Living With the Dead: The Hungry Land (20 page)

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Southern Bound

Posted by Josh Guess

Well, I'm starting to feel a little better. I hate being sick, but the first half of this year seems to have been the time for me to get that way.
Part of why it's so annoying to me is that I hate feeling helpless. I've always liked knowing that if all else fails, I can take care of myself. That's especially important to me now with zombies a constant threat outside the walls of the compound. I hate knowing that I can't do my part because of illness.
I'm not quite up to going out for walks yet, and my innards are still on shaky ground so I'm not getting a full measure of sleep. That's why I'm up so early, and since nothing important or dramatic happened overnight I don't have anything new to tell you.
Oh, maybe that's not true. There are a few little things going on around here that may be of interest...
Yesterday it got to almost 90 degrees outside. This is hotter than it's gotten so far this year by a wide margin, and it had the interesting effect of slowing down the zombies outside. Not in the same way that the cold did at first, which was physical. The rapid changes the undead seem to go through seem to have made them less tolerant to the heat. Their physical movements don't seem hindered in and of themselves, but their mental acuity (such as it is) appears to be blunted by high temperatures. They seemed listless and confused yesterday, which is a far cry from the vicious if uncoordinated zombie behavior in Winter.
The good news there is that while the zombies seem very physically able, the loss of what little mental edge they have means they're easy pickings for our archers on the wall. Not to mention that they have been stumbling into and scrambling up the berms outside the walls and then falling into the pits. We tend to just keep a few people in hidey holes outside the walls for when this happens, so they can quickly kill the zombies that do fall in with a hand held weapon. As much as I detest the heat since glorious central air is now a thing of the past, I'm pleased that for at least a little while we'll have some measure of advantage over the undead.
I'm probably going to go out hunting for a laptop before very long. Mine is elderly and not working as well as it used to, and the cord is fraying to the point that I'm beginning to seriously worry about shocking my genitals every time I use it as it was intended. Random, I know, but true.
I guess that's a good lead-in to the only other bit of news I have to share. I'm going to be taking a run outside the compound with Jess and a few others (there has been discussion of allowing Will Price to come with us) to look into a small group of survivors down in Tennessee. They have been in touch with us off and on for several months, and they aren't actually all that far away if the roads are clear. They want to join us, and when we told them that our food supplies are low and fluctuating, they told us that they've got a big stock of food to share. So, I will be going to assess the food and other supplies they'd be bringing in. Jess is going to help with that as well as do the whole bodyguard things since I'm still weak. Courtney is coming since she's our diplomat, Steve will join her since I don't think those two can handle being apart for more than a few days. Steve is one of my best friends, almost a brother, yet it still wigs me out to see him as such an efficient and scary fighter. I still look at him as my little nerdy friend. We still play D&D together, which doesn't help that set of contrasting mental images...
Will may be going simply because Dodger can't spare anyone else who has Will's knowledge of defenses and weaponry. I don't have a problem with it, really, and neither does Jess. I'm not certain how Courtney and Steve feel about it but I know that if they agree to let him come they'll treat him like a member of the team. Out there, to do otherwise would be suicide.
I'll let you know if we end up having anyone else join us. It's all up to the council, and I think the only reason I'm getting to go is because with my fellow coordinators working like busy bees, I can be spared. Not to mention I've got the most experience judging these sorts of things.
Still, I don't like the idea of leaving during such a rough time. But it this can help us in the long term, I guess it's the right thing to do...

