Journal:Garrob
25/07/2013 - Graagh. Graaaagh! ARRRRH!!! ... Nah brabram.
I woke up (?) or maybe I didn't -- I wasn't sure. I can see, but why I'm laying in this vacant lot I don't know. I try too hard to get up and end up face down in the mud. It is raining. Hard. Mrh? I don't even know what that means! I try again and struggle to my feet, but they feel funny. Armah manz! Huh? I see a soldier leaning up against a burnt tree and start to go over to talk to him. As I get closer I get this incredible hunger pain that just won't stop. Hey! I shout, but he doesn't wake up. As I get closer to him my vision got fuzzy and I couldn't think of anything else except this incredible hunger pain... Before I even knew what I was doing I just attacked the poor sleeping guy. I kept hitting him and hitting him, and biting him, and finally... the pain started to subside. Startled, I ran out of that vacant lot. Pushing past a rusty gate that said, Norvell Crescent. I ran, and I ran, and I ran, until I couldn't run any further. I finally fell down in some soft grass in the middle of a cemetery exhausted. I slept. Restlessly...
A few hours later I woke up, feeling super refreshed! Got up, felt nimble... I could speak clearly... Wow! I lost my Vigour Mortis... Huh? That mysterious hunger pain totally gone. What the... a frickin syringe is dangling from my neck!? The label on it is hard to read, but it says, NecroTech. Combat Revived. Nah brabram... now I get to see what is inside those buildings.... hahahaha... maybe find me a flak jacket or map out where those bra!ns are hiding! Yeah... I can always find a building to jump off later. This is gonna be fun. Thank you, anonymous Revivalist!
26/07/2013 - Knock, knock, knock... Knock! KNOCK! KNOCK!!!
Wow, I know there are people inside, but every building I check is barricaded so strongly that I cannot even get in the door. I found a barricade guide for this suburb, but obviously it is old and useless. Every building I check which should be blocked enough to keep out zombies but open enough to let in young folks like myself, is blocked up solid. I finally stumbled upon a sleeping zombie and thought I could at least gain a little sparring practice with him, after all its not like I'd hurt anything if I killed him, so I doubled up my bare knuckles and let him have it. Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Nothing. My human hands are nothing like the zombie claws I woke up with yesterday. I was a whole day's worth of energy trying to gain a little experience boxing before I finally give up. At the last moment I stumbled into St. Boniface's Hospital and fall asleep exhausted from a full day on the run.
After what seemed like sleeping forever, I awoke after a really only 30 minute nap. I found myself surrounded by humans! Someone had bandaged my wounds from fighting in the street and I felt like new! This hospital seemed like a nice place to hang out for a bit while I try to figure out what to do. I decide to explore around a little and behind an upturned nurses desk I found a first-aid kit. I stuff it in my pack thinking that it might be useful later. As I returned to the group to sit down and listen to the others discussing things, I quickly dozed off with a sense of security that I had not previously felt.
27/07/2013 - Ahhh... I haven't felt so good in such a long time...
After a full-night's rest I awoke ready to give it a go again. While discussing things with the other survivors in the hospital, someone mentioned that there was still loads of useful stuff that had not been ransacked to be found in a nearby mall, Woodroffe Mall. It seems that surviving as a human is going to require some equipment. I thank everyone for all the good advice and then peep my head out from behind the hospital barricade. The street is empty. I head on out.
I come across one lone zombie outside the mall. After wasting 3 practice swings at his head, I decide it is better to explore so I leave him shambling behind and check out the mall. Blocked. Blocked. Blocked, and more blocked. The whole mall is locked tight -- I can't get in. So while I'm up that way I decide to check out the fire stations to see if I can find an axe or something that will at least give me something better than my fists to fight with. Conolly Row Fire Station was barricaded so much I couldn't even see the door, but much to my surprise Wimbridge Boulevard Fire Station had a barricade but it was low enough for me to scramble in. Inside I saw 2 folks sleeping so I decided to scavenge... After searching 6 or 7 rooms I found an axe. I strap it on my back so maybe now I can have some luck fighting it out with the zeds... I decide to rest up a bit so I can be in top-notch form when I have a chance to test my axe.
After a few hours I wake up when one of the others hiding in the fire station sees 2 flares go up about 10 blocks away. Everyone is silent and nobody wants to go outside to see what the flares were about. We assume that some humans were under attack... Several survivors in the fire station are muttering about how unfair it is that we cannot get into the mall to get badly needed supplies. One of the military men is organizing a group to start lowering the barricades. I'm tempted to join them, but I figure it is better that I try to fine a flak jacket first before I get caught up in further fighting, so I take a quick note of where nearby police stations are on the fire station's grand map, and then I head off to find one.
On the way, I spot 2 zeds swaying back and forth and I jump on them swinging my axe! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! I swing wildly and with all my force, but never once do I manage to land a blow. I quite wasting energy on fighting and run off towards the police stations with my main goal in mind: get a flak jacket. Finally after checking 5 or 6 police stations and finding every one of the heavily barricaded, I'm starting to run out of steam. Luckily I spot a burned out railway station with a minimal barricade so I enter there to spend the night. As I start to doze off I hear some far off screams and I quickly find myself dreaming about eating brains...
