The Dead Diaries (EXCERPT)

Day 131
What a day to start writing this! I can’t believe all that has happened. The news reports didn’t start to cover this whole ordeal until it was too late. They made it seem as though it was just little outbreaks in South America and Africa. What they weren’t saying was that it was also going on in China, Japan, England and even the U.S. It seems as though they were hiding it all in hopes that it would all implode on itself or that they could even find a way to cure what was causing it all.
From what I’ve been able to gather from old news reports, they believe that this whole nonsense was caused by some virus. They had people working on a cure, but I’m afraid that they weren’t able to find one. If they did, wouldn’t they have been bale to stop this entire problem from growing to the lengths it has? Wouldn’t they have been able to give us more hope, more information or more time to prepare?
Needless to say, they didn’t help us out at all….

The sun has begun to set and the orange flow in the sky is gleaming across the rearranged land. I’ve been able to make patrols around my grounds, checking all of the traps that I have set out. It was my first line of defense that I was able to come up with when the entire breakout happened. I have a lot of bear traps set up to stop the majority of them in the path. It doesn’t kill them since blood no longer runs through their veins, but it can tear them apart. For some of them the traps snap the bone in their legs clean off and they have to crawl the rest of the way to my house others may lose feet or arms. In addition to my bear traps I have created holes that are ten feet deep and five feet wide which are line with six feet tall planks full of spikes. So if they are able to get past the bear traps they will find themselves impaled like a piece of meat. This defense was able to kill off at least half of those that fell in. It is nice because I don’t have to waste my ammo trying to kill them I only have to kill the ones that make it through. At least once a week I will make my rounds and kill the creatures that are stuck in my holes, but I must kill the creatures stuck in the bear traps every day. At the end of the day I gather up their lifeless bodies and pile them about a hundred yards away from my house where I set them on fire. The smell from the burning rotted bodies was horrible at first, but I have gotten use to it and now I can’t even tell they are on fire when I walk away.
This is just a little bit of my daily life and it’s almost always the same. I took up writing down my thoughts and accounts of what is going on because it breaks up the dullness in my day and helps to ease my mind so that I am able to function better. I sure hope this works for me.

Day 132
Last night was another night of light sleep. I don’t even know when the last time I had a good night sleep was. Every noise big or small wakes me; the tree branches hitting each other and tapping against the window pane, every howl of wind, every drip of water falling into the pan, anything and everything. Each time I heard a noise I jumped up out of bed and grabbed the pistol that rests next to me.
I started leaving the gun next to me ever since the night that a few of those things made it to the door of my house before I could get all of the traps set up. I heard the thumping on the door and I could hear the door starting to crack open. I jumped out of bed and was getting ready to run downstairs and I couldn’t find my pistol. I wasn’t sure where I left it. The moaning was getting louder and louder when the door cracked open a little more. I grabbed the lead pipe that I had standing in the corner near my bedroom door as my weapon. As I swung the bedroom door open and made it to the stairs I heard the front door give out and slam against the wall. From the stairs I saw the two bodies fall onto the floor. It was if they weren’t ready for the door to move and they weren’t able to catch themselves.
I made it to the bottom of the stairs and near the both of them just as they were starting to rise up. I swung the pipe as hard as I could and it hit them in the head. With a loud thump and the splatter of blood, both of them dropped to the floor. I put the pipe down and dragged both of the bodies outside and away from my house. I hurried back inside and put the door back up. I slid one of my bookshelves behind it and hoped that it would last for the night.
I took my pipe back upstairs with me and tried to get some sleep. It was a long rough night and most of it was sleepless because I wasn’t sure if there was anymore of them near by. If there was how close were they and how many were there; one, ten, hundreds or thousands? Thankfully, there were no more incidents that night.
It was that night that I started setting up my traps and reinforcing the doors of my house. I boarded up all the downstairs windows, but left a small gap so that some sunlight could still shine through. I don’t have much stuff downstairs because I’m not down there after the sun goes down. I do keep a little food and water, my gun along with three extra clips of ammo, some basic tools and one axe down there. The rest of my supplies are upstairs. Some of those include the food that I eat for dinner or use to replace what I’ve eaten from downstairs, the rest of my guns and ammo, wood for my fireplace (I used the to build fires on cold nights), my two-way radio, my journal and pen and my first aid kit. I also have my backpack full of supplies in case I need to leave in a hurry and both of my machetes that go everywhere with me.
