Wandering in the Woods

Tonight's patrol was difficult. More difficult than some. They got through. I don't know how they got through our barricades, but some of the Biters were loose in the compound. I only just got back in a little while ago.
They... They took out one of the households. There wasn't anything we could do, we were too late to help. All we could do was "Clean Up."
The sky was a hazy pink tinted grey this evening. I could taste fire on the air. I shudder to think what we will find when we go out on one of our hunts outside the safety of the compound tomorrow morning. What is happening out there?
We had to spend all night on containment and patching up the fencing where they managed to get in. Even after all that work every household is on lock-down till morning, just in case we missed one.
Thank goodness they didn't get to any of my children. We've taken in orphaned children from the neighboring blocks left outside of the compound and I've been assigned the job of teaching them. In spite of everything that has happened and we still have to deal with on a day to day basis this aspect of my life makes me feel fulfilled and like I am actually contributing to the future. Some of them are getting to be outside of my area of expertise, but I have others to help me with some subjects and we are very fortunate to have a wide array of books available to reference. We'll manage, they will have an education.

Part of my pay for my efforts around the compound is getting to pick a luxury to enjoy once a week. Sometimes it's an actual hot shower, but this time of year that isn't as important. This week I decided I wanted to spend some time online to see what is going on in the outside world. We're very lucky that Richard was paranoid about the world ending and had a generator in his garage.
It is heartening to hear that life is happening outside of these walls. Venturing far afield seems like such an alien concept at this point. I wonder if we will get to enjoy such a thing as "vacations" again in my lifetime? Will we ever return to what used to qualify as normal? Or could we perhaps hope for something even better? Can we fix what was wrong with our previous society or will we make the same mistakes? I still hope for humanity being able to reach the stars. Especially now, given everything that has happened to our Earth in the past year. It would be frightening to venture out into the unknown, but to leave behind the disease that has laid waste to our globe this past year might be worth the hardships. And yet I don't think I could make the trip. I would miss the trees. The trees still call to me with the swaying speech of their branches in the wind. Even if the sky is on fire behind them.
I should wander to bed now. This has been a long, hard "anniversary" and tomorrow promises to be just as daunting.
Goodnight and I hope, where ever you are, you are safe.

Phew. I just got back in not that long ago. My neighbor, Richard called my house and suggested that we go out and try to cordon off the block and make the entire block zombie proof. I pointed out that the backyards of our houses would still open out into areas that weren't fortified. I can hear a cacophony of car alarms going off about a block away, they've been doing that for most of the evening. I saw one friend posted that he was upset that these infected people were being hurt. Sorry, my sense of self preservation dictates that I do whatever I can to keep myself safe. I'm sorry they were infected, but there's nothing I can do for them now. We must move forward and protect ourselves and think of the future of mankind. We didn't manage to take back the entire block, but we did manage quite a pile up of cars on either end of the street within a few houses of mine. We have seven houses cleared out and fortified now. Too bad about Mr. Laker. I always liked him. Good thing we still have power over here and that we built a couple of bonfires out on the street. I was so busy with the .45 and my machete (Thank goodness Dad brought that back as a souvenir from Vietnam, it really came in handy today) that I never would have heard Mr. Laker coming up behind me if Richard hadn't shouted at me, "The British are coming! The British are coming!" Really, I can appreciate his ironic use of history references now since the Lakers are from England, but he could have come up with something a little faster to shout as a warning. I swear, if he didn't have a collection of swords we can utilize I would be tempted to tell him we were going to go it alone. I managed to whip around and block him with the machete and fire a couple of rounds into him. Very sad. He was a Grateful Dead fan so now he really is a Dead head, I guess. We've heavily boarded off the back doors that face out into the backyards of all the houses we reclaimed and the zombies don't seem to remember how to climb fences so I think we're good for now. Just the same my house is going to be taking shifts keeping watch. James finally showed up this evening, before we blocked off this corner of the neighborhood. He was at work when this mess started. Apparently when his unit heard the news his patient jerked, causing James to stick himself with a non-sterile needle. I'm going to be keeping an eye on him and he won't be taking any of the watch shifts. I've seen enough zombie movies to know how that would go. If anyone from my friend list can still read this, good luck out there and stay safe. I saw that Dragon's neighborhood doesn't have power anymore. Maybe someone was trying to get out of town and took out a power line near her place.

At least we'll still have some theatre when this zombie threat is over.

I sleep in late only to wake up to find that the World has gone on that ride in the old hand-basket while I slept. What happened? I generally don't watch network news, but I turned it on today to try to get some idea of what was going on. Not a big help there, the news-caster looked near hysterical and they just kept showing the same footage of some poor bloke getting bitten over and over. Zombies?! Can it really be zombies? I mean...hehe...come on. Honest to gosh rise of the Dead...they're coming to get you Barbara...you've got red on you...Zombies? I never thought I'd be worried about the fact that we have that mortuary just down the hill from us or a couple of cemeteries nearby.

If only we had had some warning, my family could have headed up to Red Bluff to bunker down at the family ranch; it's almost an hour outside of town up on a hill with almost no neighbors so it would have made a good place to hole up till the dust settles. Thank goodness my grandparents are there.
At this point I wouldn't want to risk that. Wouldn't want to get trapped by abandoned cars while trying to exit town. I've seen enough zombie movies and read enough "The Walking Dead" to know I don't want to get myself stuck somewhere out in the open. Best to just reinforce this place. At least I'm home where all our guns are and there is tons of food, enough to last for a month. I have already blocked the cats in, last thing I need is to have a zombie Heidi come running in here wanting to give me a "love bite."
I've heard from Mom and Dad, if only they had called in sick to work today. They both have good survival instincts though. Heather hasn't checked in from Oregon yet. I've been trying to reach James on his cell phone, but he usually has it silenced while he's at work.

Is this isolated to California? Is it just the continental US or is it global?