Happy fuckin' new year. im gonna get drunk. then im gonna pass out. then im gonna wake up, remember what the worlds become and then im gonna drink a whole lot more. welcome to the world of dead heads.

Worked HARD today. we were up at dawn and finished the cleanup of the hardware store. some intermittent flurries moved in about lunchtime and i kept one eye on the weather. Winter in this part of the world is nothing to screw around with. It can kill you quick if you dont watch it.

Me and Jay have all the "home" supplies moved to the hardware from the other stores. we got rid of all the suzy home-maker stuff they had in there and used the space for plumbing, elecrical, yard, tools etc etc. We keep what food we need for immediate use at the house but other than that its stacked in the Alco store. its easier to just grab a shopping cart and walk up and downthe aisles to get what you want than dig through boxes and storage tubs at home every day.

More and more i find spoilage to be an issue with food. At least 1 out of 3 cans now is shot from freezing or rust through. you have to be VERY careful. food poising here could be deadly now. Before it was a quick trip to the hospital and maybe an overnight stay at worst.

Oh and speaking of it, i was scrounging around the clinic for some bandaids and i found a fax with some info on the dead head virus. ill write it in here when i get the chance to translate all the medical gooblede-gook.

Tired today. it was still nice but not as nice as yesterday. spent most of it splitting firewood. we warmed up a couple buckets of water and had baths tonite as well. its time consuming but its better than smelling like dead people all winter. in the summer when the rains come we can "shower" outside in teh rain. im thinking about rigging up a tank on the roof and painting it black so the sun heats up the water. i read about guys doing that with hooches back in 'nam to have hot showers in the field. it would work all summer and fall but winter it would freeze and its back to stove baths.

i used to love taking baths. nothing like running a jacuzzi tub full of water and soaking for a couple hours. now its five gallons for two of us and sponges to wash with. you get used to it i guess. its part of rough and tumble life we live now.

BEAUTIFUL day today. upper 20s, no wind at all. Guy cant complain about that. ice and snow were melting everywhere. I dread the fact now we have to start worrying about dead heads again. its nice to not have them on your mind 24/7. the barricade helps but there is always that thought in the back of your mind that they might get in. I still double bar the door at night and sleep with a 12 ga shotgun in bed with me.

I have some extra time so id liek to write more about the past. just to get it down before my memory fades.

Well onward to the barricade project. the first thing we had to do was get a front end loader and excavator running. that in and of itself was a major deal. there was equipment aplenty in jensens lot but all with dead batteries and flat tires. We finnaly found a good cantidate in the back of the shop. It was a monster. a 980 i belive. It was under a tarp and parked behind a dump truck with no motor. The battery had been unhooked when it was parked and still had a full charge. A couple five gallon cans of fresh diesel and it roared to life. the dump truck was easily pushed out of the way and i eased the behemoth out into the sunlight. Jay followed me back to teh house with the ranger as i familarized myself with the controls. The House next door was first on the agenda. I simply dropped the massive bucket on the roof and the whole works folded in on itself. I pushed the foundation in on top and drive over three or four times after i pushed some dirt on it. Ugly, but cleared. the other houses fell about the same. the onyl surprise in th whole deal was when i ripped the roof off the house across the alley. it had been owned by a doctor. When i opened it up there must have been at least 100 pot plants growing in the attic. Nice littel side line there, Doc. I wonered if he would have claimed it was "medicinal".

It took three days to clear the houses and outbuildings. We ended up getting a bulldozer running to clear away the last of the debris. when we first had it running i simply couldnt resist. I took that mother and drove right smack through the middle of city hall. Id had my share of run-ins with the city back before the outbreak and i needed a littel payback. It was fun if nothing else. And Jay laughed his ass off while i did it.

This entire time we were constantly being harrased by groups of three to five dead heads. they would show up a few times a day to disrupt our work while we mowed them down. they had fallen to the level of an annoyance unless they massed in large numbers.

We coundt get the car crusher running so we came up with a road packer that did just as nice a job. Soon we had a good system going. We would get the equipment started in the morning, secure the house and once we were in our machines we were virtually unstoppable. I started getting a kick out of chunching dead heads with the bucket of the front end loader. Most made a satisfying splat when the bucket hit the ground. i had long since gotten over shooting, flattening and otherwise disposing of people i had met, known and done buisness with. You treated them like rats or ants. a nusiance to be dealt with and forgotten about. Anyway jay would flatten a car with the packer and id pick it up and add it to the barricade wall. We built it five flattened cars high (about fifteen feet) and two layers deep. we also banked gravel and rock against the inside of the barricade to help reinforce it. It took all of April, May and June to build the wall and create a "gate" we could lift in and out with the payloader. We also laid in several fuel tankers from semi trucks we filled with fuel. we got a fuel delivery truck running and used it to shuttle fuel from the stations around town to our tankers.

All of July was spent putting in a garden and building storage sheds for supplies. our biggest problem for next winter would be heat. Propane stocks in town were low when the outbreak hit and we had exhausted most of them keeping the house warm. most house tanks had run dry before we got around to them and besides some 20lb cyclinders off of BBQ grills, we struck out. Jay found a exterior wood fired stove system in a house across town and we spent a week disassembling it and moving it to our house. We spent three more weeks cutting a massive mountain of firewood inside the barricade. jay found several chainsaws and boxesof spare parts at the rental shop which made life easier. i laid in several axes, saws and splitting mauls for when the fuel ran out. There also was an old wood stove in the basement when I bought the house. We moved it upstairs and re-ran the chimney pipe. It would save on propane and when that ran out would be the secondary source of heat. The outside furnace could be stoked with logs and burn for 10-12 hours without attention as long as we used the small furnace inside to keep it comforatble.

After the barricade was completed we built a catwalk around the top with prebuilt, covered, firing positions at the four cardinal directions. We stocked them with weapons and provisions. The ladders to the top of the berm were retractable and we could thoeretically survive for some time without leaving the wall. We worked seven days a week, probably 16-18 hours a day on this project. We were both tired and sore when it was complete.

August brought cold rain and increased dead head attacks. They seemed to know winter was coming and stepped up the number and intensity of their attempts to breach the barricade. The only event worth noting in this time was on Aug 15th.

