Entry 7 - Do not drive

 CURRENT SURVIVORS:

 

Okay, here's something new to add to the zombie survival advice: Do not drive during the zombie apocalypse. I cannot stress this enough. Rule number one is do not make loud noises. Driving violates rule number one. Violating rules is bad. I honestly thought the military would have figured this out by now. Two khaki morons drive by the hide-out to pick me driving in a frickin' jeep! Before I knew it we got swamped by zombies from every direction, drawn to the noise. I figure my hide-out is compromised so I bolt for the vehicle and jump in. Then the guys frickin' drive the same way back that they came from! So they drive back into the zombies amassed on their trail. Needless to say we were using zombies as speed bumps before long. With zombies clinging onto our vehicle on all sides, the driver loses control and smashes into a wall.

As I'm trying to regain my composure, the zombies grab the driver through the window. He stands no chance; they drag him screaming out of the car and start biting chunks out of his body. The last I see before I turn away to escape is the awful twitching of a body in complete shock and denial. I escape onto the roof through the now broken back window. Meanwhile the passenger army guy is up, he's seeing his dying friend and bursts out of his side door, machine gun blazing. The sheer numbers of the zombies drawn to this escapade must quickly sap his fighting spirit, because he quickly joins me on the roof.

Together we flee across the jeep's crumpled roof and over the broken wall. We run for several minutes through overgrown fields until we're both panting before stopping. What a fuckery. He introduces himself as Jim. His friend the driver was Bobby. I go on to inform him of my disapproval of their tactics in a significantly unfriendly way. After an exchange of obscenities we start moving towards a base a days walk away, where he says Thomas is staying. This has not been a good few days.

Still Surviving

Katherine

SURVIVOR UPDATE:

Sometimes Cynical - An Introduction

Even before the zombie apocalypse I used to think people were mindless, glassy eyed and shallow fools. Blindingly wandering around staring into their phones, completely oblivious to the vastness of potential experience of the entire world around them. I watched as people tried desperately to get a job without even truly knowing why. I watched as they neglected their own lives in place of talentless and exaggerated celebrities. I watched as they fucked each other, fought each other, always with the same big fucking stupid grin on their faces. Never for love, not even for passion. They did it to provide their tiny lives with some false sense of self worth - never seeming to realise the pointlessness of the exercise. People were clueless. I look out the window now and I don't see anything different. At least no-one here is trying to deny what they've been all along.

There are real people out there still. Just like there was before. Faces in a sea of people. A tiny minority of who actually see the world, who actually take in their senses while everyone else lives in their heads. I've seen one person. A beautiful woman with red hair. I watched her in the barricaded house up the street. Maybe I can find someone who shares my values, and we can explore this world together. 

They came and took her. The military in a military jeep. Everything I've ever hated in a man. A whole group of individuals who deliberately adhere to hyper-masculine norms while submitting all autonomy to the nearest authority figure. They cannot think for themselves. Worst of all, they love themselves, and think others do and should also.

I must rescue her.

MILITARY-ONE (Update on research files)

I am still no closer to understanding the outbreak than when it first started. My recent experiements have provided interesting results, but rather than enrich my knowledge, it seems to have undermined previous assumptions. These set of experiments were designed to understand the workings of a zombie, how and why their cells survive even when the body has taken so much damage the original 'person' has died. The results are explained below:

EXPERIMENT 23: Blood flow in a zombie

Abstract: This preliminary experiment aimed to understand blood flow around an infected corpse. Blood flow is essential in delivering vital components, such as oxygen and glucose, to organs and muscles to enable cells to work efficently. Zombies do not bleed if cut as a regular person would. Nor do those that have bled to death and then become infected have any trouble with movement. Studies have revealed those 'infected alive' or pseudo-zombie as it has been called, do indeed have a typical circulation system. However, 'regular' infected dead do not. This suggests the virus must use an alternative system, perhaps in parallel to reanimate and then work dead cells. This system might work in parallel to the typical circulation system, thus explaining why the pseudo-zombie is the much quicker and dangerous type. As of yet, this alternative system to maintain cells is a complete mystery. Samples reveal that some cells are indeed repaired and replaced if infected after death, how or why a virus would do this is also a complete mystery.

EXPERIMENT 24: Nerve cell repair and transmission in zombies

Abstract: The brain is the command centre of the body, responsible for everything from automatic breathing to abstract thought. It is well documented that destroying or damaging the brain causes the destruction of a zombie, and those who die of high trauma to the head do not reanimate as a zombie (see Experiments 4-11). However, it is not understood why the brain cannot be repaired in ways other cells in the body can (and with apparent ease), espicially when only minimal function is required. While my experience is not with neurological functioning, I was able to examine the spinal cord for a short period of a restrained zombie male. Voltage testing revealed that nerve cells do not seem to travel up or down the spinal cord in a regular zombie. Under increased magnification I was able to observe a fine layer of new material on the outside of the spinal cord which did show electronic activity in relation ot movement from the zombie. This unknown material tranversed small breaks in the spinal cord, but not large ones. Theoretically this could be used to repair minor spinal cord damage in an individual. Again, I wonder how a virus is capable of this.

EXPERIMENT 21: Can a zombie starve to death? (ongoing)

This is an update from my previous entry regarding this experiment. As of yet the zombie is still 'alive', this is 6 weeks in. However, weight loss has been occurring, albeit at a very slow rate. This has slowed even more over time. Zombies do seem to require nourishment to survive, I had feared I had lost grip on my scientific reasoning. They appear to have an incredibly slow metabolism. It seems my subject will expire eventually, but after an extended period of time. Zombies able to access food will be able to survive for an incredbily long time, thus attempting to 'wait out' the Event may take longer than intially calculated.

Signing off

Doctor James Rhodes