25 Feb 2130hrs
I’m so tired! We tried to sleep last night but both of us would shoot up awake at any noise. I think I fell asleep around 0600 and woke up around 0845. That will have to be enough sleep. I just wanted to get to my family as soon as I can. We are close to Iowa now and need to be ready. I expect to find large numbers of National Guardsman at the border. Today we have a seen a lot more traffic than usual. In fact the roads are packed. It reminds me of the LA freeway at rush hour. By the looks of things people from all over the country are trying to head north and get away from this plague.
The weather is getting colder. Myself and Smith are not really suited for this weather. We have fleece jackets but that’s it. It’s got to be 20 degrees outside right now. So now there is another reason to not want to go outside. But right now I am not so afraid of the cold or the zombies. It’s the people who are trying to survive. We have noticed a lot more hitchhikers on the road. Most of them have run out of gas in their cars. Smith asked me why we wouldn’t stop to help any of them. It didn’t take long for him to figure it out. We saw what happened to the people who would pull over to pick someone up. It would become a free for all. Everyone suddenly would try to get a ride. In some cases the poor bastard who was being nice would lose their car all together and become a hitchhiker. I was not about to lose this vehicle to anyone. One woman ran after us with a small child in her arms. She screamed for us to just take the kid. Smith glared at me. Before he could say something I told him to look behind us. Sure as shit. The car behind us pulled over to help her. And what do you think those good people got for their effort? They got carjacked. Men with guns were hiding behind the woman’s car. This whole place is nuts. We are stopping for no one. I told Smith that I am in full survival mode. Are mission is to get home. No one else matters right now. I am willing to run down or kill anyone who gets in my way. I just pray God will forgive me when this is all over.
26 Feb 1500hrs
Many words could describe how I’m feeling right now. Disgusted, shocked, lucky… The whole situation right now is so crazy I don’t even know where to begin. Smith and I arrived today at what we thought was another road block. But instead the National Guardsman where just waiving people by and handing out pamphlets. There were signs everywhere instructing people to head north. The pamphlets they were handing out stated that the walking dead freeze and stop moving in extreme cold temperatures. Plus, information on what to do when you come in contact with them. The pamphlet stated that the only way to kill them was to inflict severe head trauma and that if someone becomes infected you must kill them or risk that person coming back to life as a zombie and try to kill you. WTF! I couldn’t believe this. But it gets worse. We drove right past the information point and into their AO (Area of Operations.) No one stopped us or even asked any questioned who we were. We parked the hummer and I told Smith to acquire us anything worthwhile he could find, like food, water, parts, ammo…. I went out to get us some Intel on what the hell was going on. I found the T.O.C, but unlike the Marines this one only had a handful of Specialists and Privates working in it. I asked who was in charge and one of the E-4’s said a CPT Davis was. He also said that the CO and the S2 left early this morning, and would be back this afternoon. And for now SSG Pruitt was in charge. At this point I decided to go into the CO’s office anyways. The soldiers here were being led by a SSG and figured I must be someone important. The Commanders office looked like he had bugged out. There was nothing left in his office but empty water cases and MRE cases. However he left a number of sensitive items just lying around on his desk. His laptop was still up and open. I quickly scanned his e mail. Everything was status update requests. Someone up higher wanted to have numbers of the people heading north. His sent items were the same. All reports on the situation at hand, including how many outbreaks they have had to put down as well as Guardsmen who had been infected. I was about leave when I decided to look in his deleted items folder. There was one email in it. When I read it I was shocked. I decided to print it out and save a copy.
To: CPT Davis, Roger
From: Mr Felts, Richard CIV
Roger,
You need to get out of there! HQ is following some plan that requires people to head north to be some kind of live bait. The Active military is all regrouping at FT Carson CO and Peterson AFB in CO. HQ is hoping the main swarms of the infected will follow the people heading north and get caught in the last winter storms. Get out of there before it’s too late. We are tracking large swarms of infected following the end of the migration. The USMC barricade will fall in the next 2 weeks. Get out NOW!
Rich
I took his laptop and stuck it in my ruck. I went back out to the T.O.C. SSG Pruitt was now here and wanted to know who I was. I pulled him aside and gave him a copy of his COs email. I told him “looks like you’re on your own Sarge.” As I walked away I could hear him cursing his commander. Something along the lines that he was a liar and a coward.
I met up with PFC Smith by the hummer. He was all smiles. When I looked inside I could see why. He had acquired us several new cases of MREs and water. He also got us more ammo for the .50 cal and our M4s. He also was installing new glow plugs in the hummer. He said we will need them as the temp keeps dropping. He was right. It was cold. Today I believe the temp was around 19 degrees. I asked him where he got all this. He smiled and said no one here cared if he took anything. The guys in the maintenance tent said he could help himself to whatever he needed. Great! We needed some luck. I let Smith read the email. He had about the same reaction as SSG Pruitt. I told him my plan was to get my family ASAP and head to FT Carson. He just wanted to go home. We refueled and topped off our gas cans and got out of there as soon as we could. As we left we noticed any of the Nat’l Guardsmen were doing the same. Bugging out! Makes me wonder who is expendable right now.
