Mom's Journal of the Zombie Years

[HaroldWayneHamlin]

I do not want to get too far out on a limb here, but I have all of MH's stories inorder and as single files with chapter headings.

I have the zombie years compiled into three files of 1 meg each.

Unless she directs other wise, I will send all to anyone who will email me at captainpaycheck@hotmail.com requesting same.

MH, has put a lot of work into her stories and I respect her for that work and the fact that she chose to make all her work available to us.

I had to compile her work so that i could loaded them onto my treo 650 PDA and then read each night in my milk tanker truck. You will never know how many times that PDA hit me in the face after I fell asleep reading. I hold it up with one hand and read and then BAM, the damm think hits me in the nose.

I have spent so much time with MH, my wife is getting suspious.

Later
wayne

[dustycanuck]

@wayne - that's the 'auto-wake' feature of the treo 650 PDA

[flourbug]

Hi Kathy in FL, I just discovered Mom's Journal of the Zombie Years. I am up to page 82 (Day 178) and registered just to let you know how much I am enjoying the series. You placed The Sanctuary right down the road from me, and your description of the stores and landscape is so accurate I feel like running down and knocking on the gates! I look forward to catching up - only another 259 pages to go!

[Kathy in FL]

When you aren’t feeling any pain … or at least what pain my body may have been feeling wasn’t noticeable enough to make it through the haze of whatever dope Iggy had shot me up with … the passage of time doesn’t always register. I was just sort of zoning, taking out the occasional zombie that got close enough to momentarily reconnect my survival instincts, and had no idea that it had been a lot longer than “a little bit” since Iggy and his crew had left. They had promised to send someone for me and that was all that was in my mind. God really does watch after children and fools … and given my age I obviously don’t fit in the child category these days.

Slowly the sun changed position and while the dope hadn’t worn off, I was no longer in total ga-ga land. I was still happy, happy. It takes a long time for me to metabolize out of a drunk; I’ve been known to feel the effects of a couple of glasses of the real hard stuff for twenty four hours or better … then I crash royally and you do not want to be around me. But happy, happy or not it finally penetrated that things weren’t as they should be. I was already trying to unweave the cobweb in my brain when a shell landed very near my “safe haven” and rocked me enough to make me say, “Hey! That wasn’t nice a’ tall!”

After the fourth shell I knew I would have to move whether I wanted to or not; the question was where. The sun was again setting and as I turned my face into the acrid breeze that cooled my sweat soaked and feverish leg I noticed that a new vehicle had crashed near my position. It looked like a cannibalized and then retrofitted step van. It was on its side and I watched as a zombie started dragging a detached leg away from the open rear door like it was looking for a doggie bag.

I knew the victim of the attack would have bled out by now and I knew I needed to change position. The van seemed the likeliest location short term. If nothing else it would give me a vantage point I was lacking. I hobbled as bad as a shambler but I finally made it to the van. Sure enough there were a couple of dead ‘uns inside the back of the van and on the other side as well but they were dead dead, as in not reanimating, due to severe head trauma. Actually the legless guy may have been from a self-inflicted head shot but I can’t say for sure and refuse to spend a lot of time ruminating on it. I’ve got enough personal nightmares without taking on the bad dreams of strangers.

The infecteds were getting thick. I still wasn’t feeling any real worry. At that moment I was probably certifiable at the very least. I know Scott and the kids would have been certifiable if they had known what I was doing. See, the gun that Iggy and crew had left me had a full magazine but no extras. They really had meant to come back for me but the situation changed on them. I don’t hold anything against them though I can’t say the same for Scott and Iggy himself. Iggy is a little messed up and carrying more than his fair share of guilt around like a talisman.

After I heard the click of the gun as it emptied I thought, “Rot roh Shaggy, we’s in some trouble now boy.”

I started casting about in the van for the deceased men’s guns, hoping that they’d have a few bits of ammo left in them. All I found were these weird looking rifle things. That stupid song “Star Trekking across the USA” started floating through my still high as a kite brain. The guns were big and black. From their shape I knew you held them the same way you would a long gun … rifle or shotgun … only they were bigger and boxier. On the side in barely discernible ridges on a small metal plate were the letters “PHaSR”.

“Oh crap … where’s Kirk and the gang when you need them. I’d even go for scrawny Sulu or Chekov at this point.”

Out of nowhere there was a scuffle at the opening I had crawled in through and I realized talking out loud in the middle of a zombie fest wasn’t exactly the brightest thing I’d ever done. Instinct had me pointing the “rifle” at the infected and I pulled the trigger.

I didn’t realize that anything was happening at first as there was no sound or click. But when the line of burned flesh appeared on the infected’s face I figured that something was happening so I aimed and held it still as I could on the moving target. It wasn’t instantaneous but it was close. The infected dropped and stopped moving.

