Zournal (Book 1): It All Started

by Randall S. Merritt

  Hank pondered that question for a bit then started ticking off stores on his hand, “Sally’s beauty, Guns and Ammo, a Tijuana Flats, Dollar Tree, and a Hair Cuttery place.”

  “Cool. Thanks, Hank, that Gun and Ammo store may turn out to be useful!” With that Reeves and I started walking away and Hank returned to his recliner, from which he could fairly easily see the majority of the parking lot, except it was currently dark. I wondered when he was planning to start humping stuff up to cover the entrance but decided against pressing him on it. Better to let everyone work on their own as long as they got done what they said they’d get done.

  Reeves and I walked each aisle, a lot of it was going to be useless to us, but the amount of food was pretty staggering. I was pretty sure we could probably survive for about a year just off of Cheese Puffs in the one aisle. Giant bottles of olives, row upon row of electronic devices that were useless to us. The smell from the spoiled and rotten meat from the refrigerated section definitely permeated the place but by this point we were pretty much immune to bad smells. We walked around for about two hours by the light of our red cellophane covered flashlights before heading back towards the back to meet up with Ann and Ginny and start talking through some of the things we’d noted.

  When we wandered back into the back space everyone seemed to be missing except for a handful of adults who were looking out for the kids. I asked Lily, Hanks Moms friend, where everyone was and she let me know Hank had come back about an hour previously and gathered everyone up for a work party, except for a few of them to watch the kids. Good for Hank. He’d evidently opted to follow-through on getting the front doors secured. Time for us to follow-through on figuring a way to get on the roof and get some recon accomplished. I also now had in mind figuring out a way to get into the gun store Hank had told us about. After the clip I had in my borrowed nine millimeter, I had seven additional loose bullets, then I was down to being an apocalyptic samurai.

  My arms and shoulders still hurt from the last run across the parking lot where we had been fighting the Zombies on the run and I fervently wanted a big ass bag full of ammo so I could just shoot my way out next time.

  Entry 32: #Apocalypse Issues

  It’s been three days and no progress has been make on figuring out a way to see through the back wall before we open the door to make sure we’re not walking into a herd of Zombies. Honestly, even walking into a single Zombie in the dark wouldn’t be a pleasant experience. Walking into a bunch of them is pretty much the essential stuff of nightmares. We have been busy though. It turns out it takes a shitload of dogfood and cat food bags to block off the big ass glass doors leading into this place. Especially once you figure out you need to put down more than one row of the bags when you’re stacking them up ten feet or they tend to want to fall over.

  So, everybody is basically miserable and tired. All of our backs hurt and we’re all sick of trudging around trying to quietly carry big-ass bags of dry food across the big ass store and then quietly set them down on the pile without it tipping over. Once we finally had everything pretty much stacked up we realized we did need some way to see out of it so that lead to taking out a bunch of the bags and rearranging everything so we had ways to see out through the bags. We blocked these peepholes with shirts and blanket so nothing could see in unless we were currently trying to look out. None of us could figure out a way to make it where it would be easy for us to escape if needed without making it easy for someone to get in if they wanted so we left that alone.

  All of us had Walkie Talkies now although we tried to limit the use of them to conserve the batteries for as long as we could. The critical people to have them were whoever was in the front of the store pulling sentry duty and someone in the back of the store pulling the ‘Duty Officer’ duty. Without really discussing it Reeves, Ann, and I had been relegated to the leadership ‘Duty Officer’ type role while the others were taking turn on the front door sentry duty. Stupid stuff just kept impeding us and made everything move agonizingly slowly.

  We couldn’t make any noise. Ever. The little kids we pretty much kept penned up in the back. Noise equals death in this brave new world so we trudged past the forklift with bag after bag of cat food. Then you trudged all the way to the other side of the store and you had to slowly and carefully set it down. It probably would have been Ok to throw them on the tile, it probably would have been Ok to use the forklift, but probably wasn’t good enough for any of the people in this building which was probably why we were all still alive.

  We only felt safe moving around at night. That threw everyone’s internal clocks all out of whack. It also meant we had to use batteries on flashlights which meant we couldn’t use them on other stuff like the Walkies. We had literally pallets full of different size batteries but how long would those last at the rate we were going through them? How long would any of this stuff last?

  Which brings me to another thing before this happened we all took for granted. Computers. Try figuring out how long the water is going to last when you have seventeen people in a warehouse who are each drinking a different amount of water per day, unless they’re drinking Juice or supplementing with soda or who knows what. The point is when you’re doing all that on pieces of paper it’s not easy to go back and update that Ginny had three sodas and four bottle of water and two cans of Beef Raviolis and then try to project how long she would be able to eat like that every day before we ran out of food.

