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September 16^th,

One can’t ever imagine what it is really like. You know, you live your entire life daydreaming about it. How would it be like? How would I react? What would I do first? Would I survive? Would I run away? Would I stay and fight? Would I look after my close ones? Would I become a hero? What would happen if…? What if…?

Then reality slaps you in the face and reminds you that all those are questions for a Sunday evening ScyFy movie.

So you go on with your life. You move on and forget the hype from movies, TV shows, books, comics and videogames. You go ahead and continue living your normal life.

Then reality slaps you twice in the face.

And you realize neither of the slaps is even closer to what you imagined to begin with.

At the beginning all was normal, just another article in the news. No more than any other locally spread epidemic, barely highlighted but for a couple of local media channels.

Jeez, even the Ebola outbreak from few years ago received much more coverage the first six months.

Then it starts climbing positions in the ranking of public awareness: from insignificant column in the last pages of a newspaper, to main headlight on national news.

And all of the sudden, in a single moment, all hell bursts open.

Somehow it reminded me of that very nasty fire three years ago, when the Denny’s between Holth and Main St ended up blowing up suddenly and unexpectedly in our face just as we jumped from the track. Some kids had been tramping with the pipes on the gas reservoir on its back and the fire made it explode in an instant jumping all security valves.

Well this was pretty much the same feeling. On an instant, it slapped my face.

I woke up that morning three days ago at 6 am. I had an early shift that day, and had to be at the station by 8 am. It all looked normal. My alarm clock was the only sound I could hear in my room at my house in the outskirts of the city. I had my breakfast while reading some sports magazine, then took a shower… I was getting dressed when the screams started. Not one or two as you could imagine happening. No. It sounded like the entire neighborhood suddenly was screaming in pure terror.

I rushed to the window and pocked outside.

It was the first time I saw a zombie but somehow, it didn’t feel strange or unfamiliar. I believe that that many movies and shows watched, and lore learned during the past years hype had made our minds familiar with the impossible.

So what did I do?

Nothing.

As I said, you spend your life wondering how you would react. Well, my reaction was none. I just stood there for what seemed an eternity, watching through my window as the sun rose over the apocalyptic scene. In front of me, the action played in slow motion. People run, zombies chased, corpses filled the streets.

I can’t tell how long I stood there, ready for my daily life, watching how the world I knew went to hell.

It must have been well past noon when I finally got out of the window. The streets were quieter by then, that I remember. Bloodied and covered with bodies and remains, but no soul, dead or alive, came to me as I step out of my door, so I guess all the zombies and fleeing survivors had abandoned the area by then. Or hell, who knows, maybe there were zombies chasing my ass just as I put my feet on the yard, but my brain was in such a lockdown that I remember nothing.

I jumped into my car, which for some miracle had survived intact the onslaught of the dead, and drove.

I drove for the following ten hours, the entire evening and night of that day. I took the interstate out of town, so for most of the time, I didn’t had to drive through any settlement. Don’t remember much though. The highway was empty, that I do remember. But somehow, back then I didn’t realize about the bizarre detail. Finally, at dawn next day, yesterday, I took an exit to a near gas station. I was running out of fuel and needed a rest.

The place was deserted… It still is, as I have been here for the last 24 hours trying to assimilate what the hell has happened and no other soul has shown up since I arrived.

This morning I found this journal and thought it might be worth it to write about what happened. Maybe that would help me recover from the shock and relax a little…

Is getting dark and I haven’t slept for the last three days.

Gabriel.

September 18^th,

I have been able to get some rest in the last couple of nights.

Yesterday morning, I grabbed a couple of road maps from the counter and spent some time planning my next moves, then I left the rest of the day to go through the gas station grocery store and pack my supplies. Because I'm out of here.

The previous night I had a new encounter with the dead. Just as I was awakening from my first sleep since this madness started, I heard some noises outside. Snaking carefully to the window, I watched as a score of zombies roamed through the station. It was a very tense situation as I felt quite exposed and unprotected here. In fact, just as they walked away, two more showed up in front of the me, poking through the glass. I swear I thought one of them saw me. It stood there, staring at me with crystalline eyeballs for a couple of minutes before it started scratching the glass.

