This is the first multi-part story that will be published in this anthology. It should be about three or four parts long. The story parts will not be published in successive order - there likely will be some other non-related ones published in between.
By Hilden B. Lade
October 11th, 2013
I never did think of myself as the writing type, but hey, what else am I supposed to do to pass the time around here? The internet has been down for weeks, and we're running on reserve power that keeps going on and off, so anything that could put quite a drain on our generator like the DVD player is off limits. Didn't feel like reading anything, either. After all the shit that's happened since September, there's little solace to be found in escapism anymore.
Did some shifting around, and found a mostly blank notebook. Tore out all the pages that weren't mine, and found these pens. Got several, just in case one runs out. Don't have much more to say today. There's a strict lights out schedule, and the only people allowed out after that are the watch guys who hang out on the roof. And I'm not one of them tonight.
Just hope rescue's coming soon.
Signing off, Michael* Reed.
*Mikey to my buds.
October 12th, 2013
Spoke to RP today. He's the unofficial leader here. Responsible and a good leader against the infected, but a headstrong asshat as well. Asked him if we should continue holing up here in the school building. After all, we were bound to run out of supplies eventually if we didn't get a move on. And the area wasn't secure. For every room that we had cleared, there was bound to be another with infected lurking about.
Said no. What a surprise. Asked me where the hell we'd go and how'd we do it. Got me there. Suggested cars to drive to one of the Quarantine Zones. Yeah, he said. Good luck trying to find one that hasn't been taken yet or still has enough gas to make the trip to the cities.
Tone got nicer at the end of our argument. He assured me that if we would hold out, the military would eventually arrive and send us packing to the QZ. Hope they do. Sick of canned food already.
October 14th, 2013
Not a lot happened so far today. The same old milling about on the rooftops, looking at the sky to see if the cavalry has flown in yet. Skipped lunch. Wasn't really hungry, and like I said yesterday, sick of canned food. Watchtower duty may be asinine, but hey, at least I'm not on the infected patrol. This school feels like it was designed by a madman. More hiding places than one can shake a stick at.
Cloudy skies today. Don't feel good about it. Not a single glimpse of blue sky. To think that less than a month ago, I couldn't give half a rat's ass about what the weather was. But after everything has turned upside down, there's just something reassuring about the warm glow of sunshine.
Passed the time listening to some classical music on my smartphone. My ex-wife got me onto this stuff. I don't know what's happened to him. But I do know that this piece of electric shit is going to run out of juice soon. Then I'll only have myself to talk to when passing the time. Or maybe the other people here.
Aside from me, there are eight other folks here.
RP – leader. If he wasn't so damn good at it, I think we would've hung him out as runner bait already. Bastard won't even tell us his full name.
Chris – former chem teacher. Knows what everything in the science department can do. Wants to start making some explosive traps for the infected, but RP says no.
Stevie – has some medical experience. Think she was in med school before the first infection and somehow wound up stranded here. Egotistical cunt though, thinks she knows everything. Won't be too sad if a runner tears her throat out or worse.
Dole – nice guy. Big and strong, can take way more hard luck than me. Brave BAMF, sometimes he charges the infected head-on with just a big stick to save ammo. Muscle of our group. Hope he manages to keep himself alive for a while. Keeps the campfire convos lively.
The Smiths. Who the hell are these two? Are they brother and sister? Mother and son? Father and daughter? Husband and wife? Different versions of one person from alternate universes? Mysterious duo… like to keep to themselves, don't bother with the rest of us unless it's fighting off infected or getting food. I'd find out more, but does it matter?
Craig – former high school football player. Youngest guy here, and it definitely shows. Keeps whining about how he wants doughnuts. Not putting in his share of the weight. If we hang RP, I definitely nominate this guy to be the next.
Laura – the angel of our group. Always putting the collective over the individual. Plucky, optimistic personality. Reminds me of… shit. Reminds me of Jessica. And whenever I write down her name, I look down at my ring finger. Has she kept hers? I wonder. And is Katie safe as well? She was so small the last time I saw her and Jessica has never fired a single gun in her life… what if… Oh god, suddenly I don't feel like writing anymore.
