Boredom and its dangers

Tyler Collins
South Atlanta QZ/ARTCC, GA, US

I remember once reading about the twelve common causes of on-the-job accidents. One of those causes was complacency.

In a chemistry lab, you had to make sure you followed procedure precisely every time. At best, a mistake would land you in your PI's office explaining why the results don't match (especially in nanomaterials, literally everything you do matters). At worst, you were putting people in the hospital. There are no more hospitals out here, only survival of the fittest.

Which is why I was surprised when not one but three instances of complacency appeared in one week, and it nearly cost us.

Instance 1: We got a call on Tuesday from the QZ to 'check out' a report of smoke from a building a few miles from us. I don't understand the reasoning behind the request at all: there are twelve of us, all here for the sole purpose of protecting the building and keeping the radios up. We're not a rescue service. I have some speculation on why we were sent, but I won't get into it now. Point is that I think they're getting complacent about our bloodless operations--we haven't had a casualty in weeks--and now we're doing errands? Someone was being awfully brave behind their desk.

So I went with four of the National Guard guys and we crossed 19-41 (still rather high in groaners, but we got past by using the SR 20 overpass) over past the race track. The track was used as an emergency triage point by GEMA during the early parts of the outbreak. They weren't so careful about screening people, though, and the whole thing collapsed. Luckily there are fences holding most of them in with a lot of equipment blocking line of sight. We stay out of that nest.

A few miles and turns later, we found a burning shack behind a house on Steele Road. We didn't see anyone, living or dead, around. Complacency instance 2 occurred at this time, but we'll get to that.

Complacency instance 3: Sean (Shawn? I don't actually know the spelling), a big burly guy, snatched his crowbar and walked up to the shack. He pried open the door, building still burning, mind you, and out tumbled a groaner. It surprised the heck out of Sean, who dropped the crowbar and fell backwards.

The groaner grabbed his boot and, in a fit of surprise, Sean drew his sidearm and shot the thing in the head. Under normal circumstances, he'd have been fine just pushing the thing's head with his boot until he retrieved the crowbar, or better yet waiting for one of us to kill it. Instead, he used the loudest noisemaker we have, a semiauto pistol.

At exactly this moment, more groaners came out of the shack, some of them on fire. Undead people are scary enough, but undead people on fire are a new level of Bad Ways to Get Killed. Sean got to his feet in time and backed away from them enough to give us a clear line of fire. All four of us lit them up (by this point, we'd already blown the silence so it was pointless to hold off).

Instance 2 then decided to bite us in the ass. We had not set up any sort of perimeter or pre-planned an escape, nor had we cleared the house and the woods around it. By the time the last burning groaner fell, we were cut off from our bikes by a number of them from the house.

Our solution, of course, was to shoot our way out, at which my companions are quite good. Other groaners were shufflign out of the woods near us, maybe thirty total. We cleared up to the bikes and got the hell out. it was a dead-end street, so we had to go back the way we came, including through undead that were heading towards all the sound we made. That was anything but fun and with all the weaving around to find the right roads back to 19-41, it took us over two hours to get back.

Fun fact: while the bike might be a very difficult mount to control one-handed while braining zombies with a camping shovel in the other, I would like to think I got somewhat good at it by the end.

My ears are still ringing and I'm shaking like a leaf from the post-adrenalin shock. Sean's shaking worse, but he's joking again. That's a good thing.

His complacency nearly got himself killed but I don't think he, or us, will make a blatant mistake like that again. As for the Commandant and his staff, if they suggest a rescue again I might hit them with a shovel instead.

It was a relatively uneventful week, otherwise. Stay safe, everyone, and stay vigilant!

Bad Enough to Wish I'd been Bitten

Pastor Dan
Fox River Valley QZ
Eastern Wisconsin

Over the last few months I have watched society collapse under the weight of the dead and dying. I have watched friends die, lost contact with loved ones. I have watched as the faithful who look to me for leadership lost their faith under the crushing weight of their losses. I have watched others look at my faith as a cause of heavy suspicion, and I have watched as other clergy, supposedly my colleagues in ministry, do the things that earn such suspicion.

