Living With the Dead: Year One

by Joshua Guess

  I sincerely hope that someday, we will have the need for a large representational government again. I believe in the power of democracy, and I yearn for the safety and population that will both allow and require it. Truly, I miss what we had. But this is our chance to revise the errors we once adhered to with all the conviction of young priests to the dogmas.

  Until that day comes, we will cannibalize what we need from here, and this place will be an empty tomb memorializing the idealists who built our nation, and standing as a warning to us of the egotists who corrupted that vision.

  I believe that the time will come when we can take the words of the founding fathers as they were meant: as basic guides for government and society. Jefferson himself believed that society would have to evolve and change, that only a self-correcting and progressive system of governance could survive long term. I will leave you with that quote:

  "Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the ark of the Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment... laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind... as that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, institutions must advance also, to keep pace with the times.... We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain forever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."

  Posted by Josh Guess at 10:13 AM

  Monday, August 9, 2010

  Another Brick

  Work work work work.

  We're doing nothing else but working on the wall, finishing it up and adding to it. Every single person we have is doing it, except for a few off duty folks who are either pregnant or injured. They are working to make food round the clock so we can work three shifts.

  Jack sent a bunch of trucks full of advance units of wall section along with fifty people to help install them. Jack is giving us a big hand here, and surely part of it is that if we all die, one of the bigger sources of their food will dry up.

  We've repulsed a few small attacks while we've been working, nothing we couldn't handle. All of us are on the razor's edge of wrath, tired as hell of having to constantly be on the alert. We have been extremely brutal and quick about taking them out...

  I need to finish my lunch and get back to the wall. But we will finish the wall in a few days. The framework was the hardest part, but we have been working on that for months. This is it. Soon, we will be able to relax for the first time since all of this began.

  Posted by Josh Guess at 11:12 AM

  Tuesday, August 10, 2010

  The Paradigm Shivers

  We're almost done with the walls. Pretty much everyone is falling over with exhaustion. We've burned a lot of fuel using some of our big machines to move large sections quickly. We decided to do this because of the risk we run while exposed. I would rather be safe and low on diesel than dead with full reserves.

  We used a lot of those old heavy wood doors from the capital for reinforcement all over the wall. Pretty much every square foot outside the wall is studded with stakes and pits.

  It's funny how any time we feel in the least secure, we begin to argue and debate among us. We endlessly discuss every aspect of our lives and our society, and it's only when we are faced with a clear and unifying threat that we let all of that fall away. When it really counts, we band together.

  I say this because there is already some serious talk along the wall as people work about changing the way things are run. Some folks think that the leadership is too close knit and from too small a group of people. Given that I was the one that started this place with my friends and family, I tend to think that you give credit to the people that have made the right calls and kept you alive. But that's me. I won't argue if folks around here choose to elect new leadership democratically. That's their right, and one I truly believe in.

  But I will definitely be cautious of any changes. I won't blindly follow someone who clearly has no idea what leadership is. I won't waste my effort working for a person that is obsessed with their own ideas over the good of the group. I have been that guy. I know the follies.

  My problem is that the dangers are just too real for me to be comfortable with people running this place that aren't already doing it. The council is mostly made up of folks who have been around here pretty much from the start, when the zombies still walked all over us on a regular basis and other survivors made war on us daily.

  The problem about a purely democratic society is that when the masses imbue one person or a small group with a tremendous amount of power, they tend to overuse that power at times. The way things are now seem pretty minimalist in terms of rules and governance, and most of us would like to keep it that way. But of course, you always have people who think there is a better way, a way that no one has considered.

  And there might be, I admit it. But given the mortality rates in this town, I think that we have done about as good a job as could be hoped for. Defensible fortress. Organized community and government. Plentiful food.

  Survival.

  I mean, what more can you ask for? It is because of that small group of people that we have communications with the outside world (or what's let of it anyway), why we have solar and wind power (and plans for more renewable energy down the road) for our lights...I just don't see what rocking the boat could do to improve our lot. But I am open to change if I can be convinced it's for the better.

  Got off on a tangent there, sorry. But since all we are doing is zombie-proofing the compound, not much else to write about but my random thoughts. Sue me.

  Ha. No lawyers. One advantage of society falling.

  Done with lunch, back to work now...

  Posted by Josh Guess at 11:40 AM

  Wednesday, August 11, 2010

  Coming Up Short

  The only kind of infection I worry about is from zombie bites. I have never been particularly fussed about putting neosporin on my cuts, or putting a band-aid over every little scratch. Call me wonky since I was raised by a nurse or two, but it just never bothered me, and I have never gotten an infected cut.