I’ve made sure that I’m fully stocked up here because I have a ladder now that connects the downstairs. I destroyed the staircase so that if more of those things show up all I have to do it get up the ladder and then knock it down. I’ve also built a couple of rope ladders and have them attached to the roof outside so when I need to leave I have an escape route.
Along with all of this I also have a RV outside that has some fuel in it and I’ve attached two barrels for fuel on the back. I still have yet to get those completely filled up though. I’ve been spending most of my free time (if you can call it that anymore) getting the RV ready. I still need to figure out how I can protect the windows and the barrels. I need to get that project finished soon just in case I need to leave.

Day 133
Today I heard a voice come across the two-way radio, but before I could respond to them and get any information the voice was gone. I don’t know if they will ever come across it again, but it was nice to hear another voice that wasn’t my own or any of the moans. At least I know that there are still some people out there and I’m not the last person on the earth. I hope that I can meet up with some of the others that could be other there. There would be better odds of survival for me and for them, but right now I’m not sure where all of these things are heading to. From yesterday to this morning the number of creatures being caught has dropped some, but I don’t want to put too much hope into any thought because you never know what could be going on.
It seems to be about mid-day right now and I need to get some food and finish up some of my projects before the sun goes down. I’ll get back to this message later….

I continued to work on my RV today. I built a metal box around the extra barrels that hold the gas; they are now secured. I still couldn’t find anything that I could put on the windows to protect them and make sure I’m safe inside. If I keep looking and I keep thinking, I might be able to come up with something.
I also went around and checked all of my traps and only half of the bear traps were triggered. Of those, only seven of them had either a leg still in it or nothing at all. I’m not sure what could have set the empty ones off, but it had to have some intelligence to it. How else would it have gone off? The ones with the legs in them look like the legs had been ripped right out of the socket. So I went around to check the holes and I found the one legged bodies impaled against the spikes.
This is now the second day in a row that the numbers have grown smaller around me. I still can’t figure out why, but I get an eerie felling that something big is about to happen. I know that you have to be ready when the calm hits before the storm. It keeps me on edge each day and every night. I know I have to be ready and I know that ill have to leave in a split second. Yet, when that second will come is a mystery. Everything to make a safe escape will need to be ready.
I still can’t believe that I heard a voice come over the radio today. I hope that those people are still out there. Tomorrow I am going to try to get in touch with them. If they are still out there I hope they can give me some new information and more importantly, some more hope.

Day 134
This morning I spent sometime trying to get in contact with anyone that would be out there. I went through every channel on it and spent at least an hour on each one calling out to anyone that might be listening, but there was no answer. Another day that has gone by with nobody out there that has been able to come across with any information. Is there ever gonna be a day that ill come where I will feel un-alone? Will there be a day that I find a group of people that I can help out and that we will be able to survive this entire problem?
I’ve been working hard to make sure that the RV is running so that I am able to take the long drive when it’s needed. All of my weapons are in complete working order and are loaded and ready to go. All of my knives and axes are sharpened. I also loaded some firewood into the RV just in case I need to stop somewhere and build a fire.
With all of this going on I’m kinda getting in the mood to just pick up and go, but I don’t want to because I don’t have any idea on where I would head off to. I know that I don’t want to go to the city. I’m sure that most of these god-forsaken things are over running the streets. Yet, for all I know there could be more survivors like me living there. So is it worth the danger? Is it worth the uncertainty of life or death? Would I be able to make it through half of the city before those things became too much? I’ll have to sleep on it tonight and see what tomorrow may bring.

Day 135
I woke up this morning to a loud bank. It sounded as if it was right inside the house. I grabbed my pistol and slowly opened the bedroom door. I looked up and down the hall and saw no shadows. I heard another bang. I went to where the ladder was in place of the staircase. I looked down into the room below. It was lit up by the sun coming through the top of the windows. Still there was nothing moving in the house. I heard the bang a third time, but this time it was followed by a voice.
“Is there anybody listening? Can anyone hear me?”
It was coming over the radio. I ran back into the bedroom.
“Is there anyone there?” The voice said again.
I grabbed the radio and told whoever was on the other end that I was able to hear them. The voice came back again.
“Thank god you can hear me. I wasn’t sure if we were alone in this world.”
I told them that they weren’t completely alone, but I wasn’t there to help them at this moment.
