Living With the Dead: The Hungry Land (Book 3)

by Joshua Guess

  The outside of our wall, as of right now, is a mixture of traps, pits, and stakes that slow down the zombies that seem to constantly wander around outside. To a smaller degree, it slows down swarms as well, though given recent events it's clear that the defenses aren't adequate for larger groups.

  Dave wants to ring all of that with a trench about six feet deep, with a berm of dirt on the outside. It's a good idea. Also, a LOT of work.

  But, I think it would be a good thing. One problem that has been slowly creeping up on us is the sheer emotional exhaustion of living in fear all the time. The last few big zombie attacks have been repelled successfully, but they've also made us more afraid. Actually seeing the dead manage to get inside the wall was enough to make most people start toting weapons at all times. We're a determined bunch, tough as nails, but only idiots aren't scared when their lives are in danger.

  We feel like that almost all the time. It's draining. Living under the threat of a breach is awful, and Dave's idea would help many of us feel safer. It isn't just psychological--we would actually be safer. The cost/benefit analysis of it seems to lean toward doing it. I think it would be worth the fuel spent, but I'm just one voice on the council. We'll see how it goes tonight at the meeting, and I'll let you know the outcome.

  If any of you out there are feeling the same weight on your shoulders, I hope it helps to know that there are others out there who share your burden. I know it won't make things completely better, but anything you can do to make yourselves more secure will help, I promise you.

  Be safe. But also, feel safe.

  Thursday, April 15, 2011

  Joining Forces

  Posted by Josh Guess

  Back in the fall (I'm so used to capitalizing The Fall when I refer to the initial outbreak of the zombie plague and the worldwide chaos that followed that it takes an effort not to do it...) there was a huge swarm of zombies that threatened the place now known as North Jackson. You may remember that we sent Will Price and a contingent of other people there to help with the fight.

  There was also a helicopter. During one of the largest assaults, it came from nowhere to deliver ruination on the zombie swarm. None of us knew where it came from, and haven't seen it since. Early today the people of North Jackson learned the truth behind that little mystery.

  All over the country, small groups of soldiers who managed to survive the early waves of violence have banded together. Well, they were small at first. The helicopter that swooped in to help the folks of North Jackson was only passing through, killing what zombies they could before their munitions or fuel ran out. The men that were in that chopper moved on for another two hundred miles toward another group of soldiers they'd been in contact with.

  Many such groups came together slowly over time. The men who helped North Jackson met with others. More joined over time to bring their total to more than four hundred. Each group had hoarded MRE's and many other supplies in much the same way the rest of us have--by looting the hell out of any cache we can find. The difference is that while many other groups of survivors put down roots in one place and tried to rebuild, these soldiers moved around, amassing a huge reserve of supplies and taking it with them as they went.

  Those four hundred made it to the gate at North Jackson today. The email I got described their caravan as a line two vehicles wide, stretching so far that the end of it curved out of sight. The soldiers had several tankers carrying diesel fuel with them. All were nearly empty.

  When their fuel began to get low, they made the choice to go to a place that they knew had a sizable population. Somewhere they knew was defensible and with enough infrastructure to handle their numbers. I'm proud to say that those four hundred soldiers stopped at the gate and asked for permission to enter, offering their services as full time guards for the walls of North Jackson.

  NJ accepted happily. Though there will be a lot of additional planting needed (which will mean clearing and securing more nearby land) the people there are thrilled to have so many new faces. With the extra population, they will be able to mount an effort to clear the areas near the main complex in no time.

  We've had bad experiences here with soldiers, but I want to give that some context. The Richmond soldiers weren't as bad as they could have been. Yes, they took our home through force, or at least the threat of it, but overall they were more restrained than your average marauder. There weren't constant rapes (a few, as I've mentioned before, but that happens in every group of people) and they didn't oppress the remaining citizens here, really. They were hungry men who had nearly run out of food. They were desperate, and lost their way.

  I've always had a great respect for the military. I can't say enough about the pride that comes to my heart when I think about men and women making the willing choice to protect others. To serve their homeland. Soldiers are people like anyone else, and like any other person some of them lost their way after The Fall. How could they watch their brother and sister soldiers die and be eaten in front of them and not be scarred? How could they not be changed?

  But also like other people, many of our surviving servicemen and women have adapted. The vast majority of those that live are stronger for it. The frankly huge hoard of supplies the new citizens of NJ brought with them is enough to feed the thousand or so people there for a few weeks by itself. Those brave soldiers collected all of that so it wouldn't go to waste. They had always planned to join up with a stable group of survivors, and thought that they might need bargaining chips to assure acceptance.

