We made our first scouting trip into the nearest town. It was much like all the other places I have been since this all started. What wasn't the same was what we where after on our trip.

Before we headed into town L.T. hooked a large tank and pump trailer to the back of the humvee. When we got into town our first stop was behind a strip mall. Bianca looked around with confusion. "Why are we stopped back here? Isn't it going to be easier to get in from the front?"

"When we go in the stores we can go in through the back entrances. I have keys to all of these shops. I own the strip mall. But what we're after first is right under our feet. Keeps your eyes open." L.T. stepped out and walked back to the pump trailer. Bianca and I took up positions to cover him. He opened a hatch in the concrete and ran the hose from the pump trailer in. Walking around to the nearest store door L.T. said, "That's the used cooking oil from the restaurant at the end. I make biodiesel out of it. I can run my generators, truck, and this hummer on it."

We entered the first store. The shelves were stocked with auto parts. L.T. handed me the keys. "You and Bianca go through the side door there. It will lead you into the next shop. It's a Thai grocery. Grab anything useful. I am going to gather up supplies to convert the hummer to run on bio or S.V.O."

"What?"

"Straight vegetable oil."

"Oh." Bianca and I headed for the door.

"And grab me some fish sauce while your there." L.T. said as he headed for the shelves of parts.

Bianca and I stepped into the adjoining store with our guns at the ready. Everything seemed quiet. We began to fill the packs we had brought in with supplies. When I got close to the front counter I noticed a hand written note. It read: L.T. We stayed as long as we could but we decided that it was time to find our families. Thank you for all that you did for us. If you are reading this than you must know what is going on. We have locked one of the things in the bathroom. God bless and keep you.

When we headed back to the auto parts store L.T. was at the counter He was reading another small note scrawled on a receipt. He was obviously affected. I put my hand on his shoulder. "L.T. there was another one in the grocery." I handed him the note. After a few moments L.T. turned toward the door.

"Let's blow this popsicle stand." Swinging the door open we discovered a pair of undead shambling toward the humvee. I don't know where it came from but L.T. drew a huge knife and charged the pair. With two fast swipes he halved the head of one and almost completely severed the head of the other. He wiped the knife on one of the corpses and went to stow the hose from the pump truck. Without a glance in our direction he said, "Mount up."

We rode home in silence.

L. T., Bianca, and I stocked up before we left the base. We scavenged as much supplies as we could fit into a military Humvee and set out. We tore through whatever city it was the base was stationed in (I never bothered to ask). Out the windows of our Humvee we could see the chaos in the streets. People looting as others were attacked by the undead. There was a building on fire. People came staggering out. "Stop!" I found my self shouting. The Humvee came to a stop. I reached for the door handle but felt a stone hard grip on my arm.

"Look," L.T. said pointing to the burning figures. A man came running toward one of the figures with a blanket. The burning figure latched onto it's rescuer and began tearing at him with it's teeth, setting the rescuer ablaze as it devoured him.

We spent that first night in the Humvee at a campsite off the main road. That's where I wrote my last post. From there we continued to L.T.'s house; more of a stronghold really; situated a couple miles from a neighboring town. It is stocked with supplies to which we added what we had brought from the base. L.T. says he has enough supplies for two months by himself. Figuring in what we brought from the base we should have enough for almost a month for the three of us. Our plan is to wait things out here for one to two weeks. Hopefully things will have quieted down in the towns by then and we can begin regular scouting for supplies...and survivors.

It's Happening...Again.

Bianca and I have been imprisoned since my last post. We've been literally behind bars constantly questioned and examined by medical teams. Despite this it was an amazing feeling to again have a shower and hot meals regularly. However regular life is all coming to an end once again.

The day following my last post; I'm not even sure how long ago that was; Bianca and I began scouting the military fence line for any place we could get through. After several days and nights of observation we found an area that only seemed to be patrolled every few hours. The fence there ran over a section of dirt. We planned to dig underneath of it and then fill it back in to prevent any undead from getting through after us.

With our supply packs, weapons, and a small military style shovel we headed to the breach point. We waited several minutes after a patrol passed on foot. I had Bianca stand guard about 25 yards from where I was digging. Frantically tearing at the earth under the fence I was making faster progress than I thought I would when mid-stroke with the shovel I heard it, "There's one on the fence line. It looks like it's using a tool!"

