Living With the Dead: Year One Read online

  Mom is refusing to leave her house to come stay with us. We did some quick shoring up, enough that her doors are going nowhere and the windows are secure, but I'm worried it won't be enough. Pat assures me that he will keep watch on her, try to check in. He is more of a friend than I probably deserve.

  I expect it to spread here in less than two days. I truly hope that we will have to wait for the undead to walk here from the bigger cities, that some bitten person doesn't bring it to our doorstep before nature does, but somehow I doubt it. With that in mind, here is another, smaller list of things to have. (Note: we have ALL of these)

  Buck knives, machetes, compound bows with lots of arrows, lengths of quality wood to make bows with (thanks, internet, for showing us how, right Here ), woodworking tools, strong hemp twine, lots of rope ( we have a variety of types, to climb with, secure things, and make nets), tons of dowels for new arrows, bag of goose feathers and glue, hatchets, axes, sledgehammer, drywall hammers, crowbars, baseball bats, shotguns, pistols, rifles, a few tasers, and an entire closet full of ammo.

  We also bought some bullet molds, a bunch of gunpowder, and some lead shot. But any way you cut it, we will eventually run out of bullets, so we will likely try to perfect making bows and arrows.

  It's looking like full-on panic is coming to Frankfort, and we just this morning got the portable solar panels up. We will tackle the wind turbine later, and the crank generator is getting hooked up to our stationary bike. I feel sort of bad, but the guy that owned the Green Shop in Versailles must have had kin in Ohio, because his shop was closed.

  We opened it with bricks.

  If he makes it through, I will pay him back for all the things we stole. But right now I have to think about myself, and my family. His battery packs will keep us cooking indoors after the gas is shut off, and any juice left over will let me tap away at my netbook, allowing some sort of record of this insanity.

  For as long as we last, anyway.

  Posted by Josh Guess at 12:58 PM

  Sunday, March 7, 2010

  The calm before

  (Photos Lost)

  I snapped a few pictures at the store the other day, before I bought a bunch of these. It just struck me so hard while I was standing there that it would be a long time before I saw anything so normal again. If

  ever.

  I couldn't help but think, as I saw this wall in front of me, that in such a short time, my perceptions had shifted so much. I didn't see a wall with hammers, and hatchets, and nail pullers, crowbars, mallets and steel wedges. I wanted to see things to make with, to build, but all that came to me was what use it would be as an instrument of violence.

  Not just against zombies, either, but how effective against a person trying to hurt my family, come into my home. The thought froze me. All of a sudden the reality of it slammed into me. This is what will happen. Our existence is going to shift into something a lot more basic. We are going to have to do things that will make us sick. Those tools in front of me might be my only option to save my life. Or Patrick, Jess, or my mom.

  Maybe the metal plates over the windows will keep people away. Or they might be like a beacon to some desperate person seeking shelter. It's an agonizing dilemma. Beefing up our home makes us safe, but does it make us a target? We live in the back part of our neighborhood, almost at the top of the hill. We are just outside the city limits, but not so far into the county that we are saved by distance. Lexington is getting bad, the outbreak hitting UK like wildfire. My guess is that the first of them will hit Frankfort tonight or early tomorrow. I like to think we are prepared. Physically, we are. We are so stocked with supplies and back-ups that I think we can last for months here without leaving the property. Not that I think it will come to that, since we want to start on our planting and working on the back yard.

  We're ready, I guess. Loaded up with so many weapons that we couldn't even carry them all if we had to. What remains to be seen is whether or not we can use them, when the time comes.

  Jess is a quiet woman, a gentle soul. She has never been in a fight, never been attacked. I have always avoided conflict when I could, sorted out those who wouldn't let me run. But I have never had to fight with weapons, much less kill a person.

  Patrick is older, and more experienced in things like that. If our luck goes south, and I can't do my duty and finish the job, I know he will have my back.

  Mom is scared now, and I am pretty sure she will be coming here to stay with us tomorrow. Pat is there now, trying to convince her to come today.

  I am on the couch, tying on my laptop. Next to me is an old hatchet, a loaded glock, and my cell phone. Strange how used to it I am already becoming. None of those things seems out of place.

  My phone is jangling at me. A text from my friend Joe, just three miles down the road:

  They're here.

  Posted by Josh Guess at 1:38 PM

  Infected

  Just a short update while I have time--things are about to get seriously out of hand.

  Joe called me to let me know he was OK. His text freaked us all out. But south Frankfort is infected, and badly. Apparently a bunch of people were out in the nice weather grilling out when some poor bastard from Lexington crashed his car into the ones parked in front of their house. Joe wasn't sure what went down, but the result was that several people were bitten, because the driver didn't survive the crash. Now there is a hoard of forty or fifty of them on Shelby street, and the local cops are crowding the area.

