Living With the Dead: This New Disease (Book 5) (30 page)

Posted
by 
Josh
Guess
Bad
news this morning. We were going to send out our hundred new arrivals
with our teams of people that will be working with them on a practice
run this morning. You know, shake down the moves, learn how each
group thinks, figure out the best way to integrate forces.
That's
on hold for a day or two, because we had a fairly large setback. Ten
of the new arrivals woke up sick with the new plague, along with five
of our own people. Since Kincaid's brilliant idea to overheat the
sickness using a sauna, the plague has become more of a nuisance, a
sort of background problem, rather than the main attraction it was
even a few weeks ago.
People who come down with the sickness
can be cured now but that doesn't mean everyone is at full strength
right away. Even folks that haven't been under the influence of the
new plague for very long need at least a day to recover. North
Jackson has been extremely careful about the illness (though that
didn't stop them from suffering some casualties, albeit a smaller
percentage than most places) and we didn't really consider the fact
that the new arrivals may not have even been exposed.
Then
there's the high possibility that the new plague itself evolves.
We've seen ample evidence that the zombie plague takes many forms and
mutates at a rate to make evolution theorists faint. Could be that
whatever strain these people may have been exposed to is so different
than ours that they've got no defenses against it. Doesn't really
matter, I guess. The old hot box does the trick.
Honestly, I'm
kind of glad it happened this way. I don't want anyone sick, and I
certainly wouldn't say this if anyone had died, but it's good to have
reminders now and then that many things are out of our control. We're
on the precipice of a huge change. We're at a point where caution is
second nature, so it's not that I'm afraid that we'll suddenly forget
how dangerous the world is. We just have too much at stake to plan
this expansion without leaving some breathing room in there for what
we don't expect.
I'll keep an eye on the situation, as all of
us are, and we'll move forward from there. I'd love to write a longer
post, but frankly there just isn't time today. Need to make sure no
one else is coming down ill. Mainly because the thought just occurred
to me that if our new plague is a different strain, maybe the
newcomers brought a strain of their own. That's a chilling
thought.
Maybe I'll check a couple times. Can't let the plague
catch us off guard again, not when we have means to fight it.

Posted
by 
Josh
Guess
As
we feared, more people on the team of newcomers have fallen ill since
the first group showed symptoms. More at one time than our sauna was
really capable of dealing with, so my Dave and his workers took one
of the shipping containers and made us a much larger version.
It
works, no doubt about it. We can treat ten people at a time in there.
It would be more than that but Gabby, Evans, and Phil want a 1:1
ratio for all patients in the sauna. One caregiver for each of them
just in case the heat (or the violent death of the plague in their
lungs) causes problems. It's faster than what we had, but not
perfect. Then again, what is? What ever was even before The
Fall?
There's a sense of careful hope in the air unlike
anything I've seen since founding New Haven. We've always been a
relatively positive group of people, especially given the awful
circumstances we've had to work in. What many of us are feeling now
is the kind of restrained wild optimism that most of us have refused
to allow in our hearts since The Fall. The atmosphere of this place
has changed. People discuss the future much more easily now, planning
for the huge expansion we're on the cusp of and beyond. The idea that
we'll have electricity to spare is mind-boggling to most people, and
that's just one example of the changes that are coming.
What
surprises me is how scared people are, including myself. Fear has
been a part of our lives for a long time, but the very slow changes
in New Haven over time because of our many setbacks has had a
dampening effect on it. Strange, I know, but the constant strife and
serious danger made the sometimes terrible conditions we live in seem
somehow normal.
Not that New Haven isn't one hell of an
accomplishment in its own right, but we're a lot more worried now
because of what we stand to gain. Not long from now might be a time
when we don't have to worry about being outnumbered by the zombies
outside the wall. There will be enough people here to have a
dedicated force of protectors large enough that we can stop requiring
the majority of people to do time defending the place. We've built a
lot here, preserved a piece of civilization and nurtured it as best
we could.
Soon, though, we'll be magnitudes larger and more
complex. We'll have the numbers we need to allow some people to
specialize in things, to gain the skills and knowledge we'll need to
go beyond wood-fires and candlelight. We'll have enough people to do
Big Things again, at least compared to what New Haven has managed
until now.
It's cautious hope, but it still comes with a zeal
and fervor I haven't seen before. It excites me because we're being
handed the chance to shine, to grow quickly. I've said before that
fast growth can be painful, and I stand by that. We're tossing the
dice by bringing in ten times our current population. That's hard to
wrap my head around, really. The citizens of New Haven, tough and
strident survivors all, will in one stroke become the minority
population.
We could live in fear of that, but I think we've
grown enough as people to choose trust. We've got enough to worry
about--the undead pecking away at our defenses, the new plague
tenaciously hanging on among our people, the Exiles possibly
double-dealing and planning something sinister--that it would be
suicidal at worst to screw this opportunity up. New Haven's current
population won't be swallowed by the people joining us, it will be
integrated. We'll doubtlessly face problems as that integration
happens, but we'll deal with them. We'll work things out. We'll heal
whatever ills may rise between the two groups, just as we've put so
much effort into healing the plague in the people who have already
joined us.
Hope and worry go hand in hand nowadays. But unlike
the world that was, we can no longer afford to let fear stop us from
trying in the first place.