  It wasn't necessary, but the folks at NJ appreciated it. Would have been hard to feed so many new people without it.

  I'm happy for our friends to the north, and thrilled that so many of our men and women in uniform have managed to survive. It's a good day.

  Saturday, April 16, 2011

  Protection

  Posted by Josh Guess

  There has yet to be a point where I'm not surprised at the ingenuity and creative force of those who have survived along with me. Granted, some out-of-the-box thinking is a downright requirement for surviving as long as we have. More and more lately people are coming up with better or new ideas to solve problems.

  One big issue we've run into is armor. At first we started cobbling together anything we could find to keep the people that had to go out into the open safe. We've used heavy martial arts Gi, chainmail, baseball pads...anything and everything we could find that worked.

  Since it's a slow news day, I thought I'd share an idea that Jamie had. Jamie is our lead scout, and lately he and the scout units have had to travel pretty far and wide to look for useful items. One place that we've pretty much left alone was the small industrial complex on the other side of town. Most of what's there are factories that don't really have anything we can easily use. We've been over that way a few times to salvage metal from some of the machines along with plexiglass (which always comes in handy).

  Jamie went over the the factory where Jess (and myself, years ago) used to work, before The Fall. The place was pretty empty of zombies, so Jamie and his crew had a look around.

  He found a hundred little things we could use at the compound. Not because the rest of us didn't notice them, but because his mind was looking at otherwise normal objects from a totally different point of view. Where the rest of us ignored the dozens of boxes of plastic granules, Jamie saw a trove of incredibly useful materials.

  Those tiny bits of plastic, ignored by the rest of us, might mean life for many of us.

  Jamie hauled back a truck full of them, along with all of the technical manuals he could find. In them are everything we need to know about the materials in question. Jamie isn't a specialist in designing armor, but after a year of doing it and teaching others to...Jess is.

  She and all her students are buzzing about it. All of them are in the other room right now, chattering ideas at one another about how best to design the molds. Jess knows a lot about this stuff--she worked with it a lot longer than I did. She knows how stron
g it is, how light it is, and how much more versatile it is than the bulky chainmail we've been using.

  That's the big one. Being able to make molds to mass-produce identical blanks for the various shapes we'll need is critical. We can outfit a lot of people with armor that will be lighter, protect better, and best of all...it won't look idiotic.

  To understand why this is important to me, look back at my post titled "Homemade Hero". Once you've armored your body with toilet paper and parts of toilets, you get an appreciation for good looking gear.

  I'm rambling. I know this is a bit out of the blue and chaotic, but I had to share. We're all really excited about it. That alone should tell you how eager for a distraction we are.

  Monday, April 18, 2011

  Splashback

  Posted by Josh Guess

  One constant that seems to follow human beings through their lives is that we make mistakes. Whether we're victims of overconfidence or just pure error, there's no way to avoid it. Yesterday was a sad day for a few of the girls women that work with Jess. This time, it was overconfidence that played us for fools.

  Most of Saturday afternoon and early Sunday, a small group of us worked like mad to make molds for the plastic granules. Me, Jess, Pat and his girls, and Jess's students spent hours working on designs and comparing materials. In the end we decided on using a stock of clay we'd refined and stockpiled from the tons we've had to move around as we farmed the compound. The good thing about clay is that it's abundant and we can make new molds from a master easily.

  In the end we made three clay molds. One for small medallions of plastic that we could work into scale mail. One for long plates to cover the limbs. One for wide plates of various sizes to cover the torso. Everything was going fine until we took the full molds out of the fire.

  Three of Jess's students went to take the torso mold out of the fire (we had to use the makeshift forge we built for Patrick) when the thing disintegrated, showing them with molten plastic. I've never seen anything so awful in all my life, and I include watching people being ripped to shreds by zombies in that statement. I had heard stories from old friends at the factory about people who had gotten the stuff on their skin. I've even seen scars on one guy who had it happen.

  Seeing it happen right in front of me was so much more than I was prepared for. I could smell the flesh and hair burn as the plastic washed across them, breaking into droplets. Not being total idiots, we'd gotten buckets of water ready in case something bad happened, and it was only a few seconds before we'd doused them.

  The damage had been done at that point. One of them lost an eye as a drop of scalding plastic burned right through it. All of them screamed as Gabby and Phil pulled the cooling stuff from them, wide swaths of skin coming with it.

  I'm told that if the medical staff can keep them from getting infections, the students will live. They'll carry scars with them for the rest of their lives, however long or short they may be. From something as simple as a clay vessel and melted beads of plastic.

