Journal entry one: 12/3/2012
The infection spread quickly, towns fell within the first few days, entire cities within weeks, men and women were eating each other on the streets, children attacking their parents, parents attacking their neighbours, eventually the smell of rotting flesh filled the air and there was nothing else we could do but leave. When night fell, the small group of friends that gathered in my basement made a break for it, they were all over the street, occasionally we heard a scream in the distance, another poor soul that had found themselves' dying to the infection. I guess now would be a good time to tell you that when someone was bitten by another that had been infected, it spread, you know, like zombies? Whoever reads this is going to think I'm crazy. My name is Katara, and this is Day 17 of the outbreak.

Katara shoved her journal into her back pack and turned her lamp off, after escaping the city with her friends, they found refuge in a small shack just off the highway. With the windows boarded and the small amount of food they had left they found themselves trapped, they had heard a car or two drive past three days before, Sokka and Hahn went searching for food in the woods surrounding the shack, and all they managed to find where two half rotten apples on a dying tree, and a small amount of berries. Luckily enough the 'walkers' hadn't stumbled past the small towns yet, and they seemed safe enough.

"Katara" Sokka mumbled from his post at the window, "Something is out there."

Katara stood up, stepping over Suki's sleeping body and looked through the small gap in the sheet that covered most of the only window in the shack. Almost 100 meters away, multiple figures were stumbling along the highway, in the direction of the woods. "Do you think they are alive?"

"Not likely, look at the way they are walking. And they have no back packs or anything, if they were alive; they couldn't have made it this far on their own." Sokka walked away from the window and began shaking people awake. There was only five of them, Sokka, Katara, Suki, Hahn and Toph, five college students from a simple city, none of them with any survival skills other than the basics Sokka and Hahn learnt in junior boy scouts. Everyone rushed to gather their things, and piled them into the back of Sokka's 5 seat ute, they stacked the boxes they had into the back of the vehicle and shoved their single back packs into the car itself, Sokka left the door unlocked for any other survivors who may need it and got into the car. He drove along the highway; the figures on the road barely noticing their departure, as they got closer Katara noticed they definitely weren't alive.

-

"We need to start thinking about the long run, it's been 3 weeks, maybe now would be a good time to turn around and start looking for supplies in town?" Hahn suggested as they siphoned gas from a broken down car on the highway. "We are on our last day of food, and we can't keep sleeping in the car."

Suki nodded, "Maybe a tent, or a few sleeping bags could be a good start. And some food."

"Last time we were there, the towns were overrun, do you really think it would be the best idea?" Katara said as she looked through the boot of the car, seeing if there was anything they could make use of, other than a rope and a spare tire there was nothing, though those two items could be more useful than a person may believe.

Sokka removed the hose from the car took the old milk carton of gas over to his own car, "I agree with Katara, it's not safe to go back there now."

"If we stay here we will die anyway." Hahn stated and pounded his fist against the ruined car's roof.

Sokka sighed, "And if we return, we will die sooner."

"Who ever said you were our leader, maybe someone with more sense should lead us, someone who is willing to take a chance that very well may save all our lives." Hahn half yelled, still cautious not to alert anything that may be in the area.

"I'm not the leader; I was only speaking to help protect us, personally I don't think we will survive if we go back there." Sokka tried to keep his calm, but he knew that fights amongst the group may be what drove them apart.

"Hahn, I think Sokka is right, maybe waiting a few more days will be safer, wait for the military to clear out the dead, or for some of them to at least move on." Suki said, deciding to take the logical side.

"A few more days? Our food supply might not even last today, what are we supposed to do?" Hahn still half shouting, was getting angry now.

Toph stood up from leaning against Sokka's car tyre. "Why don't we go look around a farm or something, chances are they will be stocked with food and have a couple tents or something, maybe some fuel."

Everyone looked at her, Sokka's jaw slightly dropped, he had never noticed how smart Toph could be, "You know, that's a really good idea." Katara said smiling at Toph.

"One problem though, what if the infection hasn't spread out to the farmlands and they don't want to give us anything?" Suki stated.

"Or worse, what if the infection has spread and the farm is filled with walkers?" Sokka added, "We have nothing to use against them, maybe a weapon or something of the sorts may be a good thing to look for too."

Hahn's facial features loosened and he looked around their small group, "That does seem like a good place to start, even if the infection has spread, we will be better off there than we are here."

Argument settled they all climbed into Sokka's car and looking at the map, drove in the direction of the nearest farm. It was behind the woods they had spent the second week of the infection in, almost 2 miles from their home town. When they arrived they noticed that there wasn't anyone walking around in the fields, living or dead, and at the same time there were no animals in the paddock. They drove along the dirt path and parked right next to the front door, behind the house was a very large garage. Above the front door was a cross, "Whoever lives here is Christian." Toph said pointing at the cross.

Sokka looked in the window next to the door, "I think they know about the infection."

"Are they… Undead?" Hahn asked quietly joining Sokka in looking through the window. "Oh. Just dead."

Two bodies, a man and a woman, a shotgun by their sides, lay dead in the lounge room of their family home, written on the wall in paint, Lord our saviour, save our souls. "They must have heard what was happening and ended it for themselves before they became one of them." Sokka said to the rest of the group as he stepped away from the window, come on, maybe the back door will be unlocked.

