Good trip today. I hit a guns and ammo shop on Broadway and walked out with several boxes of ammo for each of my weapons. A good haul and surprising given how likely it is that there are a lot of other hunters out there doing the same thing. I also hit a Safeway and grabbed some canned food. Most of the shelves were empty, but there was an unopened case of ramen and a few cases of soup in the loading area. I loaded up the H3 and came back downtown. Oh yeah - I should probably talk about my new ride.
I’ve always been surprised in the zombie movies how people just stay in the same beat-up vehicles they had when the mess started. Are you kidding me? First thing I did was go to a dealership, grab a new H3 (no one was going to miss it) and headed to a gas station. Yeah, it’s shitty on gas mileage, but it’s heavy, it’s got good protection, and it looks cool. It also holds a crap-load of stuff. I’m able to haul away a lot of stuff in that. The roads aren’t all that impassable - a lot of people tried to leave the city when things started to go from bad to god-awful but we had an early blizzard that blocked most of the highways. That meant that people were stranded outside the city and the city itself was pretty cleared out. Good for me and the other hunters.
I also went up the capitol building today. The doors were busted off the hinges - looks like someone really wanted to get inside. Actually, I think the only building that’s been completely untouched is the mint. It’s not like the zombies can get into it, but I’m surprised someone a little less scrupulous hasn’t taken some dynamite and blown a hole in the wall. But back to the capitol. I went inside and looked around a little on the main floor, but it was mostly strewn with paper and leaves. There might be a pack hiding in there somewhere, but I know most government buildings have a warren of sub-basements and offices tucked in bizarre places that it’s too dangerous to clean it out. I might camp out some night and wait for the pack to emerge and take them from a distance. One nice thing about shooting downtown is that all of the buildings echo the report so it’s hard to tell exactly where it’s coming from, and that’s if your brain’s working properly. When you’re a half-fried zombie, it’s impossible. I’ve capped a whole pack of thirteen zombies from two blocks away and they never knew where it was coming from.
It’s hard to tell just how many are left. Their numbers are dwindling as the hunters take their tolls. But the zombies get their wins too. I found that guy who was shooting two nights ago. He’d been found by a pack, a big one. Must have been over fifty because twenty were dead outside the bar he was hiding in. There wasn’t a lot left of him and I think the pack actually split up afterwards which seems weird. There’s something else too. I think they may actually be eating now. It used to be they’d kill someone and then move on but there wasn’t much left of this guy. I guess a few weeks may drive even the half-fried to extremes of hunger. Everything else was cleaned out, too - the freezers, bakery racks, everything. I’m wondering how much of a change in the overall dynamic this means. Am I facing a stronger pack now that they’re eating? My gut tells me it’s going to be harder now.
I didn’t actually see any zombies today, though. I wonder if we’re arriving at some kind of detente. The hunters go out in the day, the zombies at night. Is this the beginning of some new chapter in our acrimonious relationship?
More gunfire. Closer this time. I looked out the window but couldn’t see anything. Sounded like more than one gun, so it could be a pair of hunters. I think they’re likely to survive the night, but it makes me wonder if everything here is so safe. I may need to rig up some additional alarms on the fire escapes and the doors. Maybe set some traps in some of the other rooms.
There’s something surreal about sitting in a hotel room ten floors from street level hearing gunfire outside your window. Wondering if you’re hearing something breaking through the door at the far end of the hall. Something now shuffling down the hallway, looking for lights under the door, listening for breathing or anything else that would give you away. Hands pressed against your door, pushing against it to open it and come get you. I need to stop this - my imagination’s getting the better of me right now.
Gunfire’s ended. Hope you got ‘em, boys.
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