ZWD: King of an Empty City (38 page)

             
As for me, what happened to George? The web designer turned king turned interim president? I’m a farmer! What did you expect? Food is very important around here. There are two lots along Chester where a long time ago there used to be two apartment complexes. They were torn down years ago and have been empty fields ever since. We turned them into our main farmland and our first year’s worth of crops barely kept us alive. But thanks to an aggressive sanitation and composting program and a lot of dedicated people, I think we’re going to have a good crop this year. I certainly hope so, because with Sarah pregnant, I want the baby to survive.

             
I like working with the land. It’s very relaxing. Getting your hands dirty is very satisfying, eating what you grow. We tried to make beer this past spring with some of the crops. It didn’t go well, so we’re going to try again this coming spring. I think we have a better understanding of how to do it now. We had to build a big fence along Chester because that’s where our fields border the outside world and a lot of people try to sneak in and get the food. More than a few people have been shot trying to do so. It’s probably the most guarded spot we have.

             
We had a spring celebration last week. Everything was going great. People were making music by any means available. We had a lot of people from our local friendly communities in to visit us. There was food and contests planned. It kind of reminded me of an old county fair before electricity. Eddie had just announced the museum exhibit for our library here at Philander Smith where there will be little statues of us made from Ken and Barbie dolls, along with our photos and this diary.

              We made it. We are here.

The End

Appendix

This entire story started out as a tweeted story on Twitter because I didn’t know what else to put on there. The little captions at the start of each chapter are from most of the original tweets. After a while as you read the story you’ll find that I started straying from the tweets and the story took a direction of its own. I went with the story that I was now telling instead of trying to follow the tweets, but I kept them mainly out of my own interest.

              If you’ve been reading them and following them, you’ll see that they stop abruptly in the middle of the story. Had I followed them the story would have dragged out a lot longer and a lot slower. Keep in mind I was making them up daily and didn’t really have a story in mind when I started tweeting.

              But if you’re interested in what that story would have looked like, here are the rest of the original tweets right up to the point I decided, after much encouragement from tweet readers, to write this story. So here are the last eleven chapters to the original story.

Enjoy.

Appendix.

Left a message for them. "Meet me at post office Broadway." We’ll set up a sniper just in case. These days I’m careful w/neighbors.

Stopped by the hidden freezer 4 more meat. It’s still frozen solid. Back to the Safeway roof and our camp. This meeting got me worried.

ZWD: Jan 01. As we thought, the folks from the school were going to steal from us. Hidden in the hillside we blew a gas can & brought zombies on them

From Safeway roof watched 7 zombies drift down the alley. 1 looked in bad shape. I don’t feel sorry for them. We could be their food.

ZWD: Jan 03. The sun sits low in the sky, glair off everything, can't see. Someone is moving around below. Sometimes I catch the glint of metal.

Shots ring out. They’re trying to hit us on the roof. I count 7 different guns. Must protect the ladder up to here. 2 trying to sneak up.

We wait till a head clears the roof before shooting. 2 down, I can see the zombies coming down the street. Attracted to the gunfire.

We wait and listen from the roof. Zombies get 5 of them. Lots of gunfire. 2 on the run. Days for the dead to drift away. Rations for2.

In a few hours we’ll take the new dead’s heads & loot the bodies, it’s the best place to find lighters. No sign of the 2 living friends.

2 days rations for us both. With this many dead around we will have 2 wait 2 days before we’re really safe to scavenge again.

ZWD: Jan 04. 2 gunshots this morning. We checked the pole note. From Bob ”U ok?” we heard a fight. Maybe it wasn’t then. Wrote back “still alive.”

ZWD: Jan 06. Came down w/bug. Sick all night. Real comfort to know your spouse is standing watch ready to comfort or blow your brains out if you turn.

ZWD: Jan 08. After 2days and better. Woke once to a gun at my head in the heat of fever. We have never seen someone turn into zombie being careful.