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!"