The usuall morning dead head attack hadnt come yet this morning. I was on the barricade to the north and Jay was covering the south side. We had scrounged some FRS radios and used them for comms now.

“Big bunch coming my way.” Jay called. I started hoofing hard to his position when I spotted another group coming in from the east.

“I got more on the east side. Rock and roll wildman.”

Jay opened up with his AR and I made ot to the east firing point. Inside was my converted Ruger 10/42. A standard 10/22 converted with a MG-42 lookalike stock and a BMF trigger crank. It could lay down an impressive line of fire. It was .22 rimfire but hey, lead is lead. I walked a line of rounds across the lead dead heads and dropped about half of them. I changed mags and kept firing. Empty brass clinked around my feet and the empty mags clattered as they fell. I had 15 pre-loaded 30 round mags for the 10/42 in a rack easily at hand, and cartons of spare loose ammo were packed at the rear of the firing point. There must have been 300 or more dead heads in front of me when Jay yelled on the radio.

“I need a hand here!”

I let the 10/42 fall on its bipod and grabbed my AK. I sprinted the distance to Jay's position and found him with a badly jammed rifle. Hard bolt over-ride. The dead heads were swarming hard around the base of the barricade and starting to pile up.

I emptied a full mag into the mass and didnt leave an appreciable dent. I handed Jay my rifle and mag bag and said:

“Party Poppers.”

Jay nodded and started firing. The party poppers were and idea I got from a book I read once. I took plain five gallon buckets and put five pounds of black powder in the bottom. The I put in an old T-shirt and filled the rest of the bucket with granite chips. I buried them facing outward a 45 degree angle at the base of the barricade and strung the fuses through. Once again my planning ahead saved out butts. I lit the fuses for the six poppers closest to the swarm and hauled ass. I made a “circle the wagons” motion to Jay and he took cover.

When the poppers blew it made a satifyig hole in the swarm and gave Jay enough leeway to push them back. I lit the fuses on four more under the east side and waited till they blew. They had left a gaping hole in the middle of the swarm to the east and my 10/42 took care of most of the rest. All my pre-loaded mags were shot out and I was down to my pistol to pick off stragglers. The dead were heaped around the barricade three and four deep in places. Great rents had been torn into the street by the party poppers spray and pockmarks from bullets were everywhere. Jay was still firing my AK fast and hard on the south side, and I headed over to help him mop up.

There were still 50 or 60 dead heads around his position and he yelled for ammo as I got close. I ran past him and grabbed a sack of mags from the west firing point. I also picked up my browning 12 ga and two bandoleers of buckshot. I tossed him the mags and added the heavy thump of my 12 ga to the racket. Jay's AK was smoking hot and my browning was just getting warmed up when we heard the growl of more dead heads coming. I moved back to the west firing point and laid the barrel of the browning on the rail. I was firing and loading as fast as I could but the dead head mass just got bigger and bigger. Jay had abandoned picking off stragglers to the south and was firing into the main mass of dead heads in front of me.

“Get the tommy guns!” I yelled at him. When we cleaned out the police station we had found two ancient thompson SMGs. Heavy as hell but they packed one heck of a wallop and they were full auto to boot. I continued firing fast as Jay sprinted to the house. I was almost out of ammo for my 12ga when he returned. Each thompson had four, thirty round stick mags with it and there was one 50 shot drum mag.

Jay had handed me one of the tommy guns and we both leaned over the rail to fire. The recoil of the 45 ACP ammo was heavy and hard to keep precisely on target but the mass of dead heads made precise accuracy unimportant. We sprayed the mass with mag after mag until all thje stick mags were dry. I handed Jay our single drum mag.

“I'm lighting the party poppers. Keep em bunched up if you can.” Jay nodded and continued firing. I lit all the poppers on the west side and covered my ears. The blast rattled my teeth and the entire barricade shuddered with its force. I heard the yammer of the tommy gun and knew Jay was still in it. I grabbed more 45 ammo from a storage shed and climbed the ladder. Jay had set down the tommy gun and was firing his ruger pistol.

“Its empty.” He shouted. We were both hard of hearing after the popper blast. I dropped several boxes of 45 ammo at his feet and loaded my 12 ga.

“Ill cover while you reload.”

Jay nodded and holstered his pistol. There was thity or so dead heads left and I sprayed them with buckshot. The adrenalin was racing through my viens and precision aiming was completely forgotten. Jay was thumbing 45s into the stick mags as fast as he could but I was already running short on 12 ga ammo. Jesus we were burning through shells like crazy. He had four stick mags loaded when I used the last I had.

“Im going for more ammo,. Shit the more we shoot, the more show up!” Jay nodded his agrement. It seemed the dead heads were a never ending stream. I had had enough. I ran into the house an grabbed my CETME. It was cannon loud and I had almost 100 loaded magazines for it. If I burned through all that we were in deep shit.

I lugged the wooden crate full of mags up the ladder and set up. Jay was out of ammo in the tommy gun and was firing his pistol again.

“Watch your ears!” I yelled. The muzzle brake on that pig is loud as hell and I didnt want blow his ear drums out. I put on earmuffs and let the dead heads have it. My CETME slings brass around like crazy and rebounding 308 cases filled the firing point with flying empties. I didnt take time to aim and just bump-fired mag after mag into the mass. I heard Jay join the fight with my AR-180. We didnt have very many AR style mags but we had enough we could just maybe pull this off. I fired and fired and fired. My glasses were spattered with carbon and weapons oil and suddenly as I peered through them I coundt see anymore dead heads. Was it finnaly over?

“Jay! Perimiter run!” I waved him one way and I went the other. Jogging fast we rounded the barricade and spotted only a few stragglers. We picked them off and it was over. Expended brass and empty mags were everywhere. The west firing point had so much empty brass in it, it was hard to walk around without slipping. Dead heads were piled ten feet deep in places by my guess. This would be one hell of mess to clean up. We collapsed exhausted on the catwalk, surrounded by carnage. The smell of expended gunpowder hung in the air. Smoke rose in a thin line from the muzzle of my CETME and drifted in the autumn breeze.

