4.3.11 Conventional Wisdom

I am completely depressed. I started to take my Zoloft a week ago, but ran out.

It's very nice outside. The grass is greening up, tulips have started to pop out. The Boyne Mountain resort, as I understand it from long conversations with Javier, is as popular in the Summer as the Winter with it's great golf course and the beautiful scenery. And it certainly helps to have an indoor water park in the main lodge. We haven't seen a walker in almost three weeks, which for most of the our group is great.

For me? I'm wondering if the constant threat of the walkers is actually cathartic. As I have looked back on my journal and my old blog posts (and if anyone is reading this now, it is because someone found my computer) it is obvious that when I am busy dealing with the rigors of surviving my mental health is at it's best.

But when I am thriving, as I seem to be doing now...well mentally I just don't feel that great.

I may be overstating our situation when I say we are thriving. We could obviously stay here a long time. Food is plentiful. Our shelter is safe and comfortable. There is no current threat from walkers. It's wonderful to have my brother and sister with me. Greg, Javier and Jerry are fine companions, too.

But civilization as we knew it doesn't exist. With no means of communication I don't know if we are dealing with isolated issues in Ohio and Michigan, or in the United States, or if this is a global phenomenon. We have the essentials for living, but not the luxuries. That is if you would consider luxuries to be the Internet, television, restaurants, magazines, sports, work, money, automobiles etc. I guess we should consider ourselves fortunate, but life may be more normal than ours in other parts of the United States.

Or it could be worse...

I have found myself spending more and more time away from the group. Not thinking about anything. Johnny Dog seems to sense that I am troubled again, just like she did when I first adopted her.

My mental health is at odds with my physical health. After my experiences over the last few months I don't need a professional psychologist to tell me that I am healthiest when I have to fight for survival.

I know this doesn't match conventional wisdom as it pertains to mental health. Physical health being threatened leads to better mental health???

I wouldn't want to put our group at risk, but...

Shame on me for thinking this way.

Poster Unknown..."Walker Survivor"

Note: I should explain.

The last three postings that you have seen have been from me.  I'm calling myself "Walker Survivor" to keep my true identity unknown. It isn't completely safe yet as the authorities are still trying to figure out the true cause of the so-called zombie outbreak. But the Internet is back up.

I had followed the posts from Dan (you may not remember, but he is the person behind the Johnny Dog Journal) until the Internet went completely black on March 4th 2011. The story he was telling certainly left me with hope of being rescued from my own hiding spot.

Spin forward. I had decided to find my way to Boyne to join their group. Pretty risky, but I was relatively close. (I would rather not disclose where I was hiding.) I never made it there.

This is the amazing part. As civilization has begun to recover (although under Marshall Law) I began to wander outside, feeling I wouldn't be leaving myself open to a zombie attack. On one particularly nice day, I stumbled upon a stray dog. She seemed friendly. She had a black coat, with a white tip on her tail. Her face was gray/white and she had a spot on one of her hips that looked like the Greek letter "Omega".

This dog seemed familiar to me. I had some bread with me and offered it to her. As she approached, I noticed she had a collar, and attached to it was a USB drive. She gladly ate the bread, and I was able to coax her to follow me home.

When we got into my home (loosely defined, more like my hovel) I took the USB drive off her collar and plugged it into my computer. It had a single Word document file. Title-"Johnny Dog Journal"!

This was Johnny Dog! I couldn't believe it!

The document is Dan's entire journal. It also contains the User Name and Password to this site. Although not specifically stated by Dan, I believe he intended for the person who found the file to post the journal, if there were survivors and a recovery from the outbreak.

I'm going to continue to post this journal in chronological order. It's a story that continues to be worth telling.

Johnny Dog is safe with me.

3.21.11

So here we are.

6 people. Me, my brother and sister Billy and Jen. Jerry, Greg and Javier. And of course, Johnny Dog.

Spring is here. Most of the snow has melted up here at Boyne. We have gas generators that run quietly and provide electricity when we need it. We have plenty of food from the pantry's at the two lodges here on site.

The townhouse is comfortable. Plenty of room. The elevated porch gives us a pretty good view of the whole Boyne resort. If walkers try to attack, we can see them coming.

Under the circumstances, life is pretty good. And I can't stand it...
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3.13.11

We had three teams simultaneously beheading the zombies. Some were more efficient than the others. It took us a total of 14 hours to take care of all the walkers that were buried in the snow. Total count: 135!

It got a bit dicey at the end. The temperature had to have reached almost 55 degrees. The walkers had started to thaw and would become a threat if we didn't work fast.

Billy was the first to come across walkers who were showing signs of coming back to life. Hold that. Coming back to life would be the wrong term to use. Showing signs of rising would be the correct way to characterize it.

