Zombies! Rising from the Dead (16 page)

I've been trying to figure out the numbers on this. How many of these
things am I up against? We have so many cemeteries in
Barkley,
I can
think of two large ones right off the top of my head. I figure in
those two alone there must be anywhere from five to eight hundred
bodies per graveyard, so in just two cemeteries it's already stands
at a thousand or more; and there are countless smaller ones.
Let’s
say
for the sake of argument that there are around two to three hundred
in each of those. At the very least we’re dealing with around
3,000
dead, festering corpses within a five mile radius of Barkley alone,
and I know I haven't accounted for them all. Let's be generous and
say that a good half of them were interned properly, okay fine, but
that still leaves fifteen hundred of these things that might not have
been. Once again I am only dealing with
Barkley;
I don't even want to
take into consideration neighboring towns like
Earington
, Kirbyville
or Cunningham. I haven't even tried to do the math on those, the

numbers
are staggering.

Day Twenty-Four

I am having my lunch the same as I do every day. It's 2 pm, a small
drink and half a can of baked beans. It’s my main course...my big
meal of the day. It seems like the less I eat, the less I
need
to
eat; stomach is shrinking, it’s a good thing.

The longer I can ration
my food the longer I will survive. Those ‘things’ are still
surrounding the
house,
I don't guess they will ever leave now. If

they
were they would have moved on long ago. It’s just a matter of
waiting them out, hoping they rot away before I do.

Day Twenty-Five

My little garden is continuing to grow nicely. I look out the window
here in what I now call the ‘The Gardens’. The gardens are a special
place for me now, it's my “getaway”, my tropical island resort, with
the vines and sunlight streaming through the single open window I can
come in here, close my eyes and pretend I'm somewhere else. But the
growing number of undead continues to concern me. My backyard is just
a big swath of unused farm land, and from the window in the gardens I
can easily survey the whole area with relative ease.

The dead graze
like cattle; wandering back and forth but never leaving. As I look
down I can see them shambling across the back patio. They congregate
around the back
door,
they must know what it is or at least have the
memory of it being important. There we go; just more evidence of
residual memory.

I still worry, who wouldn't? Upstairs is so open, at least the
front side of the house is. There are just so many damned windows. If
they manage to get in the basement is the best option; it's a fucking

fortress
, there's no chance they can get in. It’s concrete walls and
the door is made of heavy steel with two giant metal crossbars
jamming it shut. I even have an additional sheet of plywood screwed
in across it. If I come down here and close the hatch I will be
sealed in and safe. No windows, one door and concrete wall
s
surrounded on all sides by
M
other
E
arth. If I was going to be safe

anywhere
it would be down here.

Day Twenty-Six

Yet another day, it is hard to keep track sometimes. So many days
come and go; and many are just like the previous. I can only remember
the month and date now because I mark it off on my
calender
...

T
oday
is Thursday.

Day Twenty-Seven

The television signal finally went dead
today,
just snow now...not
even the familiar EBS warnings. I know it sounds silly but I had
gotten used to the warning message that constantly rolled across the
screen. In some strange way it comforted me, made me feel like I
still had a connection to the outside world. I
t
ried to call Frankie
again today but still not having any luck; I fear the worst.

Day Twenty-Eight

Lunch again today, same routine; boring and the house is so quiet.
It’s like being in the belly of a sleeping beast; cold, dark and
deathly silent with only the ambient light to brighten things. It's
repetitive, I feel like an assembly line robot doing the same task
all day
;
every day with no change or deviation. It's getting really
annoying.

Day Twenty-Nine

Rick and I talked for a while today
;
longer than
we should have, I
know battery life is at a premium right now but I can't help it. Both
of us are running out of things to do; at least he has someone to
talk to and it's good to hear their voices. Amanda sounds pretty
good.
I think she is dealing with the situation better at this point.
Rick says he eased her into it, just repeating the same things over
and over again. He let her catch a glimpse out of the upstairs window
so she could get an idea what they were up against and the reality of
the situation. He said she was grossed out and unnerved, but otherwise seemed to be coming to terms with it, handling it as well
as anyone could. I talked to her for a bit myself so she could hear a
voice other than Rick's. It's a lot better having two people telling
you it's going to be okay rather than one.

Day Thirty

Well this is a milestone, thirty days, thirty long, tiresome, nerve
racking days inside this house. It’s a good time to re-evaluate my
situation. Thirty days those monsters have scratched, gnawed and
scraped at the doors and windows trying to get in and they have been
wholly unsuccessful . . . GOOD. The house itself remains completely
intact, with no signs of weakness . . . GOOD. I have been eating the
most perishable items first; meats, breads, sodas and juices. I have
survived by saving my most valuable items like water, beans and
crackers for last. Rick is in good shape at the present time.
Neither of us heard from Frankie though, that's bad but there is
little I can do about it now. I know Frankie is smart and just as

resourceful
as Rick and I, if I had to bet money I would guess that
he has survived.

There has been absolutely no contact with the
outside world, we haven't seen or heard from another living soul
since the day this started. The food situation is acceptable so I am
not presently concerned. I am still fine on other provisions as well.

Things are okay, but there are some issues that that do concern Rick
and I. The continually growing horde of undead is unsettling
.
I have
sixty of these festering piles rambling around the
house
;
Rick says
he has around a hundred. With so many I fear that by sheer weight
alone they might be able to break through. You get twenty, thirty,

forty
of these things leaning on a door or window
it’s
going to give
way under the pressure. The main thing is they have no reasoning,
concept of teamwork or organizational skills, so if they got through
it would be completely by accident.

Day Thirty-One

Thirty days have I been watching,
and over these past weeks I have
made my own observations and come to some startling conclusions.

Depending on the level of decay these things still possess a wide
range of capabilities. I've given them all classifications to
differentiate them and their threat level. The first ones are what I
call Creepers. Creepers have been dead a while, less than a hundred
years based of the clothing that I have seen them in. Creepers don't
present a big threat except in large numbers, they seem to have very
little in the way of residual memory and they have no real strength
to speak of. They just creep around with no real intention, aim or
goal. They are by definition exactly what the contamination from this
meteor does, reanimates dead tissue
. Reani
mation doesn't denote
intent or purpose in much the same way a chicken will still run
around for minutes after its head has been
removed
.

Day Thirty-Two

Well it’s another day here in the house with nothing to do. Yesterday
I talked about Creepers. Let’s see, today I am going to talk about
Lurkers. Lurkers frighten me, and I believe them to be the most
dangerous. I don't care what science says these damned things have
proven time and time again they have memories and they use them,
maybe they can't think as we know it,
but there's
something
there,
Lurkers are a primary example. Lurkers are bodies that have been
buried or in
mausoleum's
for no more than fifty years or so; once
again the only way I really know this is by observing the style of
clothing the corpses were buried in. They are pretty
fresh
(relatively
speaking). They have a large amount of organic
tissue remaining
including brain matter, and seem more or less intact. They move
quicker than Creepers, and seem to use residual memory more readily.
T
hey can spot prey and recognize structures...if nothing else.