It took us nearly a week to clean up after the battle. I couldnt think of it as anything else. It wasnt a skirmish, nor a shootout. Between the two of us we had expended about 4500 rounds of ammo, and by my estimate had wiped out something close to 1200 dead heads. The bulldozer made short work of them but it was greusome regardless. We spent days reloading all the mags we had shot through. We had plenty of ammo still but that fight had taken a good bite out of it. We also had used all the black powder we had for party poppers and had no more to replace them. We needed more firepower.

“time to think about breaking into the armory.” I said to Jay that night. He nodded. We had discussed this previously and dismissed it as too much work for an uncertain outcome. We needed full auto firepower. Preferably something belt fed. I knew M60s and 50 cals' from my army days. The weapons were there, the real question was ammo. Most guard units didnt have much if any ammo on hand but we were getting close to desperation. Semi auto civilain guns werent going to cut the mustard if we were fighting swarms of dead heads.

We got our gear together the next day and headed for the armory. The gym and admin offices showed the usual deterioration of a half a year plus of neglect. The vault door however was still locked tight. We had mapped out our plan ahead of time. We would attack from an outside corner and work our way in. the front end loader made short work of the exterior masonry and flashing. The steel wall of the vault was now exposed. I banged the edge repeatedly with the edge of the bucket until it peeled back. Jay attached a chain to the edge and opened the vault like a beer can. We had hit the jackpot. We exposed two pallets stacked three feet high with ammo cans. Jay cracked one open and revealed belted 7.62mm ammo for a M60. Another had 40mm grenades and 5.56mm ammo. I had no clue why they had all this ammo on hand until I found paperwork saying the unit was to be deployed to Iraq and they were to expend the ammo in re-familarazation training. We loaded the pallets on the truck and got in deeper. The weapons were stored in locking racks but my bolt cutter made short work of the locks and chains. We took all we could find- 10 full auto M4s, four M4-M203 combo guns and three beretta pistols we found on the racks. We busted open a couple wall lockers and found two M60 machine guns and several M231 firing port weapons. A duffel bag contained several spare barrels and a “hot mitt” for changing barrels. There was 50 cal ammo on the pallet but no MG in the arms room. We couldnt find it at all. We surmised it must have been taken somewhere else for some reason and never returned. We were loaded heavy when we rolled away. We handt found any more explosives, mines or anyhting. I was dissapointed and excited at the same time.

We mounted the M60s in the weakest palces on the wall where we had blown all the party poppers in the last battle. The M231s we carried with us. They ate ammo like crazy with ROF of 1200 RPM but I had found a couple beta C mags in a house across town and they fit the bill for close range defense. We feared another horde of dead heads would show quickly but none did. It was back to the small three to five groups. We had lots of 5.56mm ammo now so I primarily sniped them with a M4 or my AR-180. If i was in a sporting mood id drag out one of my .22s and plink at them with it. The most fun though was dropping 40mm grenades on top of them. They blew up like rotten rutabegas if you got a round right in close to em'. We only had a few hundred rounds of 40mm so we quit that quick though. We test fired all the weapons and only one gave us problems. One of the M4s jammed repeatedly no matter what fixes we tried. Jay surmised the reciever must have been mis-machined and we stripped it for parts.

the cold broke for a littel bit today. sun was out and a few water drips could be seen along the eaves. i wonder when the dead heads will thaw this year? I can only imigine what life down south must be like where it never freezes.

I thought i heard an engine across the river today. it was just a faint growl on the breeze but i called a red alert anyway. Jay was up an at em' in about 15 seconds and we both hung out on top of the barricade for a couple hours listening for more but we heard nothing. I worried about refugees the first summer but there was nothing. the outbreak happened so fast and spread so quickly that nobody had time to bug out. you died where you stood or hunkered down and survived. it helped that the army dropped the bridge.

I havent written in a few days. chirstmas was always a bummer around my house. My wifes parents turned christmas into a money spending contest for everybody. it was lame. now its just depressing.

balls its cold.

Ive been busy. We had a blizzard coem through and pack everything full of hard driven snow. that and -10F temps kept me away for a few days. We had to fix some windows that leaked snow and patch up a couple other things. Im beat. The furnace barely keeps up against the wind.

Good eatin' today! i found a whole box of unmolested (and more importantly UNEATEN) chocolates. Uncle Allens Dari-farm brand chocolate tasted like utter heaven. Most of the candy became inedible months ago. this box was still in the cellophane, under a bed. another moslty eaten and throughly moldy box was next to it. Me and Jay sat on the front porch in the sunshine and split the whole box. I lit up a rare cigar (for me anyway) and we had us a grand old time.

much warmer today. i could work in the hardware without the heater going when the sun was out. Jay came with me today and we got ALOT done. most of the plumbing and electrical is sorted out and we brought a load over from runnings as well. I found the small ammo display case under a pile of tipped over shelving and scored several boxes of 30-30s and a pile of .22LR. there was some other odds and ends but not much else. every little bit helps. ive been scouring homes for ammo of late as we are starting to run short of everything but military calibers. i have a storage shed packed with all kinds of guns ive recovered from homes, mostly hunting rifles and shotguns though. i have yet to get to Jeffs house but that whole deal is a story ill tackle another day. its a difficult part of our history to talk about. maybe tomorrow.

still bitter cold although its getting better. A few flurries and some wind but not much. When the weather breaks we're planning an expedition up to the top of tower hill to Dean's Shooter supply to see if we can lay in some more black powder for party poppers. We still fear the dead head horde but we've whittled them down to the point they arent as big as the hordes we fought last summer but you never know. We've had em' come drifting in on the river from time to time but they usually get swept on by before they make it ashore. Any dead heads from across the river that try to swim it end up downstream somewhere. As time goes by i think this will be more of a problem and we may have to put up some tnagle netting along the river bank to keep them at least occupied until we get there to deal with them. I dont relish the thought of stringing that much tangle net besides the fact of where would we get it all. Cross that bridge when we come to it i guess.

a bit more of the past as i remember.

We spent the next week provisoning and scouting for other survivors. we found one. a middle aged woman who was seemingly catatonic. she died the day after we found her. Jay got a body bag from the hospital and put her in it. The ground was frozen so a grave was out of the question. He put her in the morgue freezer. Niehter of us thought anyone would mind.

the worst thing for the next couple months was the boredom and lack of information. we played board games, and did puzzles. cabin fever got the best of us on a few occasions and we got into some epic shouting fights. hurtful words were said but afterwards we smoothed it over. both of us were on edge. Then we found the generator.

