Speaking of Abby, she’s heartbroken. She sees Hal daily, but Hal keeps pushing her away because he’s petrified of dying or infecting her (irrational as that is). She’s written two newsletters about the change in our world due to the arrival of the foreigners and people are ramping up in their own irrational fears despite having not seen any new zombies. We are safe. We know that. All of us are Americans here (except for Hal, Shelby and Becky, and maybe Gavin and Chloe) and we cannot turn unless we are bitten by someone from not here. We still have the river, the walls, the gate and the guard towers. They’re still scared.
I don’t know. Ollie and Melissa are worried. The last truck that left here heading north to Calendar Mountain they think had several cases of stolen food in it. Meaning; the soldiers raided our storage and sent some of our meager supplies back to their home without our say-so. I’m going to see if our cameras caught anything and recorded it, but I don’t think I’ll have any luck. We don’t have any cameras pointed that way, unless I’m mistaken. Michelle is planning on talking to Lt. Dana about it tomorrow after I check. We’ll see how that goes. I sense a fart in church coming on.
At some point here the balance of power shifted, and it shouldn’t have. When they rolled in with a dozen more people they took the initiative, and since then we’ve been allowing them to pretend to be in charge. We’ve allowed it long enough that they believe they’re in charge, and enough of the people here think they’re in charge now too.
I’m not sure if that’s an asset we can bring to bear or not. So long as they think they’re making all the decisions unimpeded, we can do things behind their back. Give them a false sense of security.
I should say that the only cool kid from the NVC is that Sergeant Rodriguez. Ever since the NVC people ‘took over’ here he’s been increasingly more nervous around Kevin and I. I think he knows they’ve overstepped their bounds, and that it’s a matter of time before something bad happens. He’s been super polite and very helpful to everyone, and if shit goes bad…
He dies last.
These assholes shouldn’t even be here. I’m never going to forgive myself for not fighting harder against them coming. This is my fault.
Ugh. I’m so angry. I need to relax. I’ll go hunting tomorrow.
After Michelle talks to Lt. Dana. Because I need to be around if that goes bad.
Not so much because I want to prevent anything from happening, but because I want leap off the top rope and drop an elbow on someone.
-Adrian
May 16th
As expected, Lt. Dana denied knowledge of any thefts by his people. I was there when Michelle talked to him about it, and he got heated when she asked him about it. Genuinely angry that his people were being accused of it.
I think he’s legit.
That being said… I think the people who left here for Calendar Mountain weren’t part of his original unit. I think they were part of the second group that came down while I was gone, and they might not be answering to him like his people do. He might be on the level about his crew, but the others…
Michelle asked for everything to be inventoried and tagged today, and four or five people are still at it at this late hour. I bitch about us not having much, but we do have quite a bit. It’s just not enough for the amount of people we have. Anyway, we want to account for EVERYTHING, and if ANYTHING has gone missing…
We talk to the good Lieutenant again.
She requested that one of our security cameras either be pointed at the cafeteria where we store our food, or that another camera be installed for the same purpose. We’re getting in touch with Andy to get something rolling.
I didn’t go hunting after all. I spent the day helping count shit, and working on not seething all the time.
-Adrian
May 21st
They’re definitely taking food. Our count this morning came up short after one of the breakfast cooks came in to get things started. She had set aside everything she needed for the morning meal, and when she started to cook, she noticed things missing. Some eggs, some flour, etc. Nothing in great quantity, but little things here and there. She reported it to Melissa, who came right over to Hall E and told us.
It was about then I wanted to go confront Sylvia, our previous food thief, but I thought better.
I scampered right the hell over to the main computer that services the wifi cameras and dug into the files from the previous night. Andy (tech nerd extraordinaire) had set up a new infrared camera in a tree pointing straight at the cafeteria, and it caught everything.
Four in the morning one of the NVC humvees pulled over to the cafeteria, and three of their soldiers let themselves into the building, and then left with two boxes of food. The humvee departed Bastion at dawn for Calendar Mountain as part of their normal routine.
The fuckers stole from us.
It took Michelle and Abby both to keep me from walking across campus to Lt. Dana with my Kimber in hand. I swear to fucking God I was about to ruin it all for us, over two boxes of food.
Of course… Michelle dragged me along five minutes after.
We blindsided Dana as he walked outside of his assigned house with a cup of instant coffee in hand. Our instant coffee, most likely.
“Mr. Lemanwicz,” she said, all pissed off, “I need to speak with you in private, please.”
His eyebrows shot up and he looked left and right like he hoped someone else with his last name would step up. No one did. He said okay, and we walked inside to his first floor room in the back end of campus. Right beside where their big radio setup is. His room was impeccable. Clean enough to eat off the floor.
“Food has gone missing from the cafeteria again,” she started.
Dana interrupted. “We’re able to help with security.”
She shook her head and I laughed. “No, I think we’ll be fine with that. The food was taken by three of your soldiers.”
His turn to laugh. “I don’t think so. My men and women aren’t thieves.”
“Our security cameras show a different reality.”