“We can handle this for now, but we are running low on supplies.”
I told them that I had some extra supplies and that I would come and help them.
“Really? That’s great!”
We talked for a few more minutes and I found out that they were located in a small town just twenty miles south of where I was. I hurried up packing as much food, water, guns and ammo as I could. I also packed up my machetes, pistol, backpack and my axe.
Before I left, I made sure that the house was fully secured just incase we had to come back for any reason. After it was all locked up I got into the RV and went on my way to help the others.
Those twenty miles seemed to fly past me in an instant. I got there in no time at all and I saw no one on the road. There were no cars moving and no cars even on the side of the road. I don’t know if people decided to stay locked up inside of their homes or if they were able to make it further away from me than I had expected. When I got into the city it looked like a war zone.
There were cars grid locked in the streets with doors wide open. Cars crashed into each other with no one left inside of them. Some cars were on the sidewalks and even smashed through store fronts. I could see blood in some of the cars and even on some of them, but there weren’t any bodies anywhere. They could have been taken to the hospital, but wouldn’t the cars have been moved?
It took me awhile to navigate through the streets because most of them were completely blocked off, but I eventually found the warehouse that the group of people have been held up in. I could hear the gunshots when I was at the end of the block. I stopped the RV and put it in park. I left the engine running and got out of the drivers seat. I went and grabbed my shotgun and climbed onto the roof. There had to be at least twenty to thirty creatures outside of the building. After every gunshot there was a splatter of blood, but nothing was dropping. I lay down on the roof and got my shotgun sighted in on the heads. I took my time before every shot; each one had to count. Every bullet shot was one less I had in my stock.
A head found itself locked into my sights and I pulled the trigger. Within a split second I saw a hole appear in the head as it shifted and they body fell to the ground. Another head came into my sights and it found the same fate. After sometime between the group in the warehouse and me we had taken down all of the creatures.
I climbed down off the roof and got back into the RV. I drove down to I drove down to the pile of bodies and got out. I called out to the people in the warehouse so that they knew that I was friendly. They told me to drive around to the loading dock and they could let me in a lot easier.
When I got inside I saw that the whole group was made up of five people. Michelle was the voice that I had heard over my two-way radio. Mike is Michelle’s boyfriend that worked at the warehouse. Dennis worked in the city and was on his way home when everything started to happen. He found his way into the warehouse for safe-keeping. Ben was just in the city to visit some people and Logan was a freshman at one of the colleges in the city.

Day 136
I spent the night at the warehouse and it was one of the best nights of sleep that I had gotten in a long time. I'm not sure if it was that the place felt more secure than the house I’ve been living in or that there was other people with me in the place. Maybe it was just a combination of the two.
Last night after we all got to know each other and found out how they all met, we talked about what we were going to do. We came to the conclusion that we are going to move away from this place, but were going to head towards places that we know might be able to have some buildings that we can secure or already are secured. I asked if there was anything that would be able to help secure the windows and to my delight there was some steal grated rooms. We took the metal torches and cut the steel grates and took them out to the RV. Mike, Dennis and I got all the steel placed over the windows and welded to the frame. Logan and Ben kept an eye out for anything that might be heading towards us while Michelle got things packed up and planned a few stops that needed to be made.
With the RV finally completely secured I knew that it would be able to make it for the long run of the catastrophe. I’m not so sure about this group though. Mike and Dennis seem to have a good knowledge about how to use the weapons and how to survive, but Ben and Logan haven’t really shown the others that they can carry their own weight. Michelle, well if she wasn’t dating Mike I’m not even sure she’d be alive!
Michelle got everything we needed packed up and we loaded it all into the RV. We had our last meal at the warehouse and headed on our way down the road. We drove for a few blocks when we came upon a few police cars that had been left alone with the doors wide open. Dennis got out and went and searched them while Mike stood in the doorway keeping watch on one side of the RV. I watched the other side from the drivers’ seat.
In the first car, Dennis only found some mace and a few clips to one of the guns that the cops had. In the second he found a shotgun and pistol with some extra ammo. He also found a few bullet proof vests in the trunk. Just as he was on his way back to the RV Mike had seen a couple of creatures crawling around the front of a van that was turned on its side. Mike yelled out to Dennis and told him to hurry up. Mike stepped out of the doorway and fired off a few shots. He hit the one in the shoulder, but it didn’t slow them down at all. I told him to aim for the head and make the shot count. He fired off two more shots and only hit one of them. Dennis got into the RV followed by mike and I hit the gas, swerving around the two bodies. As Dennis put what he gather onto the table, we found ourselves getting close to the edge of the city.
