drtachy
I have construction!
Posts: 26
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Post by drtachy on Jan 26, 2010 22:37:51 GMT -5
Today brought terrible news. Both St. Bruno's and St. Joseph's have fallen to the infected. I spent a good part of the day recuperating in a nearby building. Occasionally I would peer from the window to see the increasing carnage below.
At one point, I was able to slip inside unnoticed for a few minutes. The doors were wide open, snow blowing in, covering the blood in the foyer. I was able to shut them temporarily, slowing the zeds down a bit. I used my few remaining first aid kits on some of the remaining stalwart defenders, but the aid I could give considering the situation was small.
The bodies were piled everywhere. In the hospitals, in the streets, it was a literal bloodbath. I drug a few fresh corpses outside the hospitals, hoping to slow the destruction long enough for the remaining survivors to escape.
The stench of death blows strong on the winds in North Blythville tonight. I would advise any one that still believes in a higher power to pray for assistance. It probably wouldn't hurt for the non-believers to pitch in too. We need all the help we can get.
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drtachy
I have construction!
Posts: 26
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Post by drtachy on Jan 28, 2010 10:06:16 GMT -5
A large group of survivors rallied at Neot General after we lost St. Bruno's and St. Joseph's. The horde was quick to follow. We had a few hours to gather as many supplies as we could before the inevitable mass of shambling death fell upon us. Ironically, every first aid kit I was able to scrounge up went immediatly back into the crowd as they tried to hold the hospital. When the medical plaza fell, I had exactly the same amount of supplies I had when I arrived at Neot; zero. By the time it was over, the survivors had scattered like roaches across North Blythville.
I've encountered a few stragglers in the immediate area, but haven't seen near the number of survivors I am used to lately. Reports have come over the radio of other areas in the suburb being ransacked by the scourge. We've all heard that it gets darkest before the dawn, but I'll be cursed if every day isn't darker than the last lately. I've refueled a few generators in the area over the last few hours. Perhaps a futile attempt to stave off the darkness a little longer, but it helps make things a bit more manageable.
We are all living examples of the human condition. We continue to fight day and night to retain some sense of sanity in this mad world, to stay alive, to stay human. The cold reality is that many if not all of us will die instead of find our ways out of this abbatoir. I guess in that aspect there is a bit of relief to know that death is no longer permanent. Our final release has been taken from us. Welcome to Hell.
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drtachy
I have construction!
Posts: 26
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Post by drtachy on Jan 29, 2010 17:06:32 GMT -5
Had a pretty nasty spill this morning, resulting in a round of unconciousness and a concussion. The vomiting has stopped, but I'm still rather weak and very disoriented. Not a good combination considering the neighbors.
After evacuating Neot's I headed west. My plan was to slip up into a neighborhood that had been spared the fury of the Mob for a bit and maintain a low profile until the they left North Blythville. Overstock on some supplies and come back down to clean up. The ruin that remained in Mornington after the Mob moved into North Blythville was unbelievable. Block upon block of destroyed buildings. So much blood in some places it had melted the snow, black puddles and red ice covering the streets. Doors ripped from their hinges, broken into jagged pieces. Broken glass competing to outshine the snow and ice.
I wandered around for a while, amazed at how empty the streets were. The Mob came through like a tsunami and abraided the streets of all life. Eventually I came upon a hospital, the doors wide open, the groans of the undead blending with the screams and shouts of the living, with the crack of small arms fire completing the symphony of the law of the jungle that is so much a part of our daily life lately.
I peered through the doorway and saw three survivors fighting off two zombies. A third lay sprawled on the bloody tile, motionless. I stepped inside, grabbed the corpse, and pulled her outside, dumping her in the gutter. I ran back into the hospital and shut the doors, pulling an ice machine and a row of chairs over to slow access to the building.
Moving quickly through the wards, I was able to piece together a few first aid kits. I rushed back to the survivors and used one of them on the most injured. They had dropped one of the zeds and were now ganging up on the one that remained. I dragged the newly fallen infected up the stairs and dumped it unceremoniously out the window, somewhat ashamed that the resulting thud made me smile a bit.
I spent a bit more time searching unsuccesfully for supplies and decided to move on, hoping to find a relatively safe place in which to hole up and get some rest. I noticed the roof of the building next door was about ten feet lower than the second floor of the hospital so I climbed out a window. Gauging the distance, I leapt to the adjacent building, preparing to roll when I hit the roof. Unfortunately, it was in such a state of disrepair following the recent wave of undeath that the roof crumbled beneath me, dropping me onto the concrete floor below, knocking me unconcious.
I'm going to rest up a bit before I decide on my next course of action. Probably check out the hospital again, search for some supplies. If it's in the hands of the infected again, I'll probably head to the other hospitals in Mornington before I head back home to North Blythville. Hopefully they're a bit more in order than the one next door.
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drtachy
I have construction!
Posts: 26
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Post by drtachy on Feb 2, 2010 11:48:23 GMT -5
The last few days...wow. Looking back it seems to be a nightmare, so much has happened in so little time.