Sobered his skinny ass right up. “I beg your pardon? What cameras?”
“We have a camera pointed at the cafeteria entrance now, and when we saw food missing this morning, we watched last night’s tapes, and we have video proof of three of your people letting themselves in, and liberating us of several boxes of food. I don’t need to point out that we are still very short on food here, and cannot spare anything for anyone, especially without permission first.”
“I’m gonna call bullshit, Miss Lewis. I don’t think so,” he said.
“She’s telling the truth, Dana. This is not cool,” I said to him. “We wouldn’t accuse your people without proof. There’s nothing to gain out of it. But we have proof, and now we need answers.”
He looked at me and after a few seconds of trying to figure out what to say he gave up and exhaled, tired. “I’ll need to see the tape. Was it one of my people? Or someone from another unit?”
“Another unit,” I said.
“That’s… strange. They must be operating on their own, stealing shit for themselves. Rogues. Not on my orders. Not on the NVC orders. If this is all true, I assure you they’ll be held accountable.”
“Not on NVC orders you’re aware of,” Michelle said. “They could have been told by someone up north to liberate our supplies without your knowledge.”
“That’s a finger pointed you can’t take back,” Dana said, more than a little hostile. “They wouldn’t do that without telling me.”
“Have they done that kind of shit before?” I asked him. He didn’t answer immediately, and I knew he was trying to figure out a way to say they hadn’t, when they had. “You know what, don’t bother lying,” I said. “We’ll need answers straight from Mizaki. Period.”
“Show me the damn tape,” Dana said. “And look, you know I can’t promise you anything with him. With zombies back in the city, everyone is acting strange. Mizaki is taking a very harsh course with
this. Not taking any risks. He’s petrified they’ll spread like wildfire again. I can’t say what he’s doing or, what his plan is, or how he’ll respond to this if you come at him.”
“But he is taking our fucking food. Stealing? You’ve heard of it? This is a bit of a deal-breaker, Dana,” I threw in for good measure. Michelle looked at me, a little disappointed. I guess I was trying to start a fight.
Anyway, before we even went over to confront him, I had burned the video of the theft onto a CD-ROM, and we threw it into his laptop. It played, and he saw the proof. He agreed with me, and said it wasn’t his people, but it was NVC people. He asked for some time to get in touch with Mizaki on the radio, and we conceded.
Of course, his entire radio conversation was on full broadcast to anyone with a military radio.
I have a military radio.
Here’s the short story; Mizaki greenlit the ‘appropriation’ of small quantities of food for Calendar Mountain in the event of a full blown second outbreak of zombies. He was diplomatic (read” cold) about it on the radio, but the cocksucker basically said he had to ‘take care of his people’ and that we (Bastion) had to understand it was for the betterment of all that they had more food up there. That it was better for them to have food in storage for a possible crisis than it was for us to eat tonight.
Yeah.
No.
Mizaki went on to express concern about Hal being here, and that he had been considering relocating Hal, whether we were on board with the idea or not. He also was wondering if we had any other Europeans on site that might be compromising our security. He seemed… hesitant about it, but the fact that he said it aloud put ice in my veins. If he or any of his people touch a hair on Hal’s head…
Dana met us at the Hall A porch about an hour later and had no idea we’d listened to the whole gig. We played dumb, and let him tell us the ‘spinned’ version for us. Michelle… man I have never seen her get angry like that. Of course Michelle angry is her calm as fuck. She just smiled and nodded as Dana told her that Mizaki gave the go-ahead to relocate stuff, and that we had to understand that Calendar Mountain was much larger than us, and that a consolidation of supplies really was in the best interest of the most amount of people, and BLAH FUCKING BLAH BLAH.
When he finished, she smiled at him, and simply said, “No.”
“I’m sorry?” he replied back to her.
“No,” she repeated. “No I do understand why he would take food from our children. No, he may no longer take anything from our children. No, you do not have my permission, or understanding of this. Further, we will not tolerate it. We will be posting our own guards on our supplies effective immediately, and if one soul of yours tries to take so much as a rock from the ground here at Bastion, we will kick their butts straight across the bridge and send them north never to return.”
The ‘kick their butts’ part of it really took away from the badassed nature of her stand, but... I gotta hand it to her. She stood her ground fearlessly, and put the man on his heels.
“Are you in agreement with her?” Dana asked me.
“Dana I’ll be a little more diplomatic than her right now, and I need you to understand that when I’m the one being gentle, the world has gone up Shit Creek with no paddle to the docks of Port Crazytown. Your people are becoming—have become—an occupying force. Your people are now thieves. Looters. They took food from hungry people. If word of that gets out beyond the handful who already know… your men will suffer as a result. Mob justice, and I guarantee it. What happens when one of your kids wearing a uniform thinks he’s going to tell someone here to stop doing something? Or that he deserves a kiss from one of our pretty girls? Because you’re well on the way to being those kind of people. You know what’ll happen? Mothers and fathers here will light up their torches, and scoop up their pitchforks and have themselves a good old witch hunt. You are in danger because of what your boss decided to do. Understand that. This isn’t a threat. But if you don’t see to it that this ‘appropriation program’ is halted five minutes after we all walk away… It will get ugly, and then it will get REAL ugly.”
