by Joshua Guess
Sooooo.....
My brother and I have been working on an idea, our special project. The folks up at Jack's compound have helped us enormously with the planning and math, and the engineers at Google have done the lion's share of drafting the plans to make the whole thing more efficient, as well as figuring out a way for us to get that grid-level storage.
Yes--we have figured out how to make enough electricity for all of our needs, and how to store it. It's actually a combination of methods. For production of energy, we are going to be building a solar-thermal plant using molten salt. It sounds a lot more complicated than it is, I assure you. It will be a huge pain in the ass getting to where we think there are some suitable turbines, but if we can get through the throngs of zombies that surround the area they should be in, the hardest part will have been done. The rest is simply construction.
The second part is all about manpower and gravity. Between where the compound is and downtown is a very, very steep and long hill. We are going to raise a series of heavy cables and a geared pulley system with guided tracks, hook up big cars to it, and run the cables through heavy flywheels to spin a turbine. If the math works out, one person will be able to ratchet the weight (the vehicle) back up the hill in about ten minutes to do the whole thing over again. If we manage to get enough cable, then we can have this system going pretty much constantly.
As for storing all that energy, we are planning on a flywheel based storage system. I won't go into the details of that, but suffice it to say that we need those turbines to make it work.
Fortunately, the boys and girls at Google seem to think that there is a manufacturing facility that used to make exactly what we need, and that it is untouched. They had to take over a few satellites to look in on the place, but hey, it's not like there is a government to get mad at them about it anymore.
The major issues will be building sufficient flywheels at a storage station to meet all our needs for the foreseeable future, and getting to this facility. Because it's apparently shrouded in zombies for about a thousand feet in every direction. I won't be telling you where it is, because frankly I don't want anyone getting there first. But it's a long pace away in a bigger city, and cities are always packed with the undead.
I cannot give enough thanks to Jack and our friends at Google for helping us manage this. It has been a priority for us since the very beginning, and teams have been working at both Mountain View and Jack's compound to figure out how we can realize this.
It will be a long time before we are up and running, and a lot of laborious effort, but it looks like we have a real shot at it.
at 8:30 AM
Friday, September 3, 2010
Foul Munchkin
Posted by Josh Guess
Trying to fix a computer is magnitudes more difficult in the world we live in now than the zombie-free one we lived in before. This is going to take a while. Will make up with a better post tomorrow.
(Sent from my phone.)
at 11:20 AM
Saturday, September 4, 2010
The Annexing of Places and People
Posted by Josh Guess
As you may have guessed, my computer was seriously messed up yesterday. My laptop is old and actually in pretty good shape, but prone to some occasional system errors. Living in a world decimated by zombies and the fall of society makes it a pain in the ass to reinstall an operating system.
So much is going on around here, or at least that's the way it seems. Since we've finished the wall, only smaller projects have taken up our time. While the plans I announced yesterday are simply huge, the truth of the matter is that they will take a long time, possibly years if our luck is bad. But there is only so much farming to go around, only so many people needed for guard duty. This is a big problem lately, with all of the folks from Lexington living in the fallback area. The conditions there aren't terrible, but they are cramped and uncomfortable. There is enough area there to produce food for those that live there, but only just, and certainly not enough to save for the winter.
We also hate that the folks from Lexington have to be so far away. It was never our intent to segregate them in any way, only that we were already packed to the gills here and there weren't many other options.
Which leads me to one of the other ideas we have had on the back burners. Since there are two neighborhoods literally butting up against us and we need a lot more room to breathe, efforts are being put into gathering what we need to start annexing. We have all the heavy equipment we need to make boards and beams, but what we can get from Jack and his people is about maxed out. They can only produce so much extra for us, the rest needs to go towards their own defenses.
The real problem is that we need to conserve fuel. We are trying to get someone with mechanical experience to look at some of our equipment to see if we can modify any of it to run with electric engines...
Not much else to report today, other than something I think is sort of interesting. Lt. Price--Will-- is in my back yard, just like he has been the last few days, digging up his own food to eat. The interesting bit is watching his determination. He digs and digs, absolutely focused on finishing, no matter how much pain his damaged arm and leg cause him.
Every so often he finds a rock, usually something small. I have watched him off and on, examining the stones with an appraiser's eye as he tosses them up and down. I've seen him heft and toss them with increasing speed and accuracy at the shed in my yard. At this point he's fastballing them a second after he finds them, and hitting an area about the size of a softball pretty much every time.
We can't allow him a weapon yet, so he finds his own. One arm is immobile, so he learns to fight with the other. He's adaptable, and tough as a coffin nail.