October 17th, 2013
No good news on the radio. Don't know what's worse – the static or the news when we actually pick up a broadcast.
Chris did show me something cool today. Smoke bombs, and there's enough crap lying around in the science department's closets to make more than just a fistful. Don't know how well they'll work against the infected though.
He promised to see if we have enough to make anything with a bigger boom. Almost asked him about the possibility of opening up our own meth lab, but decided wasn't the best time for pop culture refs.
October 25th, 2013
Laura and Dole took me out to the school's track today. Used some dead runners as targets, fired with blanks. I think I'm getting better at hitting them fast and to the point. Started thinking about what was for dinner later. Canned pasta, canned veggies, canned soup, canned crap, yum-yum. Found myself sympathizing with that fucker Craig for a split second.
Later, after I had split a can of Linguini-Qs with Dole and joked around a bit about what the President was doing, RP stood up and made a big speech. After cutting out all the bombast, basically someone is going to leave our stronghold and explore the town for supplies to prolong us until the military comes. Real soon.
He keeps saying they're going to come. But more and more days keep passing. And there's no sign of the cavalry over the hill. Not even a helicopter dropping leaflets with big smiling kitty pics on them telling us not to give up.
Maybe that's why Jessica left me and took Katie with her. Maybe I just can't keep up a smile long enough. I could've tried to tell her, to warn her, but I didn't want to. How could I be honest with even my own fucking wife if I could not be honest with myself?
October 31st, 2013
It's Halloween today. No tricks or treats around here, as far as I can tell. Stevie suggested singing the Monster Mash and when RP chewed her out for it, she called him an asshole and ran off to sulk on her own. I actually felt a twinge of sympathy for the bitch. But RP was unrepentant. Says that we have to focus on surviving first. Holidays can come later.
November 10th, 2013
Been a couple of days, a week at least, since I last updated this journal with my thoughts. Continued to spend time watching the skies and horizon, searching for a sign that somebody will come. I think we have managed to clear out all the infected from the immediate area. If we keep this quota up, maybe we will be able to liberate the school. But we need to gas masks first.
We all know there are spores in the cafeteria. Craig is convinced that there's bound to still be food we can use there. If it weren't for the one sliver of common sense in his thick skull, I'm sure he would've just rushed in by now.
November 19th, 2013
Ran out of canned pasta today. Looks like I've slurped down my last supermarket-grade spaghetti and meatballs for a long time. Down to just canned veggies and soup now. If we continue to consume our crap at this rate, we literally will be making canned crap to survive. Laura and I brought it up to RP. As usual, he brushed off our concerns. Assured us that most definitely what we currently have will last us until December. If we play smart, until rescue.
Damn, that bastard. Again with the rescue. When will he open his eyes? It's pretty obvious at this point that it's going to be far longer than he thinks before rescue does arrive! We need to make some major changes if we're going to survive the long haul… the long winter.
Hmph, canned food. Even before I was trying to force myself to sleep every night in a fucking school room, before I was trying to drink Jessica and Katie from my memory, I had gotten pretty used to its taste.
Don't think there's much about it that deserves to be said. Let's just say I tried to go into business without any actual grasp on how business worked. I spent a long time struggling to find steady work, with Jessica paying out of her ass to keep the family afloat the whole time. I couldn't even afford to eat at the arches if she hadn't taken to wearing the pants. And eventually, I began to do questionable things. No wonder why my dear left one day.
Don't think I'll have much thanks to give in the coming weeks.
December 1st, 2013
The first day of December.
Twenty-four days until Christmas. It was my mother's favorite holiday. The older I got, the more I noticed that it seemed to be the only day where she was truly happy. It was also the day she died. My father died soon after as well. But it was not from a broken heart. He was a true sob… I try not to think about how either of them went often.
If Santa hasn't been infected yet, I think I'll stick up late and try to hitch a ride with him. Maybe jack his sleigh and fly all the way to Vegas or someplace too arid to sustain the cordyceps. Ha-ha.
