Tales From the Barricades: The Insectoid
Counselling Session 84
Patient: Pepper
Counselor: Dr. Evans
*Begin recording
Evans: Good evening Pepper, how are you today?
Pepper: Evenin Doc, you remembered to call me by my first name. that's…that's good
Evans: Pepper you seem a bit shaken up, mind telling me what's troubling you?
Pepper: Oh…. oh well it's ... it's killing the undead, busting up the barricades. You know, the usual stuff.
*Pepper's gaze has begun to wander about making fewer eye contact
Evans: Are you sure that's all?
Pepper: yup, that's what ails me doc… the usual stuff.
*Pepper at this moment avoided any form of eye contact preferring to focus on objects around me
Evans: Pepper I've told you a thousand times how important it is that you tell me what's weighing on your mind. I know that you are a strong and dependable young woman but it's not healthy to let your troubles eat you away like this. Now please, let me help you.
*Pepper stared at the ground for a moment, seemingly collecting herself, then she began talking, her eyes preferring to avoid mine and instead locked on to my chin
Pepper: Right…right I'm… I'm sorry. It's just that zone 7 is taking a toll on me… on all of us. The walkers are getting worse and worse. There were a bunch of runners that can take a bunch of bullets and stuns you when they get to you. There was also this big one that can take on like 5 mags and still standing, regenerating even. I even heard there was this huge zombie that explodes in to more zombies. and…and…
*Pepper began to tremble slightly as she recalls what her colleagues has told her.
Evans: Pepper please calm down, you've faced far worse walkers in the previous zones, have you not?
Pepper: No doc, those walkers…no, those monsters are worse…far worse.
Evans: … How so?
*I allowed Pepper to explain hoping that it will help her calm down.
Pepper: I was assigned with a bunch of rednecks and a gunslinger to scout barricade 121. When we got there, we saw a few blues around the barricade, we decided to wait around to see if something else comes up. But nothing else appeared.
Evans: But that's not all that happened, is that correct?
Pepper: Yes, the rednecks, I was with, began exiting the bus. They… they probably thought they could destroy the barricade. But… but they were wrong. The blues proved to be much stronger than the walkers they've faced before. And most of the rednecks got wiped out. Me and the gunslinger got out of the bus to provide covering fire as the surviving rednecks retreated to the bus. Then IT appeared.
*Pepper's trembling becomes more severe
Evans: It? Pepper I think…
Pepper: I saw something came out of the barricade, I've never seen anything like it before. Its head was turning around looking for something, then it looked at me as I fired my rounds. And after a few seconds it jumped and landing right on top of me. It was terrifying, it's body is left to skin and bones covered in blood, it had 4 arms with mantis like claws at the end of it. Its head is grotesquely large. It's like an insect alien from one of those horror movies. Except this one's real. And it was right in front of me ready to kill me. I quickly rolled back away from it. But the gunslinger next to me…
Evans: Pepper that's enou…
*Tears begin to well up in Peppers eyes as her voice began to grow frantic
Pepper: He tried shooting at it, but it ended up attracting the monster's attention. It grabbed him with his upper arms, and started tearing at him with his lower arms. The gunslinger was screaming in agony for help. I… I tried to help him but my hands were shaking so much that I couldn't shoot properly and before I knew it he stopped screaming…. and it was looking at me. I ran as fast as I could to the bus. I went in and closed the door and seconds after that, the monster was right behind me, smashing the door trying to get me. I yelled at the driver to get us out of there. It seemed to have snapped him back and he immediately floored it. Leaving the monster behind… and the rednecks. And before I knew it, I was the only one still alive.
*streams of tears began to flow from Pepper's eyes.
Evans: Pepper…. Please…
Pepper: But am I still alive? Do I even DESERVE to be alive? What if that monster is still searching for me? What if it's waiting at this moment to ambush me and shred me to pieces?
Evans: Pepper, you're safe he…
Pepper: HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT? What makes you think any of us are safe here? The world is dead. There is no police force, there is no military, there is no government to protect any of us. And all of us are surrounded by undead monsters that are getting worse and worse as time goes on. Even our comrades turn in to them when … they … die …
*Pepper pauses, as if she begins to realize something.
Evans: Pepper?
Pepper: oh…OH GOD! W-what if that gunslinger turned in to that monster or...or what if those rednecks turned in to those monsters too… and ... and they all want revenge on me, what if they're watching me right now waiting to jump me and rip me apart. I-I can't die like that, not like this…no...no...NOOOO.
*Pepper was experiencing a mental breakdown, flailing around, screaming she rather take her own life than being ripped apart.
*I immediately try to restrain her before she could hurt herself while also yelling for help.
Marine: W-what's going on?
*A Marine came in to find out what's causing all this commotion.
Evans: Thank God you're here, please help me restrain her.
Marine: O-Ok Doc, Peps please calm down.
*I and the Marine successfully restrain her and I administered a sleeping drug to calm her down.
*End Recording
Evan's note: Patient Pepper has shown to have developed a severe case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as well as intense paranoia after encountering a mutated zombie as well as abandoning her comrades. I recommend that she is to be relieved from duty and returned to the commune under constant surveillance. I fear that she may no longer be able to return to service after what she has experienced. I also recommend that the expedition only sends Military grade personnel to zone 7 as it has proved too much for even police grade personnel to handle zone 7 during and outside the battlefield.