Diary of the Dead

Day Two

Sunday, 6:55 a.m. Headcount: 12

Still no cell phone signal. No Internet and TV. No way to communicate with our loved ones and find out if this is an isolated incident or something more.

There's electricity but we only hear static on the radio or hear the emergency broadcast on the TV. It looks like total chaos is reigning everywhere and not just here. But there's really no way to confirm until the lights finally go out for good. Or we leave this place and see if the mainland didn't get overwhelmed like we did last night.

I can barely sleep. Mia, on the other hand, is sleeping or pretending to be asleep on our bed, her head on my lap. Her long black hair is matted with dried blood and sweat. Her tiny face is streaked with tears and dirt. Her breathing is shallow, her chest heaving quickly like she can't quite catch her breath. Her clothes are tattered. The blue blouse she has on is torn in so many places that I can see the purpled skin underneath. And her denim jeans are caked in dust.

I'm no different. I look and smell as bad as her. With all the running and fighting we've had to do yesterday to come back here to my house we have forgotten about our appearance. I don't think it'll become a top priority anytime soon.

Food, shelter, clothing. The basics of survival. 

I know that we can last for three days because I had shopped for groceries prior to zombies running amok. Expecting seventeen people to arrive and stay in my home, I had bought canned goods, meats, fish, beers, snacks to last until they had to fly back to Manila. However, if we aren't rescued anytime soon, then we would go hungry and eventually die. That is a prospect that doesn't appeal to me. 

Shelter is this three-story building that serves as my office and living quarters. Given the situation, it is also a fortress of sorts against the undead. On the ground floor is the bank of which I am the manager or used to be anyway. Right before we barricaded ourselves here on the second floor, I asked my closest buddies Rey and John to take as many weapons and ammunition from the small arsenal I had kept down there in case of armed robberies and...a zombie outbreak. The second floor has three rooms, a large refrigerator, some furniture, and a terrace that overlooks the main road bisecting the island. The third floor contains the kitchen, a heavy duty washing machine and three more rooms. 

As for clothing, we don't have heavy mail armor which could frustrate zombies' bites. What we have are plenty of linen sheets, towels, shirts, shorts, bikinis but of protective gear there is none.

With the stakes so high, I can't afford to guess what we have on tap so I'll have the girls inventory everything on hand. It's better if they control the distribution of the food as well. As for the guys, I need them to look for weapons to defend ourselves from anyone or anything that attacks the house. Sentries will be posted by the door and the terrace. It's important to control the high ground.

My distant cousin Laura lives in the house across. She's okay. Her husband Mike and I talked at dawn using hand signals from our respective balconies. He barricaded their house and moved their stuff to the second floor like us. When I asked him about our other neighbors, he shrugged to say he didn't know. I would have wanted to continue our conversation but the sun was coming up, rendering us visible to people with bad intentions so we broke up and promised to converse again the next day.

I'll have to organize a search party before the sun is up. There's a Fernandez Pharmacy twenty meters from here and a police station fifty meters away. I'll have Rey's team check out the police station while my guys raid the drugstore for medicine and supplies.

I hope no one gets hurt.