Living With the Dead: The Hungry Land (Book 3) Read online

  I don't really care if the homesteaders want to be a group, thinking themselves separate and better than the rest of us. I don't care if they think that everyone outside their number is lazy or weak. I don't have the time or energy to really give a shit what any of them think of me, as long as they do their jobs. What I do care about is people inside the compound breaking any of our few laws. These guys knew that Will was not to be abused, that just like any other person inside the compound, he wasn't a free target for attack. He might be a criminal, but there are lines.

  These guys crossed one of them. That's the bottom line. The rest of the homesteaders are in a state of chaos over the announcement that their buddies will be put up on charges because of Will. That he was attacked means nothing to some of them, though many are angry that some of their group would go so far as to attack a man who knew fighting back could be a death sentence.

  Will isn't getting charged with anything. He's a living human being, and he has the right to defend himself. He did, knowing what he was risking. It makes me sick that he had to. I hope his attacker gets his voice back in time for the trial, so I can hear his wailing when he gets the lashes he so richly deserves...

  Monday, June 27, 2011

  Stormwatch

  Posted by Josh Guess

  There are two important things to share with you today. The first is that Will's attacker had his trial yesterday, and got his punishment: two lashes and hard labor detail for a month. The rest of the homesteaders are less than pleased at such a harsh sentence, but then they're also happy that his cohorts didn't get more than a slap on the wrist. Overall it's another net zero situation, because most of them think attacking Will was over the line. They may not like the punishment, but they at least admit there was a crime. My main concern is that they may begin to feel that Rich ordered lashes and labor instead of one or the other in retaliation for the homesteaders exodus more than a week ago. I don't think that's the case, but others may.

  I really wanted to go into more detail about this, but the other piece of important news is more pressing.

  It's interesting thing to see how creatures react to changes in the weather. This morning, our hunting teams and those the homesteaders have fielded came back not an hour after leaving to report that their game had pretty much vanished. A few farm workers were sent back to tell us that the cows, pigs, horses and sheep have all nestled down as best they can.

  The most telling point is the total lack of zombies outside the walls right now. We know that at least some of them were playing possum during the heavy rains last month, tricking us into a false sense of security by going inert during downpours. Real storms are different--zombies hate them. Thunder and lightning, heavy rains and fierce winds are things to fear, and even the base, stupid zombies have enough of their reptile brain left to recognize the need for safety. The smart zombies picked up on that much faster.

  This development incited a flurry of communication between several people here at the compound and pretty much everyone we know outside of it. We've seen this before, when the truly awful storms rolled in and beat on us like the hammer of god. Now we're using a system we set up after that spree of terrible weather that we call stormwatch.

  I know, it's all kinds of dramatic, isn't it?

  It's actually really simple. Every group of survivors we can contact are called, and we ask them for weather conditions. We lack the more sophisticated means of measuring and predicting weather, but if someone in, say, southern Indiana tells us that they're dealing with powerful storms that are moving in a southeastern direction, it gives us some warning. Measuring wind speed helps us get a rough estimate of how fast the storm is moving, though that isn't really accurate. We're just trying to do what we can to be ready in case a barn-buster comes through here.

  We've got the kids running around telling folks to button down everything they can. Most people have some kind of shutter or shields to put over their windows, a project that my brother Dave came up with. Helpful for us that so many abandoned houses had shutters to spare. One team of guys ripped enough of them off and brought them here to outfit all of our homes in about three days. I'm really hoping that we aren't going to get hit very hard, but I don't know. The weather this year has been crazy.

  That example above, about the group in Indiana? That wasn't theoretical. We've heard from six small groups and one large one, all of them in a rough line heading west across the great plains. There's a huge system moving in, and it's wide enough that the two northern and southernmost groups we talked to out that way are being hit by it. So are the two farthest east and west, except for us. From what we cal tell, this thing is about three hundred miles wide and at least that distance long. Guesswork, and shoddy work at that, but it's all we have.

  We're in the center of its path.

  So, the portable cell transmitters are getting secured right now. The last one is the small unit we keep at my house, and that's going to be shut off as well right after I send this. I will do everything I can to be back tomorrow if possible. If not, try not to worry about us too much. It may suck, but we're tough. We'll make it.

  If you're being hit and we haven't been able to get in touch with you, then our prayers and hopes go with you. With luck you'll find this message when the storm blows over. Good luck to all of you, and to us.

  I'll be happy as long as there aren't any more tornadoes.