Posted
by 
Josh
Guess
More
than ever I'm trying to make time for little things. Jess getting
sick and coming so close to disaster--hell, all of New Haven doing
the same thing from time to time--makes those small moments together
all the more important. As we treat the new arrivals and our own ill
people I try to remember to enjoy the breaks when they come.
This
whole expansion process is going to consume a lot of time and
resources, and chances are that none of us will get a full night's
sleep until it's done. Yeah, most of the physical work is going to be
done by the people coming here, but that doesn't leave the rest of us
off the hook. We aren't just expecting them to build a community for
themselves and let that be the end of it. They're joining us and will
be doing one hell of a lot of work that benefits everyone. We have to
show willing. Do the groundwork and fill in the gaps. We're all in it
together.
But it really is a lot of work. And time will be
short. That's why I took some extra time this morning to give Jess a
massage after we woke up and had breakfast. A little thing, maybe
fifteen minutes, but it started her day off right. We'll be starting
the cleanup around New Haven tomorrow afternoon if the number of ill
newcomers stays where it is or drops. We weren't planning on sending
them all out at once anyway, so at least starting the project is
feasible.
Once we do, time for back rubs and shared meals
might be hard to come by. Not only will we be dealing with managing
the cleanup of the New Breed and other zombies around New Haven, but
also the consequences of that. I'm to be in charge of constantly
monitoring the cleanup reports and allotting resources for the teams,
making their schedules and the like, but that's only half the
problem. What happens when we send our people into the field and
deliberately poke the undead with a stick? We've faced the New Breed
before, and we've had to change tactics to fight them often. They
watch us, they learn.
They figured out that hemming us in here
while the new plague ravaged our people was a safe play. They seemed
to know that while our home might not be an easy target, at the very
least we couldn't manage any serious assaults on them.
The
scout trip I took was quick and dirty, but it doesn't give us any
idea how many of them are out there. We still have farmland in this
county and a few of the surrounding ones that we haven't been able to
tend. What if another huge mass of zombies has accumulated in Shelby
county, for example? We're gunning for them on purpose, but it's not
crazy to say that doing so is probably going to invite retaliation.
To accomplish our goal of reducing the local population of undead to
manageable levels so the real work can begin, we almost need them to
do it. Flush them out, and hope to god we can deal with the
flood.
So, yeah. Probably going to be a busy guy for a while.
Even if everything goes as planned I'll still have to help oversee
the expansion and the migration, right along with all the details
that come with them. I think we have the food issues hammered out,
but there are so many others...
I don't even want to think
about how rough things will get if there are way more New Breed out
there than we estimate. Doing all that 
and 
having
to fight at the walls or in the field? Ugh. Just like old times.
I
think I'll see if Jess wants to take a walk or something. I get the
funny feeling we won't be doing normal things like that very much in
the days ahead.

Posted
by 
Josh
Guess
Just
a fast note here to let everyone know that today is the day. We're
sending out our first teams on a shakedown run outside. I intended to
get into detail here, but we've got some last-minute details to deal
with.  Mostly in the form of a whole mess of zombies gathering
close. Guess they've been following our scouts around. Maybe they
know something's up.
Whatever it is, we have to strike out at
them. Too many for the teams to break through. We'll make a space and
then see what the teams can do.
Long post tomorrow, sorry.