Thinking fast, Billy came up with a solution to keeping the thawed walkers semi-stationary until the teams could behead them.

Grabbing an axe from the porch on our town home, Billy was able to quickly cut off one leg of the last 30 or so walkers that we hadn't beheaded, so if they awoke from their hibernation, they wouldn't be able to quickly rise and attack. Brilliant move. We decided to let Billy have half a kill for each one-legged zombie.

Good thing, as they started to rise in the early evening (the 12th hour of work that day). We were working by flashlight.

Kind of funny, seeing 20 walkers dragging themselves towards us.

So now we have a new moniker for the one's that can't walk...draggers!

3.6.11

It got pretty warm yesterday. We are definitely seeing the beginning of the Spring melt.

It was sunny. My guess was it reached almost 50 degrees. Greg and Billy volunteered to go outside and see if the scythe and sickles would easily behead the frozen walkers. Jerry thought he would bring out the Samurai sword too. They took Johnny Dog to help sniff out the buried walkers. Quite a posse!

As Javier, Jen and I watched from the second floor porch on our townhome, the posse approached the first few walkers that were now exposed from the melt. These walkers formed the bottom portion of our undead slalom course.

Greg grabbed the first walker by the exposed arm and pulled until the body was exposed. He sat the walker up. No sign of it waking up from it's deep freeze. Javier had told us that a nice two-handed grip on the sickle, with a baseball bat style swing would be the technique to use.

Billy took the first swing. He missed a little low, the blade embedding itself in the shoulder of the walker. We all had a good laugh, which only served to inspire Billy. His second swing was right on target but the blade only made it about half way through the walkers neck.

His third swing did the trick. He hit the neck clean, and the head tumbled down the hill. Johnny Dog gave chase, but when she reached it she just sniffed at it and returned to the posse.

"Let's see what you can do with the second one!" I yelled from the porch.

"I'm just warming up!" Billy yelled back.

Greg propped up a second walker. Billy took his grip, and with a grunt beheaded the walker with one swing!

"That's the way!" Jen yelled.

Billy looked pretty proud of himself.

"These don't count!" I yelled from the porch. "They have to show some sign of life if you want them to count towards Zombie kills on the scoreboard!"

Greg, Billy and Jerry stared back, looking incredulous. "What the fuck, this is a lot of work! This should count for something!" Billy exclaimed.

Jen had the answer. "OK, a half kill for the lifeless one's. But the guy who props it up gets a half kill too."

Jen had ruled. And it was done!

3.3.11

We needed a plan.

How were we going to deal with the frozen zombies when they thawed out? We didn't want to waste ammunition. A couple of days ago Jen took a walk with Johnny Dog (she broke our rule about never leaving the townhouse without a partner). As we had spent a lot of time trying to devise a plan, she decided to try to do a count of how many potential walkers we would be dealing with.

When she came back (and after being admonished by me for going out alone) she reported that there were at least 120 zombies buried in the snow. There was still a 30 inch base, so who knew how many more were buried that Jen couldn't count.

Javier was surprised. He had thought that most people had evacuated the area. Our guess was that noise from the large generator facility that provided power to the buildings attracted whoever/whatever was left in the area to the Boyne grounds. Since Javier never left the pizza pub he didn't notice.

Yesterday Javier and I took Johnny Dog to the golf course maintenance shed. He was thinking he might be able to rig one of the large fairway mower attachments to to a snow groomer and basically shred the frozen zombies. We had to scuttle that plan when we realized we couldn't get the attachment to the groomers through the 30" deep snow. We also realized that using precious gasoline for that purpose might not be a wise choice.

As we were leaving the shed I happened to notice two sickles and a scythe hanging on the wall. They were rusty and looked like they hadn't been used for a couple of years. But when we took them off the wall we found them to still be structurally sound.

"These just might do the trick!" I said.

Javier agreed. "You may be right. We will need to sharpen them up a bit. I also think we are going to need a little bit of thaw to take place so these things cut through the necks of the zombies cleanly. It will take a little bit of work, but there are plenty of us here."

"It's a plan!" I exclaimed. "But we will have to agree that these won't count towards our zombie kill score."

Javier looked puzzled. "Zombie kill score?"

"I'll explain later. Let's get these back to the townhouse and decide when we will start."

Let the beheadings begin!
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2.27.11 Swiss Family Robinson

Javier is an interesting guy. He has turned out to be a great addition to our group. An electrician by training, he's been working general maintenance here at Boyne Mountain for about 10 years.

Here in Northern Michigan people didn't panic, but they listened to the instructions they were given by the so-called authorities. I'm a little surprised to hear that as I figured this area was full of survivalists. Of course a few of us (including Javier) figured out pretty quickly that survival mode was the correct course of action, so we ignored the authorities.

