Join the new world

Continued from previous articles.



I AM SO TIRED.


Over the last 3 days, I took the metal off the roof over the living room and back bedroom. With that and some random plywood, I reinforced my doors and windows and the outside walls where the horde is leaving dents.


It won’t hold forever- adobe is, after all, pretty much just dirt, and even the longest screws don’t have much staying power. But it’s definitely stronger and has an added benefit of damping noise. I got almost 5 hours of sweet sleep last night. A couple more nights like that and I might be able to think again. Which I surely need to do.


I also bleached a couple of garden water barrels and moved them to the storage room. I shifted around 300 L of water in there, and I’ll keep topping them up so long as the horde doesn’t wreck the pod. I find it encouraging that they don’t seem to have much by way of strategic attack.


A week ago, I was congratulating myself on a well-stocked pantry. Huh. Today I ate my last can of refried beans- no green chile or tortillas to go with it- and my last 2 cans of fruit. And there’s BD, who weighs almost as much as I do. He’s very fit, and he stops eating when he’s full, so I can’t really ration his food.






Tomorrow, I will have to use some precious fuel and go to the market. I don’t even know if the road is clear. I’m scared of what I might see- so I have to go.




NEXT EVENING


Oh, lord. I had no clue. And I have no words to describe the carnage at the market.


I had made up my mind to ignore any bodies- not to identify them, or even recognize them as people I knew and liked.


Huh. That was not even a thing. News flash: zombies don’t just eat brains. They eat everything but the bones. It seems they cannot crack the skulls. They pull the heads off and dig in from the neck.


The smell. The ravens. Jesus.








I spent most of this afternoon cleaning off packaging with bleach water. Thanks to relatively cool weather, I found unspoiled ham and bacon in the deli case. Also got some pepperoni and sausage that should keep ok in my storage room.


Those deli workers died hard. I found a butcher knife covered in sticky zombie blood by some of the bones.


I got lots of canned goods, and I took 2 dispensers of bulk rice and pasta because the prepackaged stuff on the shelves was wrecked. A good supply of dog food. And I made a list of everything I took, in case there is ever a market again. Seems unlikely.


My defenses are probably as good as I can make them for now. It is time to think about shifting to attack mode.


I need to answer these questions: Where does the horde go in the daytime? Are they fully vulnerable in sunlight? What can kill them? (Maybe ‘destroy them’ is better phrasing; I don’t even know if they’re actually alive.)


I have a couple of ideas.


I need to try State Fire on the fire radio before dark. Then think about some plans, and try to sleep if possible.