Alone No More (29 page)

Gilbert said he stockpiled food up here because that’s just the way he was. He said he still had a decent amount of stuff, mostly spam I guess, so this was a nice slice of variety. I told him if he had more bullets, I had plenty of food to trade. He seemed sorrowful when I said that. I think he’s low on ammo too.

I told him about most of my exploits. The gun store trip, downtown areas, and the grocery store. I told him about the young couple with the kid, and cleaning out the campus. He seemed genuinely impressed by all I’d done. He mentioned he saw my limp and I told him about the dog. He laughed. I laughed too. It was nice to laugh at myself. He even asked to look at the wound, and I showed him. He said he knew good first aid and that it looked good. He even had spare bandages to get it wrapped up again. 

I like this guy. He reminds me of my dad. 

We had a few cups of instant coffee made on the woodstove, and then he cooked the venison on it too. Pan seared venison ribs that he seasoned with spices he had on hand. Gilbert also warmed up the cans of stuff we had, and even showed me how to make this pretty sweet green bean casserole with simple seasonings and dried milk. Learn something new every day.

We easily sat there bullshitting for about six hours easily. He said his car was functional. (it was a small Dodge pickup) He also said he had plenty of food and water to last, but he could really use some batteries, and more variety of canned stuff. He said he had a handful more bullets he could offer up later on. I told him any would be good. 

After me convincing him it was necessary, he agreed that I should clear the other houses on his street. He had left them alone because he wasn’t really able to clear them at his age. He was on the fence about it for two reasons; he felt it was stealing, and he thought it was dangerous. I convinced him that those people (the homeowners) were either dead or never coming back, and that we needed the food and supplies to ensure we’d survive. Plus I told him I’d split any food I found with him 50/50. He conceded to my logic and thanked me for being young. Haha. We agreed that I’d visit him every three or four days and we’d check in with each other. I told him he was welcome do the same. He put the box of shells in my hand and we shook, and I was off.

He looked good. Tired, a little lonely, but really good. It was amazing to talk to someone and not have a weapon pointed at me or them. 

I was wiped when I got back. I wound up falling asleep on the recliner. Today I spent lounging around the house, letting my leg healed up some more. Moving around in the woods and heading to the gas station the other day was a little painful, and I didn’t really need to accomplish anything today. I wound up making more of that green bean casserole for myself, and it was good, but not as good as Gilbert’s.

It was nice to get 50 more rounds of ammo.

It’s fucking awesome to find a neighbor.

-Adrian

December 22
^nd

Good day to you Mr. Journal. How are you? Oh, what joyous news! You’re not real and I’m asking questions to my laptop computer screen! Some days I feel wacky, some days I don’t. Right now, I’m a little wacky.

I’ve had a good run of things the last couple days and I’m feeling relatively positive about life in general. As you might remember the other day I met my neighbor Gilbert, and we didn’t shoot at each other. Now there’s reason for celebration. First people I’ve encountered since I saw... Abigail that didn’t shoot at me, get shot at by me, or got killed near me. How fucked up is that? People man I tell ya. Dangerous animals.

So today is Wednesday, and the weather was decent. I fired up the grill outside and cooked up some venison. I cracked open a couple cans of vegetables and ate a good meal. After I gave Gilbert some of my food I realized just how much food I actually have. I felt like I was still eating small meals, so I’ve decided to eat a little bit more, especially now that the weather has gone to shit. Generally speaking of course, today is decent.

Anyway, yesterday I was feeling really energetic, and my leg felt like a million bucks, so I decided I’d head to Prospect and start clearing out the houses on the cul de sac where Gilbert lives. It seemed like the neighborly thing to do, plus I was pretty sure he would back me up if I need the help. I headed down there pretty damn early as I usually do, and honked my horn at Gilbert’s place. He came out pretty quickly, and I hollered up to him that I was going to clear out the house the zombies he killed came from. I figured it was most likely to be empty, and thus easy for me to break back into the job on.

He thought I was crazy, but said he’d sit on the porch and watch, and if I should need help, to come running. Back up. I have back up. That was all I could think. So fucking happy.