Javier said that people left this area as they were told that moving to a more urban area was the smart thing to do. They headed South to Saginaw, Flint and even Detroit. Javier let his instincts drive his behavior, and volunteered to watch the Boyne grounds even as it's operators decided to shut it down and headed South.

That was 8 weeks ago.

He chose the Pizza Pub to live in. He had plenty of food, but lost electricity 6 weeks ago. The fireplace provided him heat. He didn't realize anyone else was in the Clocktower lodge until he saw a walker wandering around in the lobby. He didn't have any idea that it was essentially dead until we told him about our experiences. He also read Jerry's copy of The Zombie Survival Guide which more than convinced him that what we had told him was true.

The one thing he did realize when he first saw the walker was that they were delirious and dangerous. Luckily the first one he saw was alone. He tried to communicate with it, but to no avail. Once again, his instincts took over and dodged the thing when it lunged at him. He then ran to the Pizza Pub, barricaded the door and hadn't come out since for fear of running into more of them.

As I mentioned earlier, Javier has been of great value. He took us to the maintenance garage and we got two gas-powered generators. There is plenty of gas in huge tanks along the ski slopes that are used to fuel the pumps for snow making. So as of now we are living a pretty good life.

But it's now February 27th. And the inevitable thaw is coming. We have been brainstorming plans on how we are going to deal with the thawed zombies and the possibility of unfriendly gangs showing up. Kind of feels like we are going to have to prepare like the Swiss Family Robinson did when they knew a pirate attack was inevitable.
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2.19.11

We hung out with Javier drinking beers not saying anything for about two hours. He wrote that the were several zombies inside the main part of the Clocktower lodge. He didn't have any weapons, but had decided not to venture out as he figured it was safer in the pizza parlor staying quiet rather than venturing out to face more zombies wandering the ski grounds.

It took a while to convince Javier to come with us to the townhouse. He had been in the pizza place for almost six weeks. We got him to come outside and talked to him. We told him the zombies basically froze up in cold weather, so he was in no danger. We showed him the undead slalom course and the frozen zombie arms that made up the gates. We also reassured them that if there was any threat at all Johnny Dog would be able to sniff it out.

As we made our way to the townhouse, Javier asked the question that all of us had been asking ourselves. What happens when the weather gets warmer?

2.13.11 One More

His name is Javier.

He had been holed up in the Clocktower lodge by himself for almost six weeks. At first we didn't know if he spoke English. When we saw his face through the window we waved to him but got no response. He continued to stare at us for a few moments and disappeared. Jerry and I figured we wasn't a walker as his movements were pretty sharp. We also figure that if he was a walker stuck behind the door he would have done everything he could to break the door down to get at us.

After a few moments we heard an audible "click" at the door. Javier opened it and motioned for us to come in.

Our best warning when it comes to these types of situations has always been Johnny Dog, but she wasn't putting up a fuss so we went in.

At first Javier wouldn't respond to us. We told him our names. All he would do was motion to us to follow him.

We walked into an area that looked like it was a pizza parlor. Javier had made this his home. He had boxes and cans of various foodstuffs stored there. He motioned for us to sit and then pointed at a door on the opposite side of the room from the one we entered. He had nailed a blanket to it. As he pointed he put a finger to his lips, emphasizing the need to be quiet.

At that point he moved behind the bar in the center of the room. He held up two mugs and nodded to us. Jerry and I both shrugged our shoulders as if to say why not. Javier then went on to draw us all beers from the tap at the bar.

Before he brought the beers to us he grabbed a napkin and a pen and scribbled something. He handed it to me along with the beer.

"My name is Javier", it read. "and boy am I glad to see you!"
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2.10.11

I decided I had to make up with Jerry. We really don't say more than a couple of things to one another each day. We might get in a "good morning" or a "who's turn is it to bring more firewood in from the patio" or "I'm heading to the main lodge to explore".

It's pretty obvious I will have to initiate the apology. Jerry seems perfectly content not to talk to me.

I decided the best way to approach him was to ask him to go with me to explore the smaller Clock Tower lodge here at Boyne. As a group we had explored almost all the public areas of the main lodge. We had found a good supply of food in the primary kitchen there. We haven't explored the upper floors of the main lodge, which consist mostly of guest rooms. We may at some point, but it doesn't look like the hallways have much ambient light, so we have decided to save them for later, when we are a little braver.

Jerry came with me to the Clock Tower lodge. We also brought Johnny Dog with us. We don't have to bother leashing her any more. If she detects a walker she will bark, but has learned not to attack, leaving that to us.

Jerry had his sword and a pistol. I had two ski poles and a pistol. Figured if one pole got stuck in a zombie's skull I would have the other one for back-up.

