Where are all the Screamers coming from?

Pastor Dan
Fox River Valley QZ
Eastern Wisconsin

Last night might have been the roughest I've had since the Compound.

The alarm was sounded at about 1 am... the low thrumming that doesn't seem to call groaners but let's us know that all able-bodied citizens are needed to repel an attack. At first I thought it was a mistake... the walls and gates are pretty strong, nothing a team of groaners could ever get through, but the moment I stepped outside I knew.

I knew because I could hear the screaming.

The guns were already going, but the screaming...

We're not sure how many Screamers there were, all in all. We didn't wait around to see if any would become groaners. But they're different.

Most of you will know this already but for those who don't... the Screamers aren't dead yet, technically. They still have full use of their bodies and, according to a government medic who checked the injured, a whole triple heaping dose of adrenaline. Five Screamers could tear through a barricade that would hold back a horde of groaners indefinitely in hours.

And last night we had more than five.

The Gate was new, put in a few weeks ago as a way to get big vehicles in and out by ways other than airlift. It was our weak point, and they... they just hurled themselves at it. Eventually our gunners handled them, but the damage was scary. They COULD have broken through, and then we'd be in a melee, with who knows how many groaners pouring through after them.

The weird thing is... where did they come from? There isn't another QZ for hours of travel by road, and they're all still standing. Screamers are freshly infected... none of these are first wave, or even second wave. It's like a whole small community got infected and rushed us overnight, out of almost freaking nowhere.

So keep your eyes open, people.

And if you hear screaming... run.