I really wish we could just get in the trucks and head out to that fucking restaurant supply business, but the reality is, we’d be killed. I know it with complete certainty. I’m really hoping Gilbert or Gavin comes to me in one of my infamous dreams, and they send me some amazing message that makes my life go much easier. I’m actually thinking that might be a possibility. If anyone is going to come through for me in the clutch, it’s Gilbert.
I KNOW that with certainty. Funny how things can change. Now that I know the one man I completely trusted after the end of the world betrayed me, I feel like I trust him even more. Sometimes trying to make sense of it all just makes things worse in my head.
While all that was going on, the rest of us on campus were working on the wall. However, with a fairly small crew, they were only able to do about 30 feet and I think that number is a stretch. Progress is progress though, and I’m happy whenever we can accomplish multiple things at the same time. Especially multiple important things at the same time. Very happy.
Today had toe pusher written all over it. Some turds circled the drain, and they got gently mashed down the grate, but fortunately none of us got pushed down with that shit. Oh, speaking of which, Chris’ arm is broke in a few places. I don’t remember how much detail I went into earlier, but it’s broken clean in three places. He’ll be in a cast for at least six weeks according to Doc Lindsey. For the moment though, he’s useless. He’s on campus only duty for the moment, but at least he’s alive, and he still has his arm mostly attached. I don't know if he'll need surgery and neither does Doc Lindsey but she's playing it by ear and watching close for infection.
As you might imagine, he didn’t accompany us on our trip to MGR today.
Because of our recent attack at the municipal station, we elected to roll exceptionally heavy today. We brought the semi trailer that had the tower in it obviously, plus two humvees, the ladder truck, and the HRT. As far as staffing is concerned, we brought Mike, Hector, James (sitting in the HRT passenger seat operating as a shooter/spotter), Dwayne, Alex, George, Chad, Abby, Patty, Martin, Blake, and Angela.
What scares me about that is it meant we left Ollie and Melissa in charge over all the new folks at campus. Ollie is not a hardcore shooter, nor is Melissa, especially now that she’s getting big and fat with that spud inside her belly. She’s been struggling with the pregnancy too, according to Ollie. Lots of back pain and cramps at night I guess, and she’s had morning sickness here and there, but when it hits, Ollie says it’s debilitating. I guess it's also unusual to have morning sickness this late in the pregnancy, but this is a subject I am far from being knowledgeable on. I really don’t want to put any additional bullshit on her, but life is filled with it, and we all need to find a way to shovel it, or get buried in it. It pained me to leave them behind, but we really needed the manpower at MGR for safety and security.
Martin and Blake had a winch they found somewhere that was pretty industrially powered. When we rolled into the MGR area of town, the first order of business was securing that area, and getting that winch to the top so we could get the tower up.
The undead presence at the base of MGR was very manageable all day. I think the largest push we had all day was perhaps ten undead, and with all those well trained shooters it was a piece of cake. I think the two worst parts were the waiting for those assholes that shot at us the other day to show up again, and the actual raising of the tower. The raising didn’t go quite as smoothly, or as fast as we’d hoped.
Here’s the laundry list of the shit that went awry on us:
Martin and Blake had to attach the winch to the rooftop with a cement bolt gun, or whatever they call it. They had to enter at the ground level and run all the way up to the roof carrying the damn winch, which was at least a three person job. Fucking thing was heavy as balls. When we were winching the tower up on the first try, two of the bolts holding the winch came loose from the roof, and the winch was maybe five seconds from ripping free and sending the whole tower smashing to the ground. Fortunately, Blake was a ninja on the winch, and hit the switch letting the cable play out. The tower slid down, and he managed to hit the switch again just in time to catch it before it crashed. The winch ripped free from the moorings at that moment, but only went about five feet before clanging off an air conditioning unit on the roof. Talk about lucky. Everything could've shit the bed all at once had that not worked out.
They had to remount the winch, as well as tie some length of rope to the tower to steer it as well as add some manpower to take the strain off the winch itself. The second attempt was far more successful. Getting it up and over the edge of the building turned out to be a task that required extra people. Leveraging that much weight up and over the corner wasn't something they could do easily.
Once they got the tower up to the roof we miscalculated the amount of area needed to move the damn tower around in, and they needed extra assistance from the security folks to get it all done. I wound up running up to the top of the building to lend an extra two hundred pounds of muscle to get it all done. We needed to more or less tip this thirty odd foot tall tower upright using just muscle, and a single nylon cord wrapped around what I think was a fire sprinkler pipe. I think I busted a disc or two in my back doing it, but we got it upright and in position.
Hector and Blake took over mounting the tower. They used a tap and die set to get bolt mounts put into somewhere solid, but even after fully bolting the tower down they all thought that it’d need wires as well to keep it from blowing away. Blake and Martin are going to scour campus and the surrounding towns to find strong wire and appropriately strong clips to attach it with.
