"Visual"
The following is the remains of a logbook found in the arms room of the State Police Station in Painted Post New York. Most of it is damaged, due to exposure to water and the elements. The undamaged sections are reproduced here. The log is approximately 25 years old, and may be the best example of what the early survivors went through in the first days following the Techophage.
July 17th
I am dead. You aren't. At least that is the idea behind this journal. If you are reading this, what ever I did, didn't work, so maybe you can learn something from me screwing up one last time.
It all started for me pretty much the way it did for you I would imagine, well, maybe not. But here it is anyways.
I took the week of the 4th off like I always do, to do some hiking and camping in the mountains. Being an IT guy means I lead a pretty dull life, so any chance I get to get out and get some air, I take it.
Had convinced Jenny from accounting to come with me. We had been dating a few weeks, and she said she liked the idea of just the two of us in the woods. Sounded like a plan to me.
We spent the week in the back woods. She was no hiker and even less of a camper. But hey. I got to play He man mountain man a few times and it worked out pretty well overall. She did complain that we didn't have any music on the little radio she had, but I figured it was just the mountains. Little did I know what was really happening.
By the time we had loaded up the last day, she was really looking forward to getting back to civilization
She was going to have to wait a while we found out.
We had gotten to the truck we had left at the trailhead about noon and headed back down out of the mountains. We didn't see any traffic, but on the back roads, that was not unusual. Jenny had tried to tune the radio in the truck, but all we got was static. That bothered me a little, but I didn't say anything to her about it.
The first one we saw was just standing in the road, right in the middle. He was a big guy, with dirty shorts and no shirt on. He was facing away from us, arms outstretched, like he was trying to block the road. I pulled up next to him and was going to ask him what the hell he was doing when he looked at us.
The eyes just freaked us both out, I never did get used to that. They were just that weird silver grey color. No pupils, no color. He, or It, just looked at us for a few seconds, then it came at us. He slammed into the side of the truck, trying to reach into the window, when I gunned the truck, sending him spinning to the ground. I braked a few hundred feet up the road and watched him get up, and start walking toward us. He didn't look hurt, and by this time, Jenny was freaking, screaming at me to just go.
I took her advice, and stomped on the gas, leaving him or it , behind us. The last time I say him he had stopped and raised his arms again like he was when we say him.
The next ones we came across were the worst. There was a minivan in the ditch on the other side of the road, all the doors open, and no one in sight. I stopped, thinking they needed help, and Jenny and I got out. Looking back, that was the worst choice we made.
As we got to the van, I saw the mom, laying in the grass, face down, and Jenny yelled that there was a kid over on the other side of the van. I ran over and bent down to take a look when the Father came up from the ditch and grabbed Jenny. His clothes were torn, and there was blood all over them, but he didn't look hurt. Hell, he sure didn't move like it that was for sure. He grabbed Jenny around the neck and threw her to the ground, I heard her neck break from where I was, a kind of snap like a twig makes.
I jumped at the guy, driving him against the side of the minivan, and screaming at him, I pounded his head against the door frame until it I felt it cave in. I let him go, and he dropped to the ground, face up, his eyes that same silver color as the guy we had seen a few minutes before.
I rushed over to Jenny and held her. Her head just kind of hung at a weird angle, her eyes open, staring into space. I knew she was dead.
I started to cry, when I saw the change in her eyes.
The silver color just kind of flowed from the sides until it filed them up. Then the shit really hit the fan.
Her neck stiffened, her face turned toward me, when the dad who I had just put down, blindsided me.
He knocked me down, and grabbed my neck, his hands tightening. I was on my back and with my best WWE like move, I got my knee between us and kicked off, sending him over my head. I rolled over and got ready for him when I saw that I had sent him flying into the sharp end of the front bumper of the minivan, torn loose when it came to rest in the ditch. He was literally impaled on the thing, the end of it sticking out of his chest. He was trying to grab it with both hands, like he wanted to pull it free.
I glanced over at Jenny and watched as she slowly got up, and really slowly came toward me. I saw movement and the kid was also getting up. I heard the mother moving around the back of the van.