  But today, my feelings are slowly shifting. Funny, since now each tube of antibiotic ointment is part of a limited supply. We finished the wall about twenty minutes ago, and I helped hoist the last section of wall up. It slipped a little, and I helped catch it, giving myself a handful of splinters. Jess is picking them out of my left while I type this with my right, and it's slow going.

  Once again, a small accident has given me food for thought about our long term situation. A dozen splinters isn't really a big deal, but until and unless we can make our own medicines and medical supplies, we are running on a dwindling supply. Enough people received small injuries in the last few days to make Evans (our doctor) and Gabrielle (our head nurse/wound specialist/general badass) call the council together to discuss the matter. It's hardly surprising that the composite monstrosity that is our wall has been the source of injuries. We used everything and anything we could to get it built. It's an uneven beast at least ten feet high but up to twenty in some areas, made of everything; aluminum, steel, brick, cinder block, tree trunks, finished lumber, old wooden doors, desks, cars...you get the idea. Try working with any or all of that and not get hurt. I dare you.

  But it does bring up the need to bolster our medical supplies. Between the constant fighting and the hard labor we are burning through them at an alarming rate. We have some guides on how to make our own gauze and a few other similar items, but it won't be enough. We've cleaned out everywhere in town, doctors offices and the hospital, not that there was that much left in most places by the time we got to most of them. Don't get me wrong, we aren't in an emergency with supplies yet. But we will be desperate for them not too far down the road if we keep using them anywhere close to the rate we are now.

  So it's looking like a trip to scout for med
ical supplies. Others are planning it, a small group will go looking. I intend to volunteer, since I am pretty versed in what things are, what they are used for, and I'm good in a fight. Gabby will probably go as well, and that worries me. She's incredibly valuable to the community, not to mention her own family. We never want to risk people who have specializations, but sometimes circumstances demand.

  Posted by Josh Guess at 9:35 AM

  Thursday, August 12, 2010

  Practical Considerations

  I think I have to drop what I think is this blog's first lol. It's a nervous and funny sort of laugh but also one that comes from a place of intense relief. Outside there are many angry and hungry zombies beating on the walls. Our unbroken, guarded walls.

  It's one hell of a feeling.

  As a whole we're still licking our wounds from the beating we've taken retreating, fighting, and coming back. Most folks seem in relatively good cheer despite the hardships, and I think that speaks volumes about the resiliency of everyone who has survived up to this point. Those who can adapt and survive under the intense emotional strain will do so. Anyone who can't will go crazy and die.

  It is almost certain the the smart zombies (smarties) will continue to be a problem in the future. The very idea that they can infect and alter other zombies, even a small percentage, to be like them means that they are very much a long term threat. We have to assume that as other groups become more desperate for security and supplies, we will be attacked. The threats we face are many, but we are prepared.

  Fields have been sown, animals tended. Basic necessities are being made by hand. We are forging tools and weapons, getting better at hiding what farmlands we use outside our walls.

  It all comes back again to one of the most important things we simply must have: medicine and medical supplies. Ideas are being thrown around, places to check out being discussed. Vehicles are being looked at and tuned up for possible use. The last major items we need in case of a long, drawn out imprisonment in our own town are out there somewhere. We need them, of only for insurance that should we have to dig in here and face the possibility of not being able to leave, we will be able to keep our people alive.

  There are the usual dramas going on around here. People questioning authority, talking of major votes to change the way we operate. Those of us that decide how things are done are the ones making the practical choices to safeguard the future of all.

  I hope that is remembered.

  Posted by Josh Guess at 11:34 AM

  Friday, August 13, 2010

  Blah

  I'm sick.

  I woke up this morning with a terrible headache and intense nausea. I have been drinking lots of water and eating when I feel like I can, but I can't keep anything down. I feel like shit, and I ache all over. Summer Flu, I guess.

  We had our first real test of the newly finished wall last night. A fair sized group of zombies hit the east wall, which is the one that shares a border with the neighborhood next door. We're thinking of annexing it at some point, it's a nice place.

  I wasn't on patrol last night, but some of the folks that were swung by to fill me in. It was a group about a hundred strong, mixed normal zombies and smarties. The east wall has the highest concentration of short sections (only ten feet high), so I guess the smarties figured that to be the weakest point.

