Living With the Dead: This New Disease (Book 5) (29 page)

Posted
by 
Josh
Guess
There's
a lot of risk involved in this huge project. We're going to expand
our population by a factor of ten. The sheer logistics of the
situation are dangerous by themselves. We'll be tapping every source
of fuel we have and can locate to make transporting people and
materials possible. Moving so openly is going to invite attack,
that's a foregone conclusion.
That's totally ignoring natural
disasters out there, zombie attacks at home, or old enemies making
moves against us.
It's going to be a process. Long, grueling,
and probably pretty fucking boring most of the time. We're choosing
to be slow and methodical because careful people have much less
chance of being shot in the face or getting their intestines ripped
apart for an appetizer. The only reason the whole process has a shot
at working is because we aren't going to have to divert our people to
make it happen. In fact, our own workforce will be bolstered by the
folks coming here while a dedicated group of them work on expanding
New Haven. It's a mutually beneficial situation; we get more security
and a chance to grow in ways we couldn't have dreamed of a year ago,
and they get away from North Jackson's cramped quarters into a place
that desperately needs them, with tons of room to expand.
Everyone
is really excited and super hopeful. I feel the need to be the voice
of caution here. Growth is good, and we don't face much risk of
unknowns here. NJ is very similar to New Haven in how they handle
rules and laws as well as the expectation we have for each other. But
growth is often difficult and painful. It's not going to be sunshine
and rainbows shooting out of everyone's asses nonstop. No two wholly
different groups of people, total strangers, can just meet up and mix
perfectly with no friction. We've taken in enough people here to know
the drill and to prepare for it. I just don't want anyone getting so
excited they make avoidable mistakes.
It's going to be a while
before the big work can start. There are some minor details to work
out, like securing enough extra fuel to cover any unforeseen problems
in the transport process. There are also a lot of dangerous cargoes
that need to be hauled first and with minimal staff before the main
construction here can begin.
AHHHH! This is a problem! Too
many damn details and every time I go to write anything about this
grand plan I start to go off on tangents. Can't afford to do that too
often since we've got enough things to worry about here.
Food
shouldn't be too much of an issue. I know that sounds insane but our
transplants are bringing literally tons of preserved foods with them.
Many, many tons. But that doesn't mean we can last forever, and this
brutal heat wave is hurting our crops. We've got cisterns all over
the place but no amount of water can stop the sun from damaging our
food...and we're going to need every scrap to keep up with the new
mouths to feed.
We've got options, but they require some risk
and travel. And while the zombies are less obviously threatening
during the hotter parts of the day, the sight of them wandering
around inside New Haven has all of us a little on edge. The kind of
on edge that makes people shoot first and apologize later. The Exiles
don't seem to be moving toward threatening behavior at the moment,
but none of us trust them at all. I don't know that a decade living
across the river from them would be enough for that to happen. It
might be stupid and overly cautious, but we've got to plan every move
on the assumption that they're just biding their time in order to hit
us at exactly the right moment.
The one bright spot at the
moment is that we're pulling ahead in the race against the new
plague. It's not a done deal by any stretch, but it looks like most
of the people that were going to get sick have done, and better than
half of the ill folks are healthy enough for the sauna. Most of the
rest of them want to try it, but Evans and Phil are still worried
over how the insanely hot air will affect their already very bad
breathing.
I always try to end on a note that sums up how I
feel or gives some small portion of context to the post, but today I
can't do that. We're at a crossroads of such vast importance that I'm
having a hard time pinning down any part of it. So many things can go
wrong, so many plans and hopes ride on this working out, and there
are so many situations we're currently dealing with that it seems
completely fucking crazy to even try this.
So instead of some
parting line that might or might not be moving, seem wise, or appear
insightful, I just want to say that I'm hopeful this all works out.
I'm equally scared that it won't, and things here will stagnate and
begin to fall apart, and that it will. Because then everything will
change. I still see New Haven as my place, a small home that I helped
found and design. What will it be when and if it covers five times
the area and there are teams of people doing the jobs I've done? Who
will I be when I'm a redundant part in a larger machine, no longer a
loud voice among a small group.
Honestly, I really am
terrified at both possibilities, but I lean toward seeing the changes
happen. They're frightening but exciting, and I think ultimately
positive.

Posted
by 
Josh
Guess
Later
today we'll be meeting the first group of settlers from North
Jackson. This is an advance unit composed of soldiers that want to
migrate south and folks who don't have proper homes due to the
overcrowding at NJ. They won't be working to bring resources here.
That comes next, the official first step in our huge expansion.
Before we can break ground, haul in thousands of gallons of fuel,
tons of food, and frightening amounts of propane, we have to clear
the way.
A hundred people will be coming in today, all armed
to the teeth and experienced with on-the-ground survival against
overwhelming forces of zombies. This will be the only set of
immigrants that will be wholly composed of adults. No kiddos allowed
for this one given how dangerous it's going to be.
A hundred
people whose only purpose is killing zombies. Who will bring with
them armor, vehicles, and weapons built toward that end. It gives me
a little chill thinking about it.
While we certainly need to
thin the number of zombies around here down as much as possible to
begin work on the expansion, it's going to be awesome for us in
general. People are still really nervous about the New Breed
incursion, and the constant bustle of zombies has made it difficult
to manage the simplest trips outside. Now that we're getting people
well by slightly cooking them alive (I feel like a supervillain
typing that...) the situation isn't quite as bad, though we're not
anywhere near full strength.
So, yeah. Armed group of people
dedicated to relentlessly slaughtering the undead irritating us like
sand in a wound? Total win. We're thrilled at the prospect of not
having that pressure on us.
We're going to send some of our
own people out with them, naturally. We know the area best. The
newcomers will be doing the lion's share of the fighting, but we'll
have some skin in the game as well. Not just fighters, but also
planning the strategies and tactics the fighters will be using
against the undead. I'll be organizing all the logistics--fuel
allocation, food and water, schedule rotations. Basically my normal
job, but while the teams are operating, this will be my only
responsibility.
Ah. Will just sent me a message. He wants me
to have an outline of everything I just described ready by morning.
That's going to take a lot of time and work. Guess it's a good thing
we're in another calm spot and I don't have much news to share, isn't
it? I love that Will sees me as being capable of doing just about
anything he asks, but I begin to wonder if he thinks I'm a miracle
worker. This must be how Scotty on 
Star
Trek 
felt.
I
was planning on going outside the walls today with a few scouts to
get an idea of how the zombies are moving so I could develop a
strategy, but that will have to wait.

