The boys aren’t back yet. They called while we were gone, said something about they might be a little late, but it would be worth it? I sent them a text message asking them to pick up some formula, if they could. I’m not sure if they’ll be able to reach the baby stuff safely though. At least we don’t need diapers. Shya and Bridget took sheets from the hotel and cut them up to make cloth diapers. We took a couple bottles of bleach from the hotel laundry room.
Let’s see, what else. We weren’t able to get a lot of food, so depending on how things are going for the boys, we might have to send them back to raid the store some more.
Gonna go organize things and get some rest. As soon as the guys get back, I want to get the stuff packed up so we can leave ASAP. We’ve been in this area too long, and we are too close to the city. We need to get outta here.
* * *
May 25th
8:31 am
Good god, I forgot how loud babies can be. “Sweetie” woke us all up at the crack of dawn. She’s back to sleep now, but I’m wide awake, so I took myself a nice long shower. We have the AC running, and the stove is working, but none of the food we have really looks appealing right now. God, I want coffee.
* * *
10:22 am
The boys are back. Plus one. Can’t exactly bitch them out when I found three of my own strays. At least their stray brought back useful stuff. All mine did was bring a baby.
His name is Alex. He’s part of the nightshift at that Walmart. He said there’s about 20 people there. Late night customers and employees, mostly. They did find a few survivors, and invited them into the place. They barricaded all the doors and keep to the back of the store, mostly. That’s where the bathrooms are. They took some cooking stoves and moved them back there, too, so they could cook food. They’re using the cushions and futon mattresses for beds, so they’ve got it made.
Scott and Dave warned them about the army going around bombing cities, and the person in charge there, they didn’t remember his name, but the guy said he would think about moving the people out to woods. Scott thinks he’s full of shit, considering he gave them a bunch of the backpacks and tents they had in stock, but who knows. The guy also let them switch out bikes, and hooked them up with baskets and stuff to carry everything back with, so I’m kinda inclined to agree with him.
It was kinda...ingenious (I guess?) how they hooked everything up. I thought the boys would be limited to just whatever they could carry in the backpacks, but nope. They got creative with wire and rope, so we have two whole shopping carts FULL of crap. One of them was nothing but camping stuff, and the other was all backpacks and baby supplies, so hey, score! Even better, the backpacks were also stuffed with things like hamburger helper and those “just add water” soup things. Nothing substantial, but at this point, any kind of variety at this point is good.
The boys found a couple gas stations along the way, and brought back a bunch of random shit, I don’t even know. We have more baseball bats, so there’s that, I guess. And portable charger things? Only 3 of them, and I’m not sure how they work, but um, yay? We have a bunch more charger cords now, so no more charging only 4 phones/bluetooths at a time.
The guy at walmart also tossed in a bunch of the cell phones they had in stock, since no one will be buying them. We can’t use them, since they’re not activated (dick move, man. I mean, c’mon, it would’ve taken a whole 5 minutes? Maybe?), but we can charge the batteries and use those in the phones we have. We have them all plugged in now. They won’t get to fully charge before we leave, but it’s better than nothing.
YES!! Abby was going through the baby supplies stuff, and there was a carrier in there. It might be a little big for Sweetie right now, but she’ll grow into it soon enough. No stroller (which is fine), but there’s a bassinet thing? I think she said? From the picture, it looks like the pop-up one we brought from the hotel, but I suppose it won’t hurt to have more than one? It’ll depend on how much room we have when everything else is packed up.
Okay, enough writing. Time to be helpful and get shit packed. I still want to leave sometime today. Based on what Alex and Bridget are saying, we’re gonna have to backtrack a bit to avoid even more swampland, or we’ll have to go through town. Fuuuuck that. Backtracking it is, and AWAY from this damn highway. Something about it is just giving me the creeps.
* * *
May 26th
2:02 am
Well, turns out it wasn’t the road I needed to be worried about. It was the fucking sky. Forgive me if this jumps around a lot. I’m trying to divide my time between this and keeping watch/patrolling.
