November 25, 2020 – Winter is Coming
Winter is coming, and I am only halfway to Oregon’s mountains. The autumn leaves are piling up on the roads; deer and rabbits are becoming scarcer to find. If this keeps up, I may need to consult my map to look for an abandoned 7-Eleven along the road that I can raid. They usually have a lot of canned goods and bottled water that last for quite a while that I can get my hands on.
November 30, 2020 – The Highway
Riding my bicycle down the motorway is always a risk, there are stalled cars here and there with closed windows and zombies trying to get out by feebly trying to break the glass. Thankfully, the sealed cars are the perfect environment for decay to set in. Their muscles have long since wasted away to nothing which makes their attempts to break out useless. Still, it is much safer than trying to go through the woods surrounding the highway.
People often think that going through the woods is safer since they do not have to deal with the zombies in the cars, I say that dealing with trapped zombies is much safer. In a forest, it is hard to see if the zombies are massing to surround you because of the trees (Schmeink 67). At least with the highway, you have a clear line of sight and can spot groups of zombies from far away enough that you can temporarily go around them.
December 6, 2020 – The Travellers
Remember what I said earlier about sticking to the highways as much as possible? Unfortunately, a group of people I encountered did not agree with this clever bit of knowledge. I met them near a broken-down gas station they were exploring for some spare gas that could have been left behind. Admittedly, this was a good idea since gasoline is an excellent way to start a fire. It was a tense first meeting since we did not know each other and it is not that surprising that there are groups of people out there that would and have killed other people just to survive. We stuck together for a few days since there was safety in numbers and I have to admit that I missed being able to talk and interact with people (Fraustino and Ma 225). It all came to a close when we encountered a bend in the highway.
The group decided to head to Brownville, which supposedly had one of the warehouses for Wal-Mart in it. We were looking forward to living it up for the next year or so through the cache of supplies that should be there.
There was no particular rush in getting there, but the others wanted to get to the town through the forest instead of going around it via the highway. There were arguments about the shortest distance between two points is a straight line and that the woods did not seem that bad. I did not want to go through the woods at all. I have lived this long sticking by the rules I made for myself. Since I was stubborn about it, the group agreed to split up. I would take the highway to the town while they would go through the forest. We parted amicably, and three days later I arrived at the town and headed for the warehouse.
December 11, 2020 – The Fallen
The warehouse was not what I expected; yes there were cans of food, but I doubt it could have lasted our group a year. Maybe a month or so but then that would be it. However, while eating a can of apricots and waiting for them to arrive I started to wonder what was taking them so long. I got here first after all, which is ridiculous since I took the long way to get there, even with my bike. So for three days straight I kept a lookout with my binoculars facing the forest. They never arrived.
April 20, 2021 – The Lazy Inherit the Earth
Spending four months in that large warehouse with no one but myself for the company made me think about the start of this madness that engulfed the world. It started innocently enough, a flue shot to end all flu shots was what the pharmaceutical company said (Wheeler 62). Supposedly, laboratory testing showed that it would make us all immune from disease and would even extend our lives. I did not get a shot; I will not state that I had an inkling or a suspicion that something was wrong or that the entire process seemed unnatural to me. I was simply too lazy to get it when I had the chance.
It was laziness, nothing more and nothing less. So when the reports started of people acting erratically or suddenly convulsing, I merely thought it was a gas leak or some new drug entering the market. What I did not expect was for screams to echo in the night as my next-door neighbor suddenly thought that human flesh is the new sushi. Oddly enough, this happened while I was watching the latest season of Orange Is the New Black.
July 13, 2021 – Oregon
I finally made it to Oregon, bleak though it is, for the first time in several years I finally feel safe. Why Oregon? It is the combination of the cold climate along with the mountains in the area that make it ideal. Avoiding zombies for the past four years has taught me a trick or two when it comes to surviving. First, weapons are useless in the long term since the infection spreads via contact with their fluids. Yes, you can use a gun but those run out of ammo (Verran 103). Second, outrunning zombies is an exercise in futility, you need to rest they do not. It is best to avoid areas where they congregate rather than expect to outrun them (Drezner 830).
Lastly, they slow down significantly in the cold (Bitel 89). During winter, I saw many zombies frozen in place outside. This gave me the idea of moving from Florida to Oregon where the weather is cold. There are also mountains here that would hamper their movements. So here I am, in a large cabin, I found that is relatively close to a lake. I have freshwater, the forest and lake have animals and fish I can trap. Best of all, only a few people used to live in the area which means fewer zombies. I can live here and just wait for the zombies to rot away into nothing. I am going to check out the other cabins in the area tomorrow. Hopefully, I can find additional supplies that will help me.
Works Cited
Bitel, Anton. “Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse.” Sight & Sound 26.1 (2016): 89. Print.
Drezner, Daniel W. “Metaphor Of The Living Dead: Or, The Effect Of The Zombie Apocalypse On Public Policy Discourse.” Social Research 81.4 (2014): 825-849. Print.
Fraustino, Julia Daisy, and Liang Ma. “CDC’s Use Of Social Media And Humor In A Risk Campaign—“Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse”.” Journal Of Applied Communication Research 43.2 (2015): 222-241. Print.
Schmeink, Lars. “Scavenge, Slay, Survive”: The Zombie Apocalypse, Exploration, And Lived Experience In Dayz.” Science Fiction Studies 43.1 (2016): 67. Print.
Verran, James. “Monsters, Microbiology And Mathematics: The Epidemiology Of A Zombie Apocalypse.” Journal Of Biological Education (Routledge) 48.2 (2014): 98-104. Print.
Wheeler, Pat. “‘Another Generation Cometh’: Apocalyptic Endings And New Beginnings In Science Fictional New London(S).” Critical Survey 25.2 (2013): 57-70. Print.