pretty much existing like we used to. Everything was going great. Then Victor got a flat tire.
You know how sometimes when you're in the woods you get that feeling that someone or something is watching you? Well, ever since the ex-humes turned into stealthy packs of feral ninjas I have had that feeling. Everywhere we would go I couldn't help but feel like we were being watched, stalked, and sized up.
Today, that suspicion was verified.
Victor let us know he had a flat so we all stopped together. While he quickly put his bio-suit on, AJ and I got out to check the damage. We were outside all of about 25 seconds when we saw them coming towards us.
Except coming towards us is an understatement. Running full throttle, flat out, at 300 miles per hour, with the fires of hell in their blood would be a more accurate description of what we saw. First there were maybe 5 coming out of the trees in the distance, then they were joined by 10 more, and by the time Victor had his suit on we had at least 50 Ex-humes closing in on us.
Before they were even close AJ and I began firing out rifles in an attempt to scare them off. It didn't. They ran at us like that scene in Aliens where the sentry guns aren't able to deter the bugs at all. As they came into range we began dropping one after another after another... but it became quickly apparent that we had about 45 seconds until they would be on top of us.
All of us piled into the good car and took off. We had hoped that they would follow us and then wander back into the woods. Unfortunately by the time we looped back to Victors car it was obliterated. Additionally, the ex-humes we had been damn near stripped of every inch of meat on their bodies.
The lesson?
Time to mount a big ass gun on the roof of our car.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Day Ninety Two:
Day Ninety Two:
Funny how one day we are making fun of Victor for his conspiracy island survival theories, and the next we are headed to Florida in the hopes that his crazy is actually reality. When I tried to argue with him and AJ they countered with a very very sound argument.
They simply said, "What else do we have to do?"
Touche'.
Even if no one made it to the islands, even if all we find is more death and chaos, so? It still gives us something to shoot for. And if that something happens to include warm water and nice weather... well, maybe it won't be so bad.
Makes me wonder though, would they welcome us? I mean, AJ pretty much confirmed that he is infected. The only thing we don't know is if he is contagion is airborne or solely through blood. We also don't know if he was already infected before being bit, which would mean we both probably are.
I suppose we will cross that bridge when we come to it, then we will probably blow the bridge up so we don't have a mega swarm of ex-humes sneak up behind us. Which brings up another interesting question: Can Ex-humes swim?
Lets hope not.
Funny how one day we are making fun of Victor for his conspiracy island survival theories, and the next we are headed to Florida in the hopes that his crazy is actually reality. When I tried to argue with him and AJ they countered with a very very sound argument.
They simply said, "What else do we have to do?"
Touche'.
Even if no one made it to the islands, even if all we find is more death and chaos, so? It still gives us something to shoot for. And if that something happens to include warm water and nice weather... well, maybe it won't be so bad.
Makes me wonder though, would they welcome us? I mean, AJ pretty much confirmed that he is infected. The only thing we don't know is if he is contagion is airborne or solely through blood. We also don't know if he was already infected before being bit, which would mean we both probably are.
I suppose we will cross that bridge when we come to it, then we will probably blow the bridge up so we don't have a mega swarm of ex-humes sneak up behind us. Which brings up another interesting question: Can Ex-humes swim?
Lets hope not.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Day Ninety One:
Day Ninety One:
Today was good. First day in a while where we all just got to talk and occasionally *gasp* even laugh! Got to hear another one of AJ’s theories of the universe which is always a real treat.
His new theory is that the ex-humes are nothing new. At first I thought he was going to say they were like Bigfoot or vampires, always lurking in the shadows and waiting till now to spring their trap. But no, his idea actually seemed somewhat possible even if it isn’t very likely.
He said that maybe we had done this before, maybe mankind had made it to where we are now, maybe even further and at some point we created something that just sort of, shorted out almost everyone’s brains.
We asked how that could be possible? There would still be evidence of something if that was the case. But he countered with, what if this happened millions of years before our earliest records of cavemen. What if some of the craters that we thought were asteroids that killed the dinosaurs, were actually something as simple as a nuclear reactor meltdown. What if we had been here before, and accidentally reset the world. What if it had happened more than once.
And what if we were really trapped inside the Matrix!
AJ didn’t laugh when I said that, but Victor did.
I will give AJ credit though, because it definitely seems possible. Although the idea of mankind constantly erasing all of its accomplishments every billion years of so isn’t exactly a topic to cheer up the mood so we drifted away from that and focused in on stories from Victor.
He asked if we knew about the islands?
We said we knew that they were masses of land surrounded by water but outside of that, no.
According to Victor the government had taken the brightest and the best, and quarantined an island somewhere down south. Probably off the coast of Florida. He said that if we could make it there we would be safe. I explained that before we could do that, we would have to decide whether to take the red pill or blue pill which made him laugh again.
He told us more about his swarm experience and the people he was with. Told us where he grew up, about all the hands on medical experience he had been forced into since this thing started, and how he thought that before long the swarms of 1000 would probably combine into some sort of mega swarm. When that happened, food would start to get real scarce.
I changed topics to McDonalds ice cream which spiraled into an hour long conversation about all the food we missed. This was followed by all of us eating the last pack of twinkies I had in my backpack.
In the words of the late Ice Cube… Today was a good day.
Sort of funny that from here on out… 99.999% of every quote will be considered to be, “In the words of the late…” Ah well
Today was good. First day in a while where we all just got to talk and occasionally *gasp* even laugh! Got to hear another one of AJ’s theories of the universe which is always a real treat.
His new theory is that the ex-humes are nothing new. At first I thought he was going to say they were like Bigfoot or vampires, always lurking in the shadows and waiting till now to spring their trap. But no, his idea actually seemed somewhat possible even if it isn’t very likely.
He said that maybe we had done this before, maybe mankind had made it to where we are now, maybe even further and at some point we created something that just sort of, shorted out almost everyone’s brains.
We asked how that could be possible? There would still be evidence of something if that was the case. But he countered with, what if this happened millions of years before our earliest records of cavemen. What if some of the craters that we thought were asteroids that killed the dinosaurs, were actually something as simple as a nuclear reactor meltdown. What if we had been here before, and accidentally reset the world. What if it had happened more than once.
And what if we were really trapped inside the Matrix!
AJ didn’t laugh when I said that, but Victor did.
I will give AJ credit though, because it definitely seems possible. Although the idea of mankind constantly erasing all of its accomplishments every billion years of so isn’t exactly a topic to cheer up the mood so we drifted away from that and focused in on stories from Victor.
He asked if we knew about the islands?
We said we knew that they were masses of land surrounded by water but outside of that, no.
According to Victor the government had taken the brightest and the best, and quarantined an island somewhere down south. Probably off the coast of Florida. He said that if we could make it there we would be safe. I explained that before we could do that, we would have to decide whether to take the red pill or blue pill which made him laugh again.
He told us more about his swarm experience and the people he was with. Told us where he grew up, about all the hands on medical experience he had been forced into since this thing started, and how he thought that before long the swarms of 1000 would probably combine into some sort of mega swarm. When that happened, food would start to get real scarce.
I changed topics to McDonalds ice cream which spiraled into an hour long conversation about all the food we missed. This was followed by all of us eating the last pack of twinkies I had in my backpack.
In the words of the late Ice Cube… Today was a good day.
Sort of funny that from here on out… 99.999% of every quote will be considered to be, “In the words of the late…” Ah well
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Day Eighty Eight, Nine, Ninety:
Day Eighty Eight, Nine, Ninety:
Victor asked us all sort of questions. Where we had lived, how we survived, if we had met others (Poor Arnie), and then he started telling us stuff we didn’t know. He asked if we knew about the Swarms.
Obviously we had not so he explained how sometimes the Ex-humes move in groups which we already knew. But sometimes, those groups combine with other groups until eventually they are one super group. When that happens, they apparently act almost like locust and just lay waste to everything in their path.
The first time he encountered a swarm was with his initial group. Back then he said, they had at least forty people, probably closer to fifty, and wouldn’t have been nearly as easy to pick off when they got to that rape/labor camp but when the swarm hit…even with everyone armed they almost got wiped out.
They made the mistake of trying to fight, but the ex-humes group must have been at least 1000 deep and outnumbered them 20 to 1. Kill one, another one jumps over it. Kill that one, repeat step on. After killing about 100 of them, the remaining 900 were at the walls of their camp.
Victor asked us, “You ever try fighting a war in a full biosuit? It ain’t fucking easy.”
When it became clear that they couldn’t stop them, they retreated to their vehicles. By then they were down to 20, maybe 25 people. But as soon as they pulled off the perimeter the things swarmed in. Victor an a handful of others were lucky enough to make it to their military truck. Everyone else that ran for a regular car, truck, or house was devoured in seconds.
Victor and a few others fired out the back of the vehicle while a hair stylist named David Jenkins drove them away from the camp. When they were far enough away, the only surviving military guy in their group hit a detonator and blew their camp and most of the swarm back to hell. Then he shot himself in the head since he had been bitten.
By the time they made it to the Slaver camp, they were down to 5 people including Victor. The survivors had fought for their lives and watched their loved ones die only to be murdered by a group of psychopaths.
After hearing his story, we figured it was probably best to get rid of Bossman as well. We went to work finding spare bio-suits and doing our best to make the camp look as normal as always. Sort of tricky since, we only had three men to accomplish this and according to Victor their Bossman had at least 4 others with him.
Fortunately though, we had two more days before he was expected back. During that time we dug a hole inside the compound just past the main gate. Not just a hole, a grave. A grave that would fit an entire car and all of its occupants. A grave Stephen King would be proud of.
Once we were sure the hole was at least big enough to fit two cars driving side by side, we covered it with a brown tarp that they were using as a make shift tent at one of the guard outposts.
Unlike the disaster we encountered upon arriving at this horrible place, when Bossman returned everything went as planned. AJ notified Victor and I as soon as the car was approaching causing Victor and I to immediately the hole 1/3 of the way full with their gasoline reserves. When the car arrived, we opened the gate and watched it drive forward at its normal speed before going end over end into our hole.
The trick was to make the hole deep enough so that when it flipped, it would have enough room to go all the way in and have enough momentum to flip it over onto its roof which is did.
And then they all got to enjoy the sweet release of burning to death before hopefully going off to the afterlife and burning for eternity there as well.
We talked about staying at the camp but, after a brief discussion we decided that we would have better luck finding survivors and hopefully avoiding swarms if we stayed on the move. After packing up all the supplies we needed we left a note stating our direction of travel and where other survivors could locate the remaining food and supplies.
After today I will try to go back to 1 day entries. It has just been a crazy week. Sort of hard to stop what you’re doing and fill out your journal when you are planning to murder a car full of people.
Victor asked us all sort of questions. Where we had lived, how we survived, if we had met others (Poor Arnie), and then he started telling us stuff we didn’t know. He asked if we knew about the Swarms.
Obviously we had not so he explained how sometimes the Ex-humes move in groups which we already knew. But sometimes, those groups combine with other groups until eventually they are one super group. When that happens, they apparently act almost like locust and just lay waste to everything in their path.