28/07/2013 -- Now what? I can't get in malls or police stations...
I wake up tired after an uneasy night. Gun shots in the distance and the occasional scream keeps me from ever sleeping soundly. It has been several days since I've had any success in a fight and that was before I got revived. It seems like I'm just spinning my wheels looking for an open door and everything is locked tight... I start wandering towards a different mall with little hope that things will be different. Every building I check is barricaded to the hilt and I start to wonder if it will end this way... me just wandering the streets like a stray dog until finally some hungry zombie decides to eat my brain. I take a few useless swings at one sleeping zombie, but I don't even inflict any damage so I quit wasting my strength and just continue on. When I run out of steam I rest up a bit in an abandoned lot, not even too worried about what might happen if a zombie wanders by. Maybe that is how I can end this useless existence. Provide a zombie lunch and wake back up undead. At least then I was eating well and I didn't seem to need a bunch of equipment I can't get just to survive. While musing such a fate, I remembered seeing some tall buildings uptown. All I've got to do is find one of those open and I can quickly get back to advancing in this world as the powerful zombie I started out as. One last view of this city from an upper story window and I can take one step back to getting on with my unlife so to speak. It would be so easy to simply leap out the window and wake back up undead. I decide that is the thing to do... So I alter my route to explore a few high-rise neighborhoods, checking every door I pass. Now even the high-rises are against me. One after another they too are heavily barricaded and I cannot find even one that I can enter.
When I cannot walk any further, I sit down in the middle of a park right next to a sleeping zombie. I figure he'll wake up soon and can put me out of my misery. I doze off in this miserable state... but when I wake up I'm still alive. The zombie is still sleeping and even after I take a couple of swings at him with my worthless axe, he continues to sleep. I keep looking for my tall building and finally find Philpotts Towers barricaded, but not too much for me to scramble on in. It is dark, but I manage to climb up some busted stairs to an upper floor. I find an open window and stare out over the city while I wait to regain my strength -- if I'm gonna wake up undead I want to do it with gusto!
For 4 hours I stare out over the city and I'm thinking this is about good enough. Soon I'll be able to hit the ground (literally!) running and continue on with my unlife. Then I hear a few squawks on the walkie-talkie I forgot I had stashed in my pack. It is another civilian that I met a few days ago. He too is getting frustrated at not being able to do anything. The poor guy is a shopping specialist and yet cannot even get into a single mall. We commiserate a bit and then like a flash from above, it dawns on me that we can help each other! He doesn't know how to fight, I'm not having any luck with it either, but we can start practicing with each other. Maybe we can both get better by sparring with each other, and of course if we need to we've got first-aid kits we can use to patch ourselves back up again. We can both gain experience that way and then perhaps we'll become powerful enough to finally break in to a mall or police station so we can loot all the good things that will make our lives so much easier! Wow! So close to jumping and now I've got a new plan! I explain to my long-lost friend how to get to the hospital I stayed at where I found my first-aid kit, and we make plans to meet there in the morning. We both need to rest up before making such a long journey. Tomorrow will be interesting if nothing else. I put a big 'X' on my map where this open tall building is in case I need to look for it again, and then I settle into a big comfy office chair to get some shut-eye.
29/07/2013 looking for my safehouse...
I wake early to the sound of gunshots off in the distance, more rested than I've been in days. I quickly calculate I can make it back to St. Boniface's Hospital in less than 3 hours if I don't encounter trouble in the streets. I've got just enough rations on me to get down there and scramble inside before I'll have to recharge so I send a quick message off to my new partner that I'm heading down and off I go...
I spy some zombies lurking around the edges of Woodroffe Mall as I get closer, but I know enough now to leave them alone and quickly sneak by without making any noise. They don't notice me. As I approach the hospital, I see someone I met in the streets earlier lying dead outside the hospital. Poor guy, he was not much different than I -- just a poor working stiff that got thrust into this without much training and no weapons to speak of. Dead. I wondered if I'd have to face him later as a zombie... As I got to the front steps of the hospital I saw why the poor dead guy died in the street -- someone barricaded up the hospital such that nobody can get in! A flash of panic as I realize that I'm almost too tired to go on. Where can I find a safe place to rest? How can I tell my new buddy not to waste his precious energy trying to get to the hospital only to find it locked up tight?
I start running back up the street pounding on doors, but nobody hears me. Office building - closed! Library - locked tight! Another hospital - barricaded to the 2nd floor windows... Finally as I'm about to fall down from shear exhaustion, with all my remaining strength and a stark memory of the poor dead guy in the street, I heave against the door of the Conolly Row Fire Station... and it opens! I come stumbling in and see a shivering huddle of scared humans in the corner. It looks like everyone is tired and weak and haven't had a good night's sleep in forever. Nobody speaks as I go over to an empty corner and collapse. Before dozing off I send a quick warning to my almost partner telling him that the agreed upon hospital meeting place was no longer an option, to instead try to find me in the fire station. Then I crashed...
