Zournal (Book 1): It All Started

by Randall S. Merritt

  For planning purposes, I think I will spend at least a few more days here gathering my supplies and strength. Hopefully my ankle turns out to be fine and will not be an issue moving forward. If the coast looks clear I am going to see if I can find any bookshelves or anything down here on the first floor that may have something useful in them for me to read. I’m spending a lot of time wondering what the Zombies eat. When I was in the other house where I had been trapped in the toile by the Zombies it had stunk, but more like bad BO than all the waste and everything that should have accumulated with a bunch of people standing around in a room for three days.

  Other than taking bites out of people and the half-eaten cat in the bathroom I had never seen any evidence of them eating either. When I had hit them with the sword they had dropped. They did seem to have way better endurance than regular people unless the Zombies I had seen so far all happened to be Zombiefied iron man champions. It seemed to me they were living people whose veins had popped out and eyes had turned red and goopy who now just wanted to attack anything alive and uninfected. Why they would do that or how they could be doing that was beyond my ability to fathom while sitting in a small room by myself popping Lucky Charms.

  Entry 17: Get Outta Dodge

  I continued making nightly forays into the kitchen to grab more supplies. I also went around and closed all the blinds in the home to give me the ability to move around more freely in the day. Once I had access to the house during the day I was able to pretty easily ransack the bottom floor and the garage. I was pretty anti-second-floor at this point after my recent experiences so despite curiosity and boredom I avoided it. I was not able to find anything that seemed like a better weapon than the sword I already had.

  Using a pair of scissors, I had made some small cuts in the curtains covering the doors so that I would look out the windows during the day without moving the curtains. I was very paranoid about doing this and took an extraordinarily long amount of time to look out each window so as to avoid making the curtains move even the tiniest bit. I had zero interest in catching the attention of the Zombies who were still occasionally wandering through this yard during the day.

  While the stream of Zombies seemed to have slowed down my fear of leaving the protections of the home I was currently in continued to increase. What the former owners of this home made up for in lack of weapons they had made up for in food in the pantry. I had hit the bottled water, canned soup, Spaghettios, jackpot and was loathe to leave it. I had even found some books in the garage. Nothing specifically about Zombies but there was some literature on how to survive a hurricane, poisonous snakes of Florida, and an old dog eared paperback about a guy who goes to sleep and wakes up with everyone on the planet missing. That last one I found pretty entertaining if not a bit to spot on to my situation to be totally comforting.

  I was living like a post-apocalyptic king. Spaghettios, bottled water and reading material. The problem was the reading material did not last very long and the food supply was definitely finite. I once again began making plans, well aware that so far planning had not worked out extremely well for me. I had hoped to find a car in the garage but the garage had proven to just be a big pile of boxes and junk. I had actually been scared to go in and look for useful items based on the fact that it looked like if you touched something you may start an avalanche of junk.

  The plan was pretty simple as there were things I needed. I needed a way to fight better, I needed food and water, I needed transportation, and I seriously needed some new clothes and boots. I considered continuing to ransack homes in the neighborhood looking for what I needed but it had taken me quite a few tries to get into this one. I also felt I had gotten lucky getting into this one and not finding it occupied. I could not break into any homes as the biggest threat to yourself in this new world was making loud noises. I could try and hike my way out to the main road and go that route but I had seen hundreds of the Zombies appear out of nowhere on that road already so was not super excited about getting out there on it.

  Caution having proven more reliable than valor in this new world I determined the best course of action was to continue on my destination on either foot or a bike and do everything possible to minimize the amount of noise I made to minimize my exposure.

  This meant that I would need to hike my way up to Tennessee through the woods and swamps if I was hoping to get there alive and make it more than few miles before being forced into hiding in a random house again. If I was going to do it that way, then I needed supplies. It was into January right now and cold by Florida standards. Moving North I knew it was just going to continue to get colder the farther I made it. Another item I hoped to find somewhere would be an atlas so I could actually map out my route.

  I finally decided the time had come and I set my internal calendar to head out the next night. I planned on getting everything packed today and then moving at night through the next few houses until I found one with the back door open. I assumed that if I kept searching all the houses I should be able to complete my shopping list. Which now also included needing a new backpack as my nap sack strap broke when I tried shoving a bunch of the cans of food into it and putting it on my back to see how heavy it was.

  This plan I’m basing on my thinking that the Zombies move during the day. That they will swarm a car if they hear it coming so driving my way out of here is out for now. That hopefully people left there back doors open fairly regularly especially with the whole getting sick and turning into a Zombie thing going on.

  I did manage to make it upstairs. I found a dead dog at the top of the stairs. It was definitely dead but did not appear to be eaten so I was assuming it had died of starvation in the home when the owners had left the home. Stepping over the dog I had found the master bedroom which had a closet full of men’s clothes. I was able to find a big P-Coat and a sweater but the pants did not fit me. I did find boots but they were a size too small so they weren’t going to work either. The only other exciting thing I found was a set of luggage and a duffel bag. I figured I could put all the essential stuff in the duffel bag and anything extra in the luggage and carry it along as well.

