Entry 5 - Bitten (Day 4)

CURRENT SURVIVORS:

This was a huge mistake, but it's now too late. Thomas still hasn't returned and now I'm beginning to think he's abandoned me. I'm alone here.

Chris is gone. He started calling out for someone called Susan, he's never spoken about her before. He didn't recognise me at all, when Susan didn't come he claimed I had harmed her and in his confusion he turned violent. He hit me. I locked him in one of the bedrooms upstairs and hoped he didn't make too much noise. He didn't. When I checked on him a couple of hours later, he was just sitting there on the floor, dribbling and staring into space. About an hour later he turned. It was like nothing I've seen before. He was a zombie, but it was different. He didn't die. It would of been better if he had.

I now understand there is a difference between the zombies which are the infected dead, what we've seen so far, and the infected living. He was FAST. Actually fast. Not the shambling idiots I'm used to. Impossibly strong too, he tore through the bedroom door and then minced the barricaded front door. There were bits of wood and blood everywhere. He had bled. Normal Zombies don't bleed. If he had seen me I would be dead. I managed to hide in one of the rooms downstairs when I heard the bedroom door being smashed. I peeked through a slant in the window and saw him running down the hill. A whole more dangerous zombie. Why haven't we seen this before? Maybe because people don't usually survive a zombie attack. I've also been caring for him, keeping him alive.

I reblocked the front door with everything I could find, I'll use the back door for the time being. I'm going to wait a bit longer for Thomas. He's the only thing I have left now, I can't leave. Please don't let him have abandoned me. I'm scared. Whatever Chris has become is still out there somewhere.

Still surviving
Katherine

NEW ZOMBIE DISCOVERED

Entry 3 - Bitten (Day 2)

CURRENT SURVIVORS:

Chris got worse in the night. No signs of physical symptoms associated with regular viruses yet. Instead, Chris developed at am alarming rate another symptom just as bad - cognitive decline. He repeatedly lost his grasp on our situation; forgetting what we were talking about, not remembering our names and a couple of times seeming to forget the complete collapse of society as we know it. I've seen this sort of thing before - dementia.

Thomas has gone. He left for the nearest hospital to get hold of some medicine. I have no idea if it will work but I've asked him to grab some dementia drugs (Aricept is the only one I know), anti-psychotics (I know they're used for dementia, don't know what/why/how!) asprin and antibiotics (couldn't hurt!). It's a risk; the larger towns will be swarming, but Thomas is pretty sneaky. He should be back by tomorrow. I just hope it can make a difference. Dementia drugs are not designed to cure decline, rather slow it down or stop it, at least until the body adapts to the drug. A small voice of hope in me says if we can keep Chris alive and sane, his body will fight the infection and survive.

Meanwhile all we can do is wait. The Zeds are on the increase, a load appeared outside the house today. They don't seem to be aware of us yet. I just hope Chris doesn't break down any further. If he starts to call out in his confusion I might need to gag him, we're in no situation to be found.
The Zeds seem to have a natural migration between areas, outside the everyday commuting they do. I'm sure there's a pattern there if someone was interested enough to study it.

Commuting is what we call the times the Zeds are the most active and mobile; around the old commuting times, 7-8am and 5-6pm. I'm pretty sure it's a type of ghosting. What terrifies me most now about dying isn't the concept of death, but the idea I might still be damned to travel to fucking work everyday.

I'll continue to monitor Chris and hope Thomas gets back in time.

Still surviving
Katherine

Entry 2 - Bitten

CURRENT SURVIVORS:

Chris was bitten last night. He managed to hide it until this morning, but it became obvious very quickly. He cried. I cried.

We don’t know what to do. According to the rumours, those that have been bitten are infected and will die. This might not be true; there were a lot of dramatic stories in the early days. Everything from smoking zombies with huge tongues to zombies that can’t come out during the day- both which turned out to be false.

Chris, Thomas and I discussed what we needed to do. Chris wanted us to kill him. He's a bit dramatic for things like that. We don't have guns, it wouldn't be quick, and it would involve us basically beating him to death. Despite everything we’ve done, none of us are prepared to murder someone alive.

Thomas said we could leave him. I’m not prepared to abandon Chris if there’s a chance he’ll survive. Thomas said we’ve survived by avoiding risks. We argued. It got heated. He lost.

It was agreed. We stay. We make this house a fortress, we gather supplies and medicine and we wait. We pray the rumours aren't true.

The cottage is isolated at the top of a hill, in a small hamlet of about eight houses. Half a mile down the road is the nearest village, Blackmore, population no more than a few hundred with limited services. About 10 miles North is Chelmsford, a much larger town with it's own hospital. We should see minimal zombies here in this isolated spot, so if we’re going to bunker down for a while this place is as good as any.

We started immediately. We salvaged wood from the furniture in the house, smashing up the wooden chairs, dining table and shed out the back, which contained some handy tools and nails. The windows and unused doors were boarded up.

Next we gathered all the food, water and batteries we had, which wasn't a lot. The three of us raided three of the eight surrounding houses - all abandoned - taking the food and bottled water we found.
Good thing about middle-class country folk is their strong desire to drink bottled water. I used to laugh at the pointlessness of bottled water, the ultimate consumer product, paying for something we get basically for free. Only idiots and the smug would buy 'better' H2O. Now I praise their very souls every time I find a stash in a dead fridge- life's funny like that. Gotta be flexible.

The final thing we had to do is bury Chris’s biter; our night time intruder. Despite the anger, I can only pity these things. It’s easy to forget every single one had a life; worries, goals, self esteem issues, love, bad habits... Everything that makes us human. Pictures around the house tell me she's a mother of two.

Even so, we buried her only to protect us from disease. Our faces were grim.

Still surviving,
Katherine