I woke up this morning aching with tension and fear, it was mixed in with hunger which didn't help. It probably took me 2 hours to finally pluck up the courage to open the door and walk out. When my front door opened, a vacuum of fresh air filtered into the flat replacing the smell of stale sweat and body odor. I was expecting a wall of the undead ready to spring onto me and put an end to my trip before it began. I was actually surprised by the lack of anything, just complete silence. After getting down to the 1st floor I noticed the barricade was going to be tricky to bypass, luckily enough the window led out to the ground floor overhang which meant I could climb out and down, I checked that It was possible for me to climb back up again before jumping and it seemed that I could manage it fine. The infected are very weak and slow, so they would find it impossible to climb up after me if they chased me home. Finally hitting ground after 2 and a half weeks captivity felt very good, there was a sense of freedom for me as I no longer remained within the confines of my flat. This feeling of elation was quickly replaced with going out of the frying pan and into the fire due to the dangers awaiting me.
I started walking quietly towards the town centre and again felt very surprised by the lack of anything living or dead for that matter. I could hear the cries and moans of the infected far in the distance, yet the closer I got to town the louder the undead became. My guard was naturally up and any noise or sound would spark me into panic and the first thing that made me jump was a bunch of pigeons that sprung out in front of me. As I reached the first T junction to my right I found the army barricade. It was deserted, just an Army Jackal, some tents, barriers and a few dead soldiers.
I kept thinking about what I said a few days ago about zombies being in hibernation until someone living comes past and trapping them as they got too close, however these dead soldiers had weapons which were very valuable tools of survival, too valuable to ignore. I tried not to get too close to the heads, and very quietly eased myself in front of them. I noticed they both had their SA80 rifles gripped in their hands which seemed dangerous to try and pull away from them. I was in luck because laying on the floor behind one of them was a fully loaded pistol, so I picked it up very quickly and backed off. These guys really must have been completely dead as they showed no signs of life, I didn't want to push my luck so I continued on.
I walked past a lot of dead bodies, they were swarming with flies and I could not even describe the smell, it actually triggered my gag reflex and almost caused me to puke, that is what being dead for 2 weeks in the sun will do to a dead body. As expected I finally bumped into my first living dead up close, it was a disgusting site, one of its arms was missing, it had one leg and the foot from his other leg was chewed off. I can honestly say that I was actually petrified, it looked up at me and reached out with its only arm, I felt sorry because he was in such a weak and disabled state that there was no possible way for it to get up and chase after me.
I continued on my way, eventually coming to the very center of town, this area had been hit hard by bombs and mortar attacks. I managed to stay hidden as I noticed a group of zombies staggering around aimlessly, some were attracted to a dead body the rest seemed to be so lost in their own mental state that they probably had the memory of a gold fish. I decided that walking around really wasn't productive and had to find somewhere with supplies fast. I was in luck and that surprised me how easy it was to find somewhere, those supplies where that of the weatherspoon pub. The front door was unlocked and open, this pretty much indicated to me that they were open when the outbreak hit critical level and either died with everyone else or fled, leaving the pub open.
I walked inside trying to be vigilant and found that there was nobody inside, yet everything was stocked up as if they had just opened. Naturally I didn't waste any time so I jumped over the counter and filled my backpack with pub snacks such as crisps, pork scratchings, peanuts and all the usual things. I also took down a large bottle of Jack Daniels, I mean its nice to get drunk every now and again even in these circumstances, not to mention I couldn't afford a large bottle of Jack before so I may as well treat myself. I knew that the pub had a kitchen so I decided to have a look out back for anything, I was actually disappointed because most of the food was refrigerated and needed cooking, a luxury I no longer had available to me. I could already smell the foul stench of spoiled food so decided against wasting my time looking for anything more. I came back out into the bar area and filled my bag with bottled drinks such as coke, red bull and lemonade, it would be nice to enjoy something fizzy other than week old bath water. So while I was there I sat down and ate a bag of crisps and drank down a bottle of coke, it really was amazing I felt energy fill my veins and charge me back up again.
I took a quick walk up to the office area and apart from paperwork and stuff like that there was a laptop on top of the filing cabinet, so of course I packed that into my bag too. Finally I decided that the pub had given me everything worth taking, not to mention my bag was starting to get heavy so I didn't want to get weighed down to the point that I couldn't make a break for it if things turned bad. That unfortunately was a thought that actually came true shortly after.
I started to walk towards home and as I walked past Boots, I didn't even notice a zombie in the doorway, it was my own mistake for not looking around properly and the damn thing sprung into life, hissing and groaning for me. He was only a few feet away and in full strike mode, the only thing I could do at that moment was pull the gun out I found earlier and take a shot. I took a panicked aim at its head and pulled the trigger. The sound was a deafening crack, it made my ears ring, however it paid off because the zombie fell to the floor like a sack of spuds. I quickly realised that I had made a big mistake because every zombie in the area snapped around to my position and then began to close in on me. I started to run down the street as fast as I could to gain ground on them, and it seemed to me that every zombie in Stevenage was alerted to my presence. I turned the corner where the blockade was and quickly started to head home, not looking back I believed that I may have lost them.
From that moment on I didn't bump into anymore of them, my body was pumping with adrenalin and I really wasn't concentrating on my surroundings again as all I wanted to do was get back safe. When I arrived at the flats I walked around to the back and climbed up the drain pipe onto the roof of the overhang then back through the window. At that moment I just collapsed onto the floor and took about 10 minutes to catch my breath. I was in shock, exhausted and pretty shook up with what happened and to be fair was pretty unreal for the best of us to have to endure. I finally found the energy to pick myself up and climb those painfully exhausting stairs to get to my level. As soon as I reached my flat, I staggered in completely covered in sweat, heart pumping like crazy and finally collapsed on the sofa. I let out a big breath of air and burst into tears, it really had been an emotional day. I put the gun down, took off the backpack and glugged down a few generous mouthfuls of Jack Daniels, it was a toast to my admirable feat in surviving the undead to keep me alive in my flat a few weeks longer.
I will update you all later, but right now i just want to lie down and count my blessings that i made it home alive.
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