  I figured out after thinking about it and loading some stuff up that the luggage was not going to work for my goals of moving quickly and quietly so I was down to just filling up the duffle bag for now. Hopefully, one of the homes I was aiming to break into would have some camping supplies and a decent backpack! With everything put together as well as I could think to get it together I wrote this up, left the phone hooked up to the little solar charger on the windowsill and crashed for the day in the day bed.

  Entry 18: Best Laid Plans

  I should just stop making plans. I don’t think any of them have lasted more than five minutes once I actually start executing on them. This one did not turn out to be an exception. When writing it up the other day, before going to sleep and after packing all my stuff, I had pictured myself with my duffel bag leaping into backyards through the neighborhoods like some kind of Olympic High Jumper with a Ninja Sword.

  The reality of it was a bit different. I moved out into the backyard of the home I had been staying in and headed for the gate on the side of the house with sword held high and the damn duffel bag dragging me down. I had wrapped all of the canned food and bottled water up in clothes to keep them from clanking together and I had filled up the entire duffel bag. It was heavy but had seemed doable while sitting on a daybed in a house. Moving out of the house and into the night the duffel bags weight and awkwardness seemed to increase with every couple of steps. So much so, that I was more focused on shifting the bag around on my shoulders than in paying attention to my surroundings.

  Moving to the back of the neighbor’s house I verified that the doors would not open and moved on to the back of the next house. I quietly tried the doors there and did not get anywhere. The next home had a fence around it and the gate was locked. I almost just ignored it and went around but started thinking if people have a gate and a locked fe
nce maybe they did not bother locking there back doors. It turned out people with fences and locked back gates are paranoid and they do lock their back doors. I found that out after managing to screw up my ankle again going over the fence. So now I had caused myself to have to limp my way through backyards searching for a backdoor that someone had forgotten to lock.

  Three houses later, I finally spotted an open back door. I approached it slowly and cautiously and walked onto the concrete slab porch behind it to peer in. It looked like the sliding door opened up into the kitchen again. I took out my phone and turned the light on low and moved into the home to reconnoiter it and see if it was safe for ransacking. Moving into the living room I spotted a bluish veined leg lying on the floor that I assume was connected to the rest of a bluish body. I quickly turned around and left the way I had come being extremely careful to be as silent as possible during my ‘strategic withdrawal’.

  Back outside again I moved onto the next house, followed by another home, etc.… I now avoided homes that had anything already open as those evidently turned into Zombie dens and I had no desire to walk into the middle of another one. Dawn was coming and I was starting to get desperate and wondering if I would find an open door in time. I was glad for the night travel for more reasons than the safety factor. I had lost track of the number of decomposing bodies I had passed by and was haunted by the small ones I passed over. The duffel bag had worn a blister in my shoulder at this point and I was definitely not moving in a very ninja like fashion.

  With the sky starting to light up I started getting a little more adventurous in trying doors and a few houses later I got into the garage of a home through the door on the side of the home. It appeared to be the door you would use to drop the garbage outside the home before moving it to the curb on trash day. I said a quick prayer of thanks for whatever teen was earning his allowance by taking out the garbage and had forgotten to lock the door. The prayer was abruptly ended when I figured out they had remembered to lock the door to the house from the garage. I spent some time wrecking a couple of credit cards trying to get the lock to open then gave up and sat down in the garage to rest for a minute.

  By the light of my phone I figured out there was a foreign sporty little car in the garage. I was afraid to get close to it after what had happened with the Sentra alarm to me. This car looked way nicer than that Sentra so I was pretty certain it was bound to have an alarm on it. I looked at the walls around me but there was no key chain or anything hanging off of a peg. That would have been way too easy.

  There was a water heater, boxes labeled “Christmas”, “Halloween”, and “Thanksgiving” that I assumed were full of Holiday crap. Other than lawn and garden equipment that was about it. None of the gardening stuff looked like It would make a better weapon than my sword so I left it all hanging on their designated pegs. I carefully took out a can of beefaroni, popped the top of it off and realized I had not brought any utensils with me. Not seeing anything useful near me to help with the eating process I just shoveled the beefaroni into my mouth and ate it. I wiped my hands off on the ground afterwards, curled up in my new-found coat, and using the duffel bag as a pillow I started trying to go to sleep. I thought it would be difficult based on how uncomfortable I was but it turned out I was exhausted because I was asleep almost immediately.

  I woke up sore. My neck was sore, my head hurt, my ass was frozen to the concrete of the garage and my shoulder burned from the blister I had gotten from dragging the overloaded duffel bag around all night. I sat up and rubbed my body in all the places that hurt. I was ready to get out of the garage and go find a place with an actual bed. What I did not want to do was pick the duffel bag back up. I ended up having to wait a few hours before the sun finally went down and I could see it was getting dark outside again. Once it had gotten dark enough I gave it another thirty minutes and ventured out into the world once again.