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Hamburgers

Posted by Josh Guess

Yes. This post is about hamburgers. You have no idea how much I've missed them.
One of our scout teams (now my favorite scout team EVER) went about twenty miles away late last night looking for game. Somewhere in the rural area between here and Georgetown, they found a whole bunch of cows grazing in a herd. The team had taken a few of the heavy duty pickups. Cue maniacal laugh at the thought of delicious beef.
It wasn't hunting, really. The cows didn't even try to run. I kind of feel bad about that, being the animal fanatic that I am. All told, more than a dozen of them were killed using some of our precious bullets. The scout team butchered the cattle as well as they could in the field and loaded them up.
So today, there were lots of cuts of meat for people. I surprised myself by not really caring about steaks or anything fancy--I just wanted a burger. With cheese. We keep dairy cows, and some of the farmers make cheese. So that's what I got. I almost cried when I took my first bite, though it was sans condiments except for a few early tomato slices and some pickles that Jess brined herself. Delicious doesn't even begin to describe it.
Funny how a day spent eating fatty beef to fill the stomach seems to put smiles on a lot of faces. I can't remember the last time I saw so many people looking happy at one time. It's a fitting way for things to be on the eve of our trip to Tennessee.
I was hoping to have longer before we needed to go, but the council has been talking with the group that is asking to join us pretty much nonstop for the last two days. The consensus is that our mutual best interests would be served by going sooner rather than later. I can see the logic in it, since more people means more security, more hands to plant foodstuffs, etc. Then again, if the food stores and seed plants that the Tennessee group claims they have aren't accurate, taking them on could end up being a burden that the compound won't be able to bear.
I've heard some news in the last day that several of the groups of survivors we've been in touch with further south have been in talks to decide whether they should combine their numbers and try to expand the land they can cultivate. From what I've been able to gather, it seems like what we've been dealing with here at the compound is actually pretty typical for most of the large groups. With the easily acquired canned food running out or expiring and winter stores starting to thin out, many people all over are facing difficulties providing enough food. Of course, there are levels of survival to consider in that equation. People can live off very few calories, even to the point of severe malnutrition.
You don't want the guy guarding your perimeter weak from hunger, though. Nor do you want him to have to patrol it for twelve hours at a time because you can only provide solid meals for a limited number of people. There are a hundred little issues to consider when you ration meals, and a thousand more that matter when you throw in the immense danger we face. Making sure that dozens of people have enough to eat is hard. Ten times as hard when the numbers are in the hundreds.
North Jackson is a little over a thousand strong now. Maybe I should shoot them an email and see how they're doing with that...
At any rate, I had a lovely early lunch with my wife and a few friends. We talked about the trip, planned for it as best we could, and generally just enjoyed each others company. Tomorrow, our path forward will get murky again, going down highways that none of us have driven since The Fall began. We'll probably go nuts trying to maneuver through abandoned cars. We'll almost certainly encounter swarms of zombies. We may face marauders, or natural disasters, or any number of other threats that we haven't thought of.
That's tomorrow, though. Right this second I intend on seeing if there are any burgers left. Then I might say goodbye to some folks I've spent too little time with, and make sure Pat will watch my animals while I'm away.
My poor baby chicken will miss us so much.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Deja Vu

Posted by Josh Guess

We left the compound a little later than planned this morning due to an unfortunate case of forgetting to pack my clothes. The zombie apocalypse might have come, but some things never change.
We're camped out right now about twenty miles into Tennessee. The going through Kentucky was clear for the first few hours, though we had to drive slowly. It's funny, but I don't even think about going highway speeds anymore. There's too much risk involved in that--zombies and animals dashing in front of your car, unnoticed debris that can shred tires, even trapped sections of road meant to halt aggressors. Even when the roads are perfectly clear, we take it slow and careful. Actually, we're especially cautious when things are going well.
Paranoia is a way of life.
We had to take a few detours when we got a good pace south, though. The main road was washed out in places by what looks to have been pretty severe flooding. That took a while to navigate, and we were super careful after that. You never know when erosion has reared its ugly head and swept away 90% of the dirt supporting a road where you can't see it. I've got no desire to spend my last few seconds fervently wishing I'd driven five miles an hour slower and saved my spine from being sheared in half.
Ugh, that's gruesome. I guess I'm in a gruesome mood.
The reason for that is simple. We've decided to make camp in one of the safest places we could find: one of the many, many rest areas that dot the US interstate highway system. This one is pretty big and has couches and chairs in it, so at least some of us will be able to get comfy tonight. I'm pretty beat so I don't feel too guilty about wasting most of an evening of driving. I don't know that we could have found anything nearly as secure between here and nightfall.
I just hate these places now. Ever since Jess and I got trapped in that one up in Michigan, I've gotten the creeps just passing them on the road. I remember being a kid, traveling from Illinois to Kentucky with my mom. They seemed so neat and unique to me, little islands of temperature-controlled civilization right in the middle of endless miles of empty road. Now they just remind me of getting trapped by my own stupidity.
Not this time, though. we've parked our vehicles very close to the building (one of them right up against it) and have taken precautions to make escape simple and easy. The glass in the windows and doors is thick and strong, just like most of these places. Built for durability and limited maintenance. That thick glass might leave us exposed, but it also gives us visibility. I'm sitting on a stone bench right now, looking outside. I can see the undead moving toward us even though we've been here less than half an hour. They tend to clump near places where people used to gather.
Given the near torrential rains last month and the clear signs of terrible flooding, it's up in the air what kind of condition we'll find the roads ahead of us in. There aren't any road crews out there to clear fallen trees or patch potholes. We'll take it easy and minimize risks.
I'm just really glad the council let us take one of the smaller portable cell transmitters with us. I'm jazzed about having guaranteed communications wherever we go.
Now, to figure out how to cook food in here.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Rolling With Heat