As the group walked around to the back of the house, Hahn picked up a baseball bat that had been left outside. After seeing that the back door was locked too, Hahn smashed a the window that took up half the door and unlocked it, as they stepped inside the horrible stench of rotting corpses hit them again, Suki almost threw up.

"Okay stay together, we don't know if anything else is inside, search the kitchen, anything useful put into the middle of the room and we will sort through it soon." Sokka said closing the door behind him, he began opening windows around him, hoping to let some of the smell out of the room. "While we are here, it would be a good idea to look for some clothes, a few months and it will be winter, we might need them."

A few people mumbled their acknowledgement and continued looking around the large kitchen most of the cupboards were partially filled with food, Hahn and Toph retrieved their empty boxes from their car and filled them with the food they had found, they then began to pack things that would make their life easier, rolls of toilet paper, soap, plates and cutlery, and anything else they could really fit into their boxes. And then they began to fill back packs with clothes, Hahn stepped over the dead bodies to retrieve the shot gun from next to them.

"Maybe now would be a good time to check the shed?" Hahn asked as they struggled to fit all the boxes and bags into the back of Sokka's ute. Sokka agreed and the two of them walked over to the shed and pushed the large door open. A simple four wheeled drive and a dirt bike was all they found in the shed, though behind it was a half full barrel of fuel and a box filled with rusty tools. "I know this may be too soon to talk, but I think we've hit the jackpot here."

"Agreed, I don't see how we could have come across such luck." Sokka said as they filled the car with gas and placed the motorcycle in the back of the vehicle, they then drove the car down to Sokka's ute, Suki and Katara were carrying out smaller boxes as they parked behind the ute.

"That car was in there?" Katara asked putting the box on the floor, as the two teenaged men stepped out.

"Yeah, and a dirt bike." Hahn smiled, "What do you have in the box?"

"Parts to a tent, we found them in the laundry, though its missing a few pieces, I believe with some pieces of wood, we could fix it." Katara said, "Can we put these in that car?"

"That would probably be best; we won't fit much else in my Ute." Sokka said passing the keys to Toph, "Hahn and Toph take the four wheel drive, and follow behind us. We should leave soon, it will start to get dark in a couple hours. And I don't think this would be the best place to set up a camp."

Suki and Katara placed the boxes on the back seat of the car and returned to Sokka's ute. Fifteen minutes later the small group left the farm, now slightly better off than they were before. "You know, I kind of feel bad for taking all of this stuff, like, those people worked to get all of this, and we just turned up and took it all." Suki said from the passenger seat of the ute.

"I don't mean to be disrespectful to the members of the home, but after everything that has happened, I think its time to fight for our survival, everyone wants to go out in their own way, they chose theirs and from their sacrifice they have aided in our survival, and I think they would be happier to know that their clothing, and their food may have just saved 5 young people's lives, or at least prolonged them." Sokka said, offering his own words of wisdom, though he too felt guilt for stealing from the dead. Both Katara and Suki nodded their understanding but remained silent.

Journal entry 7: 2/5/12
We found an old train station a little while ago, the line was used for old freight trains that hadn't been used in years, and the train station itself seemed to be slowly falling apart. Sokka and Hahn began repairing the roof of the single room building, with the small amount of wood that we had found days before at the wreckage of an old too shed, the repairs were temporary and would need to be worked on soon. After we pulled apart tables and counters and boarded up windows and doors, and blocked any holes in the wall. There wasn't any power so the only light came from the small holes left in the roof during the day. And candles spaced out around the room at night. It wasn't much, but this is where we spent over a month, it became our home. Sokka and Hahn learnt to hunt in the surrounding woods, Toph and Suki scavenged for berries, and I cooked the rice we had taken from the farm, an entire month had passed and our food supply was still steady, with extra meat whenever Sokka or Hahn had killed something made up a lot of their diet, but it was becoming rarer. Since discovering the train station we had only seen 5 walkers, and they all only ever came alone, they were easily taken care of by the spears Toph and Sokka had spent the first week making from the branches of trees. We felt like we had returned to the stone ages of sorts, fending for ourselves in the wilderness, it was horrible.

"We're going to need a more permanent water supply, maybe digging up a well out of the back would be a good start?" Hahn said as the last of their water bottles were being passed around, Sokka and Suki went to the small pond every week, and filled up the old barrel of fuel with the murky water, they then boiled the water over night and refilled their water bottles for the next week, it was tiering work, and it was dangerous, if they were caught out there by a walker, they wouldn't have much of a chance to survive.

"That's a good idea, there was a little gardening shovel in the tool box, we can take shifts over the next few days, soon enough we will have something better than what we do." Sokka said as they sat in the darkness of the train station, Toph sitting by the window facing the track, Suki by the window facing the woods, looking through small gaps in case a walker had found themselves in the area once more.

"But how will we get the water out, we can just jump down there, and climb back out with a single bottle over and over." Suki said softly.

The group began to think this over, "Katara, do you still have that tire and rope you found in the back of that car on the highway?" Hahn said, a plan already forming in his head. Katara nodded and looked over at him, curious now. "We could tie the rope around the tire, balance the barrel on the tire and then pull it up and down the well, like a real one. Maybe one day we will find a bucket."