by Rob Fox
Day 81
We all woke up at around the same time this morning. Having gotten a good amount of sleep, we were all anxious to see our surroundings. We felt like strangers in a strange land. We wandered through the halls of the old prison until we found Mego. She was sitting in the warden’s office, watching security cameras, drinking Captain Morgan’s Rum straight out of the bottle, and eating gummy bears. She welcomed us in to the office and asked us to sit down. Once we were seated, she began telling us a little about herself. She was a prison guard at that very facility when everything started. They locked the place down, hoping to avoid any infection in the prison, but like everything else needing to stay out of a prison, somehow the infection got in. Her and other fellow guards attempted to contain those infected by locking them in cells below the prison, but eventually it got out of hand. She is the lone survivor, and after clearing the main prison from the living dead, she decided to turn it into a sanctuary for any survivors she could find. There are still zombie inmates in the bottom part of the prison, but they are well secured. Mego told us that during the air strike, one part of the prison had been destroyed, but they blocked that part off and have two people guarding the spot at all times. They have no food reserves, so they have to go out scavenging for food whenever they can. She showed us on one of her monitors a little patch of ground that used to be a recreation area that is now used for growing plants. Their plan is to stay in that shelter and let the zombies outside starve to death.
I like her plan, but I fear that we are all just rats in a cage in here. If the zombies found out about the amount of people living in here, they would be all over this place, forcing their way in here, and we would have no place to run. I have already begun plotting our escape. I have a really bad feeling about this place. The whole place kind of creeps me out.
Mego told us there are thirty-seven people staying here. They are survivors from around the city that she found a few at a time while she was out looking for food. We just happened to be the latest ones found. As I was glancing around the room, I saw people with rifles in the guard towers and people walking up and down the prison’s inner walls. It was as if we were in a military base or a well-guarded compound in another country. Mego flipped a switch on one of the monitors to reveal a crowd of zombies. There must have been two hundred or more. They were all in a large dark room. I heard Tonya gasp a little at the sight. I felt very uncomfortable, and judging by the looks on Ed and Jeremiah’s faces, I could tell they were none too happy either. Mego assured us they are completely locked away with no chance of escaping.
During all of this, Cole stared out the window. He didn't say anything, just continued to stare. I got up to check on him. When I got to the window, I saw what had drawn his attention. From where we were in the prison, we could see over the entire city and beyond. Just past our location, heading straight towards the military base, was a mass of undead people. They looked like a dark black cloud in the distance. There were millions of them, as far in either direction as I could see. Cole looked up at me and asked, “What are we going to do?"
I had no good answer for him. All I could do was grab him by the arm and whisper, “Survive."
Day 82
We all stood by the window yesterday for hours, staring at the "black cloud," wondering how we are going to make it. Where can we go when everything around us is destroyed and when everyone is trying to get us? As we watched the millions of zombies, there was a huge explosion seen in the distance. Ed took a step back. He shook his head and said, "That's the base. We have nowhere to go."
Mego started laughing and pulled us away from the window. She walked back to the desk, plopped her feet up on the desk, and continued eating as if nothing had happened. We quickly excused ourselves and went on to tour the rest of the facility.
The rest of the day was rather boring. We walked around and met a few people staying in the compound. There were people from every walk of life, from the very poor to the very rich (or at one time they were rich). We met a doctor named Kenneth, who lost everything, including his whole family during the first wave of the undead. He said Mego found him wandering around the streets of the city over a month ago. He was a very angry and a glass-half-empty kind of guy. For some reason, he gave me the creeps, kind of like Roger did.
We met a really nice family from West Virginia, who just happened to be visiting the city when everything happened. They had stayed together, and all of them just happened to survive. They were very thankful for everything they had and were very optimistic. Cole met some girls that he seemed to have an instant crush on; they were just about his age, but after everything that had happened, a few years’ difference wouldn't really matter. I didn't have the heart to tell him not to get too comfortable, since we would be leaving in a few days. With a group of zombies as large as we had seen in the distance, being in this area was the worst place we could be.
I went to bed early last night and awoke early this morning. I have been enjoying the nice quiet life so far today. Alisha and Tonya have been getting to know each other today, and I get the feeling they are quickly becoming friends. Ed and Jeremiah have decided to go down to the basement/lower lock-up levels to ensure there are no escapes from the zombie inmates. Hopefully, things can settle down a bit before we have to leave.
Day 83
I am beginning to get the feeling Mego does not want us to leave. I mentioned it to her late last night. She didn't say we couldn't go, but she just tried to talk me into staying. She said we (the human race) need to stay together, to repopulate the world once the zombies are gone. Now, I for one completely agree. We do need to stick together, but we need to do it far away from the city area. I give it a few more days before the zombies find out our location and decide they want in here. We need to get someplace safe. I don't know whether that means the desert, the arctic, or some tropical island, but I know we can't stay here. These walls may keep a couple of hundred, maybe even a couple of thousand out, but it would never hold the millions out there. I don't know if it is safe anywhere. I thanked her for her hospitality but told her we (meaning myself and anyone who wanted to go with me) would be leaving soon. She just laughed and put her arm around me and said, "I'm sure you'll change your mind soon, honey."