I heard Ben and Logan starting to argue over who should get the vests. Dennis left the whole argument and came up front and got in the passenger seat. Mike and Michelle continued arguing with Ben and Logan. The bickered back and forth for miles. It made the drive seem to go on forever. I finally got sick and tired of them that I threatened to kick them all out and leave them on the side of the road. That seemed to shut them up.
I noticed we started to get low on gas so I pulled into the next small station I found. We sent Logan and Ben inside the station while I fueled up the tanks. Dennis and Mike kept an eye out for any creatures. I got the tanks filled before the guys got out of the station so Dennis and I went in after them. The guys were so busy loading up their arms with beer and food that they hadn’t noticed the gas station attendant creeping up behind them. Before I could even get my gun up or a word out of my mouth Dennis had already taken aim and let a shot off. His shot went straight through the ears of the attendant and it dropped him. Ben and Logan jumped and turned because of the noise. It startled them enough that they dropped everything from their arms onto the floor. I laughed at them and they were pissed, but I told them to deal with it.
We all got back into the RV and headed on our way. It started getting dark and I knew that we would need to find a place to stay for the night that was secure. With everything that went on earlier we didn’t make it very far and we were still pretty close to the house that I had been staying in so I said we should just go there. When we arrived I got the RV pulled closer to the house and had the others get on to the porch while I went around the house to get inside. Everything was the way I left it. It didn’t even seem as though anything had came by. I climbed up the ladder outside to my room and down the ladder to get to the front door. I opened it up, let everyone else in and then locked it back up again.
We all went up the ladder as I explained the reason for taking the stairs out. I showed everyone all the rooms’ upstairs and told them what to do if anything should get inside at night. They were amazed at the fact that I was able to live the way I did for so long and how clever I was.
Mike and Michelle shared the room at the end of the hall; Ben and Logan stayed in the room between the bathroom and my room and Dennis shared my room. I put some wood into the fireplace to get some heat throughout the house for the night.

Day 137
After a good nights rest we were all ready to set out on the road. We didn’t have a real idea of where we were heading, but we knew we didn’t want to stay in this area. Dennis and I got most of our supplies packed back into the RV while Mike and Michelle brought the rest of the stuff out along with all their things. It took a little bit of time, but we got ready and just had to wait on Ben and Logan to finish messing around. They took a good hour to finish getting ready to take off and it pissed off the rest of the group. Once they decided to join us we all got into the RV and left. Dennis said that he wanted to drive for a bit and I definitely did not mind as I needed a break from driving for a little while. Mike looked over the map and found us a route to follow. He pointed out that Route 22 would take us by some small towns that might have more gas stations and stores for us to collect more supplies. The roads were pretty clear until we started to get closer to the towns. The four lane road started getting clogged up with abandoned cars and accidents. We could tell the accidents had happened awhile ago because there was no smoke or sound coming from them. The fires had died down and the batteries were dead. We were able to swerve around the majority of them and the few that we couldn’t Ben, Logan, Mike and I could move out of the way just enough for Dennis to get the RV through.
As we reached the outskirts of the town we saw a Wal*Mart and pulled into its parking lot. We pulled up to the front doors and stopped. Logan and Mike stayed in the RV and Ben stayed at the front doors to keep lookout for us. Michelle, Dennis and I were the ones who set out to find stuff in the store. Michelle started down the center, I went to the left and Dennis went off to the right.
As I was walking through my section I noticed that there were shopping carts scattered here and there and most of the shelves were empty. I kept walking around when I came upon the sporting goods section. I saw that most of the camping gear was still in the store so I went and grabbed a few shopping carts and started to load them up. I took as much as I could as far as sleeping bags, propane tanks, waterproof matches, lanterns and whatever else I thought we might need. As soon as I filled the carts I took them up front to Ben so that he and Mike could load them into the RV. They were excited to see how much I got and were anxious to see what all was really there. I told them I was going to make one more trip back though my section because I wanted to get things from the automotive section for the RV.