And I think he's becoming one of us.
at 1:55 PM
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Perspective of Jess
Posted by Josh Guess
Perspective is everything.
Before the apocalypse I worked on third shift, so I was usually awake to see the dawn come, though I almost never had the time to watch it. Now I have to be up before the sun peeks over the shoulder of the world, and I have watched it rise most days.
It's always beautiful, but rarely moving now. It is simply another part of my day, something that happens. Before it was still a rare and glorious thing, given how rarely I could watch. But now that I have to be up and outside when it comes...
It's the same way with people. I've said it before but it remains true--right now human beings are split into three basic groups for me. The dead, living people that are threats, and family. I define family as all of those who live in peace with us, anyone who has come here with a hope for peaceful coexistence.
I am sitting up in the main watchtower, typing while my wife sits next to me in a camp chair. She's looking at the same thing I am, the guards along the wall doing rounds and occasionally picking off a zombie. She is seeing it in a lot more detail through the scope of her rifle.
It's been hell trying to get her to be safe while she's pregnant. She's so far along now, and I worry. But she was starting to go stir crazy not being a part of the defense, which I get. But she managed to convince several people that she would be just as safe in the tower as in the house. I disagree, but I also trust my wife to be careful for herself and our child. She has been a force within the compound since before it existed, and it's hard to deny her the right to defend others.
But all of us still worry, of course. Jess is a different person than she was before the fall, not as emotionally fragile or shy, but now somehow more outspoken while managing to be reserved. I know that seems like a contradiction but it really isn't. Think of her as a dispassionate observer who waits to speak until the facts are in, and just add in some creative swearing and rude hand gestures, and you've got her. It has made her universally known here, respected by most, and loved by many.
She's my wife, but all of us treasure her.
at 10:56 AM
Aaron
Posted by Josh Guess
I got an interesting bit of information a few minutes ago. There's apparently a small group of survivors in Lexington, maybe a dozen or so people. The email they sent out to us got stuck somewhere along the line, so it's a week or so old. There is still a lot of lag and downtime in our emails, so I am not terribly surprised.
The leader of the group is a guy named Aaron. He was a student at one of the community colleges there until the fall. He sent me a pretty decent length message explaining the situation there, including location and the best way to get them out.
That's why this post is going to be cut short today. I am going to pass this on to the council and see what we can do, try to plan out a quick pick up...
at 7:49 AM
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Adapting
Posted by Josh Guess
The team left out to get Aaron and his people a while ago, and we are hoping they will be back before dinner. I have my doubts that they will see this done that quickly, however, since we are seeing an increase in the zombie population around here.
Some of our scouts reported seeing several groups of them ranging between one to two hundred standing in the now-familiar pattern that means smarties (smart zombies) are trying to convert normal zombies. I guess it didn't take them long to start rebuilding their numbers. Thank god they aren't attacking us yet.
Most of us think that this calls for an attack, sending out a group of armored fighters to chase them, trap them, and thin the herd. Some don't agree, reckoning that we are much safer here than going out to fight. That's probably true, actually, but it enough of them come at us at once, especially the smart ones, we could be in serious trouble.
Will Price is with me and my friends on the council here. He's of the opinion that the truly less risky course would be to attack the problem before it can grow too large, only risking the lives of less than twenty people in an attempt to prevent or at least delay a large scale attack on the compound. He pointed out to the doubters that we are currently doing a lot of work outside the compound prepping the adjoining neighborhoods for annexation, and I think that might have swayed some of them. We'll be voting on it tonight, or after the transport party gets back with Aaron and his people, whichever comes first.
I am amazed at Lt. Price's ability to make people understand the tactical advantages of ideas. He knows that he still isn't fully trusted, but he still seems to do his best to resolve conflicts logically, acting in the best interests of the compound. He knows that he isn't one of us just yet, and still he holds no grudge at our distrust, only doing what he can for the betterment of all.
He's also getting stronger. Evans says that he is healing at a pretty incredible rate. Will still isn't able to walk, but he is standing for brief periods, and the pain isn't nearly as severe as our good doctor thought it would be. Evans thinks that Will's leg might be doing much better than anticipated, and could be up and about in a few more weeks. I know the grumpy old bastard would probably like him to stay off it the full two months, but we can use every man. Besides, it isn't as though any of us will let him do anything strenuous. He's a fighter, that's for sure.
In his free time, Will is hanging out with my wife quite a bit. No, nothing sinister, since I am usually around and I don't see anything untoward going on. Rather, Jess is teaching our wayward soldier the finer points of agriculture, all the random facts she knows about planting and growing things. Part of my brain wonders if he intends on getting an education here and taking it back to Richmond one day to pass on his knowledge to his fellow soldiers. I don't know if I like that idea or not, if only because it would mean he is planning to leave and is using us, but my base setting is generally positive for the concept of sharing ideas and experience.
