Z Day is Here (15 page)

We have spent the majority of the day talking
about the state the world is in. It does not look good for
humanity. We are losing the battle. I will write more about this
later.

Tonya doesn't trust them at all. She wants us
to leave them as fast as possible, but I think they may be able to
help me get closer to home. Only time will tell.

Last night, Jeremiah told us his account of
the first few days of the virus in South America. I know I am going
to forget a few details, but this is how I remember it being
relayed to me.

Jeremiah told us he had been stationed in
South America for the past few years. He said he was the first one
to arrive at the scene when they found that little kid (Damon
Jenkins). His picture was splashed all over magazines, such as
Time
and
U
.
S
.
Weekly
. The picture was
him carrying Damon in his arms into the military hospital. Jeremiah
stood guard over the little boy until he died. He was sad to see
the little kid pass away, but in his line of work, he had seen
quite a few people taken before their time. He said he stood next
to the doctors when they held the press conference. He was the
first to respond to the "scream that shocked a nation," as it was
later called. He told how he ran into the hospital to see the
doctor performing the autopsy laying dead in a pool of blood, his
throat ripped out. He said he saw Damon licking the blood off the
ground, his eyes now a cold white color, his skin pale to match.
When Damon saw Jeremiah standing in the door, he immediately began
walking towards him. By that time, the room was full of doctors and
other military personnel.

Two people were checking on the autopsy
doctor when the doctor suddenly "woke up." The doctor bit into the
arms of both the people assisting. Jeremiah turned and began
shooting the autopsy doctor, to no avail. The doctor continued to
bite people in the room, taking a chunk out of anyone standing in
his path. Finally, a stray bullet ripped through the doctor’s head,
killing him instantly. During all the commotion, Damon managed to
slip out the door, and he in turn also began biting unsuspecting
bystanders. By the time Damon was taken out completely, a total of
thirty-seven people had been bitten. Jeremiah said they tried to
contain the situation, but with that many people, a few who had
been bitten had managed to escape the quarantine of the
hospital.

Soon after, the whole city had to be
quarantined, and then the state, and then the whole country. Only
military flights were allowed in or out of South America. Jeremiah
was one of the last ones out. (First in, Last out; that was their
motto.) When he finally left the country, he said they had left
under duress, because the base had been over run with the infected.
When he arrived in the U.S., he was greeted with the same strip
down procedure that we were given.

It appeared that the government had contained
the virus, and it wasn’t until mass murders and a large amount of
"rabies" cases began springing up all over the country that the
government realized the virus was unstoppable. The virus spread so
fast in the States that the military was forced to abandon all
posts and convene into two or three strongholds. One of those bases
just happened to be the one down the road from my house!

Jeremiah told us their orders were to shoot
and kill anything or anyone that approached the base. They
maintained those orders until they realized they were going to lose
the base unless they began fighting back. He said the other bases
had stopped transmitting a few weeks ago, so it is assumed our base
is the only one left. That is when the base decided to go on a
seek-and-destroy mission. Anything that moved was a target. People
could not be trusted anymore, so anyone not on the base was to be
shot on sight, no exceptions. He was on the helicopter that began
firing on us while we were on the building. He said he had asked to
rescue us but was given an order to fire and take us out. He said
he missed us on purpose but was instructed to fly back out to the
city and take out anything left alive (or undead). That’s when
their copter began having technical problems and went down. He said
they fought off dozens of zombies that managed to survive the
massive attack but eventually got overrun, so they fled, looking
for any kind of shelter.

Finally, Jeremiah told us about the military
strikes around the base. He said they bombed every square inch of
land in a twenty-five square mile radius of the base. My house is
within that radius! I asked him about that area. He shook his head
and whispered, “All gone, it's all been leveled."

I am crushed. Any chance Darcy may have had
is now gone. I am completely crushed.

Ed is beginning to feel a little better now;
his wounded leg and ribs are healing very quickly. I spent a good
bit of time talking to him today. He told me a little about his
family. He said they flew to the base with him, and they are safe
in one of the bunkers/fall-out shelters that are located on the
base. Ed told me how they allowed some locals on the base right
before everything went to shit. That gave me a glimmer of hope. I
had thought about the shelters once before; now this just confirms
what I had thought. Maybe Darcy got lucky and was in one of the
bunkers, safely locked underground with plenty of food and water
that can last years.

Alisha walked around the perimeter of the
building most of the night and attempted to contact the military
base. All that came across the airwaves was static. At this point,
we don't know if the radios are busted or if the base has been
overrun or if the base has cut off all contact now that the squad
has been "contaminated." We don't know if we now have to watch our
backs or if we should look for the military for help. I am not sure
which is worse: if the military is after us, or if there is no
military left. If a mass migration hit the base, there are not
enough fences and bullets to stop them all. There were around four
million people living in the city at the time of the uprising. If
even half of those were zombies, that is a lot of people attacking
one little fortified base.

Cole and Tonya sat in a corner talking about
our options with Jeremiah most of the morning. I can see the
mistrust written all over Tonya's face. Every suggestion Jeremiah
comes up with, Tonya finds some reason why the plan wouldn't work.
I see her getting very frustrated at times, because she knows a
plan is good but does not want to admit it. I just hope she can
drop her attitude by the time a real decision needs to be made.

I have been sitting back watching everyone. I
can't help but laugh at our little family. That is what we have
become, a family: Tonya, Cole, and myself. We watch each other at
all times. No one goes anywhere without one of us going with them.
We all have grown closer to one another over the past few weeks or
months. I would do anything for them, and I believe they would do
anything for me. I know that no matter what happens, we will all
watch out for each other. I wish I could relay this to Tonya right
now, to let her know I’ve got her back and I am here for her, that
she has nothing to worry about.

