

# SCREAMERS

# ADAM MOON
Smashwords Version

Screamers copyright 2013 Adam Moon

All rights reserved
To my wife for...I don't know really.

Thanks for being awesome, I guess.

Plus all the sex...

It started with the elderly. They all went fucking nuts. It seemed like it happened all at once down south but there had to have been isolated incidents previously that just got hushed up or dismissed. Anyway, over the past week and a half, old people have been raging out and attacking everyone.

No one knows why.

The nerds have been calling them zombies but that's just so they have an excuse to shoot at them or to use their zombie survival skills they've acquired over the years (from watching silly movies and reading stupid books).

I don't know what they are, but they're scary as hell. They just sort of lose their humanity. They're fast too, faster than most able bodied folks are, fifty years their junior. I think it's because they don't feel any pain. A normal person will slow down or at least regulate his or her physical exertion based on their pain threshold but the elderly don't have such limitations anymore. That's my theory.

Just because I'm only thirty two doesn't mean I can't catch it. If an old woman caught up to me and bit me and I survived the attack, I'd lose my marbles within an hour.

They can't be zombies though; zombies eat brains. These monsters eat anything. But they're morons so they don't know how to open cans or unwrap candy bars. Because of that they usually go after ready to eat meals like live animals and people.

They drink water like dogs too; if they weren't so spooky, that might seem silly.

Anyway, this is the first journal I've ever written in and what I wrote above will serve as an introduction of sorts. I write only because there's not much else to do at night anymore. Anything that emits noise of any kind is out of the question because the infected will hear your TV and bust into your house with hunger in their eyes.

My story starts with my search for my wife (and I hope it ends with me finding her safe and sound). She worked at an old folks home that raged out last night. There were several corpses at the scene, a few elderly and a couple of nurses, but my wife's body was not there. Thank God for that. That means that she's either on the run, or more likely, she's infected. I don't give a shit though, she's my wife and she's alive. I'm going to find her.

My name is Jack.

It started yesterday for me.

ENTRY 1: Day 1

As soon as I noticed Sarah was late, I panicked. I tried her cell phone but it went straight to voicemail. I called the reception desk at the nursing home and a guy with a deep baritone answered. He introduced himself as a police officer. He wouldn't give me any information but he insisted I give him a description of Sarah. Then he hung up on me like a prick.

I switched the news on as I got dressed and there was a report of an outbreak at Shady Hills nursing home, where Sarah works. Early reports indicated that at least twelve were dead with all of the resident patients either dead or missing.

Sarah and I'd talked about her taking a leave of absence, ever since the elderly began to freak out but she insisted that those outbreaks were isolated incidents (they'd occurred down south) that would never affect her or her residents. I normally taunt her when she's wrong, but right then my chest felt like it was full of quicksand. My thoughts became numb and sluggish. But there was one thought that shone through all the glare: I must find my wife at all costs.

I bolted out the door and immediately regretted it because that asshole neighbor kid who destroyed my mailbox last spring was running about with several of his fingers missing. He splashed blood around as he went. His face was knotted in a twisted look of rage I'd never witnessed before. Luckily he was preoccupied with chasing a cat at the time because if he'd have locked eyes with me at that moment I would've froze to the spot. I went back inside the house and grabbed my handgun and my over/under shotgun I use for trap shooting. My aim sucks but aim isn't necessarily a requirement in order to hit your target when you're using a ten gauge. It's hard to miss with it at close range.

Because I've seen too many zombie movies, I grabbed a machete from the kitchen drawer. I'd bought the thing because it looked cool. Sarah had argued with me during the ride back home from the flea market where I'd bought it that we'd never have a use for it. She was right about that, until that moment.

I shoved the machete in my waistband beside the handgun. Then I had to go put on a belt because my pants started falling down.

As I bolted out the front door the living room window was smashed. I still don't know what caused it.

I jumped in my truck and took off. Thankfully no one had destroyed the truck because there was no way I'd be able to make it on foot. The streets were swarming with infected and their would be victims alike. I wasn't adequately prepared for this, mentally or physically. I work (worked?) in middle management; what did I know about survival skills.

There was blood everywhere.

That bastard kid had caught the cat. He chewed on it like he'd never had anything so delicious in his entire life. Thankfully the cat appeared to be dead already. I don't know if I could've handled watching that little punk eating the cat alive.

