The timing is actually pretty good. The last of the food that needed to be harvested from downtown has been dug up and transported, and there is no longer any reason for the buildings there to be occupied. It's a pretty nice feeling to know that everyone is close now, with no need to travel back and forth.
We've done a lot more work on the walls, both the original and the annex wall. I still can't share details due to our need to keep our defenses hushed, but I can say that we've done a lot of work to reinforce both of them, and finished adding in the support structures on the newer wall. That means an easier time manning and defending it, as well as the capacity to move along the top much easier.
We're sending the last big haul of potatoes and other late-season veggies up north to Jack's compound. Jack and his people don't need any further reserves of food at this point, owing to help from us and a few lucky finds on their part. But Jack has agreed to help distribute the extra out to needy survivors around the country and to groups that lack their own winter reserves. It's a small start toward what we hope will become a very large cooperative group effort, but it's one that will keep bellies from rumbling too hard and help guards keep up their strength...
There is a lot at stake, and not just the survival of the people we know about. I said a few days ago that if we can judge numbers just by the people we've found, there must be many times that number that are still out of communication with the rest of the world. I mean, there are more than a thousand of us just between the compound and Jack's people. How many are out there struggling to survive, building up the belief in their mind that they are essentially alone?
It's sort of ironic to me. The lone survivor or small group fighting across the bleak landscape of a nation laid to waste by the zombie hordes is sort of the iconic and accepted image of what we face today. Or, it was. Less than a year ago when you looked at all the stuff I used to be obsessed with--zombie comics, movies, fiction of all types--that is what you saw. The reality is so different from that.
Those people out there, the ones who have run until their feet have blistered and bled, believe that stereotype. They think that the world is over, and that survival of the individual is all that's left. Not because they've seen too many movies or read too many books, but because they have seen nothing to tell them otherwise. They aren't the gun-toting badass seen in film after film, going out of their way to kill the zombies around them. They're frightened parents and orphaned children desperate to live another day.
We are working to make everyone we come into contact with stronger and more able to help in the effort to find these kinds of people. The idea of our cooperative movement is not only to help each other, but also to show the lost ones that there is a support structure for them and places to live after we find them.
In short, we want to do everything possible to entice newly discovered survivors to join us in trying to peacefully co-exist. The larger goal of making sure the human race survives is paramount. We might be damaged as a species, but we're wiser for our mistakes. It HAS to be clear to anyone we find that we are safe and don't desire to rule anyone.
The next few weeks are going to be hectic. Managing the distribution and shipment of food and other supplies to far-away places will take a ton of effort and resources. I believe the ends will be more worth it than we can imagine, and I can imagine pretty big.
Keep on reading, I will let you know how it's going.
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