It didn’t take long to get everything packed up. Most of it was still in boxes, so we just moved them from the carts to the wagons. Abby went to start making lunch, and the boys went to unhook the carts from the bikes (they were just too wibbly-wobbly to keep like that). We were going to keep the carts, but then we heard a familiar sound.
Air planes.
Going right over the house. Ran outside just in time to see OH FUCK raining down from the planes. It was a lot different from when they bombed Richmond. With Richmond, we could smell the smoke, and the sky was orange, but this…we felt the initial explosions, and we could feel them getting closer.
Dunno if you remember this, but hey, gas station. Right across the street from us. Can you say ‘fuck that shit’?! All it’d take is one of those bombs, missiles, WHATEVER hitting the pumps, and we wouldn’t have to worry about trolls anymore, that’s for damn sure.
We tossed Chloe, Timmy, and Sweetie (God we need a new name for her) into one of the carts and started hauling ass out of there. Chloe and Timmy were too scared to scream, but Sweetie wasn’t. Imagine any action movie you can possibly think of, where the heroes are running away from a massive fireball...and then replace the background music with a baby SCREAMING her bloody head off.
That was us.
We ended up having to stop long enough to dig out a pacifier for the baby. She kept spitting it out, so Chloe and Timmy took turns shoving it back in her mouth.
We ran our asses off, but we didn’t get far. We had to backtrack so many fucking times because we would run into one godforsakenfuckingWHATTHEFUCK SWAMP. HOW DOES ANYONE LIVE IN THIS FUCKING STATE WITHOUT BECOMING SWAMP THING?!
Sorry, but seriously oh my FUCKING GOD. I thought the swamps were all in the fucking SOUTH, in you know, FLORIDA or fucking Louisiana! THIS IS VIRGINIA, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?! I just...I can’t. I CAN’T. We lost so much fucking time because water and earth and mud and WHAT THE FUCK? WHY?!
Ugh. Whatever.
So yeah. We ran. I kept us running until we couldn’t run anymore, and then I started looking for a house. We found one in the middle of a field. The sky is all red. No one is “officially” on watch tonight. We’re all too wiped. I’m trying to stay awake til dawn. I don’t think we’ll have any problems, but with all those bombs and shit, I’m worried about running into another horde. Especially with how many people we have now.
Do you have any idea how loud a group this large is? The squeak of the wagon wheels (which Mike plans on fixing when he wakes up), the rattle of the stuff in the wagon (not much we can do about that), the footsteps, the dog, the coughing, sneezing and everything else, and now a baby. We’re a walking smorgasbord for trolls, and there’s not much we can do about it. I honestly thought the woods would be the safest place for us, but I don’t know what to think now.
The army said to stay off the main roads, and seemed to agree with me about staying off-road, but what if we run into another horde? We still don’t know what’s going to happen with Mike, and we can’t be sure we’ll be able to reach the trees before they see us next time. Even if we DO reach the trees, how am I supposed to keep Sweetie quiet? We’ve somewhat managed to get Chloe to understand the need to be quiet, but Sweetie is too young to reason with. She’s a baby. And to think, I was bitching about Chloe. This is karma, I’m telling you.
Either this dog is really smart, or he’s scared of being left out
side again. Everytime we let him out to do his business, he gets done real quick and runs back in. No playing around, none of the “I’m gonna stand here and ponder the meaning of life instead of pissing” bullshit dogs usually do. We’re not too far from the city, so he might also be smelling the smoke, I don’t know, but fuck yeah. WHO’S A GOOD BOY?! Wish we had some dog treats. That’s a definite NOPE though. Out of all the shit we have, dog treats is NOT on that list.
I’ve been checking out this house. It’s not huge, or anything, but it’s nice. It looks like whoever lived here cleared out in a hurry, so I’m guessing they’re still alive somewhere. Bad news for us: their pantry is empty of anything we could use.
I take that back: there’s spaghetti noodles. No spaghetti sauce, but if we get desperate, there we go.
