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.