I swung around just as a soldier came into view and raised his rifle. I tried to speak but as I raised my hands I heard the gun shot. The soldier's head opened up and he fell to the ground.

"Keep digging." Bianca said as she stepped from the shadows.

I was dumb struck. I stared at her and the soldier on the ground in front of her. She had just killed him. She kneeled next to me.

"He would have killed you James."

Just as she said it a soldier, older than the others I had seen, stepped into view behind her. I saw him strike her with the stock of his rifle and she fell to the ground. I raised the shovel and then everything went black.

When I awoke I was in a cell. Bianca was in the cell across from me. Before long the old soldier, L.T. is what he said to call him, came in to check on us; something he did almost everyday we were there.

There was a constant stream of doctors and military investigators testing us and questioning us. The only person that treated us like humans was L.T. He told us that the outbreak had been contained and that orders were to maintain the perimeters by any means necessary. To maintain those perimeters they had called almost all retired military personnel back into service which is why he was there. He had served in combat most of his career. He had disobeyed orders and brought us in alive; an act that got him put on base duty instead of perimeter patrol.

The testing and questioning began to wane until one day it stopped completely. So did the meal service. Bianca and I went almost two days without seeing anyone. It was looking desperate. I couldn't think of any way out of the cells. After everything we had survived we were going to starve to death in cages. I was ready to give up.

"Let's blow this popsicle stand." L.T. stepped into the hallway and unlocked the cells. "The perimeter has been breached. The outbreak is spreading again. I figure you two are my best resource for survival at this point."

He handed each of us a rifle and a tactical vest loaded with pistol and supplies. "Thanks L.T." was all I could manage to say.

We've been on the move ever since. I hope this is still getting out there to others who are surviving. Keep fighting and keep checking back for more information.

A way out?

It has been a rough month. We have been on the move since my last post and we've covered a lot of ground. I was not going to stop for a post but something has happened that I had to report.

We were looking for supplies; Bianca refuses to stay anywhere since her abduction and insists on scouting with me; when I saw something in the distance. We climbed to the fourth story of a building to get a better vantage point. Through our binoculars we saw them. Soldiers maintaining a blockade! They had trucks with US military markings and the same haz-mat suits I saw soldiers in my neighborhood wearing when all this started. There was a fence extending from both sides of the blockade that was manned every 100 yards or so by armed soldiers.

"Look." Bianca said as she pointed in the opposite direction I was glassing.

I swung my binoculars to bear on the guard post she was pointing to. A car was making it's way through the rubble in the street toward the post. The car stopped about 30 yards short, stuck in the remnants of a fallen building that littered the street. The occupant stepped from the car shouting and running toward the post in a obvious state of relief and excitement. The guards raised there rifles and fired until they were certain he was dead.

Bianca lowered her binoculars and calmly stated, "We need to get back to our hide. It will be dark soon."

We are holed up about a mile from the blockade and fence. If they are that determined to create a border and willing to go to such great and cruel lengths to maintain it than it must be safe on the other side. But how can we get there? How do we break through the barrier without getting caught - killed? Without contaminating the other side?

Getting Her Back

Kevin and I went out the day after I returned from the scouting trip to search for more water filters. When we returned that evening we were unprepared for what we saw.

There were a couple of bodies in the front yard and a lot of blood. We made our way inside and found Jan lying face down in a pool of blood in the living room. She was dead. From the look of her and the bodies out front she definitely went down fighting hard. We searched the house but Bianca was nowhere to be found. Neither were most of our supplies. I went to the bodies out front and searched them for any clues to where they might have taken Bianca. When I rolled the second body over I recognized the face. I had seen him with the Servants when I was scouting the camp. One of them must have followed me home when I left. Those bastards killed Jan and took Bianca.

"What are we gonna do?" Kevin said from behind me.

"We're going to get her back."

I led the way back to the camp as night fell around us. I wasn't sure how but we were going to get Bianca out of that place even if it killed both of us.

When we arrived at the camp they were wrapping up what looked to be a big celebration. They were dividing up the spoils from our hide out. From the look of the cage they had also had some games. There was a thorpe and a dragger being rounded up from the cage by the wranglers. It looked like they were chewing the remains of the loser...I just hoped it wasn't Bianca.