As I was heading back I heard Michelle scream. I ran towards the section she was in, but I couldn’t find her. I called out her name and there was no response. I continued to look around for her when I heard her scream out again. I found her in the kitchen section with one of the creatures on top of her trying to bite her. I took aim for it, but couldn’t get a clean shot and I didn’t want to take the chance of hurting her. Luckily she had a free hand and managed to reach a knife off the shelf. She swung her arm around as hard as she could and lodged it into the creatures’ one eye. The creature let up its attack for a few seconds and raised its head back. That was just enough for me to get a clean shot and I nailed it in the other eye. The thing dropped and it became dead weight on top of Michelle.
After a couple of minutes of trying we managed to get it rolled off of her. The both of us headed up front and met up with Dennis. Mike and Ben got everything loaded so we all got into the RV and headed back on our way.

Day 138
After what had happened at Wal*Mart Michelle was pretty shocked. She has been sitting at the table and staring out the window. Mike has been trying to comfort her and talk to her, but she hasn’t been too responsive. Ben and Logan don’t seem to be too concerned over her, while Dennis and I are worried that she might do something stupid that will put us all in danger. We’ve been on the road for about twelve hours since leaving Wal*Mart and we now need to pull over to get more gas. I’m really surprised at how well this is doing on gas. It was nice to pull over and stretch our legs. I have noticed that Dennis and I have done almost all of the driving and its going to be high time that someone else does some of the driving. I know that I haven’t been able to sleep that well when I’m sitting in the passenger seat and I’ve noticed its starting to wear on Dennis as well. If some things don’t change with a few of these people I’m not going to feel bad about leaving them.
When we stop at the next gas station I am going to dig out the two-way radio and see if I can find anyone else that is alive. There has to be others out there and we need to have some sort of plan of action because I don’t want to just keep driving around with no hope or end in sight. I need something to help me continue on.
We have driven through four states, but it hadn’t meant anything because when I look out the window it seems like a foreign country. Its all run down, deprived, deserted and destroyed. It’s all starting to look the same and we haven’t found anything new. There’s nobody out there; no sign of life. All that seems left is us and the things taken over. It seems as if it just gets worse and worse everywhere we go, every road were on and everything we see out the window is left as nothing.

Day 139
We made our way to what seems to be a mall. There are a few cars parked sporadically throughout the parking lot, but not enough to look as if there is a huge group of people inside. We made a few trips around the parking lot to see if anything was making its way towards us and to also see if there was an easy way in.
Logan pulled the RV up to the main entrance where Mike and I got out. I went up to the doors and to my surprise they opened. I went back to the RV and grabbed a flashlight, my machetes, and put on one of the bulletproof vests. Mike and I went in to make a patrol of the inside to see what we may be getting into. After getting a few feet from the door the area began to get darker and my eyes were trying to adjust. I flicked my flashlight on and Mike followed shortly after. We made passes from side to side with our lights. When Mike passed his to the right the light reflected off of the glass from one of the storefronts. We stopped and discussed how we would continue with our search through this place. We decided it would be best to go around the whole complex first to see if there was anyone or anything here. Then we would search each store, but we would get one of the other guys to come with us.
We started our search and we weren’t finding anything. We just saw that the store looked abandoned and some of them had their gates down. It took us almost two hours to completely search the building itself, but we still had the stores to go through. As we made our way back to the doors we came through, we heard a crash. Both of our flashlights hit the spot at the same time. We saw one of the trash cans was knocked over, yet there was nothing around it. A few seconds later there was another crash. Again it was another trash can with nothing around it. We started walking slowly backwards to the doors when all of the sudden a hand grabbed my shoulder. I swung to my left knocked the hand off of me with my flashlight. Mike hadn’t noticed this because I was a few steps behind him. I shined my flashlight at the thing grabbing me and as I did I saw it lunging at me with its mouth wide open. I could see blood stained into its jaw. I grabbed my gun and pulled the trigger, but I hit it in the shoulder with my first shot. The sound of the gun got Mike to turn around. He saw me struggling with the thing and he took a shot. He nailed it right in the side of the head and it dropped like a bag of bricks.
We got out of the building and back to the RV where we decided that it would be best if we got everyone suited up and went back inside. We couldn’t pass this place up because it looked like it would be the best place to secure and we’d be able to get a few nights of good sleep. If we wanted or needed to we could stay here even longer than a few nights.
Michelle has still been acting weird, but we needed everyone to help out. Dennis said we should just leave her here to keep an eye out on anything that might happen outside. She would be our eyes and our ears on the outside. Logan and Ben went in the first wave followed by Mike and Dennis while I took up the end.
