Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Holiday with the Strange Folks

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and now it seems all attention not already gobbled up by all the zombies is being directed to Christmas coming up. To date at the moment, it's been months and since our lovely Thanksgiving dinner of canned soups and I was certain a pie that was spoiled graced us, our supplies have been rationed to the point of having to eat one meal a day.

The woman finally gave birth the day after that would have been Black Friday to a baby girl of five pound. It was a good thing there was no complications. They're currently held up in their room as they tend to the newborn child. On my end, I've been having a bad sore on the lower-right side of my back and my ankle feeling numb. I've so far been able to get out of work for awhile, but it's been a painful annoyance.

Despite injuries, the security decided to take me with them to practice shooting. With fewer men on their hands that are able to fight or just work a firearm, they've been teaching me the basics to handle a gun and aim like a pro. The first few times firing were nerve racking, but after awhile I became a novice.

Lesser numbers of zombies have been showing up at our gates, but it's managble for our numbers. The doctor thinks that they know we're too well gaurded at the moment to take, so most of them are probably scouting other places like for the gang we still do not know of. Holidays are coming, and a lot of the hotel residents are planning to center the holidays on the newborn child as a sign that God still probably has faith in us, despite being delt with hordes of the living dead wanting to feast on our flesh. I'd just kill for another Hot Pocket versus the stuff we're trying to farm where the palm trees use to stand in the dining area.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Another Bloody Monday

It's only the middle of the afternoon and I'm tired as hell. Been two weeks since I've updated my little journal. Essentially the TV downstairs gets nothing but screen cards displaying "Please stand by" while the radio plays the same thing over again through a recorded monotone voice. Vic's laptop has been going on the fritz and pretty much the Internet is starting to fall apart with less people being able to access computers in the outside world. The pregnant woman a couple floors below has been announced 'expectant' by the doctor. I tried to steer clear of the doctor from assisting him again since I've seen enough blood for awhile. Due to our unexpected rouge gang attack from last week, we decided to highly buckle down and conserve what we got, even with the baby coming this week.



One good thing to come out of that attack was them drawing some of the undead away from our area and having less break ins. Not as many corpses to clean out and not having to move around more barb-wire and concrete blockades is nice on the muscles. Still, what little security left has been organized to stay on patrol 24/7 just in case of any revenge battles due to one of us taking down one of their bikers.



Aside from the dramatic carnage, it's so far been another day like any at the hotel. Mondays have no meaning since the beginning, and what better way to prove that than to drink ice tea down in the pool area just gossiping and laughing about whatever use to make us stressed before. It's been like a very long unpaid vacation with some walking corpses thrown into the mix and not knowing when you're actually gonna be able to work again.



At times I feel like running away and leaving everyone behind. Maybe I could probably make it like Vic did if he survived, or maybe I could just end it here and now and not have to keep on living this reality. Despite long breaks between gruelling tasks involving mutilating a corpse or having to venture out for supplies, is this all we've set ourselves up to do for the rest of our lives if this doesn't get any better?



Will I actually be able to enjoy what I unknowingly had so good before shit hit the fan?

Is there maybe an island or a far country unaffected by this?

Is there a reason why this is happening and why we're continuing on?

Saturday, November 13, 2010

OOC: What have I seen?

Yeah so I usually have a jonesing for a new zombi/zombi-ish film/show and I have a horrible time keeping track of what I've seen to date. To make sure I don't get recommended the same stuff/crap I've seen already I've decided in no order (since I will be including generally panned zombi films in the mix as well as not really remembering when I saw which at what time) here's what I've seen so faaaaaaar... and it will be updated whenever I remember to or remember that I made such a list :p





? = not sure if year is accurate





Night of the Living Dead(1968)
Night of the Living Dead (1990)
Night of the Living Dead (2008?)
Dawn of the Dead (1979)
Dawn of the Dead (2008?)
Day of the Dead (1985)
Land of the Dead
Diary of the Dead
Survival of the Dead
Dead Set
[REC]
Resident Evil
Resident Evil: Apocalypse
Resident Evil: Extinction
Resident Evil: Degeneration
The Zombie Diaries
Return of the Living Dead
Return of the Living Dead II
Return of the Living Dead III
Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave
Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis
Zombie Strippers
Beyond Re-Animator
Braindead/Dead Alive
Undead
Dead & Buried
The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue/Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
Zombi 2
The Beyond/Gates of Hell
City of the Living Dead
House by the Cemetary
Automation Transfusion - Currently stands as WORST zombi film I've ever seen X_x
House of the Dead
House of the Dead 2
28 Days Later
Burial Grounds
Zombi Holocaust/Dr Butcher MD (Medical Deviant)
Shaun of the Dead
Flesh Eaters
White Zombi
King of the Zombis
Outpost
The Plague
Children of the Living Dead
Zombieland
Boy Eats Girl
All Souls Day
Evil Dead 2
Army of Darkness
Days of Darkness - overtly religous boy was homosexually repressed
Pontypool
Dead Snow (Dod Sno)
Deathwatch
Fido
Forest of the Dead
I Sell the Dead
Night of the Creeps
Pet Sematary
Pet Sematary II
Planet Terror
Quarantine
They Came Back (Les Revenants) - this film would even make the undead weap in sorrow ;(
Scooby-Doo on Zombi Island
Severed
Slither
Versus