Kevin and I took up a vantage point that was well concealed behind a stand of park bushes. From there we scanned the camp through our binoculars searching for Bianca and trying to formulate a plan to get in and out of the camp.

"It's her!" Kevin hissed. "There by that central tent."

I looked to where his finger pointed. It was Bianca - and she was being led into Leader's tent. A servant walked Bianca into the tent and then came out alone. Leader's tent was right in the middle of the camp. There was no way we would be able to sneak in unnoticed. Then it hit me.

"Kevin follow me."

We ran as fast as our lungs would let us to the zombie storage building. We made it just a few minutes before the wranglers arrived in their truck to unload the zombies from the nights games. When they stepped from the truck Kevin shot the driver and I fired at the two passengers. We rushed them firing as we ran. They managed to get off a couple of shots. I was on top of them swinging my SPAX. I killed one of the passengers with it and the other one was fading in and out of consciousness from the gun shot wound I had inflicted on him. The struggle on the drivers side had subsided as well and I stepped around to find Kevin holding a hand over a bloody wound on his side. He kicked the lifeless body of the driver as he rose from the ground.

"It's not bad. Let's load this truck and get moving." He said as he pulled the keys from the ignition.

We threw the one passenger that was still clinging to life in the back of the truck as bait to draw in the the zombies. With the truck in position we flung open the door to the building and the de-barked zombies poured into the truck and devoured the screaming wrangler. With as many zombies as the truck could hold and the weapons taken from the wranglers we headed for the camp.

The truck smashed through the outer fence with no trouble at all. Kevin made a few wide circles of the camp running down as many servants and pleasures as he could before he brought the truck to a jarring stop. He lept from the rig guns blazing and flung open the back door letting the zombies pour out like angry bees from a torn open hive. The camp was in chaos. All the inhabitants were running and screaming. The de-barked zombies that were once there entertainment had now become their silent killers. Kevin fired until his guns ran dry then he drew a knife and club and continued his rampage.

I entered the camp from the side opposite where Kevin had driven the truck in. I made my way straight for Leader's tent, killing anything that got in my way. I lifted the flaps and stepped inside. Bianca was in the corner. Her clothes were torn and she had been hit multiple times about the face. I rushed to her and gently clutched her shoulders.

"Bianca - it James. Bianca, I'm going to get you out of here."

She didn't respond. She just teetered in place with a blank expression. I looked down at her torn clothing and battered body and noticed a belt around her left arm. Lifting it closer I could see a needle mark.

"What the fuck do you - "

I turned and charged Leader before he could finish his sentence. Tackling him to the ground I started swinging the SPAX with both hands. The world blackened to a narrow tunnel and all I could see was Leader's hands as they tried to fend off my blows. Then I could only see blood.

My vision slowly began to return as I started to hear screaming in the distance. After a few more moments I realized the screaming was coming from me. I was still swinging the handle of the SPAX into the bloody pulp of human flesh that I had pinned to the ground. The head of the SPAX had broken off in the flurry of blows. I threw the handle down and went to Bianca. Wrapping her in a blanket from the nearby bed I lifted her in my arms and rushed from the tent.

I stepped outside to find most of the camp on fire. People were running and screaming as the zombie swarm took over. The truck skidded up next to the tent.

"Hurry! Get in here!" Kevin shouted from the drivers seat.

We sped away out of the camp. Kevin drove us as far as he could. He began to waver after about thirty minutes. He had been shot at least once more and had to many other injuries to count. He was dying. I tried to stop some of his bleeding but it was just too much. I couldn't help him. He looked to me as I frantically tried to put pressure on one of his many wounds.

"It's okay man. Just go. I'm fine. Well not fine but - you know. Take Bianca. Get her somewhere safe. Just go."

"We're not gonna leave you Kevin. You saved Bianca. You saved me"

"That's why I want you to go."

Kevin extended his hand. I grasped it and he smiled as we had our last handshake.

