Pleasant Prairie Wasn't

Okay, so there is a Timberland store at the Pleasant Prairie Mall, it's an outside mall so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to get winter gear from there. Also, this zombie thing began in the winter, so they should still have some winter stock. We drove around the parking lot, there were some vehicles, but we didn't see any movement. We backed the vehicles up to the door, got out and found the doors unlocked. Me, Matt, Jacob and Greg went in first to make sure the store was safe - it wasn't. Zombies started coming out the back of the store, we started shooting - we got 10 of them. As we continued to go through the store we heard shouting from outside. Apparently our gunfire attracted more zombies and they began spilling out of the other stores. So we had Sarah, Danny, Lynn and Julie get in the store and Louie, Paul and Karen grabbed their guns and joined the rest of us as we created a perimeter around the vehicles and the front of the store. Luckily Matt and Greg had Louie between them as they had to cover for him - Louie is a bad shot. When we were done the zombie count was at 60. Matt, Greg and Karen stayed outside on lookout while the rest of us grabbed what we could of clothing and boots. Greg spotted a van in the lot so he went over to check it out, nothing was inside and the keys were on the floor. It's a real nice 11 passenger van. We removed the back bench to have more room for storage.

We need to find a place to get some rest, none of us have slept much in the last 3 days.

Temporary Shelter

Hi again, Heidi, Matt, and all others who may be reading. I was able to jury-rig a car charger for my netbook thing, so I can write again. I imagine you're going to be in the same boat soon, so I'll send you a picture later if we ever find another download cable for the camera, but basically I just spliced the cable of a car charger for somecrappy coffee warmer or something with an adapter that fit the netbook. Of course, it would be easier to just pick up a generator or a power inverter if you've got the time. If you're still in Waukegan, there's a Radio Shack on Lewis between Glen Flora and Sunset--depending on how picked-over it is, they may have the power inverter or the stuff you need to splice a car charger.

We've moved a bit north. We're at this indoor baseball practice facility, I think in Carpentersville or Algonquin or something. I went to the place a few times before the zombie apocalypse--it was always quiet then, so I figured it still would be. I was right. It's an industrial building in an industrial park. Not many windows, but there's nothing but open fields around us for quite a distance, so we can see the zombie wave coming if it makes it this far. We're going to forage the other buildings for whatever we can get in the morning. We may stay here for awhile.

I may be crazy (Shawn says I am, anyway), but I want to go back to the compound. Not right away, but eventually. If it hadn't been for those idiots crashing the gate, the compound might have held up. We can fix that fence, burn the bodies and hole up there for the winter, hopefully with most of our supplies intact (we didn't fit much in the blazer with us). I'm hoping the stumblers can sense that it's empty now and have just moved on. If not, we'll have a zombie horde waiting for us when (and if) we return. I figure the wave of zombies is like an expanding circle--it will get thinner as it expands, so by the time it gets to us we should be able to break through pretty easily and go back "home."

Hope all is well with you folks up north. Keep in touch!

Casualties

Sorry to hear about John. If we'd still been in the compound, we could have locked him up and found some antibiotics--I heard a lot of people didn't turn when they got treated right away. It's hard when you're running for your life. I know how John felt about it...He probably would have made this choice anyway rather than take the chance.

We lost Justin in the compound. He and Corey were the fastest, so we sent them to get the blazer and bring it back to the garage while I covered them from the roof and Shawn worked the door. There were so many zombies! Even more than when you left. Corey made it, Justin didn't. I made sure he didn't suffer. It's strange, I should feel sick about being the one to put him down, but I don't--I guess I knew what the alternative was. I guess maybe I'm getting numb to all this.

I'm going to keep this short, since we don't have a way to charge this battery until we find a generator. We're moving west. I think we're in Carpentersville or Elgin or something now. Our best guess is that the zombies we saw were from Chicago, moving out to look for more food like a plague of locusts. That leads me to think that Chicago is dead. Completely. If you keep moving north, maybe the herd will have thinned out enough for you to handle them by the time they get there. Don't get comfortable! What we saw is probably coming your way, too!