I slept in a little this morning, since I was up so late last night. When I awoke this morning, Kenneth and Tonya greeted me. They were standing by the door to my "room" arguing. When I walked around the corner, everything got silent. Tonya stared down at the ground, while Kenneth stared at me as if he had something to say. When I asked them what was going on, Kenneth began to say something but was stopped short by Tonya's sharp glance. He mumbled, “Nothing," and began walking away. As he was reaching the end of the wall to head out of sight, he turned his head around and yelled at Tonya, "Then you tell him." My gaze instantly went to Tonya, who looked as if she were about to explode with anger.
It took a good ten minutes before Tonya began telling me what was going on. As I write this, I am filled with every type of emotion imaginable. Hopeful is the best way to describe it. Hopeful in the face of insurmountable odds but hopeful nonetheless. I need to go find Kenneth now, so I can find out exactly what he knows, but as of now, I do know that he saw Darcy in the city the very day Mego found him! He said she was carrying around my picture and was showing it to everyone. Tonya said Kenneth instantly recognized me but wanted to wait till the time was right to tell me. That is all Tonya would tell me. Kenneth has to fill in the blanks NOW.
Day 84
I tracked down Kenneth yesterday and pretty much pinned him to a chair, forcefully "asking" him to tell me what he knew about Darcy. I tried to be calm about it, but when I had all but given up hope for finding someone then, out of nowhere I find out someone knows something about it, there was no stopping me from getting that information. Luckily for Kenneth, he was very willing to talk about what had happened. I was a little surprised by what he had to say.
Shortly after the uprising began, h
e and a few coworkers had locked themselves in his office. Things were going fine until they ran out of food. Kenneth sent his nurse out to find food; she never returned. Next, he sent one of his interns, who also never returned. Finally, he decided to go himself. While out looking for food, the doctor encountered quite a few zombies, who, as he put it, met their match and were destroyed.
Now let me just say that the way he described the fights between himself and the zombies sounded really good, but they also seemed a little extravagant, so take the fighting with a grain of salt.
Kenneth continued to tell about his fighting with the zombies...
He walked into a grocery store. It was silent. He was making his way down the canned food aisle when he was completely surrounded by the undead. He ran towards the first group and slid on the ground, tripping the two zombies in his path. Once they were down, he jumped to his feet, grabbed a broom that was propped up against one of the shelves, and impaled both zombies through the chest. Next, he went after the three remaining zombies. He grabbed an arm full of cans and began throwing them at the zombies, knocking them down one by one. He grabbed a shopping cart and filled it full of food and bottles of water, fighting his way out of the store all along the way.
When he got outside, he said he pushed the cart into the street and heard a noise behind him. When he turned around, he was face to face with the impaled zombies. Thinking quickly, he reached down and just happened to find a crowbar laying on the ground, where he again impaled the zombies, this time directly through the skulls, killing them once and for all. Just as he was finishing off the zombies, a mac truck came roaring down the street, slamming into the shopping cart before coming to a screeching stop about one hundred feet away. Out of the front of the cab came a scruffy looking man with long hair. He introduced himself as Malice!
In the truck were a group of survivors he had found right outside of the city. Malice told him that he was heading to Florida to find his woman and invited Kenneth to tag along. Kenneth declined but asked Malice to help him get some food to his office. Together, they reloaded the shopping cart full of food and loaded it into the cab of the trailer. Kenneth jumped in the cab, and they made their way back to his office. Once there, the survivors in the back of the truck helped move the food and water into the break room. While moving groceries, one of the survivors pulled out a picture and asked if he had seen the person in the photo. That person was me. Kenneth told Darcy that he had no idea who I was but promised to help find me.
After a few days of rest, a group of zombies decided to get in the office. In the process, three survivors were killed. In the end, Malice, Darcy, Kenneth, and one other survivor got out of the office unharmed, but they were separated. Kenneth, Darcy, and the other survivor went one way, and Malice ran to his truck, leaving the three behind.
After about a week, the military came through, shooting almost anything that moved. He stressed the word almost, because Darcy and the other survivor (whose name he could not remember) were picked up by a passing patrol one afternoon. The truck stopped, three men jumped out of the truck, grabbed them both, and drove off, leaving Kenneth in his hiding spot, unseen. That was the last he had seen Darcy.
A small spark of hope reignited. Maybe she was okay. Maybe she was taken to the military base or taken to a fall-out shelter. The possibilities are endless. She could be anywhere. I just hope she is all right. I will leave tomorrow and head straight for the military base! I am headed towards the zombie cloud.
Day 85
Something’s wrong!
As I was gathering my stuff, I heard a loud siren blaring throughout the entire complex. I saw people running around looking very scared. I met Alisha outside my door. She had no idea what was going on either, so together we ran to find Mego.
