JANUARY 2014

Some days later, Gera and her little boy reach the house. The place is empty, has been deserted for days.  There is blood on the floor, wood blanks nailed  over the broken windows. The reminder of Mia's dramatic loss of her hand but Gera does not know this. She finds some of Mias and Inferialis things and hopes that they could escape. Gera is too exhausted and tired and hungry to leave straight away. But looking at the broken windows and the blood, she feels that this new shelter is not safe.

Inferialis is on foot, armed with only a hand gun, losing her way in the woods. Only a mile away from the prison, she is attacked by a group of walkers. She dies with the name of her daughter on her lips.

Back at the house, Gera is surprised by an intruder, a tall emaciated looking man with a slight german accent. Instead of a gun, he carries a guitar case on his back. When she asks him why, he explains to her:" This guitar saved my life". He helps her to destroy some zombies who were almost breaking into the house. He seems slightly of his rocker, talking weird, having sudden giggling fits, often choking up with tears but at the same time he seems so human and warmhearted that Gera instantly trusts him. She is at the end of her strength and grateful for his company and support. Ludger played in a band before the outbreak, his band bus was attacked, he was the only surviver. He saw his band mates turning, locked himself inside the bus , talked and screamed and sang to them, not comprehending what had happened to them.

Ludger had told Gera that he had met a man called Blake a few weeks before but that they were attacked and lost sight of each other. Gera and Ludger decide they will leave the house and make it to the county prison, hoping the thick walls offer protection. They are lucky and come across only a few stray walkers on their way through the woods. When they reach the prison there are armed men at the gates but they let them in. A man walks towards them to greet them warmly. Ludger can not believe his eyes for the man is Blake.

They are taken inside, given food, warm beds. Gera is overwhelmed. Ludger and Blake later sit together for hours, talking and drinking. Soon Ludger is drunk and Blake shows him to his quarters.  The next morning Gera and Ludger meet for breakfast. They are adament never to leave here again. The Prison seems the closest one will ever get to paradise and Gera is in awe of the saviour Blake.

The group of men, women in children at the prison is steadily growing. Blake sends the men out in groups every day to hunt for supplies. 

One day Gerard arrives at the prison. After an argument with the guards, Mia appears at the gate and as she can vouch for him, they let him in. Gerard notices an extreme change in the girl. She is cold and even points a gun at him at one point, thinking he wants to steal their supplies. But then she breaks down and he learns from the heartbroken girl what has happened since the last time they saw each other. The attack of the lake house, the break up of the group. And the most terrible thing, the death of her mother.

Mia had come face to face with the walking corpse of her mom, she stood in the midst of a group of stray by the prison fence one day. Mia seems to be losing her mind. She talks to her mother as if she standing next to her. Mia also pleads with Gerard to get out and get help. Mia believes Blake is sinister. She claims she has seen injured people arriving, saved by Blake but these people have disappeared. Gerard is not sure what to believe but he promises Mia to leave the prison and to think of a plan to get Mia away from there too.

Blake is driving to the town alone, something he does occasionally even though he keeps telling the people always to go in groups. In the town he is surprised by a huge group of zombies. He runs to the gun shop for safety, a trail of undead behind him. Unaware that the gun shop is occupied, he find himself face to face with a guy in complete fighting gear, a gas mark hides his face. The strangers guns the walkers down. The men escape to the roof.

The man introduces himself as "Puly". He talks with a strong eastern european accent and describes himself as a Survivalist. Blake invites him back to the prison, since the gun shop is not livable anymore, now with the zombies inside. Puly agrees to come with Blake, he offers his knowledge of survival tactics and his experience with weapons. Back at the prison, Puly takes of his mask and gear. He is a young man with dark short cropped hair and a handsome face. Blake invites him to drink with him. But Puly asks him if he has mushrooms by any chance. "No" says Blake:" i don't do drugs" Puly smiles and explains to Blake that Fungi actually can be used to purify water. A blessing in a world  where fresh water is rare. Again Blake realizes that this man will be a strong asset for the group. When they part to get some sleep they have decided that Puly will start giving shooting lesson to the prison people as soon as possible. 

On a trip to the town Puly gets into a gun fight with another guy. Puly overwhelms him and realizes the other one is only a boy. Puly moves around and picks up the kid's face, looking him right in the eyes.  "Don't fuck with me again, or next time I'm gonna do MUCH worse than cap your ass and stomp the shit out of you," he said in a soft, calm voice, staring the boy in the eyes.

The boy, whose name is Kel whispers "Yes sir," in a timid voice.  He terrified of what the man would bring...

Puly dropps him roughly and straightens his back out as he continues to stare him down.  Slowly he turns to the door, and ejects his mag, leaving it on the ground..  "Tell no one you saw me..." he said as he loads in a new one.

