by Jimmy Bird
As a group, I can honestly say that the Council was never like that, at least not that I’m aware of. I think that our only problem was that we were probably too trusting of others. I mean we took in strangers all the time. We weren’t that strict, were we?
The only requirement for acceptance into our little community was to meet with the Council members, individually. A kind of face to face, so we could make a collective decision as a group. We would ask certain questions and how that person responded, determined if they were allowed to stay. Most of the time, people were invited to stay. So, did it sound like we were really that bad? Could that have been the reason for our downfall?
You recall, we lost all but seven members of our community in a battle. To make matters worse, the sound of the battle drew the zombies towards the Warehouse. I know what you’re thinking, but it gets even better! The damage the Warehouse took from the battle allowed the zombies to get in, forcing us to abandon the place for good.
I want to be honest about something that I’ve never told anyone. I secretly wanted a zombie apocalypse, but not for the reason you think. Besides, I always thought that my group could survive together, all of us. Hell, I even thought that if anyone could survive the apocalypse then it would be us. I guess God had other plans.
God! What a joke. If there was truly a God, would he have allowed all of this to happen? Would he have allowed all the killing? Now that I think about it, this might have been God’s plan after all. According to the Bible, God had intervened in people’s lives multiple times in our early history. Heck, the story of Noah and the Ark alone, talks about wiping out mankind, except for Noah and his family. A kind of world purge by flooding the earth.
But there could be a flip side to this argument. I mean, maybe this wasn’t God’s fault at all. Maybe, this was meant to be mankind’s extinction brought on by our own hands. Our plague! Isn’t this how those things supposed to work? Besides, who cares if the virus was man made or not? We’re all screwed anyway! Throughout history, whether it was man made or by natural circumstances, has had a global impact on the world.
Think about it, the dinosaurs had a meteor impact the earth, causing a global wipe-out of the dominant species. The species that claimed the earth afterwards was man and man is stupid enough to screw it up ourselves. We have either directly or inadvertently, created diseases, viruses, plagues, bombs, global warming, etc. We kill anything without thinking about the consequences or the global impact it could have. Yeah, mankind can screw just about anything up!
The worst part is that we kill each other as if we were truly different. It doesn’t matter what ethnicity or race you are. It doesn’t even matter what your religion is. We are all human. The main issue is that our society doesn’t look at things that way and people killed each other because of those differences.
To be honest with you, that was one of the reasons I had hoped for a zombie apocalypse. I wanted mankind to unite against a common enemy, to have a chance at a fresh start. I didn’t think that people would have gone in the opposite direction and devolve to where we are today. Did you?
When we finally did leave the Warehouse after a few hours, we set a trap for whoever came looking for us. We did it out of spite, pure and simple. We were betrayed by two of our own and lost just about everyone we loved. Spite? That’s to ‘nice’ of a word. We hated others and wanted everyone to die. More importantly, we wanted Robert’s group to die. We just didn’t have the number to pull it off successfully.
Sorry, I’m filled with so many mixed emotions that I lose my train of thought sometimes. So, to get back to what I was saying before I began to ramble on. As I continued writing this ‘Journal’, I realized something. I wasn’t writing just a manuscript anymore. It was quickly evolving into something much, much more. It began turning into a first-person type of story that involved my friends and family, a story of our lives.
Now, that we got that out of the way and you have read all that I have written, I want to share a few more things with you. First and foremost, we (meaning the remaining members of our group) are surviving. So, I guess if you’re reading this then it means that you are also a survivor, at least for the moment. The second thing is that I want to tell you is, I’m sorry. You’ll understand shortly what I mean by that. Once you realize what’s really going on here, you might be a little upset with me, but I want you to believe me when I tell you that it wasn’t personal. It is a little personal.
Before you ask any questions, let me ask a question first. Do you remember when I stated, ‘Don't Trust Anyone?’ Well, I meant it and that includes me. This is by no means an excuse for what’s going on, but we were so hurt and devastated by the betrayal of Kevin and Bruce that we set traps around the Warehouse. We did it just in case Robert decided to return looking for us in his quest for vengeance.
Before you start asking yourself what I’m babbling about, let me educate you on a few more things. A member of our group had found a dog whistle while scavenging through some of the local houses. They figured that they might need it one day. You can imagine that when they blew in it, they didn’t get the response that they were hoping for. You see, no dogs showed up that day, but some zombies did. It was a very costly mistake on their part. I’m sorry for getting a little off track again, so let me get back to what I was saying.
Since the zombies have such sensitive ears, we had re-reprogrammed the sensors on the front gate to let off a similar high pitch sound, complements of Seth and Austin. You see, the sirens they originally programmed were not as silent as they were supposed to be. They modeled the sirens after that dog whistle.
So, whenever you or whoever came through the gate, you just set off that high pitch ‘silent’ alarm. In case you were wondering, that was the reason why the gate was left down. We wanted to make sure that when the sensors did get tripped, the zombies could hear the sound, but no human could. We made sure that the sensors were set at each entrance and exit so that whoever did make it into the Warehouse were surrounded and trapped by the zombies.
Well, that wasn’t entirely true. We figured that since the Warehouse had already been overrun by zombies before then whoever triggered these sensors would end up dead. Either way, it was a win, win for us.
Before you say anything, I know that it’s a cruel thing to do. But, like I said before, we were angry, and our emotions were driving us to do irrational things. We had the mentality of ‘We do unto others before others did unto us.’
By now, you’ve probably figured out what’s happening here, but if not, let me tell you some more. By the time you’re done reading this, you are either surrounded by zombies or fixing to be. So, you’re probably trapped and screwed right now. I want to make sure that you understood me when I said that it wasn’t personal but be sure to remember these words ‘Don’t Trust Anyone!’
I’ll leave you with this last message, “Good Luck!”
Chapter 1: Prelude to Day 1, Making Plans, Page 2
Chapter 2: Day 1, “Z” Day, Page 11
Chapter 3: Ruff, Page 45
Chapter 4: Danny, Page 56
Chapter 5: James, Page 69
Chapter 6: Arthur, Page 79
Chapter 7: Cleo, Page 89
Chapter 8: Kenneth, Page 107
Chapter 9: Brian, Page 124
Chapter 10: John, Page 139
Chapter 11: Day 2, Learning from Our Mistakes, Page 144
Chapter 12: Day 7, Bittersweet Reunion, Page 159
Chapter 13: Day 90, A Much-Needed Miracle, Page 178
Chapter 14: Day 180, Unfortunate Events, Page 191
Chapter 15: Day 181, The Fall of the Warehouse, Page 208
Chapter 16: Day 241, Plan D, Page 225
Chapter 17: Day 255, My Final Entry, Page 264
this book with friends