The first store we came to had its doors closed. So we used a couple crowbars to pry them open. When the lock finally gave out it set off a loud bang that echoed throughout the mall. We all rushed inside and closed the doors behind us. Ben and Logan started out first and made their way to the left. It took them only a few minutes to disappear from my view and their light faded away soon after. Mike and Dennis decided to head to the right and it took them a little bit longer to fade out of my sight, but eventually they too faded away.
I started to go straight ahead when I heard a bang come from behind me. I turned around and there was nothing there. I don’t know if the others heard it or not, but it scared the shit out of me. I moved my light all around just checking if anything was moving and there was nothing. I continued on my way down the isle taking each step slow, moving my flashlight back and forth with my gun. As I got towards the back of the store I looked to see if I could see the other guys’ flashlights, but I didn’t notice any glimmer of light. I stayed in the one spot for a few minutes until I decided to call out their names to see if I could tell where they were.
Just as I was getting ready to yell for Ben and Logan I heard the sounds of gun fire echoing through the store. I started to run towards the sound and where I saw flashes. My flashlight was bouncing up and down the floor with every step that I was taking. I could hear footsteps behind me racing at the same speed as I was. I knew that it had to be the others since these creatures don’t move fast in any way.
When I finally reached where Logan and Ben were I could see that they were surrounded by these things and need help. I started taking aim and shooting them in the head. Dennis and Mike showed up as I took my third shot and joined in the mayhem. There had to be about twenty or so gather around Ben and Logan. Some of the shots weren’t the best that any of us have taken, but we still made them work.
I saw Ben drop one of the creatures with a few shots in the knees and then he got it between the eyes. Mike and Logan also ended up shooting the same one at the same time and you could just see the brains explode out of its head. Dennis and I just kept taking our shots and dropping out with as few shots as possible. The both of us knew that we still needed to conserve our ammo because we haven’t found any place that has any extra yet. At one point I saw Dennis use his machete to take a few out that were getting too close.
After a few hours of taking on the on slot of creatures we finally got down to the final ones. I'm not exactly sure who took out the last one, but I know that we ha to make completely sure that the store was completely empty. We also had to find another way out just in case the entrance was swarmed by the creatures outside that had been attracted by the sound of gun fire.
As a complete group, we searched the entire store and found nothing else in the store but us. We went to the front and made sure that the doors were secure. After that, we started to look for another way out. I had worked in a store like this one and knew that it had to have an area in the back that they got their deliveries and that would mean that there would be a second way out. That would also be a better place to park the RV.
After searching for awhile we found the second way out. Logan and Dennis were going to stay in the store to guard the ext while Ben, Mike and I went back to the RV to bring it around. I also wanted Logan to see if he could find a good place to take the corpses so we could get them out of the store and burn them. We got to the RV and drove it around to the other exit. Mike got Michelle out and took her inside. Ben found Logan and they both continued to look around for a good place to put the corpses. After about twenty minutes they came back and told us that there wasn’t a good place to put them to burn them. We ended up finding a corner of the store and piling them all there to get them out of the way.
With everything taken care of, we decided to call it a night. Everyone was worn out and needed to get some sleep. We found the break room and made it into a makeshift bedroom. It might not have been the best arrangements, but it might be one of the better nights of sleep for everyone.

Day 140
The night passed by in an instant and the sleep seemed to be that; a moment that flashed by. I don’t feel very rested, but at least we had some day light to work with as we looked around this store again.
I was glad to have some more light in this place. It made it a hundred times easier to find my way around in here. I was able to find some clothes that I could change into and have some extra pairs of jeans, a couple new shirts, a few pairs of socks, and some extra underwear. I wasn’t really just looking around for new clothes; I just knew that I really did need some. I was actually trying to find the sporting goods section so that I could get some more guns and ammo.
It took me a bit to actually find the sporting goods area, but when I did I took my time walking around. I came upon a few compound bonus and about three to four hundred arrows. I also found a few different kinds of targets.
As I was gathering all of these things together I found a couple of display cases. The first one had a few boxes in it along with a couple of fishing reels. The other one had five different hunting knives, two scopes for rifles and two gun cleaning kits, but I couldn’t find any keys. In place of a key I found a baseball bat and used it to smash out some of the glass. By this time I have gathered two shopping carts full of things that I have been grabbing. It still wasn’t what I had been searching for so I took those carts back to the bathroom and set them aside. I headed back to the sports section to see if I could find anything else.