He sighed and leaned over in the porch swing, putting his forehead in his palms. “Okay, I’ll do what I can.” Then he left.
We’ll see what that means. If the Jinx Fairy were to start flapping her wings, now would be the worst possible time.
-Adrian
May 23rd
Lt. Dana told the NVC that we would not condone their theft of supplies. He used different, kinder words, but the end result was an escalation that seems to have put us a collision course with them. Maybe not fighting… but definitely not good.
Mizaki sent another ten soldiers south to Bastion to ‘shore up’ their complement here. On the radio he used language like, ‘in case of an outbreak’ and, ‘for the good of the children’ but in reality, he’s getting ready to pull a fast one like Hitler in Poland circa 1939. We are now walking around our own home in small groups, and those of us who don’t carry firearms, or aren’t martial by trade, are putting their nose to the grindstone and working constantly, or staying indoors.
North Korea is best Korea.
We don’t know what to do. Things are untenable like this. We’ve sacrificed our freedom, and are staring down overwhelming forces and violence of unimaginable levels to get it back. Violence isn’t the only answer to problems, but right now, I can’t see any diplomatic way to tell Mizaki and his NVC occupiers to change their ways. They have no reason to. They have the upper hand, and they know it. Who relinquishes control?
They had their helicopter fly over this morning. Nice and low with a door gunner looking down at us. They were so low, I could see the asshole pilot and his mirrored aviator sunglasses. I swear he was smiling down at us, arrogant as fuck. Huge waste of fuel, but the effect of seeing an armed helicopter fly directly above the cafeteria, and the halls where we sleep at night was powerful. We can take them on the ground… I think. But that helicopter… I’ve got no solution for it.
Yet.
I don’t know what the last straw will be, but the camel is starting to wobble, and when it goes down, it’s taking the whole caravan with it.
Abby is stirring the pot, too. She put out a newsletter across the locations more or less insinuating that the NVC stole from Bastion, and that they are violating the principle of the agreement. She used clever words, and lots of historical examples to flower it up, but she might as well have used exclamation points to draw a big middle finger on the back page. She also talked about the irony that a Japanese guy wants to relocate people to what amounts to an internment camp. I can’t imagine that won’t somehow draw heat if Mizaki gets word of it. She’s thrown down a glove and challenged the man in the Ivory Tower. I hope he’s a bigger man than I, because I’d do something stupid were I in his shoes.
How did things get like this? I should’ve been firmer. Put up more of a fight. Did this before it got to where it is now. We never should’ve allied with them.
Sigh.
Maybe I need to talk to Kevin, and Ethan and Mike, and Abby and Hal about making a plan. I think I’ll bring old man White and his crew of shooters into it too. He’s a wily one, if I can get him to stop doing that shit with his tongue all the time. Cluck-cluck duck.
Anyway, we need to do this on our terms. Taking them out somehow. Take the initiative back.
But that helicopter.
In other news, the sickness that tore through our immigrants at Spring Meadow has run its course with no other fatalities. The NVC security people there are still keeping all the Brits/foreign nationals under lock and key, restricting their movement at all times, and keeping them under what amounts to quarantine.
I object to this. I understand their logic, but for some reason, it seems like overkill to me. We lived for YEARS with every single one of us being a risk just like they are now, and to keep them all locked away like that makes my skin crawl. Of course the realist in me says, “Well Adrian, what if one of them dies, a
nd bites enough people to turn the whole settlement? And what if they break free and find more people, and start the whole fucking apocalypse again? Doesn’t it make sense to keep them isolated?”
I’m conflicted. I’m scared too.
Otis is acting very strange again. He’s been upstairs with Abby and Gavin all day and night and when I tried to get him to come to the room here earlier, he ignored me. He never ignores me, not like that.
Eh, whatever. He’s a cat, doing cat things. Plus it’s not like he doesn’t love Abby. She’s got just as much litter in her sheets as we do.
Next few days I am going to reach out to the people I listed above and see if we can’t start solving the riddle of what to do if we want to boot these assmunchers out of here. How we can do it with no violence preferably, and if violence does need to be brought to bear…
How we do it with minimal loss of life. Well, minimal loss of life on our side. How to do it and deal with their fucking code words on the radio. We can’t even take out the group here to buy us time to take out NVC headquarters.
I think it’s high time I get in touch with Captain Maria and see if I can get her two cents on this. But how do I do that without using the radio and tipping the NVC off?
Maybe on horseback. Just ride up to their old National Guard base like a cowboy at sunset, and pray to God they don’t dome me with a bolt action as I do so. You remember how Dan McGreevy bought the farm, right?
Then I’ll try to talk them into helping me stage a massive civil war with the people they wanted nothing to do with, against the people they wanted nothing to do with. That’ll go well.
Fuck.
Adrian's Undead Diary (Book 10): The Last Resort [Adrian's March, Part 2] Page 18
