WARNING - WATCH YOUR WATER

Marjolaine Fournier
Montréal - Quarantine/Survivors camp
Rain again

GUYS GUYS. JUST A HEADS UP. CONTAMINATED WATER MAKES PEOPLE TURN INTO SCREAMERS! PROTECT AND TREAT YOUR WATER SUPPLIES.

Alright, had to get that out to you guys, as quick as possible.

So with so many people, water has been a concern. I'll be honest, I haven't been around camp for more then a few hours since the last time I wrote to you all. I've been scouting for supplies, exploring the underground tunnels and generally trying to keep myself occupied and away from the rest of the survivors, or else I'd go bunkers. So what happened, I am telling you sound head. One of the guards, Emile, was the one who told me about just an hour ago. I ran off to sneak into the offices were I've been finding computers and the internet as soon as I can to warn you all.

We've had so much rain lately that we installed a few rain catching barrels. Water is not limited yet, but the idea was not to take any chances and run out of drinking water. This quarantine is rather large now, with well over 1000 people, with more still showing up every few days.

I'll give you an overview of our situation when I have a bit more time.

The barrels were mostly attached to the roofs, with rain filling them directly, but a few were placed under dips in the concrete structures allowed a steady stream of water to accumulate. Those barrels fill up quick and need to be brought in often. Now, you have to understand, water that runs off the Biodome and the Stadium tastes a lot like soot and dust. This is city rainwater, and even after all this time you can still taste the smog in the air. So the odd flavour was not immediately a concern. Those barrels were rolled to a corner of the compound where about a half-dozen families had access to them. Within 5 days, the barrels were 1/4 drunk, and the families went completely mad. It started with odd twitches and drooling, but quickly one of the children bit a cook's aide who handed them their meal and everything spun out of control. The families turned screamer right in the middle of the camp, and it was mayhem. People running, people shooting, an old man trampled to death.

In the end, they were all killed, and the death count is about 40 people. It's hard to tell how much of that number are actually monsters, and how many were bystanders. I pity those on kitchen duty, who have asked me to try and find more bleach.

It took a few panicked hours to figure out how they got sick, but one of the climbers (those whose rock climbing experience is now used to climb the infrastructure around camp and set up watch points) spotted a badly decomposed groaner on the roof, with it head shoot clean off. No one knows how it got there for now, but the rain has been n making bits of it run off the east side of the roof for a while now. All water is to be treated with purification tablets, and a lot of the barrels have been dumped.

We are having a bit of a wake tonight, in my corner of the camp. Some survivors and I will mourn the old man, Jerry Leduc. He was gentle and kind, and played the accordion when we were all feeling blue. I don't know if anyone else here can play the accordion, but I hope someone does. I hate seeing his instrument gather dust. Music is the last bit of humanity around.

Take care, stay safe. Keep music alive were you can.

Priez pour nous, pauvres âmes maudites. Sans la force de la prière, notre vie est insupportable.

Jo

P.S. Dan, I'd thought you would like to know that religion is playing an odd role in the comfort of the survivors here. Monseigneur Lépine is among the survivors in the camp here. He is the archbishop of Montreal. I haven't been to any of his sermons, but some folk think that he is playing a large role in keeping the calm in camp. Doesn't stop people from raving that this is the apocalypse (justly deserved) or that having the cynical claim that religion is just burying your head in the sand. But after the mob incident it seems he was key and making sure that a flock of people didn't run off into the city, and to their probable deaths.