There is literally nothing else to talk about. All we did today was walk. Besides Melly, I didn’t really talk to anyone. Nothing exciting happened. We didn’t run into anyone, or if we did, we didn’t see them. No one came out of the houses we passed, and we only went near the roads when we were crossing them, so no trolls. We’re kinda out in the boonies anyway, so we weren’t expecting a lot of trolls, but meh.
I dunno. This whole thing is a bit anti-climatic. The Walking Dead made it seem like everyday was some kind of big fight-to-the-death thing, and really, it hasn’t been like that. Except for the thing at West Point. That was scary, but I just...I dunno. Maybe I shouldn’t’ve said anything. Now we’re probably gonna be attacked every other friggen day. Ugh.
Me and my big mouth. I’m gonna go smack my head against a wall a couple times.
* * *
May 15th
11:47 pm
Oh my fucking God, I’m going to strangle that boy! We managed maybe five miles today. MAYBE. Micah spent the entire time bitching about his head hurting, the sun being too bright (how DARE the sun be bright!), the road was bumpy, he didn’t feel good, yadda fucking yadda.
Even Chloe got annoyed with him. She told him to shut up. Abby started to get onto her about it, but Dave stepped in. He jumped Micah’s case, told him it was ridiculous that a four year old was being better behaved than a fifteen year old, and if he didn’t stop his shit, he was going to toss Micah into the next group of trolls we come across.
Now he’s bitching about the sunburn he got today, which he could’ve avoided if he had put on sunscreen like he was supposed to this morning. He claims he “forgot” about it. Probably because he was too busy bitching about everything, but whatever.
Ugh, I had to leave the room. I was about to nut punch him. I was already in a bad mood from having to stop so early yesterday, and then he starts this bullshit again today. I’m about ready to start actively looking for a new group of people to dump him on, instead of just hoping we come across one
We’re next to a river, so I was gonna send Scott and Josh out to hunt down some boats, but Josh says this isn’t the James River, so it wouldn’t do us any good. Josh offered to scout anyway, but it’s not really needed. We’re in a flattish area, and besides a bit of trees to one side, there’s nothing blocking our view for miles.
Anyway, let’s see. Today on, “Survival: Zombie Apocalypse” let’s meet the Grosts! Scott, Dave and Chloe, come on down!
And, okay, I just totally mashed a bunch of different shows together, but whatever. Not like anyone will even know what I’m talking about anyway.
Scott and Dave are/were construction workers. Their parents live in Florida, they had a sister who died in a car wreck about four or five years ago. Hit by a drunk driver. Apparently that’s who Chloe is named after.
Oh, and here’s something interesting: Dave used to be a real trouble maker. Stealing cars, selling drugs, mugging people, the whole nine yards (which explains why he was able to hotwire the boats and stuff). His girlfriend was the same way.
Oh, yeah! I found out about Chloe’s mom. Her name is/was Denise (Dave and Denise, really?), and she’s either in jail or dead, not sure at this point. She had a...problem. Dave says they both did. He liked to drink too much, and she liked to try whatever new drug was on the market. From what I understand, they were never married. Just kinda fucked around together. Friends with benefits, I guess.
Anyway, when his sister died, Dave decided to stop drinking, and to get his life together. Stopped drinking, stopped selling. Scott got him a job where he worked. Then Denise found out she was pregnant, and went to rehab.
After Chloe was born, they split up. Dave stayed clean, but Denise ended up falling off the wagon. Dave didn’t find that out until one weekend when he went over to pick Chloe up for the weekend. He had tried calling and knocking on the door, but no one answered. Long story short, police were called, and then an ambulance. Denise had overdosed with Chloe in the same room. Legal fight, buncha bullshit, and Dave got custody of his girl.
Scott used to have his own apartment a couple blocks away, but when he heard what happened, he packed up and moved in to help out. He and Dave worked it out so one of them would always be home when Chloe got out of daycare. He shuffled a lot to make things work out. I almost feel bad for calling him a dumbfuck earlier, but to be fair, he was being an idiot.