It was under tarp behind the MDU building. It was a 20kW gas engine powered genie. We nearly killed ourselves getting in position behind the house and Jay nearly electrocuted himself hooking it up but we got it done. When we fired it up and the chirstmas light came on i thought i might just have heart attack. we fried frozen burgers from the meat packing plant on the stove like we were real humans. Boiled potatoes, hamburger helper, and the last microwave pizza in town fell before our hunger. We had survived for six weeks on dehydrated camp food and canned goods warmed over a creaky coleman stove neither one of us knew how to use real well. We ate like civilized men that night and slept like babies while the elctric furnace hummed away in the basement like nothing was wrong with the world.

Unfortuantly the sound of the generator drew another kind of danger. The other survivors who we didnt find. There was at least two because they hit both sides of the house at the same time. I fired a burst from my AK while i was still mostly asleep and by sheer luck killed one. I heard glass breaking in the north windows and Jay firing a pump shotgun. I heard a scream of pain and someone running off in the night. I emptied the AK through the already shattered window and hit nothing but air. they were gone, but the damage was done. the genny had taken two hits from a pickax and the radiator was punctured. Coolant spilled onto the ground and puddled on the frozen turf. Four broken windows to be boarded over and one flat tire on the ranger from stray bullet. All i could think of to say when morning lit the carnage was "Fuck."

We did our best to repair the genny but the radiator i was able to rig up wasnt big enough. nothing else in town fit right. I hunted and hunted for a truck radiator with the right outlets but nada. I ended up using a rad off a bobcat i found in the back of Central Diesels repair shop. the engine of the bobcat was torn down (probably never to be reassembled now) and the rad was setting off to one side. I got it mounted and the genny ran but would overheat after about two hours. it was long enough to cook meals and warm up the house for night. I took at least three hours to cool back off again but it was better than nothing. I thought about lots of plans for an external system but didnt have what parts i needed. We never did find the attackers but i did find a house i thought they might be living in and i torched it out of spite.

Another month passed and the cold was beginning to break. drips could be seen here and there along the eaves from time to time. it also meant the dead heads may be back. We had cleaned our weapons and spent plenty of time in front of the reloading bench building ammo. We couldnt be constantly fighting them off all sumer so we had come up with a plan to build a wall around the house. Well around the best part of the block actually. we had already stripped the houses closest to our clean of anyhting useable. we would commandeer a front end loader or excavator from Jensen Rock & Sand and cave them into the basements. A few passes with the tracks and we'd have fairly level ground. the car crusher was at the salvage yard when the outbreak occoured and we figured if we could get it going we could flatten cars to make a large barricade around the house. We could at least buy ourselves time if nothing else.

I also had plans to salvage as much fuel as possible and store it in some sort of tanker truck inside our barricade. We'd need plenty of diesel to buld the barricade to start with and a goodly supply to run the genny as well. I had finnally loacted a proper radiator for the genny and had it running good. Blind luck, that one. the radiator waqs upstairs in the ford garage. What chance would you give that id find a radiator for an international engine at a ford dealership? Besides that, we needed a garden, i was worried about scurvy. We had been taking vitamin pills from the drugstore, but nothing beats fresh veggies. I figured if we barricaded off half a block we should be OK. that would mean caving in 6 houses and several outbuildings, and maybe 600 cars crushed and placed. Alot of work in a time where you had to constantly look over your shoulder for the undead and lack of electricty made everything twice as hard.

As soon as the ground thawed we made the decision to cut the highway coming into town. It came down a steep slope on the other side of the river hill and cutting it there would stop anyone from just waltzing into town whenever they liked. I found thirty pounds of C4 in the city demolition shed and my engineer training from the army served me well. A cratering charge does just that. Makes a big ass crater. and thirty pounds of C4 going up in one bang leaves one HELL of a big ass crater. You could cross it with a tank or maybe snow cat in the winter but no four wheeled vehicle could traverse that ground. the hills around twon were so steep we were effectivly now a land locked castle of sorts. It made us feel just a bit more secure at night.

As far as we could tell there were no other survivors in town. We had searched and honked horns and yelled until we were hoarse with no respose. i even set off some leftover 4th of July fireworks to try and attract attention. All for naught. What we did have however was around 3000 more reanimated dead heads to deal with.

well my idea panned out (for once). i found a scythe, threshing equipment and a shocker at the local museum. They nee a bit of fixing and the bundler needs the godawful pink piant some ninny put on it removed but otherwise its in good condition. I also found a corn sheller and some other useful garden equipment. Why didnt i think of this earlier?

Still cold but i broke out my ECWS gear and fired up the snowblower. WE have a light duty gate we keep over the hole in the barricade in the winter when the dead heads are corpse-sicles thats easy to get in and out of. i cleared away all the snow from the house and around the trucks just in case we need to haul in a hurry.

Jay is finnaly up and about after his knock out with the flu. Our diet isnt exactly conducive to good health being heavy in fats and protiens and low in carbs. We take multi vitamins but after sitting on shelves for a year i dont know how good they are. Alot of things are getting past expiration dates and we have to be careful about cans and jars now. Last week i hualed a half-dozen sterilite tubs full of bad canns and jars out of Alco so they wouldnt spoil anything else.

I saw something rather out of the oridinary today. i think it was a camel. I swear, a camel. It was on the ridgeline east of town and when i got my binoculars up to take a peek it was dissapearing over the hill. Jay laughed at me and told me i was seeing snow phantoms. there used ot be camels at the zoo in Bismarck but i figured they all starved. maybe, maybe not. Bizzare.

Woke up to heavy snow, high winds, and bitter cold. the stove is barely keeping up. its cold enough my pen isnt writing well. Not much to do today.

bugger its cold out today. the thermo says -2 and the wind is blowing so teh wind chill is -10 or so. i bundled up and tried to do some scavenging but i turned around after two blocks. Bitter cold. We had a couple cans of pork and beans for brunch and Jay went back to bed. i Stayed up to write a bit and then im off a snooze as well.