I slowed down to let a teenage girl jump in the passenger seat because I'm a good Samaritan. She'd been bitten on the face and the forearm and as soon as I noticed, I had no choice but to drop her off. We know little about the disease but we do know that it takes over within an hour or so of infection. I couldn't risk having her in the truck when she turned. She didn't argue with me because she knew she was screwed. I think she's alright though. I dropped her off on a quiet street.

When I arrived at the nursing home I wasn't prepared for what awaited me; the place was deserted. Just ten minutes ago the outbreak therein was all over the news, now it was yesterdays news already. I'd expected to see cops milling around asking for statements or taking pictures, but there was no movement at all.

The next thing I noticed terrified me to the core. There was a bloody skeleton splayed out in the entryway. It looked like a macabre marionette doll that had its strings cut. Even thinking back on it sends chills up my spine and puts a heavy weight in my lungs. It wasn't exactly a skeleton, it still had tendons and strips of shredded flesh left on it. The scalp was intact and the guts were strewn about as though they didn't quite measure up to the delicate palate of the infected. One of its arms was broken in two and some of its finger bones were missing. I almost tucked tail and ran at that point.

I didn't want to have to step over the wrecked body so I let myself in through a side door.

At first everything seemed normal inside the nursing home. The hallway was deserted. The walls weren't sprayed with blood like I'd expected they would be. But when I turned the corner it was a mess.

There were bodies here and there. Blood pooled all around the white tiled floor. As I walked deeper inside, the stench of shit and decay increased.

I tried to avoid walking down the hallways that were occupied by corpses but that proved futile. In the end I had to suck it up.

I did vomit at first. I don't know if it had to do with the scene or the smells. It didn't help though. I couldn't stop shaking.

I'd heard of this type of runaway madness happening in other parts of the country and I'd even tried to make sense of it, but nothing could have prepared me for this shit.

To make a long story short, I checked the home, didn't bump into anyone, infected or clean, and ended up giving up the search. Sarah wasn't here. I guess I already knew that but I had to be sure, plus I had to start somewhere.

But by that point I didn't know what to do. Should I drive around town hoping to come across her, all the while avoiding being eaten by monsters? I didn't know for sure but I knew I had to get outside and get some air.

As soon as I exited the building and rounded the corner, I saw them. There were three of them and they were goring each other like crazed lunatics. I suppose they don't differentiate between infected and uninfected; it's all meat to them.

My instinct was to run because I'm a bit of a coward. My next instinct was to pull my shotgun from its back holster and blast them to wet sloppy chunks. I decided against that. For one thing, if they were zombies of lore (which I still hadn't ruled out by that point), then I'd have to get a slug inside each of their brainpans. I didn't have enough confidence in myself for that. Plus, what if the boom attracted others?

What I did instead was I tip-toed to the truck, slowly opened the door, and got inside. Then all at once I turned the ignition, slammed the door shut, put it in gear, and floored it the fuck out of there. I didn't even have the courage to look in the rear view mirror to see if they were chasing after me.

The streets were choked with madness. It was hellish, like a splatter house movie, but real and wet and stinky. I never realized this kind of nightmarishness could make its way into my sphere of influence. But that's because I'm a dumbass; I saw the writing on the wall, I just chose to ignore it.

I did my best to swerve around bodies and pools of blood but I didn't do a good job because the tires of the truck are caked in guts and blood and packed dirt now.

I realized then that a search for Sarah was pointless, maybe even foolish. It was already five o'clock at night. Everything I'd seen on the news about the outbreak indicated that when it got dark, your survival rate plummets. No one knows why but I guess the smart money says it's because you can't see them coming at you.

I knew I'd need to spend some time fortifying the basement of the house or else there would be no tomorrow for me.

I drove to Home Depot, filled a cart with two by fours, a nail-gun, and drywall screws. I could've found sturdier stuff than wooden boards but time was of the essence. I didn't pay because the store was being looted. Luckily my Home Depot is out in the middle of nowhere which meant I didn't have any man hungry cannibals to contend with.

An infected old lady stood in the street outside my house when I got home so I had to drive around the block a few times before the coast was clear.

As quickly as I could, I brought the lumber and whatnot downstairs and started boarding up my basement windows. Others had already done this to their homes, anticipating the spread of the disease, but I'm a lazy fucking dip-shit. Maybe I was just optimistic that this madness could never touch my life. I don't know.

By eight o'clock I'd boarded it all up, brought all the food and drink downstairs and called it a night.