Kel rolls over in pain, on his back,fighting back tears and sheepishly nodded.  "Yes sir..."

The next day Puly gives his first lessons to some of the prison group, including Gera.

Later that day, Blake and Gera get involved, having a deep conversation. Gera tells him about her fears and heartbreak, that she would not be able to let go of her baby son, should anything happen..and it is clear what  she means. Blake promises her with a strong raspy emotional voice that he would put a gun to the temple of anybody who would try to hurt her child. Overwhelmed by this man who seems to understand her deeply, who gives her the feeling of  complete protection and compassion, she falls into his arms and his bed…

Ludger senses Gera's growing obsession with Blake and asks her about it. She tells him that Blake is the only one understands her. She tells him, Ludger being Blake's friend should after all know that Blake can be trusted but Ludger says: He is not my friend, we just happened to stay together for awhile seeking shelter. Gera confesses to Ludger her view about what she would do if her son would get infected. Ludger is torn between compassion and shock.

One day, a woman bumps into Blake in the prison.  She is very thin and pale. Large bags under her eyes, aging her by many years. Turning a young 26 year old into a 40 year old. And yet she is quite beautiful. He learns that she has been living in the prison for over a week now. He apologizes, telling her, he is sometimes too wrapped up in work to greet new residents of the prison. The woman who introduces herself as Rapid is a doctor, specialized on infectious disease. Blake is very pleased indeed. Proudly he shows her the Prisons medical compartment, asking her to stay with them. She is reluctant. "I don't do well in groups" she states immediately. And adds that she has conditions.

 "If i see or hear anything I don't like, or makes me feel like my safety is at risk. I walk, no questions asked. No trying to stop me. nada. If any force is used on me that threatens my life, I am not responsable for anyone who gets harmed as a result. I am not to be a prisoner because of my skill, I can leave and stay if I please. We clear?" Blake shakes his head surprised and amused and assures her that everybody in the prison lives there because they want  to. During their conversation, Blake reveals to her how he came to the prison, how he had lost wife and child and how he wanted to die but was saved by some people who had seeked shelter here. Rapid remains cold and detached and suspicious. Her tough demeanor seems to be her armor, protecting her vulnerable soul. They have a drink together, the usual Blake routine. She tells Blake"Listen, I'm not one for sitting around the campfire and sharing life stories. You want me to be a doctor, i'm going to do just that. I work in infectious disease, I'm going to have to do a general physical on everyone....Which includes sexual health so for the women I hope to hell you have speculums and microscopes down there. I saw swabs so..". "I'm just trying to do my best to protect those who are still alive, since i couldn't do shit out there for the people who were first infected…"Blake tells her" Listen, as much as I appreciate your skills and dedication, your attitude I am not fond of." He advices her to give it time before she comes over too strongly. Rapid  looks at him and shrugs, sipping her scotch "Well, I'm not quick to trust, so you'll excuse me for being a bit hard and fast about my methods. You aren't the first people who needed a doctor." She narrows her eyes darkly, remembering the last people she helped.

DECEMBER 2013

For days the stray walkers have grown in numbers. Until one night, the window panes break and they attack. In panic everybody runs. This is the point where the group splits up. Mia and Inferialis escape to the woods. Gera with her son and the Prof make it to the town. The twins go missing altogether. Gerard has not been back, he is still somewhere on an exploration.

Inferialis and Mia find another empty house, close to an abandoned farm. Gera and the Prof struggle to survive in the town but the Prof, still weakened by his illness, is attacked. As he dies he begs Gera to shoot him. Under tears and devastated, Gera shoots him. For her, this is especially hard since she is the one who still believes that the infected should be cared for and that they might be cured if one day a miracle happens.

Meanwhile Mia and her mother try to get back some sort of routine in the new shelter they found. They hope the rest of the group has survived and they wait for their return.

New shelter

 One night a man called Alasdair finds them. Inferialis is suspicious first but soon learns that Alasdair is a blessing. He is strong and has experience with weapons. A former army man he knows everything about survival. He also carries ammunition and most important, medical supply. While Inferialis and Alasdair talk upstairs, Mia busies herself outside when suddenly they hear her screams. A zombie has attacked the girl while she was in the yard. They find her downstairs in the kitchen, crying and hiding her hand. In a split second Inferialis and Alasdair realize that she has been bitten. Inferialis desperate to save her daughters life, cries to Alasdair to hand her his army knife. He throws it over to her and she hacks off her daughters hand. Only because of Alasdair's skills and knowledge they succeed to stop the bleeding and while the teenager sleeps upstairs, heavily bandaged and filled up with antibiotics, Inferialis thanks the man under tears and asks him to stay with them.