One good thing is all the mice are gone (for the time being at least) so none of the food stuffs have ben eaten into or destroyed by rodent action. i fear the lossof all smaller mammalian life will have drastic effects on the food chain later on but thats the future. Being as its so cold ive seen very few birds, save the occasional hawk or other predatory avian. I think they are feeding on the lesser birds to stay alive. i havent seen a robin or any other songbird for months now.

I miss bread. I havent had fresh bread for MONTHS now. we have a kind of canned bread thats good for carbs but it tastes like wet caboard box unless you slather it with jelly or peanut butter. Im thinking about making a jaunt past the hills next summer to try and find some standing wheat. If could bring it back here, we could transpant it and grow wheat in town. There is enough open area on the north edge of town to grow a respectable field but harvesting is going to be a problem. i can hand sow wheat (i did it when i was a kid for fun, figure THAT out) but i for the life of me cant figure out where we will find a scythe and a threshing bin. wait a minute. i have an idea.

Well, i "ate out" tonite. If you can call eating two year old tinned caviar and biscuits "eating out". Hey it isnt standard canned fare at least. Jay tired a couple bites abd promptly annouced it unfit to eat but i enjoyed it. i cracked opena bottle of wine from my stash in the cellar and we had us a fine old time.

From now on ill try to write a bit about the post outbreak world around us. I dont know what your world will be like but ill try to fill you in on ours. i have yet to se an animal, beside birds, smaller than about 125 lbs since the outbreak. no cats, mice, very few dogs, and even most sheep fell victim. they did not reanimate (thank god) but simply died and rotted. Large anuimals like horses, cows, some pigs etc surviuved but are.....different. they are far more skittish that before. The last cow i shot for fresh meat held at 350 yards and it was staring me down hard wheni dropped it. It was as close as i could get. any closer and they run like the devil's after em. horses run as soon as they see a human at any distance. im no biologist so i cant conject what may have happened or its potential influence on the enviroment either. I have seen increasing numbers of large predators like cougars and the like. they prowl the edges of town, what they are feeding off i have no clue. Fishing is poor and the fish come up misshapen and oddly colored. we quit fishing not long after the outbreak because we feared something upriver had contaminated the water and the fish.

its a rough existence here. living on the ragged edge. oddly i relish this lifestyle. No more cell phones, ipods, or idiot drivers and while i do miss my computer i dont miss wading through stacks of spam e-mail and putting up with e-porn mail all the time. now all i have to worry about is where my next meal is coming from and when the dead-heads will thaw this year.

Worked some more in the hardware today. im trying to find an inverter so i can charge car batteries off some small solar panels i found and run a radio for some tunes. Or maybe a battery charger. or plug in a razor. god i would KILL for a good electric shave. i hate blade razors. my whiskers are tough and blades chop me up, hence i dont shave much. right now i look like a bear cub with all my fur but i dont mind.

the only thing i REALLY worry about is breaking my glasses. id never find another pair with my oddball scrip and the only spares i have are 10 years old from when i was in the army. it would suck to have to wear those again. i look like Ted Bundy when i do. My drill instructor used to call them "birth control glasses" because there is no way any chick would ever screw anybody wearing such ugly eyewear.

You may be askng why i dont just use the generator. well, its not in good shape and we dont use it much at all anymore. I think if we ran it for more than a few hours it would up and die entirely, so we just burn wood for heat and suffer through.

I wish i could get the water running agin though. Man that'd be nice. The toilet would work again. Maybe. It didnt work half the time when the water did run. There was a LNG explosion at the plant the day of the outbreak and im pretty sure it cut the main line and let all teh water from the tower drain back into the plant and into the river. we lost water pressure right away that day and it never came back. bummer. Most of the houses in town have frozen pipes anyway and if you turned the water onthey'd flood. i was smart enough to drain mine the first day after the power went off before everything froze.

Ah hell i should quit daydreaming. we aint ever gonna see running indoor water again. its back to privvies for quite some tiem id say. the good thing is we always got hot water for coffee going on the stove.

Coffee. theres another thing. Most of it thats left is stale and nasty. Its drinkable, barely. ive exhasuted every can of Red Bull i could find and even the monster and NOS are running out. I guess being a caffine junkie has its end as well.

beatiful day today and i spent most of it scavenging. im beat. i worked in Lind's hardware most of the day sorting out pipe fittings and such. im putting them back on teh shelves so if we need them they're in order and available. ive done the same with some stuff at runnings as well. I figured what the hell. theres not much else to do and i found a knipco heater so i can burn kero or gas and keep fairly warm. Jay is finnaly getting better but its slow. the flu he cuaght really hit him hard.

boring day. it rained, then it snowed for a while. i spent most of the day in front of the fire. its winer in SD, what more can you say? Ice can be a killer.

hey i just realized something. its pearl harbor day today. How easily i forget things like that in the daily grind of trying to stay alive. Best get out some history books. "those who forget thier past are damned to repeat it."

Do you remeber frozen microwave pizza? dear god that stuff was good. At least i remember it was. I havent had one in a long time. Totinos party pizzas. Like 3 for 10 bucks if i remember right. It will be a long ass time before we ever see anything like that again. Shit, it'll be a long time before we ever see a supermarket again.

well back to the past.


The third day dawned cold. it was probably 20 degrees outside if you were lucky. Both Jay and i slept in the living room near the heater. He slept on the couch and i dragged a mattress from the spare bedroom and put it on the floor. I was up early checking the windows for visitors but Jay slept until almost 9AM. I let him. He had suffered hard yesterday and still fought like a wildcat. "He'll do to ride the river with." i thought to myself. Guys like Jay are hard to come by. Smart as a MIT grad but with 1000 times more common sense. Got a backbone like titainium and guts of solid rock. Good man to have at your side when the going got rough. He stirred and opened his eyes.

"What time is it?"

"After 9AM. You looked like you needed sleep."

"Damn straight." He got to his feet and streched. "that fall yesterday sure tweaked me up." He popped his back and streched again. I tossed him a bottle of Aleve.

"that'll cut the worst of it. Dont worry about taking too many, i got plenty."

the fridge was still cool enough to provide drinkable apple juice and he washed down three pills. the milk had gone sour and i had eaten what leftovers were still good. Before long if it wasnt left outside where it could freeze it wouldnt be any good.

"does the water still work?" Jay asked. I glumly shook my head.