  The worst part is, some folks down there must have called around, because several folks on my street have left to go down and check it out. Idiots.

  The results should be clear enough to predict. Very shortly, we are going to be neck deep in it. Looks like we are in for a long, long night.

  I gave up on praying a long time ago. But if anyone out there has one for us, feel free. Every little bit helps.

  Posted by Josh Guess at 5:23 PM

  Monday, March 8, 2010

  A good defense

  It was pretty much a worst case scenario.

  Less than an hour after my last post, they started appearing at the bottom of the neighborhood, in ones and twos at first. I don't know how many people in south Frankfort have died, but enough of them became infected that we are seeing them here. I can't explain how it spread so fast, unless they were here before Joe contacted me.

  The first few zombies walked through the subdivision basically unnoticed for a while. Kids were outside playing, but not down at the base of the hill. By the time they were noticed, it was too late. Many more had come, and those folks that were unaware if their nature were killed, and joined them.

  We have had a fairly easy time of it, all things considered. Patrick stayed with my mom, and went above and beyond, staying on her deck behind the gates we built to keep watch. He tells me that it was cake, that all he had to do was keep his eyes open. Mom tells me that he kept her safe by taking out more than a dozen of them with a crowbar.

  The wife and I had a few episodes, but for the most part our neighbors have done the work for us. Our road is littered with the bodies of zombies, most shot before they could get near front doors. A few of the folks that live on our road have tried to come by and ask us to stay in our house, which is the only secure one around...we accepted their shouted apologies for looking at us funny as we turned our home into something out of a mad max movie, but we did not let anyone in. I know I have said to be conscious of the needs of those around you, but they clearly know what needs to be done, and have the will to do it. Plus, No room for all of them.

  The guy next door to us took his family and ran. If he stays gone long enough, I think we're going to annex his yard, and maybe his house. His yard isn't fenced in, though, so that could be a problem.

  Jess displayed a shocking efficiency in taking down the undead. She took a piece of rebar that we cut down and reinforced and was busting heads in our driveway after all the other people on the street had retreated inside or fled for saf
er ground. I was with her, though I used my pistol first and my hatchet as a last resort. Jess hates guns, and I despair of ever getting her to use one.

  I am surprised at how quickly she was willing to go out and defend the house. I guess it must have set something off inside her, to see them so close to out home. Today definitely showed us that the front of the house is our weak area, so we're going to have to block it off somehow.

  We left our Norwegian Elk hound, Bigby, out on the the front deck. He barks whenever one of them gets within a hundred feet, so at least we have warning. This is the first real break we have had in the last twelve hours. Hoping it will last long enough for me to get some sleep, Jess is napping now.

  My eyes are getting heavy, might have to go wake her to take a turn at watch.

  Posted by Josh Guess at 6:19 AM

  A few points

  It's calm right now, it has been more of the same since my last post. People are fleeing the neighborhood in droves, and others for some reason are pulling their cars in and then abandoning them. Someone left a school bus running on the next road down. I took the keys.

  We are planning on using abandoned cars to make a rough wall around the yard, and fill in the spaces with whatever we can find. More on that later.

  Right now I want to address an issue that was brought up to me by a reader. There has been some confusion by some folks out there how the virus spreads. Here is what we have theorized so far:

  The virus, if that is what it is, has already spread pretty much everywhere. It does not kill of itself (so far) but everyone is a carrier. Zombie bites do seem to kill, though it seems to take varying lengths of time. Either way, you come back as one, and it seems to be universally quick.

  Also, a few people have asked what types of zombies I have seen. In other words, do they fit the classical zombie profile, the slow and shambling ghoul, or the modern type that is fast, strong, and smart. In fiction, the classic zombie is only stopped by severe head trauma, while the modern ones can be taken out by normal means, though they can take a lot of punishment.

  Here is what we have seen: The "types" of zombies seem as varied as people themselves. We have seen some that move like living people, but believe me, they were really, really dead. Missing limbs, organs, that type of thing. We've seen them slow and steady, like the old Romero movies, and everything in between. The good news is that none of them seems very smart, unable to grasp the concept of door handles or any type of logical manipulation. So far, all we have seen suggests that the only way to stop them is severe head trauma, or piercing the brain.

  I know that doesn't seem very helpful, but there it is. There are a variety of them out there. None of them are super strong or anything, not able to do things they normally wouldn't be able to. That is as much as we know. I hope it helps some of you out there.

  Back to the watch, Jess is yelling at me because I have been in here too long.

