Zomblog 04: Snoe Read Free

there are a lot of things about the Old World that don’t make sense to my generation.
    Supposedly, people used to sit at pee-sees and type all their conversations to each other. People would meet and get married without ever meeting each other! They could type things and people in whole other parts of the world could read it right then. Seems creepy.
    Some of the old timers say that the reason the zombies wiped us out so fast is because everybody was so busy blogging, tweeting and Facebooking about it. They say that the zombies were at the door before anybody actually tried to act.
    So, last night, I was on watch with Sam Simmons. (He is the Revelationist pastor’s son.) We saw a few coyotes, a bunch of raccoons and a skunk. Not one single zombie.
    We broke camp at first light and headed back. This evening, the second training unit (who took over for us) just got back an hour ago. They made seven kills!
    It is SO not fair.
     
    Friday, June 8 th
     
    Graduation was this afternoon. Mama Lindsay presented all the graduates with their sword and crossbow. When she handed me mine, I guess it finally sunk in for her. I’ve been to lots of graduation ceremonies and never seen her show hardly any emotion at all, but today, she had a tear in her eye. If you know Mama Lindsay, then you know how rare that is for her.
    We were all given our first assignments at the banquet. I will be travelling with a produce caravan to a settlement that just established itself outside of the ruins of Oregon City. They set up beside the river just east of the falls.
    None of their farms are fully on line yet, but they have a bunch of fish, so we will give them some fruits and veggies and we get salmon. The kitchen is already planning something special when we get back. I’ve only had salmon twice…it is so yummy.
    The wagons have all been loaded and are in line at the North Gate, ready for us to leave in the morning. I hope I can sleep tonight. I’m actually very excited about this.
    I pulled out my birth mother’s journal and flipped through a few pages. She’s killed more zombies in a few days than I’ve ever actually seen. I guess since I’ve grown up my whole life knowing about them, I never gave them much thought. With places like The Sunset Fortress just up the line by the North Gate and Warehouse City as the last stop before exiting the West Gate, and all the little places in between along Corridor 26, this has just always been part of my world.
    The last numbers I heard when Mama Lindsay was talking with Jenifer and a few others were that there are over eight thousand people living within the walls of Corridor 26. Almost nine hundred live around Sunset Fortress where I grew up. To me…nine hundred people just seem like so many. In my lifetime, I remember when dinner was served for the entire Sunset Fortress community in one sitting. Now it is done in three.
    I realized the other night when we were out, just how used to the sounds of people around me I am. It was really quiet out there. I wasn’t totally ready for that. In the morning, I am leaving Corridor 26 for at least a week of that type of silence. Toss in the possibility of having to engage and kill zombies, and I just do not know how to feel about everything.
     
    Saturday, June 9 th
     
    This evening we are camped in a handful of houses. I’ve never been in an Old World house before. There is so much to see and fiddle with that I think my brain is swollen.
    We travelled over to an abandoned stretch of what used to be called Highway 217 according to the wagoneers. It winds through what were once hundreds of stores and shops. I can’t imagine how many people it would take to need that many shops. Some of the names were still readable on the buildings. My favorite was ‘chen Kaboodle’. I don’t know what it sold, but the name is funny.
    We had very little activity since most of this place is occupied by individual tribes. Not everybody chooses to live in the protected