Dark Recollections Page 19

  I need to secure Hall E from intruders. I really feel like I’m zombie proof here. All the doors are heavy duty, doubled up on both entrances, all the lower windows are secured with sturdy wooden barricades, and I’ve got the one deck secured well. My worry now is if someone alive comes up here with a ladder, they’re in as easily as 1-2-3. Gotta figure out a way to make sure that new people can’t get in here without a bitch of a time. Call me paranoid, but I’m more worried about being shot by the living, than I am about being eaten alive by the dead.

  I am thinking about totally blocking off all the first floor windows and leaving just window slits/gun ports. Possibly using cement to do it, or even brick if possible. I can always use the second floor windows as vantage points should I need to kill things outside.

  Communication system to vet potential “roommates.” I’m feeling clever here. Now my first thought was to simply paint up some huge ass signs, and leave them all over town. “Hey assholes, safe place to live at the end of this road.” That kind of shit. What I realized almost immediately, is if I did that I was giving away my greatest asset. Solitude.

  By telling people where I am, they can come here, and take the place from me. Well, the fuckers can try. Anyway, I realized before I told ANYONE where this place was, I would want to feel them out first, preferably from a distance.

  Enter Steve’s letter. I had completely forgotten about it, but Steve said he was going to get a CB radio, and check it every day at noon or something like that. So I thought about it, and realized that was a frigging great idea. I could leave CB radios in a couple places around town, with huge ass signs that said, “use this CB at such and such a time to find a safe place to live.” That way they could radio me, we could talk over a day or two, then if I felt good about it, we could arrange a meeting elsewhere. If that went well, then I could lead them back up here and see what happens. If at any point in time I got a bad feeling, then I simply cut ties and tell them to go fly a kite. Worst case I’m out a CB, and maybe a sign. Sounds good right? I think it’s a helluva basic idea to keep myself safe, and allow me and a bunch of total strangers to establish some relationship before I give them the farm. I’m thinking I can even set up the CB radios in pre-cleared safe houses with water and minor supplies as a gesture of good faith, and to impress people. After all, if they need to wait to radio me, I want them to be safe during that time.

  So the last part is really complicated. Once I get people up here… how do we run the place? Do I run it and tell everyone else what’s up? I was the first here, I got the place safe, and no one else knows better than I do? If they don’t like it they can scram? How do I establish laws? Is it a democracy? Do I simply take a U.S.law book from the library and grandfather it in as the same old, same old?

  The nice guy in me that has almost always done the “right thing” in his life says we should establish an immediate democracy by majority, and bring in every law that was on the books from before. It’s familiar, everyone feels valued, and I won’t have to shoulder the moral and legal burden of being quite literally King Shit of Turd Mountain.

  The pragmatist inside me says fuck everyone, you’re the boss. You know better than anyone else who shows up what to do, and your judgment is better than theirs. We follow simple common sense laws for the meantime, and I can always take advice if needed, and ignore advice if needed. My chief worry is this scenario: I “rescue” a family or group of 5 people. I tell them we’re a democracy, and everyone has an equal vote. The first vote we cast is that they immediately are in charge, and they tell me to get the fuck out. Well that ain’t fucking happening Mr. Journal. That motion is not getting carried.

  I really don’t know. I’m sure the final solution will be somewhere in the middle. Actually, I’m not sure about that at all. It’s this question that makes me doubt doing this in the first place. I can totally envision telling a new arrival what’s up, and it escalating to violence.

  Alright soo… where do I start? To fortify I need lumber, maybe some brick, concrete blocks, and possibly cement. There isn’t a ton of any of those items here. To get supplies I need to clear out the nearby houses of zombies. To find people I need CB’s. People are the last step though. That’s easy to cross off for now and do later. The only logical thing that I can think of to do first, is to clear out the houses within a mile. There are probably 40 or 50 in total, and I think I can clear out two or three a day if I move right along. I’m betting most are empty, or can be cleared fairly easily. It is unlikely that any of these houses will have more than 5 or 6 undead in them. Not too bad if I’m smart about it. The real question becomes… what the hell do I do if I find living people inside one of them? Slip away unnoticed? Invite them here ahead of schedule? Form a tribal alliance ala Survivor?

