Tuesday, December 21, 2010

New information.

We are gearing up to move. Since the incident with Tobias zombies have been congregating to close to our location. We are also having to go further and further for food, water and fuel. Prior to our relocation I wanted to make one more trip to the government facility. I had to see if their was anything else I could learn.

I prepped my gear for a quick and dirty run. I didn't want to be weighted down with much because I knew I would have to move quick the whole way to avoid the zombies that have amassed around the apartment. I just took my rifle, ammo, a flashlight and my SPAX axe. Exiting through the back of the apartment I made my way through the back yards of the neighboring structures. Draggers were mostly what I was encountering along the way. I did have a run in with one thorpe but the SPAX took care of that situation with ease.

I made good time to the facility. The extra cardio I had been doing in the apartment was paying off. That and the lack of burgers since the fall of the city. I approached the facility with the usual caution. The back alley with the basement window I had used to observe the testing earlier seemed like a good place to start. I crept into position and peered through the tiny opening in the paint. The tables and equipment were covered in blood and the walls were pocked with bullet holes! There didn't appear to be any movement but it was fairly dark inside. I scanned the room several times from my limited vantage point but could see no personnel.

Rising I went around to the far side of the building. I stopped at the door and listened. No sound. I grabbed the handle. It was open. I cautiously stepped inside with my rifle at the ready. More blood and bullet holes greeted me in the corridor. There had been a major fire fight in this place. As the door swung shut the hall became dark. Not so dark I couldn't make out shapes so I decided to go it without the flashlight so as not to alert any military personnel still in the building. I started down the hallway when suddenly my feet flew from under my body. I went down hard but kept my senses enough to swing my rifle and head around looking for my attacker. There was no one there. Looking down I realized that I had slipped on the empty shell casing that littered the floor. Scrambling to my feet I stood waiting. The noise of my fall would certainly have alerted someone to my presence. But no one came. No noise. Nothing. Pulling my flashlight from my pocket I continued on through the passages. Everywhere I went there were tell tale signs of gunfire and blood. The battle ranged through the whole facility. I was continually shining the flashlight to my feet to avoid another fall when it occurred to me: there are no bodies. Blood and bullet holes but no bodies. Surely at least one of them had been a head shot. This building had been full of soldiers who knew how to put these things down.

CRASH! What was that?! It came from down the corridor to my right. Taking a deep breath I turned and started down the hall. As I approached I saw a shaft of light growing and shrinking. A door swung back and forth on it's hinges, the lock work broken out of it. I stepped into the room and found that the window had been smashed and the wind was blowing the door. Moving to the window I looked down the street. Suddenly there was a hand clamped onto my shirt pulling me out the window! I pulled the SPAX from it's sheath and swung it into action. The first swing severed the hand that was pulling me out the window causing me to fall to the pavement. The dragger bent down to take a bite and I sunk the pick end square between it's eyes. It fell next to me still twitching. I climbed back in the window and resumed my search of the facility with a bit more urgency than I had before.

I made it down to the labs in the basement. In an office at the center of the labs I found a three ring binder. On the cover it said "CASE REPORT: PATIENT ZERO THROUGH SUBJECT 20". It was overflowing with information, all marked CONFIDENTIAL and TOP SECRET. I had to fight the urge to read the report. I didn't have time and this was not a safe place for some leisurely reading. I scooped it up and with it under one arm I continued my sweep of the basement.

I came to the last room in the farthest corner of basement. I stepped in and scanned the room with the flashlight. There were no signs of movement. Looking down I saw a military style pack. I grabbed it and hastily shoved the binder in and slung it over my back. In doing so I realized that it wasn't just a pack on the floor. There were clothes and other articles strewn about the room. There was also a smeared dried blood trail leading through the doorway to the incinerator against the wall. That's where all the bodies had gone. It also meant one or more people made it out of the facility alive.

