Dear Abby: Clever Zombies

We've had a good twenty four plus hours without rain, and that makes for strong efforts to start carting in more of the folks from out of town. We're about three quarters the way to having all of them here, and we've sent trucks with them to start bringing in the bulk of their supplies as well.

Good weather also means zombies, and today was a bad one.

Several dozen hit here about an hour ago, right after we let the vehicles out. These were fast moving, not at all the shambling husks we're used to. They all looked freshly dead, and they fought hard. They must have been lying in wait for us to open the doors, which is scary for a ton of reasons. It implies some sort of long term thinking, the ability to be cunning and bide their time...they waited until the last vehicle was just going out, and rushed in.

Thank god we had some smart people on the gate and at the wall. Roger was doing a shift at the gatehouse, and his opposite number for the other gate door, a woman named Abby, both saw the threat and started cranking the gate doors shut. Twenty or so of them got in, but about the same number were shut out. It was quite a ruckus, I'm told, and while we managed to kill the ones that got in with minimal injuries, it took a while to ferret out the last few. The first thing they did when they made it through was split up into twos and threes. More planning. Fucking scary.

Our folks on the wall came down to hunt the intruders, which is entirely according to the rules, but one straggler noted that as he was leaving the wall, he saw the zombies outside immediately run off, out of the line of sight. So they saw that they were vulnerable and unable to reach us, and they ran for it. I have to wonder if this means that they are rejoining a bigger group. We need to have a council meeting to discuss this, what the implications are. If we are dealing with zombies that are becoming smarter to this degree then we have a problem bigger than any we have faced so far.

Opponents that can only be killed by head trauma, with the ability to think tactically? Major issue. Worse, what if they figure out that their heads are the weak spot and start protecting them?

Like I said, council meeting.

Roger has been on my mind a lot lately, and not only because he made a point to watch out for me like I was his puppy. Which, by the way, he has eased up on considerably. I've been thinking about the kind of man he is, and how I have let myself once again become very distanced from most of the people around me. I've gotten to know him, as have you, because he made it a point to be around me. If he hadn't, I think that he'd probably be another nameless face I wave to when taking a walk. I need to change that.

Abby, for example. She showed remarkable calm and dedication to duty in the face of immense danger. She acted in the best interest of all of us, even though the zombies ran within feet of her and had to be more frightening than anything we've seen yet. That deserves some attention. All of the residents here do, but today is her turn.

Abby is tall, thin, and blonde. She takes a lot of pride in maintaining her appearance, which makes sense given that she used to be a model. Not a supermodel or anything, but a regional model that worked in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. She did catalog shoots and the like, stuff that appeared in newspapers. But she's also a mountain girl from eastern Kentucky. She's a miner's daughter, and knows her way around guns. Four older brothers taught her at a young age to be tough, and that toughness served her very well in dealing with photographers and agents that wanted to take advantage of her.

Of course, it's doing pretty well by her nowadays, too.

Abby is sitting here talking with me while I type. I am maintaining casual conversation with her, and I don't think that she knows I am writing about her. I don't know if any of this will interest you out there, but her actions saved lives today, and I think that deserves a little recognition. Even if it is just letting people know a little about her.

She's not dating anyone, and she says its not from lack of trying. I'm not sure how that's possible, but there you have it. She's very patient with me while I take breaks from talking to type, and she laughs a little when I look up in confusion at something she said. Hard to listen to every word when you write.

She's just finished her shift at the wall, so I think it's time for her to have an early lunch with Jess and I. Maybe the wife will try being matchmaker, I dunno. But after I let people know how her steady hand and bravery kept them safe today, I'm sure that she will get plenty of offers.

I just wonder how she managed to work the gate wheel so fast without even chipping one of those long, pink nails.

Abby: Zombie Hunter.

Ha.

'Till tomorrow.