I had stopped to rest in a factory somewhere in the north end of Mornington. There were a couple of other chaps there that welcomed me in and shared their supplies with me. They had been in Mornington during the invasion of the Mob, doing their best to keep the area together. We spent the early part of the evening trading stories about things we had seen over the last few days; where the zeds are most concentrated, which buildings were beyond repair, that sort of thing. We traded shifts through the night, keeping an ear out for nasties wandering the street.
In the morning we parted ways. I decided to give the hospitals one last shot as I was out of first aid kits. About halfway to Sixtus General I attracted the attention of what had to be the most vocal zombie I've seen to date. I was making my way through a carpark, came around a large truck, and there he was. I don't know who was more surprised to see the other. I sprinted across the asphalt to the junkyard a block over, hoping to at least slow his pursuit with the fence and the rusting towers of yesterdays dreams. He lunged after me, screaming and moaning, a combination of anger and feeding call.
My pant leg snagged on the fence as I climbed over and the infected caught up with me. He grabbed my leg and tried to pull me back down. My hands sliding along the icy metal, I kicked out with my other leg. The second or third kick to the head caused the zombie to lose his grip and I vaulted over the fence. He continued his ululation, and I could hear the hoarse, grating reply from several of his companions nearby, coming closer.
The hospital was only a couple of blocks away, I could see it in the distance. I ran through the maze of rusting cars and kitchen appliances to the opposite side of the junkyard. The gates were wide open and there were several zeds coming through. I waited for a moment out of sight, catching my breath and waiting for them to move far enough in to open a path through them, no matter how small. I peaked around the corner, saw an opening, and ran through it.
Halfway across the plaza to Sixtus they caught me. They fell on me with rending claws and tearing teeth, the smell of their foetid breath causing vomit to rise in my throat. I could feel my flesh being torn and ripped from my body in several places. Blows were raining down on my head and shoulders, disorienting me. While being violently yanked back and forth my left shoulder dislocated. Flailing wildly with my crowbar, I escaped their clutches and ran to the hospital, the pack of ravenous undead at my heels. The doors to Sixtus had been ripped from the building and several shambling corpses were moving around the entrance. I had no where else to go but in.
I shoved my way into the Emergency Department and lost the hungry mob in the meandering corridors of the hospital. There were a few solitary zeds in the halls, but nothing quite so fear-inspiring as the dozen that had almost cut my life short a few moments before. I found my way into the operating theater, blocked the doors, and did my best to calm down.
In the fight for my life, I had been left with several deep lacerations, all bleeding profusely. I was beginning to get light headed as the adrenaline wore off and the blood loss caught up with me. I searched though the shelves and cabinets and found some sutures, bandages, some Bupivacaine, and some epinephrine. Time being of the essence, I gave my self an injection of epi to combat my fatigue. It would be a nasty crash when all was said and done, but I planned on being boarded up somewhere to sleep it off. At least I hoped. I fastened my belt around my left wrist, attaching the other end to one of the tables in the theater. Several deep breaths, a yank, and a muffled scream later, my left arm was back in place. Tightly binding the worst of my wounds, I headed back into the streets as quickly as I could.
As I rushed outside the ever-hungry horde outside once again made chase. I was a few blocks into Reaganbank before I lost them. My foray into other suburbs being fruitless, I decided it was time to head back to North Blythville to see about cleaning things up. I wormed my way through some gaps in the fence around another salvage yard, and used some sheet metal to block the holes behind me. My clothes in tatters, I spent some time inside searching and found some clothes in a better state of repair. Removing my bandages, I opened the sutures and closed the most urgent of my wounds, but had several remaining that I wished I'd had sutures for. Tight bandages and the anesthetic would have to suffice. My borrowed adrenaline spent, I fell into a deep sleep.
Have you ever awoken to find someone trying to eat you? I think of all the things I have seen before and after this plague began, all the terrible injuries I've seen and repaired, both accidental and purposeful, waking up to find someone taking a bite out of you has to be the most disconcerting thing I've encountered. Kicking out, my boot landed solidly in the face of a zed that had made its way through the fence, knocking him a few feet across the concrete floor. I grabbed my bag and leaped through a window out into the streets, running toward North Blythville.
North Blythville looked like it had been the victim of a bombing raid. Buildings in ruin everywhere. I am constantly amazed that creatures of flesh and bone can cause such destruction to buildings of brick and metal. Heading east, I wandered the streets looking for signs of life. I came upon the cinema and noticed it's doors were closed, a good sign. I climbed up the fire escape in the rear and crawled through a window. I found a handful of survivors inside, among them Jake. We traded salutations and intel gathered over the last couple of days.
The doors exploded in a shower of splinters. Several zombies rushed in through the gaping doorway and set upon the survivors like rotting foxes in the hen house. I went down under a wave of putrescent flesh, screaming, uselessly swinging my crowbar until it was wrenched from my grasp. I heard Jake shouting as he was dragged out into the street to feed the zombies that remained outside. The unbearable yet all too familiar pain ended quickly.