This seems horrible to say... but the worst of it came this past week. I had a kidney stone.

It seems so damned stupid. Our QZ is well stocked with food and clean water and is adequately defended from the dead. I have food to eat and work to occupy my time, and even this thing to share my thoughts. But as the stone passed through my system, the pain made me think that I wished I had been one of those lost over the last few months.

Drugs were in short supply, too. The medics we have on staff muttered about the treatments they'd be prescribing had this happened just six months earlier, but now we had so little to work with. Our pain meds are so heavily rationed. I should have received a major narcotic with vicodin as needed. Instead? One vicodin dose every 24 hours. Three to four hours of minor relief followed by twenty hours of agony. They put me in a hot water bath in hopes of relaxing my muscles to help the stone pass more easily... if it helped, I couldn't tell. I think they just did it so that they could say they had done something. 

The stone is passed, now, and I am slowly regaining my strength. The Commandant even said I didn't need to rejoin the runners for a few more days.

So I'm still here. The QZ is fine. I'll just... be a little while recovering.

I told Emily about you all and other various updates

Jason Duncan

In the shit near Tampa, FL 

Everything settled down. She calmed down the morning after I almost shot her. She said she understood and didn't mean to scare me. She came up with a plan to throw pennies or pebbles at me next time to wake me up if there's a problem or she needs me. 

That said, she has been acting very odd. The first few days she was with me, she was rather happy and talkative and she's becoming more and more withdrawn lately. I'll have to keep an eye on her for the near future and make sure she doesn't draw back into herself too much. I like having someone to talk to so I suppose I have a bit of a selfish motive for keeping her mentally stable enough to carry on conversation. 

No aircraft spotted for the last few days. No new explosions. On the outskirts of the city there are surprisingly few of the dead walking around. I haven't seen a "screamer" in over a week. I've kind of taken it easy lately and haven't been scouting around quite as much. I'm planning for an overnight excursion to Clearwater and Palm Harbor in the next few days. Before all this, that would have been about a forty minute drive. Now, I'm giving myself plenty of time to take it slow and see what's going on before I get myself into any kind of harry situation. 

The laptop powered itself up and connected to the internet twice yesterday. The first time I just shut it down but it did it again about ten minutes later. I watched it to see what would happen but it just booted to the desktop and sat there. Maybe someone out there is trying to connect and the program isn't working or something. It's really strange. Seeing as it uses a satellite modem, somebody out there knows exactly where I am though. I don't think I like that. 

That's all for now. Stay safe. 

Thanks for the information!

Sarah Evans
QZ Zone, Central California

Firstly: Thank you to everyone who's been keeping up with this. Thank you, Pastor Dan, for the warning about the screamers. I relayed that to my commanders as soon as possible. And Marjolaine, thank you for the warning about the water. We haven't really had any of the dead close to our supplies, but we reinforced the barriers around our water barrels just in case.

We don't get to catch much rainwater, here. Drought, and all. Usually we recycle it - run it through a few filters, pop some purification tabs, and no one can tell the difference.

And DZ! Thank you for checking in! Your last post had me so worried. I'm glad you're okay.

I'm glad everyone's (mostly) okay.

The guy whose wife and child died is actually doing better. I didn't think he was going to make it, but he bonded with a couple kids who came to us without parents. He's very nurturing. I'm keeping an eye on him as best I can, when I can, but it's nice to have some help tending the kids while the parents are busy.

Anyways, I don't have a lot of time - gotta start cooking - but I just wanted to pop on and say thank you to everyone. Coming here and reading these other voices, knowing that people are out there and living and working and fighting, gives me strength. You're all wonderful.

Keep an eye out, and stay strong, and safe. Love you all.

Is This Just Fantasy?

Gecks
Caravan - Designation Scout
North Florida QZ

This is going to be long and I still can't believe this isn't a fantasy. This is life now.

