Z5. Nov 17, 2013. Day 48.

You wake up on the couch of the 'resort' (your little joke to yourself) after a nice nap. Other than chores, you have really caught up on sleep here. Your neck is twisted in an awkward position,  and unfortunate trail of drool has dried across the corner of your chin.  You feel thick and foggy and crinkled in the brain, and your neck is aching. The tv is playing some infomercial, too loudly. Your clothes are wrinkled into the shape of your body and have the greasy feeling of human oils. You want a shower.

It is then that a vile scent hits you.  You realize that you were awaken by a waft of this scent to begin with. Your body goes rigid. The scent is like… rotten broccoli… mixed with rotten eggs… mixed with a leather factory.  You brain reels trying to define the odor.

You focus on barely breathing, moving your head slowly, and just slightly, tense to run. In the dim light of the infomercial flashing you see it standing there. One of the infected. It rocks slightly. Bad eyesight. You remind yourself that the news claims they have bad eyesight at this phase of the infection.

You (either):

You jump up, screaming “ZOMBIE!!!” to alert the rest of the camp.  You sprint 0.25 mile at your fastest pace, to get away.

The zombie turns slightly. You have to get to the alarm bell 200 feet away. Sneak as quietly as you can, crawling if you have to, to get to the alarm bell.

You have 24 hours from when you read this email to complete this challenge.

Z4. Nov 1, 2013. Day 32.

This evening an alert went across all channels.  There was an outbreak this afternoon at the Miami-Dade Quarantine Facility. A second outbreak at a nightclub in downtown Miami at 8pm EST. Miami was placed under quarantine by the CDC and Homeland Security 10 minutes later.  Traffic has been streaming out of Florida toward Alabama and Georgia. A third outbreak occurred at 9pm EST in one of the traffic lines going into Alabama; the quarantine is currently throughout Florida and Alabama, and a state of emergency was declared. Martial law has been implemented. Louisiana and Georgia are under high alert, and also under martial law.   The most terrifying reports are that Homeland Security has started shooting infected Americans to hold the quarantine line.  Holy…

The news makes you feel like something is pressing on your chest. The anxiety crawls up your throat. You have to leave and protect your family and friends.  Several of your buddies have started a ‘fort’ out in the wilderness a couple weeks ago. At that time news reporters were making fun of them, and the EPA tried to arrest them using their SWOT team, until Congress told them to back off. The Forest Service made public statements to request the group, who called themselves “the Renegades” (sigh), leave. But the rumor has spread that the local forest service rangers started a second camp about two miles away, over the ridgeline.  You quietly pack up the survival gear that you have been pulling out of the garage and dusting off over the last few weeks.  You tell your family, your friends, your dog and your cat to pack up. Ok, you pack up the dog and cat. And you head up to spend the zombie apocalypse with the rest of the crazies.

In your head you are totally prepared to be camping until this whole thing is over. God bless engineers and construction guys. There is a running toilet and shower set up.  There’s even a television.    The camp is quite a lot larger than the number of people present; you are guessing it can hold 50, and there are about 30 people there. An eclectic mix of engineers, educators, medical professionals and artists.

As part of the camp, you are allotted certain activities to assist with building the camp up properly. You assist the group by doing at least one of the following (no injuries!):

·         Carry 10 gallons of water 100 feet.

·         Practice zombie defense/killing: You will need a medium weight rock about the size of a baseball. Get out to a hilly area and practice throwing the rock at an object about the height of a zombie head, attempting to hit the head. Do this until your arm is tired.  Try to increase your distance so that you wouldn’t be too close to the zombie.

·         Practice zombie responsiveness: be quick on your feet. Do 30 burpees as fast as you can, at least under 5 minutes.

·         Injured/sick: purify 10 gallons of water.

·         It is ok to do a selection from the October list.