Its about a quarter mile walk to the Clock Tower lodge from our townhouse. We made our way over, walking past our undead slalom course. It's still intact, but now we can just see hands sticking through the snow as almost 18 inches of new snow has fallen over the last couple of days.

As we reached one of the side doors to the Clock Tower lodge I asked Jerry to hold up.

"Jerry, I need to apologize to you." I started. "I shouldn't have said anything to you about the jumper cables back at the rest stop. And you are right. It was my computer screen that attracted the walkers to us back in Bowling Green. I just want you to know that everyone appreciates what you do for us. And that especially includes me."

Jerry looked at me for a few seconds. Interesting too that Johnny Dog sat and stared at the two of us as if to say "about time somebody extended an olive branch".

After a few more uncomfortable seconds, I continued. "Jerry, did you hear me?" At that point my back was turned to the side door of the lodge.

Jerry seemed distracted. He finally responded. "Yeah, yeah. It's cool. I've pretty much been a dick about the whole thing since it happened. I'm sorry too."

At that point Jerry gave me a hand signal to turn around.

"Look at that!" He said.

I turned around. Through the small, frosted up window in the side door of the lodge I could make out the outline of a face staring right at us!
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2.6.11

Still in Boyne. Things have been OK.

Except for about an hour ago. Billy pointed out that if things were normal the Super Bowl would have been played tonight.

Now I'm thinking that this sucks. I still have some Zoloft left. I'm going to take one now. First time I've taken one in weeks.

2.3.11 Scoreboard

Current Zombie Kill Scoreboard:

Greg: 11 Kills (1 with a 2X4 at Kroger, 9 with a pistol at Starbucks, 1 with a ski pole at Boyne)
Jerry: 4 Kills (1 with a Samurai Sword at Kroger, 3 with a Samurai Sword at Boyne)
Billy: 1 Kill (with a ski pole at Boyne)
Me: 1 Kill (with a ski pole at Boyne)

Jen and Johnny Dog no Kills.

17 Kills total.

Jen has the best time down the undead slalom course. Basically because she was the only one who got through it clean with no falls. 47 seconds.

2.1.11 A Welcome Respite

It's been pretty nice here at Boyne. The townhouse is very comfortable. We have plenty of food, thanks to a raid on the huge kitchen and pantry at the main lodge. The fresh snow provides us with fresh, clean water.

We've been able to explore a little bit. The cold has kept us safe from any walkers outside. We have run into a few on the inside of the various buildings, but have dispatched them pretty quickly. We are now keeping track of each others kills. Jerry is in the lead and continues to be very good at using the Samurai Sword. He cleared three walkers out of the ski/snowboard pro shop this morning.

Jerry still isn't really speaking to me. That's OK. In due time.

Best part of our stay so far. Last night we got about 5 inches of nice fresh snow. Billy thought it would be pretty cool to try skiing. Greg, Jen and I joined him. The pro shop has plenty of equipment. Ski poles work very well putting down walkers. Remove the basket and you have a nice carbon fiber spear that you can stick right through a zombie's eye.

Anyway. Billy got some ski equipment as did Greg. Jen and I grabbed snowboards. Jerry didn't seem interested, but wandered out to the bunny hill to watch. What a hoot! It took a while to get the hang of it and climbing up the short hill was a pain. But once we got going it was a lot of fun. Turns out Johnny Dog enjoys the snow too. She would run through the powder with her nose buried. She looked like a furry snowplow.

Jerry seemed to get a kick out of what we were doing. While we were still goofing around on the bunny hill, he went over to the green slope next to it and started messing with some of the bodies that were buried there. At first I couldn't figure out what he was doing. Johnny Dog was following him, barking as Jerry would grab a frozen arm and pull it straight up out of the snow.

After about half an hour Jerry wandered back over towards us. He had a big smile on his face. He pointed back over to where he'd been working. There was a line of arms, about 20 feet apart sticking up from the top of the slope to the bottom. Must have been 20 in all.

"What do you think?" Jerry asked with a big, shit eatin' grin on his face.

Jen responded. "I don't know. What is it?"

"I made you guys an undead slalom course!"

1.29.11 Pickett's Charge

Boyne Mountain has been a pretty good place to hangout so far.

It's a ski resort with a two big lodges and hundreds of condos, townhouses and cabins. We haven't seen any other signs of human (living, breathing) life. I would think that we weren't the only people to have this idea, but I also think most survivors would be pretty wary of making contact with others for fear of running into people who have ulterior motives, i.e. killing for food or weapons.

No power here, but the townhouse we settled in has a large fireplace and skylights. We can keep ourselves plenty warm here.

Things are still tense. We have been tip-toeing around Jerry. Just want to keep things cool.

There aren't any walkers around.