The houses on his cul de sac are a mixture of ranches and the raised ranches that are like 1.5 floors, but not quite 2 stories. All were pre fab style, but very nice. This was a pretty expensive area to live in before the world collapsed. The first house I did was a raised ranch. White plastic siding, with generic white garage attached by simple white breezeway. Seemed cut and dried and bland as shit.

Annnnnnnd it was. Weirdly enough. There was the window on the side of the house that was broken that the zombies fell out of, which was handy. I stood at the window and hollered and screamed, and nothing came out. When I went inside there was an overall funky smell, but the odor wasn’t overpowering. It was the after taint of the presence of the three zombies. 

I cleared the house painfully slowly. Meticulously. I skipped no details, and overlooked nothing. I got a little nervous when I did the upstairs. Actually I was a lot nervous. I was petrified of finding another dog upstairs, and to be honest, if I found something I had to run from, I was not going to be able to run down the stairs. I would fall down them for sure, but running? Not fucking happening.

I swallowed my fear as best I could, and cleared out the house. Signs of desperation were all over it. Guessing by their dress they died pretty early on, likely in September when it was still warm. There was absolutely no food left in the house. I found bones in the kitchen sink that looked like they belonged to a dog. The bones were picked fucking clean as hell too, so these people must’ve been hungry as a motherfucker to eat their damn family pet.

Although, that’s one less dog that can bite me. Win some lose some I ‘spose.

I popped outside and gave Gilbert the thumbs up once the house was clear, and he headed back into his place. Their basement was also empty of food, but they had some relatively generic non edible stuff that I snagged. They were out of most of the consumables. Toilet paper, toothpaste, deodorant, soap, candles, all that jazz. Taking their appliances didn’t make much sense, as I’ve got all that shit at home, and Gilbert doesn’t have electricity. They did have another decent flashlight for me, although all of their batteries were gone. No guns or ammo in the house, nor any liquor, beer, or anything worth trading. 

To be honest, the only thing that came out of that house of any value was clothing. I haven’t been taking much in the way of clothes out of these people’s houses and I think that’s been a mistake. I can use the clothes as trade bait down the road, or as fabric for rags or sewing or something. Plus there was no fucking way I was leaving that place basically empty handed. I didn’t want Gilbert to see me waste my time clearing my first house.

So I got clothing. And a few other items of neatness, like a cordless drill, a decent finishing saw, and a few skilsaw blades. Shrug. I guess it wasn’t a total waste.

I decided I’d clear the house to the right of that one after. That was the house right directly next to Gilbert’s place, and I felt it was also likely to be empty. Plus I wanted to try and find something to show him for all my work. He was sort of against the whole house clearing idea anyway, and I wanted desperately to sell him on the idea with something badass.

I didn’t tell him I was doing the second house, I just moved the Tundra over into the next driveway and honked like I normally do. I remember hearing him open his door, but I didn’t say anything to him. The second house was a ranch, and was smaller than the first place, so it went quickly.

Not without some drama though. When I did the exterior walk around the back door was wide open. For security reasons I shut the door. The door entered the kitchen from a pretty nice back deck. I didn’t think anything of it, but that’s pretty typical of me right? Devil’s in the details as the saying goes.

I saw nothing in the windows, and as Gilbert said, it looked empty. I entered via the front door, which I had to kick open. I hollered again in the doorway, but nothing answered. As I was clearing the front living room area, I heard a low growl, and damn near filled my drawers. I swung the shotgun around towards the kitchen, directly at the spot the back door was at, and standing there, backed up into the corner was a red fox. Not a big one, but it was the better part of my shin in height, just a few inches shorter than my knee. 

Standing behind the red fox were three pups. Fox babies. And I had shut their only means of exit. Luckily the front door was still open, and really fucking slowly I backed out that door, and went around to the back. When I got there, the mother red fox was still sort of protecting the pups, so I rapped on the back window in the door, and they all bolted. I could kinda see them go out the front door, so I ran around and watched them cross the cul de sac and disappear over the back of a small rise in one of the houses yards.