  Tuesday, June 28, 2011

  Respite

  Posted by Josh Guess

  I'm writing this short update while the storm is still raging around us. It's four in the morning right now, and I'm hoping that this lets long enough for me to at least post this on the blog. Our predictions were off by a pretty significant amount, but in a good way--the storm took longer to hit us than we thought.

  It's definitely a big one. The winds are at least as powerful as those we saw last month, and the rain is driving. Thunder and lightning are pretty much constant. We're naturally worried about tornadoes, but there isn't a lot we could do about them even if we had some way of seeing them in the darkness.

  The crappy thing about storms now is that our mobile cell towers are useless...

  The good thing is that for now, at least, we're zombie free.

  Just wanted to let you know we're OK for now, and that at least at the time I'm writing this, there are no reports of severe damage. Not that too many people are out walking in this to let me know.

  I'll be posting this as soon as I'm able, and then I'll head out to survey the compound and the farms for damage.

  Wednesday, June 29, 2011

  Casting Stones

  Posted by Josh Guess

  We're in trouble, serious trouble. The storms that have swept through here off and on for the last two days have done some heavy wind damage, but the worst came yesterday afternoon when we got hit by hail. Lots of hail.

  At first it wasn't all that bad as the stones were only pea-sized. The hail trailed off and died, and we thought the worst was over. About fifteen minutes later, we got pelted with stones the size of golf balls. Our homes weathered the storm of rock-hard ice pretty well, but we took substantial damage to our remaining crops.

  If we hadn't lost an entire farm, it wouldn't have been so damaging. Since we have, also losing a quarter of our food crops is devastating. I don't know what we're going to do to come back from this, or if it's even possible to do so. Our people need to eat, and not just enough to live. They have to be strong to endure zombie attacks. If not, we'll be easy targets for a large assault.

  That's not even considering the construction work and other bits of industry we've got going on here. We're in a bad place right now, and there isn't a lot of help to be had.

  Surprisingly, the homesteaders have taken this latest piece of bad news without too much griping. There hasn't been a lot of reaction from that camp, other than to say that we need to come up with a way to feed people without letting everyone go hungry. Yeah, that's super helpful.

  I've been
on the horn with people since last night trying to find anyone that can help us. Our closest allies in spirit if not geography, the settlement of North Jackson, don't have extra to spare. The huge detail of soldiers that peacefully settled and integrated with them some time back brought much with them, but they're still on rations as their greatly expanded farming has yet to reach maturity and full production. Even then, they'll be running a tight ship as far as food goes, having to save enough to last them through winter and into the spring.

  So it has gone with everyone else I've talked to. While those of us who were refugees wandered around this part of the country, Courtney and her team were running missions of mercy all over the rest of it. What our allied communities had to spare, they spared. There's no extra to be found.

  I won't give up. Any resource we can pull from, any service we can trade, every possible option, will be explored. I will not allow the people here to starve, and whatever it takes to accomplish that goal, I'll do it. Anyone who's out there that can help, send us a message. We need you, now more than ever.

  Thursday, June 30, 2011

  What Lengths

  Posted by Josh Guess

  I'm generally opposed to actions that are severely damaging to our environment. I don't like having to do things that negatively impact where we live in the long run.

  That being said, this morning thirty of our people went out with explosives on a fishing trip. For now we're leaving the large ponds and small lake across the road at the old game farm alone--we don't know when we'll need those resources, close as they are. We seeded them with fish and we expanded them some, so there's a large amount of food just waiting there for us, but we're holding off until we get truly desperate.

  One of the good things about the storms is that they cause the river and the large creeks around here to rise enough to flood some spillover ponds and lock fish into them. A few of our people will be hitting those areas, taking what they can get and sparing no animal. Others will be heading out in all directions to bomb large ponds at abandoned farms and other places out in the country where we know fish and other edible animals have been breeding.

  It's risky since the storms have blown over, which means there will be unknown numbers of zombies out and about all over the countryside. We spent a lot of time last year trying to sow fish eggs wherever we could find bodies of water large enough to support them, but that harvest will bring the risk of attack like any other trip. We've made sure to outfit our folks with weaponry and defensive measures, of course, and they'll be as careful as anyone can. Fate, though, can be a hateful bitch, and chances are even that any or all of our people could meet her today.

  I've made some inroads with my efforts to find help from outside the compound. There are some folks quite a distance away who have a good sized community right in the middle of the farm belt. They're on the great plains and almost all of them farmers of one type or another, so they've got awesome visibility and plenty of land to work. They're one of the few groups that didn't manage to respond to me at first, because they were also one of the places Courtney went to deliver food. I didn't think they'd rebound quickly enough from their need to be able to help us, but it's looking good.