It went on for around ten minutes until I couldn't stand it any longer. While it remained there, trying to erode the window with its putrid fingers, I grabbed my axe and sneaked to the door. Making sure that its companion had already left, wandering in the direction the previous ones had walked away, I crouched and walked outside behind that thing. It never saw it coming. The axe open its head like a melon and it drop to the ground immediately.

It seems is true all what the movies and general lore showed us: chop their head, and the zombies are dead.

But I definitely need to find a better place which I can barricade and defend from those things.

So after packing up, refueling my car, and deciding on my next move, I went to bed to fully recover.

Now the sun has just risen up. The coast is clear and everything is ready. I'm heading North, not through the interstate highway this time, but the local road.

I want to check on a small town about 90 miles from here...

Gabriel.

September 19^th,

The town looked deserted.

After an uneventful trip, I arrived here just past noon. I did not encounter traffic in the road either this time, although I did pass through few vehicles left abandoned in what clearly looked as a hurry. There were also many signs of what I expect to be an overall global devastation all around this time. Corpses in the roadside, fires in some isolated buildings nearby... everything one could expect to watch in an apocalyptic scenario. Only this time, I wasn't watching it through the screen of my TV, but through the windshield of my car...

Anyway, I got to this hundred-or-so town to find it also abandoned. Or at least, no sign of life at first sight. I didn't want to venture deep into it and start checking house by house yet, so I parked in the lot of a CVS I found just few yards in, in the Main St, and got in the store. I checked it was empty and set it up as my first base, then walked around the nearby area to make sure it was safe.

All was clear so I get back here to prepare for the night. I don't want to be awaken to any nasty surprise this time so I'm going to spend the rest of the afternoon barricading the only entrance.

Tomorrow, I will start explore the town.

Gabriel.

September 25^th,

It was a fucking bad bad bad idea...

This god forsaken town was far from deserted. In fact, it was filled with putrid corpses. That morning, when I went out exploring, everything seemed normal and quiet. But it all went to hell as soon as I got into a restaurant nearby the CVS I had settled in the previous night.

I had dispatched two or three idle zombies I found in laying the dining area when I gazed outside. I was surrounded. Fuck, the entire street was filled with them, and they were heading my way. They must have woken at the sound of my axe projecting one of their comrades head through the window.

The path to the CVS and my car was blocked... so I ran the other way.

Found an exit in the back of the restaurant and kept running dodging some zombies which had already shown up there.

I ran until my lungs hurt. The good thing about these monstrosities is that there is no way they can keep up my pace. So I was able to leave them behind... for a while.

During the last days I have been playing seek and hide with the entire town. Sleeping in attics, basements, hiding spots, and killing as many as I could... but they still filled the main street and my escape rout to my car.

Until last night when I found an open and used it.

I ran quickly through the CVS and grabbed as many supplies as I could. Then jumped into my car and drove away.

Luckily I found the diary among some food cans I had stored in a backpack, so I'm writing this now while in getting some rest inside my car parked in the middle of the road around 100 miles away from that living hell which has been my residency for the last week...

I will try to get some sleep now...

Gabriel.

September 28^th,

Spent the last couple of days on the road. I wasn't really in the mood to stop anywhere remotely close to civilized, after what happened in the town, so I've been sleeping in the car and living out of my supplies and the field. I guess could consider myself lucky, is the time for season, and one can find food everywhere. So I have been rationing canned food and eating berries, fruit and any other vegetables I could find in the forests and orchards I have been driving through... I'm not so naive though. I know this cannot last...

Nights are getting longer and leaves are starting to fall from the trees... So I guess I will have to start thinking on settling down again...

Not really looking forward to it though...

Gabriel.

October 5^th,

Haven't written in a while. Been kind of in a very grim mood lately.

After searching three more towns I found only death and zombies. Nothing safe, nowhere to settle down, no one yet.

How is that possible? Am I the only human left alive? I certainly hope not, but this starts to get really depressing. Having to spend the days driving around and avoiding zombies doesn't help...

