by Joshua Guess
So, this group? Plumbers. When I first learned about this my initial thought was "Oh, shit! What if one of them is named Mario?"
I'm a child of the eighties. I don't think there will ever be a separation between plumbers and video games for me.
We've been using extremely primitive and often thrown-together plumbing for a long time now. Obviously the old infrastructure isn't very usable for us. Or, at least none of us have the knowledge needed to make the massive reservoir a few miles down the road really work to our advantage. We're pretty sure it's empty by now, and we've captured enough water to have a huge stockpile. Our team of plumbers--I call them that, but some of them are civil engineers who've worked on large-scale water transportation systems--assure the leadership here that they can set us up for the future. Most of the early work is going to happen inside New Haven, setting up for the big stuff outside.
Funny, all the things we took for granted. Jess and I are used to washing each other's backs now, so long removed from regular showers. We've got the old solar camp shower, which is a deceptive name since it's just a dangling transparent bag that heats up water, but in this season it would be criminally wasteful to use it.
I don't know if showers will end up being in the cards, or if we'll even be successful with this. No one expects miracles. We're just hungry for results, maybe a little impatient to see these changes come.
The idea of a nice long shower, though...dear god.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Bustle and Flow
Posted by Josh Guess
I wasn't kidding about things getting busy around here once we started cleaning out the undead. If anything I underestimated how much work it would be to constantly revise and update our game plan. New Haven is a hive of activity, but the good thing is that it isn't constant. I sort of thought that I wouldn't have any time at all to do other stuff but manage the assault teams, but night is actually pretty quiet. Our people--and all of them are our people now, spilling blood together makes you family--have to head back home before darkness falls.
It also helps that the constant updates mean that by the time our teams head out in the mornings we've go game plans ready for them. That gives me all morning to spend with Jess if she's free, or on other things if she isn't. Reports don't start coming in until late morning, which is when the crazy starts.
The good news is that the assault runs are going well. Our people are steadily taking down zombies and finding out a lot about their movements and gathering points. One major piece of information uncovered so far is the fact that there are a lot more of them out there than we thought. The teams are ranging pretty far from home, up to thirty miles in a given day, and many of the New Breed seem to be foraging for old school zombies. Kind of makes sense as they're easy prey. New Breed are breaking their teeth trying bite us. Maybe this is a good sign.
Even though there are far more of the enemy than we expected, they're spread out and easier to surprise. Nipping at the small groups and only harassing the larger ones into running where we want them isn't nearly has hard as fighting a large-scale conflict.
What we're really getting concerned about is water. We aren't in any danger of running out or anything, though our crops are taking up a tremendous amount of it. We've had a few light showers in the last two days but they've been brief and nowhere near enough for our needs. Other than those overcast days we've gone weeks without rainfall. The reserves here are getting small very quickly.
Our plumbers assure us that when they're done we'll have water reserves like we've never imagined. As it is now, we can haul it from the river or any number of large creeks. We've got a few trucks that work for that purpose--my favorite combo is using a small fire truck pump to fill empty tankers and bring them back here--but that's slow and takes up fuel. Better if we had rain to fill our cisterns and reservoirs here rather than send people out to bring the stuff here in ten thousand gallon increments.
Then we have to filter it, disperse it, and do the whole thing over again. It works, but with the constant heat our needs are spiking. We're sending people out several times a day to make water runs. Our crops alone require thousands of gallons. People have to drink a lot to keep hydrated even if they're just walking around, and about zero percent of us are doing that little. Hell, at any time we've got fifty people out with the assault teams, that many again manning the defenses, and a hundred more working on various projects. Even the people who aren't pulling a shift are still working their own gardens and whatnot. We're all doing something.
Thankfully water is a problem that we can solve, if not in a way we can sustain forever. Our food supplies are holding up well, hugely aided by the fact that all new arrivals bring a lot of food stores with them when they come to keep from depleting our reserves. Jess is back to running our agriculture full-time now, and Will is working with her to figure out what we'll need to make sure winter won't be a death sentence by starvation. It's not a great time to start more crops, but there are many workable options on the table.
But, you know, I still got to sit down with my wife and chat this morning. We even played a hand or two of cards. The last few days have been even more hectic than I imagined, but they've settled into a pattern of chaos if that makes any sense. I'm really hopeful things are going to work out. So far, so good.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Retention Disorder
Posted by Josh Guess
Our attack teams continue to do well, cutting down zombies in decent numbers without any major incidents. It's likely, given my personal responsibility for the program, that I'll be mentioning it in most of my posts. Barring disaster of large changes, those updates will be like this one: short and uneventful.