  I obviously can't give away their location, but I can assure you that they're quite a lot safer than most people. there are about a hundred and fifty of them, and that's a hell of a lot of people to work land. It helps that they've got a variety of different types of farming going on where they live. I'm told that they can have a pretty large shipment of food for us sometime near the end of July or early August. That's pretty awesome, actually, but the hard part is going to be transporting it. They've got no way to get the food to us.

  We have trucks and fuel, of course, so the logistics aren't that hard for us to manage. It's just a matter of planning a safe route there using our knowledge of what ways are safe from our previous trips out west and getting the whole thing set up. That's at least a month away, though, and our food situation could become pretty desperate before then.

  It's a ray of light, though.

  Friday, July 1, 2011

  Smoke Signals

  Posted by Josh Guess

  It's interesting to me how some of the most simple things in life can also be the most reassuring, the most hopeful. Today is a day like that, full of small signs that signify the possibility of not just survival, but of actually regaining lost ground.

  It's the smoke that's doing it. Smoke from a hundred small fires, planks of wood surrounding them. The hauls from yesterday are still being cleaned by rotating crews of men, women, and children that know how to prepare a fish for smoking. The sight of so many little pillars of smoke, each one helping make our immediate future a little easier, makes the compound look like a land of pillars reaching up to the sky.

  A bit poetic, I know, but the sheer amount of fish and other food brought in yesterday and still being brought in, is amazing.

  We're going to be eating most of this meat shortly--a small group of people that have a lot of experience curing meat are going to be working to preserve as much as possible, but most will have to be eaten. Smoked meat isn't going to last all that long, but at least we can eat it that way. So I'm told, anyway. I'm not far away from a willingness to eat it raw. I've been eating less than my current ration of food the last few days, saving up the extra just in case.

  At least our animals are eating well. We still have a ton of dry animal food left, though I don't know how long it will stay good for. Even if we run out or it goes bad, there's always bits and pieces left over from every kill from our hunts, offal and the like we can't eat. When you've got less than two dozen dogs and a handful of cats, the leavings from what feeds several hundred people is more than enough.

  I've heard that a few hunting teams have encountered packs of wild dogs, which shouldn't be surprising. With zombies roaming the land, I'd imagine the old instincts would have reasserted themselves in the abandoned pets that are victims of the zombie plague every bit as much as we are. They band together to survive, and reports indicate a pretty visible population growth.

  I haven't seen anyone eating dog yet, which isn't to say it won't happen at some point. We're treading water, but for right now things aren't to that extreme.

  The only strange thing is that, again, there's been little reaction from the homesteaders. Most of them seemed mildly happy with the results of yesterday's "fishing with dynamite" adventure, but given how ardently most of them have been supporting any kind of action that will keep our people from severe rationing, I'd have thought to see a little more jubilation from them. Hell, I'd take smarmy satisfaction and a condescending chant of "Told you so!"

  Maybe they're finally getting that none of us here are enemies. Maybe they're starting to admit to themselves that while they may disagree with many of us, their fellow citizens, on many things, that we're ultimately all in this together.

  Maybe.

  Saturday, July 2, 2011

  Countless

  Posted by Josh Guess

  We're gearing up for an all-out assault. All the hunting teams have pulled back to the compound today, as soon as word came in from our scouts that a huge force of zombies was spotted a few miles away.

  We've been afraid a large number of them would give us a shot. That's always a fear, of course, but more so since losing one of our farms. We've got every available person ready to fight, and Will is seeing to the defensive measures along with Dodger.

  The estimates are wide and questionable, but there were too many zombies in the large patch of woods where they were discovered to be counted. It's hundreds at the very least, and more likely thousands.

  We're tired, hot, and hungry. We're frustrated and divided as a people. This kind of threat is exactly what brings us together. Too often we forget what forged us into a community in the first place. In the humdrum days of getting other work done, in the hungry times where food is our largest concern, we lose sight. It doesn't seem possible to forget, but w
e do.

  The good news is that we've had warning which gives us time to prepare. We've still got a scout waiting within visual distance of the woods where the zombies are massing. He'll give us a call when they get moving, and since it's a few miles away we'll still have at least half an hour before they hit us. We're not just going to sit still and take the hit, either.

  We're going to hit them as hard as we can. In this the citizens of the compound are a unified force. We may have our differences, but every single one of us will stand and fight.