While I was roaming around Ben and Logan had passed by joking with each other. Shortly after their voices had faded away Mike came passing by. He stopped and talked to me for awhile. Mike told me of his worries about Michelle and her state of mind. She hasn’t said a word to him about what happened, but you could see in her eyes that it bothered her. I told him to try to not let his worrying take over his mind. He needs to keep his wits about himself.
Another concern was about if all of us will be able to make it through this whole ordeal. I know what he is going through on this one because I have thought about it tons of times. Each time that I've run it through my mind I come up with different outcomes of how long everyone will last and which ones will make it to the end. The one thing that I haven’t told Mike is that I don’t see Michelle making it much longer. We continued to talk and the hours just passed by. He told me of what his hopes and dreams were before all of this and what they are now. He told me his feelings on staying here and making it into a stronghold. He also told me how grateful he is that they were able to get in contact with me and that I was able to come save them.
I'm not real sure how the whole conversation ended, but he seemed to feel better and walked with a little step. After all of that, I started to wonder if I really wanted to stay here until all of the supplies ran dry or if id have better luck driving out of here and following the road to somewhere else.
As the sun started to set I found the case that held the guns. It was empty, but it was also locked. The only thing I could think of was that they ha sold out of their guns and hadn’t gotten any new ones in. At the bottom of the case I did notice boxes upon boxes of ammo for different gauges of both rifles and pistols. I busted out the glass and loaded up another shopping cart. I took the cart back to the break room and set it with the others that I had brought back earlier. I decided that I had found enough things today and that I would put some of it in the RV so that the supplies were equal in the RV and in the store.
I left the break room and went up to the roof. Dennis was up there just looking off into the distance. I didn’t want to disturb him so I slowly and quietly walked up near him. He was still lost within his own thoughts. I looked around the parking lot and the grounds surrounding it. There were some roamers and some walkers, but only a few.
The sun had completely set and the moon was shining bright in the sky when Dennis came out of his thoughts. It was at this time that I told him an idea that I had thought of and finalized while sitting on the roof. I was thinking that while the others went off throughout the store, him and I could load up the RV with the rest of the supplies and get out of there. I didn’t want this place to end up being our tomb. He agreed that he didn’t want to die here, but he wanted to sleep on it for his final decision. I said I could wait until morning, but that I didn’t want to leave him out of my plans because he is the only one in this group that I can trust to really have my back when something was going down.
We left the roof and went down to the break room. He couldn’t believe all that I had found and that I planned on taking it all with me. We didn’t mention it to the others, we just went to bed. I hope that I can get some sleep because I’m nervous about what is going to happen tomorrow.

Day 141
I woke up before all the others so I grabbed two of the carts and headed to the RV. I set them by the door that led to the outside and then I went back to the break room and got the other cart. As I was leaving with the cart I heard someone getting up. I was hoping that it would be Dennis, but I knew that I didn’t want to be around if it was someone else. I hurried up and got out of the way. If it was Dennis he could come back and find me.
I waited for a few minutes to see if he was going to come back and help me load everything. I didn’t really want to go outside by myself because it would be tricky to keep and eye out and still do what I needed to do. I figured that id give him a little more time and if he didn’t show I’d toss everything inside the RV and then close the door when I'm inside to protect myself while I loaded it up correctly.
A couple of hours had passed and I was starting to get hungry so I went and got something to eat. It wasn’t much; a few health bars and some water, but I just needed to have a little bit of food in me so that my stomach wouldn’t make sounds while I was doing what I needed to do. By the time that I got back to the carts Dennis was there waiting for me.
I was a little scared that he was going to tell me that he wasn’t going to go with me or that he had to the group my plans and that they were going to kick me out of the store with little to nothing as my defense. I was also hoping that he had decided to go with me and that he had a better idea of a place to go and stay other than the RV. I guess I was hoping he had some direction; I had none.
As I approached him I was trying to see if I could get any idea of what he was going to say from his body language or even from his facial expressions. Yet, I couldn’t tell if he was going to come or not. I got about ten feet away from him when he noticed that I was there. We exchanged greetings and mad ea little chit-chat about how our nights sleep went. He told me that he spent part of the night going over everything and making sure that he was going to be making the right decision. By this time I just wanted to jump and grab him till he spit out his answer; I couldn’t wait any longer! I was getting aggravated that he was taking his time.