I should clarify that statement. There aren't any walkers actually walking.  There are bodies all over the place, but they are buried in the snow and frozen. Not frozen solid, but frozen enough that they are not mobile. Confirms what Jerry had read in "The Zombie Survival Guide". God bless Max Brooks.

Outside it kinda looks like a snowy Cemetery Ridge after Pickett's Charge in the Battle of Gettysburg. Bodies everywhere. Only difference is the Confederate soldiers wouldn't rise again. When the weather gets warmer we will have to deal with these walkers if we want to stay here.

1.27.11 Boyne

We made it to Boyne Mountain. What a relief!

The five of us had been jammed together in the Jeep for the last leg of the trip. The Impala wouldn't start yesterday.

The starter on the Impala must have been busted. We had jumper cables, but it just wouldn't turnover. Jerry got pissed and ripped the cables off of the Impala battery and tore one of the clamps off the cable rendering them useless.

15 other cars were abandoned at the rest stop, most with keys, but none of them would start. Go figure. A car sits in below zero weather for a month and it doesn't start. Jumper cables would have come in handy.

As a group we have gotten along pretty well since our ordeal started. I guess the circumstances got the best of me, because when Jerry busted the cables and we couldn't fix them, I called him a dumbass under my breath.

He heard me. Then he lit into me.

"You have no room to talk! I know you continue to blog! I know it was you who attracted the walkers to us back in Bowling Green with the glow of that damned computer!"

I told him to fuck off. Billy intervened, told both of us to calm down. I huffed away.

With five of us in the Jeep, with all of our stuff and Johnny Dog...well, needless to say it was a very tense drive.

But we made it to Boyne and we found decent shelter. I'll apologize to Jerry later.

1.25.11

So much to document.

I think Jerry will leave me alone for a while. We haven't made it to Boyne. We are sitting in an abandoned camper in a rest stop North of Saginaw, Michigan. It's an unseasonably warm day, must be almost 50 degrees out, so we are fairly comfortable.

Back to the Bowling Green Starbucks situation. We had settled in for the night. We had power, but the front of the store did not have curtains. There was a pretty good sized back room that we could use. We could turn on the lights in that room and as long as the door was shut they wouldn't shine through to the front of the store.

Jen, Greg and Billy had grabbed couches in the front and had tucked themselves in for the night. Jerry was in the back room looking at his map to try to figure out our next stop on the way to Boyne. Driving had been very slow so far. In addition we needed to stop at a place where we could siphon gas.

I couldn't sleep, so I decided to open up my computer and see if I could use my 3G card and get on the Internet. I tucked myself behind the counter, thinking the glow of my computer screen wouldn't be strong enough to draw attention. Johnny Dog was laying beside me.

The 3G card worked. And I was blogging. That's when Johnny Dog began to whimper. I had completely underestimated the abilities of these walkers. I peaked my head up over the counter...damned if there weren't eight of those things making there way to the front of the store.

I shut down my computer and tried to calm Johnny Dog down. If she barked, those walkers would be on us in no time. The plate glass windows wouldn't hold them back for long.

What I didn't plan for was Jen waking up. She was lying on the couch closest to the window. The site of the walkers outside startled her...AND SHE SCREAMED!

Jerry came bounding out of the back room to see what had happened. Johnny Dog started to bark. The walkers could see us now, and began banging on the plate glass window. We were smart enough not to have unpacked everything, so we quickly gathered our stuff to leave out the back door.

Jerry armed himself with the shotgun. Greg had a pistol at the ready. As we got to the back door, Jerry peaked through the peephole to see if it was clear. Wouldn't you know, a walker was staring right back at him from the outside! It startled the shit out of Jerry!

Just then we heard the sound of the front windows breaking.

Jerry told Greg to cover us from behind. Jerry then busted open the back door, knocking the walker that was standing there to the ground. A second walker was making it's way toward us when Jerry hit it in the chest with a shotgun blast. I remember Jerry muttering to himself as the walker hit the ground, "Aim at the head, dumbass, aim at the head!" But give Jerry credit, he had at least cleared a path to the cars.

Billy was holding Johnny Dog, and could hardly contain her. Jerry jumped in the Jeep with Billy, Jen and Johnny Dog. I started to get in the Impala when shots rang out from behind.

What a sight! Greg had grabbed a second pistol and as he backed his way towards the Impala, was shooting with both hands, John Wayne style! Made me think of the final scene of True Grit as John Wayne was on his horse, blasting his way towards the Ned Pepper gang!

Greg was good! He nailed the eight zombies coming through the back door of the Starbucks and the zombie that Jerry had knocked down with the door. Head shots every time!

He got in the passenger side of the Impala, and just for good measure, lowered the window and shot the walker that Jerry had hit in the chest right through the left eye!