Found a hidden stash of cookies.
Bridget and Alex are awake and talking quietly in a corner. They’re going to take over watch so I can get some sleep. Not sure I trust them, but whatever. Sleep is good.
* * *
12:22pm
Bridget and Alex are leaving. They’re going back towards town to see if there are any survivors. I warned them it wasn’t a good idea, but they refuse to listen. I gave them what advice I could, but we don’t really have enough supplies to send with them.
We gave them a tent to share, and a couple of the bats. They said to keep the sleeping bags, though; they plan on only camping in houses, so they’ll take blankets from there.
Shya is staying with us.
I’m still fucking tired, but we’re gonna try and move a little more today.
* * *
10:37pm
I’m writing this, then sleeping. I’m not on watch tonight.
I’m not really surprised Bridget and Alex left. That was their town, Alex had friends there, and for all I know, so did Bridget. I didn’t get a chance to really talk to them, so I don’t know, but it stands to reason.
I don’t think they’re going to find anyone though. When the bombs first started falling, Alex tried talking us into going back and seeing if we could find any other survivors, but then the planes started in again, and they were flying this weird pattern. Scott says he thinks that’s what it’s called when they do a grid? I don’t know, but basically they were making sure to completely wipe out anything that was living in that city, and we needed to get the hell out of there.
Alex came along (obviously), but we could tell it was eating him alive. For his sake, I hope he finds his friends, and I hope they make it somewhere safe. For my people’s sake, I’m glad the two of them left.
I started this trip out wanting to go it alone. That hasn’t changed (no offense guys), but at the same time, I can’t think of anyone I’d want to leave behind. Everyone here pulls their own weight (Sweetie doesn’t count). We’ve got this whole ‘moving together’ thing down. Scott and I don’t fight anymore. Jason has started developing the “mom” voice (which is interesting to hear), Timmy is on top of his jobs, and Chloe checks the wagon daily to make sure there are still enough pine cones and stuff for building fires. She’s learned how to count, and has been keeping track of the water bottles, too and making sure Lucky is fed and watered. (Oh, and I thought she was on the young side of 4, but she’ll be 5 next month. Here’s hoping we’re at dad’s place by then.)
Even Shya is trying to help. She doesn’t know much, but she’s trying. She’s asking questions about the trip, about what is needed, what she can do to help. Part of it is because she plans on leaving eventually too, so she can try and get back home to her own family, but any help is good, you know? (Also, that means one less person. BONUS!)
Can’t think of anything else tonight. We’re in a house, no power. Going to sleep. Goodnight.
May 27th
8:46 pm
We didn’t really make it ANYWHERE today. We were going to, but the guys found a couple places to raid, so we were waiting for them to get back before we finished packing up. Not much point in getting everything packed, and then having to reorganize shit. So yeah, waiting. Course, nothing ever goes the way we want it anymore. I think we used up all our luck that first week.
The guys came back just fine, no injuries, thankfully. They just didn’t come back alone.
Two men. They are not staying with us. They have their own group. (HA, universe! Up yours, dammit! Stop dumping people on me!)
They invited us to their camp for the night. I was thinking it’s like...an actual camp. You know, with tents and stuff, so I gave it a hard pass at first, but it’s not. It’s a rest stop/travel center thing. Big brick building with bathrooms, and grills outside to cook on, etc.. Not a bad set up, really, except that it has a shit ton of windows, and not a lot when it comes to food. It has vending machines for sodas and snacks, but that will only hold you for so long, y’know? There’s only 6 or 7 people here, but that’s still a lot of mouths to feed when all you have are snacks.
They’ve been thinking about moving on to somewhere with more food access, but they’re worried about not finding safe places to sleep at night. We gave them some suggestions, and warned them to stay off the highways and away from the major cities. They fired up the grills and cooked pizza. It came out weird, but it was edible, and a welcome change. We stayed outside for a while, but then we started hearing movement in the woods around us, so we retreated back to the building.
Josh, Mike and Ben are watching tonight.