  Fucked if I know Mr. Journal. It’s all improv dude. More plan refinement tomorrow, then I’ll start clearing out houses. Any spare time I have until that’s done I’ll spend trying to fortify Hall E I think.

  -Adrian

  November 18th

  Update on today’s accomplishments is first on the agenda. The weather was pretty good today, which was awesome. Last night we had one of our fall typhoons again, so I was a little anxious about how it would be today. It was cloudy, but it stayed about 50 and never rained. Perfect for work outside.

  I realized early I didn’t need to refine my plan. I think at the point I’m at I cannot plan any more. I need to start doing stuff, and adjust the plan to circumstances as they come up. I didn’t want to start clearing houses today, so I scoured campus for building materials and collected them near hall E so they were convenient. I used the ATV and the little trailer.

  I found a LOT of awesome shit stored in nooks and crannies all over the place. One of the dorms had a ton of lumber in the basement from a building project that never got started. It was mostly all 2x4’s, which is excellent. I found 24 8 foot 2x4’s, an ass ton of screws and nails as well. I got wood. Had to throw that in there.

  In the back of one of the maintenance outbuildings I found bags of concrete, which rocks. (more accurately I guess it turns into rock) I can make great use of that. All over the place I collected 60 separate concrete blocks, and about a hundred bricks. Spares for the sidewalks I would assume. Those will go a long way towards locking down Hall E, and making fortifications across campus.

  I also found a bunch of random buildings supplies like drywall, spackle, skill saws, etc. The facilities tool shed was a goldmine. Guess I should’ve expected that. One of the nicer things that I found was some significantly higher quality furniture out in the staff houses in the far back of campus. I’d totally dismissed those houses after I emptied them of food back when I was clearing campus. I found a pretty sweet bed, and a bunch of couches and stuff that are much better than the shitty dorm furniture that’s here in Hall E. I only moved one recliner over today, and that’s where I’m sitting as I type this. I am in a little bit of heaven. I’ll move more over later.

  The one mildly shitty thing that did happen today was my realization I have a fucking gigantic pile of dead bodies in the back of campus. Up until now, every time I have a body, I’ve been dragging it back and throwing on a huge pile, way out of the way. The stench hadn’t reached down to the main campus area, but when I was up that way…. holy shit it was unbearable. I decided to burn the bodies just after dark.

  Adrian’s helpful tip of the day: It doesn’t matter how much gasoline you pour on a dead body, it doesn’t burn for shit by itself. You need wood to keep the fire going. Found that out about two hours ago. I had to grab a bunch of the dead fallen wood that was dry to insert into the pile of corpses to sustain a pyre to burn the bodies away. Ooops.

  Right now they’re still burning, and luckily the breeze is blowing the smoke out across the river. The fire isn’t visible as best as I can tell either, despite it being the size of a tractor trailer. If it burns all night, there should be nothing left by morning. Doubt I’m that lucky though, I might have to light it up tomorr
ow at dusk to finish the deal.

  So yeah a really productive day. Very happy with myself.

  Story time. I write so much faster when I’m in a good mood. It’s noticeable. I love it. Right now I feel like I could write Tolstoy’s epic in about twenty minutes lol. I’m such a nerd.

  So I really want to try and wrap up the day after “that day” when I really dug in and got nasty with cleaning this campus out of the undead. It was pretty bad too, but most of the stories consist of the following: “entered dorm/building, found several wandering zombies. Shot some, chopped the heads off of others, didn’t get bitten.”

  There’s only so much of that I can type before I feel I’m recording needless history here. However, there were a few incidents that were interesting or unique enough to warrant a more substantial story. I’ll give some details on the boring shit, then cut to the chase on the scary stuff.

