Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Using Every Moment

The mood around New Haven is...complicated. The people here either read my posts or know someone who does. They're kind of a water-cooler discussion topic. Thus, everyone here has some kind of opinion about the fact that we hit the UAS where they live. I'd say we bloodied their nose, but that's not accurate. 

What we did was kick them in the balls. Hard enough and personal enough that they need time to recuperate, but it made them mad as hell and probably beyond reason. That we were totally justified in doing so is unimportant to the enemy, and even if they had full access to the facts it wouldn't much matter at this point. There is, after all, a huge difference between a war distant from your home and one literally happening inside it. Once your place of safety and comfort gets hit, all other factors cease to be relevant. 

People here are happy to know our troops will be safer during the immediate drawback of UAS forces. They're moving back home for the most part and for the moment, which gives us breathing room. No one here has any doubts about how the whole thing is going to play out, though. New intelligence puts the number of people in the main UAS camps near twenty thousand. God only knows where they're all coming from, but it's an army's worth of people to be sure. And most of them are really pissed off at us.

I feel as though some kind of fundamental shift has happened. I can't explain it very well. I see my friends, who all had so many doubts, steel their resolve in the face of a fight we know must come to our doorstep. People who feared the kind of people we were becoming are now embracing the reality that we absolutely must fight to stay alive. We're well over the precipice now; there isn't going to be a diplomatic solution to this.

The world is warming back up, but no one around here seems concerned about the undead. Zombies have become something of a background worry given the incredible danger we're all about to face. 

Beckley is going to post tomorrow, and I hope you enjoy it. His impression of New Haven and his style of writing are welcome sunny spots in all this terrible news. I know I'm not the only frustrated person who wishes we could call all this fighting off and just move forward without more bloodshed, but I also know I'm not alone in recognizing the futility of that hope. We deal with what is, not what can't be. 

Then again, maybe some of the UAS who actually get to read this blog will read Beckley's piece tomorrow and find a little hope in it. I know the rage many of the enemy feel at having their home attacked, and I know that for some of them, no reason on our part is good enough to justify that attack. I can hope, however, that there will be others like Beckley, men and women who see the value in living and letting live, who are willing to swallow their pride and anger and take a hand at peace. 

I'm going to cover that in my next post, which will be the day after tomorrow, which is the last day of this month. Strange to think that it'll be three years since The Fall in just a few days. Stranger still to realize that we've survived all this time through the plague of the dead only to fall into the same old predictable human patterns again. We fight to dominate and control and to own, despite the fact that our low numbers guarantee as much land as anyone will need for many generations. 

It saddens me. At the same time I take a great deal of pride in the people around me. All of them are tough and brilliant, willing to go the distance to protect the group even if it means doing terrible things. It's not much of a bright spot, but it's what I have. 

It's a part of the infinite pool of hope we have for the future. Yes, war is coming and on a scale most of us have never dealt with. Yes, the Union could fall. But until and unless that happens, we will use every moment to better ourselves and our home. We will build right up until someone strikes down our work. We will plan for tomorrow to the last day of our lives. 

We are survivors. To do less would be impossible.

3 comments:

  1. I want to say that trust is a complicated thing. My definition of trust changes with every grave I dig, every funeral pyre I light, and every friend I lay to rest. I find that trust tested daily, some prove worthy and some have failed completely.

    With all the activity across our land, special teams, clearing teams, scouting, relief aid, and other projects, it has left us all having to pick up the slack with the day to day. It's not complaining, but damn, it's trying. Everyone is tired...mentally and physically. Mostly emotionally. We are living at the end of the world, the fucking dead have stood up and are trying to eat us...DAILY! We still can't get over the evil within our hearts to stop being the biggest bully on the block.

    I'm continuing my rotation in relief aid at NJ and it's amazing. Just under 500 dead...I know in all this time, it may seem numb after the Fall, but it still is unbelievable. So many have requested their love one to be buried, and we have tried...with the weather it's damn near impossible, but we make it happen. The Dead have taken notice of all the commotion since the bombing and NJ has had to increase the Dead slaying, again the weather...we curse it at one moment and bless it the next! We use a new term here "Re-lifeing." It generally means to return to what was of our life. It's going slow to be sure, but going. I guess that's the most important part is we are still moving PURPOSELY.

    On another note, there has been lot's talk over an attempt on Will's life? Is there any truth to this? Hope everyone is well back home, stay safe, and look forward to some semblance of normalcy when I get back home!
    Lugi

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  2. Some of my scouts in the west have talked to some UAS citizens and they have been told WE are the aggressors and we have poisoned towns and water supplies, massacred women and children.
    This attack has only confirmed it for them so now they are ready to listen to all the propaganda from the UAS Leaders! This ill advised attack has now, in their eyes, given them the moral high ground and that their cause to reunite the USA into the UAS under their leadership is morally right

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    1. I have no doubt that the higher-ups in the UAS are telling their people exactly that, but anyone who believes it is living in willful ignorance. I should know, as I was too for a while there.

      Josh's blog was available for those who want to read it, and he's been talking about the UAS' thievery and attacks since before he even knew they were called the UAS. The UAS can claim that these attacks were unprovoked, but liars are never as convincing as they think and they have much more to gain by lying than the Union does. People can see that, particularly since Josh has been documenting what an upstanding group he belongs to since the beginning of the fall. The truth is there for anyone who wants to see it. They just have to shake the scales from their eyes and, most importantly, find the courage to get the hell out of UAS territory. I have pity for the UAS citizens, but that only goes so far. I got out. They can too. But sometimes its easier to believe the lies.

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