I hoofed it back to the apartment as fast as I could. I now sit writing this as we prepare to spend our last day in this apartment. I have not yet made it all the way through the information in the binder. As soon as I do I will give you a full report of everything I learn. Stay safe.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Tobias

It's a beautiful sunny day. I am walking in a park. Children are playing and laughing. Parents chatter leisurely on benches surrounding the large swing set. It is serene. I sit down on a bench near a small pond with ducks criss-crossing it's surface. The sun warms my face. The children's laughter lulls my eyes shut. A dog barks in the distance. I slip my sandals off and feel the grass between my toes. I feel the moist caress of a tongue and I look down to see a cute blond retriever licking my toes. I scrunch my face with laughter. When my eyes open again and I focus it's not a dog I see.

I leap up from my bed. The dog has become a blond dragger and it's right at the foot of my bed. It has been licking my feet as they stuck out the bottom of the blanket. It would have bitten them but it doesn't have a lower jaw or a left arm and it's right one stops at mid forearm where other zombies have gnawed the flesh away. My hand flail's for my pistol as the dragger struggles onto my bed. My fingers clamp down on the cold and reassuring form of the Beretta. I swing it in line with the dragger and fire one round. I struggle past the lifeless mutilated corpse and grab the rifle leaning in the corner.

As I round the corner to the main room I see Jan reloading her shotgun with several dispatched draggers at her feet. I turn toward the kitchen just in time to draw a bead on a thorpe as it runs through the door way. I drop it in it's tracks and rush to the door as I shout to Jan, "Where's Bianca!"

"She opened the door and ran out before I could stop her!"

"She ran out! She's out there?!" I say as I instinctively slam the door closed.

"It was like she was possessed. She bolted from her room to the door mumbling something about a dog." Jan says as she racks a round into the chamber of her Mossberg.

"I'm going out after her." I say as I grasp the door handle.

"James,"

"Don't try to stop me. I-"

"Put on some shoes before we go."

I look to my bare feet and remember with sickening clarity the creatures tongue on my skin. I grab a bottle of bleach we keep near the door and collapse to the floor frantically searching my feet for any scratches or signs of a bite. They look clean. I drench my hands and feet with the bleach and pull on the nearest pair of boots.

Jan hoists me to my feet and grabs the door handle.

"Ready?"

I nod and she flings open the door. We step out and immediately open fire on the living dead. There are more zombies out here than I have seen any time before! What's brought them all? We fight our way to the street. We are both already running dangerously low on ammunition. We turn to start up the block as something whips around the corner. Jan and I raise our weapons -

"Don't shoot me!"

Bianca! She runs toward us holding the collar of a blond retriever. Jan wraps her arms around Bianca as she says, "What were you thinking?!"

"It's a dog! The monsters were after him! I had to help him, I had to. He needed me. He -"

"We need to move," I say as I grab onto Jan and start pulling them up the street. The dawn is just starting to come over the rooftops. The swarm of living dead moving up the street towards us looks like it is pouring from the sun itself. "Move. Move! NOW!"

I push them further down the block away from the apartment.

"Were are we going?" Jan asks with a worry that I have never heard in her voice before.

"We'll circle around the block ahead of the swarm and cut through the back yards to the apartment. Hopefully it will confuse most of them and lead them away." We run around the corner keeping ahead of the thorpes that are leading the zombies. We get to a chain link fence on the opposite side of the block from the apartment and I pull the bottom up for Jan and Bianca to crawl under. Just as I crouch to go myself a thorpe rounds the corner and spots me. My rifle swings into action almost as if it has the will to do so itself. I fire twice hitting my target on the second shot. I scramble under then fence.

"Keep him quiet." Jan whispers to Bianca. The young girl gently closes her hand around the dogs snout as we make our way slowly and quietly to the apartment.

All this happened last night. As I write this there are still a large number of zombies in the vicinity of the apartment. I am afraid we may have to relocate soon as the ones that hear us in the apartment will certainly summon more. The dog, who Bianca has affectionately named Tobias, is still recovering from his ordeal. He looks well fed so he couldn't have been out there long. He was spent physically from running but I don't think he could have kept up the pace for more than a couple of miles which means that there is or was other people alive and close by. Jan and I will begin a sweep of surrounding buildings tomorrow. If your alive and reading this we're coming to help you.