The Southland Affliction

Location: The Southland(Inland Empire)

Barricade Location: Spring St in Murrieta

Outbreak Status: Active

Life used to be normal, before I knew that zombies were real. At first I thought I was losing my mind, I went from making breakfast to killing zombies so fast that once I realized I had killed my neighbors I thought I should call the police and turn myself in for murder. That is I would have had they not been trying to eat me, once that notion had sunk in I aloud myself to except the gravity of the situation. Everything was so crazy that day, outside people running and screaming fighting for there lives. I jumped into my car and headed for the freeway and I would have went all the way to Vegas. That is, I would have tried to, if it wasn't for my best friend calling and warning me to stay off the freeways, "come to our barricade" he said to me, "it's safe here".


Monday, July 14th: There are 138 of us holding up here at the Spring street barricade, its not much just a few main streets in a small suburban neighborhood that we have blocked off. We used large trucks and suv's to block all the main roads that connect to Spring St and I think that the others have started building a wall around the perimeter. I'm not sure what their full plan is as of yet and I'm still getting to know a lot of the people here. I just hope that we have enough food and supplies until help arrives.

Friday, July 18th: After working together with several other survivors in an effort to reinforce our barricade we devised a plan to build a stronger perimeter wall to keep all of the inhabitants of this barricade safe from attack. The first stage was simply the reinforcement and height extension of an already existing wall at the East end of the neighborhood. The next stage will be building an additional wall at the west end, with that in place it wall act as a buffer from all the Afflicted that are getting to us from the adjacent road. But with supplies low we might have to venture outside the barricade in search of a hardware store for more bricks and mortar.

Sunday July 20th: We've retrieved the materials necessary for the completion of the wall as well as some additional supplies but it came with a price. Two members of our group we're killed today when we were overrun by a large group of "Afflicted" They're fast and mean and sometimes clever. First there were only a few them, standing outside the loading dock of a supply depot as we exited. They spotted us right away and lunged for us Doug, one of the members of our party got off some quick shots and downed most of them. Suddenly, one of them let out this shrill scream that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Doug and I both started firing at the screamer turning her into a pile of gore. I turned to face the others in our group and caught sight of another 8 or so rushing at us from the other side of the building and then another ten followed behind them. There were only 6 of us and about 40 rounds apiece. I tried not to panic but my hands started shaking as I saw another group rushing at us from the road that ran parallel to our position. Someone in the party shouted run and we did. Our vehicle was only 10 yards or so away, David another member of our group got to it first and dropped what he had been carrying, got inside and started up the Expedition. I got there with Doug, he opened the back of the suv and we threw our stuff inside. There was already about 9 bags of mortar so it was a tight fit plus we had numerous blunt objects, most of which got left behind. Another group had already loaded some concrete barriers and 20 metal interlock fences onto a flatbed and left for the barricade. Once Doug and I were finished loading we turned to defend our friends there must have been over a hundred of those things chasing after Stan, Jerry and Paul. Still carrying their bags, I shouted for them to drop 'em, we started firing downing at least half a dozen with the first few squeezes of the trigger. Paul dropped his bag and ran right for the passenger door, Stan and Jerry then dropped theirs turning around and firing. Doug stopped shooting and got into the suv, I remained outside trying to cover them, David started honking and the suv started moving away from me. I turned, shouting over my shoulder to come on as I closed the back door and made my way into the vehicle. I turned once again only to see Stan and Jerry shooting over their shoulders as they tried to get in, Jerry was pulled to the ground in seconds as one of the afflicted grabbed hold of his ankle. Stan tried to help him and got bit on the arm causing him to discharged his weapon. David floored it and I watched as Stan slipped right out of the suv and into the street, I did not look back to watch. Both men had families, families that I was going to have to talk to and explain what happened.

Wednesday July 23rd: Sara, Jerry's wife, hasn't eaten anything since I told her what happened to her husband on Sunday. Sobbing violently, she pounded her fists on my chest demanding to know why we just left them there. I tried to explain the circumstances about his demise, but I couldn't find the right words. What do you say to someone who just had her husband eaten alive. I hadn't gone into the gory details but she understood what these things do to people. So I just held her against me and apologized over and over, I told her that her husband died trying to save us all. That there were hundreds of these things swarming us and he never showed fear and that he died a hero. Later that day we held a memorial for both men, it was very beautiful, everyone cried. Claire, Stan's wife, reacted differently then I had expected after I told her. She didn't break down and start crying instead, she just looked at me for a second and then asked how Sara was holding up. I told her how Sara had reacted and Claire simply replied "Someone should see to her, make sure she's alright". I told I thought that was a good idea. I knew Claire was in shock, I've seen this kind of behavior before, she would probably cope with her loss by keeping her mind off of it as long as possible, finding as many tasks as she could to keep herself busy and from thinking about how she would never see her husband again. Now she had two boys to raise on her own, I didn't ask how she was going to tell them.