The Stories of the Apocalypse

Chapter 1: The Journal Entries

{Journal Entry 1; 36 Days in}

I found this notebook practically untouched. Kinda convenient to find it in such a good condition. My wife, Carol, thought it would be a good idea to write down my days to keep my mind from breaking. It's been 36 days since the world ended, and it only took a month for everyone to go crazy. First the dead came back to life, then people began to riot and raid stores for everything they had. Carol and I tried to run away from cities with my brother, but my brother got separated from us. I don't even know if he's dead or not. If he is dead, I hope he's not roaming around with the others. If he's alive... I just hope he's safe, wherever he is. 

{Journal Entry 17; 52 Days in}

Carol and I have been traveling with this group of people who seem to have an idea of what to do. They've been doing a good job keeping a level head through all this and they were friendly enough to let us tag along. The main guy, Ryan, gave me a gun to hold in case I needed to use it. I used to hate being near a gun, never owned one or allowed one in my house. Now I have one on me at all times. The undead don't seem to be that big of a problem as long as you're not reckless around them. They're generally really stupid and are easily distracted by loud noises.

Ryan's friend, Jessica, knows how to make makeshift firecrackers, so she sets them up in a small secluded space away from where we are, then lets it go off to gather all the undead into one spot.

{Journal Entry 24; 59 Days in}

The undead aren't a problem... It's the living that you have to worry about. We were making our way to the other end of the city and we suddenly got cornered by some gang of outlaws, calling themselves the Purifiers. What they did was murder everything in sight. The dead that walked got killed in a flurry of bullets, and the living... Well, they showed us what they did. They shot Ryan in the leg when he tried to make a break for it, then they proceeded to beat him until he was a pile of broken bones and blood.

Really, the only reason we got away was because a few undead snuck up behind the group and began eating them before they could do anything. We all made a break for this office building and ran up to the top. We set up camp at the 23rd floor and barricaded any way in. The only other way out though was through the window and... Yeah, none of us were going to try that.

We lost Ryan, the leader of four people just trying to survive. There was only three of us left and we didn't have a plan at all...

{Journal Entry 25; 60 Days in}

We went back to Ryan's body to try and get his stuff. He had most of our ammunition and food, stuff we couldn't go on without. His body was still there, unmoved and being ravaged by undead corpses. The bikers that weren't completely eaten had turned and began walking around with the always increasing number of undead. Jessica ran around and set up a few firecrackers and let them go off. 

I just wish we could've saved her... She got bit in the leg by an undead that laid on the floor, only half a body left on it. She screamed out and attracted all of them to her... There was nothing we could do... All we could do is get Ryan's bag with the food and ammo and keep running...

{Journal Entry 32; 67 Days in}

We were low on food. It's crazy how food can quickly turn two people against each other. Carol and I were at each other's throats when we thought that the one of us was hiding food from the other. We were starving and there was practically nothing left. Carol didn't come back to the office we set up camp in a week ago, so I called it an early night. I figured she was just being pissy about the food.

{Journal Entry 44; 79 Days in}

I'm still alone, and I've yet to see a friendly face for almost two weeks now. The last one I saw was my wife and I had to... I had to shoot her so she wouldn't turn into one of those things. I don' even know what happened. I just woke up one morning, and she was laying on the floor with bites all over her arms and legs. I wasted 7 extra bullets I didn't need to just shooting her so she wouldn't come back. Does that make me a bad person?

 It's a shit world we live in, it truly is. It takes away the ones we love and leaves us to lie in the torment until we go insane. The plus side to all this, I managed to find half a pack of smokes to keep me at least a bit sane.

It's funny... Just lighting a cigarette and inhaling the lung cancer is enough to take me back. Back to a time where I didn't have to scavenge for a meal, where the dead stayed dead, and the world wasn't a giant graveyard. I'm going to the other side of the city tomorrow to see if there's anything I can scrounge up before I travel to the coast. Carol and I heard that the coastline was practically untouched and that it would be the perfect place to go to live out this whole ordeal.

I hope the city has something left in it, it has to have something. There's no way that an entire city has been picked clean by every faction around. Well, this puff is for hope.

{Journal Entry 46; 81 Days in}

Well... I didn't find food, but I found... something. I found my brother pinned against a car, his body completely crushed from the waist down. He didn't say a word, he just snarled at me and reached for me, trying to take a bite from my face. I don't think I've ever screamed at an undead until that moment. I shot him clean in the head and his body dropped onto the hood of the car that had him pinned. I left the city immediately and didn't look back.

{Journal Entry Whatever; Who Cares How Many Days in}

I don't care anymore. This is gonna be my last journal entry, so what's the point? To put it simple, I got jumped by some undead. I managed to kill them all, but one got a good bite in my shoulder and I'm already feeling weak. It was three hours ago and it's already worse. Fuck this world. This world is hopeless. There's no surviving this apocalypse, there's only delaying the inevitable. We're all gonna die before anything gets better.

Only thing I can do is make sure I go out on my own terms. I have a whole clip left. Whoever finds my body is welcome to have it to end the suffering. Will I even see my wife after I die? I wonder... Maybe this whole end of the world is proof that there is no God and that we're all--" The rest of the entry is blocked by a thick layer of dried blood.