Oooh. My brother Dave just came in, and is telling me that we have a guy who thinks he can modify some electric motors to run some of our saw equipment. That's really awesome, it means that we can start on the annexing soon. We have enough stores of lumber to make a good start on the process, maybe a week's worth, and in that week we should be able to make a lot more. It might not be pretty, but we can start.
And our folks down by the river will have a safe place to live, right next to us.
Today's a good day.
at 11:56 AM
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Cancel Red Alert
Posted by Josh Guess
Well....Aaron is here, and he's alone.
The team managed a pickup yesterday, but due to a zombie attack sometime between when we got the email from him and when our people made the pickup, a mob of zombies killed all of his people. He only escaped by falling right next to a truck, and managed to hide in the undercarriage about half a block from the rendezvous point. When he heard the team drive up and start clearing out the herd, he made his presence known.
He's an interesting guy. In his early thirties, he's got a very similar personality to my own. Loves comics and anime, tabletop gaming, and has a hard vein of practicality in him sufficient to the task of survival. He's also been a student off and on for most of his life, and has a zeal for teaching. Which is awesome, because as many of you know, my sister was our primary teacher until she left for the safer confines of Jack's compound in Michigan. I hope he likes it here, because we need someone who knows how to teach without trying to reproduce the broken and mind-numbing system that we used to have.
He's not showing much pain at the loss of his people. I don't know if that's because he barely knew them, or he's just been numbed to the pain of loss as some folks are, or if he's just holding it in until he can get some privacy, but he seems to be dealing.
He's pushing Will Price around in his wheelchair at present, getting a guided tour. Patrick has taken this rare time away from the Lieutenant to come talk to me about him. Most of us think that he is sincere in his desire to be a part of us, and the idea behind him living and working with Patrick was to see if my big Alaskan chum could spot any duplicity in him, catch him trying to case us out for information to take back to his fellow soldiers in Richmond.
I am happy to report that Pat hasn't seen a thing to cause suspicion. Will is apparently what he seems; a soldier sent out on a mission that ended in tragedy for those with him. He wants to live here, be one of us, and I think he should be welcomed.
Some of the people around here have wondered why he should be looked on with such concern when many others were brought here and essentially handed the keys to the kingdom. The answer is simple if loaded with implications: when other people came here, they were as refugees looking for a place to survive. When he came here, it was because he was sent to our town by a group that possibly has the resources to obliterate or conquer us in a matter of hours.
I can handle a large group of individuals who just want safety. The dangers they bring are individual and dealt with in the same manner. If they were to pose any sort of group problem, chances are that it would be a social one, dealing more with issues of tolerance rather than control. We've seen that happen, sadly. More than once.
But a single man who represents a larger group of very powerful people? People with the means to strike from miles away, to kill dozens at a go? That one man could mean death or slavery for all of us. It's not the flock of birds in the field ahead of you that should worry you, but rather the snake hiding by itself in the tall grass.
So today is another good day. I think we'll get the council together, and see about removing the restrictions from Will.
Huh. Just heard a gunshot, and it sounded really close to the house. That's unusual. I can hear some people yelling. Maybe a few zombies got inside the perimeter. Better go check it out.
at 10:37 AM
Thursday, September 9, 2010
He Didn't Have a Name
Posted by Josh Guess
I haven't been back to sleep since my post yesterday. I can't even begin to describe the horror
of the last day, but I have to get out the events. Writing has always been my way to relieve my mental pressure. That's why this blog exists. How to begin?
Where I left off, I guess.
I went outside when I heard the gunfire and people yelling. I thought maybe there was a breach in the wall, perhaps a few zombies got through. I was terribly wrong.
The scene I came upon less than thirty yards from my house froze me solid for a few seconds. There was Patrick, Aaron, Will, my wife Jess and a Big man in an army uniform. Pat and Aaron were crowded around Jess, who was laying on the ground covered in blood. Will was kneeling painfully at the side of the man wearing fatigues, checking for a pulse.
I couldn't understand what I was seeing. It made no sense to me.
Pat, Aaron and I all seemed to move at once, hauling jess up into Will's forgotten wheelchair, and we rushed her around the corner to the clinic that was once my mother's house. I don't know how long we were there, or how much blood Jess lost, but I was at her side the entire time Evans and Gabrielle were working on her. I held her hand and prayed, begged to god that he save her. A god I hadn't talked to or fully believed in for a long, long time. I wept at the agony I saw in her eyes as my friends pushed themselves beyond their limits to save her life, and that of our unborn child.