The first time he encountered a swarm was with his initial group. Back then he said, they had at least forty people, probably closer to fifty, and wouldn’t have been nearly as easy to pick off when they got to that rape/labor camp but when the swarm hit…even with everyone armed they almost got wiped out.
They made the mistake of trying to fight, but the ex-humes group must have been at least 1000 deep and outnumbered them 20 to 1. Kill one, another one jumps over it. Kill that one, repeat step on. After killing about 100 of them, the remaining 900 were at the walls of their camp.
Victor asked us, “You ever try fighting a war in a full biosuit? It ain’t fucking easy.”
When it became clear that they couldn’t stop them, they retreated to their vehicles. By then they were down to 20, maybe 25 people. But as soon as they pulled off the perimeter the things swarmed in. Victor an a handful of others were lucky enough to make it to their military truck. Everyone else that ran for a regular car, truck, or house was devoured in seconds.
Victor and a few others fired out the back of the vehicle while a hair stylist named David Jenkins drove them away from the camp. When they were far enough away, the only surviving military guy in their group hit a detonator and blew their camp and most of the swarm back to hell. Then he shot himself in the head since he had been bitten.
By the time they made it to the Slaver camp, they were down to 5 people including Victor. The survivors had fought for their lives and watched their loved ones die only to be murdered by a group of psychopaths.
After hearing his story, we figured it was probably best to get rid of Bossman as well. We went to work finding spare bio-suits and doing our best to make the camp look as normal as always. Sort of tricky since, we only had three men to accomplish this and according to Victor their Bossman had at least 4 others with him.
Fortunately though, we had two more days before he was expected back. During that time we dug a hole inside the compound just past the main gate. Not just a hole, a grave. A grave that would fit an entire car and all of its occupants. A grave Stephen King would be proud of.
Once we were sure the hole was at least big enough to fit two cars driving side by side, we covered it with a brown tarp that they were using as a make shift tent at one of the guard outposts.
Unlike the disaster we encountered upon arriving at this horrible place, when Bossman returned everything went as planned. AJ notified Victor and I as soon as the car was approaching causing Victor and I to immediately the hole 1/3 of the way full with their gasoline reserves. When the car arrived, we opened the gate and watched it drive forward at its normal speed before going end over end into our hole.
The trick was to make the hole deep enough so that when it flipped, it would have enough room to go all the way in and have enough momentum to flip it over onto its roof which is did.
And then they all got to enjoy the sweet release of burning to death before hopefully going off to the afterlife and burning for eternity there as well.
We talked about staying at the camp but, after a brief discussion we decided that we would have better luck finding survivors and hopefully avoiding swarms if we stayed on the move. After packing up all the supplies we needed we left a note stating our direction of travel and where other survivors could locate the remaining food and supplies.
After today I will try to go back to 1 day entries. It has just been a crazy week. Sort of hard to stop what you’re doing and fill out your journal when you are planning to murder a car full of people.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Day Eighty Five, Six, Seven:
Day Eighty Five, Six, Seven:
The next day when the guard came back he decided he actually wanted to talk to us for once. He sounded scared and desperate. Despite what we had been through and the fact that we were naked and being held against our will in a home made prison I almost felt sorry for him.
He was talking quiet but he wanted to know if we had done anything to him, he promised not to tell anyone if we had. We lied and said we hadn’t. We told him that after he had freaked out yesterday, we went over by the door to see what had scared him and saw there was the tip of a rusty nail sticking out.
Now if he hadn’t of been terrified this might have screwed us since he could have asked a lot of questions starting with, “Where is the nail?” Because it wasn’t like we had a claw hammer to pull it out of the door with, and we couldn’t exactly pound the sharp end of a nail back into the door with our bare hands. Fortunately, he was so freaked out that all he said was, “Oh shit”.
I lied and told him he might have tetanus and that if he let us out I could get him to an abandoned hospital and treat him. He said he would think about it but after that, we never saw him alive again.
So our nasty little viral friend jumped ship from him, to all of his friends over the course of about 6 hours. By day Eighty Six damn near everyone in that place was suffering from an acute case of the “About to be deads”. Our plan was to simply wait it out. Wait till we were as sure as we could be that everyone was too sick to move, and then kick down the door. After two of our meals were skipped and we couldn’t contact any guards we decided it was time to make our move.
Here’s the thing though, have you ever tried to bust out of a reinforced door while you’re naked? No? Because it is damn near impossible. We beat the living hell out of that door for over an hour and all we had to show for it was a bunch of bruised and bloody body parts.
As Day Eighty Seven approached we had gone over a day without any food or water. This might not seem like a big deal, but when you have no concept of time and no plan of escape… things get really scary really fast. Every itch, every body hiccup, every everything feels like the acute stages of something you should know more about that is probably going to kill you.
However, half way through what must have been Day Eighty Seven we heard gunshots. Lots and lots of gunshots. Not like, machinegun fire. More like, BAM! Then, three minutes later… BAM! This went on for at least an hour or two until eventually, no more gunshots.
A half our passed and then the slot in the door where we got our food from slid open and a man said, “Hello, I’m Victor, how are you?”
He pushed some bottles of water through the door along with glorious food and clothes. Unfortunately, after hearing all the gunshots AJ and I were convinced that the water was poisoned, along with the food. We got dressed quickly and then voiced this concern to him. He laughed before saying, “You must have heard all the gunshots, why would I poison you instead of just shooting you?”
Touche.
The water was gone in seconds and the food shortly after that. Apparently Victor didn’t want to be living there either. He had also come with a group of people and had been forced to sit naked in a room. He lied and said he was a doctor, which was sort of true since he had been working on a degree to become a male nurse but… the other people in his group were unable to impress their captors. As a result, the women were handed out like candy and the men were murdered after having been worked nearly to death with no provisions.
He told us the only reason we were being fed was because they were waiting for their boss to get back from an expedition he had gone on. If bossman had been around, we most likely would not be around to enjoy his company.
We asked if he was immune to the disease like us and he said no. He explained that he kept his biosuit on at all times and only showered once a week. The other people there took to calling him Icky Vic because of his smell but he didn’t care. He laughed when I said they would be smelling a lot worse real soon.
He asked us where our camp was and we told him we were it. He said we didn’t have to lie, he was there to help and we explained that we weren’t. He managed to get the door open and asked if he could come with us. I explained that we didn’t have any idea where we were going and he said that sounded perfect.
So after gathering up a bunch of supplies, he led us to the garage where they were storing our vehicle and off we went. A trio once more.
The next day when the guard came back he decided he actually wanted to talk to us for once. He sounded scared and desperate. Despite what we had been through and the fact that we were naked and being held against our will in a home made prison I almost felt sorry for him.
He was talking quiet but he wanted to know if we had done anything to him, he promised not to tell anyone if we had. We lied and said we hadn’t. We told him that after he had freaked out yesterday, we went over by the door to see what had scared him and saw there was the tip of a rusty nail sticking out.
Now if he hadn’t of been terrified this might have screwed us since he could have asked a lot of questions starting with, “Where is the nail?” Because it wasn’t like we had a claw hammer to pull it out of the door with, and we couldn’t exactly pound the sharp end of a nail back into the door with our bare hands. Fortunately, he was so freaked out that all he said was, “Oh shit”.
I lied and told him he might have tetanus and that if he let us out I could get him to an abandoned hospital and treat him. He said he would think about it but after that, we never saw him alive again.
So our nasty little viral friend jumped ship from him, to all of his friends over the course of about 6 hours. By day Eighty Six damn near everyone in that place was suffering from an acute case of the “About to be deads”. Our plan was to simply wait it out. Wait till we were as sure as we could be that everyone was too sick to move, and then kick down the door. After two of our meals were skipped and we couldn’t contact any guards we decided it was time to make our move.
Here’s the thing though, have you ever tried to bust out of a reinforced door while you’re naked? No? Because it is damn near impossible. We beat the living hell out of that door for over an hour and all we had to show for it was a bunch of bruised and bloody body parts.
As Day Eighty Seven approached we had gone over a day without any food or water. This might not seem like a big deal, but when you have no concept of time and no plan of escape… things get really scary really fast. Every itch, every body hiccup, every everything feels like the acute stages of something you should know more about that is probably going to kill you.
However, half way through what must have been Day Eighty Seven we heard gunshots. Lots and lots of gunshots. Not like, machinegun fire. More like, BAM! Then, three minutes later… BAM! This went on for at least an hour or two until eventually, no more gunshots.
A half our passed and then the slot in the door where we got our food from slid open and a man said, “Hello, I’m Victor, how are you?”
He pushed some bottles of water through the door along with glorious food and clothes. Unfortunately, after hearing all the gunshots AJ and I were convinced that the water was poisoned, along with the food. We got dressed quickly and then voiced this concern to him. He laughed before saying, “You must have heard all the gunshots, why would I poison you instead of just shooting you?”
Touche.
The water was gone in seconds and the food shortly after that. Apparently Victor didn’t want to be living there either. He had also come with a group of people and had been forced to sit naked in a room. He lied and said he was a doctor, which was sort of true since he had been working on a degree to become a male nurse but… the other people in his group were unable to impress their captors. As a result, the women were handed out like candy and the men were murdered after having been worked nearly to death with no provisions.
He told us the only reason we were being fed was because they were waiting for their boss to get back from an expedition he had gone on. If bossman had been around, we most likely would not be around to enjoy his company.
We asked if he was immune to the disease like us and he said no. He explained that he kept his biosuit on at all times and only showered once a week. The other people there took to calling him Icky Vic because of his smell but he didn’t care. He laughed when I said they would be smelling a lot worse real soon.
He asked us where our camp was and we told him we were it. He said we didn’t have to lie, he was there to help and we explained that we weren’t. He managed to get the door open and asked if he could come with us. I explained that we didn’t have any idea where we were going and he said that sounded perfect.
So after gathering up a bunch of supplies, he led us to the garage where they were storing our vehicle and off we went. A trio once more.
Day Eighty Four:
Day Eighty Four:
Another day passed, or did it? Without any windows time gets real hazy. I guess we could have kept track of time with the light shining through under the door or, by counting our meals but when you are fairly certain you are going to be murdered shortly… time loses its importance.
What doesn’t lose its importance is striving to find a way to keep yourself unkilled. I know I could say “alive” but that word doesn’t apply here. Eating crackers and drinking some water will keep you “alive” most days. When you are locked naked in a makeshift prison, what you want is to keep yourself un-fucking-killed.
It came down to us using good old fashioned biological warfare. Because lets face it, neither AJ nor I were professional ninjas previous to this plague. Neither of us could break a man's neck with our index finger and neither of us knew how to use hypnosis, or magic, or whatever else might have saved us.
What we did know was that AJ had been bitten by the ex-humes. What we didn’t know was whether or not that meant his blood was contagious as shit to anyone without a natural immunity like us, or if the virus died as soon as it entered his blood stream.
However, any chance was better than no chance so we went to work crafting a plan. The guards barely acknowledged our existence. The only time we ever saw them was when they threw our food to us and even then, all we saw was there hand coming through the slot in the door.
Sure, we could have grabbed his hand and sliced it open with the razor blade and dumped some of AJ’s blood into it while he struggled. But I was 99.9% certain that would result in him killing us. If not him, then his boss would shoot us in the head.