Heading North

We were all so glad to finally hear from you. We started moving North 2 days ago when we noticed zombie movement. It's like they've had a communal call to arms.

We were staying in the Waukegan Oriental Store. It's a small stand alone store made of cinder block and had only one window in the front. The store had never been pillaged so it worked out great for us. (except for the smell of rotted sushi) The blazer and truck are now loaded with 12 50lb bags of rice, lots of canned meat (we left the canned squid - nobody was to keen on the idea of eating that) chili paste with garlic, canned vegetables and cases of bottled water. I'm hoping we will have the opportunity to use the rice to barter with someday.

We have had a casualty, John got bit during the attack. He showed Matt and I the injury after we had gotten settled in the store. He didn't want anyone to freak out, so we kept it quiet. He asked Matt and I to kill him before he turned, so the three of us left to check out the gun shop that was nearby. The store had been ransacked, but we managed to find one gun we could use, a few knives and some ammo. When we were done we went behind the store, said our goodbyes and then Matt and I both fired at him so that neither one of us had to bear the burden of killing him. John was incredibly brave. Matt and I spent a few minutes discussing what story we would tell the others . . . . we decided the truth was best. Everyone was real upset when we told them what had happened to John and what his wishes were. Once they had a chance to process the situation it was understood that there really is no other way to handle a zombie bite. Thank God John was able to be an example for the rest of us.

We are currently on I-94 heading towards Kenosha. We are going to need winter gear soon so that is next on our list.

Still Alive

Shawn, Corey and I are still alive. We're on the move. I'll explain more later but, but KEEP MOVING, HEIDI! The zombies are still coming!

Roger, are you there?

I'm still a bit hazy on some of the details, but I do remember a truck smashing through our perimeter fence and zombies swarming in. Matt and I started running to the hallway with the intention of securing the perimeter. We heard gunshots and saw the hallway door bursting open. George and Kyle (from the truck) were clawing their way in along with a huge number of zombies. We just started shooting at everything that moved. I know you, Shawn and Corey joined us at some point. As bodies went down we kept shooting at the heads that were appearing over the top of the pile. We ended up with a wall of dead zombies, no more coming in and no one going out. I heard someone shout "Get everybody to the vehicles!" We all ran to the garage and started loading the truck and van. I got in to drive the truck, Sarah and Danny were in the passenger side, Matt and Paul got in the back and the rest got in the van. As you and Shawn opened the garage door I jumped on the accelerator and got the hell out of there. When I looked back you and Shawn were closing the door, I choked back a scream because I didn't want Danny to get anymore freaked out than what he was already, but please know there was no way any of us wanted to leave you both behind. Matt and Paul fired away as I sped the truck through a sea of zombies. Greg was driving the van and managed to stay with me, although I don't know how he managed it, the truck was bouncing all over the place as we drove over bodies. The front end of the truck was tossing zombies around everywhere, the windshield was getting covered in zombie slime. Once we got half a mile out the zombie horde started to thin out and I just kept driving until we didn't see anymore for several miles. We stopped, did a head count and realized that Corey and Justin weren't with us, please tell me they are with you and Shawn. Once we checked for injuries and cleaned up the windows we got back in the vehicles and proceeded on. There are 12 of us. We have a few issues we need to deal with soon, but we are holed up in a safe place for now.

We are all anxiously waiting to hear from you.

Party!!!

Well, the partys starting to wind down. It was good. We probly made too much noise…We had music. Honets to God music—loud enough for everyone tp hear it. I hope it didn’t aatract any attention…Course, a lot of it was Matts death metal crap—it just sounds like zokmbies moaning, anyway. Still, it wa cool—our first zombie apocalypse going away party. We’re all going to be hungover tomorrow, except maybe Matt—I do’t think he drank anything. I didn’t have too much, either, but I dpn’t drink, so Ill probably still feelit in the morning. I’m going to bed now—the next time you hear from me, we’ll be halv a grou[p—Heidi and Matt and Sarah and everybody will be gone/ Crap, I gotta go—somebody hear’s a car.??