  The majority of the school, staff, and maintenance buildings were either empty, or had minimal zombie presence. I think I ran into perhaps a dozen zombies in those buildings the afternoon after Abigail took off for home. Most of those undead were dispatched with the .22, or with the sword. I cleared all the buildings as normal, even checking closets, cupboards, everything. (that’s why I was so freaked out when that zombie jumped me in the cafeteria. I am *positive* that place was empty)

  All of my serious problems came from the dorms themselves. I have no way of knowing how the situations got to where they were that day because I wasn’t here for most of it. I was either downtown assembling my supplies and trying to find friends and family, or I was stuck on the admissions roof. Everything here is speculation.

  I guess that the majority of the kids who attended school here got out safely. That’s pretty awesome. We had about 100 students on campus for the summer session, which is fairly normal as we’re an “overachiever’s” kind of place. I’d guess that out of that population there were maybe 40 student zombies on site. Now mind you we had perhaps 60 staff that day as well, and I think 40 got the fuck out safely. The remaining 20 died here, and came back as zombies. The final straw was the x-factor, the parents. We had… shit it could’ve been 200 parents here over the course of that day, and there’s no way of knowing really.

  That gives us a rough estimate of about 100 undead on site. I think I killed somewhere around 40 or so from Dr. Potter’s classroom with the .22 in the morning hours, which thinned the herd significantly. The remaining 60 zombies were shamblers I encountered while moving about outside, or they were locked inside the dorms.

  Think about that for a second. The better part of 60 zombies inside 5 dorm buildings. Average that out to 12 per building and that’s a pretty high threat density. The first neat story came when I was clearing out Hall B. Hall B is one of the three dorms that have two floors. Hall B was an upper class dorm for the girls. I cleared that dorm second to last. I should make mention that I cleared Hall E first, as I was almost positive that was the dorm I was going to hole up in after. That plan was a remnant from spending all night on the roof of admissions. Plenty of time to think.

  Anyhow, Hall B physically looks like a very square colonial home with faintly industrial windows and doors. Imagine some of the fraternity and sorority houses on large college campuses and you’re pretty close to it. I had gotten into the habit of doing a circle around every building to clear the entrances, and to scope out the situation inside through the windows. Hall B was totally clear from what I could see. The surrounding yard was also empty, and I was actually thinking that the dorm was going to be smooth sailing. By now you can guess how correct I was.

  I entered through the front, which was one of the heavy duty fire doors molded so it looked like it was fancy wood. The door opened into the foyer, and to one side was the common area, and the other side the dining room. In the back of the first floor were bathrooms, and the dorm’s kitchen. I held still for a few second, listened and took a whiff, and heard and smelled nothing. I cleared the first floor with the .22, and slowly crept up the stairs.

  One wide stairway led up to an upstairs landing/hall area that was open to the bottom floor. This dorm was supposed to hold a maximum of 32 girls, and if memory serves, there was about 20 or so living there when everything went down. Once I got to the upstairs I caught of whiff of badness. Not just a dead body rotting meat smell, it was more of a fecal smell to be honest. Ripe, pungent, and fresh.

  I tip-toed and checked the bedroom doors, and noticed that one of the rooms towards the back was the source. The upstairs bathrooms were both empty, so I shut those doors, and pushed two of the chairs in the hall in front of them. I cleared the doors where no smell was noticeable. All three of those bedrooms were clear. Each room had 4 sets of bunks, and theoretically at full capacity each room would hold 8 girls. I had 3 empty rooms, and all 3 of those rooms didn’t smell. 1 room stunk.

  I listened at the door, and it was silent. I know, shocking right? These doors opened inward, so I tried the handle, and it opened, but when I pushed the door in slowly, it didn’t budge an inch. Something was blocking the door. I put some shoulder into it, and got it to open an inch, and I damn near got floored by the stench wafting out. Straight up shit and carnage. I can’t even describe how bad it smelled. My huge ass pile of a hundred bodies out back of the campus had nothing on the way that bedroom stank that day.