Bianca has come out of the effects of whatever drug they gave her. I am recovering from all the wounds my adrenaline didn't let me feel at the time. We are holed up in a small apartment for right now. I was able to get an emergency generator in the basement of the building going so that I could post this. I am not sure what to do next. We will have to keep moving. We can't risk being found again by anyone from the camp. We need to get as far away from them as we can. Bianca has already retreated far away into her mind. She's not a little girl anymore. I'm not sure I'll ever get her back.

Let the Games Begin

There is a lot of activity at the park. It is a hot bed for a certain type of survivor in this desperate time. I made the trip by myself to check out the park. It was - I don't know what it was.

I took up a position about 200 yards south of the park. There was a maintenance shed with a window and a strong locking door. I brought along a spotting scope that I had found in a sporting goods store. It goes to 42 power so the 200 yards was a very doable distance for observation. There were a few draggers around the area but once they get within about 50-75 yards of the park they get captured (by some members of the crew that maintains the zombie storage) or the sentries at the park take them out. The ones that are captured are "de-barked" before they get put in the truck for transport. They just use a big ugly knife and go right in through the throat.

Inside the park is where the real cruelty and insanity happens. It was late morning when I established the observation point. Most of the people where just starting to rouse for the day. One side of the camp seemed to be getting up and enjoying some interesting things. They had a big breakfast and they also had at there disposal many different drugs and what appeared to be a group of women and men that were open for business of the sexual nature. Any business. The other part of the camp, which seemed to have more inhabitants, didn't have much to eat and definitely didn't have the distractions the other side of the camp had. They quickly began working around the camp and some were gearing up with weapons and empty bags. They ones that geared up left the camp in all directions.

One of them was coming right for my vantage point. I tucked my gear and myself in the darkest corner of the shed. It was a bright day outside but the shed only had the one small window so I prayed it would be dark enough to conceal me. I held my SPAX Axe tight just in case. He came right to the window of the shed and peered in. He cupped his hands around his face to try and see in better. His eyes were burning straight through me...then he turned away. I let out the breath I had been unknowingly holding. I started to rise.

BANG!

The door pulled against it's deadbolt. He had seen me! He's trying to get in! I stepped to the side of the door and raised the SPAX. The door pulled again - and again -

"AAAHHHHRRRGGG!"

The scream made my heart stop for half a beat. I leaned closer to the door. I could hear tearing, crunching, and gurgling. One of the undead had taken him while his attention was on the door. Nothing I could do for him now.

I turned my attention back to the park. Things were pretty quiet. The worker side of the camp seemed to be taking care of all the day to day operations. The "pleasure" side was treating the others like house servants from what I could tell. Some of the Pleasures (seems like a good name to me) went into some tents that were set up in the park and stayed in there for quite some time. I saw them exit occasionally and carry small bags to a tent in the center of the park. When they left the center tent they were always empty handed.

This activity continued all day. The Servants (those not on the pleasure side) worked and the Pleasures did what ever they wanted (with the exception of the few that seemed to be working in the tents). Throughout the day the Servants that had set out that morning trickled in. I was going to back up and head out but the attitude of the camp began to change towards the end of the day and into the evening. Everyone began to gather around the center tent. There was a clear line of separation between the Servants and the Pleasures. They all seemed excited about what was about to happen. That excitement infected me and I was on the edge of my seat with anticipation. Then it happened. It was like a cheesy post apocalyptic movie.

The flap of the center tent lifted and the crowd fell silent. A man, I'll call him Leader, stepped from the tent. He seemed to be a little older than the followers (who all appeared to be in their teens to thirties). He began to speak as he handed out little baggies to the Pleasures from one of the sacks that had been brought to him throughout the day. I'm guessing the Pleasures that went in the tents were cooking drugs of some sort and that's what they brought to Leader so he could hand them out at this meeting. It seemed to be a good speech as everyone was caught up in his every intonation. When he finished handing out the baggies he stepped back to the front of the crowd and gestured toward the Servants. The ones that had gone out for the day came up one by one and emptied their sacks at his feet. They each received a baggie after they emptied their sacks. When the last servant had deposited his goods Leader began speaking again. After a short speech the crowd fell silent again and they all scanned each others faces. They seemed to be waiting for someone to do something. Then two of the Servants raised their hands and shouted. The crowd went crazy with excitement. They hoisted the two, a young man and women, to their shoulders and surfed them to the front by Leader. Leader raised his hands and silenced the crowd. He shouted something and I can't be sure from that distance that I heard it right but I believe he said,

"LET THE GAMES BEGIN!"