Hector started to run the wiring and the gear down to the fifth floor of the building, but once he started the whole process, it became clear that there was no way he was going to get it done in any kind of a reasonable timeframe. He elected to remain behind by himself to get more work done. We were really not keen on him staying alone there to do work, and without a minute’s hesitation, Dwayne raised his big ass hand and volunteered to stay with him.
Dwayne’s a big guy, and he’s smart as well, so the two of them were a really great pair to get technical work done safely. Once we’d made sure they had enough ammunition, a scoped longer range weapon, and food and water to last at least through two nights we packed everything up, and left MGR. As we drove back, we calculated the exact distance the radios work, and they don’t quite reach campus. As in, there was a three mile span of dead silence.
Clearly worrisome. However, it’s not like we haven’t spent nights or days apart before. Like when I was scouting Westfield, and was out of radio contact for extended periods. It just worries me to have anyone out of my realm of protection for any period of time. What’s that called? A paternal instinct? Fucked if I know. I don’t feel like a dad to these people.
Oh, and I’ve forgotten to mention that Hector and Blake both fully believe that there isn’t enough power available at MGR to properly run the repeater, as well as deal with the energy needs that the staff there will be requiring. We need to get another generator transported there, and if we can, I’d like to find more solar panels to go there. I now feel like a tool for moving the solar panels from there to the gym, but at least now we’ve some power going to the pumps and lights for the hydro setup on campus.
So here’s the plan for now. We’re guessing it’ll take a day or two for Hector to get the tower more or less hooked up and running. I’m not sure what he’s going to need for the long term to make it permanent and functional, but I believe he has enough for now to get it up and running. I KNOW we need more power there, as well as here on campus, and that’s now our main priority.
We’re breaking up into two parties tomorrow to go outside the wall to look for more solar panels, and portable power generators. We need a beefy one to go there to run everything in tip top shape, or at least a smaller one and a few solar panels to run together. Hector’s got enough brains to hook it all up, we just need to give hi
m the proper tools to make it happen.
I’m really hoping we find panels. I know I wasn’t looking for them when I was clearing houses all winter, and if you add the fact that most roofs were covered in snow at the time anyway, I’m betting there are at least four or five houses around here that have panels we can remove. It's also a safe be that locals with panels got them from STIG, which means if that's the case, we are already sort of knowledgeable about their removal and installation.
As I said, our reliance on diesel and gasoline needs to get addressed, and quickly. We also need to hit Gilbert’s place, and finish the wall, and go to the clinic in Westfield, get the rest of Lenny’s cows from his farm, build the fences to contain those cows, and safely train Doc Lindsey before we die of some horrid injury or disease, etc.
But that and all the other shit I’m forgetting about is for another day.
-Adrian
August 2011
August 1st
Sup Mr. Journal? I’m in a great fucking mood today. No sarcasm here either. Genuinely pretty happy with things as they are. We’ve gotten a lot done, and we took most of this afternoon off to celebrate it.
Where to begin? How about I share the fact that Mallory’s “salon” is now up and running in the admin building. Yesterday Martin and Blake tackled the project and hammered it out in what amounts to record time. I know I said it was fully set up before but that was a clear exaggeration. It’s fucking great to have a pair of guys that are so handy around here. I don’t know how we got anything done before we had them. Now that the two of them are working together it seems like no project is out of reach for us. Finding and rescuing all those people form MGR was worth it, if only for Martin’s wide array of practical knowledge.
Anyway, bromance moment aside, Martin and Blake ran some basic plumbing to the sinks we stole from that small salon as well as mounting her hair cutting chairs into the floor, and wound up setting her entire place in motion all in one afternoon yesterday. It still needs some TLC to look professional, but Mallory started giving trims to folks almost immediately. I’m shocked at the size of the lines she had. Well, saying she had lines isn’t accurate. Not like they wrapped around the block or anything, but she always had at least one person waiting to get their hair cut. Encouraging to me to know that there really was a demand for folks to get their hair tidied up. Men and women both.
Now that so many people have fresh haircuts, I’m really surprised that I didn’t realize up until just now how ugly we all were. Everyone is or was pretty shaggy and our hair is stringy and greasy. Most of the women just pull their hair back, and the men are either buzzed, or have long nasty hair that hangs in front of their eyes. Based on appearance alone, my dad would’ve described us all as a bunch of “hippie commie pussies.” Now that some of us have decent haircuts, we’re starting to look like civilized people again. It’s weird and cool. Mallory trimmed my Mohawk up nicely, and I feel like a fresh man. Feels good to… feel good Mr. Journal.
Besides getting everything rolling with the salon yesterday, we went outside the wall for the entire day split up into two teams to tackle two problems. Firstly, we wanted to run a team to go back over every single house we’d already cleared and check them for solar panels. I led that team, because I already knew where I’d been, and it required a smaller group, so I was more comfortable rolling out with fewer people and less support. I had Patty and George with me in a humvee. We grabbed a large ladder so we could get on roofs if need be.