This morning I'm more interested in what our plumbers (I hate calling them that since they're really doing a much larger and more complex job) are up to. One of them came by this morning to look at the pipes under my house, and he had this battery-powered device with him that looked like a metal detector on steroids. He walked around my yard for a little while looking thoughtful and taking notes as he used the thing. Told me he was figuring out where the pipes were.
I did a little asking around. What I was told surprised me.
I've assumed that much of the work these folks were going to be doing within New Haven itself would be helping each of us create new systems to carry water. Modular ones that don't rely on a larger delivery network. Makes sense, right? I mean, if some disaster looms and causes damage to a big system, we're all in trouble. Modular systems mean each of us have to haul or capture our own water, but damage to one part of New Haven--be it zombie attack, natural disaster, or plain old human violence--would drastically lessen the impact on the community as a whole.
The reality is way different and far more awesome. I don't mind feeling like and uneducated rube about this, because these guys and gals know what the hell they're doing.
New Haven itself, which was just the neighborhood I lived in before The Fall by necessity turned it into a fortress, has a relatively close-off water and sewer system. We won't have flush toilets or be able to use the sewers since we won't be able to treat our waste or clean any of that water (though there's discussion about showers whose wastewater goes to irrigate our gardens, but that's just an idea at the moment). But the plan for the core of New Haven, the old neighborhood itself, is brilliant. It's also going to take a lot of work.
With that in mind, another hundred people are on their way. These will be mostly laborers to manage this plan, though thirty of them will be dedicated guards to protect the plumbers and the people working for them when they're outside the walls.
The plan itself is to dig a lot of holes, and using the wide array of spare parts laying the end of the world conveniently left laying around, change the way our plumbing works. New Haven's existing water mains other water lines will be turned into a truly closed system. All sewer lines will be closed off as well, for safety, probably at the houses themselves. Once the sys
tem is closed, the real work will start.
A network of above-ground shutoff valves will be installed to protect the water supply in case of a break. Street-by-street, this will happen. Each house will have a modular system (most already do, but the few that don't will be upgraded) whose reserves will be topped off by the larger system. Redundancy. Who'd have thought we'd live long enough to be able to implement redundant systems?
I'm not fussed about the lack of working toilets or sewers. We've become used to using everything, even storing and using our urine to make ammonia (poor quality though it may be) to use against the undead. Maybe I'm a bit nostalgic for showers, but even without them I'd be fine.
Having on-demand water in our pipes would be amazing. Yeah, we have to stop up our drains and reuse whatever comes out of the tap (at my house, it will probably go to water the plants) but that's nothing really new. Certainly not a dealbreaker.
The biggest reason all the new people are coming is that a major piece of infrastructure is needed before the system can be completed. New Haven is on a hill, and at the top a whole new section is going to go up quickly. Not large compared to the last expansion we did, but the idea is to use a dedicated section to capture and retain up to a hundred thousand gallons of water. Bigger if the plumbers can figure a way to store more than that. I'm not even sure how they're going to manage what they're planning now.
God, this wouldn't have seemed like such a big deal a few years ago, but too many days drinking ladles of dodgy-looking water out of buckets in between zombie attacks has a way of making new plumbing seem like magic. I hope this works, because this system is going to be the prototype for the huge expansion we're going to build soon.
Damn. Just realized that with another hundred people coming, we're going to have to find some place to put them. Getting a bit crowded lately. Guess I should see how that's going, then come back here for the first reports of the day from the attack teams.
The future is one hell of a lot of work.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Like Kansas Said
Posted by Josh Guess
The title is referencing the song "Dust In The Wind". Because for whatever strange fucking reason, we got hit by a big ass dust storm yesterday. I can only assume--based on reports from friendly communities--that the drought we've been in is worse in the southwest.
It wasn't so bad here that we couldn't see, and it was definitely dust and not heavier particulate matter, but most of us stayed inside. Guards wore protection over their faces, covering the eyes and mouths and using makeshift filters to keep that crap out of their lungs. We were pelted with dust from the southwest off and on for about two hours before one monster of a thunderstorm came in behind it and drenched us.
Luckily we've been hoping for rain and everyone had their gear ready to capture as much water as possible, because New Haven needed it.
Somewhere not too far from here there's a stretch of old farm or something that is so dry it's sending us love letters in the form of desert weather. That's...weird. I mean, I know that during the dust bowl way back in the day, the arid conditions sent up similar clouds if on a much larger scale. It's just strange to be living in a future no one expected, getting reminders of a past none of us remember directly.
