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Post by Admin on Sept 17, 2018 1:15:32 GMT -5
An entry from Kenneth's journal:
9/17/18
Nine months and three days.
That's how long it had been since this all started. The Hospital was a lie, there was never any vaccine. We found the keycard and opened the hub and managed to get the vault with the so called cure open only to find empty vials. Anna's mafia father had left her for dead when he found there was no vaccination and so our ticket out was gone before the tiny shred of hope was even real. In a fit of rage Anna took her own life leaving only a few of us: Me, Kim, Dexter, Jane and Lana.
We camped out in the cafeteria for a few weeks, barricading the doors and closing the blinds. We practically lived in silence cause any sound could mean death. It was a miserable existence and when it became too much we decided it was time to move on- for better or for worse. We packed the remainder of the canned and boxed goods, the remaining water bottles, and with all hope gone we snuck out of the hospital and reached my car which was miraculously still there and intact.
We left Sarasota, heading North for as far as we could manage. Roads were either empty or littered with broken down and abandoned cars, there was no in between. It had seemed that the more cars there were the more... dead. No one had a name for them yet. Really they were just zombies but no one could fathom calling them that. Zombie was such a Hollywood term, one that was reserved for fiction. These things... they were real.
We had crossed a few of the living but it seemed that this new world made everyone hostile. There was no kind nods or words anymore, it was kill or be killed. I had taken the dirty job of dealing with that, the killing. I had to do it a few times and it has taken a toll on me. I feel more harsh and strict, but I also feel smart. It only took once to figure out that no one could be trusted and since then I was always on guard. These people were my family now, through thick and thin.
We moved a few times, it seemed that the dead always found us. Then again up until our most recent "home" we had continuously taken refuge in buildings like markets, offices and stores. It worked for a while, maybe a month at best, but always seemed to back fire. This time we tried something different, a small kayaking shack tucked away on a bight blue river in central Florida. The River was long and connected to the ocean, it was at least 12 miles from the highway and it was thickly wooded. It seemed perfect, rare that any of the dead made their way to us. Even if they did it was defended with sound traps and spike walls. This place seemed hopeful... but for how long?
-x-
It was early but hard to really tell how early. There was a general idea based on the sun but really he just had three times: morning, noon, and night. This was morning, definitely morning. Ken seemed to wake up before everyone else, it gave him time to strip and jump into the beautiful blue river that they had been living on. The water was always the perfect temperature in the morning, it brought large fish their way and he was easily able to corral some in a net he had set up.
They had taken refuge in an Amazon warehouse for a week a while back. It was lucky! they were able to find loads of cool gadgets like solar powered self-filtering water bottles, industrial flash lights, pots and pans, lighters, blankets, and a few miscellaneous items the others had chosen for themselves. Ken had back stocked himself with several cartons on cigarettes, truthfully it was the only thing that kept him sane. Things were fairly quiet for now, the group has a decent routine down and it seemed to work. Things were as ok as they could be.
He walked into the water which wasn't too deep, maybe 9 feet. It was crystal clear which was a plus! They never had to worry about what lurked below. Kenneth rinsed himself off, leaning back and floating for a bit. The sky poked through the thick treetops and the sun hit him, times like this gave him a little solace. Just relax in silence, the only sounds were the water and the wind in the leaves. He wished they could stay there forever, but didn't count on it.
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Post by rjc93 on Sept 20, 2018 18:52:38 GMT -5
 "Riley! You need to get the fuck up!" Jane hissed at Riley smacking him across the face as she picked him up. She threw his bloodied half mutilated arm over her shoulder holding onto it with care. That didn't stop the blood from dripping through her clothes though. She almost started to vomit again but she held it back. "Look, we're almost there. You can sit down and we can patch you up and then you can rest. But until then you need to pull yourself together because I'm not going to die down here, and neither are you!" She wrapped her free arm around his waist trying to make it a little easier to carry him. They were almost at the first floor. She could hear hissing and groans behind her coming from the basement. Or were they above her? There was no proper way for her to tell and it didn't help that the stairwell echoed. The sounds of these things could be coming from anywhere.
Riley tripped over his own feet as they made their way to top of the landing pulling Jane down with him as well. She looked up and saw the big "1" on the door. "Look, we're almost there. We just have to go up one more flight of stairs. You can do this. We're going to make it." She smiled at Riley. He smiled looking back at her. "It's not nice to lie." Riley started to laugh but was quickly interrupted with a terrible cough. She looked into his eyes, shining the flashlight from his phone right above their heads. He was starting to look pale...she looked down and saw huge pool of blood where his arm was resting. "Fuck. We need to move Riley, let's go." She stood up helping Riley back to his feet in the process.
As they both got their footing Jane took her first steps onto the stairs going back to the second floor. "Do you hear that?" She stopped. There was definitely still groaning sounds but this sounded very close. Before she even turned around there was a loud bang. The first floor door swung open hitting the wall and in an instant the staircase was filled with Riley's screams. Jane turned around to find one of those things biting into Riley's neck. "FUCK! JANE HELP ME! Riley reached out his bloodied arm, but before Jane could grab onto it Riley fell back down the stairs pulling that thing down with him.
Jane stood at the top of the landing watching in horror as both bodies tumbled down the stairs. Shining the light to the bottom of the stairs she could see that thing didn't hesitate before biting into Riley again. This time...it was his stomach. Blood pouring everywhere...Riley looked up the stairs crying and screaming. "JANE. PLEASE...USE THE GUN. SHOOT ME!" Riley cried in pain as that thing continued to make a meal out of him. Reaching her hand behind her she pulled the gun out from the back of her pants. She wasn't sure if it was loaded...but she was about to find out. Still shining the light down the stairs from his phone she raised the gun with her other hand squinting lining the guide with her eye. For Riley's sake...she didn't want to miss. As best as she could she lined the gun up with his head taking a few steps down the stairs. She put her finger over the trigger and squeezed. Within a second a loud bang echoed through the hospital stairwell.
Jane sat upright on her dingy mattress gasping for air as she pulled her coat off of her face. "Fuck." Whispering to herself she looked around the shack. It seemed as if everyone else was still asleep. "Kim, Dexter, and Lana...but where is Kenneth?" Before pulling herself to her feet she put on her shoes. "Hmm, he's not in here." She pulled a hair-tie off of her wrist and put her hair up in a messy bun. Walking to the door, she quietly opened it giving herself just enough room to slip out quickly. Looking up into the trees a little sunlight was shining through. She made it halfway to the river before she realized that the water swishing around was a little different than normal. She took her eyes off of the trees to look down at the water. She opened her mouth in shock as she noticed Kenneth was in the water completely naked floating on his back.
"Eh-hem." Jane cleared her throat. "We've been here for quite some time now...and this is the first I'm realizing you like to take morning swims...naked?"
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