Living With the Dead: This New Disease (Book 5) (5 page)

Posted
by 
Josh
Guess
We're
experiencing one of those rare calm periods at the moment. Since our
fight at the silo, not a lot has been going on around here. We've had
a trade caravan come in, that was fun. Becky and Will have been
working on ways to take advantage of the New Breed weakness to heat.
I've been basically working as Will's assistant full time since I got
back. I still manage our experiments with the captive zombies (no new
findings there) and deal with the errata that the other community
managers need help dealing with. Mostly coordination stuff.
But
yeah, mostly helping Will do his job, which is to run this
place.
When we came back the other day, exhausted and injured
but with our spirits high at not losing anyone, Will made an
interesting observation: at least in New Haven, no one seems to take
any joy in fighting. Or even in winning against an enemy.
That's
kind of big. I mean, you'd think at least the feeling of victory
would bring out an uncontrolled reaction. Whooping, high fives, the
occasional slap on the ass. I'm probably too much of a nerd, but my
thoughts go to 
Star
Wars 
here.
Think about the reaction the Rebels had when they achieved a victory
over the empire. God help me, I can't believe I'm using this as an
example, but remember the final scenes in 
Return
of the Jedi. 
Ewoks
and our heroes, feasting it up on the forest moon of Endor. Dancing
and singing.
Yeah, we don't do that. It's not like anyone is
unhappy about winning a battle so much as people around here seem to
have a different viewpoint on fighting. Zombies, no matter how
vicious and clever, are inherently a little sad. It's hard to hate
them when you think about what they were. Where they came from.
Same
thing with fighting living enemies. There's really not a lot to be
cheerful about there. Marauders especially are a reminder of how bad
human beings can be. Killing them even in defense of our home is more
of a task that has to be done rather than an event to be
celebrated.
Which is a good thing, I think. Violence has
always been a big part of human nature, as has hatred in many forms.
It's always reassuring to see people understand and control those
reactions.
Case in point:
A small group of New Breed
tried to attack the Exiles yesterday. The fallback point has
undergone some radical changes in recent weeks. They've got some
guard stations set up along the beginnings of a wall that encloses a
good chunk of area. We've got watchers in various places across the
river. One of them saw a trio of New Breed making their way along the
river bank, below the line of sight of the men in the nearest guard
tower.
When the undead crept up in the long shadows cast by
the sunset, they were in a perfect position to surprise the men in
the guard station. It was only a raised box with high sides, the
floor of the thing about four feet off the ground.
So, when
the zombies went to make their move, one of our watchers fired his
rifle.
At first the Exile guards thought it was an attack.
They spun around and looked across the river, probably searching for
a puff of smoke or the next blare of muzzle flash. It was only then
that the guards noticed the remaining two zombies that had worked
their way up to the station. Even as one of the attacking New Breed
leaped over his fallen brother to attack the closest Exile, our
watcher fired again. One shot, one kill. Right through the zombie's
ear.
The guard at the back of the station pulled himself
together and fired his weapon at the remaining zombie, then made sure
his partner was alright. They looked across the river for a while,
apparently searching for the shooter who'd taken out two of the three
undead.
The watcher told me all of this, witnessed through the
scope of his gun. He told me how he couldn't help but smile when the
two Exiles raised their hands as if to wave, then saluted their
unseen savior.
The funny and interesting thing about new
neighbors is that you never know what kind of people some of them
might turn out to be.

Posted
by 
Josh
Guess
I've
never been a heavy drinker. I mean, when I used to drink it wasn't
often. When I did partake, it was usually enough to blind most
people. My ancestry is Irish, German, and Welsh with a smattering of
other nationalities. I can hold my booze.
Since The Fall,
though, I've barely touched the stuff. I certainly didn't plan on
starting my day with a glass of expensive Irish whiskey. Jess had
other ideas. I don't know where she got it, but I had to drink it.
Not because it's St. Patrick's day, though that was why she surprised
me with booze. Because it was cold. Ice cold.
Yeah. Actual
ice. The novelty of having a very cold drink was enough to entice me
into drinking four ounces of Jameson Gold Reserve on an empty
stomach. It felt good.
As a rule we try to limit how much the
giant refrigerator Dave built is opened. We use it for long-term
storage of food, and the less traffic the better. Jess managed to
sneak in an ice cube tray. Since she's quickly assuming the role of
Grand Poobah of food supply, no one held a little indulgence against
her.
It's enough to make me wonder if she read the morning
reports before I did, and knew I might need a drink.
We've had
scout teams going to Shelby county once a day since our battle with
the New Breed there. They do a wide circle to see if any large
gatherings of zombies are on the move. Yesterday the scouts did a
more intensive round after discovering the stronghold of the people
we brought here from Shelbyville in ruins. It was a very secure
building, and the ladies locked it up tight before they left. The New
Breed still managed to get in and utterly destroy it.
The one
weak point was the ladder on the back. It's one of those slide-down
deals that has to be snagged with a long hook to pull it down. The
New Breed must have piled up to reach it. And though the emergency
access on the roof was still padlocked when our scouts found it, the
skylight was another story. The cap of plywood was shredded, covered
in claw marks and streaks of blood and flesh. God only knows how many
New Breed are walking around with useless fingers now.
Once
they were inside it was basically game over. It wasn't hard for the
zombies to figure out how to remove the bar from the main door and
open it up for their buddies to come in. The whole thing is a
frightening display of problem solving skills.
Our scouts
decided to do a more thorough check of the surrounding areas. You
know, since the New Breed had ravaged a safe place and weren't
anywhere to be found. Zombies, even smart ones, aren't inclined to do
things that indicate emotion. There was no gain for them in
destroying the home of our allies. There was no food there. Our team
thought that was strange, and so the the rest of us.
Because
it looks like an act of rage. Zombies are dangerous for a lot of
reasons, but being pissed off has never been one of them.
The
team didn't come home empty-handed. They found a large mass of New
Breed to the south of the ruined stronghold. Our people watched from
a distance as groups returned to the main horde hauling or leading
groups of old school zombies with them. I say hauling because the
scouts report that many of the old school undead appeared 
afraid 
of
the New Breed. As if they knew something bad was going to happen to
them.
Some of them were eaten straight away, while others were
simply surrounded and kept from running away. My guess is that the
old school zombies who became happy meals were those who hadn't begun
the change into New Breed for whatever reason. Maybe an immunity.
Maybe lack of exposure. The scouts didn't stay long enough to see any
change take place in the sequestered undead, but I'd bet my last
dollar (which is meaningless as we use paper money for tinder now)
that the New Breed will have a few new members shortly. Might already
have made the change.
I'm planning a few quick tests with
Gabby and Evans today to see if we can figure out exactly how the New
Breed can tell zombies apart. Almost definitely something to do with
smell, but I'd like to know if we can isolate what that is. If we
can, then I have a few ideas...
All the signs point to this
large group heading this way. I can't believe that the New Breed in
Shelby county took the time and effort to destroy an abandoned human
settlement and are recruiting more numbers without a reason. We're
the largest group nearby, and I doubt they even know about the
smaller and newer communities that have cropped up. Those folks are a
long way off as the zombie walks. It's got to be us these undead are
coming for. It's gonna be a long, long day.