Had to look like an accident. Something he could be blamed for and still feel like maybe he would be ok. Had to use the same tactic you would use when dealing with rats. Give one poison food and let him bring that shit back to the nest to poison the others.
So we carved a little niche into the door with the Swiss Army knife, inserted the razor blade so that just a small edge was poking up. Small enough to be mistaken for a nail. Then moments before we expected breakfast or lunch or whatever the same shit they fed us every time was… we cut AJ a little with the razor and left his blood on the edge of it.
Fast forward to the guard sticking his hand through, then immediately dropping our food and pulling his hand back incredibly fast. Hearing him whisper to himself, “Oh fuck oh fuck” and then to us “Did you do this?”
We pretended to be confused and AJ asked if we could help, asked what was wrong. The man told us to shut the fuck up and left. As soon as he was gone we pulled the razor blade back out and hid it. If anyone came to figure out what cut him, no point of leaving evidence of what we did just lying around. Although I was pretty sure he wouldn’t say anything to anyone.
And then we waited.
And we waited.
And we waited.
Another day passed, or did it? Without any windows time gets real hazy. I guess we could have kept track of time with the light shining through under the door or, by counting our meals but when you are fairly certain you are going to be murdered shortly… time loses its importance.
What doesn’t lose its importance is striving to find a way to keep yourself unkilled. I know I could say “alive” but that word doesn’t apply here. Eating crackers and drinking some water will keep you “alive” most days. When you are locked naked in a makeshift prison, what you want is to keep yourself un-fucking-killed.
It came down to us using good old fashioned biological warfare. Because lets face it, neither AJ nor I were professional ninjas previous to this plague. Neither of us could break a man's neck with our index finger and neither of us knew how to use hypnosis, or magic, or whatever else might have saved us.
What we did know was that AJ had been bitten by the ex-humes. What we didn’t know was whether or not that meant his blood was contagious as shit to anyone without a natural immunity like us, or if the virus died as soon as it entered his blood stream.
However, any chance was better than no chance so we went to work crafting a plan. The guards barely acknowledged our existence. The only time we ever saw them was when they threw our food to us and even then, all we saw was there hand coming through the slot in the door.
Sure, we could have grabbed his hand and sliced it open with the razor blade and dumped some of AJ’s blood into it while he struggled. But I was 99.9% certain that would result in him killing us. If not him, then his boss would shoot us in the head.
Had to look like an accident. Something he could be blamed for and still feel like maybe he would be ok. Had to use the same tactic you would use when dealing with rats. Give one poison food and let him bring that shit back to the nest to poison the others.
So we carved a little niche into the door with the Swiss Army knife, inserted the razor blade so that just a small edge was poking up. Small enough to be mistaken for a nail. Then moments before we expected breakfast or lunch or whatever the same shit they fed us every time was… we cut AJ a little with the razor and left his blood on the edge of it.
Fast forward to the guard sticking his hand through, then immediately dropping our food and pulling his hand back incredibly fast. Hearing him whisper to himself, “Oh fuck oh fuck” and then to us “Did you do this?”
We pretended to be confused and AJ asked if we could help, asked what was wrong. The man told us to shut the fuck up and left. As soon as he was gone we pulled the razor blade back out and hid it. If anyone came to figure out what cut him, no point of leaving evidence of what we did just lying around. Although I was pretty sure he wouldn’t say anything to anyone.
And then we waited.
And we waited.
And we waited.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Day Eighty Three:
Day Eighty Three:
WWMCGD
You know, sort of like What Would Jesus Do but, replace Jesus with MacGuyver and you get WWMCGD.
So heres the plan we came up with. AJ would use the matches to melt down the boat key holder over the middle of the paper clips. Then, after tieing the string to one end of the paper clip, we would tie the other end to the doorknob. I would knock on the door and get the guard to come check out the commotion. As son as he touched the door handle and began to open the door, AJ would plug in the paper clip into one of the rooms power outlets.
When the guard got zapped, I would grab the gun and then quickly subdue him in our prison. One of us would wear his regular clothes, and one of us would wear his biosuit. We then would act as a guard and escort and breeze out of the facility without anyone being the wiser.
Also, if you think that would have worked you're a fucking idiot. Because it wouldn't. What would happen is, as soon as the paper clip went into the outlet a fuse would blow. Then we would probably be left naked in a room while someone tried to replace a fuse. Either that or they would figure out the bullshit we were up to and shoot us.
Either way we would lose because in real life, MacGuyver nonsense does not work ever.
Yesterday when I listed our inventory I did forget to mention one thing. In addition to all our useless MacGuyver shit, we also realized that we possibly had in AJ a strain of the most deadly virus known to mankind. So we had that going for us, and that's nice.
Oh yeah, AJ also pointed out that after today our captors would probably decide we weren't infected. At that point, one of two things would happen.
1. We would be welcome into this camp of end of the world survivalists with open arms and be considered their equals!
2. We would be forced into slave labor or rapesville.
3. A variation of number 2, we would get raped while performing slave labor.
As much as I wanted to believe it would be number one, having the guard that morning say, "I've got dibs on you" certainly didn't help my outlook. I believe a young Juliette Lewis in Natural Born Killers expressed our intentions the best when she said, "Kill em all Mickey, KILL EM ALL!"
WWMCGD
You know, sort of like What Would Jesus Do but, replace Jesus with MacGuyver and you get WWMCGD.
So heres the plan we came up with. AJ would use the matches to melt down the boat key holder over the middle of the paper clips. Then, after tieing the string to one end of the paper clip, we would tie the other end to the doorknob. I would knock on the door and get the guard to come check out the commotion. As son as he touched the door handle and began to open the door, AJ would plug in the paper clip into one of the rooms power outlets.
When the guard got zapped, I would grab the gun and then quickly subdue him in our prison. One of us would wear his regular clothes, and one of us would wear his biosuit. We then would act as a guard and escort and breeze out of the facility without anyone being the wiser.
Also, if you think that would have worked you're a fucking idiot. Because it wouldn't. What would happen is, as soon as the paper clip went into the outlet a fuse would blow. Then we would probably be left naked in a room while someone tried to replace a fuse. Either that or they would figure out the bullshit we were up to and shoot us.
Either way we would lose because in real life, MacGuyver nonsense does not work ever.
Yesterday when I listed our inventory I did forget to mention one thing. In addition to all our useless MacGuyver shit, we also realized that we possibly had in AJ a strain of the most deadly virus known to mankind. So we had that going for us, and that's nice.
Oh yeah, AJ also pointed out that after today our captors would probably decide we weren't infected. At that point, one of two things would happen.
1. We would be welcome into this camp of end of the world survivalists with open arms and be considered their equals!
2. We would be forced into slave labor or rapesville.
3. A variation of number 2, we would get raped while performing slave labor.
As much as I wanted to believe it would be number one, having the guard that morning say, "I've got dibs on you" certainly didn't help my outlook. I believe a young Juliette Lewis in Natural Born Killers expressed our intentions the best when she said, "Kill em all Mickey, KILL EM ALL!"
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Day Eighty Two Pt 3:
Day Eighty Two Pt 3:
One razor blade
One pack of matches
One 3 foot length of string
Two paper clips
One very small swiss army knife w/ the usual attachments
That is what AJ and I were left with. Oh right, and a boat key holder covered in body secretions. I probably didn't need to tell you that but I don't want someone to find this journal 100 years from now and be all like "Wait a second! I thought there was a boat key holder! What a fucking liar!"
Additionally, even though there weren't any windows on the door I was pretty sure there was a guard stationed outside since every now and then I would see him walk past the door. Could we have jumped the guard? I don't know, probably. But who knows how many other people were in there. Not to mention, one mistake would result in us being severely shot.
Not just regularly shot. No, severely shot. Which is much worse.
First thing I did was tie the string to the boat key holder and then tie the other end to a vent in the room. That way, until we figured this horrible situation out we could leave our stuff hidden in a vent. I knew watching those Prison Lockup shows would pay off one day.
At some point we were given food that day. But it was just bread and crackers on a paper plater. So I guess I could add a paper plate to the inventory as well.
We spent the night naked, on the floor, waiting to die.
Which is actually quite a bit worse than spending the night in a car waiting to die.
Its strange how comforting clothes are.
And how terrifying life can become without them.
One razor blade
One pack of matches
One 3 foot length of string
Two paper clips
One very small swiss army knife w/ the usual attachments
That is what AJ and I were left with. Oh right, and a boat key holder covered in body secretions. I probably didn't need to tell you that but I don't want someone to find this journal 100 years from now and be all like "Wait a second! I thought there was a boat key holder! What a fucking liar!"
Additionally, even though there weren't any windows on the door I was pretty sure there was a guard stationed outside since every now and then I would see him walk past the door. Could we have jumped the guard? I don't know, probably. But who knows how many other people were in there. Not to mention, one mistake would result in us being severely shot.
Not just regularly shot. No, severely shot. Which is much worse.
First thing I did was tie the string to the boat key holder and then tie the other end to a vent in the room. That way, until we figured this horrible situation out we could leave our stuff hidden in a vent. I knew watching those Prison Lockup shows would pay off one day.
At some point we were given food that day. But it was just bread and crackers on a paper plater. So I guess I could add a paper plate to the inventory as well.
We spent the night naked, on the floor, waiting to die.
Which is actually quite a bit worse than spending the night in a car waiting to die.
Its strange how comforting clothes are.
And how terrifying life can become without them.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Day Eighty Two Pt. 2:
Day Eighty Two Pt. 2:
Where were we? Oh right, me walking up the road with AJ next to me while a boat key holder was shoved up inside me. Awesome!
We didn’t make it far before a spotlight from the building lit us up and men in gas masks with guns trained on us began shouting orders. If you ever saw the movie 28 Days Later, it was sort of like that. If you haven’t seen the movie it doesn’t matter since you are probably already dead like everyone else. Drumroll please.
We did as we were told. AJ and I put the guns we had in our waistband on the ground. We decided to bring some handguns because how else would we have made it this far? Our hope was that they would believe that we had been surviving on foot and not go looking to hard for our car which was hidden just off the road.
When we got close to the building, we were instructed to lie down flat on the ground with our hands spread out. We did this and waited for them to handcuff us and secure us to a bench. I tried to tell them there was no need for this, that we were friends, that we meant them no harm.
They told us that we could be scouts for a larger raiding party.
I asked if they had been having problems with that sort of thing to which I received no answer but knew that it meant no. It meant that someone had watched Mad Max one too many times and was being extremely paranoid.
We were stripped naked and thrown into a very serious looking room. Not a prison since it wasn’t a jail but, lets just say that it was fairly inescapable. On the plus side, there was a make shift toilet bucket. On the negative side, I was fairly certain they were going to kill us.
Eventually someone came to talk to us but, not much was accomplished. They wanted to know where our car was, we said there wasn’t one, they called us liars, we called them crazy. And so on and so on. Eventually I asked for a blanket but, I could tell they were getting off on their home brewed version of Guantanamo Bay or however it is spelled so I didn’t hold my breath waiting for one.
I asked how long they were going to keep us there, and they laughed. Something in that laugh let AJ and I know that we were both as good as dead.