"theres botteled water to drink and boxes of baby wipes to clean up with. no showers or baths for now im afraid. If you need the bathroom theres a five gallon camp toilet in the shower. it works but its kinda ripe. i didnt get a chance to dump it yesterday. i poured in a little bleach to cut the smell but its still bad."

jay nodded. "better that that crapping on the floor."

I grinned. Jay took a lantern and closed the bathroom door. It was dark in there with no electricity.

Today we needed to come up with a plan. We needed more supplies if we wnated to hunker down for the rest of the winter or we need more survivors and wheels if we wnated to bug out. the river wasnt frozen yet we couldnt head west, but Jay had family east that had potential. if they werent already dead and reanimated.

We talked for hours. Hashing plan after plan. if all came down to information. we knew that we were potentially the only survivors of a town of 3500. two of us. Potentially a .1 percent survival rate. that would make the odds of any of our family surviving extremly remote. i had seen smoke from other places in town but had not investigated. i had also seen the signs of other taking from stores as well. Jay knew what happened to his close family (we werent going that direction agian and purposly gave her place of work a wide berth) but i didnt. If they made it, they made it. It would make no difference if i went hauling ass across the praire on some sort of rescue mission as if i stayed in place. We had plenty of supplies in town and now that the nights were below freezing, the dead heads were corpse-sicles until spring. then we would find out of whatver reanimated them could survive being frozen for a few months.

It snowed some today. I scrounged for supplies on the east edge of town for few hours. not much. Jay has the flu and is down for the count. Back to our story i guess.

Where were we? Oh yeah, on the roof.

Jay had a pair of binoculars around his neck and was scanning the area.

"the rangers intact. We'll have to get the keys from the locker in the shop though."

I chuckled. for once my crappy memory had served me well. I pulled the spare key out of my coat pocket and jingled it on its ring.

"No fucking way." Jay said.

"i left em' in my pocket the other day. i kept forgetting to put them back. Looks like a good thing i forgot."

Jay grinned. "I got me a plan." We hopped the roof to Jays apartment and entered through a hole in the roof. I asked "Where's Tina?"

Jay got a pained look on his face and i regretted the question. "She called from work. she got pinned in the back room by zombies with noithing but her .38 revolver. she had five rounds. I was on the cell phone with her when they started breaking down the door. I heard her fire four fast shots. Then a fifth. then the phone went dead. You guess." He turned away for a moment and i found another direction to look. After a moment i spoke.

"Becca and Lil headed west towards her folks before they blew the bridge. At least you know."

Jay nodded and we moved on. He filled a duffel bag with weapons, ammo and a few personal belongings. a backpack was stuffed with clothing and what littel food he had. He grabbed the two propane tanks out from under the gas grill and unhooked the hoses. I knew what he had in mind.

"that wont work. mythbusters tried it and couldnt get them to explode."

"myabe but they didnt use road flares." Jay taped a eight inch road flare to the handle of each tank. "ill throw em', you shoot em. You throw like a girl." He laughed and we headed out. there was a stairway on the back deck of teh shop that had been cut about six feet from the ground. easy jump if you were careful. We positioned ourselves and got ready. I adjusted the sight on the AK on nodded. Jay lit the flare and heaved the tank out into the street and i waited until it rolled among the undead. When it stopped i fired.

A plume of fire filled the street and a shockwave pummeled us. Jay threw the other tank and i fired when it was a few feet off the ground, closer to us. a second shockwave cleared a path.

"GO!" Jay yelled. We dropped off the cut ladder and ran like hell. I hit the unlock button on the remote and heard the clack as the doors unlocked. "You shoot, I'll drive." I yelled to Jay. I threw my rifle and shotgun into the bed and Jay hopped in. the deadheads were right on our heels when i started the engine and Jay opened fire as i pulled out inot the street. I dodged the smoldering remians of the propane tanks as Jay unleashed a racket of fire from the bed. Empty brass rained down across the windsheild and hood and i heard him stop to reload.

We handnt discussed where to go beforehand but at the rate we were burning ammo, we needed a hell of alot more. there were several hardware stores and gunshops we could hit up for ammo. There was a sporting goods store outside of town but that was miles away. I slid open the back window and yelled over the wind.

"we need supplies. what do you think?"

"Runnings first, then the hardware store, then Jeffs pawnshop. If we arent under attack by then we'll try for the grocery store too."

The Runnings parking lot was deserted, and the front doors were locked. All the better. I found a crowbar in the toolbox of the truck while Jay watched for incoming. It made short work of the glass doors. the inside doors were unlocked. I slung my rifle and drew my Glock. I cut the pie as i entered the building, watching for threats. None presented themselves. emergency lighting was still on bathing the store in an unearthly yellow glow.

"Back the truck up to the roll up door and ill let you in." Jay said.

I nodded. So far so good, no zombies yet. Jay rolled up the door and i backed the truck in. He rolled the door back down. "i barricaded the front so we got some time. Lets load up."

We both grabbed a shopping cart and headed for the ammo. the shelves had been hit some by buyers but the placed had closed in an orderly fashion. There were crates and boxes out for the night crew to restock, but they never showed. we helped ourselves. PIstol, rifle and shotgun ammo was loaded by the case and rolled back to be loaded in the ranger. When that ran out we loaded cases of beef jerky, camping food and gear. that pretty much filled out a load and night was beginning to fall.

"You want to shelter here or bug out for the house?" I asked.

Jay pondered for a moment. "Hell you still got heat, lets do your house."

No dead heads found us on our way back to the house and we off-loaded the ammo and supplies. We used the push bar on the ranger to clear the dead bodies away from the front deck and used a towrope to clear them from the murder hole. after hauling the supplies we gathered i fired up the propane wall heater and warmth flooded the room. We took stock of ourselves. Jay was a ragged mess. His clothing was torn in a dozen places and he had no hat. loaded mags stuck out from his pockets at all sorts of angles and my Hi point pistol was tucked in his belt. i had lost my overcoat along the way and was cut up from the truck crash. Open pockets on my combat vest flapped as i walked and one canteen was missing. We looked at each other and suddenly burst out laughing. I have no clue why but we rolled on the floor like kids bellowing out laughter for at least ten minutes.

Im tired tonite. the walking today took alot out of my legs. I haven been able to find a decent pair of winter boots yet. Im still wearing my old Carolina boots id worn for years and they are getting in rough shape. Id love to find a pair of army "bunny boots" but they were few and far between around here.