Not too trusting that the thing really was sanitized I eased up on it. I didn’t even need to turn it over however.

“Oh, Scott and Glenn are going to wet … their … pants,” I thought.

There was a neat little burn hole on the back of the infected’s skull. I knew if I had bothered to turn it over there would be a matching one on the thing’s forehead.

Giggling slighting I muttered, “A freaking laser. How cool is that? No, wait … a phaser! Scotty beam me up one of these babies with a bottle of Aldebaran whiskey.”

I know, I know. Anyone reading this in the future probably has no clue what I was babbling about. Suffice it to say that at one point in my life I was a total nerdette and could give most folks a run for their money on the trivia for a certain sci fi franchise. Living like we did, opportunities to insert meaningless quotes from a story based in the 24th century didn’t exactly come about often … much to the gratitude of my children. Since this one had come along I certainly wasn’t going to pass it up.

And then I saw it. I had a hard time not giggling with glee. The twin of the van I was currently in had taken hit in its rear axle and it rolled to a hard stop against the downed remains of one of the helicopters that had bothered us earlier in the battle. Men and women jumped out of the vehicle but only one of them lived long enough to reach the top of the van … well almost reached the top; he was pulled down from the ladder and his screams didn’t last long.

Still singing, this time “It's worse than that, he's dead, Jim, dead, Jim, dead, Jim;
it's worse than that, he's dead, Jim, dead, Jim, dead,” I started using the PHaSR in my hand to clear a path for me to hobble over to the van. Climbing was so not fun. In fact the fun was so not that my happy, happy dissipated enough that I was beginning to think it was pretty stupid to make myself such an obvious target. Plus I realized that whatever was on top of the van had a shelf life. What I mean is that I realized that the contraption that reminded me a bit of Glenn’s cannons without the hose attachment was hooked up to a bank of ordinary looking car batteries.

There was no time left to kick myself for being an intoxicated idiot. The van was getting surrounded and I knew that I was not going to be running to safety. So as shells exploded off and on all around me I thought, “In for a penny, in for a pound.”

It didn’t take long for my happy, happy to come back. I realized quickly that I didn’t have to completely sanitize the infecteds, all I really needed to do for my immediate safety was disable them. Man, it was like a hot knife through butter with heads rolling this way and that … at least for as long as the batteries held out, which unfortunately wasn’t near as long as I needed them to.

[mjamminn]

Phantabulous!!!

[marbhán marfóir]

ZOMG, it's so weird experiencing regular posting with being such a late comer to this story!

once again Kathy, thanks for having a finish what you start attitude with your writing.

[Ravenzlite]

Thank you & Moar? soon?

[dumb blonde]

It's life Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, not as we know it.
It's life Jim but not as we know it, not as we know it, Jim.


The only other thing I have to say is -
MOAR PLEASE

[Nancy1340]

Very good Kathy. Thanks

[sarawolf]

OHHHHH SWEET, thank you so much.

[Charlee]

Oh my goodness, great! Thanks again, Kathy you are the BEST!
"It's worse than that, it's physics Jim!"

Groan, must be a few of us nerds still around!

[dumb blonde]

"only going forwards cos we can't find reverse"
Damit, now I have to go find that song...

[Ravenzlite]

No, there are several of us out here.

There's Klingons on the starboard bow. Scrape 'em off Jim.
It's life Jim, but not as we know it.
It's worse than that, he's dead Jim.
We come in peace, shoot to kill. Scotty beam me up.
Ye canna' change the laws o' physics. If I give 'er any more she'll blow.

[momengineer]

WHOO HOO!!! Thanks so much for the Moar!

(and phasers plus Star Trek- I'm in heaven!)

[dustycanuck]

What a great start to the week!

Thanks MH

[Lakewalker]

I just read the story from the start again all the way to the most current posts ...AWESOME...just as good as I remember...

What really sticks out to me, primarily as I'm from a very cold climate up here in Alberta, Canada...The growing season and availability of food to those in Florida. I thank God we live in the time that we do and that we have the global infrastructure to get that fresh produce up here for us to enjoy!!

The other major thing that sticks out to me is we really need community and that it would be very difficult to be truly self sufficient.

Thanks for the stories Kathy!!

PS I would love to see your must have book list on a variety different topics often covered in your stories.


PPS Off to re read another of your stories while I anxiously await MOAR updates on this story!!

[skarface]

Hooray for Kathy being back!

[Gwynmael]

Had to register to say - "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!"

Oh, and officially MOAR! pweeze.