At this the crowd made its way to a fully fenced court near the center of the park. They encircled the court and began cheering as the male Servant who had volunteered entered the court. Leader gestured to the crew from the zombie storage building. They opened their truck and brought out the biggest zombie I have ever seen. It must have been almost 7 feet tall! Two of the crew wrestled it into the court and pulled the catch poles off then ran for the gate and locked it behind them. The Servant in the cage danced around the zombie, doing his best Muhammad Ali foot work. He was unarmed. He began striking the creature in the head with hard blows and darting away before it could grab hold of him, looking to the cheering crowd between each blow. This went on for about a minute and it was obvious that the Servant was getting worn out. His footwork was fading and his punches weren't as strong as they had been. He turned to the crowd for approval and the zombie shot forward with a sudden burst of speed and grabbed hold of him. It sunk its teeth into the back of his scalp and pulled a piece off. He began to scream. It fell on top of him and began to tear at his back as he screamed, a scream you couldn't hear above the roar of the crowd. Three of the wranglers went into the court. Two of them collared the zombie and pulled it into one corner. The other went to the servant on the ground and rolled him onto his back. The servant was still alive. The wrangler put a hand one hand on the mans forehead and with the other he drew a knife from his belt and plunged it into the Servants voice box! The wrangler stood up and drug the twitching Servant to the truck and tossed him in the back.

The second Servant, the female, entered the court. The wranglers released the zombie and ran for the gate. The servant began shouting at the creature. She didn't take her eyes off of it as she moved along the fence feeling it with her hands. The zombie was approaching her. When she reached a fence post she started to climb the fence. The zombie drew closer as she climbed. She reached the top pole that supported the chain link ceiling just as the zombie reached the edge of the fence and made a grab for her. She grabbed onto the top pole and swung out away from the side by pushing off of the zombies head which caused it to fall forward into the fence post. The Servant then began to pummel the things head into the fence post with kicks as she hung from the top pole. The zombies head was losing its shape and its feet were faltering as she continued her barrage of kicks. The zombies head bounced of the bloody fence post a final time and it fell backwards to the ground. The Servant dropped from the top pole onto the zombies face crushing what was left of the head. The crowd went crazy. Leader entered the ring and raised the Servant's arm like a champion wrestler. He led her out of the court and began to walk her toward the pleasure camp. The crowds followed congratulating her along the way. She picked out a few baggies from the sack offered by Leader and selected a love slave for the night. She had won the right to be a Pleasure by killing a zombie bare handed.

The camp began to settle for the night. I didn't want to have to make my way back in the dark but I didn't want to stay any longer after what I had seen. I packed up my gear as quietly as I could. I took up the SPAX and unlocked the door. I slipped through into the night.

It was dark. The ground felt wet. I stepped into the night. Something grabbed my right foot and pulled it hard and I went down. Hands were pulling at my clothes ferociously. I swung my SPAX with one hand as I tried to pull myself away with the other. The SPAX sunk deep into something hard and the clawing hands stopped. I fumbled in my pocket for a flashlight and clicked it on. My pants were torn and one of my shoes had been pulled off and was still in the hands of the zombie that lay dead at my feet. It's throat was chewed through as were its legs and part of its abdomen. With the speed that the hands were moving it had to of been fresh. The Servant that tried to get in the shed earlier. I pulled my boot from it's grasp and pried the SPAX from it's head. I took a risk and decided to leave the flashlight on for the trip home. I hope the camp didn't spot me leaving.

Stake Out

We have been survielling the building that Kevin found. We headed there in the morning just before dawn. Kevin and I holed up in the second story of a building across the street. We barricaded ourselves in a room to avoid a run-in with the undead while we watched the holding area with binoculars. Kevin suggested we bring along a rope fire escape ladder that hangs over a window sill in case we needed a way out if the door was blocked. It turned out to be a great idea.