- Yeah so that's probably just a tip (and by tip I mean a thumbtack on the iceberg that mobbed the Titanic) of all total zombi films in existence I've seen. I still know a good deal of zombi films that I've yet to see or even see released at all (ie: Worst Case Scenario... soooooo wanted to be one of their zombiz when they still had that sign-up) Anyway, thanks to The Walking Dead currently airing, I'll be held over till I get to see [REC]2 and The 4th Reich :B

Monday, November 1, 2010

After Halloween Hell report

By how my luck has played out yesterday, least I missed out on the Halloween night everyone was throwing inside the hotel. Sometimes I love/hate my brain, but from what the hell I was thinking yesterday morning, we're on non-speaking terms for awhile. Since the usuals for the reconnaissance team wanted to spend the day decorating the hotel for the holiday, I decided to jump in since this would be the first time I'd left the hotel grounds since day one.



I woke up at a painful 5am seminar with three other volunteers being drilled on what to expect and what to do if the unexpected occurs (and non surprisingly it occurs more than we all imagined) After a two hour training session to make sure that if we somehow survive this reconnaissance mission, we would probably be put on-call if someone bit the dust or called off. Being fitted with some padding and a bulletproof vest and helmet, we looked like a bonafied swat team ready to whoop ass. We got loaded into the metal bank trucks that were outfitted to carry weapons, supplies we'd fine, and people. The security controlling our group got us huddled inside as quickly as they yelled at us.



Once inside they shut the doors and got into the cab to start up. The roar in the engine bellowed out loud enough to rile up the roaming undead by the fences. Hearing the commotion, I wasn't sure if we were even going to get off the grounds. I tended not to try and look out of the back windows like some of the other volunteers did as in a few minutes I started to feel consistent turbulence just go through the truck hard. I tried to grip on my seat and not wobble as violently, but one hell of a ram through probably five corpses sent my head ramming into the edge of the metal seat opposite me. Luckily the helmet helped or else there would have been bait for them to use to occupy the zombies running in their way.

It felt like hours as we only traveled some miles from the hotel and mainly through alley ways to bypass the congested streets.

Once we finally stopped, we waited for the team leaders to unlock the doors and rush us into a building they hoped wouldn't be too filled up with the damn things. The doors opening wide opening they pulled at us to run into the grocery store through the broken glass doors. Rushing inside in an instant, one of them got back into the cab to park the truck behind the store. Once everyone was accounted for inside, we blocked up the broken doors with metal shopping carts and items we wouldn't take.

Spending a good hour in the store, we took some carts and started moving around and inspecting what we should take and what was still good. Half of the perishables like meat and frozen items were either gone or had gone bad. What was mainly left in the store was pet food and canned soup and vegetables which was gold to us. There were still plenty of candy bars as well as medical and other remedial supplies. Once we were done at this store, we were soon forced to move the carts back into the truck and rush back inside. It was stated that they had planned for two more places that looked promising.

The second place ended up getting passed since it had been overrun, the third place would actually be on the outskirts of the city so it took us half a day to get through more back roads as well as two gas stops to fill and stock. It was excruciating and tiring.

Finally making it to the third stop, we repeated our first stop routine and ran into another grocery shop to look for anything good. Taking another set of carts we paroled the place. Finding plenty of more stuff than the last place, we were worried on having to take two trips. We were soon informed by one of the main security that there was a delivery truck with the keys still in the cab. Making sure there was nothing in the back, we stocked all of our stuff inside and collected back into the bank truck with three being left to maintain the other truck.

With two vehicles and a wealth of supplies now in our grasp, we decided to gun back towards the hotel since it would be five pm by the time we'd get back through our route. Since we had the bigger delivery truck with us now, it seemed we would have to spend time finding ways that the truck could fit through but most alleyways were just too narrow. We decided to try and make our luck through one of the bigger roads.

