Captain's Log 11/4/2012: day 20, 8:00am

Zombie Jebus...

John is gone and so is Cateline (the withdrawn girl). They apparently left in the middle of the night. Katey saw them and John threatened that he'd kill her if she said anything so she kept her mouth shut until now. She's very upset.

I'm pissed, because that's not the whole story.

They stole the 4WD.

If they left in the middle of the night they're long gone and may very well be out of petrol somewhere.

Thankfully, John and Cateline didn't take any food or water with them.

Three people lost in two days. Two of them particularly useful people.

The kids are a bit panicky about it and are gossiping amongst themselves. I'm not sure whether they're getting ideas or are thinking how stupid of them to do that.

It's down to Mabel, Pete and myself as the adults now. Down to an even ten people.

We need to organise another car, preferably another 4WD.

I've already discussed it with Mabel and Pete and they think the same, but Pete is rattled after yesterday's incident. He's not up for going out today.

I'm going to go out on my own and see what I can find in town. I've looked out the window and there are a couple of zombies wandering outside, but that's it.

It's bitterly cold this morning. The clouds are coming in and it looks like it wants to rain today. Heavy rain. If I'm going to find transport, I'd better get it done quick. It's left over rice from last night for breakfast. Better choke it down fast.

XX: 9:30am

It started raining about 15 minutes after I left the gym and it was a blessing actually. As wet as I got (never mind I was wearing a Driza-Bone jacket that kept most of the rain out), it was good cover. The rain seemed to distract and annoy the zombies. They would spot me, hone in on me and then seem to lose me and wander off in a bit of a tangent. Still in my general direction, but not right at me.

I managed even to get right up to one, skip around behind it and it lost me and wandered off while I simply stood behind it.

It was almost funny!

I found a couple of good candidates parked in driveways and on the streets. The dangerous part would be not in being on the street but going inside houses to look for keys.

The first one I found, a Landcruiser Prado with a bull bar, was parked in a car port and there were two zombies inside, a middle aged man with half his face missing and a little girl (a toddler) with broken legs that crawled on the floor. Spooky sight and made me sick. Thought of my kids again.

I had to hold back sobs as I flattened the little girl's head into the carpet with my axe.

Found keys on a hook in the kitchen (and bagged some tinned vegies and fish while I was at it). Tried the engine and the 4WD took a couple turns before it fired up and I carefully drove it back to the gym before heading out to find another one (I dropped in the tinned food first to Mabel) . I was feeling confident in the rain.

I found another 4WD (a Nissan Discovery also with a bull bar) almost on the other side of town parked out front. The zombies were more dense and prevalent there, but nothing I couldn't manage. The house had four zombies insides. Mum, Dad and two teenage boys, all relatively unscathed besides obviously being undead. I kick and smashed each of them in turn, but couldn't find the keys.

I had to leave when a small conga line of zombies started coming in through the front door. I smashed through a lounge window and simply climbed over the side gate back out onto the street. A quick jog and they were left behind.

Found another 4WD (Holden Captiva) with a bull bar the street down the way from there. House was empty and the keys helpfully sitting in a bowl of coins on the kitchen bench. I hopped in the Holden and drove it back with no fuss.

I'm back at the gym now and everyone's happier to see two more cars parked outside. We'll still need to reinforce the windscreen with the shopping trolley trick. On the last one they simply smashed a shopping trolley up and grafted the metal grill to the windscreen with lots and lots of gaffer tape wound around the windscreen frame. It was actually very strong. We'll do the same, but I'll need to get a couple of trolleys. Should be easy as we simply need to just drive to the supermarket, grab a trolley or two, chuck them in the back and drove off again.

Both of the 4WD's have only half tanks full though. We've got spare containers already filled on standby sitting here in the gym if we need them.

Time to go get a couple of trolleys. Dave and Charlie have volunteered. They want to help.

I'll brief them on the plan and then we'll go.

XX: 10:30am

Two trolleys packed with no fuss. We drove up, found two trolleys in the car park with no zombies nearby and quickly jumped out and shoved them into the back (seats folded down). Clean and quick and we're back already.

The hard part now will be smashing the trolley's apart until we've got a nice flat grill to strap to the windshield.

I'm putting my feet up and watching some more Futurama with the kids while Dave, Charlie and Zack take turns pounding the trolleys. It's coming along. They're having fun actually.

XX: 2pm

I sat chatting with Katey and Kate for a while. Finally actually spoke with some of the kids and simply got to know them. They're nice girls. Country girls.

There were tears (mainly from their side of course) and they listened to my story. How I got here. I didn't lie about anything. No superhero stories from me. We're all here simply to survive.

Kate had two brothers (younger) and a Mum and Dad. Dad was a carpenter. Last she saw any of them was the usual goodbye on her way to school with her friends.

Katey is similar. One younger brother, Mum and Dad. He worked for the local shire council. Sounds like he was part of admin. Last she saw him and the rest of her family was the morning run to school.

