Finally

Hello, internet. Oh, how I've missed you. My name's Aspen. I've been trying to make this damn blog post for two days. I heard a whispered rumour from a client that the internet might not be totally gone. I've got more than enough energy ration cards to check it out a bit more thoroughly. This is all I've been able to turn up though. And even then, it's sporadic. For two days I've been fighting with this damn computer to connect at all. Dunno if it's the site itself or just the internet connection here is shoddy/unreliable. Probably both.

Anyway, on to the important stuff, introductions I guess. Again, I'm Aspen. I'm residing in the Twin Cities Quarantine Zone. Originally from Fargo, ND, I moved here a couple years ago, before the outbreak. I hear Fargo's got a QZ too, but I don't think I'll be headed there. God knows the flooding every spring is inevitable and that can't be good for a QZ. Having to worry about sandbagging the damn river while also trying to keep the biters out? Yeah, right.

I haven't heard from my family since this all went down. The day the outbreak reached Fargo, my mom called me to tell me they were leaving. Her, my stepdad, my sister. My stepdad's a survivalist type, even has his own forum about it. I wonder if it's still up. They fled north, to Canada, with the hopes of securing some land and making themselves a self-sufficient farm or something. I don't know if they survived.

Dan, I hear you said your family would have headed for the Twin Cities QZ. I don't usually do people favors, but I could try and check in on them if you'd like. I've got my ways, I'm sure I could sneak a peek of the list of survivors here.

Conditions in the QZ here are... not the brightest. We're safe, for the most part. It was a long battle to secure the area, as I'm sure you can imagine. Heavily populated areas tended to be the worst ones hit, so it's no surprise the fighting went on for several months. My boyfriend and I... well. We owned our house at the time and so when shit went down, we barricaded ourselves in. Boarded up and blocked the windows and doors, kicked the staircase of our enclosed porch on the top floor out. The biters aren't necessarily very smart and have difficulty figuring out things like climbing ropes, so we used a rope off the porch to go out for supply runs. We lasted as long as necessary. Finally when word that the inner cities were secure, we braved the infected to get there. We got separated. I don't doubt if I could survive, he could, but he's not here. I don't know if he's still alive or where he could be. It's just me now. I didn't know anyone here prior to the infection and I don't know anyone here now.

I don't think anyone important from my area is going to be reading this, so I feel confident enough to tell you all what I do. I'm a smuggler. You want to trade weapons for drugs with someone across the QZ? Give me some ration cards and I'll make it happen.

The QZ is sectioned off into smaller blocks for safety. That way, if someone sneaks out and back in and got infected in that time and an outbreak happens, they can just lock off all the doors and handle it without infecting the rest of the Zone. It makes it really difficult to carry illicit goods, though. For the most part, guns aren't allowed. They think they're keeping us so safe that we don't need them unless we get put on duty to clear out the biters around the barricades. Drugs are banned because they make people do stupid things. Alcohol isn't banned per se but is heavily regulated. It's mostly saved for the hospital zones these days, and sometimes if there's a shortage in a district, if you're carrying any they'll confiscate it.

So, in exchange for ration cards (and sometimes ammunition, as I managed to secure a weapon for myself), I'll smuggle your goods for you between the districts. There are closed off buildings that, if you can manage to find a way in, can lead between the districts. There's no guards stationed within because they think that people are too scared to even attempt it, and they think they've done such a good job sectioning all the empty buildings off. Boarding them up, sometimes using steel bars if available. Dumping huge piles of junk in front of entries and exits. But some of us are smart, and we're not scared. We'll find a way.

It's funny, because before the outbreak happened, I was probably the least adventurous person out there. In fact, I suffered from agoraphobia due to a number of situations that have occurred in my lifetime. I would go to work at my minimum wage job and I would go home and play video-games with my boyfriend and our cat (who is still with me, by the way - pets, especially "useless" ones like cats, are generally forbidden, but Bast is good at hiding when strangers come around). Now, I guess I've stopped giving a fuck. It's so boring around here I don't think I'd survive if I didn't find SOMETHING dangerous or illegal to do.

Still, even so, sometimes it's scary here. There were a number of kids and teenagers who managed to survive the outbreak and the absolute chaos that was the Twin Cities for awhile. I hear in other QZs kids are basically given free reign to run around and be kids. I wish it was like that here. But nope, we've got a boarding school for kids and orphans now. Well, I wish I could say it was a school, anyway. It's more of a military training center. Sure, there were a couple people who survived that could teach math and basic shit like that, but mostly, kids are taught how to survive. That's a good thing. But they're also taught how to fight, and when they're old enough to join the rest of us adults basically being lazy bums until we're assigned cleaning/killing zombies/hospital duties, they're pretty much expected to join the government forces that keep us all in line. Funny the way that works, isn't it?

Most of the kids still have a couple years before they'll have to worry about it. But I've seen a handful of older teenagers who have been bribed and essentially forced into joining the "military". And I don't like the hardened, empty look in those eyes. Not one bit. I wonder what happens to them in those schools.

I've gone on for far too long, long enough to have spent probably 3ish energy ration cards, whoops. Sorry. I get long-winded. I wanted to be a writer before this all went down, I guess some things never change.

If you're out there, please respond. This can't be a dream, right?