  We've become so used to making our ideas work that we've sort of gotten tunnel vision. We don't think about the consequences of our failure sometimes. It's a grim reminder that caution has to be our constant companion. Even then, we'll still fail.

  I see those women every day as they work with Jess. I'll be reminded every time they come into my home the price of working too quickly. In their faces all of us will see the need to be thorough and careful. There just aren't enough people left for us to be anything less.

  Tuesday, April 19, 2011

  Progression

  Posted by Josh Guess

  All three of Jess's students are still under Gabby's care at the clinic, none of them showing signs of infection yet. Gabby is a wound specialist, and that training includes dealing with burns. It's actually lucky that none of the burns are over large areas. The biggest is about the size of a quarter. That's important because it means that each burn only has to heal itself. The prognosis is just on the positive side at the moment.

  I'll try to keep you updated on their condition, but the world spins on...

  I've gotten updated and more detailed information about the earthquake in Japan. It happened quite a lot longer ago than I was originally told. There's some good news to be had out of that situation, however: a large number of survivors there have been confirmed alive in several of the smaller communities on the main island. They've managed to set up a transmitter powerful enough to talk with others in the area. I'm still sifting through the details, but it looks good for them right now.

  Every morning when I go through my messages, I hope to find something game-changing. I couldn't tell you what that might be, but it's sort of like the high-strung expectation you got as a kid on Christmas morning. The sense of potential and anticipation I feel when I open my mail or check my phone is powerful. I've yet to get that piece of mail that could have life-altering ramifications for all of us...but this morning I got some interesting news that has more potential than most.

  The news about the soldiers that joined forces with the people of North Jackson has predictably spread among the known groups of survivors like wildfire. NJ is now the largest known group of survivors anywhere, and their leadership is putting out daily reports via email about how things are working out there.

  I have to say, the news is pretty cool. It's awesome to read about so many half-finished (or barely started) projects that were going on while I and the other refugees stayed there finally having the manpower to get finished. The fence to the hydroponics bay? It'll be done in a few days. Clearing out several more acres adjacent to the main complex? A week, tops. With so many soldiers willing and eager to get on the walls and defend in order to give the civilians of NJ a chance to work on other things, just about every idea and pet project is getting some attention.

  Of course, it doesn't take four hundred people to guard the wall. Even split into three shifts, it doesn't take that many. They post a hundred guards per shift three times a day, leaving about a hundred of them left to work on improving defenses, constructing new walls, and the like. NJ is going to quickly turn into a very interesting place to live, I bet.

  I'm a little envious of them. I think of all we could have accomplished if the Richmond soldiers had taken the path of reason and just asked to come live here, and it rubs me the wrong way. The proof of what could have been is in stark black and white on my screen.

  That's life in this new world, though. It's impossible to predict how fortune will favor you, or fate cheat you. All you can do when life gives you challenges is meet them or fail. Other options just don't exist. Pining away at lost opportunities just wastes time and effort. I remember how hard I used to wish to win the lottery--and now I wish that I'd spent that time in pleasant imagining learning some skill that I currently lack. Oh, yes, I would trade millions of dollars for the ability to properly dress a deer. I'm still not good at that.

  I don't know if the changes going on in NJ are going to be the game-changers I hope for them to be. My imagination is pretty good, and I see a lot of possibilities. With such dedicated protectors, maybe NJ will become a center of trade and commerce. I can see them becoming a society that trades technology to many smaller communities.

  Maybe they'll become a highly militarized group, and work tirelessly to produce technology that will help them expand in order to make room for ever more citizens.

  Maybe they'll become evil marauders who rape and pillage. I doubt that one.

  Really, my best guess is that for the time being, the people of NJ new and old alike will struggle and scratch to get by. There will be hungry times and moments of plenty with so many mouths to feed. But people are a resource like any other, and they've got a nice surplus. If anyone can make that work to their advantage, the people that Jack gathered together can. I know that.

  We'll be here to help them in any way we can. Just as they would do for us.

  Wednesday, April 20, 2011

  Tempest

  Post
ed by Josh Guess

  I thought the storms we had last week were bad, but the one we had overnight was the worst I've seen in a long time. Admittedly, it wasn't whole magnitudes worse than last week's, but it did more damage.

  At least a dozen houses have large swaths of shingles missing. Many of the additions we've built onto some of the houses, like enclosed porches, have had their walls broken. The worst of it is the observation tower that rises from the middle of the big hill. It got hit by lightning. Not damaged enough that it fell, thank god, and there was obviously no one in it when the strike hit, but it isn't usable right now.