Posted
by 
Josh
Guess
This
is going to be one of those weird and scattered posts, mainly because
I've been awake all night. I'm really not sure how I keep managing to
do that without caffeine but somehow I'm not exhausted and dumb. I've
been busy as hell since my post yesterday, first with the outline for
our plan of attack, then catching up on replying to a ton of messages
from people, 
then 
making
a late run out with a scout team to check out the layout of the
zombies in the area.
After all that was said and done, I came
home to edit and revise the plan of attack. Will had a meeting with
the team leaders from North Jackson that arrived yesterday, along
with Dodger and the people from here that will be going with them.
Everyone had ideas on how to make the trip safer and more efficient,
so I decided to skip sleep in order to get ahead of the curve on our
game plan.
That took me until about four this morning, which
was right when a small but strong group of New Breed hit the wall
right where the annex and the east wall meet. Fortunately we've moved
back to full compliments of guards and sentries, or things could have
been messy. Fully half of the new arrivals ran like hell from the
expansion (the one made of shipping containers, not the large
expansion we'll be starting soon. Duh. They aren't time travelers.)
and surprised our guards on duty by running about thirty feet north
and jumping off the catwalks and over the wall.
The numbers
were about even: fifty people to fifty New Breed. Not that there was
any sort of competition, mind you--those people know their business
and have a lot of practice working as a unit. They sleep with their
weapons right next to them and don't hesitate.
The front rank,
ten of them, had shields and bashed the closest zombies in backward
with them. The folks behind them had long catchpoles, basically just
a big fork with two tines that they used to trip any zombies close
enough. To the sides were ten archers, two teams composed of three
bowmen and two crossbowmen. The remaining twenty in the back rushed
through the middle as the zombies were bashed, tripped, and
transfixed on arrows, and waded into the crowd. Those folks all wear
armor of one kind or another and they're damn efficient at what they
do. Our guards were so shocked by the ferocity of the newcomers that
a few of them forgot to fire their arrows.
It was pretty
amazing, I have to tell you. I got a case of the warm fuzzies just
seeing the last few minutes of the fight.
Also, I'm a lot more
comfortable knowing just how terribly good these people are at this
kind of thing. I knew they had practice since they helped clear the
undead from the environs near NJ, but seeing them in action was a bit
like watching fifty Masons cut loose. Mason was scary dangerous and
never showed a trace of fear, but he was just one man.
And
like Mason, these people are mortal. They're citizens of New Haven
now, part of our community. Their lives are as important as anyone's
and losing any of them as we lost Mason would be awful. I guess
that's part of why I'm so happy they seem to have their shit
together. Being an army of one is fantastic, but being part of an
actual army is way better.
The last few hours of this morning
I spent finishing up some odds and ends, one of which was looking
over comments on the blog. One struck me as particularly relevant to
current events: a reader out there, probably a survivor who has been
out of the loop for a while as many are, asking about survivors
outside of the US. Basically they wanted to know what we know about
who may be alive out there, and where.
I've touched on this
before, but it bears repeating and updating from time to time.
We
have a hard time getting in direct contact with other continents. We
have allies in southern Canada and some acquaintances farther north.
Mexico is a bit of a no-man's land, mostly avoided due to a serious
glut of Marauders in the very far south of the US. We know from
Becky--who made her way here through ten kinds of hell and across an
ocean--that there are plenty of folks left alive in Europe and the
middle east. From third and forth-hand sources we know that there are
some strong communities of survivors in northern Africa and probably
spread all over that continent, though as with most of the world
communication with them is almost impossible. I've heard that India
is essentially a dead country, which shouldn't surprise anyone. The
population density there was a worst-case scenario for the zombie
plague.
Asia I have no solid or believable news about, though
the Chinese and the Russians have long histories of surviving against
ridiculous odds and overcoming impossible foes. I wouldn't be
surprised if someone rolled up into Moscow and just ran into a group
of old Russian women sitting around a campfire made of zombie
corpses, drinking good vodka and telling dirty jokes.
Most of
the eastern hemisphere is out of touch with us, and the lovely people
at Google can only do so much. Few cell towers work on that side of
the world, and the ones that do don't necessarily communicate with
the satellites Google uses to keep us all talking to each other.
I
wish that weren't the case, I wish it very badly. Just as the people
who've moved from North Jackson are our brothers and sisters, people
worthy of our support, respect, and concern, so are those nameless
people struggling half a world away. Some of those folks helped Becky
survive and get closer to home, so I owe them an endless debt for
returning a person I love to me. I wish I could tell them myself what
that means, but I can't.
Maybe someday, but all things in
their time. That just isn't right now.