Posted by Josh Guess

Not too long a post here since our group is getting ready to head out, but I wanted to leave something on the blog so everyone knows we're OK and survived the night without incident. Maybe that's just my discomfort at being stuck in a rest stop again showing through.
I spent the night on the floor snuggled up between Jess and Becky. It got surprisingly cold in here after dark, much more so than I would have expected. The others won the draw for couches and chairs, but I was happy to zip our sleeping bags together and keep warm with my two favorite ladies. It's kind of funny how both of them are similar in that way: Jess and Becky both like to get close and tangle up with someone when they sleep. I'm the opposite in that I'm used to having my own little space to curl up in. As chilly as the rest stop got last night, I broke that habit.
Will ended up coming with us, I don't know if I mentioned that before. For his safety and with hasty escapes in mind, Will isn't being cuffed or shackled on this trip. I only speak for myself here, but I don't think it's very likely that he'd do anything to harm any of us. I don't discount the very slim possibility that he might try to escape, but I doubt it. Even if he did get past all of us or managed to sneak out without waking anyone, where would he go? All the keys to all the vehicles are kept safely in our pockets while we sleep, so that option is out. He probably wouldn't make it very far on foot if he got desperate enough to try.
Not that I think most groups of survivors would take him in. While our own people are split on the morality of Will's actions because we know him and understand his dilemma, outside of the compound the story is very different. For all the help he gave the people of North Jackson, they'd probably just capture him and send him back here if he made it all the way to Michigan. Most other groups consider him a traitor or too large a risk, which I'm told in almost every email I get from them...
Bah, kind of got of topic there. Wasted what little time I had. OK, on the road again. Wish us luck and safe roads.
Oh, and it's already over 80 degrees down here. I can't imagine how hot it's gonna be further south and later in the day.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Shredded

Posted by Josh Guess

We're still not to our destination. Right now we're taking a break from travel because frankly we have no idea how to bypass the obstruction in our way.
That obstruction being the debris let behind from what I have to assume was one hell of a flood. For the last several miles as we've tried to make our way south, we've run into piles of shattered trees and other assorted rubble that block every road we can find. Becky is looking over maps to see if she can figure out a way around that doesn't cost us another day.
It looks like what we encountered in Frankfort during the weeks of hard rain last month is nothing compared to what Tennessee got. I imagine this area must be something of a convergence point for the flood waters to the north. The huge mass of trees, limbs, cars, parts of houses, and other bits of junk seems to go on forever. It looks like the majority of the solids being swept along by the flood got stopped up somewhere and just started accumulate. Then everything dried out, and this miles-long snaking roadblock is left.
We've had enough to slow us down that we really didn't need this too. The roads are worse here than we could have imagined, and last night we all caught some sleep in the vehicles since we couldn't find a safe place to camp. If we can't make it to the group we're headed toward by tonight, we'll have to turn around and chalk it up to a loss.
Damn, I see some zombies coming out of the woods about five hundred feet away. This might get ugly.