Living With the Dead: Year One (Books 1-2, Bonus Material)

by Guess, Joshua; Ribken, Annetta; Ayers, Rachel; Whitwam, Lori

  If the zombies there are behaving in similar fashion to the ones here, then they are getting desperate. None of us are deluding ourselves that they will simply give up on cracking open one or both of our homes to get at the trove of people inside.

  Will, Courtney and Steve are working with Jack and his people to try and come up with a way to defend when the next attack comes. Ammo is getting tight and materials to make explosives are getting hard to scrape together. Hopefully someone will have a stroke of genius before the next attack, because no one is counting on outside help again. If whoever sent those choppers could have spared enough of them to wipe out more of the zombies, you think they would have, right?

  Until and unless the weather turns bad enough to halt the majority of the zombies, this is a threat that will have to be dealt with.

  Given how easy we've had it here, I can only think that the other shoe has to drop at some point. When are we going to be hit in a similar manner? Can we be lucky enough to be spared such an enormous assault as Jack and our people have been dealt with?

  Time is our enemy and friend here. We have to hope that the attacks here and at Jack's will hold off until a cold front moves in, or that we can at least survive them until one does. We are strong, and our will to live is nearly unbreakable.

  But they are legion.

  at 10:54 AM

  Thursday, October 14, 2010

  Ticking By

  Posted by Josh Guess

  Cold. Very cold here right now. No zombies in sight.

  We're as ready for winter here as we can be. Our stores are secured, the last of Roger's stoves are being installed, and we have enough fabric and wool to keep us in winter clothes and blankets through the harshest conditions.

  Not so up north. In the relative peace at Jack's compound right now, some people are doing an inventory of supplies. They are good on food since we've been trading with them and they have made some very successful supply runs into the surrounding towns (before the current problems, of course). They are short on some basic needs like extra clothes, fuel for cooking, stuff like that.

  It's stuff they can find, but not until Jack's people are free to move about. The massive horde that was driven off yesterday is still mostly out there, waiting. With so many vehicles damaged and so many strike teams dead, they have halted runs outside for now. The fact that no large groups of zombies are coming close to the walls only leads most of us to think that they are marshaling numbers for another try.

  It's cold up there as well, if not quite as brutal as it is here. But just as most people have a sense of when the weather is turning, so it seems do the zombies. They know what's coming, and they are acting out of a deep need to build up strength.

  The northern compound is simply in the midst of a waiting game. Here, we seem safe for now. Our main problems are internal, trying to decide how we need to address things here for the betterment of all. And, of course, waiting for the danger to be over at Jack's, so that our people can come home.

  at 9:42 AM

  Friday, October 15, 2010

  Casting the Net

  Posted by Josh Guess

  I just realized this morning that yesterday was my fifth anniversary with Jess. We got married last year, but we count our real one as the first night we spent with each other, the moment when mere interest bloomed into something more.

  I would love to say something about how much changes in five years, but really, the last year alone has had enough changes to make everything else seem rather minimal. I will say that there is no one on the planet I would rather have at my back, or spend my days with.

  That's enough of my drippy love. There are bigger things to talk about.

  This morning saw what we all hope is the last major fight at Jack's compound in Michigan. I will spare you too many details, since most of what I know are just battlefield numbers and logistical information, but I will give you a brief summary. It is my hope that Courtney will find the time to post something soon in order to paint a more accurate and vivid account.

  Casualty reports are still coming in, but I can say for certain that they weren't very heavy. The attack came just after dawn, several thousand zombies in loose groups aimed at the gates to Jack's place. The initial response was pretty hectic from what I am told, and the fighting fierce enough that pretty much everyone from Jack on down was (or is, still) on the wall with a weapon in hand. Small groups of gunners fired what little explosives were left into the crowds even as the pit traps and stakes warded a number of the undead back.

  The sound of gunfire became more and more sparse as the morning wore on, ammunition stretched thin over almost two weeks of constant struggle finally running out. Enough materials are on hand in that industrial complex those folks call home to fashion plenty of simpler weapons, but guns are one of the strongest advantages we have over the zombies. While lots of people on the walls there have bows made of metal and thin steel or aluminum arrows to fire from them, they aren't nearly as effective as bullets for stopping power.

  Of course, Will, Courtney and Steve have been working with some of the people up there in charge of developing weapons and defenses to come up with new ideas. I don't want to act as though my three friends had this sudden brainstorm and saved the day, but each of them definitely had ideas that others hadn't considered.