That’s all I know about them, and it’s almost 1 am now, so I guess that’s it for tonight. Need to get some rest before we head out tomorrow.
So help me...that boy starts whining again, I will shoot him where he stands, I don’t care if we’re in the middle of a troll mob.
* * *
May 16th
3:57 am
Scott woke me up about an hour ago. Micah started making weird sounds in his sleep. Scott went to check on him, and he was throwing up blood. Sound asleep, but a stream of blood was gushing out of his mouth. We woke everyone else up quietly and got them out of here. There’s a house right on the other side of the woods. They’re going to wait for us there.
Melly keeps surprising us. We offered to let her stay, and she kinda is? She didn’t want to stay in the house with him. Didn’t want to watch him turn, but doesn’t want him to think she deserted him either, so she’s outside keeping watch. She gave him a kiss on the forehead before she went.
Micah started waking up a little after she left. He knows what’s happening. He asked us to shoot him before he turned. He’s on the downward slide now. He keeps asking where Mel is. Gets pissed off and starts pacing, ranting and raving that she isn’t here. Then stops and says he’s glad she’s safe. Lays down, takes a nap, throws up a little more blood.
Rinse and repeat.
He’s staring out the window right now. She’s on the other side, staring back. They’re doing that make-you-cry bullshit from a movie. Hands against the glass, touching, but not really, and just. Ugh. I didn’t like him, but I didn’t want this.
Scott and I agree, next time he goes to sleep, it will be forever.
* * *
May 16th
4:34 am
It’s over.
* * *
May 17th
9:52 pm
His name was Micah Turner. His birthday was November 18th, 2001. He would’ve been 16 this year. He was a straight ‘A’ student, didn’t play video games, didn’t smoke or drink. He was a pretty good guy, according to Melly. How much of that is bias, I don’t know.
Melly says the morning everything went to shit, he nailed the door to his parents room shut cause he heard them shuffling around, then got on his bike and headed for Melly’s. He rationed out what food they had and scavenged the nearby houses for food when they ran out. He kept her safe, and was trying to come up with a plan to get them both somewhere permanent to stay when we came across them.
Surprisingly enough, Melly was against joining us. Micah thought it would be safer if they traveled with adults, but Melly was worried because most of the group members are male. She was worried they would try to take advantage of her or both of them. They argued about it back and forth, until Micah finally told her that he was leaving, with or without her.
Right before he went to sleep the last time, he asked us to apologize to Josh. He said he didn’t want to leave this world being an asshole.
And then he puked on my shoes.
He apologized for that too, so y’know. Whatever. Not like he could help it. I was standing on one side of him, Scott was on the other. Micah turned his head to throw up, and I was there.
I have to say this about Micah. He was brave at the end. He didn’t cry, he didn’t rail against the gods or anything melodramatic like that. Before he went to lay down the last time, he closed the blinds between him and Melly. Scott helped me put down the rest before he went outside with Melly.
I did it. I took care of Micah.
Scott offered, but I’m the leader. I can’t keep having him do all the “dirty” work. “A leade
r should never ask someone under his command to do something he wouldn’t do himself.” I forget where I heard that, but it’s a good rule to go by, I’m thinking.
I had Scott write up a note or something that we could leave with Micah’s body. Couldn’t give him a tombstone, but we wanted to leave something with him, so people didn’t think he was abandoned or anything. I don’t know, it just felt wrong to leave him behind with nothing. I’m not sure what Scott wrote in the note. I didn’t look. I just took care of what I needed to do. I had to call Scott back inside to help move Micah’s body, and we said a little prayer for him before we left.
I had to steal a pair of shoes out of the closet to wear til I got back to the others. He didn’t get me too bad when he threw up, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
We need to come up with some kind of ceremony we can do when this happens. A tradition of some sort. We can’t hold a regular funeral, but everyone deserves to have some kind of ceremony thing. I’ll have to talk it over with the rest later.
