In Hiding: A Survivors Journal of the Great Outbreak Read Free Page B

back yard.
There were reports of Zeds pounding on doors and windows of homes trying to get
inside. The police and the Army responded to multiple emergency calls to find
terrified families barricaded inside their homes. If the windows or doors
didn’t hold, well neighbors mostly reported those stories.

 
    In
the days that followed, most people stayed inside, huddled around their
television afraid to leave the safety of their homes. The accidental shootings
had started to happen in my city. Close to my home. Close to my work. People
were scared and didn’t know what to do. Mistrust grew between neighbors and
friends, we watched everyone closely for signs that they had become infected.
That they were going to turn into a mindless cannibal and come after us in the
middle of the night.

 
    You
could feel it in the air. Every time I heard the sirens of emergency vehicles I
froze for a moment and wondered what was happening. Every so often I heard
gunshots in the middle of the afternoon. Sometimes it felt like they had come
from just a few blocks away. Everything just felt different, like at any moment
the levy would give way and the outbreak would spill out and consume us all.

 
    Things
in my region were growing worse by the day. But the news that was coming out of
some of the major cities was down right disturbing. Cities like New York,
Baltimore and Boston seemed to be on the brink. They had seen a steady rise in
attacks and the cities were basically on lockdown. In some instances
evacuations were already underway and one astonishing scene that I remember
watching was the military in a full on fight to protect the residents as they
fled. I watched it all with amazement, shocked by what was happening. But I
found it difficult to worry about the people in those cities because I knew
that it would only be a matter of time before the worst of it all made its way
to where I was.

 
    More
and more I saw the police out on the streets. The National Guard and the Army
were driving around neighborhoods. Buildings and sometimes there were entire
city blocks being quarantined. It had reached the point where I knew I needed
to do something but I just didn’t know what. I had no idea how to plan for
something like this. I thought about buying a gun, I thought about leaving
town. I just didn’t know where I could go.

 
    The
next day a man was attacked by a group of Zeds only three blocks away from my
condo. They never reported if the man survived or not. That was when I knew it
was time to start planning my exit strategy.

 
    That
day turned out to be my last day at work. Well, it was the last day I decided
to show up anyway. I could tell that the worst was coming and it was coming
soon. When I arrived at work that day most of the staff had either called in or
just hadn’t shown up at all. It really made me question why the hell I was still
going to the office with everything that was going on in the world.

 
    I
spent most of that morning in the break room watching the news. It was probably
sometime shortly after lunch when the local news put a crawl along the bottom
of their broadcast listing different safe zones and shelters that had been set
up by authorities. There were dozens of places all across the city and they
suggested that anyone who did not feel safe in their homes should grab what
they could carry and immediately make their way to the nearest one. That was
enough for me. I decided to go home.

 
    That
drive home was when knew that I needed to get out of town and fast. Police cars
and military vehicles were everywhere. People were all over the sidewalks and
there were more cars on the road then I had ever seen before. Every car seemed
to be loaded up with people and luggage. They were all headed to shelters or on
their way out of town to stay with family in other parts of the country. I
guess they had all seen the same thing I had and drawn the same conclusion.

 
    That
evening as I was watching my