Posted
by 
Josh
Guess
My
post yesterday acted as a call for help, apparently. We have allies
in decent numbers not far away, but I don't talk about them a lot.
One, because while geographically we're near each other, in real
terms the survivors in Louisville and New Haven aren't that close.
Two, they don't like to be talked about. I had to ask permission to
write this post.
After
I posted yesterday, some of the Louisville crowd contacted us. They
aren't a cohesive group toughing it out in one place like so many
people do. In the city that's pretty hard. Instead small clusters of
them secure locations, spreading out their numbers into dozens of
places. They gather during the days to work together, and break apart
again at night. It works well for them, and with the large number of
undead wandering the city it's probably best they don't bring too
many folks together in one place.
The gist of the message was
simple: the Louisville gang has seen some strange activity lately and
my post made them wonder if it was related to the New Breed buildup
out in the countryside. Just as we caught wind of the increasing
numbers of New Breed far enough away from our usual runs, so too have
the Louisville survivors noted rapid changes in their local zombie
population. Here, in a much less urban setting, it's not a big deal
to go a day or three without seeing any undead.
In Louisville,
it's unusual as hell to see the numbers of them dwindle, much less
disappear entirely from some areas. But that's exactly what's
happening. Neighborhoods that have seen a constant presence of
zombies for months or longer are suddenly empty of them. The mass
gatherings in the downtown area are slimmer. Noticeably so.
Most
of those vanishing are old school zombies. I bet you can see where
this is going, eh?
So some of the Louisville crew decided to
risk a trip out into the county yesterday, or at least farther than
they're used to traveling from their usual stomping grounds. They
wanted to confirm that the New Breed was pulling the same trick there
that they are here. Given the huge numbers of undead in and around
the city, it wasn't hard to spot a group of them. The Louisville crew
followed.
All the way to the zoo. Which had been abandoned not
long after The Fall. I haven't been there for probably eight years,
but I've been told the folks at the zoo decided to free the animals
when it became clear the end was pretty much nigh. I admit to a small
amount of personal satisfaction at that--the idea of penguins and
tigers and adorable creatures from around the globe wandering around
Kentucky makes me smile. While I've always enjoyed zoos, I always
felt guilty that those critters didn't have their freedom. Yeah, I'm
a softy. Deal with it.
Anyway, the New Breed is gathering on
the grounds of the zoo. The crew was understandably reluctant to make
a trip inside the gates, but even from the road (down which they
drove very quickly since the New Breed saw them coming) they could
see the swarms inside. They'd seen old school zombies dragged or
herded in. That's about as much confirmation as any of us need.
The
Louisville group has offered to send a hundred people here for two
days to help us locate and destroy the zombies in Shelby county.
We've happily accepted the offer, because no one here believes the
battle we won last week did much to dent the numbers there. We know
the New Breed is smart and able to hold back part of their force, an
example of complex tactical thinking. If they hit us with two hundred
or better at the silo, then they did so because many more were
elsewhere, held in reserve.
To take out those kinds of numbers
we're going to need help. I don't know that another hundred trained
fighters will be enough if we have to fight them out in the open, far
away from the huge advantages the walls and defenses of New Haven
give us. To clarify, even if we did manage to win that fight, there's
no way we could do it without heavy losses.
I have to imagine
the Exiles are reading this and getting a nice chuckle from it.
They've got the river to protect them from the masses of undead. For
whatever reason, we haven't seen large numbers of zombies come for
the fallback point.
Over the next day or two, I'll be busting
ass on plans and preparations. We've got a chance to thin the herd
enough that it will take the New Breed weeks or months to recover.
Without the Louisville crew, it wouldn't be possible at all. Not
without also being suicidal.
Hmm. The thought of zombies
filling all the empty cages of the Louisville Zoo has a certain
appeal to me. I don't know why my inner smartass seems to find
justice in that mental image, but it does.
If this cooperative
effort works, then we may return the favor for the Louisville folks
and try to help them do some real damage to the zombies in the zoo.
Tactics and planning. That's always the key.