Finding one not as densely crowded, the drivers decided to stomp full speed to knock over what was in front of us. Feeling the vehicle just rumble through the debris on the road, we felt home free... but in an instant, we heard a large clang right above us. We thought a corpse might have landed on top of us from one of the buildings, but suddenly we felt getting pelted with things around us. One of us got up to see what was going on outside.

Looking up above, there seemed to be a small group of people throwing empty glass bottles at us. Waving their arms to try and get us to stop, we just kept driving away as their pleas look to grow down with defeat. It wasn't soon till we started getting bombarded with flaming Molotov's. Out of nowhere, an army of bikers started driving beside us just banging on the truck's walls just spouting obscenities.

We kept going full speed as they did too, probably hoping to find out where we're holding up. One bike drove behind us and in front of the delivery truck. The passenger behind him loaded up their revolver and tried to shoot at our rear window. Being gorilla glass, it had no effect. The delivery truck decided to speed up and ram them right behind us. Pressing up against our back doors for a minute, I only saw their bewildered faces for a minute before they got sucked under the delivery truck's bumper and the bike being tossed in front of another.

Seeing what had happen to one of theirs, they all quickly backed off and drove the other way to regroup. We didn't know who they exactly were, but we did know that they either wanted to join us, or take what we got.

Making sure no one else was following us, we continued on by heading into a street that was much more dense than we were on, but it headed directly towards our base. Once we were clear, the security leaders reported our new biker friends as possible threats and/or allies. The rest of us just unloaded supplies and took what we earned. I got back to my room and my mates just quickly started raiding the box I had laid on the table. I plopped on the couch bed just looking at the lamp. My legs were sore and my brain was pounding badly. Everyone was getting ready for the Halloween party while I just slept to rest for the next day...



PS: A lovely photo I took with Sara's camera during our trip. Sad, who knew journalism would have actually been the death of him...

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Savaged Sweets

Even though it's been bloody October for the last few weeks I've been marking up recently. It hasn't been the right time of times to probably be celebrating an upcoming holiday about wearing costumes of monsters and scaring each other after all the current shit. Some people here think it should be fine that kids should wear costumes and celebrate like usual, but it just doesn't seem right to most who have been dealing with this apocalyptic crap for the last few months (i.e. majorly me)


Despite quarrels about wearing costumes, parties haven't been touched yet. Everyone has been partying mainly in the very top floors not to disturb anyone below. Security has even feel ill to having to wonder when they're going to have to assimilate and take down another group of zombies making it through the barricades around the hotel. Currently it's been in their best interest to get drunk, gamble as much as they want, and pretty much take free givings from Sally the a.k.a 'Catholic jail-bate slut.' Even with security breaking down in some of their morals, I can't really disagree or even hate. I've been wondering when I'll be able to just go back to work and cruise around with friends on the weekend again. So far I think everyone is starting to give way to the constant shit being aired on the wide screen TV downstairs at the bar whenever we're announced a broadcast from the one remaining local news station.


Since the undead studies, I havn't been bothered lately to do shit while my roommates continue with their duties. Aside from dreary feelings of having an end-of-the-world event coming really soon, I'm just snacking on a bag of Twix whilst writing my occasional babbles...

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Undead Studies

After losing more and more of the police and hired security, it's been a grueling month. There are no more truck deliveries since the streets have been run amok by the undead. The government has decided to do helicopter deliveries to the shelters they had listed on one of their occasional broadcast announcements on TV and radio. Helicopter deliveries will be done monthly now versus the two weeks the trucks use to deliver in that time. Even having less people in the hotel with some deciding to leave the like Vic did or commit suicide, supplies are still short considering that one of the residents are expected to give birth next month.


The barricades around the hotel perimeter have been recently reinforced. Behind the simple metal fence wires, we've started settling in some concrete blockades. Though we're dealing with undead corpses, I didn't expect them to be as fast as they could with half their systems already gone. After setting up barb wire atop the blockades, whenever one of the undead climbed over the fence and ran towards us like track stars on steroids, they'd end up getting tripped by the razors on the wire. Essentially they would fall flat on their faces either resulting in bashing in their skull, momentarily knocking them out, or just trapping them just scrapping on the pavement trying to get to us like a mouse after cheese.