Thank God for my body cavity surprise package. Thank God for Aj’s foresight. And while I am at it, Fuck God for making all this bullshit happen in the first place and making me have to stick a fucking boat key holder inside me. Yeah God, you’re not getting off that easy any more.
Where were we? Oh right, me walking up the road with AJ next to me while a boat key holder was shoved up inside me. Awesome!
We didn’t make it far before a spotlight from the building lit us up and men in gas masks with guns trained on us began shouting orders. If you ever saw the movie 28 Days Later, it was sort of like that. If you haven’t seen the movie it doesn’t matter since you are probably already dead like everyone else. Drumroll please.
We did as we were told. AJ and I put the guns we had in our waistband on the ground. We decided to bring some handguns because how else would we have made it this far? Our hope was that they would believe that we had been surviving on foot and not go looking to hard for our car which was hidden just off the road.
When we got close to the building, we were instructed to lie down flat on the ground with our hands spread out. We did this and waited for them to handcuff us and secure us to a bench. I tried to tell them there was no need for this, that we were friends, that we meant them no harm.
They told us that we could be scouts for a larger raiding party.
I asked if they had been having problems with that sort of thing to which I received no answer but knew that it meant no. It meant that someone had watched Mad Max one too many times and was being extremely paranoid.
We were stripped naked and thrown into a very serious looking room. Not a prison since it wasn’t a jail but, lets just say that it was fairly inescapable. On the plus side, there was a make shift toilet bucket. On the negative side, I was fairly certain they were going to kill us.
Eventually someone came to talk to us but, not much was accomplished. They wanted to know where our car was, we said there wasn’t one, they called us liars, we called them crazy. And so on and so on. Eventually I asked for a blanket but, I could tell they were getting off on their home brewed version of Guantanamo Bay or however it is spelled so I didn’t hold my breath waiting for one.
I asked how long they were going to keep us there, and they laughed. Something in that laugh let AJ and I know that we were both as good as dead.
Thank God for my body cavity surprise package. Thank God for Aj’s foresight. And while I am at it, Fuck God for making all this bullshit happen in the first place and making me have to stick a fucking boat key holder inside me. Yeah God, you’re not getting off that easy any more.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Day Eighty Two:
Day Eighty Two:
Actually this is sort of days Eighty two/three/four/five/six and might be up to day eighty eight but for the sake of continuity we will say that AJ and I were imprisoned for five days before we escaped. So what went wrong?
Fucking smoke signal wasn’t a smoke signal.
It wasn’t a “Hey friends, come on down”
It was an accident and in no way shape or form was meant to be a beacon of hope or salvation.
Remember earlier when we were worried about Arnold being a slaver/rapist? Well, what we found wasn’t that bad but, it looked like it was headed in the right direction. Actually I guess it would make more sense to say those fucks were headed in the wrong direction but you get what I mean.
I’m getting to far ahead of myself so let me go back to Day Eighty Two for a second and focus on that. We waited all morning to see the smoke again and sometime around 2 or 3 PM it showed up. Later we found out it wasn’t a signal, just lunch. But regardless of that, we drove towards it.
Around 4 PM we got close enough that we could see a house, and PEOPLE! Or at least, we saw figures moving inside the house that were a little hard to make out but Oh my God, we were so excited to see more people. I almost jumped out of the car and went running towards them but thankfully, AJ despite our excitement is always a little more apprehensive.
Its like, where I see a flower, he sees a poisonous plant. Where I see a beautiful bird, he sees Bird Flu. For everything Positive in this world you can bet that AJ has figured out what the Negative aspects are. And thank God for that, because if he hadn’t we would either be dead or worse.
Yes, worse.
Like I was saying, I wanted to go running forward and start the parade but AJ held us back. He suggested that we conceal some supplies or weapons. I told him we already were and he said “No, not in our pockets, in us”.
Whoa there buddy. It’s one thing to carry a gun, but to shove a gun inside yourself might hurt a little. So I was pretty hesitant at first.
Eventually he showed me some spongy case that was shaped like a big oval. I think boaters use them so they don’t lose their keys? Not sure, but anyway it opened and inside you could fit a small amount of stuff. So although a gun was out of the picture, a razor blade, matches, string, and maybe a little more would fit just fine.
Sooooo we had a case, what we didn’t have was a willing participant to shove a fairly unusual object up inside of them. What it basically came down to was, either one of us do that or… one of us hide in the bushes with weapons and supplies while the other drives towards the encampment.
Either become the poor man’s Bear Gryllis or… ew.
We debated this for a while. I tried my best to convince him that these were normal people just like us. He agreed, but also point out that he would rather be safe than sorry. I told him that he should be the one to, well, gross. He said that we wouldn’t do that because of his religion.
Even in the apocalypse afterworld, the religion trump card never ever fails.
So either I would get to be uncomfortable for a few seconds, or possibly spend the night in the woods. His reasoning was, if they turn out to be hunky-dory (He actually said this, I might not remember everything but I remember that) then I could just go to the bathroom and remove our little security blanket. So we would be looking, wait no… so I with a capital ME would be looking at most of like 10 minutes of discomfort.
Otherwise, if one of us stayed in the woods that might look real suspicious should they turn out to be friendly. Oh hello, we mean you no harm. What’s that? Oh yes, that is my friend camped out in the woods with a high powered sniper rifle aimed at your forehead. No, don’t be ridiculous, we are friends!
See the dilemma?
Well, after a thorough cleaning I am ashamed to say in it went. Please don’t think any less of your narrator.
I think this is an appropriate time to take a break from writing in this thing. If you can believe it, everything goes down hill from here.
Actually this is sort of days Eighty two/three/four/five/six and might be up to day eighty eight but for the sake of continuity we will say that AJ and I were imprisoned for five days before we escaped. So what went wrong?
Fucking smoke signal wasn’t a smoke signal.
It wasn’t a “Hey friends, come on down”
It was an accident and in no way shape or form was meant to be a beacon of hope or salvation.
Remember earlier when we were worried about Arnold being a slaver/rapist? Well, what we found wasn’t that bad but, it looked like it was headed in the right direction. Actually I guess it would make more sense to say those fucks were headed in the wrong direction but you get what I mean.
I’m getting to far ahead of myself so let me go back to Day Eighty Two for a second and focus on that. We waited all morning to see the smoke again and sometime around 2 or 3 PM it showed up. Later we found out it wasn’t a signal, just lunch. But regardless of that, we drove towards it.
Around 4 PM we got close enough that we could see a house, and PEOPLE! Or at least, we saw figures moving inside the house that were a little hard to make out but Oh my God, we were so excited to see more people. I almost jumped out of the car and went running towards them but thankfully, AJ despite our excitement is always a little more apprehensive.
Its like, where I see a flower, he sees a poisonous plant. Where I see a beautiful bird, he sees Bird Flu. For everything Positive in this world you can bet that AJ has figured out what the Negative aspects are. And thank God for that, because if he hadn’t we would either be dead or worse.
Yes, worse.
Like I was saying, I wanted to go running forward and start the parade but AJ held us back. He suggested that we conceal some supplies or weapons. I told him we already were and he said “No, not in our pockets, in us”.
Whoa there buddy. It’s one thing to carry a gun, but to shove a gun inside yourself might hurt a little. So I was pretty hesitant at first.
Eventually he showed me some spongy case that was shaped like a big oval. I think boaters use them so they don’t lose their keys? Not sure, but anyway it opened and inside you could fit a small amount of stuff. So although a gun was out of the picture, a razor blade, matches, string, and maybe a little more would fit just fine.
Sooooo we had a case, what we didn’t have was a willing participant to shove a fairly unusual object up inside of them. What it basically came down to was, either one of us do that or… one of us hide in the bushes with weapons and supplies while the other drives towards the encampment.
Either become the poor man’s Bear Gryllis or… ew.
We debated this for a while. I tried my best to convince him that these were normal people just like us. He agreed, but also point out that he would rather be safe than sorry. I told him that he should be the one to, well, gross. He said that we wouldn’t do that because of his religion.
Even in the apocalypse afterworld, the religion trump card never ever fails.
So either I would get to be uncomfortable for a few seconds, or possibly spend the night in the woods. His reasoning was, if they turn out to be hunky-dory (He actually said this, I might not remember everything but I remember that) then I could just go to the bathroom and remove our little security blanket. So we would be looking, wait no… so I with a capital ME would be looking at most of like 10 minutes of discomfort.
Otherwise, if one of us stayed in the woods that might look real suspicious should they turn out to be friendly. Oh hello, we mean you no harm. What’s that? Oh yes, that is my friend camped out in the woods with a high powered sniper rifle aimed at your forehead. No, don’t be ridiculous, we are friends!
See the dilemma?
Well, after a thorough cleaning I am ashamed to say in it went. Please don’t think any less of your narrator.
I think this is an appropriate time to take a break from writing in this thing. If you can believe it, everything goes down hill from here.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Day Eighty One:
Day Eighty One:
Remember when people used to say "Where there's smoke there's fire"?
Fucking hated when they would say that. So I guess having a mass population extinction does have its upside. However, the reason I am bringing it up is because today we saw a fine line of smoke in the distance. And where there's smoke... no, not fire. But people.
It doesn't look like a raging forest fire so much as a lets eat some woodland creatures fire. And that is probably the best kind of fire. So we have begun angling towards it. After a while the smoke disappeared so we drove as far as we could without feeling like we wouldn't be able to see the smoke tomorrow.
So now we wait through the night. Tomorrow we make friends.
Remember when people used to say "Where there's smoke there's fire"?
Fucking hated when they would say that. So I guess having a mass population extinction does have its upside. However, the reason I am bringing it up is because today we saw a fine line of smoke in the distance. And where there's smoke... no, not fire. But people.
It doesn't look like a raging forest fire so much as a lets eat some woodland creatures fire. And that is probably the best kind of fire. So we have begun angling towards it. After a while the smoke disappeared so we drove as far as we could without feeling like we wouldn't be able to see the smoke tomorrow.
So now we wait through the night. Tomorrow we make friends.
Day Eighty:
Day Eighty:
Drive drive drive some more. I wanted to do this why? Oh right, to make contact with a population that has vanished. Smart.
Reminds me of when I was a kid and my family took a road trip that unfortunately passed through Iowa. You know what’s in Iowa? 3 houses, 5 trees, and corn. Miles upon endless mile of fertile yellow boredom. Well guess what? Planet Earth might as well change its name to Iowa because there is nothing stacked upon heaping mounds of nothing out here.
Sure, there are relics. Everything is now a relic. A billboard relic that will probably have torn off by this time next year, building relics, car relics, but without life connecting them to a predetermined value they are nothing. Junk would probably be a better word. Hey all you people that fought about a religion before this happened, I hope you are all happy to know that your God turned the entire fucking planet into an Iowa junkyard.
Fantastic.
Anyway, AJ thinks we should consider boats. Maybe try to hit up an island, see if maybe people survived there. Problem is, AJ got bit. So lets say we make it to said island. We will look like real assholes if AJ turns out to be the smallpox infected blanket won't we?
Still no ex-humes. Some threat huh? We went from being terrified of these things to, driving around the countryside hoping one will attack just so it will break up the monotony of this boredom.