Speaking of unexpected things: the dust storm has had a strange effect on the local zombies. All the assault teams came in early yesterday when the wind and dust made it too dangerous for them to continue working. This morning, what do we find outside? Dozens upon dozens of blind zombies. The lucky ones simply have debris caked on their eyes so thick that they can barely see. Others must have suffered a good deal of erosion damage the old peepers. They've just got these half-deflated ruins where eyeballs should be.
Easy pickings, let me tell you. Zombies may rely on their sense of smell for a lot of things, but the organism in them still needs to see. This is a pretty useful bit of info to have. I wish I had the time to test the effects of different things on zombie vision. I feel stupid for not doing it months ago when I had the chance.
I'd love to go on, but all the zombie bodies out there won't burn themselves. I got volunteered by Will because I was smart enough to mention that my mornings have been relatively free. I'm brilliant.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Rolling In
Posted by Josh Guess
We've had another delay in the work that we're trying to do. Yesterday afternoon the first of what would be many severe thunderstorms rolled in on us. Normally we aren't worried about fighting in the rain, but winds reached frightening speeds and lightning was everywhere. Would our people have been okay? Probably. But why spit in the face of chance when playing safe doesn't cost us much?
No good reason to. Turns out that was the right decision to make. The rain the day before must have watered down the ammonia residue enough that the New Breed were no longer put off by it, because once the storms broke they were on New Haven like a fat guy on free cake.
Damn, I made myself want some cake just then.
Anyway, zombies came at us in waves, but none of them seemed overly creative in their approach. There was a mix of New Breed and old school zombies in the crowd, but the New Breed seemed duller than usual and less coordinated. We've speculated that the new plague might be affecting them as well, and this is another example of why we think that. New Breed don't usually just scoot up close to the wall and leave themselves open to having arrows put through their brain pans. Yesterday a good number of them did, and our archers and crossbowmen made sure they were obliged.
Another fun silver lining is that these little respites give us a chance to get to know all the new arrivals. Granted, there are too many of them to even meet all of them in that short a time, but hanging out with small groups and having a good time is awesome. I managed to kill two birds with one stone; getting to know some of the new folks while also using that time to gauge how the assault teams are doing. I mean, the numbers are all well and good, we know they're effective at their jobs, but actually having a conversation with the people whose boots are on the ground is infinitely more informative.
I think the honest assessment on both sides is that yeah, there are differences that make things difficult at times and maybe even frustrating, but that's vastly overwhelmed by respect for how effective everyone on the teams is at their jobs. No one expects seamless integration and frictionless teamwork at this point. Hell, the new people haven't been here long enough to even remember the names of all the New Haven natives that go out on runs with them. I'd say for the length of time we've been doing this, things are going quite well.
One small bone of contention is the differences in tactics. The new arrivals are still falling into the rigid habit built into them by constant training, sometimes without meaning to. That causes some confusion when integrated teams are out risking their lives to fight the undead, and it's something they're working on. On 'our' side--New Haven natives, that is--there seems to be some reluctance to use even the more effective maneuvers the newbies bring with them. I'd like to think we as a species have learned our lessons about pissing contests and who has the better system. Insert mandatory joke about penis size here. Whatever.
But people will persistently continue to be people, apocalypse or no. We're imperfect gems, each and every one of us, and that shows more easily in dangerous situations. Dodger is going to have a talk with our folks about adapting whatever tactics work into our fighting repertoire, and Will and I are trying to work some of our own techniques into the stringent exercises the newbies use in their practice. A little of both worlds seems like the best way to go.
Now if these damn storms would let up for a while, we might be able to try some of these ideas out. Maybe a few extra training sessions with the whole gang. Smoothing out all the rough bits seems like a perfect distraction from the boredom of not risking their lives, yeah?
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Merry-Go-Round
Posted by Josh Guess
&nbs
p; Looking back over the last few years, I've come to recognize how things go in cycles for us. Hard times and good, one after the other. Starvation and plenty, danger and safety. It's obvious on the large scale with, say, the pattern of zombie activity. Staying relatively quiet in the winter and active in the summer. Also on the small scale with swells in attacks followed by short periods of calm.
That off-and-on pattern seems to apply to most aspects of our lives. The most important one at the moment is the new plague. It started off very slowly and built to a dangerous crescendo, killing people and weakening us as a community almost to the point of collapse. Then it leveled out and we found a way to treat the illness, which has worked so far. The numbers of sick people have dropped off as new cases became sparse.
Today that pattern changed. It's so frustrating to think you've got a problem solved only to see it spring up again. This time it's our plumbers that are ill, and it's most of them. We're trying to figure out why the majority of them would fall ill all at once when our data so far implies that the new plague takes a while to get working and that there seems to be no external factor that causes it to attack.