  For that matter was food even our limiting factor? We had pallets of water in the back but there was a very noticeable amount of water missing from the bottled water section of the store. We had not proven this out yet but from just eyeballing the issue it looked like we’d run out of water way before we ran out of food. Ann had been trying to put everything together on the spreadsheet but with everything else she was doing it had been pretty much an exercise in futility. We both agreed it was important though and knew we needed to get it figured out. Moving into the summer the water consumption was going to go up as it got hotter in here.

  Hygiene. People stunk in here. The weekly showers were great but you basically felt clean for about an hour before you were back to stinking again. The temperature in the warehouse hovered around the high seventies at night up into the nineties during the day and it was just now getting into March. In a month or two that temperature was going to start becoming a serious issue which would lead to needing to drink more water which was going to impact our water supply significantly. Luckily, from a hygiene perspective we had toothpaste, toilet paper, fresh linens, clothes, mouthwash, sanitizer spray and all the rest of it literally stacked to the ceilings all around us. The limiting factor there once again was water.

  Getting rid of trash and wastes was an issue. Right now, it was all basically going into different sections and room of the building but those were going to fill up eventually. I hate to think of what the giant people litter box room is going to start smelling like when the temperature in there starts being over hundred degrees a day. The trash room is gross. Trash is put in bags and then stacked in the room but eventually it’s going to have the same sanitation issues as the giant litter box room.

  All of this would be so easy if we could just open the door and sling stuff into the back alley, or the parking lot, or the woods or whatever. But every time we open a door we risk someone or something seeing us and coming for us. If we stack a bunch of crap outside that is going to alert people that people are living in here. We’re not looking to invite a bunch of people in to share in our supplies and we certainly don’t want to let people know we’re in here if they plan to come in and take our stuff by force. If they do come to take our stuff by force we’re going to need a lot more ammo. Which we could evidently get with a brisk two or three-minute walk to the other side of the strip mall here but again, not something we’re willing to risk quite yet.

  We’ve accomplished getting the front doors covered up. Using our spy holes the sentries have reported back Zombies in the parking
lot four times since we started keeping count. Three of the times it was a single Zombie wandering through and one time a pack of seven of them walked through the parking lot sniffing around. None of those concern us a lot but what we are looking to see is where did the main herd go? Other than for us and Ann rolling in, the group at the warehouse had not seen any other normal living people since the first few days after everything had started.

  To celebrate finishing the dog food wall up front we were planning on having a party tonight with food and drinks. Of course, my mind immediately went to the fact that alcohol dehydrated people which was going to make them need to drink even more water. Immediately following that thought, my mind went to the fact that Ann would be drinking some alcohol and hopefully in the mood to celebrate! We’d grown closer since our physical encounter in her office but haven’t gotten quite ‘that close’ since that one time in her office. Mostly since we’ve either been carrying bags across the warehouse or collapsed onto the mattress too tired to do anything besides think about the large amounts of pain our bodies were in. Also, some of the parents had made it known in a not too subtle manner that the door to her office wasn’t very sound proof. Awkward!

  Whatever, I still pulled on a new t-shirt and underwear and liberally applied deodorant and even used mouthwash. You never knew!

  We were holding the ‘party’ in the employee breakroom because it had plenty of tables and chairs in it and seemed like it would be fairly soundproof in case we got a little crazy. We had a sentry in the front and a sentry in the back with their Walkies to let us know if we were getting too loud. Both sentries had been promised a full day off the next day since they had to miss the party and planning session. The idea was to kick it off with the planning session so the alcohol would not make any of the brainstorming sessions get too crazy.

  Once everyone was gathered I the room and had filled up their plates with random food we had procured from the shelves for the party I moved up the front of the room to kick it off.

  “Hey everybody, I’m pretty sure at this point you all know me but just in case you missed my name and didn’t want to ask me again it’s Steve Hankel. I’m from North Carolina originally and my parents have a cabin up in the mountains in Tennessee which is where I had originally planned on heading when all this started. Ann had the idea to hold this get together and do it periodically, to pick each other’s brains and try and come up with the best courses of action for us to take. I’ve been out on the road pretty much up until I got here so I’ve picked up some insights into what is going on that Ann and some others thought might be valuable for everyone.” I looked around and considering what we were going to be talking about I nodded at the mom of the twins, Brenda, to see if she was cool with us continuing this discussion.

  Brenda smiled, “My babies have seen more than they ever should have had to see. If I could protect them from all this I would but they’re still alive cause they’re smart and they listen and do what they’re told when they’re told to do it. So, I’m good with them staying in here for this. If it starts to get too weird I can always take a walk with them.”

  I smiled at her, “We’ll try and dial back the weirdness but I’m sure everyone here can agree that this situation is way beyond weird. We’re living in a Zombie movie and it turns out those movies glossed over all the little details that we need to worry about. I know some of you object to me using the word ‘Zombie’ since the sick ones running around out there don’t seem to actually be evil undead corpses but rather living, angry, cannibalistic, diseased, people who would do their best to rip us apart if they knew we were in here. I’ve basically gone with ‘Zombie’ for simplification but you’re right that we need to keep in mind what they really are.”