[zombiepreparation]

Day 65 (part 5)
The last thing we plan to do tomorrow is to hang a flag that the kids made for us. The flag has a bright blue and green border and tells the name of our compound.

You would figure, under the circumstances, they would have chosen to call it Fort Something-or-Other or Outpost X, Y, or Z. Something that had some adrenaline and testosterone to it. No. Its just one word. The kids chose it and the name passed unanimously on the first vote.

I’m not sure how well it reflects the last couple of days, but overall it is what we have all been trying to achieve.

The new name of our compound is SANCTUARY.

This broke me. I just now had an under-a-minute sob when I saw the name chosen. Who are you? How do you write like this? Probably my momentary sob breakdown was partially due to having only four hours of sleep last night because of reading this brilliant work of art. Sleep finally released me from reading last night a little after 5am. My clock said almost 9:30am when I awakened today, made tea, and began reading again. I'm allowing myself to do this because of the holiday weekend having few demands, though I am now loathe to leave the house to attend my social committments today and tomorrow because I'm only wanting to read.

(and I read another poster reply to MJotZY saying he/she is using this narrative like I am; as a learning tool for his/her own preps in addition to the enjoyment of an excellent and well written story)

LLAP

[zombiepreparation]

Mom's Journal the MOVIE!!! Ok here it goes. Who should be the actors when this thing makes it to the BOX OFFICE????

I will start with Ricky. I think his role would be best play by none other than a young MATT DAMMON

I had not developed my same thought that far but it is occurring to me this should go to film somehow. Television series, miniseries, movie.

[Lakewalker]

I was thinking that if a network or premium channel saw the success of The Walking Dead and wanted to attract a male and female audience this would be a great TV series

[Narshalla]

I was thinking that if a network or premium channel saw the success of The Walking Dead and wanted to attract a male and female audience this would be a great TV series

I agree.

However . . . To be honest, I would rather this was set in England, or that the parts were cast by a British casting studio. No offense to Hollywood, but it would be nice to see an actress cast as Sissy who actually looked old enough to have a seventeen-year-old, and let's be honest . . . There are a lot of very good actors and actresses who actually fit the descriptions Kathy gave without doing what "My Sister's Keeper" did and cast Cameron Diaz as the mother of an eighteen-year-old that she gave birth to at the age of twenty-five or so. I mean, she's a good actress, but she just plain did not pull off the whole mid-forties thing at all.

Also, I could see them trying to cast Ellen Page as Laura or Sissy's daughter Sarah, and while she is a good actress, she'd be much better as Charlene.

Michael Cera, though, would work really well as Brandon, I think.

[zombiepreparation]

Hi Kathy, I am new to this board and found your story last night. I thought I would read a bit and then head for bed. But, when I finally finished reading, it was morning.

Yep. My story too.

I love your story and besides being entertaining, it has helped give me ideas in my own preparations here.

Yep. Me too.

[zombiepreparation]

I was thinking that if a network or premium channel saw the success of The Walking Dead and wanted to attract a male and female audience this would be a great TV series

I agree.

However . . . To be honest, I would rather this was set in England, or that the parts were cast by a British casting studio. No offense to Hollywood, but it would be nice to see an actress cast as Sissy who actually looked old enough to have a seventeen-year-old, and let's be honest . . . There are a lot of very good actors and actresses who actually fit the descriptions Kathy gave without doing what "My Sister's Keeper" did and cast Cameron Diaz as the mother of an eighteen-year-old that she gave birth to at the age of twenty-five or so. I mean, she's a good actress, but she just plain did not pull off the whole mid-forties thing at all.

Also, I could see them trying to cast Ellen Page as Laura or Sissy's daughter Sarah, and while she is a good actress, she'd be much better as Charlene.

Michael Cera, though, would work really well as Brandon, I think.

Sounds good to me... And if it 'did' in the end go Hollywood, what about Bonnie Hunt for Sissy? She does well doing younger than her years (born '61) and could 'weather' in look in the Z.Years, then age with Sissy. Or maybe better yet because of the Terminator Sissy parts, how about Laura Linney (born '64)? She's another actor who can manage younger than her years for the beginning Sissy and could possibly get trained to do the Terminator parts believably as an untrained mother hen who will fight to the extreme to protect in extreme circumstances, AND she could 'weather' well during the Z.Years, and age with Sissy too. I mean as long as all I'm doing is daydreaming about such things anyway. Both have proven able to play maternal, serious, loving, humor, conflicted, etc. with endearing believability already.

I'm back reading the story again but earlier today I received a text reminding me of today's planned social event, immediately followed by knocking on my door by two friends who sat in my livingroom and forced me to come away from the story and out of the computer. What a hoot.

Kathy in FL, thanks so much for this... on so many levels.