We’re resting right now. This morning/last night, I let people rest until the sun came up, and then we took off. I was worried about the sound of the gunshot drawing trolls to where we were. We saw a few as we made our way out of town, but it wasn’t as bad as I feared it would be.
I was going to find a place to stay for a day or two, to give us all a chance to process what happened with Micah, but Melly wanted us to keep moving, so we’re at the bridge now. It’s a long ass bridge, too, so we’re not crossing it til tomorrow. Well, shit. Dave just called me. He went with Josh and Scott to check out the troll sitch and to possibly do some scavenging. Apparently it’s another fucking drawbridge.
Yay! /sarcasm.
We’re getting ready to cross the bridge now. The boys are going to stay where they are. They’ll keep an eye on the streets and let us know if anything changes. I think one of them is going to stay at the end of the bridge to make sure it doesn’t get raised before we’re across it. After the SNAFU with the last drawbridge, we’re not taking any chances.
I have to go help Abby and Karla get the kids settled so we can go. They just layed (laid? lied? screw it, I don’t care) down, and now they’re back up again. We’re letting Chloe and Timmy ride in the wagons, hopefully they’ll go back asleep, and we’ll get to cross without a problem.
* * *
May 18th
1:53 am
Wanna know something creepy as all hell? Passing by a whole line of cars filled with trolls. They were pawing at the windows as we walked by them. We could hear the thumping of their heads and hands against the glass. Chloe woke up at one point, looked out and saw what was going on. She started crying, which woke Timmy up, and got him started crying, and GAH. It’s a mess.
They didn’t settle down again until we were off the bridge.
We’re at a house now. It’s right next to the bridge and it’s empty, so we figured it’s as good a place as any. Plus, we need to rest. We’ve been going for a while, and none of us got much sleep last night. We’ll have to keep moving tomorrow too. This area is a bit too crowded for my liking. Lots of houses, and now that trolls are opening doors...yeah. Nope. I don’t like this one bit. We’ve been lucky so far and mostly finding houses with the doors unlocked, or easy to pick, so we’re not having to worry about breaking down any doors, but we all know luck doesn’t last.
I’m not leaving til the guys get some sleep though. Their scouting is too important to our survival.
* * *
12:12pm
I would swear these men were running on red bull or something, but I happen to know they haven’t had any in the past couple weeks, so I don’t know how the hell they’re already awake. Whatever. Everyone is getting a potty run in, and then we’re getting on the road. It’s already hot and muggy, so I’m not sure how far we’re gonna get. I really wish we could travel at night, but I don’t trust it. It’d be too hard to see the trolls, and if we used a light, we’d draw attention to ourselves from both: humans and trolls. There’s just no winning here.
* * *
8:00pm
Camping outside tonight. We started just enough of a fire to heat up some food. It’s like, perfect camping temperature right now. We wouldn’t even bother with the tents, but we don’t want to risk mosquitoes. Not with us still not knowing how this shit is spread.
It was pretty uneventful today. We had to make a lot of stops, and we tried to stay in the shade as much as possible, but that was it.
Oh, and we found a dog. He was tied up in the backyard of a house we were passing by. We could see the owners trying to get out the back door, but I guess it was locked. We untied the dog and gave it one of our cans of ravioli. The poor thing must’ve been starving. He scarfed it down. The kids and I distracted him while Scott and Josh took out the owners. We raided the house, and brought out the bag of dog food we found, and a big ass bowl for water.
Roger made us take it slow when we gave the dog the food and everything. Apparently animals are like humans when it comes to how our bodies react to food/water after so long without it.
We haven’t named him yet (I’m not even sure it is a ‘him’, but whatever. I’m not checking. That’s Roger’s job.), but the kids are attached already (of course). I told them we could keep him as long as he doesn’t go barking at stupid shit and getting us all killed.