  I looked around, the room had gotten serious and I had their attention, “From what I have seen so far they are still alive but they might as well be dead for all the emotions they show. I haven’t seen them communicate except by screeching and yelling when they see a human to attack. When they do that, it brings more of them and you’re pretty much screwed. As I am sure you guys have figured out loud noises attract them. Really loud noises bring them in droves. Shooting a gun to kill one or two of them is a bad idea since it may pull another fifty of them out of nowhere to attack you so anytime there is a small number of them you’re better off whacking them down with something like the sword I carry. Doing it like that is hard work through, hard work and if you miss they will be on you and once they get on you from what I’ve seen you get mauled and you don’t get back up again.”

  I let that fact sink in. Most of them already knew that is what happens but hearing it from me seemed to confirm a deep-seated fear for them. I kept going, “They’re more active during the day and less so at night but if they get riled up they are just as dangerous at night as during the day. I don’t think they have gained strength or anything but they just don’t give a fuck. Sorry about the language. They just don’t care. They’ll beat through a wooden door with their arms and their head and not care if parts of their skin get ripped off in the process. They are able to rip doors off hinges because they don’t care if they sprain their back doing it. When you hit them you have to put them down because hurting them doesn’t gain you anything. They do seem to sleep at night if nothing has them alert. I’ve managed to sneak past loads of them at night by just moving slowly and not doing anything stupid. During the day, I would not even try to get away with that.”

  “How do they know the difference between one of them and a regular person?” asked Brenda.

  “No clue, I’m guessing they can tell visually but it could be by smell or telepathy or whatever. I have no idea; I just know that making loud noises is a really bad idea. They associate car engines, gun shots, loud noises in general with humans and that seems to drive them into a frenzy. Why they don’t turn on each other I have no idea. Anyone have any theories on that one?” I scanned the room to see if anyone wanted to volunteer and idea on that one.

  Everyone looked as perplexed as I was by that one though so after a few minutes I continued, “I want to say thank you to everyone for helping build out the barrier up front. That was hard work done right.” I paused for a round of ‘golf claps’ and people pretending to pat themselves on the back.

  Once that had subsided I continued, “Moving along and before we dive into the booze and really get this party started I know Ann had some items she wanted to bring up as well.” I immediately regret my choice of words as Reeves waggled his eyebrows at me and mouthed ‘she’s gonna bring it up right here?’ Ignoring him as much as I could I stepped out of the way for Ann, who was now blushing thanks to Reeves, to take the floor and begin speaking.

  “First of all, in case we haven’t done this formally, I’d like to welcome Steve and Ginny and Reeves to our sanctuary and thank them for helping make it safer.” Another polite round of golf claps. Then Ann continued, “I’d also like to formalize something that has been kind of happening informally anyway. I think we need a formal command structure so if emergencies happen we have people in place who can make the calls versus all of us running around in separate directions. I think Steve should be elected to be in charge for now with Reeves and I reporting to him. Anyone have any additional thoughts on that?”

  I stood there with my mouth hanging open. I had no idea she was going to say that. While it was true we kind of had already been doing what, she was describing it seemed really weird to actually have it formalized. Most of the men in here were older than I was. The ‘experience’ everyone kept saying I had boiled down mostly to hiding in various places and being lucky enough not to be killed by any of the groups that had been pursuing me so far. I looked around desperately waiting for someone to voice their concerns about the obviously inexperienced guy being put in charge of the entire group.

  Since no one else was going to complain I figured I should speak up, “Guys, this is news to me as well. I don’t have a military background like Reeves, I’m not a trained law
enforcement officer like Ann, I don’t know the store and have management experience like Hank. I’ve mostly been running around trying to stay alive and keep the people I’ve met alive as well. I haven’t always been able to keep them alive. I’ve seen people die right in front of me. I’ve jumped over the body of a friend as he was being eaten to save myself. All I’ve really been planning on doing has been to find a car and somehow make my way to Tennessee without dying.”

  I waited for someone to agree that I should not be boss. When no one did I went ahead and said the rest of what was on my mind.

  “I’ll do it if you all want me to. Once I’m in charge though I’ll still want feedback from everybody. The only time I’ll expect to be doing the whole ‘yelling out orders’ thing is in an emergency. My instincts have been pretty good as far as that goes so if you see me hauling ass I suggest you fall in line and haul ass right behind me.” The last bit of my statement got the much-needed laughter that brought everyone down from the very sober atmosphere that had begun permeating everything.

  Ann saved me by jumping in and starting to talk again, “One of the things we’ve been talking about has been trying to get an inventory of what we have and what we can do with tit to make it last. The biggest issue I see us having is the water running out. We have enough food to last a long time, especially if we start rationing it. Water, we have maybe three months on hand. I know it looks like a ton of water but when you consider six bottles per person for seventeen people over three months that’s over nine thousand bottles of water. That’s not even taking into consideration that we have summer coming and it is going to get seriously miserable up in here.”