Posted
by 
Josh
Guess
No
matter how many times you go out to face the undead, there's still
that moment of cold fear when the violence is about to start. Deep
down, you know there's a chance that when the fray begins everything
could be over for you in a matter of seconds. Something as simple as
a misaligned piece of armor or missing piece of thick cloth around
your neck, and lights out. We're fragile creatures, and there's no
time I become more aware of that than when I'm facing down a vicious,
hungry zombie.
That's why we cheated like crazy.
It
felt nice to let the mixed teams sit behind the north gate while we
cleared a path for them. Not being stupid, we've spent much time and
effort on prep work for things like this. Nothing like showing the
new guys what we can do with some ammonia, thermite, and a
willingness to jump the wall at the right time.
One team of
thirty people can pack a hell of a lot of punch when the enemy is
running away in a scatter. And on fire. I wasn't one of the folks who
took to the field, but I did manage to take down two New Breed before
the gas was released. When our people had pushed the swarm back
across the road, the gates opened and the assault team took
over.
I'd love to say it was perfect, but it wasn't. Taking
two groups of people, essentially strangers to each other, and only
giving them a short time to practice means there are going to be
kinks. I think of it like cutting wood: you can use an ax or a
chainsaw to get the result you want, but the process is completely
different. Our people have used a variety of methods to fight the
undead, while the folks from up north have practiced the same
efficient techniques over and over again until they had a strong and
deadly routine to use.
Generally I'm against set patterns, but
these people know what they're doing. Flexibility in their tactics,
keen instincts for when things go bad, and a willingness to take
orders when they see things getting dicey. I watched from the walls
as the combined force harried the undead running away, and how they
dealt with the zombies that turned back to fight. Given the short
time the groups had to integrate, I'm surprised it worked out as well
as it did. No deaths, a few injuries, and a kill ratio of 3-1.
Going
forward we'll try to smooth things out and get that ratio higher.
Taking down three zombies for every person we put on the field isn't
going to be enough to cut down the numbers fast enough to get the
expansion well under way by winter. We're cutting it close by
starting this late in the year. Damn plague made things much harder
than they should have been, but we'll soldier on. If we can treat and
release everyone who is sick right now in the next week (and manage
not to have a huge wave of new people come down ill) then we'll be on
track to start construction in the next month.
That's making a
lot of assumptions, the main one being that no more mass migrations
of zombies come across the bridges in Louisville and head this way.
If we could manage river crossings without them, I'd suggest blocking
them permanently to cease the flood of zombies hitting us and
Louisville.
As a shakedown run, things went well. Teams are
out even now--in fact, at all times when there's light enough to see
by--and the process really is underway. A lot of it is scouting and
engaging when they have to. Getting a detailed look at where
concentrations of zombies have formed and what patterns they move in
is crucial to the overall campaign. We have to manage killing them in
large numbers without pushing them to attack here out of
desperation.
Ah, I almost forgot to mention that another group
of people arrive today. This is a much smaller unit of specialists,
only twenty of them. We've got soldiers and people damn capable of
waging a war on the undead, but to move forward we need more than
just strength of arms. When you build something new, you need people
who understand the foundations of things, the roots of
civilization.
So, this group? Plumbers. When I first learned
about this my initial thought was "Oh, shit! What if one of them
is named Mario?"
I'm a child of the eighties. I don't
think there will ever be a separation between plumbers and video
games for me.
We've been using extremely primitive and often
thrown-together plumbing for a long time now. Obviously the old
infrastructure isn't very usable for us. Or, at least none of us have
the knowledge needed to make the massive reservoir a few miles down
the road really work to our advantage. We're pretty sure it's empty
by now, and we've captured enough water to have a huge stockpile. Our
team of plumbers--I call them that, but some of them are civil
engineers who've worked on large-scale water transportation
systems--assure the leadership here that they can set us up for the
future. Most of the early work is going to happen inside New Haven,
setting up for the big stuff outside.
Funny, all the things we
took for granted. Jess and I are used to washing each other's backs
now, so long removed from regular showers. We've got the old solar
camp shower, which is a deceptive name since it's just a dangling
transparent bag that heats up water, but in this season it would be
criminally wasteful to use it.
I don't know if showers will
end up being in the cards, or if we'll even be successful with this.
No one expects miracles. We're just hungry for results, maybe a
little impatient to see these changes come.
The idea of a nice
long shower, though...dear god.