The escape was exhilarating! I shouldn't have been so excited, especially since the whole thing was my fault but I couldn't help it!

Greg was hyperventilating. When he finally calmed down I looked at him and said, "Jesus Greg, where did you learn to shoot like that!"

"I don't know," he responded. "it just happened, felt right..."

"Maybe it was the endless hours of playing Call of Duty in the warehouse." I thought to myself.

We didn't speak to one another for two hours as we made our way North.
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1.24.11

We had to bug out of the Bowling Green Starbucks yesterday. I had to interrupt posting when a crapload of walkers, at least 25 or 30, suddenly showed up at the front door.

We thought we had a safe haven as we headed North. Jerry had suggested we move to a remote place that was cold, based on the recommendation in "The Zombie Survival Guide". I guess the cold slows down the zombies. I hesitate to say that it slows down their metabolism. I guess they don't have a metabolism. Jerry says they just freeze up.

I digress. When Jerry suggested going North, Greg mentioned going to one of the Boyne ski resorts in Northern Michigan. He thought there might be empty cabins or condos up there. So that's what we did.

We were fortunate to find the Starbucks. Bowling Green is about 2 1/2 hours North of Cincinnati. We were traveling up Interstate 75 and got off the exit at Bowling Green to siphon gas for the Jeep and our other car, a Chevy Impala.

As we drove further into town, it was apparent that it would be best to find a place to stop, as it was dusk and we didn't want to travel at night. We had several choices, but found the Starbucks. Old habit. I guess we were secretly hoping to get a Venti Pike's Place while we were there.

The rear door in the alley was unlocked, but the deadbolt still worked so after doing a quick search of the place to make sure we weren't walking into an ambush, we settled there for the night.

Jerry is still nervous about me blogging. I will continue a little later...
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1.23.11

First chance to get on my blog since Thursday.

We are at a Starbucks in Bowling Green, Ohio. This place still has power. We got here this morning. WiFi is up too.

After we made our getaway from the warehouse we arrived at my parent's neighborhood to find several walkers wandering amongst the houses. The noise from our car engines attracted them to us. We wanted to get to my parents house to spend one night and plan for the next place we would seek shelter. Jerry pulled up next to me in the Jeep.

"I think our plan should be to take different routes to the house. That way we can create a diversion to draw the walkers away from us as we approach it." Jerry suggested.

I agreed. We decided that he would honk his horn and draw the walkers. As soon as the walkers cleared the street, I would drive to the house, make sure it was still safe and then send Billy back to the Jeep in the car to signal Jerry and Greg to drive on in. Jen, Johnny Dog and I would stay at the house and let everyone else in when they had lost the walkers...

CRAP...something is going on outside the Starbucks...gotta go!

1.20.11

The caravan drove by again this morning. This time the people in the cars were honking as they went by.

We had already been packing the essentials to move out of the warehouse. We had a plan to escape the walkers by breaking one of the windows on the east side of the warehouse, and using the speakers on an  XBox (with Beatles Rock Band) to make enough noise to attract the walkers away from the front door. At that point we would make a run for the Jeep and one of our other cars. We weren't going to use Johnny Dog as a diversion. She is doing very well by the way.

The plan was to head out early this morning. The weather looked clear. We were going to go to my parent's house first.

Right when we we ready to go, the caravan came by. They obviously drew the walkers away with the honking.

What to do?

"We have to make a break for it!" Jerry exclaimed. "They are going to come back, and they definitely out number us."

Greg, who had been very quiet lately, agreed. "Our only issue is how we outrun them if they see us drive away."

"If we are going to do it, we have to go now!" Jerry yelled, as he grabbed his bags. We all followed. Jen had Johnny Dog by the collar.

Jerry and Greg jumped in the Jeep. Jen, Billy, Johnny Dog and I were in the other car. I drove. We each had a half tank of gas, which would limit how far we would go. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, Billy saw the caravan in the distance. I accelerated past the Jeep (Jerry was driving), and Billy yelled out the window to Jerry that the caravan was heading back towards us.

As we drove down the road, Billy kept a sharp eye out behind us. To our relief, the caravan pulled into the warehouse parking lot.

Safe for now, we headed to my parents house. We were going to spend a night there, and then head to our more permanent residence. If we could find gasoline.

1.19.11

Late last night a caravan of five vehicles slowly drove by our building. It was about 2 AM. Our lights were out. Jen was up, couldn't sleep. She noticed the cars. She didn't try to signal them, which was wise, as we don't know if they are friendly or not.

I think Jerry is right. The walkers outside are a sure sign that humans (us) are in the building.

We have to assume the people in the caravan have sinister intentions. Hopefully they don't return.
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1.18.11

More walkers wandering around outside.