Alasdair

Two other survivers find the empty weekend house by lake, that the group escaped from. They come from very different walks of life. The two men meet at the empty house on coincide and stay there for some days. One is the young musician Ludger, the other is Blake, a one eyed man in his forties. Eventually the house is attacked again by the walkers who have made this place their territory and the two men lose sight of each other. Each one thinking, the other must have been killed.

Winter storms blow over the land. Mia and Inferialis are on their own a lot because Alasdair is a restless soul and gone most of the time. So Inferialis has to make trips to the woods and town on her own. Luckily she's found a car, which makes it easier.  She has to leave Mia in the house to cure her wound, the girl is brave and soon learns to use her left hand, making up for the missing right.

One of those days when Inferialis is out, Mia sees a man coming towards the house. She hides, pointing her gun at the man. He comes inside. One eyed, an axe over his shoulder he scares the girl when they come face to face. After some initial suspicion they start talking. His name is Blake, he says he only needs a rest before claiming back his house. Tresspassers have left the gates open and his place is flooded with zombies.He needs to clean his place. It turns out that "his house" is the county prison. He offers Mia to take her and her mother there, as it is a lot safer in the prison. Mia desperately  yearning for a father figure, decides to go with him to check it out. Before they leave, Blake tells her to leave a note in case her mother comes back earlier. Mia wants to stick it on the fridge but Blakes tells her to leave it on the table where it will be noticed easier. They leave the house and make it to the prison. Here they find that most of the zombies have ventured elsewhere, propably because they run out of living meat to feed on. Carefully the clean their way in. Section by section. Always careful to close one gate before opening the next. By sunrise they enter the safe walls within.  Mia sees cells with dry warm beds, showers and food.

Mia : *holds onto Blake* I....*sniffs* I haven't felt this safe since everything went bad...
Blake  nods with compassion
Blake : I know exactly how you feel
Blake: i felt like this too when i found it
Mia holds onto him tight, craving the hugs her father once gave her*
Blake : Mia look
Blake : the sunrise
Blake: look what a beautiful clear day
Mia leans up to look out the window and watches the sun slowly rise over the horizon and closes her eyes as it washes over her and she shivers* feels warm...
Blake  holds her small shoulders and whispers to her:" This is the first day of your new life, Mia"
Mia smiles brightly for the first time in months* I can't wait for my mom to see this.
Blake : I bet
Blake : we will fetch her tomorrow
Blake : maybe i can get that pickup truck to work
Mia slides her hand into Blake's and cuddles close to his arm*
Blake : smiles and squeezes her hand
Mia stares out as the sun rises* Did you kill the walker that hurt your eye?
Blake : Yes I killed that walker, I killed them all with my bare hands"
His mouth contorts, giving his face a mad dangerous expression for a moment:" with my bare hands" he repeats in a whisper before he snaps out of it, smiling  at Mia like a father" all will be fine"
Mia holds his hand* do you think this will ever go back to the way it was before?
Blake : No. But i will turn it into something new, something good. I promise you"

When Inferialis returns, she finds a a note in Mia's handwriting saying:
"Dear Momma, I met a new survivor today. His name is Mr. Blake. He has an eye patch because a walker hurt him just like me. He says he lives at the prison that daddy used to work at and said that if I go with him he'll come back for you too. I think it's gonna be safer this way momma. He seems really nice. Kinda like daddy. He says he'll come back to get you when you get back from the supply run. I love you very much momma. Mia XXX
Inferialis, upon reading the note leaves for the prison to find her daughter.

Blake and Mia are at the Prison for several days now. Blake cares for the girl, sees to it that she gets sleep and food, lets her pick out her own cell. But sometimes he leaves her for hours. When he comes back from a trip he asks her if she stayed in this cell block.
Blake:"you did not venture out? Its not safe until all has been cleared"
Mia :  I found a room with computers and stuff. but I promise I didn't go outside. Just like you said"
Blake  stares at her for a moment, dead silent.
Blake : ok...but you didn't go into any other..rooms?
Mia : *I swallow hard and slowly whisper* I only went out once, but it's just because I thought I heard my moms voice…"

Blake is strict with her, commanding that she obeys the rules for her own safety. He scares Mia with his coldness. Then again he seems caring when he tells her that he observed the house and it seems empty. He assumes Mias mother has gone to find her. Mia and Blake are worried but he encourages the girl, promising her he will find her mother and everything will be ok.

NOVEMBER 2013

Gera feels alienated from the group after a talk with the Prof and Inferialis. Whereas Inferialis and the Prof are determined never to take any chances and are convinced an infected person should be killed immediately, Gera believes there might still be hope for a cure. She knows that she could never kill her little son, should he become infected and feels forsaken and detached from the others.