December 2nd, 2013
Had a nightmare last night. Steak dinner in front of me with a nice bottle of wine and a side of steak fries. Woke up before I could eat it. That counts as a nightmare, right? Felt extremely hungry when I did. Pit of despair growling in my stomach.
I am really fucking sick of canned food.
December 11th, 2013
Somehow a whole pack of those things made it past the watch. Craig was exercising on the field when they spotted him. And unlike him, those things don't tire. They almost got him. Dumb shit got a whole bunch of blood on him when Mrs. (Ms?) Smith pulled the last of the runners off of him. RP looked like he was considering shooting him and so did Dole, but the shit put up enough of a bawl that he was bitten that we left him alone.
Still, I'm going to be watching him a bit more closely.
I didn't kill a lot. Through the scope of my rifle, I focused on one of the runners. She looked like Jessica… had the exactly same style and hair as here. Even the build was right. But I couldn't tell if the face was her's. The infection had accounted for that. It couldn't have been Jessica. Jessica had told me before I signed the papers that she was planning on going out of state. Going west. To the shining Pacific Coast.
All doubts put aside, it still took me a while to pull the trigger and blast her head off.
Laura asked me if there was anything wrong as we cleaned up the mess. Told her there was nothing wrong. Just the weather taking its toll.
We need to get some better clothing. I can feel it already. Winter will be brutal.
December 15th, 2013
Chris had an argument with RP. He stormed out of the school when all was done. RP says that he'll be back, but I'm not sure about that. I think that Chris was the first of us to go. At least before he left he gave me a slip of paper that showed the instructions for making bombs.
December 21st, 2013
We just hit rock bottom on canned soup. One of the generators went bust as well. And I'm kicking a lot more empty gas cans that I was last month.
We need to get more shit soon. I can barely sleep now because there's no fucking heating to compensate for the ever dropping temperatures. I think that even RP can see that we need to make an expedition into town now.
December 24th, 2013
Craig tried to get high off of some of the chemicals he found in a chem closet. He's the youngest of us here, so I suppose that he was bound to crack first. Stevie looked over him, but in her snooty as ever tone of voice, she says that there's not much we can do for him. I asked her if that was true, and she told me how should she know? She wasn't a doctor, just a student.
Bastard's like a vegetable. He's not moving or speaking. Only stimuli we get was when we hit him, and even then, the signs of life were only fleeting.
RP mentioned using him as infected bait. I don't think he was joking. RP never gave off the impression as the joking type.
What a way to spend Xmas eve.
December 25th, 2013
Today is the day. What a Christmas "gift." Someone is going to have to go into town to look for supplies. Just one… RP knows that it's going to be a dangerous fucking mission and he doesn't want to lose a lot of people.
He would've sent Craig, since we all hate the kid and wouldn't be too sad if he died out there, but Craig is still out of commission. We put our names onto pieces of paper and put them into Dole's hat. Dole shuffled them around a little bit. Then pulled out a slip of paper.
That slip of paper was mine.
RP wished me good luck. Huh. Bet that bastard didn't enter in his own name. Handed a bunch of supplies. A backpack and a flashlight. A whole bunch of Chris' bombs. They didn't give me a rifle. RP said that the rifles were too vital for defense of the school's perimeter. Saddled me with a small pocketknife and an equally small pistol instead. RP, being the clingy cock he can be, didn't even give me a lot of ammo.
Who knows what's in town? None of us have been there since the infection broke out and there was no room on the evacuation choppers for us. I might not make it back. But if I do survive whatever's waiting in town, these shitters (plus Laura and Dole) better not run off on me before I return.
I'm bringing this journal with me, but who knows how much chances I'll get to update it. Just in case - to Katie if they're out there, alive and scared. Don't worry. Daddy's scared too. Tell your mother, lovely-to-the-end Jess, that I'll love both of you to the end even with our separate ways and that I am sorry.
Well, that was cornier than I hoped it would come out. But hey. Like I said, I might not get the chance to say it in the future.