  Now as soon as I got the door cracked I saw a bunch of movement, and the door was pushed shut and I heard a scraping on the floor. I’d heard that noise before, and it was the sound of the bunks being dragged on the hardwood floor. Kids are always rearranging their rooms, and it was a common and distinct noise in the dorms. After the creak the door slammed shut right in my face.

  Mind racing I tried to piece it together. After the fact I found out my guess was right. Initially I felt that there was a bunk pushed up against the door. (correct) I also figured that there were undead inside, and when I opened the door, they likely rushed it, and pushed the bunk back up against the door, shutting it again. (again, correct)

  I’m not gonna lie, I had no idea what to do. I was pretty sure they weren’t going anywhere though, so I ran back down stairs, and grabbed a snack in the kitchen. There was some leftover pork chops from the dinner the night before, and I gnawed one to death and washed it down with some orange juice.

  The dilemma was how do I kill the zombies inside? It was unlikely I could push the crowd inside and the bunk enough to get the door open. Even if I could, that was stupid. Then they could come out the open door and rush me. So I sat there for probably 15 minutes deep in thought until I heard a loud crack coming from behind me. I remember standing up from the dining room table and pointing the .22 out the window like lightning. Standing at the window, outside staring at me, was one of the parents. Well, one of the dead parents. It had hit the window and cracked the glass. That did it for me.

  I stepped out the back door, jogged around the side of the building, and popped the parent in the head with the rifle. He slumped to the ground quickly, and I walked around to the other side of the house below the window of the room where the smell was. I dug through the bushes along the side of the house and found a few golf ball sized rocks. Ten paces away from the house later, I gunned the first rock through the bottom pane of the upstairs window. I waited, then side armed another rock through the top pane of the window. The second rock actually bricked one of the zombie girls right in the boob and sent her backwards a foot or two. Right after that, they all started coming to the window, and began clawing down at me.

  I popped a .22 shell in the magazine to replace the one I had just shot, and waited for the plan to reach its culmination. It took another minute before the window frame gave way, and they started to tumble out the window, head over heels, falling the 20 or so feet to the ground. If it wasn’t so horrible, it would’ve been *hilarious.* One right after another, a cascade of 16, 17, and 18 year old girls crashed onto the lawn, forming this demented pile of broken bones, putrid flesh, and glitter speckled skin.
I backed away a few more feet, and just let it happen.

  Once they stopped falling I waited for them to start separating. Once untangled, they started crawling, walking, or dragging themselves across the lawn at me. I prioritized my “target rich environment” and dropped the walkers first. I changed mags, and shot the few crawlers. After that I drew the sword and finished off the few that were really messed up with shattered arms and legs. They weren’t much of a threat, so it was low risk at that point. God it smelled horrible. One of the things that really messed with me dealing with Hall B those first few days was sort of a subtle thing. One of my fondest (and vaguely perverted) memories of Hall B was the lovely smells that dorm always used to have. All the pretty young girls wearing nice perfumes, and using body washes and oils and stuff made that dorm such a nice place to be in. Smelling them in that condition that day was like pouring vinegar in my ear for the sole purpose of purging that pleasant memory.

  Very unfortunate. Thinking back on it after all this time, I am starting to remember the good smells, not just the bad. That makes me happy. (in a totally non-perverted way)

  Once I finished off my Niagara Falls of undead teenage girls I went back inside and pushed the bedroom door open carefully. There were two more zombies in the room, but they were in really sad shape. From the looks of it, they were just utterly destroyed by a bunch of the others. My guess was they holed up in there (good idea) but brought someone, or several someones inside that were already bitten. (bad idea) The bitten folk probably died, woke up as zombies, lather, rinse, repeat. If some of the girls put up a fight while they were being devoured, their bodies would’ve been demolished by the bunch. That was my take on the two left behind. They were just physically decimated. They got their heads split open, and I moved along to the next dorm.

  The second story of interest happened later in the day when I was clearing Hall C. Hall C is almost identical to Hall B, and is about 40 yards away on the other side of a street. We tried to split those two dorms as much as possible because Hall B was for the girls, and Hall C was for upper class boys. Putting them any closer together would’ve been an STD factory.