Somehow I made it to the carpark. I remember someone pulling one of my eyelids up, letting the light shine in. It was James, an angel standing on the banks of the river Styx. He'd revived me. My limbs still numb and shackled in the memory of death, I was too weak to follow him as he headed out across the asphalt. I rolled over and pulled myself to a moving van sitting in the lot, and crawled inside the rear, pulling the door closed behind me. With so much fresh meat coming willingly to the carpark to save the newly undead, I felt rather safe inside.
Soon I will open the door and head out, searching for more survivors. Try to figure out a plan to rebuild our home, to create another place for us to pretend we are safe for just a little while, even though we all know it to be false.
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drtachy
I have construction!
Posts: 26
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Post by drtachy on Feb 9, 2010 12:45:53 GMT -5
I haven't had time to write, let alone think, for the last several days. We've been on a constant cycle of work, sleep, work, sleep trying to reclaim North Blythville.
Once I had recovered from the injection James gave me I waited in the back of the moving van until things outside were, pardon the pun, dead quiet. I lifted the back door as quietly as I could until I could peek out. There was a handful of infected wandering around, but they were obviously here for help, not to cause trouble. There were several bodies sprawled around the carpark, having recently been administered injections to restore them to life. I opened the door the rest of the way and hopped out of the van.
It was about an hour before dawn and the streets were empty. I wandered the streets and alleys, feeling as empty as the ruins around me. Knowing that the hospitals in N.B. were still not functioning, I decided to try my luck in neighboring Brooksville.
Entering Brooksville was like walking into the past. People rushing in and out of buildings, followed by hungry zeds. Shouts and screams, radio chatter and gunfire filled the air. Light shining from windows as far as the eye could see. I heard a shuffle and a grunt from the alley next to me, and turning I saw a slow moving zombie lurching my way. Quickly assessing my surroundings, I noticed an auto shop that was dark next to a fully lit and heavily barricaded fire station. I ran around the back of the auto shop and climbed a large rusted air compressor to gain access to the roof, much to the chagrin of the still hungry zombie that followed me. From the roof of the auto shop I was able to jump to a ledge on the fire station and climb in through a window.
I made my way downstairs and introduced myself to the half dozen survivors. They asked about the carnage next door in N.B. I told them that from what we could tell, the Mob had moved south, so they were relatively safe for now. One of the bandaged my remaining wounds. As I wandered the halls of the station, I glanced out a window and noticed a hospital a few blocks away. I went back and asked the man that had bandaged my wounds and he said the last he knew it was operational but had the constant attention of the zeds. That's why he stayed here. I rushed upstairs, climbed out a window, and made my way by rooftop to the hospital.
"St. John's" blazed in the early morning from the sign atop the building, a beacon calling survivor and undead alike. I slithered across some long dead power wires from a bank to an outbuilding on the hospital campus. From here I was able to get inside and start scavenging for supplies. As I searched the hospital I found the cafeteria and to my surprise was greeted with the sight of over four score survivors! I hadn't seen a gathering like this in ages. There were so many people here, eating, talking, napping, that they didn't even notice a new survivor among them. It was amazing. I stood there for several minutes, just watching. It was almost like the outside world didn't exist, like things were back to normal.
Reality sank back in and I resumed my search for first aid kits, leaving the cafeteria with a sense of melancholy not felt since in a long time. I spent the next several hours looking for supplies. Finally I climbed into a unit bed and went to sleep.
The next morning I went downstairs to grab something to eat and the doors to the atrium outside the cafeteria slowly opened. Everyone looked up as the cold wind blew in. I've not heard a silence like that in ages. We were staring at a lone zombie that was looking back at us in what can only be described as comical surprise. This had to be the largest buffet this zed had ever seen. I swear he smiled. I hope you never see a zed smile. I still shudder at the thought. Unfortunately for him, it was also the largest collection of firearms it had ever encountered.
Within a handful of seconds all of us in the cafeteria were deaf from the blast of dozens of pistols and shotguns. The zombie hit the ground with the first volley. The corpse was dragged to a nearby window and pitched to the ground below. There was much discussion as to how it had gotten into the atrium, the only doors that access it are the ones in the cafeteria. The best explanation put forth was that it was tossed from the roof of the police station next door, landing on the roof of the cafeteria below. Be careful where you deposit your dead.
My pack full of medical supplies, I grabbed some pre-packaged food and headed out across the rooftops back to North Blythville. I was forced to the streets a couple of times due to the remaining carnage from the invading Mob earlier, but my trip was uneventful. I ended up with several members of OM holed up in the manufactory south of the carpark we use for revives.
The next day we headed in different directions, some repairing nearby ruined buildings, some of us creating and reinforcing barricades. By the end of the day a goodly amount of buildings around us were rebuilt and 'caded. It will take some time, but we have a pretty good start on repairing the damage from the Mob and restoring North Blythville to its former 'beauty'.
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