Northern Fights

Bad news from up north.

Jack's compound is under attack by hordes of zombies, hundreds of smarties and probably two thousand of the non-intelligent variety. This is actually much worse news for a place as large as theirs than one our size despite the greater number of people there. Here, we have one open wall that is easy to attack, two of moderate difficulty, and one that is almost impossible to attack in numbers, all set on rolling hills that make it easy for us to see them coming and hard for the zombies to approach.

Jack's compound is on flat ground, and is mostly open all the way around. It means that while there are hundreds of people on the wall there at any time, the density of them along any length of it is much smaller than here.

Will, Courtney and Steve are leading some strikes outside the wall as the attack drags on. Using hit and run tactics along with explosives and some clever traps that Jack's folks came up with, they are managing to draw enough attention away from the walls that there is little chance of them being overrun. Courtney spent a lot of this weekend with Will working on and perfect the defenses while Steve led patrol after patrol into the surrounding areas to take out as many clusters of smarties as possible.

Stakes, pits, caltrops, bladed traps...so many more traps and defenses have been put up over the last week, and it seems to be helping a lot. The zombies have been swarming for the last three hours, and it's been enough to keep the wall secure so far.

It isn't so much the numbers that are hitting them right now, but more the fear that so many at once might be a precursor to a much larger attack. What is even more frightening is that any surviving smarties will learn from it, and will avoid many of the pitfalls they are falling prey to right now.

I wish there was something we could do to help. It scares me to think that the numbers hitting Jack's have to be a small fraction of the total out there, because of the cold. It's twenty degrees colder there, which means that the zombies actually attacking are maybe the one in five that have managed to overcome the slowing effect the cold has on them.

I know that none of my friends would begrudge me a weekend off with my wife, but I feel bad that we have had such calm here while the others are facing incredible danger.

Speaking of which: Patrick and our volunteers have managed to leave out of the factory, on the way back here. A cold snap hit them last night, dropping below freezing and driving the milling crowd of zombies away. The few that were left made easy targets, and Pat reckons he knows where they went to get out of the bitter wind. Small copses of trees apparently make good windbreaks, which will be helpful when he and the others head back.

Today is going to be busy for reasons outside the usual. We are almost done with the annexes, done with harvesting for the most part, and the folks that butcher our meat for us have long since completed that, and are curing and salting as I type this.

Little remains to do but wait and worry about those that face threats far away from here. I will be spending my day with the phone close at hand, hoping for good news but preparing to give whatever advice I can in case of the opposite.