I tried to watch the news but I ended up turning off the TV when I heard a crashing noise overhead. The infected must've heard the TV. Luckily they didn't try to get through the boarded up basement door. There was a struggle upstairs and then for about two hours the floorboards creaked but now all is silent. That's why I'm writing in this journal.

I can hear gunshots somewhere outside and I can only hope and pray that whoever's doing it doesn't decide to choose my house as a refuge because they'll draw in more zombies.

I'll find Sarah in the morning.
ENTRY 2: Day 2

Brad stopped over first thing this morning. Because I'm a terrible friend, I didn't even consider whether he was alright or not yesterday. He's Brad though, Brad is unique and unique things are accorded a special place on earth. He'll probably never die but if he does, it'll be in the most awesome, bloodiest fashion imaginable. Of course, now that the infection is here, there's a higher probability of that happening to him than ever.

He's a loner so he's got no one to fend for except me, and since Sarah's missing, he decided he had to help me find her.

I wish he'd reconsider. He's alright, just a bigger dumbass than I am. Now, when I say he's a dumbass, I don't mean he's stupid because he's probably a genius. And therein lies the problem, his ideas are wacky and unrealistic and they generally lead to pain or embarrassment. Plus he's a drunken slob. But no one's perfect.

Anyway, enough about Brad; there are more important things to report.

I grabbed a picture of Sarah to show around. I should've thought about that yesterday.

Brad had brought his nunchucks with him instead of a practical weapon. I'm sure they'll come in handy just so he can say he told me so.

He nicknamed the infected _Screamers_ because of the awful sounds they make when they catch sight of their prey. I hated the name at first but over the course of the day it sort of stuck so I'm going to be calling them that from now on.

He said he'd had to run away from half a dozen Screamers to get to my house. When I asked why he didn't just drive he said it was because his car was _a fuckin' classic_ and he didn't want it dented or damaged. That's idiotic. We might not survive this and if we do, no one's going to care about cars anymore.

We hopped in my truck and set out.

It seemed like Wisconsinite's were getting comfortable with the fact that we were the newest red zone. The rednecks were out in force. I think they secretly hoped this would happen just so they could shoot people.

Just because Wisconsin's a liberal state doesn't mean we don't have our fair share of rednecks and hillbillies. We also have an inordinate number of hunters per capita. Oh, I'm sorry, they're not called hunters these days, they're _outdoor sportsmen_. That's a bullshit misnomer though. If killing a defenseless animal at a distance from a hiding spot is sport then so is spree killing.

Anyway, that's my rant for the day.

So rednecks were everywhere, but it did no good. All it did was swell the ranks of Screamers. Screamers are apparently hard to kill (because of their inability to feel pain, I think). So when a pickup truck full of rednecks opens fire, it draws all the Screamers to them and they all end up eaten or infected.

Brad and I saw it happen as we were headed to the nursing home to try and pick up Sarah's trail. It's fucking horrific, but we decided right then that it would be suicide to try and help the rednecks. Whether infected or not, the truth is that neither of us is comfortable shooting a human being.

We're not sociopaths. Well, Brad is; he suggested we help the Screamers. When I asked him why we should help the infected defeat the rednecks, he said "Because what if the rednecks survive and then move on?"

What he meant was that they might move on and kill my wife. But just because I understood the logic didn't mean that I was ok with it, so I kept on driving.

We did kind of side swipe an infected guy with the truck. He was butt naked, just running from one side of the road to the other, looking everywhere except in our direction. I didn't mean to hit him but he was erratic and unpredictable.

As I swerved to try and get around him he changed direction and crashed into the passenger side door. I know he wasn't hurt too badly because as soon as he hit the deck, he jumped to his feet and gave chase. I've only felt that terrified once in my life and that was yesterday outside the nursing home when those three Screamers mauled each other.

With that image in my head I realized I didn't just need to worry about rednecks killing my wife, I had to worry about Screamers devouring her. I'm not a violent man but the thought of that makes my blood boil.

Once we parked at the home, I warned Brad about the skeleton in the front entryway. But that just made me look stupid because the corpse was gone, only faint dark splotches from day old blood remained.

Brad looked at me like I'd lost it until I saw a broken arm bone (or a leg bone, I don't know much about anatomy) about ten feet from where the corpse had been.

I ran over and held it up like a trophy for him to see and said, "See. It's true. They must've come back for the scraps last night."

He said, "Dude, don't touch that. What're you thinking."