I just realized something. in my last entry i ended with "oops the fire needs attention. Ill be right back" like im on the phone or a chat room or something. its been a YEAR since the internet or phones worked. Balls, that depresses me.

anyway, i was on what remained of my front deck blasting dead heads with my 30-30. Empty brass clinked around my feet and made footing treacherous. They were coming in close now and aiming was out the window. it was point and shoot. point and shoot. reload. point and shoot. then i reached for more ammo and there was none. the entire bandoleer was empty. there was three rounds left in the rifle and more zombies than i started with. the dead had piled up high enough the reminder was getting close to gaining the deck surface. i slung my rifle and drew my 9mm Glock.

There were three dead heads on the lee side of the deck and a quick burst put them down. i sprinted past the reminder unscathed and climbed the back deck. i had left a "ring" of deck material around the upper level and cut out the entire center. the dead heads would climb the ramp and fall into my neat murder hole. they seemed unable to climb any kind of vertical incline unless it was a smooth sloping ramp. i dove through the murder hole and made the back door. the dead heads were right behind as i grabbed the 12 ga browning shotgun left by the door. it held 9 rounds in an extended tube magazine and for close range head bustin' was just the ticket. Half a dozen dead heads were milling around in the murder hole apprently confused and not able to get out. The browning made short work of them. I slammed and barred the door, and checked the front. A few scattered zombies still roamed about but they were roaming farther and farther away from the house. A reprive.

I find myself losing some of the memories of those first days. Some of them come back as i write but some i know are lost to time forever. For the life of me i cant remember what happened the rest of that day. I know i slept on the living room couch, in full combat gear with a locked and loaded AK clung tightly to my chest. I awoke with a start at every little sound and prowled the house like a caged animal at times. the sun couldnt rise fast enough.

When it did the town was shrouded in smoke and ash from buring buildings. Scattered gunfire rang out and one large explosion rocked the south end of town about 10AM. No dead heads presented themselves and i began to think maybe the slaughter of the day before had gotten all of them. How naive i was back then. You NEVER get them all.

The phones had ceased to work almost immedatly following the outbreak but cable TV, cable internet and the power stayed on for three days. I watched FOX news mostly as they had more midwest coverage than CNN or MSNBC. The outbreak started in the midwest and spread outward. the coasts were largely untouched until the second day. Once it hit a major city however it spread like wildfire in high grass. by then end of the first day it was reported in canada and mexico. By midnight it was across the atlantic in Britian and spain. By the moring of the second day it was throughout europe and then all the overseas feeds died. the last TV i ever saw was the control room of FOX news. dead heads had overrun the station and all the studios below. the dozen or so people in the control booth overlooking the studios had demolsihed the stairs and were broadcasting from a handheld unit as the familiar faces of anchors and pundits fell under the onslaught of the reanimated. Had i been given the power each and ever one of those people would have been given a ten foot tall trophy of a gigantic pair of testicles because they kept on broadcasting until power failed. I do not know what happened to them. I hope they made it out. Im betting they didnt.

For anyone reading this you may ask, Its the middle of winter, wouldnt they freeze?

Well yes and no. the bodies cooled after death and reanimation yes, but for the first three days, there was still enough heated homes and buisnesses for them to keep unfrozen. the weather was unseasonably warm then anyway. It kept them mobile.

I felt a certain duty to check on the few co-workers still alive and that i gave a crap about. The truck still had gas at that point and with the power still on i could refuel. I loaded down heavy with weaponry. My combat vest with 8 30 round AK mags, Glock 9mm on one side and SIG P225 on the other. a bandoleer of 12 ga ammo was slung over one shoulder and a pistol grip remy 870 marine magnum over the other. A romainian AK-47 finished the ensemble. It was heavy but for the most part the dead heads were slow and as long as i could go at a fast trot i was OK. I loaded a satchel with spare weapons and ammo in the back seat of the truck and a cooler with water and food in case i was cut off. the first guy i wanted to check on was Jay. He was probably the guy i respected the most of anyone there and was one heck of a shot to boot.

His house was near the shop and there was some things i wanted from there anyway. When i rounded the corner three blocks away, i spotted a herd of dead heads blocking the street. gunfire crackled and several of them fell. Jay was on his rooftop with an AR-15 popping dead heads.

Then disaster. He lost his footing and slid down the shingles. he fell off the roof and landed in a shrub. He was down for the count and i hit teh gas. I was less than a block away but i was doing close to 50MPH when i plowed into the dead head crowd. bodies flew like ten-pins and the windshield shattered. The truck crashed into the corner of the building and the airbag popped in my face. it was messy but i had created a temporary blockade. the few dead heads inbetween me and Jay Fell to quick bursts from my AK and i saw the brush shaking as Jay got his senses about him. I yelled his name and he looked confused until he saw me heading twoards him from the smoking truck wreck. More dead heads were approaching from the other side and they were spilling around the tail of the truck. I had grabbed the satchel of weapons from the back of the cab before i bailed and threw it to Jay. He drew out a pistol style AK an started shooting. we fell together back to back and blasted our way to the back door of the shop. We were cut off from Jays front door and the back door abutted the shop. My AK ran dry and i dropped it to its sling. the 870 pulled up and roared. three dead heads fell in a spray of buckshot, opening the way to the shop door. it was locked but a round from the 870 peeled back the lock mechanism like a can opener.

the door sprng open at one kick from Jay's size 14 shoe and he sprang inside. He yelled for me to come on and i emptied the 870 as i backed into the doorway. the dead heads wee coming on strong and i let the shotgun fall to its sling. I drew a pistol with each hand and John Woo stlye let the lead fly. Jay grabbed my collar and yanked me back into the building. He slammed the door behind me and quickly toppled a videogame in front of it to keep it closed. We were both panting and reloading weapons as the dead heads pounded the outside of the door.

"That wont hold long." Jay said as he locked a fresh mag in the AMD-65.
"tell me about it." I answered, thumbing shells into the 870. "whats the status on wheels?"
"well being as you just totaled the Dodge and the chevy is nowhere to be found, we're down to the ranger. its across the street in the parking lot."