We were there almost 13 hours before there was any activity. At that point a small box truck pulled up to the building. Three men got out of the cab. After what looked like some jovial rough housing and weed smoking one of the men went to the back side of the building and started shouting obscenities. The two men at the truck then opened the box, which was facing away from us, and one of them climbed in and handed a pole to the man on the ground. The man on the ground then lifted the pole into the truck box where it was attached to something. After a little struggling, cussing and laughing the man then pulled a zombie from the truck. He went to the building, shoved the zombie in, and released it. They repeated this with five more zombies and then packed up the poles. From what we can tell they sent the man around the back of the building to distract the undead inside so they could put more in. The ones added to the building had the same voice treatment as the others. They are using some sort of modified catch pole to handle the undead. But why are they storing them? By this time the sun was on it's way down and shining in the window where we were watching. The men were sitting on the front bumper of the truck and talking. I raised my binoculars just as one of them looked my way. The sun hit the lenses of the binoculars and the man saw it! They sprang to action, grabbing a gun and some bats from the truck they rushed the building. Kevin quickly pulled the ladder from his pack. We could hear the men coming up the stairwell. We threw everything in the packs and flung the ladder down. Kevin went down first and I followed. When I was just a few rungs from the bottom I heard the door of the room burst open and when I was just one rung from the bottom the men from the truck started to pull the ladder up! I jumped as Kevin fired a round at the open window. I hit the ground running. Kevin started to head up the street that would take us to the house. I grabbed him and pulled him in the opposite direction, not wanting to lead the men to our hide out. One of the men came down the ladder after us and the others went back down the stairs.

We ran and made a couple of turns to get out of sight of our pursuers then we ducked into the nearest building we could find. It was an Indian restaurant. We worked our way though the tables trying to be as quiet as possible. We could here the men shouting to each other in the street. We made it to the the door at the back of the kitchen. There were no windows and it was dark in the kitchen so we couldn't see why it wasn't opening. Then we heard the moans. There were zombies in the kitchen with us. I turned on my flashlight just in time to see the beam glinting of the teeth of the nearest one. I instinctively fired my rifle killing it.

"Shit." Kevin grabbed me and pulled me toward the front.

"What are you doing?!" I hissed.

"The shot. They know where we are. We have to get out of here before they get in."

He was right. Damn it. What was I thinking? We headed out the front at a dead run. Just as we reached the end of the block and turned the corner I looked back to see undead pouring from the restaurant and the men rounding to corner. They spotted us but they had to deal with the zombies which gave us a couple of minutes.

"There." I said pointing across the street to an open manhole cover. We climbed down and I grabbed the manhole cover to close it. It wasn't moving. I handed my rifle to Kevin and grabbed on with both hands. It must have weighed 75 pounds or more! It took a minute but I got it over the hole; I hoped before the men had made it around the corner to see me. I came down the ladder and was greeted by a look of despair on Kevin's face.

"What?"

He shined his light around the sewer where we were. Every tunnel leading out of the chamber was blocked with a locked grate. We were stuck. We heard the man coming up the street now. Kevin turned off his light and we waited with or rifles pointing at the tiny hole of light coming from the manhole cover lift port. We could here the men searching. Several times they passed over the cover. Soon the light coming in started to fade. They gave up and left. Kevin and I stayed in the chamber all night. Taking turns at watch. Waiting for morning to make our way home.

Damn Generator

The generator quit on us! We've all been searching the surrounding neighborhoods for another one. After a couple of weeks with no results I went to a bookstore in a small shopping complex by our house/fortress and looked for a couple of books on small engine repair. I read three of them cover to cover and I felt somewhat less confused about how everything worked. After disassembling the generator I made a list of things that we would need to fix it. Kevin and I set out in two directions to get the necessary supplies for the repairs. When we returned we both had something to report.

Kevin was headed to a hose and fitting shop south of our location. Everything was going smooth. There were only a few draggers and he was making good time when he spotted a truck across a parking lot that caught his attention. The back window of the truck was covered in stickers from gun manufacturers so Kevin thought he should see if there were any gun related items in the rig. He approached cautiously as the truck was parked close to large metal building. He could hear muffled noises from inside the building as he drew closer to the truck. He peered through the drivers side window. He eased he hand onto the door handle and gave it a pull.

CAR ALARM!