Drive drive drive some more. I wanted to do this why? Oh right, to make contact with a population that has vanished. Smart.
Reminds me of when I was a kid and my family took a road trip that unfortunately passed through Iowa. You know what’s in Iowa? 3 houses, 5 trees, and corn. Miles upon endless mile of fertile yellow boredom. Well guess what? Planet Earth might as well change its name to Iowa because there is nothing stacked upon heaping mounds of nothing out here.
Sure, there are relics. Everything is now a relic. A billboard relic that will probably have torn off by this time next year, building relics, car relics, but without life connecting them to a predetermined value they are nothing. Junk would probably be a better word. Hey all you people that fought about a religion before this happened, I hope you are all happy to know that your God turned the entire fucking planet into an Iowa junkyard.
Fantastic.
Anyway, AJ thinks we should consider boats. Maybe try to hit up an island, see if maybe people survived there. Problem is, AJ got bit. So lets say we make it to said island. We will look like real assholes if AJ turns out to be the smallpox infected blanket won't we?
Still no ex-humes. Some threat huh? We went from being terrified of these things to, driving around the countryside hoping one will attack just so it will break up the monotony of this boredom.
Day Seventy Nine:
Day Seventy Nine:
On the road again... Something something something the road again!
So after much deliberation, hemming and hawing, checking and rechecking and checking again. AJ and I are finally on the damn road. Two vehicles, each rigged up with multiple walkie talkies, loads of gas, loads of spare tires, a plethora of guns, food, water, armor plating or at least... metal plating. Is metal considered armor?
I know it protects us but, it isn't like we have tank cars. We have Home Depot cars, not quite as cool but it works.
Our first night we slept in the cars, left the walkie talkies on like baby monitors for each other. During the night I couldn't see them, but I know the ex-humes are watching us. How? I don't know. I waited and waited for one of them to try to crack our cars open like a nut but nothing all night long.
So forward we go, or maybe sideways. All I know is we are moving and it feels good.
On the road again... Something something something the road again!
So after much deliberation, hemming and hawing, checking and rechecking and checking again. AJ and I are finally on the damn road. Two vehicles, each rigged up with multiple walkie talkies, loads of gas, loads of spare tires, a plethora of guns, food, water, armor plating or at least... metal plating. Is metal considered armor?
I know it protects us but, it isn't like we have tank cars. We have Home Depot cars, not quite as cool but it works.
Our first night we slept in the cars, left the walkie talkies on like baby monitors for each other. During the night I couldn't see them, but I know the ex-humes are watching us. How? I don't know. I waited and waited for one of them to try to crack our cars open like a nut but nothing all night long.
So forward we go, or maybe sideways. All I know is we are moving and it feels good.
Day Seventy Eight:
Day Seventy Eight:
I put off waiting as long as I could. I kept hoping that if I gave him enough time, AJ would decide to go with me. Problem is, waiting a minute turns into an hour. Then the hour becomes a day. And before you know it, you're in a wheelchair fighting off mutated humans with a cane.
No thanks.
I loaded up the vehicle, packed all the supplies I could think of and just as I was about to make a go of it... AJ came running out shouting "NO WAIT, WAIT!"
Of course, I waited. He agreed to go but, he pleaded with me to wait a few more days. At first I was hesitant but he explained that with a few days of leg work we could plan our routes, back-up routes in case the original routes were blocked, and back-up routes for the back-up routes along with as many contingency plans as we could think of in case the unexpected happened.
Which we have learned, it seems to do more and more these days.
He pointed out to me that I hadn't even thought of first locating some sort of road atlas which would be extremely useful once we left our immediate surroundings.
Despite how anxious I was to leave, I can confidently say that it feels good to be able to spend a few more days at home. Because now at least we seem to be putting a dot on a map. Having a goal is a beautiful thing, even if that goal is something as simple as point A to point B.
I put off waiting as long as I could. I kept hoping that if I gave him enough time, AJ would decide to go with me. Problem is, waiting a minute turns into an hour. Then the hour becomes a day. And before you know it, you're in a wheelchair fighting off mutated humans with a cane.
No thanks.
I loaded up the vehicle, packed all the supplies I could think of and just as I was about to make a go of it... AJ came running out shouting "NO WAIT, WAIT!"
Of course, I waited. He agreed to go but, he pleaded with me to wait a few more days. At first I was hesitant but he explained that with a few days of leg work we could plan our routes, back-up routes in case the original routes were blocked, and back-up routes for the back-up routes along with as many contingency plans as we could think of in case the unexpected happened.
Which we have learned, it seems to do more and more these days.
He pointed out to me that I hadn't even thought of first locating some sort of road atlas which would be extremely useful once we left our immediate surroundings.
Despite how anxious I was to leave, I can confidently say that it feels good to be able to spend a few more days at home. Because now at least we seem to be putting a dot on a map. Having a goal is a beautiful thing, even if that goal is something as simple as point A to point B.
Day Seventy Seven:
Day Seventy Seven:
Jesus... Arnold is dead.
The fire came out of the West while we were all asleep. Before we even knew it was there it was burning down the houses down the street and moving rapidly towards us. We did what we could with the time we had. Fortunately we already had the car loaded up for the next day, but if we hadn't...
I don't want to think about what would have happened if we hadn't.
I don't want to think about this as it is.
We loaded up what we could and left, with enough food and supplies to last for the next couple years going up in flames.
We drove to our back up location in the East since, Arnold had suggested we pick out and fortify some alternative locations just in case of some disaster. We pulled in, locked up, and felt like the worst was behind us. Then, Arnold had a fucking heart attack.
I almost wish the things had got him. Then at least I would have a way to vent this anger/depression that is coursing through every inch of my body.
We escaped, we did everything right. Everything except bring some nitroglycerin pills or whatever the fuck you are supposed to give to someone when they are dying in front of you. Instead, we just stared at him and I don't know, tried to make his awful death better?
We would have buried him except, on several different occasions we had all watched as ex-humes dug up the ground only to pull out some mangled corpse from a coffin or animal that was buried there. In this future, everyone is either cremated or leftovers. Did I write about this before? I don't remember, everything is cloudy right now.
Arnold talked about sailing as a kid so we decided to give him a Viking funeral at a nearby lake. Whether or not that’s what he wanted I don't have any fucking clue. What he probably wanted was to not die from a heart attack. What he probably wanted was for us to be able to call 9-1-1 and not only have someone answer, but send us a doctor that wasn't a God Damn monster.
What has this taught me? That just surviving isn't working. I wouldn't behave this way in my normal boring life, so why in a crisis when the world needs more "real" people than ever to form a collection are we all hiding and waiting for an invisible authority to save us?
I don't know. Arnold probably would, but he's dead. And AJ just seems like he blew a fuse. Its one thing to know that there are horrible mutated humans waiting to rip out your intestines. Its another to know that even if you have the strength, intelligence, and resolve to defend yourselves against them... you still might lose because you ate to many doughnuts, or didn't properly clean out a minor cut, or just came down with a slight case of the God hates yous.
We are alive, but if we don't make an effort to move forward we are just as fucked as those miserable ex-humes. I will give AJ a week to grieve, but after that week I am moving on. If he wants to stay put, so be it. But Arnold's death has reminded me that I am still here, and I refuse to waste that anymore.
Jesus... Arnold is dead.
The fire came out of the West while we were all asleep. Before we even knew it was there it was burning down the houses down the street and moving rapidly towards us. We did what we could with the time we had. Fortunately we already had the car loaded up for the next day, but if we hadn't...
I don't want to think about what would have happened if we hadn't.
I don't want to think about this as it is.
We loaded up what we could and left, with enough food and supplies to last for the next couple years going up in flames.
We drove to our back up location in the East since, Arnold had suggested we pick out and fortify some alternative locations just in case of some disaster. We pulled in, locked up, and felt like the worst was behind us. Then, Arnold had a fucking heart attack.
I almost wish the things had got him. Then at least I would have a way to vent this anger/depression that is coursing through every inch of my body.
We escaped, we did everything right. Everything except bring some nitroglycerin pills or whatever the fuck you are supposed to give to someone when they are dying in front of you. Instead, we just stared at him and I don't know, tried to make his awful death better?
We would have buried him except, on several different occasions we had all watched as ex-humes dug up the ground only to pull out some mangled corpse from a coffin or animal that was buried there. In this future, everyone is either cremated or leftovers. Did I write about this before? I don't remember, everything is cloudy right now.
Arnold talked about sailing as a kid so we decided to give him a Viking funeral at a nearby lake. Whether or not that’s what he wanted I don't have any fucking clue. What he probably wanted was to not die from a heart attack. What he probably wanted was for us to be able to call 9-1-1 and not only have someone answer, but send us a doctor that wasn't a God Damn monster.
What has this taught me? That just surviving isn't working. I wouldn't behave this way in my normal boring life, so why in a crisis when the world needs more "real" people than ever to form a collection are we all hiding and waiting for an invisible authority to save us?
I don't know. Arnold probably would, but he's dead. And AJ just seems like he blew a fuse. Its one thing to know that there are horrible mutated humans waiting to rip out your intestines. Its another to know that even if you have the strength, intelligence, and resolve to defend yourselves against them... you still might lose because you ate to many doughnuts, or didn't properly clean out a minor cut, or just came down with a slight case of the God hates yous.
We are alive, but if we don't make an effort to move forward we are just as fucked as those miserable ex-humes. I will give AJ a week to grieve, but after that week I am moving on. If he wants to stay put, so be it. But Arnold's death has reminded me that I am still here, and I refuse to waste that anymore.
Day Seventy Six:
Day Seventy Six:
We have been trying for days now to capture an ex-hume so we could all sit back, make some popcorn and watch this weeks latest installment of ex-humes gone wild! But despite numerous ideas and attempts to catch another one, every attempt has been met with failure.
Christ, as recent as two weeks ago it seems like you could just tie a needle filled with tranquilizer to a stick, push the stick out the window and you would have one sleepy time monster. But now, I don't know. Fresh meat in the road didn't work, screams didn't work, AJ even put a beer out there just in case but nothing. Nothing at all.
What we need is one of those shark cages that they used to use to film great white sharks. Just put me in the middle of the street with a tranquilizer gun, then have AJ and Arnold shoot every other ex-hume that won't back away. Problem solved.
But even then, I think they are learning. And they know that although they have superiority in numbers, we have the power of thought. More as it develops.
We have been trying for days now to capture an ex-hume so we could all sit back, make some popcorn and watch this weeks latest installment of ex-humes gone wild! But despite numerous ideas and attempts to catch another one, every attempt has been met with failure.
Christ, as recent as two weeks ago it seems like you could just tie a needle filled with tranquilizer to a stick, push the stick out the window and you would have one sleepy time monster. But now, I don't know. Fresh meat in the road didn't work, screams didn't work, AJ even put a beer out there just in case but nothing. Nothing at all.
What we need is one of those shark cages that they used to use to film great white sharks. Just put me in the middle of the street with a tranquilizer gun, then have AJ and Arnold shoot every other ex-hume that won't back away. Problem solved.
But even then, I think they are learning. And they know that although they have superiority in numbers, we have the power of thought. More as it develops.