Only then did I get a real sense that I was already numb to the horrifying reality of our situation. Two days ago I would've puked if you showed me a picture of a fresh human skeletal bone.

I placed it back on the ground and wiped my sticky hand in the grass to get off whatever yuck was on it.

For the next hour I worried that I might've infected myself simply by touching it but I'm still here. That would've possibly been the most idiotic way anyone ever got infected so I'm glad it didn't come to pass.

(I had to stop writing for a second because of some creaking floorboards overhead. Brad's staying with me too since he didn't reinforce his apartment but the noise didn't wake him from his booze induced coma. The creaking's stopped now so I don't know if I just imagined it or not.)

So I followed Brad into the nursing home to look for clues. Neither of us had worked as a tracker in this life or any previous incarnation so I don't know what we were expecting to find.

The place was still deserted. We wandered around but we didn't find anything that could point us in the right direction until a rather obese woman came running into the home, scared shitless.

Two Screamers chased her inside a couple seconds later.

She ran up to Brad and grabbed him around the waist as she slid to her knees, sobbing. Brad looked at me as if to say, "Help, she's going to get me killed."

He held the nunchucks above his head to hit her (only to get her to let go so he didn't get eaten, you understand, right?)

Before he could crack her in the skull, I ran forward and grabbed her legs. He figured out what I was doing; we would carry this fat pig to a safer place.

The Screamers were almost upon us as we got the lady into one of the rooms and shut the door on the screaming madmen coming after us.

She wouldn't let go of Brad so I had to hold the handle by myself to keep them out. They didn't go for the handle though, which I was glad for because I know they're stronger than me. The door shook and rattled as they threw their bodies at it. This went on for at least half an hour. I worried the entire time that other Screamers would hear the commotion and join in.

By the time the mayhem on the other side of the door died down, Brad had managed to release the fat woman's death grip and somehow managed to get her to sit on the bed (we noticed the mattress was caked in dried blood but not until after the fat lady got up).

We waited for another ten or fifteen minutes before I was brave enough to open the door.

I was immediately mortified. One of the Screamers had turned on the other one because it feasted greedily on its corpse with its hunched over back to us.

I slowly closed the door. I wish I could close the door on the memory but once you've seen something that bizarre and gruesome, it can never be unseen.

Brad got the fat woman to her feet so he could take off the bed sheet (that was when we saw the blood stains). He wrapped it around his fist like you see in the movies and then he punched the window that led outside. Nothing happened except that the Screamer must have heard it because it started to throw itself at the door with renewed vigor. Brad punched and punched that window with all his might as I held fast to the rattling door handle.

He kicked it and slipped, landing squarely on his ass for his troubles. Then he picked up a visitor chair and lobbed it but it just bounced back and hit him in the legs. At that moment we knew we were fucked; that glass was indestructible (I don't know why. Maybe it's to keep the elderly from escaping but I have no clue).

But just as we resigned ourselves to our terrible fate, the din from the other side of the door slowed down and then died off completely.

We waited another five minutes before checking the status of the angry cannibal.

It was on the floor outside the doorway, scraping at the floor tiles. Its hands were reduced to bloody nubs but still it scraped, smearing blood all over the place. It bled from the head profusely. Its eyes bugged out as it swiveled them from me to Brad and then to the fat woman. It tried to scream but it seemed like it didn't have the energy. It bled to death right in front of us.

It had killed itself trying to get through the door. That thought alone terrifies me down to my core.

Once we got over the initial shock, we managed to leave the room, gingerly stepping over the dead Screamer, anticipating a final death lunge from it that never came (I watch too many horror movies).

We gave the woman a ride to her house a few blocks away and figured out instantly why the Screamers had targeted her; she had a shit-load of cats. Brad tried to convince her to set them free or abandon them but she wouldn't hear of it.

Before we took off, I showed her a picture of Sarah. While she didn't recognize her, she did say that there are trucks of men going around town, capturing the infected in nets and hauling them off. She thought they were cops or Feds or whatever. She didn't know where the infected were being taken; if they were being held somewhere, or being destroyed in private.

The government has done a lot to resist the outright killing of the Screamers. I get that; they don't want people to devalue human life, thereby opening the door for others to join in the massacre. These are still people after all. They're just fucked up.

Personally, I'm all for it; Sarah's probably a Screamer and I'd be pissed if she came to any kind of harm because the laws got changed on the fly.