  Patrick got us several rolls of heavy duty, tall fencing, and stuff to put it up with. And a truck. I didn't ask where he got all of that, because at this point, I just don't care.

  Posted by Josh Guess at 1:54 PM

  Wednesday, March 10, 2010

  Assault

  Short one, just to let you know that we are still here.

  The hoards from Lexington and Louisville hit us at the same time. Non-stop droves of them, for the last sixteen hours. It's gotten so bad that we can't even go outside, unless we go out onto the front deck.

  She's yelling for me. They're beating on the windows.

  Oh god.

  Posted by Josh Guess at 10:56 AM

  Thursday, March 11, 2010

  Another Day

  It's been insane around here.

  The street is nearly empty right now, the gigantic herd of zombies has moved on. Not far, I'm sure, because there are still a lot of people in town. If you listen from the back yard, you can hear the screams.

  If you are hoping for some heroic tale of how we were scared, but found some amazing inner strength after our quaking fear, and went on a zombie killing rampage set to frenetic death metal, and possibly in montage form, you are going to be disappointed.

  Jess and I spent the last...what, day or so?...alternating which one of us would go out every fifteen minutes and make sure they weren't getting past our defenses, and who would sit in the house and shake. I can tell you exactly how many we took out in that time, between us: ten.

  That was the unavoidable result of going outside, even onto our enclosed deck and hidden from view. Most of them were due to a broken gate on the front deck, because of a stupid design error on my part. The crowbar gets heavy after a few swings.

  The movies and comics never give you the real experience. They never convey the bone-weary exhaustion that comes with living in constant fear, interspersed with periods of sharp terror and nausea as you have to bash in the skull of something just to stay alive. I think I took out our mailman. To be fair, he was trying to bite my face off.

  I shouldn't say this, but a small part of me enjoyed that. He skipped our house a lot.

  Right now, we are just doing what we can to relax, and shed some of this tension. I think I will go see mom today, see how she is holding up. She's made of incredibly tough stuff. Patrick has my eternal thanks--he stayed with her through it all.

  Jess is drawing, maybe painting. Pat is eating. Mom has taken up smoking again. Can't say I blame her. After all, cancer is not likely to be what kills her at this point.

  And I am writing. I wish my talent were enough to make a picture for you of what our world, this little slice of America, has transformed into in less than a week. But hunger and lack of sleep has dulled my words enough that all I really want to do now is sleep.

  More later, maybe, after I talk to mom.

  Posted by Josh Guess at 12:13 PM

  Good news

  Every really bad day has to have some sort of good news in it, I think. I got mine.

  I was feeling so frustrated at my mom, because after all of that, she still refuses to come over here. I mean, its not as though she lives far away; I can walk to her house in two minutes or so. But that two minutes is hugely different now, and she's my mom. I worry for her.

  So there I was, sitting out on the roof with my compound bow, thinking that one more negative moment in my day would drive me over the edge, when my phone rings. This got the attention of one of the stragglers ambling past my house, and I had to put an arrow through his eye. (After I put one through his thigh, belly, and, unfortunately, his crotch. Aiming from a roof is hard.)

  It was a friend I hadn't talked to in a while, even before the dead started to walk around. David and I were really good friends at one point, but recently have not had the time to hang out. I worried about him, and above the general buzz of concern that fills the back of my mind all the time now, and hearing from him picked me up. He told me that his family is with him in a big van, five of them, and they are trying to make it to us.

  This is great, but also potentially bad. He said that they have a bunch of food, but we don't have room for that many people. Maybe his parents can stay at mom's, and the rest here. It's something we'll all have to discuss. But hey, more people means more security, and I am all about that. So i guess you can call me cheered up a notch.

  Maybe some of them will nap on the way. It would be nice to sleep next to my wife for at least a couple hours.

  Posted by Josh Guess at 4:52 PM

  Friday, March 12, 2010

  Patching up

  Just a short update here.

  While we were waiting for David and his family (who are staying over at mom's at present), we managed to take some time to assess the damage to our house. When you have several hundred zombies pressing in around your property, banging on windows and whatnot, you get scared.

  As I said before, we stayed in the safe areas during the whole thing. But, of course, adding the steel sheet metal over the windows had an unexpected effect: zombies are attracted to refl
ective, shiny things. The good news here is that they barely dented it, because we made the window coverings thick. The bad news is that when large groups pass by, we are going to become a giant drum as they hit our house.

  It should be explained here that one of my previous posts dealt with that scenario, and my mother pointed out to me that I did not go back over and explain it in greater detail. Now that I have the time, you have your explanation. The truth of it is, this isn't some plotted-out adventure story. It's my life. And life is confusing, stuttered, chaotic, and sometimes the details come later.