Mixed Signals

Several things have happened in the last day, some good and some bad. For reasons Evans can only begin to guess at, two of the people in the clinic who came down with the new plague woke up from their naps yesterday morning feeling completely better. No breathing issues, no symptoms at all. As if the disease affecting the zombie plague in their lungs were just gone.

That doesn't track with what we know of the illness, but then our information was gathered from a very small group of people initially. What we don't know could just about fill the grand canyon.

Thing is, another four people began showing symptoms yesterday. Theirs aren't as bad as some people who've been hit with the disease. Again, I refer you to the giant chasm of things we don't know about this illness as to why that might be.

And on top of that, while we haven't suffered any major zombie attacks recently, there is a large shift in the behavior of the local New Breed. We beat them like rented mules the last time they hit us. Time to prepare and experience in defending our home gives us the advantage, but every time they change tactics we have to adapt right along with them or risk getting our asses handed to us.

We've got to be perfect at it or people die. Simple as that.

The main problem is that the New Breed seem to have lost their cohesion. Instead of gathering numbers in some hidden place to come after us, they've split into small groups (much as they did when we first encountered them) and move around the environs near New Haven waiting for our people to leave. It's not as bad to deal with six or ten of them as twenty, but there are just so damn many small groups that we can't track a tenth of them. Breaking up into units means keeping eyes on the enemy went from difficult to nearly impossible.

But they aren't attacking. I mean, they are coming after our people but not every group. Not every time. Instead, they're making runs at some folks as if they mean business (and by business, I mean eating people) while others they only seem interested in scaring. The best predators in the animal world strike when they're completely undetected by their prey.

Human beings, though...we understand the psychology of creating fear. Maybe there's enough person left in those New Breed to grasp this concept. Putting us more on edge than the standard for the world as it is now is a good idea. Fear makes people stupid, and stupid people make mistakes. All it would take is a relatively small group of New Breed taking advantage of chaos to create enough of an opening for the rest of them to get inside.

No more New Haven. Goodbye loved ones.

Lucky for us that the trick only works if you don't know it's coming. It was awfully nice for the New Breed to show up so close to our home. I'm sure they haven't had time to build up the kind of numbers we dealt with before. Will wants to send out some Beaters to see how the New Breed enjoys surprise attacks.