Kinda.
They’re mostly talking plans over with the other group. Passing on tips and tricks. We’re leaving the one shopping cart we kept from Walmart with them to help carry stuff. We already told them to ditch it if they come across a horde. Just leave the damn cart and get the fuck outta dodge. If they can get to a tree before they’re spotted, go for it. Otherwise, just...go.
Scott told them that the first thing they need to do is make sure they’re all on the same page. Like, our group is fucking HUGE, but we all know where we’re going. We have a destination in mind, and we are working together to get there. That got all of them looking at each other like they didn’t quite know what to do with themselves.
Hopefully they get shit sorted soon. I don’t even know how they survived this long without having some kind of leadership structure in place, but they all swore up and down that no one is the “leader.”
I don’t particularly care, to be honest. They’re not going with us, and they’re not shooting at us. I’m happy.
And sleepy. Goodnight.
* * *
May 28th
6:19am
Well, this sucks. We’re gonna be here another fucking day. The rest area we’re at is right off a major highway, and apparently a horde moved in overnight, taking up the entire damn thing. We have a river and a lake/pond boxing us in, too, so the only way out of here is forward, which means we’d be walking right into the trolls. Yeah, that’s a hell no.
One of the guys said there’s a little land bridge type thing south of here, but it still takes us way too close to the road. We’re going to try and wait it out. One of the ladies here wanted to have someone out in the trees by the highway to keep watch, but there are just too many trolls. I don’t want to risk them getting cut off from us. Plus, if the trolls see the scout, then it brings them that much closer to the rest of us. The last thing we need is a hungry horde coming down on us here.
So yeah. That’s a no go. I have everyone taking apart what they can - as quietly as they can - to shore up the doors and windows. We unplugged the vending machines and moved them over in front of the doors facing the highway. Karla and Abby got the women working on taping papers and pamphlets to the windows, but other than that, there isn’t really much we can do. Most of the stuff here isn’t exactly meant for making barricades out of, so, yeah.
The guys are moving what they can of the heavier stuff, but it’s a lot of awkward desks and shelves. I tried to help, but I was pretty much just getting in the way. I have muscle, but not like the guys, so now I’m off to the side, writ
ing this.
Woo. So exciting. Ugh. Gonna try to find something to do. There has to be something I can do to help out.
* * *
10:08 pm
Way too much excitement for one day. I knew I shouldn’t’ve said anything about this being boring.
The horde is still out there.
Now they’re starting to spill over into the parking lot around us, so we’ve moved our sleeping stuff to the bathrooms. The building we’re in is kinda weird. It’s like, two buildings, connected by a hall, kinda? I dunno, like I said, it’s weird.
Jamie/James/something like that (one of the guys here) said that they were using the different areas to give each other privacy. Like, one section was for half the group, and the other was for...the other. Duh. The area in between was a common space.
Now, one area holds the wagons, and we were all sleeping wherever we could find an empty spot. With the horde though, it just didn’t really feel safe. Too open and nothing but glass between us and them. Scary as hell. And not exactly a good environment for sleeping, you know?
I’m not in the bathrooms with the rest. There’s not enough room, for one thing. We fit as many people as we could in there, but I wasn’t exactly heartbroken over not being able to fit in there with the rest. Bathrooms aren’t exactly my idea of a good place to sleep. I’d almost rather sleep outside.
Anyway, I’m in a supply closet. The acoustics in the bathrooms are a bit too much for Sweetie, and if she starts crying in there...ugh. Yay for my own room for the night? Still can’t think of a name for the baby. I was thinking of something close to “Micah,” but the only name I can think of that is close to it is “Michelle” or “Mikayla.” My name is Michelle, so that’s out, and “Mikayla” just doesn’t sound right. Technically, ‘Micah’ could probably be a boy or girl name, and it’s not like anyone is gonna say anything anyway. But ugh...how the hell do parents ever manage to decide on a name for their kids?!
The Survivor Chronicles | Book 1 | Say No! To Zombies Page 11