The End of the World

I've made it back. It was difficult journey. Not because of length or terrain or any of the typical reasons a journey would be difficult, but because I found a world of zombies out there and it took every bit of energy and time to not get eaten. There were a few close calls, but fortunately nothing that I didn't overcome. I spent a great deal of time hiding to avoid conflict, but the following is a record of everything I saw.

I made my way to a small suburban community, just on the outskirts of town. No more than 1 or 2 miles from the office building I currently call home. As I made my way there I found the population getting thicker and thicker, although not any thicker than anything I've experienced to date. When I arrived to the area, things seemed pretty dead. A few zombies wandering here and there in a small downtown commercial area, nothing that proved to me that they were anything more than mindless wanderers. I took a look around the area. Many of the homes seemed quite, but I didn't venture into them, mostly because I don't like walking into small cramped spaces that I'm unfamiliar with. Perhaps it is by product of a zombie apocalypse, but I think I may be a little claustrophobic.

I'm not sure the exact time, my guess would be somewhere in the vicinity of 3pm, is when I arrived. I was ready to call the trip a failure when suddenly the streets started getting swamped with zombies. After a moment of panic I found a hiding spot in a dumpster down an alley. It took me awhile to have the guts to peak out, but when I did I saw hordes and hordes of them wandering the streets. I'm still not positive where they came from, but it's almost as if they were all just coming home. Casually walking the streets moaning and waving to one another as if they recognized some zombies but not others. Needless to say the social interactions surprised me, but what surprised me even more was when I caught site of the guide.

I recognized him at once, and was even more confused and surprised to watch him pick up a small zombie girl and hug her. I can now say without a shadow of a doubt that zombies are social creatures who communicate and acknowledge the existence of their fellow zombies. It's something that I hope would be true, or at least crossed my mind now and again, but until this point I saw no proof.

After what was roughly and hour or so the groups thinned and by late evening the streets were quiet again. I spent the night in my hiding place and witnessed another surge of activity in the morning. I have noted in previous posts that they are creatures of habit, and that seemed to hold true with everything I was witnessing, but roughly the same time that afternoon another surge of activity hit, and I once again saw the guide again. He met the small child zombie again and walked off with her and an older female zombie. They looked as if they were a family. I can't say for sure if they were just acting on older leaned behavior, or if they had some type of zombie social contract worked out, but I can confidently say they had some form of bond.

The next day I emerged from my hiding place and found a new and better place to hide that would allow me to follow the guide and his family after their meeting. It was tough to pursue them while avoiding contact with other zombies, but somehow I managed to follow them to a small single story house in the middle of a quaint residential street. There I observed the guide come and go at approximately the same time every day. And each night I was there the three of them sat at a table and consumed human flesh. It was gross, but I found it hard to turn my eyes due to the awe of watching them sit down to a family meal every night. I even witnessed the girl out in the front yard playing with dolls.

Of course I saw all of this from a far, but it was clear to me that they were communicating with groans and signals, which although meant very little to me, obviously were things that they each understood themselves. I never saw them lay down to sleep, but nights were always very quiet, and I can only presume it is because they were in bed. All in all they functioned exactly as humans did before apocalypse, aside from the need to eat human flesh and brains and they seemed not to care about keeping anything clean or neat. There cloths were always tattered and stained in blood and they didn't do much more than throw the bones of their meals in the back yard.

To be honest I found the whole thing fascinating and in a strange way comforting. Even though I was not interacting with them, it was good to see that some social interaction was occurring in a world where humans no longer lived. I would have liked to stay longer, but I was running out of food and the nights outside were getting colder and colder. I set out of a food run while I was there, but I was unsuccessful.

I had little trouble returning and have enough food here at the office for a few days. So for now I will rest and set out in a few days to restock. And then I will plan another trip to my friends new house. I think there is still more I can learn.