  For example, Steve heard that the idea to build ballista, or giant crossbows, was nixed a few months ago because of the stopping power problem with arrows. When he heard this, he came up with the idea to alter the bolts such weapons would fire so that they were long and hooked, able to pierce several zombies at a time and pin them to the ground, unable to move. The mechanics and engineers at Jack's place apparently hadn't considered such an option, which makes sense how pressed for time they must have felt while looking for defense solutions.

  Courtney, as I have said, has been working with these folks a lot lately. She has given them tons of ideas, some workable and many not, but the most recent was altering some of the air driven guns used for firing those (completely AWESOME) spear-like pipe bombs into giant shotguns. There is a lot of gravel and loose rock around there, and her thinking was that pretty much anything sharp and/or hard fired by a hundred or so PSI becomes fatal. Those things are working out well, though the range is pretty short.

  Will, though...that guy is a fucking genius. And sort of stupid.

  It took him all this time to realize that there is always electricity up there. He's been trying to think of a method to kill or disable large numbers of zombies for a long time, and he never put two and two together until day before yesterday. When he got a very detailed look at one of the supply dumps around Jack's that he had missed on his first go round, will found everything he could hope for.

  Huge spools of raw copper wire, ranging in thickness from barely larger than a human hair to nearly as big around as a pinkie. He spent some time with a few engineers reworking some of the air cannons himself, and managed to come up with one hell of a device. Just thinking about what it must have looked like in action gives me a shiver. I don't want to imagine what it had to smell like.

  Huge, thin nets of copper fired one after another, each trailing a thick wire. Men on the walls spraying a fine mist of water in bursts across the zombies that had made it past the stakes, had managed to evade the bombs.

  They let the undead get very close, bunched up...and tangled. Soaked and grouped together, they didn't stand a chance when Will signaled for the switch to be thrown. At least half of the attacking swarm died as once, convulsing violently as nearly the entire power capacity of Jack's compound crackled through them.

  I might be making this a little more descriptive than it was given to me. Author's privilege. My imagination took the information I was sent and built this amazing picture, and that's how I have to share it.

  Those zombies that didn't die from the raw power popping them like so much corn were so incapacitated that archers and air guns easily cleaned them up. What's really amazi
ng is that the swarm kept coming, the ones in the rear of the groups unaware of the nature of the threat and pushing their fellows ahead. The great thing about electricity is that it isn't picky about what part of the body it touches...

  Long story short, almost every zombie on the field this morning is now just another log to throw on the pyres. Those that didn't die by voltage were snapped off by the defenders, on the wall and those who began to lead strikes out into the thinning field.

  It looks like they've won, and you can't ask for more than that. We will aid Jack's people in procuring more ammo and other needed supplies now that doing so won't be fatal almost to a certainty, and then our folks will come home.

  Oh, and as of right now, it's ten degrees cooler at Jack's than it was at this time yesterday. Looks like a good break ahead for them. Time enough to resupply and dig in for the winter, and to mourn the dead.

  At our compound, every one of us will raise a glass to the brave men and women who fought and died there, to defend their small pocket of life and love once again. Our hearts are with every one of you who lost and hurt over this difficult time, and our pride for your spirit and determination knows no bounds. You are a testament to the wondrous variety present in the human race--you fight, you teach, you build and redesign. Many of you have learned new skills when the need came, and perfected them in short order. When my friends had some ideas, you ran with them and made basic sketches on scraps of paper in functional, devastatingly effective machines in no time flat.

  All the credit and honor belong to you.

  We're proud to call you all friends.

  at 12:11 PM

  Saturday, October 16, 2010

  Winding Down

  Posted by Josh Guess

  The weather has taken a turn for the worse. Well, I guess that's a matter of perspective. It was cold enough to frost today, both here and up north at the compound in Michigan, which is great for us and bad for zombies. Our guards haven't seen a single one from the compound's walls today.

  Still a lot of chaos going on up north. The huge slaughter of zombies there along with all the shrapnel and destruction requires a huge amount of cleanup. There were some explosions quite close to the wall that caused damage that has to be fixed, and the leadership there has been busy down in the trenches working with everyone else. That being said, things there are going well now that the worst of the fighting seems to be over.

  There remains the question of where the helicopters that strafed the assembled zombies the other day at Jack's came from. So far we haven't heard anything from any other survivors about where those choppers might have come from. No one has any clue. I highly doubt that they came from Richmond, which is the only military outpost that I know of with personnel still living at it. Too far away, and anyway Will says that they only had two functional helicopters left by the time he and his crew set out for Frankfort, and both of them were Blackhawks. Add to that a lack of fuel for them, and it seems that we have a mystery on our hands.

