the game animals and it has too dangerous to descend into the valleys for water.
In the cities, people are becoming more isolated, but it's not too hard to find survivors on the Internet. Of course, only survivors would be active on the Internet. All in all, most of the remaining survivors are doing well. A few, that didn't prepare, are starting to run low and food. I'm not sure what they're going to do.
The survivors using the Internet, myself included, are beginning to coalesce around a few stable message boards. It's easier to stay in touch and pass information.
On a side note, I think I've watched every single zombie movie I own again, several times.
Utilities
The flipping water went out today. I'm grateful that I got in a last flush from my morning business, but I'm going to have to figure out what to do. It will probably be no problem to build a deep cat hole in the crawl space beneath the house. It will smell pretty bad, but it will be cleaner and more sanitary than doing my business in the corner of the living room.
I'm more worried about my water though. With the fifty or so gallons in the water heater and all of the jugs and bottles I filled up when I was first preparing for the zombie invasion, I probably have enough water to last for a while, probably several weeks worth. I'm hoping that in several weeks that the situation will change
The news on-line is that there is no government left. There are a few military bases that are still holding out, but they seem to be the exception to the rule and even then it's just the extremely remote posts. Typically the Air Forces bases located in the northern plain states like North Dakota.
Other survivors are also beginning to take over some of the larger commercial retail stores. Grocery stores, hardware stores and the large general merchandise stores seem to be favorites. Unfortunately, the living and the dead continue to try and get in, making their survival prospects tenuous. So far, none of the malls have withstood the zombie masses.
Not so comfortable
I'm starting to become concerned. Little Suzy has managed to scrape through the vinyl covering on the side of the house and is now scraping into the plywood sheets. Most of her fingers are gone and she's using bare knuckle bones to continue scraping. She smells and looks hideous now. Worse than that, more zombies have come to join her. None of them have moaned to bring in more, but there are about five standing along the side of the house with little Suzy. All of them are just slowly scraping away. I'm guessing that they probably smell me or sense me in some way.
I've come to the conclusion that I need to find some place more secure. I'm sure that they couldn't get to me in the attic even if they did manage to scrape their way into the house, but I would eventually just die of dehydration, or starvation. There's no point in being a zombie apocalypse survivor if you're dead.
I'm fixing up my car to make a break out of here. I'm building some crude protection onto it that should keep me safe. Basically, I'm going to bolt whatever I can find over the windows to keep them from getting in. I plan on putting plywood over the side and back windows, and wire shelving over the front windshield, so I can see out. All I've got are 2 inch wood screws bolt my 'armor', into the sheet metal of the car, but it should work.
It's about time to go
They know I'm here now, without a doubt. I think they might have heard me when I was applying the armor to my car. They're bellowing just outside, non-stop. I think their numbers have also grown significantly, not just double or triple, but at least ten to twenty times more than there were. They're no longer just scraping on the side of the house, but pounding on all of the walls. A lot of their effort seems to be concentrated on the front door. They've also broken out each of the windows, leaving the sturdy wooden window barricades to bear the brunt of their assault. They, the barricades, seem to be holding up well. Still, I don't know how long the plywood will last with the constant pounding.
I've loaded up the car with all of the supplies and tools I'll need and anything else that will fit. Yes, that includes plenty of guns and plenty of ammo. I hadn't mentioned weapons before because some things just don't need to be advertised. I suppose it doesn't matter now.
What matters is that I still have electricity to run the electric garage door opener and that the zombies outside aren't interested in banging on the garage right now. They must remember that you have go to the front door when you’re visiting someone for dinner. Ha ha.
I'll post more when I find someplace more secure. It might only be with a 56k modem, but I don't suppose anyone is still playing high bandwidth video games right now.
Wish me luck.
A few blocks
I've found some place quiet for now. There are zeds wandering like crazy outside, but they haven't got a fix on my hiding spot.
I only made it a few blocks away from my home. As soon as I started the car engine and opened the garage door, all hell broke loose. I am really fortunate to still be alive. As soon as I opened the garage door, they swarmed the car. They grabbed onto anything that their rotten hands could grasp and I lost the plywood sheet over my driver's side window before I was even out of the drive-way.
I kept my foot pressed down hard on the gas pedal. They came from everywhere as I pulled onto the street! They were in the street in front of me, coming at me from the sides, and three were being dragged along.
I've scoffed at some pre-infection zombie-fiction writers for their woefully fragile cars, but after slamming into countless zombies I am giving them a bit more credit. None of my tires were punctured by zombie bones, but somehow their gore and bones managed to get into the engine compartment and punctured the car's radiator. The check engine light was glowing red before I was even out of the neighborhood. Still, I never took my foot of the gas. I sped as fast as I could away from my neighborhood and the horde of zombies that it contained.
Then I smelled hot rubber and saw a great cloud of steam burst from under the engine's hood. The car died right after that and I slipped into neutral to keep coasting forward.
I was looking desperately for a safe and secure place to stop and hide. It was fortunate that the engine had died and I was coasting silently. I slipped quickly past a large apartment complex without drawing the attention of the living dead inhabitants.
I had slowed down considerably when I saw an auto repair shop. It was nothing more than a large steel framed building. I turned in and let the car drift all the way up to the work bay doors.
As soon as I stopped, two zombies that had been holding on to the front and top of the car, dropped free and rose from the ground towards my open window. I grabbed the pistol that I had set on the passenger seat and shot them both through the head, dropping them back to the ground. I didn't waste any time marveling at the success of my first zombie kills, but headed straight for the front door of the auto shop. Holding the pistol at the ready, I tried the front door. It opened.
I quickly entered and locked the door behind myself. The shades were pulled over the front window and the lights were on. I made my way into the work area of the garage. There were two cars already in the work bays, but there would be enough room for me to push my car in with all its supplies.
Checking first to make sure no zombies were visible outside, I rolled up the garage door and quickly pushed my car into the open space between the work bays. I quickly lowered the door after it was in. I looked back out through the small garage windows and still didn't see any zombies coming in the area.
Feeling secure for the moment, I check the rest of the building. Aside from the garage doors, there were only two ways in and out of the building. One was a windowless door that led to a fenced-in storage lot behind the shop and the other was the front office door through which he had first entered. The windows of the front office were small on covered by blinds.
Then I took an inventory of the shops supplies. There were several five gallon bottles of water for a water cooler in the corner of the front office, a
cheap snack machine loaded full of junk food, a cabinet full of hard alcohol and an entire automobile shop with supplies.
I unloaded the supplies I brought with me from out of the car and pushed it back outside. It was absolutely covered in zombie gore. There was absolutely no way that I was going to stick my hand through the filth and gore coating the front end in order to attempt any repairs. There are two others cars in the garage that I'll see what I can do with.
There was a telephone in the garage's office that I could have hooked to my laptop's modem, but I found an unsecured Wi-Fi connection instead.
I think this shop might make a safe home for now, while I figure out my next move.
Auto bodies
I tried to make a run to the convenience store today. It was only a few blocks away. I'm getting short on food and figure I only have a day or two left. I'm OK on water, though.
There is a large 4x4 pickup truck in the shop getting some dents pulled out from the side panels. I decided I would beef it up with some zombie-proof armor and take it on a supply run. I welded sheet metal over the windows, over the front grill to protect the radiator and under the body to protect the rest of the engine from damage.
In theory, it seemed like a simple enough plan; Drive to the store, hop out with my pistol, run