Adrian's Undead Diary Enter the World of AUD

August 9^th.

Mr. Journal do you have any fucking idea how heavy an x-ray machine is?

Let me assure you, the good ones do not come in light as a choice. They are heavy as a truck's engine block, and just as hard to maneuver.

I am sad to report that there was painfully little we could remove for equipment from the Westfield clinic yesterday. Well, we did get a lot, but we had to leave an enormous pile of shit behind.? It was a real shame.

What did we actually get? The crown jewel of the haul was a portable x-ray station from the urgent care area of the clinic. It's about the size of refrigerator, and weighed something like ten metric tons. I swear to god it used lead bricks to make x-rays. Actually come to think of it, it probably was filled with some kind of lead shielding. Duh Adrian.

We got scalpels, forceps, tweezers, pliers, casting materials, splints, crutches, wheelchairs, canes, a small quantity of basic medical supplies, a few copies of the PDR, which was nice to finally get our hands on, as well as shit like alcohol, iodine, scrubs, smocks, lights, hospital beds, oxygen tanks, masks, sterilization chemicals and a whole mess of crap I don't even understand the value of. I just know Doc Lindsey pointed at the stuff as we cleared the place out and said, take that, and that, and that, and that...

She seemed happy to have it all on hand when we got back here.

The Westfield clinic op was a breeze, but it was also much more intense than any of our previous jobs. First of all, it was downtown in Westfield, and there were undead we ran across. We hit a small handful in the HRT as we drove, but the outside blocking teams had to shoot just as many while we were inside. That gave our newer folks some time face to face with the dead, as well as the chance to take some shots and bust their combat cherries, so to speak. We had enough time and security that a few of the undead could be dropped via halligan, which was extra awesome, because it saved on ammunition, and also gave the noobs a chance to literally get their hands dirty.

It is one thing to shoot a zombie in the face, and an entirely different affair when you step up to a person, look them in the face, dead in their white, nasty eyes, and smash the piss out of their skull. It's the kind of thing that sticks with you, and only repetition, and reassurance from friends in the moment can make it easier to deal with. You need to be hard to survive now, and days like yesterday gave us a chance to get some strength into folks.

Harsh world Mr. Journal.

The high school area is largely empty of undead. We saw two or three kicking around the area, but to be honest, it was just creepy. The wall of cars surrounding the school almost looks like automotive tombstones, wrapping around the charred skeleton of some large prehistoric beast. It made me think of how STIG looked like the corpse of some massive industrial beast, with the steel beams rising from the foundation like blackened ribs.

It made me shudder. It made some of the rest of the people who came with us cry. A lot of people died there, and it's a fucking shame. When we find that asshole arsonist oh boy, the satisfaction will be severe.

The more I think about what I just wrote, the less I like my word choice of prehistoric That makes me feel like our world, our culture, and our nation is now a part of the past. A past that is never coming back.

Maybe that's for the best.

We wound up filling maybe a third of the semi with supplies from the clinic, so we hit a few small businesses in town for shit. Westfield had a nice downtown filled with storefronts, so we used the time to run down the street and gather things that Mike and the other survivors had left behind.? For instance, there was a shoe store that still had maybe half its inventory in place, and we really needed shoes. Lots of folks are still wearing the footwear they were wearing on June 23^rd of last year, and you can imagine how comfortable they are today.

When we returned home here to campus late yesterday, we made a lightning run down to MGR to restock them on water and food. While we were there, we increased the amount of supplies on hand in the event they are attacked.? They now have a 6 day supply of both food and water, as opposed to just 3 days.? Mike said that things were quiet in town, and they only saw a tiny bit of movement.? He said the two Outsider wagons were still moving, but mostly far off to the east towards the STIG area of town. He hasn't been able to nail down exactly where they are holing up over that way, but based on their general direction of movement, they are coming from the city, or one of the towns between here and there.

Silly Outsiders. I hope they keep their greedy ass hands off my town. I'd hate to show them the meaning of fire superiority again. Man that sounded vindictive. Damn near evil.

Be the better man Adrian. Be the person that is the good one. You need to focus on that. You are the good man in this. Be the hero, not the villain.

Deep breath.