I'm seeing on the news right now (I have earphones on while Brad keeps an ear out for any uninvited guests) that the CDC fears the epidemic may be airborne. I don't know about that. I've been around the Screamers enough just in the past two days to have contracted whatever it is that plagues them and I'm clean, so far.

I think it's blood borne. I think the CDC knows that but they're clutching at straws as to how it's spreading so virulently. I know why it's spreading so fast; the infected actively try to infect us. Actually, that might be a bullshit theory on my part. I'm pretty sure they're just hungry for man-meat, and if you're unlucky enough to survive it, you end up infected and therefore cursed. I don't know; my head's spinning.

Ok, back to what happened earlier today.

Brad and I flagged down a truck full of redneck simpletons and showed them the photo of Sarah. I figured they were making the rounds and they might have spotted her.

The driver looked at me like I was the most disgusting piece of shit he'd ever seen and said, "If the bitch is infected, why you trying to find her?"

I was about to mention that if he ever referred to my wife as a bitch again, I'd put a round between his eyes when he added, "Is it so you can kill her yourself?"

I decided to change course and replied, "yes," just so he'd give up any info he might have.

His buddies all chuckled at the thought of me chasing down my infected wife in order to kill her. The driver said, "We seen lots of zombies but none like that. Gimme your cell number and I'll call you if we come up on her."

I wrote my number down on a receipt from McDonalds that had been tucked into the glove box. It scares me to imagine what those morons might do to her if they find her before I do.

A Screamer chased after my truck about half an hour after that encounter with the rednecks.

Screamers are fast as shit but their motor skills suck. The guy ran at full sprint, right into a lamp post and fell over backwards. He scrambled to his feet like the crazed cannibal that he is, and came at us again. This time he tripped over his own feet. His face was covered in his own blood as he got back up. We stopped watching in the rear view after that because it was getting pathetic. The point is we outran him. We got lucky.

We drove to the police station to show them the photo. That was a waste of our time.

The front desk was unattended. Every uniform must've been out on the streets trying in vain to contain the Wisconsin apocalypse, or else they'd quit and moved away, as most intelligent folks had done already.

We did see three cops outside wrestle a netted Screamer out of the back of their van. They yelled at us to, "Get the fuck back or we'll shoot," right before they hauled their captive inside the police station. We thought it prudent to avoid instigating them. They were stressed out.

Hey, here's something they don't tell you on the news or in the papers: Screamers shit and piss themselves like infants. Hygiene comes second to hunger I guess. I only mention this because it's something we're seeing more each day. I can't wait to see how filthy they are tomorrow (sarcasm).

We came across a feasting Screamer too. She must have been getting full because she looked sluggish or languid. She barely gave us a passing glance. That's important information that might just save our asses. Brad and I collected as much meat as we could and it's thawing out in the sink down here. We'll use it to distract them if they come after us the same way you would use a steak to distract or otherwise preoccupy a guard dog. I don't know if it'll work but we have to find something that gives us an advantage or we might not live through tomorrow.

Here's the point of this entry: We didn't find Sarah and we're no closer to finding her.
Entry 3: Day 3

Brad didn't join me on my search right away this morning because was still drunk from last night. He was all, "Sorry dude. I really am."

It's alright. I get sick of his immaturity if I'm around him for extended periods of time anyway.

I brought the meat along with me.

That was a bad idea because it attracted all the Screamers in the area. They must have canine like senses of smell or something. I had to floor the truck as I chucked it all out the window. That pretty much sucked as a way to start a morning. I will try the meat idea again but this time I'll bag it up in freezer baggies or something to keep the smell locked in.

My neighbor from down the street was outside his house with a bloody meat cleaver in his hand. There was a dead Screamer on his lawn splayed out like a morbid lawn ornament. I slowed down and tried to talk to him but the change (or whatever we're supposed to call it) was already taking him. The few coherent words he was able to utter before I had to get far away from him were, "My wife, my son, dead, dead, dead."

My heart breaks for him. It's a terrible shame that he turned into the very thing that killed his family.

I rolled up to a disoriented (well more than usual) Screamer as she stumbled down the middle of the road. When I pulled alongside her, I saw that her entire head was wrapped in layers of cling film. Besides the wrap around her head, she was completely naked.

Let me explain why I did what I did next. I noticed blood running down her inner thighs. It wasn't thick or dark (so she wasn't on her period - I don't even know if Screamers get periods. Can they get pregnant? Sick).

She'd been either raped or sexually brutalized. It made me sick to my fucking stomach. Not only that, but when her tormentor got done with her he didn't even have the decency to take off the cling film that would surely suffocate her.