Day Seventy Five:
Day Seventy Five:
Holy shit, listen to this. AJ might have had the best idea that anyone has had in the last year. No, he didn't figure out a cure. That would be way more amazing actually. But, what he suggested is still pretty great.
Ok, the last time we captured an ex-hume it seemed pointless to me. Did anyone really think we could cure those bastards by injecting them with our blood? No, because that would have been idiotic.
But, what if we captured an ex-hume and fitted it with a camera? Then, we set it back into the wild. The result, informative entertaining television. At first I was skeptical since I didn't understand how we would be able to watch it but apparently when he was liberating some other electronics for home surveillance he managed to scrounge up some spy-tech gear as well.
Additionally he suggested we could attach a GPS tracking device to it and use that to follow the creature in case it went out of signal range. However, I pointed out that with the power grid destroyed it was unlikely that we would be able to find any satellites.
But still, even if it only lasted for a few minutes... watching the ex-humes interact might be helpful to our current predicament.
Holy shit, listen to this. AJ might have had the best idea that anyone has had in the last year. No, he didn't figure out a cure. That would be way more amazing actually. But, what he suggested is still pretty great.
Ok, the last time we captured an ex-hume it seemed pointless to me. Did anyone really think we could cure those bastards by injecting them with our blood? No, because that would have been idiotic.
But, what if we captured an ex-hume and fitted it with a camera? Then, we set it back into the wild. The result, informative entertaining television. At first I was skeptical since I didn't understand how we would be able to watch it but apparently when he was liberating some other electronics for home surveillance he managed to scrounge up some spy-tech gear as well.
Additionally he suggested we could attach a GPS tracking device to it and use that to follow the creature in case it went out of signal range. However, I pointed out that with the power grid destroyed it was unlikely that we would be able to find any satellites.
But still, even if it only lasted for a few minutes... watching the ex-humes interact might be helpful to our current predicament.
Day Seventy Four:
Day Seventy Four:
It’s been over a week since my last entry and AJ seems to be doing better. Then again, everyone probably seems to be doing better right before they blow their head off.
Speaking of blowing off heads, I haven't been able to shoot an ex-hume in quite a while. Started to hope that maybe the infection had killed them all off but then I managed to catch sight of one out of the corner of my eye. As an experiment, we threw a small amount of food into the middle of the road and waited.
It used to take about 30 seconds before an ex-hume would take the bait.
This time it took over three hours.
After shooting it, we waited for its friends to come out but no dice. The next morning it was gone. Which means not only have they learned to avoid us, but they were smart enough to drag the body off instead of just chowing down in the middle of the street.
It’s been over a week since my last entry and AJ seems to be doing better. Then again, everyone probably seems to be doing better right before they blow their head off.
Speaking of blowing off heads, I haven't been able to shoot an ex-hume in quite a while. Started to hope that maybe the infection had killed them all off but then I managed to catch sight of one out of the corner of my eye. As an experiment, we threw a small amount of food into the middle of the road and waited.
It used to take about 30 seconds before an ex-hume would take the bait.
This time it took over three hours.
After shooting it, we waited for its friends to come out but no dice. The next morning it was gone. Which means not only have they learned to avoid us, but they were smart enough to drag the body off instead of just chowing down in the middle of the street.
Day Seventy Three:
Day Seventy Three:
I walked in on AJ today and found him sitting in a chair with a fully loaded revolver in his lap.
In the pre-exhume world this type of discovery would have lead to me possibly calling an ambulance, possible hospitalization, therapy, care sessions, all sorts of prescribed hugs, etc...
Now days though I just kind of looked at the gun for a while, then at AJ. After I shrugged he picked the gun up off his lap and put it in a drawer. Suicide isn't frowned upon nearly as much when you are living in a doomed world with no chance for survival. In fact, although I can't imagine killing myself I have been tempted on a few of my more depressed days to ask one of my new friends if they wouldn't mind putting a bullet through my head.
Horrible right?
We will survive a monster virus, a feral threat, and the myriad of other problems that come with the collapse of society only to be murdered by our own minds. Fantastic.
I walked in on AJ today and found him sitting in a chair with a fully loaded revolver in his lap.
In the pre-exhume world this type of discovery would have lead to me possibly calling an ambulance, possible hospitalization, therapy, care sessions, all sorts of prescribed hugs, etc...
Now days though I just kind of looked at the gun for a while, then at AJ. After I shrugged he picked the gun up off his lap and put it in a drawer. Suicide isn't frowned upon nearly as much when you are living in a doomed world with no chance for survival. In fact, although I can't imagine killing myself I have been tempted on a few of my more depressed days to ask one of my new friends if they wouldn't mind putting a bullet through my head.
Horrible right?
We will survive a monster virus, a feral threat, and the myriad of other problems that come with the collapse of society only to be murdered by our own minds. Fantastic.
Day Seventy Two:
Day Seventy Two:
Originally I planned on writing everyday in this damned thing. Everyday turned to every other day turned to maybe every week. Why you ask?
Because who is my audience?
Me?
Writing is cathartic, unless it routinely reminds you of your current situation. Which this does. Don't worry no one, I'm not going to stop writing. I will continue to tell you about how we almost found survivors.
How we almost made a difference.
And how we came really really close to having something happen.
Can you stand the excitement?
If something doesn't happen soon I am packing up all my shit and driving out to Area 51. Because you know, I have always wanted to know if they have aliens there, who shot Kennedy, and what really happened with the damned moon landing.
Originally I planned on writing everyday in this damned thing. Everyday turned to every other day turned to maybe every week. Why you ask?
Because who is my audience?
Me?
Writing is cathartic, unless it routinely reminds you of your current situation. Which this does. Don't worry no one, I'm not going to stop writing. I will continue to tell you about how we almost found survivors.
How we almost made a difference.
And how we came really really close to having something happen.
Can you stand the excitement?
If something doesn't happen soon I am packing up all my shit and driving out to Area 51. Because you know, I have always wanted to know if they have aliens there, who shot Kennedy, and what really happened with the damned moon landing.
Day Seventy One:
Day Seventy One:
No helicopter today, which was incredibly depressing actually. Spent almost our entire day staring up at the sky through one of the slats in Arnold's car. Also didn't help that we weren't able to find any survivors. AJ said that he thought we would have a better shot at finding survivors if we split up. Although we all agreed, we also agreed that the risk wasn't worth the reward.
Arnold might have been working alone until we showed up, but now that we're here it no longer makes much sense to continue forward in such a way. I mean after all, its not like we have millions of lives to throw away anymore.
AJ pointed something else out too that has me worried. The Ex-humes are starting to work in smaller groups. No big deal except, it looks like they have weeded out a lot of the slower, injured, or otherwise less fit monsters. I don't know how worried we should be though since we seem to have stayed one step ahead of them so far. Only time will tell I suppose.
No helicopter today, which was incredibly depressing actually. Spent almost our entire day staring up at the sky through one of the slats in Arnold's car. Also didn't help that we weren't able to find any survivors. AJ said that he thought we would have a better shot at finding survivors if we split up. Although we all agreed, we also agreed that the risk wasn't worth the reward.
Arnold might have been working alone until we showed up, but now that we're here it no longer makes much sense to continue forward in such a way. I mean after all, its not like we have millions of lives to throw away anymore.
AJ pointed something else out too that has me worried. The Ex-humes are starting to work in smaller groups. No big deal except, it looks like they have weeded out a lot of the slower, injured, or otherwise less fit monsters. I don't know how worried we should be though since we seem to have stayed one step ahead of them so far. Only time will tell I suppose.
Day Seventy:
Day Seventy:
We saw a helicopter today.
No really, I'm not just pretending. We really saw one. It came out of the East and got within a few miles of us before turning around and heading back towards wherever it came from. We tried to draw as much attention to us as we could but, all that accomplished was an extra hundred or so Ex-humes coming to look at possible dinner snacks.
But still, a helicopter! That means there has to be some fabric of order somewhere right?
Maybe part of the government really is still thriving below the surface resident evil style. Or maybe it’s just a little group of survivors who hijacked a helicopter for joyrides. Either way, it’s something. And in this new world of horror something new is beautiful.
We saw a helicopter today.
No really, I'm not just pretending. We really saw one. It came out of the East and got within a few miles of us before turning around and heading back towards wherever it came from. We tried to draw as much attention to us as we could but, all that accomplished was an extra hundred or so Ex-humes coming to look at possible dinner snacks.
But still, a helicopter! That means there has to be some fabric of order somewhere right?
Maybe part of the government really is still thriving below the surface resident evil style. Or maybe it’s just a little group of survivors who hijacked a helicopter for joyrides. Either way, it’s something. And in this new world of horror something new is beautiful.
Day Sixty Nine:
Day Sixty Nine:
I suppose it is only appropriate that this entry is at least a little bit about sex.
What is the minimum population that you can sustain humanity with? We were arguing today about whether or not we are already extinct. After driving around all day, we once again found no one. So, it stands to reason that if we continue to not find anyone, then we as a species are dead regardless of if we are still running out the clock.
Even if we find others, how many would we need to find so that we don't wind up like the people from the Hills have Eyes? 100? 1,000? 10,000? I suppose there could be pockets of civilization somewhere that weren't affected by this disaster. Maybe an isolated island culture in Maine or something? Problem is, even if they did manage to escape it for now it seems like its only a matter of time.
Eventually they will need to venture out to find food or other resources, and what if one of them gets infected? Well that infection spreads to the rest of the island. I argued that everyone that isn't immune is already dead. Because in this new world there won't be any new amazing breakthroughs in science.
That era is done and before long, we will be back in the dark ages. That’s a lie, the dark ages might have been rough but they had numbers. Where we are going humanity has never been. Unless you believe that God made Adam and Eve in which case, I guess they faced a similar situation.
Cept for the fact that they were in a garden of Eden and we are in the suburbs of hell.
Shit, that’s a lie too. Because there are supposedly lots of people in hell too.
So we're in, limbo with monsters? Who knows?
I suppose it is only appropriate that this entry is at least a little bit about sex.
What is the minimum population that you can sustain humanity with? We were arguing today about whether or not we are already extinct. After driving around all day, we once again found no one. So, it stands to reason that if we continue to not find anyone, then we as a species are dead regardless of if we are still running out the clock.
Even if we find others, how many would we need to find so that we don't wind up like the people from the Hills have Eyes? 100? 1,000? 10,000? I suppose there could be pockets of civilization somewhere that weren't affected by this disaster. Maybe an isolated island culture in Maine or something? Problem is, even if they did manage to escape it for now it seems like its only a matter of time.
Eventually they will need to venture out to find food or other resources, and what if one of them gets infected? Well that infection spreads to the rest of the island. I argued that everyone that isn't immune is already dead. Because in this new world there won't be any new amazing breakthroughs in science.
That era is done and before long, we will be back in the dark ages. That’s a lie, the dark ages might have been rough but they had numbers. Where we are going humanity has never been. Unless you believe that God made Adam and Eve in which case, I guess they faced a similar situation.
Cept for the fact that they were in a garden of Eden and we are in the suburbs of hell.
Shit, that’s a lie too. Because there are supposedly lots of people in hell too.