The horn started blaring and the lights flashed. Kevin ran for cover at the nearest corner of the building and turned just in time to see a young man, probably not more than 20 and very "rough" looking as Kevin described him, rush to the truck. The young man sheathed a bloody knife he was holding, drew a pistol and began a sweep of the area. Kevin pulled back further behind the building to stay out of view. As he backed along the wall he felt something move at his shoulder. He turned to see Fingers sticking out of a grated window. He peered inside to see a swarm of undead in the building! The one at the window appeared to be trying to moan. Kevin looked closer and saw that it had a deep wound on it's neck. As he looked in he saw that all the zombies he could see in the room had the same wound. Someone was collecting and "de-barking" them. But why? He wasn't going to hang around and ask the young man about it. Moving at a steady run, Kevin got the fittings and came back to the house using a different route.

I discovered an equally disturbing scene on my trek to an auto parts store just to the east of Kevin's find. I made it to the store without any issue. I was gathering up supplies for the generator rebuild when I noticed faint music. I put the supplies in my pack and stuffed in a bunch of hand towels to keep the tools and parts from rattling so I could go out and investigate the music without being heard and without leaving the bag behind. When I got outside the music seemed to be coming from the direction of the park just past the store. Cautiously I crept closer. In the center of the park was a fenced in multi-purpose arena and that is where the music was radiating from. From a perch about forty yards away I pulled my binoculars from the pack and scanned the arena. What I saw I couldn't believe. It was full of people! As I watched I was confused about what they were doing. I scanned for a few minutes before I realized just what was happening. Almost all of them were doing drugs of one kind or another or were involved in some sort of orgy or a combination of the two! The music played loudly and the mass of bodies writhed in rhythm. It was - unspeakable. I packed the binoculars and made a very rapid return to the house.

We are planning to investigate these two locations further in the upcoming week. We are gathering supplies and studying every map of the area we can find to determine what will be the best approach for both locations - and how many ways we can get out if we need to. I will keep you posted on what we find. I suspect the two sites are related somehow.

The Move.

Sorry for the long delay between posts. The move has taken up all our time. We are getting established in our new stronghold - for now. We've been spending our days reinforcing our current dwelling and gathering supplies. We made the actual move fairly rapidly with a few stops along the way for supplies. There was a very close call though, with an interesting outcome.

After a lot of deliberation we decided we should try and get a vehicle for the move. I scouted around the neighborhood and found one that was suitable. A medium size SUV that started when I tried it. I then spent the next couple of hours syphoning all the gasoline I could from the other vehicles around the area. I was able to fill the tank of the SUV and have almost five gallons left over. We planned a route that would take us past some shopping areas on our way out of the city to a smaller suburb. We planned on grabbing anything we could from the stores we passed. Once in the suburb we would begin fortifying a free standing house.

We loaded the SUV (a slow process as we tried to avoid the amassing undead) and started out. The SUV was running fine and we were making good time. We had to crash through some debris and ride up on some sidewalks to get around some pile-ups but everything was holding together.

We made our first stop at a grocery store. That wasn't much left inside but we managed to scrounge a little. We left the SUV running with Bianca inside. Didn't want to chance it not starting if we needed a quick get away. (The car never seems to start in movies so we figured why chance it.) There was the usual amount of undead activity but they were all draggers so we evaded them without confrontation.

Our next stop was a hardware store about a half mile away. It was a small shop so I decided to go in alone. There were the usual wheel barrows, garden tools, and a couple of storage sheds out front. The area seemed to be very quite. I couldn't see or hear any zombies. I took this as a good sign and began looking through the store. As I gathered a good armful of kerosene cans I heard a noise outside the front of the store. I cautiously approached the front doors. As I stepped out I saw that one of the tool sheds out front was open and there were noises coming from the other. There was a shout from behind me. I turned and side-stepped - right onto a rake. It was like a cartoon. The rake flew up and hit me in the side of the head and I went down, kerosene cans crashing. As I went down I saw the other tool shed burst open and a thorpe come rushing out. I hit me head again on something when I went to the ground and blacked out.