  Of course, they couldn't know that we wired up some of our small solar panels to batteries and hooked up some lights. Motion sensitive ones. Our guards knew they were coming, and the lights were bright enough to make them pause, and must have hurt their eyes for a minute because a lot of them were trying to shake away the sudden brightness. Our guards, of course, had no such problem. They were safely behind the bulbs and had clear views of the dazed undead.

  So they pretty much unloaded on them.

  Job well done, I'd say.

  It's sort of funny to me that the sound of gunfire won't even wake me up for more than a few seconds anymore. It's one of those things you get used to living in an armed camp, and I don't really know if that's a good thing or not.

  Ugh, I need to take a nap. This flu or whatever it is sucks, and it's making me dizzy just to sit up. Hopefully I will be feeling better tomorrow...

  Posted by Josh Guess at 1:09 PM

  Saturday, August 14, 2010

  Terror in the Sky

  A helicopter crashed somewhere nearby.

  We didn't even realize there was one flying around, but some of the zombies at the walls began to act funny, holding their ears like something was hurting them. It was a few seconds later that we could hear the beat of the rotors and the scream of what was plainly a dying engine. Guess the undead have sharper hearing than we thought.

  Jess and I were in the back yard harvesting summer squash (gross, but they grow like weeds and they keep us going) when we saw the thing go overhead. I have to think that it was heading for the hospital, since that is the direction it was going and the only helipad in the county. Not that it couldn't have landed somewhere else, but anyone with enough brains to fly the thing is probably smart enough to know that the hospital is the only game in town for fuel that will work in a helicopter.

  Of course, the hospital is the only game because we made sure that no one would want to get into the national guard armory or the airport. From the sky you can tell that both places have been gutted. We keep a lot of that stuff hidden elsewhere...just in case.

  But I digress.

  A team went out to find the wreckage and see if there are any survivors, or at least anything we can salvage. It scares me a little, because that wasn't a normal chopper. It was military. Anyone who saw it would have recognized the distinctive shape of a blackhawk. Hopefully this won't go in a bad direction and isn't a harbinger of renewed hostilities with ex-military or wanna-be commandos. We took such heavy losses last time...

  I'm hoping to hear something before too long. It won't take the team more than a quarter hour to get there, and only a few minutes to search. I just opened up an old bottle of Ancient Age and poured half a snifter. Thinking about what bad things might come of this, I really need a drink to calm my nerves.

  Maybe two.

  Posted by Josh Guess at 11:35 AM

  Sunday, August 15, 2010

  Blackhawk Down

  There were two survivors from the helicopter crash. One of them is still unconscious, and Evans isn't sure that he will ever wake up. The other has a broken arm and leg, but he's in decent shape otherwise.

  He claims to be a Lieutenant from the National Guard armory in Richmond, though I have no idea if they even have helicopters there. We have to take him at his word, I guess, because he hasn't given us any reason to think he is lying.

  I'm pretty good at reading mannerisms, being able to extrapolate motives and honesty by watching a person. Something about this man is off. It could simply be that he is hurt and frightened, unsure what his status is. It might be his military training, I don't know.

  His name is Will Price, and he's a smooth talker. Sometimes he seems terrified, and others totally at ease. When he saw my wife come in to his room with some gauze to wrap his wounds, he became very relaxed and affable, which is the effect most men feel when they see her cleavage.

  I really don't know what to make of him, and that bothers me. I am so used to having a definitive opinion on things, on people, that uncertainty really strikes a nerve. I want to believe the things he says, but again it just rings false in some ways.

  Oh, yeah. Didn't go into that yet.

  Ok, here's the skinny on Richmond. Lt. Price tells us that he and about a hundred other officers and enlisted are holed up in a hotel there. He says that they have tried to find other survivors with no success, and that they have large stocks of supplies taken from the surrounding stores as well as what they were able to take from the armory.

  As for the armory, he claims that the first thing he and his men did was to secure and hide much of the weaponry and ammunition there.

  The main str
eets of Richmond are clear, he says, but the outlying roads are choked with destruction, making it impossible for people to get in.

  That might be true, but we went through there on the way back from getting Evans, and the roads then were clear. I find it hard to imagine that a hundred patrolling soldiers with heavy weaponry would fail to miss a group of people destroying houses and piling up cars. It's much more likely that Lt. Price and his crew blocked the place off, but he says they didn't.

  Lie number one?

  I know, why should it worry or surprise me that he might be lying? I would do the same if it somehow protected the compound. I wouldn't blame the guy if every word he said was fantasy. What makes me sweat is that a military chopper loaded with weapons was crash landed here by someone with enough skill to do it and leave survivors.