Our second group cleared more homes that were fresh in the hopes we’d find more gas powered generators. The group rolled out fairly large and heavy again in a humvee, the HRT, and the semi trailer in the hopes we’d find something large and super awesome. That group consisted of Abby, Angela, Mike, Alex, Danny Jr., Chad, James, Ryan, and Julie. (Martin’s wife)
It didn’t take my group long to finish our search. The vast majority of our time was spent driving around, and not actually doing much of anything. Of all the houses our group has cleared, we found two houses with solar panels on the roof. I had really been hoping for more like five or six, but one house had a shitload of panels on it, and the other had what appeared to be a normal amount.
We didn’t have any storage space in the humvee so obviously we didn’t take any of the panels yesterday. We checked the panels out and snapped some digital pictures to show Martin, Hector and Blake exactly what they’d be dealing with when they returned to remove them. When we got back last night and shared the snapshots, they said the big house had standard electrical power panels, but the small house had the panels that only warm water. Logistically, I don’t know what we’ll do with the different types yet, but I’m sure one of us will come up with a bright idea soon enough.
The undead presence we encountered when we were out was marginal. I was kind of surprised to run into so few but really it does make some sense. We have been killing quite a few as we move about, and if those assholes in the Mercedes station wagons are still moving about (which they appear to be, more on that later), they’re likely killing them too. I am still worried about crossing paths with those assholes again. I am less worried about shambling, stupid dead bodies than I am about living, breathing people with guns that are trying to kill me.
After my group returned home, we pitched in on the salon work, helped the kitchen people with preparing dinner, and I relaxed and watched everyone get haircuts as they could. It was a good day for our team.
The other team had some struggles on their house clearing work. Mike was LIVID when they got back last night, despite them finding a reasonably large amount of good haulage. Geographically speaking they wanted to go rural. It made more sense to us that we’d find generators further outside of town. In town we didn’t lose power much during storms, but the longer power lines heading out into the countryside naturally led to more power outages. Frequent outages typically drive people to buy generators. In light of that, they headed out to the area near The Farm, and hit the dozen or so farms and large colonials out in that neck of the woods.
I guess there were just a ton of mistakes made. First off I should say that every one of the houses they cleared had dead people inside it. Not the good kind of dead people that are permanently dead and understand how this shit should be working either. The kind of dead people who are still standing, and try to eat you when they see you. So there were no walks to first base, if you get my meaning Mr. Journal.
Mike said they had a LOT of near misses due to friendly fire inside the houses. Some folks just not paying enough attention to where their guns were pointed, and where the other people in the house were, relative to their position. It’s so easy to shoot someone when things are safe, let alone when you’re in actual danger. Our 5.56 rifles punch through house walls like they aren’t even there. Never mind the heavier hunting style high velocity rifles we’ve got. It's really fucking easy to kill people by accident. Mike I guess chewed some asses out, and by the end of the day, they were running much more smoothly. That doesn’t change the fact that some folks almost got shot though. Scary stuff.
Mike did say Chad was acting weird during the house clearing trip. Just hanging near the back of the group a lot, and not stepping up much, like he was extra afraid or something. I don’t know if he “knew” something bad was going to happen, or maybe he was sitting back to orchestrate a bad situation to make things more dangerous for them. I just don’t know. Mike didn’t catch him doing anything specifically shady, so it’s just Mike’s gut instinct to go on. There are worse sources for me to take into counsel however.
Oh, speaking of the haul they got. Three gas powered generators, and they found one house with a facing of the roof covered in solar panels. Thank God for the green movement. They left the panels for removal on another day, but the generators came back with them. Incidentally, all of those homes had been entirely picked clean of food and usable loot. The obvious answer to why is The Farm having picked the neighborhood over. They would’ve taken everything but the
generators. Remember the Pastor wanting to bring things back to a simpler way of life?
Crazy asshole.
Our plan for Hector and Dwayne at MGR was to wait until about two in the afternoon today and drive over to make sure they were doing well. We adjusted our plan immediately when we got word from Hector via radio at about eleven in the morning today. He’d gotten the tower installed with Dwayne’s help, and they had boosted the radio power so they could reach us all the way from the center of downtown. Insanity.
If the repeater tower works as it was intended, then we’ve got radio contact at least this far out heading in all directions from MGR. It could be twenty miles or more. I’m not sure exactly what the specs are on the signal boost, but if folks were using them to chain together radio contact before things died out, then there has GOT to be a huge distance it can reach. Well, when it’s full powered I guess. Hector said he had news for us, and he wanted us to come get him and Dwayne as fast as was convenient.
It took us an hour to spool up a team and head out. His sense of urgency was contained in his contact, but Mike and I both felt like he was worried about something and that in turn got us a little worried. When we arrived, there were a handful of undead in the street, and we dropped them with halligans and bats. Yay for not wasting ammunition.
Alright so Hector said staffing MGR was a must. He said during the night he and Dwayne observed at least thirty or forty undead moving about town, and more importantly, he saw both of those diesel station wagons trucking around too. I guess they were moving about on the eastern edge of town, towards where you’d have to go to get to STIG.
Adrian's Undead Diary (Book 6): In the Arms of Family Page 16