Alisha just came in; it looks like another
mass migration is heading our way. She said it is the largest mass
of undead she has ever seen. Tonight should be interesting.

To say the migration was large is a HUGE
understatement. There were (and still are) massive amounts of the
undead walking past us. All night last night, we saw wave after
wave of them. They are moving at a slow pace, but every now and
then, they will show a quick burst of speed.

We have all been lying low, not moving at
all, just staying in one spot. We were smart enough to cover
ourselves in the blood from a few zombies we killed that were
behind the building we are in. I am worried, though, because the
blood is drying up and starting to flake up and peel off. If the
migration doesn't slack off soon, we will be in for one hell of a
fight.

The moans are the worst part of all this.
They really take their toll on our sanity. I remember the first
Gulf War and how we (the U.S. Army) would play loud rock music over
and over at high levels, trying to force the Iraqi people out of
their compounds. I really feel like this is somewhat of a strategy
of theirs. If it is, it is working. Cole is lying next to me. I can
barely hear him as he groans every few minutes. He has his hands
over his ears. I have tried to convince him to ignore it, reminding
him of the other times we have had to survive and live with the
moans happening all around us. It is hard to convince someone it is
going to be okay and that it will be over soon when I myself don't
believe it. I am not sure how the moans are affecting anyone else,
because we are all spread out. Cole is directly beside me, while
Tonya and the others are scattered around the room.

Shit, Ed just coughed! It looks like a couple
zombies heard the cough. They are headed this way!

It was a close call, too close of a call. As
the zombies began making their way towards the shelter we were
hiding in, we heard a scream from across the street. We could see a
woman standing on the side of the road screaming at the undead
migration as it passed. Three people came running out after her,
trying to drag her back inside their shelter. Within seconds, the
three of them were completely surrounded by thousands of zombies.
Another couple of seconds later and they were nothing more than
shreds of flesh, bone, and blood. It looked like they were put into
a wood chipper. Once the majority of the bodies were devoured, a
few of the zombies were licking the blood off the road like a dog.
The whole process took less than three minutes! The only good that
came from the slaughter was that we were spared from that same
fate; every zombie in the city was trying to get a piece of them,
ignoring a maybe for a sure thing.

The rest of the day and evening and even into
this morning, the migration continued. It finished just a few hours
ago, ending the parade of the dead with a few corpses dragging
their mutilated bodies along the ground with their hands. We waited
for about an hour for any additional stragglers to come along
before we came out of hiding. We all emerged feeling like the
luckiest people in the world. Jeremiah walked over and punched Ed
in the shoulder as hard as he could. We all stood around in
complete shock over what we had witnessed the past few days. We
just could not believe the ferocity and the speed at which the
zombies mutilated the three people.

As we were standing around talking, we saw
someone walking out of the building the other three people had come
out of. It was Shaughn. He walked up to the bloodstain on the
ground and looked at his surroundings. While he was looking around,
he didn't notice the zombie coming up behind him from around the
corner of the building. Jeremiah and I both jumped up and ran
towards the opening of our shelter. Alisha, who was standing by the
opening, ran out the door ahead of us, screaming for Shaughn to get
out of the way. As he turned around, Shaughn was knocked over by
the creature hungry for his blood. Shaughn grabbed the zombie by
the throat, keeping its mouth as far away from any part of his body
as possible. As Shaughn raised the zombie’s head up in the air,
Alisha made it across the street and struck the zombie across the
nose with the butt of her rifle. The zombie’s neck snapped back,
breaking every bone holding his head up. His body rolled backwards
a few times before coming to a stop against the building Shaughn
had just come out of. The zombie was lying with his stomach against
the building, upside down, with his head looking directly back at
us. The sight was very unnatural and a little strange.

Without saying a word to Shaughn, Alisha
walked directly up to the zombie, who was now attempting to stand
up, and stepped on his neck, pinning his head to the ground. With
the rifle still in her hand, she began beating the zombie in the
face repeatedly until all that was left was a pool of red Jell-O.
We all sat back in amazement at her brutality, more impressed than
horrified.

Shaughn was too exhausted to tell us what had
happened since we had last seen him, so we didn't push the subject.
We let him sleep, which is where he is now. I am anxious to hear
his story tomorrow.

Our excitement for Shaughn's story quickly
faded into nothing more than a distant memory this morning when
there was a sudden, unexpected attack.

Jeremiah was on guard while the rest of us
slept. I had just fallen asleep when the sound of a loud crash
jolted me awake. Everything happened too fast. Since it was so
dark, it was nearly impossible to see anything going on. A small
sliver of moonlight crept through one of the cracks in the wall.
The light was just enough for me to see Alisha, Cole, and Ed run
out the back. Jeremiah was lying on his back with two zombies on
top of him. Shaughn was standing behind one of the zombies with a
knife, slicing deep into the ghoul’s neck. I jumped to my feet as
quickly as I could, only to be knocked back down by a zombie two
times my size. I could see three more zombies desperately trying to
get into the shelter. I had no time to think, only to react. I
rolled over onto my side and kicked the shit out of the approaching
zombie; he didn't budge. I scrambled to my feet in just enough time
to dodge an oncoming attack from an infected mouth. I had no idea
what to do! I was way overpowered, and the speed at which he was
moving took me aback. He had me pinned in a corner with nowhere to
run. As he began to pounce, a loud shotgun blast removed the left
side of the zombie’s face. Two more shots and all the zombies in
the room were lying dead on the ground. Everything in the room
stopped for a brief second, long enough for me to run out the back,
along with Jeremiah, Shaughn, and this new person with the ski mask
and a deadly accurate shotgun aim.