He’s curled up by the fire right now, getting his ears scratched. The poor thing wasn’t just starved of food and water (still trying to figure out how he survived so long). Not sure what kinda dog he is. Roger says he’s a mutt, but it looks like he’s either part rottweiler, doberman, or german shepherd. He has the same black/brown coloring. He’s not as big as those dogs though. Kinda medium sized, I guess? Meh.
He’s a dog.
He has fur, four legs, and a tail. And ears. And a really cold nose that he just came over and shoved against my fucking ankle. Asshole.
Alright, it’s Ben’s turn in the spotlight tonight.
His name is Benjamin Collins. He was a programmer for a big company. Won’t tell me the name, but with his big ass boat, and given where he lived, I’m guessing it was a famous one. He grew up in Pennsylvania. He already tried calling his parents several times and no one’s answered, so he’s guessing they’re dead. He keeps calling anyway. He leaves them voicemails with the number of whatever phone he’s using at the moment, and tells them where we are. I’m a little worried about that part. If the trolls are re-learning how to use the human body, how can we be sure they won’t be able to follow us eventually? Scott says I’m being paranoid, and it’s entirely possible, but better safe than sorry.
Let’s see, what else? He was married. They divorced. He hasn’t called to check on her. He said he’s worried she’ll answer the phone, and it would just piss him off to find out that she is alright, but not his parents.
He’s got really pale blonde hair. It’s like, almost white, and he’s only 37, I think he said. 36 or 37, I forget which. I didn’t get to really talk too much with him today. He was one of the scouts, and he was training Josh and Becca to help out. Gabby is helping Karla and Abby with the kids. Yesterday, it was Becca helping them out, so I guess they’re taking turns. They’re both pretty good with them.
I think Jason is developing a crush on Becca. I dunno if he understands the deal with her and Gabby, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Alright, it’s about midnight now (I’ve been patrolling in between writing), so time for me to do one more round, then wake up the next shift. Mike and Becca are on second watch tonight.
* * *
May 19th
9:38 pm
Camping outside again. I’m off from watch tonight (finally! A perk to having an assload of people, I guess), so I stole the single person tent for myself. We’re in another clearing. We didn’t get very far today, we kept running into a river/creek thing. It wasn’t huge, but it was big enough that we were worried about the tires getting stuck in the mud. We took advanta
ge of it though. Refilled our water jugs, got the bleach in them so they could start purifying. Washed clothes, dishes, took a quick bath. We kinda said ‘screw it’ when it came to modesty. We did the Roman thing and all bathed together. Josh is a good back scrubber. It was like a combo of scrubbing and a massage. We were literally lined up for him to scrub our backs, lol. (Ugh, you know I’m tired when I slip into net-speak.)
The older kids did some swimming after the bath. Melly hung back at first, but Becca and Gabby pulled her in. I think it’ll be good for her, having girls her own age around. I’m hoping they’ll be able to help her with the whole Micah thing.
Oh yeah, we let the kids name the dog. They went with “Lucky”, because “he’s lucky we found him!” I dunno about the others, but I’m thinking “we’re lucky to still be alive.”
Anyway, today was pretty much a fun day. We just took it easy, and tried to treat it as a pleasure hike instead of a “run (walk) for our lives!” thing. I got to talk to Mike and Karla today, at least, so now I have someone to talk about.
Mike and Karla Bishop. Mike is from Delaware, but Karla is actually from some little town in far north Maine. She’s gotten used to the Delaware weather, but she’s not a fan of hiking in the heat.
Mike comes from old money. His family has lived in Delaware, pretty much since it gained statehood. He comes from a family of architects and engineers, and he kinda falls in between. That’s why he was able to build the wagons so easily, and had all those tools and such available. He’s starting to train Jason with repairs and stuff. He’s still training Abby, too. He says they’re both picking it up fairly well. I asked him about building a couple regular bows for us to start hunting with, but he pointed out that we would still need string for them, and that none of us knows how to use them anyway, so what’s the point?
The Survivor Chronicles | Book 1 | Say No! To Zombies Page 9