  Carrying the sword in front of me and having placed the duffel bag on my other shoulder I resumed checking houses. This time I found one on my third try. I went around and checked curtains first to make sure they were in place, carefully checking everywhere for tell-tale signs of any possible Zombie occupants. Once I cleared the first floor I headed upstairs. The first door on the left once I had gotten upstairs was closed so I opened it and walked in cautiously.

  The room was a nursery. The nursery had a crib, inside the crib was a small child who looked like he was just sleeping. He wasn’t asleep though and was never going to wake up again. I put the blanket up over his head and said a prayer for him. I put his little teddy bear over by his head. Seeing the teddy bear by the little body and thinking of all the other bodies I had passed on my way here, since I was in a semi-safe place at the moment, I let myself quietly sob for a while to try and get it out.

  I won’t say I recovered from seeing that little baby who had been left to die alone in his crib, but eventually the tears stopped coming. I moved out of his room and shut his door quietly. I began to methodically search the other rooms. I found another kids room, for an older child this time, but there was no sign of the actual child. I’m not sure I could have handled another one so soon at that point.

  I found shoes that fit. I found a school backpack that was pretty heavy duty. It had a picture of some girl singer type who really liked being bedazzled. The shoes were the highlight of my scavenging in that house. I also found the keys to the car that was sitting in the garage but decided not to go with that one. If I was going to risk a vehicle I wanted something I could smash through a few Zombies with and take off road as needed. I still was not sure I wanted to go that route based on what happened last time I had been in the car with John and Rhonda.

  I loaded up the backpack and determined it was still early enough in the evening where I could try a few more houses and see if I could find anything useful. It turned out luck was on my side as the next three houses all were unlocked and Zombie free. Before finally laying down to sleep the day away in the third home I had found a kickass backpack, a closet full of MREs (meals ready to eat), some Rambo looking knives I went ahead and put on my new belt with my new pants. I found two gun safes as well but could not find the keys for them so was still in the tenth century as far as weaponry went, except they knew how to sharpen their swords back then. I did find the keys for the off-road sports package looking Nissan Xterra I found in the third persons’ garage.

  This had me in the dilemma of wondering if I wanted to risk a car. Knowing that the noise from the car would be a beacon for the Zombies to swarm. I was pretty sick of walking though. What I wanted to do was throw supplies in the Xterra and drive it to Tennessee without having to walk any more. I knew that to accomplish that I’d need gas and I’d need to hope the path was clear to get out there and hit it fast enough that the Zombies would not have time to mass up enough to stop me from being able to drive through them.

  I figured I would sleep on it and make a decision the following night. Figuring maybe where we messed up prior was driving during the daytime when the Zombies were a lot more active.

  Entry 19: Sunday Drive

  It was probably laziness that was empowering me to make the decision to take the Xterra out. It sounded so much better than continuing the path of an extremely slow scavenge of the open houses in the area followed by a long, long walk to Tennessee. One way I knew would be relatively safe while the other way I knew was bound to be more dangerous. The more dangerous path had a few things going for it though. Like the whole sit on my ass in a heated/cooled seat with all the supplies I could fit in a car and drive down the road with either AC or Heat blasting versus walking through the weeds at night hoping not to be jumped on and killed by a bear, gator, snake, giant spider, quicksand, rabid Unicorn or Zombie. I wasn’t an outdoorsy kind of guy so I really just did not know what to expect if I had decided to try the trek that way. I just knew it did not seem pleasant and figured I could die in the woods of starvation just as easily as I could die in a car steam-rolling my way through
a horde of Zombies.

  I stripped the house I was in of everything I thought may be useful. All of the food, the lawnmower gas containers, a garden hose (to siphon gas with), all of the water and sodas, the blankets I could find, and anything else that looked like it may prove useful. I loaded it all in the car by opening the front door and pushing it through to the back, quietly. Once fully loaded I waited for it to be night. I was sitting there waiting for it to be night when I started wondering how I was supposed to get the garage door open without any power. I had solved this puzzle before back at my parents’ house, when I was a kid the garage door stopped working for a week and then magically started working again. I knew there was a cable you had to pull and then you just pushed the garage door open. As easy as that was when I had to do it for my parents it was tantamount now to ringing the Zombie dinner bell and then standing in the open pouring butter over myself.

  I tried to think of the smartest, best way to do it but all I could come up with was pulling the cord, pushing the door up, hoping it stayed up by itself, and then driving like a mad man to get out of the suburbs before I got completely swarmed. The more I thought about it the less that sounded like a Nobel Prize Winning plan. The biggest risk I saw was the freakin door falling back down once I pushed it up. I could not remember if the door stayed up by itself or not. The second biggest risk was the noise it would make to push the door up quickly.