When we found her, she was running through one of the halls towards the basement area. She had a complete look of terror on her face. As she passed us, she yelled at us to go grab any weapons we could find and meet her by the door to the basement area.
I am currently in my room. I wanted to do a quick update as to what was going on. I have a shotgun and two M-9 pistols with LOTS of ammo. Cole is in here with a couple pistols also. I can see a look of unease in his face. I can only imagine something has happened down in the lower levels, some kind of breach. I just hope the alarm hasn't alerted the zombie cloud to our location. I am sure we can contain anything going on downstairs.
SHIT! Tonya and Jeremiah just came in. Hundreds of zombies have escaped from down below and are making their way up towards us!!! Jeremiah said the family from West Virginia is dead, along with most of the others. He said Kenneth is locked in a room just beyond the basement door. No one has seen Mego since earlier. Ed and Alisha are down the hall trying to help some of the other survivors. I have to sign off to help. God help us!
Day 86
We are completely trapped. We are located in Mego's office right now. Alisha, Ed, and I are in here with Mego and a few others I had never met. Jeremiah, Cole, Tonya, and a few others are in an office across the hall from us. Someone is hurt pretty badly over there. All I can here is screams of agony. Outside the door are about two hundred zombies. They have completely crammed inside the hallway, desperate to get food. They move so quickly when they are hungry, and these bastards are starving; they have been locked in the lower level for a couple of months with no food.
The attack surprised everyone. Apparently, someone went down to make sure everything was secure when a gate opened automatically. Mego thinks someone did it on purpose, though I have no idea why anyone would invite these monsters in here.
Think, think, think. Damn, I have no idea how we are going to get out of this one. Looking out the window, I can see the cloud of zombies. They almost look like they are getting closer to us. Maybe it's just my paranoia. I am thinking about what the worst-case scenario could be, and that is it. Maybe we could go out swinging (actually, we would have to go out shooting). We all have plenty of weapons. The problem is we have to shoot them in the head to put them down, and no one in this room is good enough to get nothing but head shots. My shotgun has enough force for me to tear through some, but once they are on the ground, they can just bite our ankles. Then we're really screwed. We need something to clear the hallway, just enough for us to make an escape out the gate. Oh hell, the gate! It is controlled by a switch up in one of the towers. In order to open the gate, someone needs to be in the tower pushing the button. But if someone is pushing the button, they will get left behind. There is very little chance someone can get up to the tower, push the button, then get back down to the gate before the zombies get there.
Hell, I don't need to be thinking about that. I need to be coming up with a plan to get us out of here! Think, think, think...
It had gotten really quiet in the other room. . Then we heard a BANG! I can only assume someone got bitten then began to change, so Jeremiah (or someone else) took them out. I am going to try to talk to the others to see if they can come up with a plan. These doors aren't going to hold up much longer. I guess on the bright side, there is plenty of alcohol in here, so if the end is coming, at least we can drink ourselves into a stupor so we won’t care about getting eaten. There are a few bottles of Golden Grain and some other bottles of something that smells quite a bit like moonshine. We could have a great night.
Holy shit! Why didn't I think of that before?? I have a plan.
Day 87
When we were trapped in the prison, we called out to the others in the other room to make sure they knew the plan. First, we gathered all the bottles of alcohol, ripped up any piece of cloth we could find, and made Molotov cocktails. On the count of three, we slowly opened the door and began shooting any zombie close to the door. Once we cleared the door away for a brief second, we lit the bottles and threw them as far down the hall as we could. We quickly closed the door and waited. The frying bastards never even cried out in pain as they cooked.
Once again, we opened the door and began shooting
. Within a matter of minutes, the sprinklers were triggered, bringing to an end my wonderful plan. The mini fire bombs got us nowhere except wet. I had no other plan. We had nowhere to go and nothing we could do. The smell of the once-burning flesh right outside the door was almost too much to bear. Someone in the other room began to cry hysterically.
Right when all hope was lost, we heard a noise that both scared the hell out of us and made us rejoice. It was the sound of a machine gun. By the way it sounded, I think it was an M-60. Along with the loud bang, bang, bang of the gun came the ricocheting bullets. We all dove to the ground and under Mego's desk. Bullets ripped through the room we were in, shredding wood as if it were paper. After what seemed like hours, though I know it was less than five minutes, the firing stopped. We crawled out from under the desk to see the now Swiss cheese-like room. The door was completely destroyed, as were the walls surrounding the doorframe. Bits and pieces of zombie were scattered throughout the room. When we approached the hole in the wall that used to be a door, we saw Kenneth standing at the end of the hall by the stairs. In his arms, he held the machine gun, now completely out of ammo. I couldn't help but laugh. He had ripped the shirt off his back and tied it around his head. The way he stood in the hallway reminded me of Rambo, though instead of killing terrorists, he’d slaughtered about three hundred zombies. He stood there, triumphantly huffing and trying to catch his breath. Kenneth had done it! He freed us all from certain death.