Holy fuck! I am not dead. I thought I was going to be, but I'm not. A lot has happened. I've been on a drop, a mission, and a detour, that is why I have been radio silent for so long.

New, Orleans is bad!!!!! Do not stop there!!!! The levees are about to go. They haven't been maintained in months. The dead wander the streets. The pumps don't work so the water isn't draining out of the city anymore either. I'm getting ahead of myself, that was part of my mission. I'll come back to that, but yeah, New Orleans is a no go zone guys. If you have to just drive through. The interstate is holding up as of now.

So, as I stated before we do supply runs, pick-ups and drop-offs via ground travel. There are no planes here. Some of you guys have been seeing some, but NFQZ is a bird free zone. We are trying to get some flight ready, but so far too much damage for them to fly. We have two stations up here one at NAS (Naval Air Station) Jax, where the birds are that we are trying to fly. And Mayport, Naval Station so we have the water at our back and only need to defend from one side. I read about Tampa, I've informed them to keep an weather eye out on the water side just in case, but we have the Atlantic at our back. Those undead would need to be made of some stern stuff to get to us. We are doing well with shrimp, that is what I dropped off this week. I make short runs between the two naval bases in town, but I also go further south to St. Augustine and Daytona. (I have only travelled inland to Gainesville and Ocala. I haven't seen Orlando, yet. We had a different mission. Another team took Orlando).

In Auggie, them folks are holed up in the Castillo de San Marco. You know the old fort made out of coquina. The people have been trying to get it from museum to battle ready. It has done well for protection, especially with some of the modern weaponry they have there. But, it isn't necessarily battle ready per se. Since, the incident was kind of sprung it did well in a pinch for about 100 people there.

I also made a run to Daytona. I dropped off some shrimp at the Ponce de Leon Inlet Light House and brought back some knowledge from their Marine Science and Ocean center. Also, got some citrus (yeah we can grow it, but they can also get their own shrimp, it's mostly for news and other human interaction).

Anyway, this drop, we learned something nifty. One of the scientists at one of the centers (they won't give specifics), is doing some experiments on the undead. One of them was to see how far they can get into the ocean and their effect on the inhabitants of the oceans. The fish and all other sea life, they scram from them. So, when you are looking out in the water to see if that is where they are coming from, watch for the sea life. Fish and ALL other sea life get away in a hurry, even jelly fish. I repeat even the jelly fish (which are mostly determined by ocean currents) try and get away. And yes, the scientists fished it back out and burned it to ash. They are going to see what depth does to the body next, but I am going to go with the assumption it does the same as it would to any human body, it crushes it.

Right, so now the mission. Simple enough travel as far east as possible while looking for signs of life. We had cleared a lot of I-10 of car remains, but we hadn't made it out past Lake City yet. This was our chance. Tally has a QZ, they were nice. We didn't stay long, just enough to get some fuel and be on our way. We paid in some medical supplies. The barter system is my favorite thing. I don't know why we ever went to that paper shit. Back on track. Anyway, we continued on and found a QZ in Pensacola at the Air base there. They have birds that work. They gave us a few supplies we need for ours. We gave them some food, and ammo. We stayed there for a night. They told us about a few other places, I didn't tell them about the internet yet. And that I knew about some of the things they told us. I don't fully trust them, but they have planes and I know Tyler has let them land. Something seems off with them though, I'm not sure what.

We passed through Gulfport (it's a wash). Getting out of their alive was hell. The casinos left everyone defenseless. Everyone was so busy gambling they didn't know what was going on. Gulfport, MS is a deadzone. Mobile had gas and oil and we had to take the detour on that one, because the tunnel that is used to stay on I-10 instead of taking 90 was blocked with undead. Like they were guarding it. There were no cars at all or anything. We stocked up on oil and gas and used 90, but holy shit was that bad. I don't know if someone is directing the groaners or if they are gaining mob mentality type shit. But, that blockade at I-10 forced us to take 90 and I kid you not, groaners just lined the streets. I did everything I could as passenger to make sure myself and my driver (my best friend Shana, pronounced Shawna) out of there alive. Us and The Rig had to travel behind Back-up the entire way through. No more groaners on I-90 in Mobile, AL.