Power went out this morning. It was out for about 7 hours but came back on again at 4:30 this afternoon. We all thought that it wouldn't come back on at all.

We are formulating a plan. We are going to have to leave this location. The walkers are no more than annoyance at this point, but with four more days of food they are going to be an impedance to us making a run for more food and supplies.

In addition, Jerry believes that the walkers surrounding our building will be a sign to the gangs that are reportedly out looting and stealing that survivors are in the building. Especially when the walkers are only wandering around our place and none of the others within sight. I agree with Jerry. Greg hasn't commented. Jen and Billy feel the same as me.

We need to get to a more remote place. None of us have camping gear nor are any of us very experienced roughing it. That eliminates all lot of our options. We have been brainstorming ideas of where we might go. Inevitably we are going to have to live without power, it can't be much longer till we lose it permanently.

I haven't seen a comment on my blog in days. No one is on Xbox. The Internet is obviously up, and there are posts on chat rooms. Almost all of them are desperate calls for help, people trapped, surrounded by walkers, running out of food and water. We are also seeing posts by people going crazy from the never-ending moans coming from the walkers. We can't hear them. The walls at the warehouse are soundproof.

Jerry doesn't know I am still blogging. I have a couple of moleskine journals that I may have to use if we lose the Internet to continue to document what's going on.

Johnny Dog continues to improve. That's good.
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1.16.11 Good News, Bad News

I have tried to follow Jerry's recommendation and not blog about this experience any more. He is so paranoid that I will reveal our location to gangs of marauders, his word not mine. But as I've mentioned before, I need to for my own sanity.

On with it. The good news. Johnny Dog is doing much better. The attention that Jen paid to her was incredible, and must have helped alleviate the symptoms Johnny Dog was experiencing. The combination of being exhausted and dehydrated from trying to lose the undead pursuers had certainly taken it's toll on her. But she is eating and drinking and gingerly walking around the warehouse. She won't be ready for any new rescue operations for a while.

The bad news. The walkers that usually wander by our location are now wandering around the building aimlessly. They are definitely not passing by any more. We have yet to take action. As noted in "The Zombie Survival Guide", noise will attract more of them. However at some point we will have to act, as we only have about 6 more days of food.

Did Max Brooks know something we didn't when he wrote "The Zombie Survival Guide" in 2003? Obviously that book, which I assumed had been written tongue-in-cheek, must have had some basis in fact.

I wonder how he is doing right now.

Gotta go. Jerry is coming.

1.12.11

Johnny Dog is still very ill. She has drank a little water, but hasn't eaten.
Jen has been by her side since she returned. We never had pets in our house
growing up. I always wanted a dog, but Mom and Dad always said no. I don't ever
remember Jen or Billy even asking. But Jen has always been such a nice and
caring person so I'm not surprised she has taken responsibility for Johnny Dog.

Jerry believes we are going to have to move from the warehouse soon. He can't
believe we still have power. The Internet is still up too. He's worried because
reports are coming in that not only urban areas are being over run by walkers,
but so are suburban areas. We see more and more walkers outside now.

Jerry is also worried about the humans that are left. We have it pretty good at
the warehouse, but there are reports also coming in that desperate gangs of
people are now resorting to use of extreme force to takeover good hideouts and
take food. Jerry has asked me to stop blogging as he feels people will figure
out our location if they read my entries.

I find that journaling is very cathartic. I don't want to stop.

1.10.11

Johnny Dog showed up this morning at the warehouse door. She was exhausted and could barely scratch on the door to be let in.

She collapsed as soon as she got in the door. I had to carry her upstairs.

Jen thought she was dehydrated. She had been gone for so long, and I could only guess that she had lead the pack of walkers as far away as she could, and then came back. What a dog!

Greg and Jerry were particularly happy to see her. They hugged her and thanked her for saving their lives. Jerry offered her some food, but she wouldn't have anything to do with it.

I got Johnny Dog just before Thanksgiving. If I lost her I don't know what I would do.
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1.8.11

I have spent the last day and a half staring out the second floor window of the warehouse waiting for Johnny Dog. Jerry and Greg hung with me, as they new that they wouldn't have lasted much longer at the Ameristop if Johnny Dog hadn't figured how to make it back here with the note they had attached to her collar prompting us to implement the rescue plan.

I would have expected her back pretty quickly. But maybe she was trying to lose the gaggle of walkers that she had drawn away before returning here.

Billy, Greg and I had returned to the Ameristop this afternoon, grabbed some more food and Greg's jeep. No sign of Johnny Dog.

I'll continue to wait for her return.

1.6.11 Johnny Dog Again!

We had a plan, and Johnny Dog was the key.