Finally, after what seemed like hours of endless waiting and ramblings, minutes that dragged on like the desert sun, seconds that wouldn’t take away until the rivers were run dry, he finally gave me his answer. He was going to go with me and he was going to help me search for other survivors like us. We wanted to find others who really wanted to survive. People who wouldn’t just use us as their survival kit; ones that had their own ideas to bring to the table to help us on our way.
We both went back and grabbed what was left of our belonging and left the break room as quietly as possible. Dennis had wondered if we should leave a note letting them know that we left or just let them figure it out on their own. I decided it would be best to just let them figure it out on their own. We just needed to get out of there. We made our way to the carts and I told Dennis that there was one more thing we needed. I told him to follow me and we went to get gas canisters. I figured we may need them sometime for something. We got back to the carts at the exit, swung the door open and ran to the RV.
Dennis unlocked the side door and jumped inside. I started handing him everything from the carts and we both kept our ears open for any noises. I could tell from the few times I looked in that he wasn’t stacking anything in neatly, but it didn’t matter. We could straighten it out later as we made our way down the road. We got the last cart unloaded and Dennis jumped in the driver seat and started it up while I tossed the carts off to the side and jumped in. I locked the door and we were off.

Day 142
We spent the past twenty hours driving around the coast. There wasn’t too much that had gone on during the drive. We got the RV straightened up, stopped at a gas station and fueled up (which ended up draining that station), and we also got something to eat, drink and smoke.
We pulled over along the side of the road and decided to set up the two way radio. We hooked it all up and turned it on. All that was coming from all of the channels was complete silence. I made a few calls out on the radio and all that came back was silence. An hour or so later, Dennis tried his luck at the radio and he got the same response that I got. We decided to leave the radio on while we went to sleep; someone might come over it and wake us up.
Day 143
We woke up with the sun shining in our eyes. It was nice to be out of that store even if it was only a few days. The walls of that place just seemed to close in on me way too fast and dealing with the other four people just started to wear me out.
Dennis was still laying down when I woke up so I started the RV up and let it idle for a bit. I tried the radio again, but still there was no one on the other end. While I waiting for a reply from the radio I went and started a pot of coffee. That was a little bit of home that I missed for a bit. I had run out of coffee while staying at the house.
With my fresh pot of coffee made I decided to let Dennis sleep for a little while longer, but I was going to get this RV on the road to find some more people. It was a few hours after we started off that I noticed a sign for a military base. I thought that the base would be a good place to start looking for people and maybe some answers of what has happened to this world. While I was on the way to find that Dennis had awoken.
It took a few more hours of driving on some back roads, but we did finally manage to find the road that led to the base. I put the RV in park and we tried the radio to see if we could get any answers while we still had a little bit of distance between us and the base itself. Dennis tried a few times while I climbed up on top of the RV to scope out the place to see if I could find any movement. I also wanted to see how it was setup and how it was protected.
I couldn’t see any movement of vehicles or people walking around. I did see that it was surrounded by three fences. Each fence was the same height and then was topped with barbed wire. All three fences were the same color; the same silver that blends into each other. I couldn’t tell how far of a distance they had between them.
All of the sudden I could hear something going on with the radio. I yelled to Dennis to see hat was going on, but he didn’t reply to me. I jumped down off the roof and back into the RV so I could find out. I could hear a voice trying to come over the radio, but it didn’t seem like there was enough signal strength. Dennis asked for their name and location. This time we both clearly heard what sounded like Sergeant and bade, but we were unsure of the rest. He asked again, saying that some of the message had broken off, but this time there was no reply. I was kind of worried that this might be a big of a trap so we moved our RV into a well covered spot of the road and we stayed there for the rest of the day while we both took turned either listening to the radio or keeping an eye out on the base.
I was waiting for nightfall because that is when it would be almost impossible for anyone to hide that they were there, if there was anyone there. They would have to build a fire for heat or cooking. They would need to use something as a source of light and this was the time to watch. We turned out all of our lights and had the radio turned down as much as possible so that it was quiet, but we could still hear it. We made sure that the only times we made any communications with each other is when we absolutely had to. We each spent a few hours on top of the RV keeping watch, but neither one of us saw anything. It was starting to get late so we decided to call it a night. We got inside and locked up. We said that we would wait until tomorrow to make our decision on what to do next.