They're bored. Even with the TV set up, they want t go outside. Seems entirely normal to me. They haven't really properly felt sunshine since Z-day. I think we should take the two 4WD's when they're ready and go out for the day. Have an outing. Even if it is just a walk in a field. Some dirt under they're feet. Some fresh air and sunshine.

Even looking at them they are pale. They're attractive girls I suppose.

It looks like the trolleys are ready.

XX: 3pm

I stood guard whilst Pete and the kids taped up the cars with the grills. We've got heaps of tape left over even now as they stockpiled quite a lot of it as part of fixing up the original 4WD.

I had to smash down three zombies. I left the last one to show the kids. It was a thin looking middle aged man (thankfully no one recognised him) and we sort of played with him. I thought it would be a good idea to let the kids confront the enemy and see that if you know what you're doing and you hold your nerve, they're not quite that scary.

Put it down to training. These kids will need to adapt to this new world. They'll need to be able to look after themselves. No room for princesses and weaklings anymore. It's elbow grease and thick skin from now on. I've had to adapt and they do too.

I even let Zack and Charlie practise kicking the zombie down. Repeatedly. I supervised very carefully of course. I wound a rope around its neck so I could pull it away if things got out of hand. Zack and Charlie got their practise and were shit scared doing it, but I'm proud they mustered up the courage. Dave was hesitant and the girls all backed off bar one.

Nina (15) of all people. I never paid much attention to her, but she's a bit of a tough kid. Truth be told she did the best of anyone and seemed the least phased or scared of it all.

When the zombie lurched towards them, the girls all squealed and flinched away, as did the boys more or less, but Nina got angry.

In the end, we gave her the axe and she did the honours of smashing its face in.

And she did well. A clean hit with secure footing.

It was at that time that another couple of zombies wandered around the corner down across the basketball court and spotted us.

I asked Nina if she wanted to do it again, but she decided she'd had enough.

Not to be out-done by a girl, Zack volunteered.

We waited for the two zombies to get closer and I smashed down one of them, the larger of the two, being a slightly obese middle-aged woman.

The other was a young girl, whom we didn't realise until Kate came closer and recognise her that it was Petra. A school friend. I feel so stupid. I should have noticed the bloody school uniform she was wearing...

Kate squealed and cried, but she understood what needed to be done. She said she wanted Petra killed, but insisted on not looking. Her friends escorted her back to the cars and Zack had a go at smashing her down (I roped her around the neck as before).

He kicked her down, but flubbed the overhead chop. The axe glanced off the side of Petra's head and bounced out of his hands as it hit concrete. He was flustered and backed off. I led Petra off a bit to give him room and let him try again.

Which he did. We could see he was really swallowing his fear. This time a clean kick, with a clean hit on the girl's face, but not enough power to break through bone. He tried again and got in another clean hit, breaking the monster's face inward and getting the job done.

He was proud, but reviled. I'll pay it. It is a disgusting thing to do and the other kids watching who were close enough looked close to retching. I didn't.

I must be getting used to this.

And then I felt dumb, because the kids also complained of the smell. The passive smell of nearby zombies is bad, but it's worse when they're walking around right by you or freshly killed. And only then I noticed just how many bodies were simply lying around the gym.

It's disgusting and a health hazard. I resolved to clean up when we got back.

As of right now, we are indeed in an open field 40 km's out of town. There's no one around but us, and that includes any zombies. The kids are running around absorbing the sun and fresh air. They're loving it. They're teenagers, but they're behaving like little kids and it's fantastic to see. As much as I want these kids hardened up and battle ready, I also want them to get the time to celebrate being young humans.

The boys brought a soccer ball and they're organising a game. I'll join in. Mabel and Pete are volunteering to keep watch.

Which team am I on?

XX: 5pm

After about an hour of running around we were ready to go home (strange to use that word). It's getting dark now and we're all sitting comfortably watching some Futurama (the Star Wars ones).

Good spirits.

I also dragged away the zombie corpses outside towards the ditch on the edge of the oval about 40 metres away. I also put dirt and logs over it. Maybe it will cover the smell a bit. Disgusting work and I retched a couple of times (but did not vomit – yay!). Smashed down one errant zombie while I was working. Nearly snuck up on me actually. I should get one of the kids to spot for me next time I do something like that. I'm wondering whether we should make a pyre.

Pete said perhaps not the best idea as our comrades in the neighbouring towns might get the wrong idea and think something is wrong. Maybe we'll let them know first.

A visit to our neighbours might also be a great thing to do. Maybe we could start trading. I'm sure some people would love to come and watch movies...

I quickly raised it with the others and they're for it. They're excited!

Mabel's cooking up pasta with tinned tomatoes, spam and carrots.

.

.

.

It's funny. I just remembered John and Cateline escaped this morning. No one had suggested we look for them. Is that good or bad?

Have we already written them off?

Hopefully they made it to a neighbouring town and have joined another group. It would be a tragedy for them to have both met a bad end.

Maybe we'll find out tomorrow.