Finally, we made it to New Orleans. There are floaters and groaners, screamers, and droolers. I killed 100 zoms in New Orleans alone. They were EVERYWHERE, there. The streetcars are decaying and stopped randomly along the lines. Bourbon St. is gone. The French Quarter in general is gone. It's just water and dead. And floaters are my term for the drowned dead or those that died and ended up in the water. The gasses release and they come to the surface and it keeps it impersonal so I don't have to think of them as people. But yeah, there aren't that many screamers, but we found 2. I don't know how those people survived so long, just to end up one of them or why it took so long. Maybe, it was the water like y'all were saying, but this is a city run by the dead. Maybe, it was just a matter of time before they were turned. We checked the Naval Station on the other side of Algiers, but it was a zombie town. There was nothing there. All of the boats were gone too. We turned tail once we realized the Mighty Mississippi was about to take over and it was just a city for the dead at that point. I mean it may be days, weeks, or months before the levees fully give, but the pumps are caput. So, we figure either the Mississippi will go over the levees or the city will drown itself to meet the Mississippi. We camped out that night on the side of the highway just outside of New Orleans on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain, in Slidell.

We only stopped to refuel on the way back. We'll make another excursion and try and go further next time. We wanted to bring news back home and we need to consult some maps back here, to find a way around New Orleans. Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is untravellable. It is partially flooded and too many dead on the small causeway, plus the blockage of cars. Like I said, untravellable. Well, that is all for now. I need to get some sleep while I know I am safe. If you have questions ask me in the comments. I'll answer. If you need more information about something as well, put it in the comments. Lastly, hopefully I'll be able to write more with less time in between. I am not scheduled for another long mission for a few weeks. We need to plan ahead better after the New Orleans and Mobile fiascos.

It's been a while.

I'm sorry.

But I'm not dead.

I sort of wish I was, though.

We lost a lot this past week, something with the water supply.

My dad put them down and I'm pretty sure it was the most awful thing i've ever experienced, and I?'ve been through a lot.

My dad sort of founded the camp. He feels responsible for all the people in it. He was a teacher... before. So he sort if feels all the kids my age are his students and he tries to keep us on some sort of schedule. We have classes when we're not hunting, but...

He tried. He tried really hard to save them but once it took them over, nothing could save them.

It was awful.

It can only get better from here, right?

May Day Mayday

Tyler Collins 

South Atlanta QZ/ ARTCC, GA, US

Hi again everyone. 

I never thought I'd hear the word 'Mayday' on a radio outside of the movies. Given what goes on here, I was expecting to hear it again. Today I did.

Thursday's lift went well, but it was short. Most weeks have maybe forty military aircraft doing the big haul and a smattering of civilian planes. This week, there were maybe fifteen. We didn't ask why because they never answer our questions anyway.

This morning, a former FedEx plane, an ATR turboprop I think, was returning after a refuel somewhere in middle Georgia. They had an engine failure somewhere north of Columbus (Steve, the main ATC guy here, redirected him south towards Benning, hoping to use one of their airstrips). It was startling to hear their collected panic as the aircraft came down. They managed an emergency landing in a field somewhere but they were out of radar range and our repeater lost line of sight as it was falling below three thousand feet.

Someone probably alerted the QZ at Benning to search for them, but without a definite location not a whole lot of people want to leave the fences these days, let alone military types. Planes make noise, too, so there will probably be dozens of the groaners approaching the crash site. I hope they make it out okay.

Speaking of the dead, there's lots of the uglies marching along 19-41 right now. I have no idea why they're basically following the road, but we can see them from the higher floors, slogging along, heading south. 

A few of them have wandered nearby and we've had to eliminate them. I take routine tours of the bottom floors to make sure our boards are in place and nothing snuck in. The National Guard take care of the rest.

I'll take a look at some other posts and leave to do my rounds. Stay safe!