What does bother me quite substantially is that Gilbert's warehouse is directly in that direction. We will need to drive right through what appears to be their home territory, and that is obviously inviting trouble. We may need to switch out our approach and exit routes to give them a wide berth. What blows, is I don't think we have much option in that regard. There's only one or two streets/roads that get to that neck of the woods, and both pass through there. Which way we go who knows?

I just hope we don't wander into a fucking ambush as we drive to the warehouse, or god forbid, after the warehouse with injured and less ammo. If I were them, that's when I'd do it.

Today was an on campus day as we evaluated our plans, and what we wanted to do moving forward. Ollie, Martin and Blake took the day and got some assistance to get that second gate started. Essentially they are building a huge A shaped gate that will point directly towards Auburn Lake Road. If someone attempts to ram the gate, they will hit the steel reinforced edges, and drive the gate into the guardrails, thus creating a wedge they can't drive through. It's sort of like the crumple zones in a car. Essentially if anyone rams it, they create an impassible barrier, and leave themselves open to be fired upon by our shooters inside the walls.

The rest of us focused on working with the cows, the chickens, and mending fences, and working on the wall. Every single person was working all day today, but the weather was nice, the mood was relaxed, and we had zero cares from start to finish. It was all in all, as idyllic a day as we've had in some time. Late in the day we took two hours and did a quick refresher course for folks wanting more trigger time.

Abby took the noobs and worked on basic firearm accuracy and I took the folks we'd identified as Grade B or better shooters, and got them some time with the M4s Mike brought. A quick inventory told us we had eight M4s in stock, and I wanted to issue out four of them eventually. For training earlier today, I simply showed them mine, and how I do what I do with it. Mag swaps, jam clears, loading unloading magazines, basic weapons maintenance, and the such. We ran out of time to do actual firing, but that's fine. There's always tomorrow as they say.

No word from MGR on anything bad, just their regular check in radio calls on the proper hours. No news is good news as long as they are checking in. Things are great here on campus, although I can clearly feel the tension growing as we get closer and closer to doing the actual warehouse run.

We still have no fucking idea who our arsonist and potential Emily murderer is. No one's story has come up dirty yet, and there hasn't been anything strange happening here since her death. It is starting to look more and more like she really did hang herself. As for the Westfield fire, well that seemed pretty fucking fishy, and with the chained doors and all, we KNOW that was no good.

I just wish I knew what the hell to do.? Gilbert, you listening? I could use a phone call here brother. Now would be a good time.

Otis is well. He's gallivanting around Hall E like a prince lately, reveling in the extra attention Abby is giving him now that Patty has moved to MGR with Mike. Abby seems out of it lately. Just generally kind of morose. I know she's struggling internally with the idea that her mom has shacked up with a new guy, and I'm sure she's also dealing with feelings of abandonment. If my mom blindsided me with the news Patty just did to Abby, I'd be all kinds of messed up, and I don't like my mom.

Abby loves her mom. I'm hoping this doesn't translate later on into issues that become real problems when the shit hits the fan. Poor Abby was already dealing with the stress of Gavin dying, and the whole dreams bullshit, and now her mom moves out to a more dangerous home, and in with a guy she doesn't know all that well We'll be lucky if she doesn't take a nutter and climb a clock tower with her AR. We'd be bent. She's a really good shot.

Tomorrow we are finishing up that gate here on campus, and working more on the wall. I think we only have another ten or fifteen real days of work to get the back end closed, but that also raises the question of having a second exit. We need to figure out how to build a sturdy exit that can't be breached easily. I'm sure the construction gurus here can come up with some clever idea.

Martin idly mentioned that he needs more metal to work with, so on our travels out and about, we need to be on the watch for that stuff. After tomorrow I want to start planning for a hit on the clinic here in town. If it has anything left in it, I want it. I also want to make it safe and secure it so if we need to use that clinic for more major medical procedures we can.

That will require a fairly in depth plan as well, but I am excited, because we need more breaching experience, and that clinic is likely to be nasty. I can just smell it now. All the sick and bitten and dead that rushed there on June 23^rd and 24^th, trying to get medical assistance for something that couldn't be helped.

I hate to say it, but clearing that place sounds like fun to me. Grab life by the balls and yank, right Mr. Journal?

-Adrian

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