  But it's one that will have to wait for another day. Too much to do, and no time right now to investigate what is essentially a minor curiosity compared to other problems.

  Patrick and his team of salvage volunteers are anxious to get back to the factory where all the equipment is loaded up to be brought here for the construction of our power plant. He wants to get as much of it here as possible before the snow starts coming in, secure the turbines and flywheel modules. I have looked over the one flywheel that came in with their first run, and I have my doubts about whether or not we can make the things work as intended. These things are sensitive and complicated, and frankly I only have faint clues how it all goes together. Jack might be able to spare a person to help us with the plant, since his folks have specialties in things like this, but the technology we're trying to work with was still pretty new and untested, so we are trying to think up backups to the flywheels as a method of grid-level storage of energy...

  I digress. Pat and his team are staying here until our people come back from Michigan. We are going to hold a leadership vote when we get all our folks assembled, and that's not negotiable. We've been fragmented and arguing for far too long. And that's with external threats to unite us, hardships to prepare for as a community. I can't imagine how bad it could get with little to do during the winter as the zombies slow down and stop from the harsh weather. We need centralized leadership, a voice and vision to guide us. Someone to blame. That certainly brings people together.

  Ha.

  I kid, I kid. At any rate, we're all looking forward to having all our people home again. There are many places we are planning to go in the near future, new survivors to meet and some old friends that we have yet to sit face to face with that might come and join us. Once we have decided on a structure of leadership and those who will fill it, I and the council think that we will have stable enough foundations to truly begin to move forward as a community.

  After the vote, of course, people will go out again. Pat and his people will begin moving loads from the factory in earnest, our small group of diplomats will take trips to try and build relations with other survivors, and of course trade with the north will resume.

  And I will continue to pass it all on to you, so that every person who finds this blog in the here and now becomes aware that somewhere in th ruins of America, people are trying to keep the candles lit on the hope for a better tomorrow.

  But I also write for that very future, so that those who will hopefully come after will perhaps garner a better understanding of what we've done for them, and had to do for ourselves. My hope is that they can forgive us our mistakes and the brutal decisions we've had to make. And that by making them, our progeny realize that we had to make them so that they were spared the need.

  I'm off tomorrow, but back on Monday, as always. Be safe. Defend yourselves. Protect others. Hope for everyone.

  at 2:03 PM

  Monday, October 18, 2010

  The Hills Are Alive

  Posted by Josh Guess

  A bit of happy news for once, so I am going to forgo updates on the cleanup and whatnot.

  My brother has been working on something fun, and he's been sort of secretive about it. Yesterday morning he showed the rest of us what it was, and we had a good time.

  For about two weeks he's had a tarp thrown up over a small section of the empty lot next to what used to be my mom's house and is now our clinic. He's been hammering and sawing wood in his free hours in there, but wouldn't tell anyone what he was up to. Of course, the rest of us weren't going to cheat and look in there. We get precious little entertainment, and guessing what he's been up to has been a minor passtime for most of us.

  So yesterday he just takes the tarp down early in the morning. Not very many people were out and about, and the few that were active were mostly guards and had more important things to worry about.

  I woke up to beautiful music.

  Dave built a little theater, open to the air. It's about twenty feet across and maybe fifteen deep, all stage covered by a slanted roof. The roof is covered in solar panels, and he rigged up an array of batteries for storage. He built speaker cabinets into the thing, and after he got it all set up yesterday, he plugged in his electric acoustic and began to play.

  At first it was just random bits and pieces of songs. People all over woke up to the softly echoing notes, many of us throwing on boots over our pajamas and walking over to see what was going on.

  By the time I got there, a few people had joined in. Roger was there, singing in a strong and steady voice. A man whose name I don't know played the harmonica. Two sisters began a clapping rhythm to go with the song.

  The rest of the compound woke up to this spontaneous rendition of amazing grace.

  I left religion behind me a long time ago. I am spiritual and I do believe in a higher power, a creative force that we cannot begin to understand. I think that the message gets muddled because of our faults, that men who build institutions of faith build the fla
ws of men into them. But yesterday, I felt something much like I once did in church. The song moved me, to be sure, but more so was the power of the moment. So many of us brought together by those tender vibrations, singing the same words and laughing together at our varied abilities to carry tunes and find notes.

  The truly wonderful part of it was watching it grow and change. Other folks came on stage to sing or dance, play an instrument or simply drum on a bucket. It went on all day. It was awesome.