Observing some of the undead being caught within our barricades, one of our doctors decided to plead with the officials in control of our shelter to take some of the trapped zombies that were still moving and do some anatomy research on how they work. Due to my luck I ended up becoming one of his assistants to gather up his 'subjects' by picking them out of the barb wire by leashing them with a long pole. One of us would end up pinning down the 'subject' as the other would end up 'castrating' the zombie. By my use of the term 'castrating,' we've turned it into slang meaning, "To pull out the teeth and nails of the zombie in order to make it less of a lethal biological threat to us."

Next we would end up strapping it down to a stretcher and move it to a private room set on the ground floor surgically opening the specimen and seeing inside what it had to make it such a lethal flesh-eating machine. The doctor spent about three weeks with about five different specimens. We didn't think about the castration procedure till the third specimen - back when we originally had three assistants. From the first three specimens, we mainly spent most of our time butchering the things. The first two specimens were essentially disassembled to make a proper model for our growing zombie anatomy journal that he was writing to document his findings for the shelter officials. For the third specimen, the doctor decided to do away with the corpse from the neck down and concentrate on the head. Performing a encephalectomy, he observed the effects of the unknown virus mutating the brain as it turned it into a self-sufficient organ without any need of blood pulsation or help of other organs. There is nothing keeping the body from being infected with all sorts of germs and with no working system regenerating the body's health. This sort of answers my question on why the zombies rot as they 'live' since most of their systems are dead.


On the fourth specimen we took out all it's inner organs but the brain and sewed it's chest back up and handcuffed him off to a corner. Even with most of his insides gone, he still stood there trying to lunge at us like a dog on rabies. We were pretty terrified and amazed by how the thing kept moving. The brain is essentially the only important part of the zombie. From the doctor's thesis and findings from the third specimen's brain, the virus seems to alter the electro emanating inside. It's like when a computer gets infected or modified and it gets stuck in safe mode. The machine may still turn on but only it's prime functions still work. I assume it's like that with the virus infecting the human anatomy, maybe some kind of fucked up biological virus that may have been inadvertently released or something.

After this virus seems to reboot the human brain and eliminate most to all of the other organs, the next thing it only seems to do is look for nourishment to keep it's functioning body refreshed and moist to function. Taking about two days since our operation on the specimen, it starts to develop rigor mortis as it slowed down and stopped lunging at us like mad. Seeing it's body stiffen, the thing started to look more like a helpless child reaching for a candy bar. Letting it helplessly shuffle around for a little longer, the doctor put it down like the rest before and ordered us to collect another.

For our fifth specimen, our essential study was to see how we can permanently put down a zombie or more properly phase it aside from just putting a bullet through its head. Finalizing that the virus does indeed kill most of the human system and even alter the brain's function, there is no need to test for a cure now but maybe a vaccine. Spending most of Saturday mainly torturing a moving dead body, we now know that doing any damage to the spinal cord will either disable the legs, arms, or the whole body. Once the head was the only remaining body part working, I pulled out my knife and stabbed it through the left eye which stopped its mouth from opening up like a fish out of water.


Once we disposed of the final specimen, the doctor finished up his research and sent the journal to the officials which would be copied and sent out to various shelters to inform them the biological workings of the undead. Returning to my room after being away for almost a whole month, my roommates kept badgering me to tell my experiences with messing with the dead. I ended up locking myself in the bathroom for the first night back just trying to wash away the filth and smell that stained me.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Fancy Soda

It's been a crazy two weeks since my last entry. The city's power company has been essentially on/off since people have been fighting to stay there and keep the power going through this crisis. At this point, the Embassy Suites has decided to take on using their own private generators to avoid dependency on the power company, especially if another break down in their security walls comes again.

While it's only been a few weeks since the major outbreak, security has been dwindling since the metal fence barricading the whole hotel has been getting weaker and more overrun due to the numbers of the living dead increasing. Just last Monday five policemen ended up getting engulfed within a crowd of the living dead when they tried to mow down some of them with a sub machine gun. They only got like five the most while they just butchered a lot of the moving corpses. When their standing post's legs gave way to the excessive force of the undead's numbers, they all fell like shot quails.

Due to the dwindling security, the hotel staff have asked any volunteers to help aid them in getting supplies by some of the weekly truck deliveries. Despite having to risk our lives getting supplies, it's a decent exchange since we're essentially staying in the suites for free. Hell, I was lucky enough to get a box of fancy imported soda called Ramune. It's a Japanese drink that's filled into a glass bottle where the top is a marble you have to pop inside. You essentially try and get the marble stuck into these two bumps made within the bottle's neck and drink. Since a lot of people were more interested in domestic Coke, I've been getting 75% of the Ramune stuff to take back to my room.

I guess I'll have to cherish these things the most as things seem to be getting more troublesome.