"Starting Again: A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Tale"

[PollyWannaCracker]

"Starting Again"
A Post Apocalyptic Zombie Tale​

Day 6 (January 19th, 2026):

Yeah, yeah, I know: what about Days 1 through 5, don't diaries/journals usually start with Day 1?

Simple answer: I didn't expect to be keeping a journal on Day 1 ... or Day 2 or 3 or 4 or even 5. To be honest, I didn't expect to still be alive on Day 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5.

And yet...

Day 6 and I'm still breathing. I don't know how the hell I'm still alive while most everyone else is dead.

Or Undead.

Yeah, I said it. Or wrote it, anyway. Undead, aka zombies. Though, these zombies aren't like your normal zombies, if there is such a thing as a normal zombie.

When I think normal zombies, I think "The Walking Dead" zombies: slow, awkward, stupid. These zombies, the ones who have destroyed my world and killed everyone I know, they are more like the Darkseekers from "I Am Legend" -- quick, energetic, problem solving -- only they aren't afraid of the daylight.

Looking out my 5th floor apartment window, I can see a couple of dozen of them right now, just rushing about. When this first started, they were chasing after other people, catching them, killing them ... eating them.

People eating people. Cannibals. Really? It's so Hollywood. It's so unreal. What's that word, that better word...? Surreal?

They didn't eat everything, though. I mean, every bit of everyone they killed. From my window, I can see partially consumed corpses every where. There's gotta be at least 50 bodies, maybe more, maybe lots more.

They're grotesque: their faces ripped to shreds, their bellies torn open, their entrails laying out on the grass or pavement. I got sick over seeing it a couple of times. Not any more. I'd hate to think I'm becoming accustomed to the sight.

So, back to the whole Day 6 thing: why start a journal now? Well, I guess I want someone -- anyone -- to know that I survived until now. Please tell my friends and family -- if any of them survived, too -- that I love them and was thinking of them before I did what I've been avoiding for the past 6 days: leaving my apartment.

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Posts from:

• Polly: #1, #2.

 

[PollyWannaCracker]

Day 8 (January 21st, 2026):

I'm such a chicken shit.

I still haven't been able to screw up the courage to open the door and venture out into the hallway to both investigate my situation and search for resources. I thought I heard someone or something in the hallway yesterday; there were screams down on the street last night; and I was awoken by screeching tires and gunfire a block or two away just before dawn.

But life inside my apartment is beginning to become unbearable. The power went out yesterday around sunup, and I have no way to heat the place now. And during the night, the water pressure failed. (I can't flush the toilet, and Jesus, my bathroom is starting to stink, much like myself.) I will be out of bottled water today. I have canned foods that have water as a main ingredient, thankfully: pears, peas, etc. (Does your body need more water to digest such foods than there is water in them? I thought I heard that on NPR once.)

I've already eaten all the leftovers and fresh food in the fridge to avoid wasting them. Opening and closing its door with superhuman speed to keep the cold in as best as I can, I've been snatching microwavable meals from the freezer occasionally, letting them heat to room temperature so that I can eat them. (They're all precooked, so it's not like I'm gonna die of some porkish parasite. Right? I tried to make a sort of barbeque burning magazines and rolled up newspapers in a metal salad bowl with the oven's rack over top, but all that did was fill the apartment with smoke and ink fumes.) I'm probably going to have to eat the rest of them tonight, though, as the last package I snatch out wasn't frozen.

I've taken inventory of the rest of my food stocks, and I could feed myself for nearly a month with what's in the pantry. But without water? They say you can last a couple of days, right?

I don't think I have a choice: I'm going outside tomorrow.

 

[PollyWannaCracker]

Day 9 (January 22nd, 2026):

I did it: I left my apartment. I almost wish I hadn't, though. Before today, I would have thought that the worst thing I could ever have seen in my life were those dead, partially eaten bodies down on the street and in the lawn of my apartment building.

I was wrong.

Today, just two doors down from my own apartment door, I found my neighbor Gloria Evans, dead and eaten upon. It was horrific, seeing such a thing up close like that. She was face up -- well, front up, at least, as most of her face was gone. (I only knew it was her because of her nurse uniform and very familiar backpack.)

I returned to my place in horror, only to force myself to go back out into the hall again. I laid an old coat of mine over her, covering as much of the damage as I could. Flies filled the air around her. I want to do something for her as far as burial or whatever, but what would I do?

Well, fuck, of course: she probably had her keys on her, so I could at least put her back in her apartment. Tomorrow.

After tending to Gloria as I did, I wandered the halls ever so quietly, listening for signs of the zombies and hearing none. I wanted to begin pillaging rooms for water, food, and more, but I just couldn't get up the courage to do it today. Again, tomorrow.

I got a surprise when I got back to my place. I hadn't taken my phone with me because -- for reasons I can't even fathom -- there hadn't been any service since just hours after all this shit began. But I kept it on and plugged into the charger, and when I got back I found that I had 68 text messages and 33 voice mails waiting.

There must have been a moment of service available, again for reasons I can't begin to fathom. I couldn't check the voice mails, but I did get the text messages. Until at least the day before yesterday, my mother and sister -- in the next state over -- were still alive and seemingly safe on the farm. Most of the other texts, though, were from friends and other family, sent on the first day or two, and they've sent nothing since. It could be that like me, they simply don't have service. Or, they could all be dead.

More wandering tomorrow.

 

[PollyWannaCracker]

Day 11 (January 24th, 2026):

I spent yesterday thinking about my immediate future. There is no doubt in my mind that I am on my own: I've seen no Police or National Guard or Army out on the streets bringing the mayhem to an end; I have no communications with the outside world via cell or internet, and the radio only plays a never-ending recording warning people to stay inside behind locked and blocked doors; and as far as I can tell there is no one left in my building or, at least, on my floor.

I seem to be the only person left alive in Connor Place: I'm queen of the castle. As such, I think I'm going to make use of my reign.

I have to first ensure that there are none of those zombie/day walker things alive on the floor or, if there are, either secure them or kill them. Kill them: how the hell am I going to kill them? I don't have a gun and have only ever shot one a couple of times, back when I was dating David and he would take me to his father's place for target practice.

First, though, securing the 5th floor. I'm setting my pen aside now to do just that...



Later: Well, that was scary as fuck!

I once again walked the entire 5th floor hallway -- it is "H" shaped, with my apartment the last apartment in the bottom right outside of the right side "upright" of the "H", if you can imagine that.

After seeing that the hall was clear, I went from door to door, lightly knocking to see if anyone answered. My heart nearly leapt out of my chest when, at the fourth door, Apartment 506, one of them tried to "answer" the door. It slammed against the other side of the door and tried to use the handle, growling and crying out the whole time. I think maybe the deadbolt was locked and it didn't know how to unlock it. Hard to say.

All I know is that I would have run away, back to my apartment, if I'd been able to get my feet to move. Actually, I know something more than that: if I am going to continue to live here on the 5th, I'm going to have to kill that thing. (It was the only one I found today, and I knocked on all 10 apartment doors.) I can't risk that thing learning how to unlock that dead bolt.

But how? How do I kill a wild, ferocious "animal" that is essentially locked in a "cage" to which I have no access? And even if I can get to it, can I seriously kill it? It was a person once: it was my neighbor once!

On another note, I found one apartment that was unlocked and unoccupied. I found water and food, which I brought back to my place. I will search it more tomorrow for other things.

The rest of the apartments were locked. We all have metal fire resistant doors that you can't simply kick it, as if you were in a bad cop movie. I'll figure something out. The water I found will rehydrate me for a few days, but then I'm back to where I was.