Weird huh? I haven’t seen much of any wildlife, and to find wildlife in winter, just weird. More on how weird this is at the end. And this is gonna knock your sox clean fucking off Mr. Journal. Like.. flying away through the air knocked off.

Anyway, once I got the mother and the pups out of the house it was cleared out safely and slowly. I was taking a lot of time to do it right. Rushing hurts my leg anyway, and there are only just a few houses left to clear, so there’s really no rush. This house was much more profitable.

I found about 20 cans of food in the cupboards as well as some other long lasting food items. Uncooked pasta lasts a long ass time if dry, and these guys loved pasta. They also had about 8 jars of spaghetti sauce, which was pretty frigging clutch with all that pasta. They were frozen solid, but I think that’s a good thing. They also had a really nice supply of spices, and after my dinner date with Gilbert I can appreciate some of the different spices now. I had no idea I liked curry until he sprinkled some on the venison. These guys had a little thing of it, and that made me happy.

As for other shit, it was pretty barren. No garage so there were no garage-ish items to be found anywhere. No worries I guess. They had a lot of clothing, which was good I guess, and they also had batteries. I’m not sure if they’re good still, but I grabbed them anyway. I vaguely recalled Gilbert saying he needed some anyway.

I got out of the house and got everything into the truck. I carried over half the pasta and half of the jars of spaghetti to Gilbert’s place. I also grabbed half of the batteries I found.

The old guy was fucking stoked for the spaghetti. I thought it was his turn to throw me down and make sweet love to me, but he restrained himself, and instead just tried to shake my hand until it almost fell off. Affectionately he told me I was “full of piss and vinegar.”

Not sure what that means, but it seemed like it was good based on his facial expression at the time. I’m guessing it means I’m awesome or something. Yep, gonna roll with that.

He opted to only take 2 boxes of spaghetti, and two jars of sauce. He said he didn’t need more than that, and I was more than happy to keep the difference. I told him about the spices I found and he seemed pretty happy with that haul as well. I offered some of them to him, and he said to keep them. He said the spices would be good to use, or good to trade. Makes sense. I remember spice trade being a big part of world history class. It stands to good reason that when people run out of canned shit to eat, they’re going to want spices for the food we kill or grow. That’s of course assuming that I find people willing to trade, instead of shooting my ass and taking my shit.

Fucking people man I tell you! 

So that was yesterday. I got back in just after dark, and did a quick patrol in the Tundra around the campus. It was all clear. I stored all the clothing in Hall A. It’s just down the way from Hall E, and I don’t need to keep it warm or anything. If anyone breaks into there and steals the clothes, I probably won’t even get angry. Frankly I just need to make sure Hall E doesn’t get any more crowded than it is. It’s already full of shit I’ve brought here and I am running out of space. I am starting to feel like that crazy hoarder that lived on Jones Road. I keep everything I find lol. If I start keeping the tinfoil lids to yogurt containers I’m fucked. Speaking of yogurt... That sounds delicious. I am jonesing hardcore for dairy shit. I would beat some ass for ice cream.

I was really tired yesterday after I got back in, and I crashed early. I had to take a handful of ibuprofen because my leg was sore as shit, but today when I woke up I felt good. I really think the positive attitude helps a lot. It might also be the larger meals I’ve started to eat. I wonder how much of my healing has been dictated by shitty diet? Incidentally, I made spaghetti for breakfast.

Today after I ate my pisketty I went back to Gilbert’s cul de sac and started clearing more houses. I went up to his place and honked again to let him know I was in the area. He waved, and said he’d watch from his porch again. Nice fella that Mr. Donohue.

On his cul de sac there are 5 houses, and then 2 houses on the road leading down to it. I already cleared two yesterday, and I don’t need to clear his, so that leaves four houses going into today remaining.

The last two houses on his cul de sac are raised ranches. I got them both cleared out just as the sun went down. I won’t bore you with the mundane details, but both houses were empty of foxes, dogs, cats, (living or dead) living people, dead people, and those that are sort of in between living and dead that like to bite living people.