So we're in, limbo with monsters? Who knows?
Day Sixty Eight:
Day Sixty Eight:
Arnold lightened the mood today by going into great detail about how every single day we travel in a car, could be our last. The battery could die, the tires could go flat, blown transmission, etc etc etc... I had no idea there were so many different ways a car could die. However, the end message is that if the car dies, we die.
Except, my car died and I'm still alive.
Or am I?
Dun dun dun!
No seriously, I am still alive. Arnold just laughed when I told him that. Isn't it weird when people laugh at something that isn't funny so that they don't have to explain their theories any more?
On a lighter note, I found a dog today!
No I didn't. This shit isn't I am Legend. Will Smith doesn't save the planet. Wait, did he save the planet in I am Legend? Who cares, the book was better. I hope when ex-humes figure out how to make movies they don't ruin my story as the last survivor.
Arnold lightened the mood today by going into great detail about how every single day we travel in a car, could be our last. The battery could die, the tires could go flat, blown transmission, etc etc etc... I had no idea there were so many different ways a car could die. However, the end message is that if the car dies, we die.
Except, my car died and I'm still alive.
Or am I?
Dun dun dun!
No seriously, I am still alive. Arnold just laughed when I told him that. Isn't it weird when people laugh at something that isn't funny so that they don't have to explain their theories any more?
On a lighter note, I found a dog today!
No I didn't. This shit isn't I am Legend. Will Smith doesn't save the planet. Wait, did he save the planet in I am Legend? Who cares, the book was better. I hope when ex-humes figure out how to make movies they don't ruin my story as the last survivor.
Day Sixty Seven:
Day Sixty Seven:
Not much was accomplished if you consider that we are supposed to be looking for other survivors. But, if wasting a day making a new friend was our real goal, then AJ and I won the battle. Because as horrible as this new planet is, today was pretty fun.
Spent most of the time driving around and talking about various points like, how many survivors you would need to form some type of uninfected army that could eradicate this new threat. Talked about whether or not the offspring of two uninfected would produce a baby immune to the ex-hume disease and the more horrible thought of if it is some type of recessive trait, if two ex-humes could create an uninfected baby who would probably get eaten by them.
That in turn broke down into a discussion about the longevity of the ex-humes. Arnold said that as far as he can tell, although they will work together if it serves a purpose... they also appear to have zero compassion for any form of weakness and since a baby is the ultimate form of weakness, he thinks all of their offspring would just be tasty snacks for them.
I know this doesn't sound like a rip-roaring fun time of enjoyable banter but it really was. Maybe tomorrow we'll find someone else to join our little tribe of fucked up discussions.
Not much was accomplished if you consider that we are supposed to be looking for other survivors. But, if wasting a day making a new friend was our real goal, then AJ and I won the battle. Because as horrible as this new planet is, today was pretty fun.
Spent most of the time driving around and talking about various points like, how many survivors you would need to form some type of uninfected army that could eradicate this new threat. Talked about whether or not the offspring of two uninfected would produce a baby immune to the ex-hume disease and the more horrible thought of if it is some type of recessive trait, if two ex-humes could create an uninfected baby who would probably get eaten by them.
That in turn broke down into a discussion about the longevity of the ex-humes. Arnold said that as far as he can tell, although they will work together if it serves a purpose... they also appear to have zero compassion for any form of weakness and since a baby is the ultimate form of weakness, he thinks all of their offspring would just be tasty snacks for them.
I know this doesn't sound like a rip-roaring fun time of enjoyable banter but it really was. Maybe tomorrow we'll find someone else to join our little tribe of fucked up discussions.
Day Sixty Six:
Day Sixty Six:
AJ wanted to leave the red stuff hanging out our window like I mentioned in my last journal entry but I convinced him otherwise. Instead, we managed to sneak over to a house down the street from mine that we would be able to see from my upstairs window. We hung the sheet there instead. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any actual red sheets so, we just stapled, sewed, glued, anything red I had to a normal bed sheet and hoped that would get the attention of our possible new friend.
Additionally, we gave the common courtesy of doing a quick sweep of the entire house so that the outsider didn’t walk into an unintentional ex-hume booby-trap. Then we left a note on the front door that said, “Went for supplies, if you arrive while I am gone please prove that you aren’t hostile.”
We intentionally left a window open a crack. My theory being, if this guy was up to no good he would either raid the house, or hide inside it waiting for the victim to get home. Turns out I was worried for nothing.
Our rescue party of one arrived shortly after 5pm. The vehicle he drove wasn’t exactly a tank but it definitely would have made the A-Team proud. Instead of opening a door he climbed through a hole in the roof and after scouting the area, made a quick run over to the door, read the note, and ran back to his homemade tank.
Then he surprised us by running back to the door and wound up leaving a handgun on the front porch along with a note of his own. As he was walking back to his vehicle we both decided to take a chance and called out to him. He seemed surprised at first but then broke into a big toothy grin. Turns out the note he left with the gun simply read, “I would be crazy not to carry a gun with me but in case you don’t have one, perhaps this would prove I’m not hostile towards you? I will try to be back the same time tomorrow.”
His name is Arnold and before this all happened he worked as a fish and games warden for the local park services in the area. Like AJ, he had lost his entire family when this hell started and figured he might as well try to make some new friends while there were still friends left to make. We asked if he had found anyone else and he just shook his head. He said he thought he had seen people in windows a couple of times but, either they were just ex-humes trapped in houses or they suspected he was up to something fishy like AJ and I did at first.
After that it was pretty much just a conversation filled with theories and rumors. You always assume the other guy knows more than you but before long, you realize that everyone is in the same boat. At the end of our conversation we asked Arnold what happened now?
He wasn’t really sure. He asked if we had enough supplies and when we seemed a little hesitant to answer he explained to us that we didn’t have to worry about him trying to get to our supplies. If this were a different type of disaster, where all the food was in short supply maybe then but, the supermarkets were still stocked with canned goods, water, everything that didn’t spoil. He told us that he knew we had plenty of food but wanted to make sure we didn’t need help with anything else.
We explained how they were trying to get in through the ceiling but, after showing him what we did to solve the problem he was impressed. With immediate concerns addressed, he said we were more than welcome to come live with him but since that might be awkward without knowing each other, he would love it if we came along with him on his survival patrols.
We agreed. So starting tomorrow, we actually have a purpose. I’ll be damned.
AJ wanted to leave the red stuff hanging out our window like I mentioned in my last journal entry but I convinced him otherwise. Instead, we managed to sneak over to a house down the street from mine that we would be able to see from my upstairs window. We hung the sheet there instead. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any actual red sheets so, we just stapled, sewed, glued, anything red I had to a normal bed sheet and hoped that would get the attention of our possible new friend.
Additionally, we gave the common courtesy of doing a quick sweep of the entire house so that the outsider didn’t walk into an unintentional ex-hume booby-trap. Then we left a note on the front door that said, “Went for supplies, if you arrive while I am gone please prove that you aren’t hostile.”
We intentionally left a window open a crack. My theory being, if this guy was up to no good he would either raid the house, or hide inside it waiting for the victim to get home. Turns out I was worried for nothing.
Our rescue party of one arrived shortly after 5pm. The vehicle he drove wasn’t exactly a tank but it definitely would have made the A-Team proud. Instead of opening a door he climbed through a hole in the roof and after scouting the area, made a quick run over to the door, read the note, and ran back to his homemade tank.
Then he surprised us by running back to the door and wound up leaving a handgun on the front porch along with a note of his own. As he was walking back to his vehicle we both decided to take a chance and called out to him. He seemed surprised at first but then broke into a big toothy grin. Turns out the note he left with the gun simply read, “I would be crazy not to carry a gun with me but in case you don’t have one, perhaps this would prove I’m not hostile towards you? I will try to be back the same time tomorrow.”
His name is Arnold and before this all happened he worked as a fish and games warden for the local park services in the area. Like AJ, he had lost his entire family when this hell started and figured he might as well try to make some new friends while there were still friends left to make. We asked if he had found anyone else and he just shook his head. He said he thought he had seen people in windows a couple of times but, either they were just ex-humes trapped in houses or they suspected he was up to something fishy like AJ and I did at first.
After that it was pretty much just a conversation filled with theories and rumors. You always assume the other guy knows more than you but before long, you realize that everyone is in the same boat. At the end of our conversation we asked Arnold what happened now?
He wasn’t really sure. He asked if we had enough supplies and when we seemed a little hesitant to answer he explained to us that we didn’t have to worry about him trying to get to our supplies. If this were a different type of disaster, where all the food was in short supply maybe then but, the supermarkets were still stocked with canned goods, water, everything that didn’t spoil. He told us that he knew we had plenty of food but wanted to make sure we didn’t need help with anything else.
We explained how they were trying to get in through the ceiling but, after showing him what we did to solve the problem he was impressed. With immediate concerns addressed, he said we were more than welcome to come live with him but since that might be awkward without knowing each other, he would love it if we came along with him on his survival patrols.
We agreed. So starting tomorrow, we actually have a purpose. I’ll be damned.
Day Sixty Five:
Day Sixty Five:
Looks like AJ and I might not have to go exploring too far to find some real live human peoples! Today we heard an announcement, not sure how far away it was but best guess is two or three blocks. Must have rigged up some type of P.A. system to their car because the message was pretty clear:
All non-infected.
Place something red in your windows.
We are all that is left now and we need to band together.
Then the message repeated. So now the dilemma, do we trust this faceless message and take it at face value or do we instantly assume that we will be thrown into some type of labor and/or rape camp the second they find out where we are?
In the movies, there are always the slaver/rape factions roaming around look for more raping and slavery but, I don't know. I'm of the opinion that 65 days wouldn't really be long enough to make people want to focus on that so much as, trying to rebuild. Although, AJ pointed out that we have no idea who has survived. So if a serial killing psychopath was for some cruel reason spared, he probably would try something like this.
Decisions decisions.
After weighing the pros and cons we decided to hang out a bunch of red stuff in our windows. Of course, if they don't drive down our street that won't do much good but hopefully they are driving in some type of grid since that is what we were going to do.
And if they are bad guys, well... we have enough firepower here to flatten a Sherman tank so, at least we'll go out with a bang.
Looks like AJ and I might not have to go exploring too far to find some real live human peoples! Today we heard an announcement, not sure how far away it was but best guess is two or three blocks. Must have rigged up some type of P.A. system to their car because the message was pretty clear:
All non-infected.
Place something red in your windows.
We are all that is left now and we need to band together.
Then the message repeated. So now the dilemma, do we trust this faceless message and take it at face value or do we instantly assume that we will be thrown into some type of labor and/or rape camp the second they find out where we are?
In the movies, there are always the slaver/rape factions roaming around look for more raping and slavery but, I don't know. I'm of the opinion that 65 days wouldn't really be long enough to make people want to focus on that so much as, trying to rebuild. Although, AJ pointed out that we have no idea who has survived. So if a serial killing psychopath was for some cruel reason spared, he probably would try something like this.
Decisions decisions.
After weighing the pros and cons we decided to hang out a bunch of red stuff in our windows. Of course, if they don't drive down our street that won't do much good but hopefully they are driving in some type of grid since that is what we were going to do.
