Friday, May 10, 2013

So It Goes

Hey everyone, this is Beckley.  Insert witty one-liner here.

There’s been a lot of death recently, a lot of chaos.  You’ve heard from Josh about that and you’ve heard from Kincaid as well.  I thought I’d weigh in too.  It’s been rough recently, and that’s putting aside all the stuff with the UAS attacks.  The zombies have been relentless, as they always are.  It’s gotten quieter; as Josh mentioned the hospital is now clear, with one incredibly sad casualty.  Still, I know I haven’t seen swarms this bad for a long while.  When I was back in UAS territory, the rule of thumb was don’t engage.  When you engage the dead, you attract (and inevitably create) more of them.  Yeah, I know that approach has seemed shortsighted and cowardly to a lot of you.  It seemed to work, so I don’t know that I’d call it cowardly.  Shortsighted, though, absolutely.  If there is one word I’d use to describe the UAS (and “greedy,” “selfish,” manipulative,” and “assholes” were already taken) that would be it.  But prior to living in UAS-land, I did my fair share of dealing with the zombie hoards.  I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I lived in Pittsburgh when The Fall occurred.  Right smack dab in the middle of the city.  As you can imagine, being overrun was a common occurrence.  The group I eventually hooked up with got dealing with them down to a science.  Let the dead smash the walls for a while, then lure them to a specific area and send out some beaters.  We were nowhere near as coordinated as your Spartans, but we got the job done and kept them at manageable swarm levels.  Until the marauders came.

I’ve been looking for ways to help out, but I tend to feel like a third wheel.  I have never been a good shot with guns, let alone arrows, so I’m not much good there, though I have been trying to learn and practice.  And as for the ground fighting, like I said, I will bash some serious zombie brains, but I just don’t compare to the trained Spartans with their shields and spears.  I try to be available if anyone needs something, though.  Run for stuff if needed, collect arrows once the dead are down, that kind of thing.  A lot of my free time seems to be spent on walks around Haven with my baseball bat.  Since the zombies got in, I just feel safer having it with me.

And now we’ve got the UAS closing in and people are tense.  Fortunately there doesn’t seem to be a ton of hate thrown my way.  I’ve tried to stay visible around town and get to know some pillars in the community (like the cheeseburger couple).  So people have gotten used to seeing and hearing about me, which helps in the acceptance department.  Plus people are learning to tolerate me because I’ve always got some luxury items to trade.  That trade has really taken off, actually.  Mainly that’s thanks to the guys who go out for supplies and bring back cool stuff they stumble upon and trade it for the remaining (expired) candy, (expired) soda, spices, (mainstream and adult) DVDs and magazines I’ve got in stock.  And of course I’m seeing some people for therapy, but I can’t really talk much about that because even though there’s no one to take away my license (also expired) I still take confidentiality seriously.

Like I said, though, people are really tense and everyone is wondering what will happen next.  And they wonder what Kincaid is doing.  Some think that he’s going to save us all; others think he’s going to smack the hornet’s nest and bring holy hell down on us.  Ultimately that’s out of our hands, though.  Even if Haven sent people out to stop him, Kincaid doesn’t sound like the kind of guy you can find easily.  As for what he’s doing, I know I personally can’t condone it.  Don’t get me wrong, I feel he’s totally justified.  These are extreme days and we are dealing, quite literally, with the extinction of our race thanks to the zombies, but also due to the selfish recklessness of the UAS.  So I understand that he’s doing what needs to be done.  But at the same time, that doesn’t make it morally right.  The man has a taste for killing, causing pain, and separating from society and he’s feeding that right now.  He may be doing it for all the right reasons, but it’s still a destructive force and it’s pulling him away from the community that he’s working to save.  Regardless, he’s out of our control and he’s going to do what he’s going to do.  And even though I know I disagree with the morality of it, I know I won’t lose any sleep if he succeeds in his goals.

I feel like I’m kind of meandering from thought to thought, but really that encapsulates how everyone feels right now.  They don’t know what to expect.  It’s one thing after another.  The unknown is all consuming, so our thoughts are in a dozen places at once.  All we can do is focus on what we know.  The UAS is coming.  There’s nothing we can do to stop that.  Just hope that our forces hold out or that maybe the dissidents behind enemy lines gain momentum.

Because make no mistake, there is dissent in the UAS.  There has to be.  Josh’s blog is a matter of public record online and you can’t fully stop the spread of those ideas, particularly as the UAS has been expanding so quickly.  You know there are people that have been co-opted into the UAS who want nothing to do with them.  They will start to fight.  Those overwhelming thoughts you’re having about the UAS, the zombie swarm outside, and Kincaid doing his Kincaid Thing?  That’s nothing compared to what the Powers That Be in the UAS are going through.  They’ve got their own zombies, an influx of new citizens who don’t speak the same language they do, the war with the Union, the war with the Western Territories, and probable dissent in their territory, to say nothing of a massive amount of territory that they can’t possibly hold or protect for an extended length of time, and very little food to provide for the people they made promises to protect.  Think your mind is being pulling in a hundred different directions?  Just imagine dealing with all that.

Regardless of what happens in this war, the UAS cannot stand as it currently exists.  It will either collapse due to a Union victory, or implode and fragment under its own bloated self-importance.  All we can do is focus on those things we can control.  And we can hope that the death stays to a minimum because there’s already been enough of that.

I think I need another walk.

No comments:

Post a Comment