As she rushed at my side door, I kind of swerved into her to knock her off her feet. She hit the deck and just writhed around on the jagged road. I put the truck in park, grabbed my zip-ties from the glove box, and basically hog-tied her hands and feet. I was thankful no other Screamers were around because we would have both made an easy meal.

I chucked her in the bed of the truck. I'm a bit of a weakling so it took me several attempts to get her up and over the tailgate. I might have bonked her head against the truck a few times, but it was worth it in the end. I don't think she felt it anyway. Then with a twig I found on the side of the road, I poked a decent sized hole in the cling film so she could at least breathe through her mouth. That was a mistake because she screamed bloody murder.

I heard them before I saw them. That sound of feet rushing feverishly your way is the most horrifying sound you can imagine. It portends imminent death.

I hauled ass out of there. I'll be honest, I had no idea where to take this monstrous lady but the streets were not safe for her anymore. She'd already been beaten and raped, and with her defenses negated (cling film over her mouth) other Screamers would have killed her the moment they saw her.

I made a snap decision but I'm still not sure it was the right call. I took her to the police station. Luckily for me, I didn't have to wait for more than a few minutes because that woman would have attracted all kinds of attention. The officers nudged me out of the way when they saw her and then they netted her like a fish.

I didn't get so much as a thank you before they hauled her inside. That's alright, I saved her life. I can only pray that there are others like me out there and that my wife is given similar consideration. I doubt it though. Those who haven't fled the city don't seem very reasonable.

When I went to the house to see if Brad wanted to join me, I had to outrun my neighbor. Thank God he'd dropped the meat cleaver. I can't imagine anything more frightening than a Screamer with a weapon. He tripped over a curb and went face first into the street. I didn't hang around long enough to make sure he was ok. I circled the block once to make sure I wasn't being tailed (that's just become part of my routine now).

Brad was still asleep when I got here but it didn't take him more than a minute to get ready. He's the only man I know who can sleep in his clothes for days, and not stink from it. Maybe he doesn't sweat. I told him about the meat and the ensuing fiasco and he said, "Dammit, I knew that might happen."

Yeah, thanks for letting me in on that Brad.

I didn't say anything though. I hate to make people feel bad.

Once we got in the truck we just drove around town. We had no leads and neither of us was smart enough to come up with a plan.

We passed a small group of young men, all in their mid twenties.

From a distance, I suspected that they were military, but they were wearing jeans and t-shirts and were ill-equipped to handle what now walked the streets. One of them had what looked like a medieval axe slung over his shoulder. One had two holsters on his back with a shotgun in each. Their faces were all blacked out with what I can only imagine was some kind of boot polish. The van they had emerged from had Colorado plates.

These dorks had driven all this way to hunt Zombies. I wanted to mow them down with the truck right then and there but Brad stopped me. As we passed them by those fucking college brats sneered at us.

If I see them again, I may have to persuade them to get the fuck out of my city. I'll be pointing a shotgun at them when I say it, so I hope they take the hint.

We saw a couple of Screamers chasing after a fellow Screamer. I don't know how it turned out though. I pray everyone survived. But it was telling; that Screamer ran from the other two. It felt fear. Ah shit, now that I'm thinking about it with a clear head, I realize that the one being chased was not a Screamer. Screamers don't feel fear. He was just bloodied up from surviving an earlier attack. Now I feel bad that I didn't intervene. I'm a dumbass sometimes.

Brad's been listening to the news on the headphones. He just told me that scientists have been exploring the possibility that this scourge could be food related. He said they're studying some type of fluke worm that they say was found in the Brussels sprouts that'd been served to the elderly at a few of the sites where the plague arose. That's a bit of a stretch. I wonder if they're just telling us a bunch of bullshit to curb our fears; to trick us into believing there might be an end to this. God, I hate the news.

Anyway, back to what happened earlier: As we meandered through the city, it was obvious that there were more Screamers than there were just yesterday. I hadn't noticed this until Brad pointed it out. Now there were different types of Screamers. There were fresh ones all full of energy and blood-rage, and there were the two to three day olds, still horrifying, but a bit slower and clumsier. What made the older ones just as scary as the new, faster ones was the fact that they were caked in dried blood and gore, and their clothes were in tatters. On second thoughts, maybe the old ones aren't slower, maybe they're not deteriorating, maybe they just have full bellies already? I don't fucking know. It doesn't matter because even the older ones are faster than I am.