She had already figured out how to find her way back to the warehouse from four miles away. Then she had figured out how to draw three walkers away from the warehouse door. I had no idea how many walkers had surrounded the Ameristop that Jerry and Greg were stuck in, but it must have been too many for them to fend off, seeing as how they had brought guns.

I decided to do a scouting trip first. I followed Jerry's rule of three and brought Jen and Billy with me. We had a couple of hand guns. We left Johnny Dog at the warehouse as we didn't want her to start barking when we got close to the Ameristop. I needed to know what we were going to be dealing with.

We approached the Ameristop from the North, driving down route 747. We were about an eighth of a mile away and saw the problem. There must have been 50 walkers at the front of the store trying to get in. We didn't want to attract the walkers to us so we stopped the car. We had to make an assumption that the rear door of the Ameristop also had walkers surrounding it, otherwise Jerry and Greg would have escaped days ago.

We needed a second car to make this plan work. Billy's friend's car was still at my parents house, so we headed there to get it. Jen was able to pick up more clothes while we were there.

We had a plan. We would drive two cars. Billy and Jen would be in one. They would pick up Greg and Jerry as soon as Johnny Dog drew the walkers far enough away that they could escape. They would hang out about a quarter mile away.

I would be in the other car and would drive Johnny Dog close enough to the Ameristop to drop her off. I just needed her to do the same thing she had done before, start barking and running, drawing the walkers away.

We picked up Johnny Dog and went to work. Jen and Billy were in place. I drove to the parking lot entrance and opened the door for Johnny Dog. She hesitated for a moment, and didn't jump out of the car. Doh!

That was going to be the problem. As I sat there, the sound of the car's engine got the attention of the walkers, and they turned and started shuffling my way! Johnny Dog compounded the problem by starting to bark! At that point all of the walkers at the front of the Ameristop started heading to the car!

My plan was to have had the walkers follow Johnny Dog, not me in the car, but that would change. Or so I thought. I was about to close the door and drive off when Johnny Dog suddenly jumped out. As if on cue, she barked and ran, and as before the walkers started to follow. Well, most of them anyway. I shut the door and also sped off.

I drove about 400 yards and five of them followed me. I looked back at the store and could see Jerry and Greg peeking out of the front door. I pulled a u-turn and headed towards Jen and Billy's car to let them know to pick Greg and Jerry up. These walkers are slow, and are pretty dim-witted. They still followed me but still doing a slow shuffle.

As I passed Billy and Jen, they got my sign and headed to get Jerry and Greg. I headed back to the warehouse to meet them.

They got to the warehouse about the same time as me. I gotta give Jerry and Greg credit as they jumped out of the car. They had four cases of beer with them. As everyone one was safe back at the warehouse, I had to let them know they were about a week late for our New Year's Eve party. Jerry told me to fuck-off.

The plan had worked. The question now was whether Johnny Dog would return safely.

1.4.11 Johnny Dog is back!

Johnny Dog showed up at the warehouse this afternoon!

It was a sunny, but very cold day today. I was staring out the second floor window watching more walkers wander by. About 3pm I noticed an animal approaching from the West. I followed it as it made it's way closer and then realized it was Johnny Dog!

She came to the door and started barking. I headed downstairs to let her in, but her barking must have gained the attention of some walkers that were wandering by. I couldn't chance letting them see me through the glass entrance doors. Johnny Dog did see me and started scratching at the door, but to my amazement, stopped when she noticed three of the walkers heading in her direction.

Even more amazing was what Johnny Dog did next. She started running away from the warehouse, barking as she ran. Of course the walkers followed her! She disappeared from sight for about ten minutes, but then returned, running to the door, but not barking. She was smart enough to realize that the walkers were attracted by noise and had drawn them away!

I let her in. She was very excited to see me. Jen and Billy had also come downstairs. It was Jen that noticed a slip of paper under Johnny Dog's collar. I pulled it out. It was a note from Jerry.

There were holed up at an Ameristop about four miles from the warehouse. They were OK, at least at the point the note was written, but were surrounded by walkers. They had taken a chance that Johnny Dog would find her way back to the warehouse.

We needed to get to them right away. We didn't have the Jeep, but my car was still here. The real issue was how were we going to rescue Jerry and Greg with the Ameristop surrounded by walkers. We needed a plan.

1.3.11

Jerry, Greg and Johnny Dog haven't returned from their mssion to find beer on New Year's Eve. It's been 3 days.

Jen, Billy and I are still OK in the warehouse. Less than 3000 people on-line playing Black Ops today. More and more people are reporting seeing walkers.

I have counted 40 of the walkers passing our warehouse over the last 3 days. All of them still heading South.

Where are Jerry and Greg? Have they been detained or attacked or eaten? Are they walkers now?

Worse yet, and I know this sounds bad, but where is Johnny Dog? I would think she could have fended off an attack.