Balls. half a block of distance crowded with around a hundred dead heads. May as well be on the fucking moon. The door was still holding as Jay and I climbed the stairs to the upstairs storage. the roof of the shop was a short distance from the bar roof and we considered jumping.

Both of us were still panting and we stopped for a quick rest. we were out of immediate danger for now and needed a break. i lost my chow cooler in the crash but i had two canteens and a few cereal bars. i handed Jay a canteen and he drank deeply. When he lowered it he spoke.

"thanks for back there. I was sure i was a goner. That was some bang-up timing."

he clapped me on the shoulder and squeezed. We shared a look of slight embarasment and i chucked him on the shoulder.

"not bad shooting yourself." I gave him a look and nodded. "when the shit hits the fan, some guys run and some guys stay. I reckon i pegged you right." i grinned and he grinned back.

"You heard of any other survivors?"

"There was a shit load of gunfire from over by Jeff's place a few hours ago but its died down now. If i know him he'll be at the reload bench crancking out rounds. that guy never could keep ammo around."

Thats enough for tonite. My writing hand hurts. Ill put more down tomorrow. This all starting to come back to me now so ill probably put down some lengthy diatribe like today to get it on paper. mayvbe if anyones left i could sell a book. If theres anyone left to print and publish it.

Short nap

Well, even though its ice cold outside and anything not living is a zombie-sicle, i still dint sleep much. i find myself in a 12 gour cycle of sleep four hours until the fire dies down and then awake for seven or eight hours to stoke the fire and stare at the walls. thusly, onward with our story.

Even before the outbreak i had an impressive collection of weapons. i shot in various sports including trap, steel silhouette and IDPA.

God i wonder if anyone even remembers what IDPA is anymore.

Anyway i had plenty of firepower. i always was a "plan ahead" type of guy so i had food stock on hand, camping gear etc. What i wasnt prepared for however was a rampaging horde of flesh rending undead. Can you prepare for that? Im not sure if you can because no one else did, thats for sure.

i had a better chance than most as i could easily fortify my home. both front and back doors were above ground level with decks and stairs to enter them. a couple hours with an Ax took care of that. the one ground floor level window that entered the basement was blocked with bricks i swiped from the nighbors garage and banked with dirt on the outside, and nailed over with plywood on the inside. it was a weak point but i covered it as best i could.

While i was working one car went flying by doing at least 60 MPH (in town) and heavily loaded. i thought the driver may have ben a gal i know but they were going too fast for me to say for sure. niether of the two occupants had a visible firearm so i didnt give them too much attention. What i did pay attention to was the herd of about 15 Zombies chasing the car. they dont move very fast but once they get a scent they stay on it until they find the end. I had finished demolishing the front deck but not the rear and i grabbed my rifle. I had armed up with my Marlin 336 30-30. i used it in steel silhouette shooting and it was the most accurate weapon i owned. it only held five rounds though. this was going to be interesting.

i was standing on the stringers of the deck andi had already destroyed the steps. i had 40 rounds of 30-30 ammo in a bandoleer and five in the rifle. I calmly raised my rifle and fired. In the past i had read "The Zombie Survival Guide" and gotten a good laugh out of it. Now i was about to see if it was right or not. My previous headshots on my transformed co-worker seemed to lend credence to the headshot kill theory so i tapped the first guy in the forehead. He dropped like a stone. my second round caught another in the throat and left his head hanging from a tendon. he still kept on coming so i fired through his torso and dropped him.

Oop the fire neds attention. ill be right back.

Its official, I'm Bored

And thats basically why this diary will exist. Its not for posteriety or anything as magnimonious as that. Its cold and windy outside and i dont have anything better to do. Its also been one year to the day since the zombie outbreak. Ill do this as often as i can.

A year. Ouch. I just realized how long a year is. Its taken probably 20 years off my life. Hey we all die someday right?

A little backstory. I was an employee of a lotery/amusement company. i did routes, fixed machines etc etc. it was a good job for this podunk town. When the outbreak began i was out of town on an overnight route. As always, with all the money i caried on a collection route i was armed, thank god. I had finished my route and headd back into town. the large number of police on the big bridge should have been a clue. I was one of the last trucks into town and pretty much my local commercial plates and the fact i know the sheriff personally that got me across. two of Jensens trucks came across behind me and they blew the bridge. That woke me up. The twelve blocks to the shop were covered in record time. There were several bodies on the street and a shit-ton of expended brass. i saw at least two burning houses with firetrucks near them and one burned-out car that was still smoldering.

the shop was deserted, roll up doors open. Strangely there wasnt anything missing. normally if we left a door open stuff dissapeared in short order. even my tool boxes were still there. unfortunantly so were several bodies. The boss and his wife, and the old couple who lived in the upstairs apartments were in the back courtyard. They appeared to have been eating the owner of the bar next door. All had been shot repeatedly.

Now i was a fiction lover for years. id read my share of Zomibe fiction novels. i always dismissed them as impossible. Well, i was wrong. the proof was in the fact of the one remaining co-worker that was still wandering around the back courtyard. he had an arm that he was contentedly chewing on. when i opened the back door and yelled at him, he dropped the arm, growled and charged. i slammed the door and ran like hell for my pack. I jd just puled out the glock when he bashed in the back door. He moved slowly but it was fast enough. He was less than twen feet away when i opened fire. i gave him three rounds center of mass and it never fazed him. the next two went into his forehead. that did the trick. he dropped like a sack of shit. I immediatly went to dial the police but the phones were dead and it was then i heard the familiar crackle of gunfire in other areas of town.

My work truck still had all my route stuff in it but i closed the doors and and drove to my house. More bodies and some ugly scenes id rather not relive accosted me in the thirteen block drive. it was deserted and a note on the table from ym wife stating she was heading for an adjacent town where her parents lived. she had taken one of our Ak-47s and a 9mm pistol. I hoped she had taken enough ammo. Her dad has always been a Fudd and never saw the need for my collection of AKs, ARs, and other semi auto weapons. Looks like i was geting the last laugh now.

then the entire town was rocked by a massive explosion as the engineers dropped the railroad bridge and the singing bridge simultaneously. the front house storm windows shattered and cold wind blew in. I shut the inner windows and started securing the premisis. The first thing i did was arm up.

Enough for today. im going to bed. More tomorrow.