We met a group of heavily armed military personnel riding around in a Humvie. They were not friendly at all. They yelled at us that we were part of the problem and that we would just end up swelling the ranks of the infected.

Their fury escalated to the point of violence until I explained that we were just out looking for my wife. That seemed to calm them down but they still insisted we get indoors. I told them to go fuck themselves. They replied that it would not be their fault if they _accidentally_ fired upon us, thinking we were infected.

As I pulled away from them I yelled, "The infected don't drive, you idiots." I know they know that; it was just a threat to get us off the streets (either to protect us, or to stop us from swelling the ranks of the infected, or, as I'm beginning to suspect, so we don't witness them killing Screamers outright). Whatever, I'm never going to quit.

We gave a guy a ride too. He was outside unarmed, just speed-walking down the sidewalk. We found out that his dog had gotten out of the house and he was trying to track it down before the Screamers caught it. Brad told him to just accept the reality that his dog was dead but when the guy locked Brad in a stare, he dropped the subject. Some people _really_ love their pets I guess.

We did find the dog. It was running from a Screamer. It would run for a bit, then look back at the Screamer expectantly, then when the Screamer got too close, it would sprint away again, only to slow down and look back once more. I think it had a hard time wrapping its head around the notion that the Screamer would harm it, but luckily its instincts kept carrying it out of harms way.

We got ahead of them and then opened the passenger door. The dog saw its master and made a bolt for the open door. When it was all the way in I took off.

We dropped the guy off and when he tried to pay us with cash me and Brad just chuckled. I said, "I don't think your money's worth spit anymore. Keep it. It was a pleasure to help." Then I showed him a picture of Sarah and told him to call my cell if he saw her.

Note to self: make copies of the photo to hand out.

By this time, the sun was an hour from setting so we had to come back here.

If we don't find Sarah tomorrow, I might have to come to terms with what that means. She's been out there too long, mingling with too many things that want her dead. The sun rises at six in the morning so I'll set out then.
Entry 4: Day 4

The fucking truck died on us this afternoon and we almost got killed, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

We set out a little after six. The day was eerily quiet for about two minutes, and then gunshots rang out followed by distant screams. I'm just glad the commotion wasn't going on anywhere near us. I suck at running and I suck at everything at six in the morning. We rode around in the truck and I was disgusted to see so many hunters out on the streets. Occasionally they'd give us a wave or a manly nod as they passed by, thinking we were hunters too. When I say hunters, I mean zombie hunters. From the few conversations I had today, it's obvious that people want to think of this plague as a zombie outbreak. That's unfortunate because every zombie movie I've ever seen, and book I've ever read, tells you exactly how to deal with a zombie: Shoot it in the brainpan.

I'm especially happy that I found Sarah today because another couple of days and she'd have been killed for sport; but I'm getting ahead of myself again.

I saw the store manager from my local grocery store. It was not a pretty sight. He had one of those noose thingies attached to a steel pole that dog catchers use for catching strays. There was a Screamer lady with her neck in the noose. She bucked and thrashed to get free but the manager held on for dear life.

We almost helped him out until we saw what he did next. He pulled her over to his idling car and grabbed a roll of cling film from the passenger seat. When he started to wrap her head up with it we knew what he was up to.

I'd told Brad about that raped-and-left-for-dead Screamer I found yesterday so he knew what was up too. As I pulled alongside our friendly neighborhood grocer/rapist, Brad pointed my machete at him and ordered him to let her go.

The guy quickly reached inside his car and came out with a shotgun. We took off before he got a shot off. I'm ashamed that I couldn't do more but we would've been killed. Someone got raped because we were too cowardly to stop it. When this is over, I'll find that fucker. I don't think he knows that I know him. Well, he knows now.

We also saw one of those college kids I wrote about yesterday. I guess his plan to hunt down zombies backfired because he was rushing about like a madman, covered in blood; clearly a Screamer had gotten to him. I don't know how to feel about that. The kid was a wannabe murderer. Is it horrible to say he got what he deserved?

He chased us and I nearly popped the front drivers side tire when I hit the curb trying to get away. I'm glad for that though because he chased us right towards Sarah.

That occurred at around noon or so and thankfully the kid chasing us saw another target and veered off at that point. Our luck held strong.

Anyway, Brad saw her first. He insisted that it was her but I didn't believe him until we came right up on her. She was wandering around someone's back yard. She looked awful.