I decided that this was a no win situation, and with screens of dawn of the dead flashing in my mind, I took off running. I made it to the truck, with the 3 remaining things right behind me. They didn't move real fast, like they were unsure of how to walk.
I took off, and really don't remember the next few hours. Just flashes of car wrecks, burned out houses, and buildings, and all of the things just walking around, It wasn't until I hit one with the truck because it just stood there in the road, looking at me with those dead silver eyes that I kind of came too.
I found a sporting goods store that I had stopped at before, and I figured I needed to restock my supplies and then I would head back up into the mountains for a while.
As I walked toward the back door, which hung open, torn from the hinges that I realized that others had proba....
September 3rd
.....took two rounds in the chest, knocking it down. I stepped back into the doorway and reloaded. I knew it would be online in a few seconds, and I was running out of options. Just as I chambered the first round, it came thru the door. I aimed high, and blew its head off. The body took a few steps, and stopped. I had seen this before, and knew it was scanning for data flow from any others in the area. I didn't give it a chance and jabbed the taser into its chest and triggered it,
The shock did its work, the thing jerked back, and fell over, spasming and thrashing around.
I needed new batteries soon, I could tell from the things attempt to do a repair.
I shot it two more times at point blank range, knowing it would not be able to handle that much damage.
Always remember that they reach a point that the zoids cant fix them. Massive damage will do if you cant get a taser.
I remember the one last week I blew up with a claymore. It really worked hard to repair itself, and only running over it with the Striker finished it off.
I worked my way out of the school, checking for any more of them, my flashlight the only light.
Remember to shield your flashlights with a red filter. They don't react to the light that way, and unless you want the bastards flocking toward your light like a moth, red is good. Forget NVG's. They see the infrared really well too.
When I got back to the Striker, I let the noob know that we were clear in this area. He raised the rest of the guys and I had them meet us at the Pizza Hut on Greenwood.
One of the teams radioed that they had some sort sort of problem with the truck they were driving, so I had them ditch it, figured they had some ooze get in the system and had them hole up until one of the others got over to them to pick them up. By the time the other guys got there, I think it was the Air Force crew, they had been taken down, and hard if the number of spent rounds and disabled zoids were any indication. I hated the loss. Two more decent dudes gone. I had the flyboys salvage anything they could from the ride the lost had, and to get the hell out quick. Once the zoids find us, they all know where we are. Two other teams rolled in, one still had smoke coming from the pintle .50 cal. I had heard it barking in the distance, and knew we would have to move soon.
We had about 2 hours till sunrise, and needed to go to ground quick. The fact that they zoids were up and moving around in the dark was kind of a worry, since up until now they had not been.
We got everybody together, and made our way over to Link Highway were we knew were some good secure warehouses that we could get all the vehicles into. I put two teams on watch on the roof and the rest of us got some downtime, some catching a nap, the others working on weapons and the trucks.
We were down on heavy munitions, and I told everybody to take it easy on the .50 cal for a while. We would have to make our way back to Corning in the next day or so and restock.
One of the crews took the time to put the finishing touches on the paint job they had been working on.
The sight of a Striker painted orange with huge black numbers 01 and a rebel flag on the top made me smile a bit. They were really proud of the “General Lee” on the top sides as well.
The noob was busy laying out the sharks mouth I wanted on the front of our Striker. He never got to see it finished, he was taken the next week during the whole highway cluster thing.
Still can't remember his name, he will always be the noob to me.
Hell, I called them all that when we first found any survivors.
November 23rd
....the Striker was out of action, stuck in the rubble of the building, so we unassed it, taking everything we could. She and I made it the old State Police barracks up the road, and held them off for the next few hours. It snowed some more, which slows them down a bit.
Darkness was a relief, and we had a chance to make love once more, and had some energy bars for breakfast. We were almost out of ammo, and the batteries in the tasers were long gone. I figured we had a few hours at best before all of the bastards knew we were here. I hope that you learn something from this, and make it further than we did.
They are outside right now, not much longer. I saved a stick of C4 and am going to rig a surprise for them when they come in. We will not be taken intact.