The next thing I remember is waking up with the man who had tried to rob our last home hovering over me! I pushed him away shouting furiously. Bianca quickly came into view holding me and calming me. I was in the back of the SUV and we were moving. Bianca explained to me that the man (Kevin is his name) had saved me. He had been sleeping in one of the storage sheds when I went into the hardware store. He heard me and came out to see what was going on. He saw the SUV and began to approach it just as I came out of the hardware store. He turned and shouted a warning to me to not go near the other shed. That's what startled me and caused the run in with the rake. He shot the thorpe that came out of the shed and then dragged me to the SUV.

"Thanks for not killing me...I would have died for sure if you had just turned me out after what I did to you. You didn't have to. Thanks." That was all Kevin said for the remainder of the day. He spent the rest of the drive with his head down in a trance-like state. The next day he offered up that the Thorpe in the shed had been his girlfriend. She had been bitten. After a long discussion they agreed that she should be locked up in the shed if he wasn't going to be able to dispatch her because she couldn't kill herself.

Kevin has been working along side of us for several days now. I still don't fully trust him but then again I wasn't actually awake to see him risk his life for me. The headache from the fall is finally starting to go away. We have a pretty good house here. There is a strong 7ft chain link fence and all the first story windows and doors have been reinforced. I think we can hold out here for a while. I will have more details on our new location as they become available. Stay safe.

The Report.

I have now completely read through the report obtained from the facility. I couldn't understand all of he scientific information but I understood enough to know what happened.

Three months before the outbreak in Los Angeles the United States Department of Defense had made a discovery in a cave deep in the mountains of Afghanistan. On a routine raid of a cave thought to be a hiding place of insurgents a team of soldiers encountered a group of unarmed men. They were stumbling about and appeared to be eating raw animal flesh of some sort. Upon spotting the soldiers the men turned their attention away from what they were eating and began advancing on the soldiers while moaning incessantly. The soldiers fired upon the men but the rounds seemed to have little to no effect. The advance continued until one of the soldiers was set upon by several of the assailants. They immediately began consuming the soldier. In the ensuing chaos one of the soldiers discovered that shoots to the head were a sure way to put the assailants down. After a fast and bloody encounter the soldiers retrieved the lifeless body of their fallen comrade and they began the trek back to base. At the halfway mark of the march the lifeless soldier began to move in his body bag. The soldiers having seen what they had just seen were careful to restrain the body before opening the bag. When they opened the bag the soldier inside was moaning the same moan as the men in the cave. The verified by his pulse that he was indeed dead. Restraining him thoroughly they hoofed it back to base where they reported their findings.

The next morning they along with their lifeless companion were airlifted back to a lab outside of Los Angeles. The fallen soldier was recorded as Patient Zero. From that point on the team that brought in Patient Zero was assigned to the research facility as subjects and guards. From there it goes on to detail experimentation with patients one through nineteen. Some of these subjects were animals some were people. Most of them were just exposed to Patient Zero by proximity. Some of the animals were injected with fluids from Patient Zero but showed no symptoms or reaction that would correlate to Patient Zero's condition. The experimentation went on for nearly three months.

Then it got interesting. Apparently many of the research staff lived in the Los Angeles area. After a weekend off one of the lead scientists returned to the lab early on Monday morning. She discovered blood soaked rags in a co-workers trash can. That worker had been tasked with drawing blood and saliva samples the Friday before. Reviewing the security footage the lead researcher discovered that the worker had been bitten on the shoulder while collecting the samples. Reviewing the incident report from the soldiers at the cave she became, as the document put it, "very concerned". She immediately tried contacting him at home but received no answer. After spending the rest of that day and half of the next trying to get authorization to go into city limits with a containment team she received confirmation that here request had been granted. The lab worker became Patient 20. The soldiers from the cave were tasked with guarding the lab while a special containment team was flown in. The containment team went in only to discover that the "infection" had already begun spreading. They quarantined neighborhoods but no matter how they tried it always seemed to slip beyond there barriers. The last entry in the file is from the lead researcher. She reports going back to the lab to collect equipment to relocate to the facility that I have reported on. When she arrived at the lab the team of soldiers from the cave were A.W.O.L. and patient zero had been executed with a single round to the head.

That's all the information that was not to technical for me to report. It's unsettling to think that this was all brought to our shores by our own government. We are going to go on the move now so it may be a while before my next entry. I hope this information can help all of you in some way.