Gabriel.

October 7^th,

Well, at least yesterday I got an answer to one of my questions. Not that it helped much though...

As if fate had read my diary, the following morning I saw another vehicle.

I have been driving in a hilly area in the last weeks, hoping to find less zombies and better hiding spots among these desolated valleys and isolated settlements.

It was around midday. I saw a glare in a nearby hill and stopped the car to check it out from afar. Using some binoculars I found the other day in an abandoned gas station at the gates of the region, I spotted a moving SUV. Something was wrong, since it couldn't drive straight. It must have been a flat tire or something, because eventually was forced to stop in the middle of the road.

It was a young couple with a newborn. Not older than six months. All them got down from the vehicle, but I could see how the man was trying to convince the woman to stay inside with the kid while he bent down to check on the tire. Not sure if it would have make much of a difference...

I was elated to see people alive and had already made the decision to jump into my car and drive to meet them immediately and help them with his when something in the nearby forest catch my eye.

Zombies.

They showed up out of nowhere.

The poor guys didn't even have time to get back into the car.

One of the corpses grabbed the man while crouched and dragged him to the trees out of my sight.

Four more assaulted the woman and her newborn cornering her against the back of the SUV.

I couldn't look... but nothing helped me from the screams...

Not even sure where my mood is now all things consider...

Gabriel.

October 21^st,

I've gone through some tough days. Didn't even have strength to write down a couple of thoughts for the past two weeks after I saw what happened to that couple and there baby.

Since, I have been living almost like a forester of old among these trees.

I found a cottage in the middle of the forest which looked intact, easy to defend, and difficult to access and set in for the first time in a single spot for more than one month.

So far, so good.

I spend my days hunting game for food and zombies for fun and security.

Missing human interaction though. A lot.

Am I becoming a hermit? I wonder what that would do to my sanity after all I've gone through so far... Or have I lose it completely already? Who knows...

Gabriel.

October 24^rd,

I think I have not though.

Things have been tough, yes, but it is not that bad here. Although the weather is getting worse, game is still abundant, same as wild fruits and vegetables here in the forest.

Zombies are seen less and less often every day. I haven't kill that many, so it might be that these rural areas are so lightly populated that those flesh eating bastards are migrating to the cities or that there were not that many around here to begin with anyway. Who knows.

In either case, the cottage is safe and warm. Same as my belly.

Gabriel.

November 2^nd,

Yeah, it couldn't be that easy, could it?

Last weeks were really pleasant here. The weather was chilly, but cool. A few showers and some morning fogs. Perfect conditions for some hunts. Two deer, no zombies in the last ten days. What else could I ask for?

Well, that was it until last night when it started snowing.

I thought the area was gonna hold it even covered in white, but today I've realized is not sustainable: the cabin gets completely isolated with the snow. Today I spent all morning cleaning a way out, and that when the snow had been falling only for a few hours last night. I don't even want to imagine how it would look like in the middle of the winter after some days of continuous adverse weather...

It wouldn't be that bad should this situation wasn't the end of the world. Some stocked supplies, a lot of gas and water, and one could spend here the entire winter. But I counted, and don't have enough to go through it. 15 days of total isolation perhaps. One month tops. But is not worth the risk.

No, I have to find a warmer place, closest to easy supply and water.

Fuck.

This sucks.

Gabriel.

November 7^th,

There was a blizzard last night. I woke up this morning and found myself completely isolated and locked in the cabin.

Will spend the rest of the day clearing a way out.

It is settled, I have to get out of here asap before I get stuck for good...

Gabriel.

November 10^th,

Weather has been better last couple of days. It allowed me to find a way out of the cabin, the forest, and the entire mountain area.

Found a nice hidden camping spot at the mouth of the mountains. It seems it marked the limit of a natural park of some sort. I'm not familiar with this region at all, so no idea how was it before the apocalypse. Anyway, I cleaned a couple of lazy zombies that were roaming around. For their look, one was a camper here judging by the remains of a tent and junk I found at the site. The other looked like a forest guard or something. Perhaps one got bitten somewhere else and roamed here to catch the other? Who knows... hell, why the fuck do I care? Am I so lonely that I have to invent the stories for those dead fuckers now?