Mia has learned to use the gun of her missing father. Because she is a good shooter she becomes cocky and careless. While the adults are preoccupied fixing a fence and she is alone in the house, she teases some stray zombies until they follow her. In her panic she forgets to close the gate and one of them enters the house.

one entered the house...

Luckily she can destroy him. Inferialis catches her when she cleans up the mess and strictly forbids her to leave the house at all after that. Later, Mia is still guilt ridden when Gerard walks in.

Gerard: "You're okay?"

Mia jumps a little at the sound of his voice* I'm fine.... you closed the gate when you came in right?

Gerard narrows his eyes" Yeah, I did...why? something wrong with the gate?"

Mia shakes my head* m...Momma says we always have to close to gate. Says I cant forget again...

Gerard  takes a double take at that:"Again?..."

Miai's  face turns pale and she go silent.

Gerard looks at Mia with a stern expression

Gerard : "You forgot to close the gate?!"

Mia: It was an accident...I put them down though... I had to throw out my clothes because they were all bloody... Momma was mad at me...

Gerard  presses his lips together:" Your mother needs to watch you better. Damn! You  put us all at risk. She was mad at you, hu? Well wait until she is back and i show her mad!"

Mia's lip quivers and she shoves him* Leave my Mom alone!"

The group of children is growing when the twins Uia and Talim find the house. Gerard jokes he feels like Mad Max Beyond the thunder dome with a trail of kids following him everywhere. 

"Mad Max beyond the thunder dome" with the twins and Mia

Ulia does all the talking while her twin always stays silent. When asked about their parents, Ulia answers:"Both are dead, dead a few weeks ago" she says coldly showing little to no emotion. Yes, we also came across some living, but I made short work of the ones how tried to take our supplies. After killing them, I just add their supplies to our, they didn't need it were they were going" she says darkly.

In the last week of november that weather turns colder and snow sets in. Inferialis and Mia take a trip to the town for supplies because Gerard is off to one of his solo trips and Gera and the twins stays home with the Prof who is ill with a bronchitis. While they stuff their bags in the  Walmart, a group of zombies collects at the entrance and they have to shoot their way through, running out. Suddenly Inferialis hears her daughter scream "Daddy" As she looks around, she sees in horror how Mia runs towards her zombified cop father. Inferialis can drag Mia away. They escape. Back home she comforts her deeply distraught child.

"Your daddy was a wonderful loving man. Its heartbreaking  that his ...body is now animated..but its not him, he is free of all pain now and watches us….and we will survive, daddy wants us to survive."

OCTOBER 2013

A new man joins the group for a short while. Mr. Fhang. He tells him he worked for the NSA. When the outbreak happened, he was in a bunker interrogating a suspect. They all were fine and protected until one day a guard came back from visiting his wife and he was infected. He bit several others and everybody in the bunker turned or died, expect Mr. Fhang. When Mia comes in and learns that Gera and the Prof found Fhang in town, she ask Gera if she saw her dad. Gera denies it.

Mia

Mia picks up a piece of chalk and marks another line on the door frame for another day he hasn't come back. Later Gera tells Fhang:" Her dad was killed in town, we believe he is one of them dead cops but the child must  not know". During the evening Fhang tells the group that the army and the government are in pieces and that the only important thing now is for as many people as possible to survive to start over.  When alone, Fhang tells Gera that she is probably the key to their survival as a race, she is the future. Gera realizes that Fhang is deranged, dreaming of producing a new race with a harem of women. She is therefore relieved to find him gone a few days later. He has left without a trace.

SEPTEMBER 2013

Two weeks since the outbreak. A small group of survivors have found a small weekend house by a Lake, the nearest town is an 6 hours foot march away. The group consists of a retired teacher whom everybody is calling "The Prof", a single mother Gera, Gerard, only son of a rich family and eternal student, Inferialis and her teenage daughter Mia. Mia's father, a cop has gone missing since the outbreak. The story starts with the group welcoming back Gerard who was on one of his trips to the out skirts. He has problems integrating into the group, is reluctant to work in the team and take on responsibility. He justifies his solo escapades with his concern that the house will not withstand an attack by the undead, and that he is searching for a better shelter.

Infi and daughter Mia

Gera and "Prof"

Mia is missing her father

Mia and Gerard in the town

One day Mia convinces Gerard to take her to the town to search for her missing father. The teenager is upset that nobody has made an attempt to look for him, her mother is evasive on the subject. Gerard and Mia travel to the town, which is infested with the dead but they don't find her father. Gerard suspects that the others, especially Mia's mother never searched for the man because they already know he is beyond help. He does not tell Mia about his thoughts but this trip makes them closer.