And if they are bad guys, well... we have enough firepower here to flatten a Sherman tank so, at least we'll go out with a bang.
Day Sixty Three:
Day Sixty Three:
Caught an ex-hume
Injected it with my blood (AJ didn’t want to use his since he doesn’t believe his is pure anymore)
WE CURED THE HUMAN RACE!
Oh shit, wouldn’t it be great if that was true. If I had been wrong about AJ’s theories and all we had to do was round up all the monsters and stick them with the magic cure?
Nothing happened. I wasn’t upset at all since I expected as much but AJ seemed to take it pretty hard. Even if we were able to somehow remove every ounce of the infected blood, and replace it with mine I still don’t think it would work. Once the virus hit, I think it somehow dissolves the brain, or a portion of it. And if there is one thing I have learned from watching countless medical shows on tv, its that brain injuries = you’re screwed.\
To paraphrase Homer Simpson, “We tried our best and failed miserably, what’s the lesson here? Never try.”
Caught an ex-hume
Injected it with my blood (AJ didn’t want to use his since he doesn’t believe his is pure anymore)
WE CURED THE HUMAN RACE!
Oh shit, wouldn’t it be great if that was true. If I had been wrong about AJ’s theories and all we had to do was round up all the monsters and stick them with the magic cure?
Nothing happened. I wasn’t upset at all since I expected as much but AJ seemed to take it pretty hard. Even if we were able to somehow remove every ounce of the infected blood, and replace it with mine I still don’t think it would work. Once the virus hit, I think it somehow dissolves the brain, or a portion of it. And if there is one thing I have learned from watching countless medical shows on tv, its that brain injuries = you’re screwed.\
To paraphrase Homer Simpson, “We tried our best and failed miserably, what’s the lesson here? Never try.”
Day Sixty Two:
Day Sixty Two:
We managed to kill thirty clothed ex-humes. Probably could have conserved more ammo but after we’d shoot one of them, we had to shoot the surrounding ones as well to keep them from ripping apart the clothed ones and as a result, possibly eating the keys.
After securing the area we went out and searched all of them and came up with 13 sets of key fobs.
Over the course of several hours we hopped from roof to roof to roof and back again hoping to find a car that would light up when we hit the panic button. On the eighth set, we found our winner. A maroon newer model pick-up truck parked in front of a liquor store.
In situations like this, I find myself wondering why someone would leave their truck outside a store during a plague. AJ pointed out that the guy probably lived up above the place or was the owner. Or, was someone who had car troubles and left it there meaning to get it fixed the next day.
Getting to the truck went off without a hitch although, I half expected it to have a flat tire on the side we couldn’t see, or dead battery, or whatever the hell else would get us eaten alive but no. It got us from point A to point B just fine and now we are safely back in my lovely house. Despite the recent near disaster, AJ still wants to try his blood injection idea so we’ll see how that goes.
Now I am going to sleep in my bed, that isn’t made out of discount coats in the corner of a stairwell. Even though we have lost so much, its nice to know that it isn’t all gone.
We managed to kill thirty clothed ex-humes. Probably could have conserved more ammo but after we’d shoot one of them, we had to shoot the surrounding ones as well to keep them from ripping apart the clothed ones and as a result, possibly eating the keys.
After securing the area we went out and searched all of them and came up with 13 sets of key fobs.
Over the course of several hours we hopped from roof to roof to roof and back again hoping to find a car that would light up when we hit the panic button. On the eighth set, we found our winner. A maroon newer model pick-up truck parked in front of a liquor store.
In situations like this, I find myself wondering why someone would leave their truck outside a store during a plague. AJ pointed out that the guy probably lived up above the place or was the owner. Or, was someone who had car troubles and left it there meaning to get it fixed the next day.
Getting to the truck went off without a hitch although, I half expected it to have a flat tire on the side we couldn’t see, or dead battery, or whatever the hell else would get us eaten alive but no. It got us from point A to point B just fine and now we are safely back in my lovely house. Despite the recent near disaster, AJ still wants to try his blood injection idea so we’ll see how that goes.
Now I am going to sleep in my bed, that isn’t made out of discount coats in the corner of a stairwell. Even though we have lost so much, its nice to know that it isn’t all gone.
Day Sixty One:
Day Sixty One:
Today AJ had a pretty good idea for transportation. He suggested we search the 20 or so dead ex-humes lying in the store. His theory is, if they died nearby, we might be able to find their keys and hit the car alarm to find it. After creating a distraction outside we quickly searched all the dead bodies that were wearing clothes and came up with 5 sets of car keys.
Of those 5, 3 had key fobs with car alarms.
We took the keys up to the roof and after walking from roof to roof to roof, not a single one set off any of the nearby cars. Not a problem. Tomorrow we start executing only the ex-humes in the store who are wearing clothes with pockets.
Hey, its worth a shot. No seriously, it is literally worth shooting people in the face to find a way out of this place.
Today AJ had a pretty good idea for transportation. He suggested we search the 20 or so dead ex-humes lying in the store. His theory is, if they died nearby, we might be able to find their keys and hit the car alarm to find it. After creating a distraction outside we quickly searched all the dead bodies that were wearing clothes and came up with 5 sets of car keys.
Of those 5, 3 had key fobs with car alarms.
We took the keys up to the roof and after walking from roof to roof to roof, not a single one set off any of the nearby cars. Not a problem. Tomorrow we start executing only the ex-humes in the store who are wearing clothes with pockets.
Hey, its worth a shot. No seriously, it is literally worth shooting people in the face to find a way out of this place.
Day Sixty:
Day Sixty:
I’m in a more friendly mood today. I think I’m just missing the comfort we enjoyed at the house. Granted, we’ve got things pretty well secured here but… I still want out. As cool as living in a stairwell is, well yeah.
Today AJ took me up to the roofs and we scouted out the area for possible vehicles. Lots of options, problem is trying to figure out which ones might have keys in them still? I’ll tell you one thing, as soon as we are back on our feet to hell with this whole blood injection idea. We are going straight to the local library or Army Surplus store and finding some books that explain Carjacking 101.
Later in the day, we saw a pregnant lady ex-hume walking down the street. Chances are that the baby was already dead inside her since, she was obviously pregnant before all this started. But, just in case I put a round through her stomach and then another in her head. AJ ridiculed me for wasting the extra bullet since, the things were quick enough to rip her to pieces but, I didn’t want her to suffer any more than she had to.
While they were busy feasting, we explored the building some more and lugged back a bunch of food and water to add to the already ample amount of food and water stockpiled. AJ took a bunch of flammable stuff as well, just in case we needed firebombs and I grabbed as many magazines as I could. I figured read something would be a good way to pass the time even if it was two months old but about half way through a copy of People I started feeling a mixture of anger, depression, and overwhelming hopelessness so I stopped.
AJ is trying to convince me that we could make it back to the house on bikes, but so far I’m not convinced. Would you trust a Huffy against a pack of blood thirsty wolves? Wolves the size of people? Right.
At least we’ve made it two months, that’s saying something I suppose. I just wish we could find more survivors. I suppose it doesn't help that I expect anyone alive to come knock on my door but still. In the movies they always have that one AM band radio broadcast where a group has fortified a town and is directing everyone to their safe haven.
Bullshit.
Would you know how to broadcast a radio signal with no electricity? Or even, with electricity? Because I sure don’t. AJ says if we want to find people, we don’t need a radio, we just need to think in terms of castles. He thinks that if there are truly groups of people left, they will be found in area where the threat of attack is severely mitigated by their environment.
I told AJ to stop talking like the History channel.
He told me, people want safety. It’s what we want. And if we want people, that’s where we need to start looking.
We made a list of places we thought people might flock to for safety. This is what we came up with:
1. Prisons (If people can’t escape, they probably can’t get in either)
2. Stadiums (Except, we weren’t sure if there would be enough food)\
3. High rises (Easy to barricade stairwells as we already learned)
We also figured a good number of people might be hiding in churches if they were able to fortify them in time because if not those things would be through the windows in no time. Of course, this assumes that in two months people have begun to form groups and aren’t just cowering in their houses like we were.
Once we figure a way out of here, AJ and I are going to begin a more proactive effort towards finding people. We decided that we can use the house as a staging point and explore every back alley and middle of nowhere in the city if we have to. Hopefully, if anyone else is out there they’ve put a sign in the window announcing that fact. We’ll see.
I’m in a more friendly mood today. I think I’m just missing the comfort we enjoyed at the house. Granted, we’ve got things pretty well secured here but… I still want out. As cool as living in a stairwell is, well yeah.
Today AJ took me up to the roofs and we scouted out the area for possible vehicles. Lots of options, problem is trying to figure out which ones might have keys in them still? I’ll tell you one thing, as soon as we are back on our feet to hell with this whole blood injection idea. We are going straight to the local library or Army Surplus store and finding some books that explain Carjacking 101.
Later in the day, we saw a pregnant lady ex-hume walking down the street. Chances are that the baby was already dead inside her since, she was obviously pregnant before all this started. But, just in case I put a round through her stomach and then another in her head. AJ ridiculed me for wasting the extra bullet since, the things were quick enough to rip her to pieces but, I didn’t want her to suffer any more than she had to.
While they were busy feasting, we explored the building some more and lugged back a bunch of food and water to add to the already ample amount of food and water stockpiled. AJ took a bunch of flammable stuff as well, just in case we needed firebombs and I grabbed as many magazines as I could. I figured read something would be a good way to pass the time even if it was two months old but about half way through a copy of People I started feeling a mixture of anger, depression, and overwhelming hopelessness so I stopped.
AJ is trying to convince me that we could make it back to the house on bikes, but so far I’m not convinced. Would you trust a Huffy against a pack of blood thirsty wolves? Wolves the size of people? Right.
At least we’ve made it two months, that’s saying something I suppose. I just wish we could find more survivors. I suppose it doesn't help that I expect anyone alive to come knock on my door but still. In the movies they always have that one AM band radio broadcast where a group has fortified a town and is directing everyone to their safe haven.
Bullshit.
Would you know how to broadcast a radio signal with no electricity? Or even, with electricity? Because I sure don’t. AJ says if we want to find people, we don’t need a radio, we just need to think in terms of castles. He thinks that if there are truly groups of people left, they will be found in area where the threat of attack is severely mitigated by their environment.
I told AJ to stop talking like the History channel.
He told me, people want safety. It’s what we want. And if we want people, that’s where we need to start looking.
We made a list of places we thought people might flock to for safety. This is what we came up with:
1. Prisons (If people can’t escape, they probably can’t get in either)
2. Stadiums (Except, we weren’t sure if there would be enough food)\
3. High rises (Easy to barricade stairwells as we already learned)
We also figured a good number of people might be hiding in churches if they were able to fortify them in time because if not those things would be through the windows in no time. Of course, this assumes that in two months people have begun to form groups and aren’t just cowering in their houses like we were.
Once we figure a way out of here, AJ and I are going to begin a more proactive effort towards finding people. We decided that we can use the house as a staging point and explore every back alley and middle of nowhere in the city if we have to. Hopefully, if anyone else is out there they’ve put a sign in the window announcing that fact. We’ll see.
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