Anyway, good thing I decided to move when I did. Tonight is snowing like crazy here by the river, so I don't even want to imagine how it is up there. I think I will even need to abandon this place too though, not sure I will be able to find enough supplies around here.

Gabriel.

November 13th,

Spent the last couple of days driving. Nothing remarkable has happened to be honest. It has been raining quite copiously since I left the mountains.

Writing a few lines just to fight boredom.

Gabriel.

November 14th,

Who would have guessed?

One of the great advantages of this increasingly cold weather is that those of us who are still alive need to warm up our bodies to remain being so. And what’s the consequence when you use your environment to light up a fireplace and do that? Smoke.

I saw it as soon as I woke up this morning, a smoke puff raising above some pine trees in the distance. Another cabin perhaps, or even a campsite. Doesn’t really matter. Being following it all day.

I’m on a forest path now that seems to lead straight to its source. Wouldn’t venture to startle whoever it is at this hour. Is getting dark and they might mistake me for one of those dead bastards.

No, I will wait until tomorrow to show up.

Crossing my fingers.

Gabriel.

November 21st,

Ok, I have to admit it, it went much better than I had expected.

It turns out the smoke was coming from an old walled guesthouse in the middle of the forest. Quite big actually, it must have been some sort of luxury rentals for the wealthy back in the fifties.

Now it is hosting a full score of survivors, a small community who has gradually settled down in this remote place after the dead started walking with the living.

As soon as I got here last week, their leader, an attractive doctor named Olivia, showed up at the front gate of the property alerted by the roar of my engine.

They welcomed me immediately and I fully settle down that same day.

We are a total of 13 people now living among the five floors and more than twenty rooms of this old glory of a building and, the best part of all, some of the survivors here tell stories of many other small communities in the area.

It seems that I finally have found a new place to stay.

Finally.

Gabriel.

November 25th,

Olivia and I are growing closer together. She is such a nice person. Very attractive too, I’m not going to lie.

Am I falling for her?

Who knows…?

But I’m not a fifteen year old high school teenager; I am not going to write down those types of things in my diary. This should be a record of the apocalypse, for god’s sake, not a fifty shades of gray sequel.

Gabriel.

November 29th,

Olivia and I are together now…

I don’t think I would ever say this again but, life’s good.

Gabriel.

December 11th,

We are running low on some supplies in the guesthouse. Today Johnny, Christian and I will drive to a nearby town where they have traded with a community of survivors there for supplies and food a couple of times already.

Snow is falling hard, so I decided to join them and drive my SUV.

Gabriel.

December 17th,

It is decided.

We have voted, and we will be joining the colony in the nearby town. They have better defenses and easier supply runs.

Not all of us will go though. Some have preferred to remain here. They don’t seem to trust the strength in numbers. I don’t blame them. Counting the five of us who are going, Olivia, Johnny, Christian, Martha and me, the colony will be quite crowded numbering well over twenty. So I suspect things might be heated up a little bit. That’s normal when you start putting together many humans in the same place. But hey, heating is good for the winter, isn’t it?

Gabriel.

December 25th,

First Christmas day after the apocalypse.

Live in this new colony is good. Perhaps not as good yet as it was in the guesthouse, since there has been some tensions between some residents the last few days and the overall mood is a little bit grim. Particularly since a guy named Tobias decided to leave, alone, due to some misunderstandings he had with another fella called Edward. Not sure what any of that was about. Both had been around for quite a long time already, and none of the grudges involved anyone from my group so we try to keep away from those fights.

Otherwise, everything seems to work pretty well. We have a very well organized community, supplied and fortified. Olivia and I enjoy the company of each other constantly, and I have been invited to the leadership discussions held around here between those who have proven most valuables. Brian, Mike and James, they seem a good bunch of people.

Someone is calling for dinner. I think this will be the first real celebration since the world went bananas.

Better not be late.

Gabriel.