I'd brought a roll of my own cling film (I hate that a rapist had such a good idea, so good that I stole it, but whatever) so I snatched it up and we kind of sneaked up to her.

Thank God she didn't see us right away. The thought of running for my life from my own wife sends chills up my spine. I approached her from behind as Brad kept watch by the fence. When I pulled a couple feet of cling film out pre-ambush, she heard the crackling noise it made and was turning around when I pounced on her and started wrapping her head up like a maniac. I didn't realize it at the time but it turns out I was crying as I did it. Brad told me afterwards because he's a dick.

Once I was done, I wrapped her up in a bear hug and then I used my weight to pull her to the ground. I beckoned Brad over, and we awkwardly wrapped her torso with her arms pinned to her side. Then Brad sat on her chest as I ripped a little breathe hole for her nose.

She injured us both but that's ok. At least she didn't bite us.

I could mention how retched and blood soaked she was and the terrible smells coming from her but the thought alone makes me light headed so let's just say she's looked better.

It wasn't until we shuffled her into the bed of the truck that we discovered we were running on dregs of fuel. I'd dumped the last of my mower gas from the gas can I keep in the garage into the tank just that morning but I guess the truck really is a gas guzzler because we ran completely out about a mile from my house.

The timing fucking sucked. Had it happened at any other time, we might have been ok, but having an uncooperative Screamer in tow made things much more dangerous. I've never seen Brad panic and I never want to again because his mind locks up and he's no help at all. He actually locked the door, as though we might stand a chance just waiting in the truck. He hyperventilated and his eyes welled up with tears. I'm not a brave guy but I sure seemed tough sitting next to Brad at that moment. I shouldn't mock him; he's usually the brave one. Maybe the stress of the situation finally sunk in to his alcohol laden brain all at once in a rush of fear and adrenaline.

Anyway, I hit him in the arm hard enough to snap him out of his funk and I told him we had to get indoors. He looked right through me until I hit him again. He nodded, took a heaving breath, and unlocked his door. We pulled Sarah by her blood caked bare feet until I could get a hold of her. I chucked her over my shoulder and we bolted for the closest house.

The door was locked but when Brad started to kick at it, a little old man opened up. I don't know why I thought the old man should have let us in; I know I wouldn't have let two strangers into my house with a cling film-wrapped Screamer, but when he told us to fuck off, I was pissed.

I got so angry that I guess he thought I was threatening him (which I might have been. I just don't remember) and he pulled a knife on us. Brad pulled out his nunchucks and when the guy laughed right in Brad's face, I chuckled too. That was enough to alleviate the tension and we bid the old bastard a good day.

He closed the door on us knowing full well it would take a miracle for us to survive much longer.

I still don't know what his trick is; how the hell is an old fart like that still alive and well?

We got lucky after that. I can't explain how this happened but it worked out perfectly considering what we were up against. A military truck went speeding down the street perpendicular to the one we were on. We'd heard it coming but mostly what we heard was the gunfire emitting from it. In its wake was a flood of Screamers. There must have been hundreds of them.

Sarah thrashed around again, her muffled screams barely coming through her nostrils, but otherwise we stayed as silent as church mice.

We saw the last of the Screamers rush past and then the whole scene went quiet. That's when Brad hit upon the idea to just follow after the Screamers. They would be too busy chasing the truck to notice us and the truck was attracting other Screamers as it went so the path would be clear.

What was so fortuitous about this turn of events was that the truck was headed in the general direction of my home. I didn't know if Brad was right but we had to do something. We crept around the corner, and sure enough, there was no sign of life. We moved quickly to try and catch up but with Sarah over my shoulder even the adrenaline pumping through my veins wasn't enough to give me strength I didn't possess. After we'd gone a few blocks, Brad caught on that I was struggling so he took a turn carrying her. I should note (in case anyone ever reads this) that my wife isn't fat, I'm just very weak.

Our luck held out longer than it should have but not long enough to get us all the way home. When we were a couple of blocks away from safety we started to see stray Screamers again. A young guy covered in fresh blood caught sight of us and came rushing our way from maybe fifty feet away.

Brad threw Sarah at me and I barely caught her before she hit the ground.

He pulled a plastic baggie from his pocket and ripped it open. Then he threw the contents towards the oncoming Screamer. It turns out that he'd brought some meat along with him and hadn't bothered to tell me. I didn't know this until that moment, but Screamers prefer the stationary type of meat over the mobile kind. The Screamer hit the deck like a starved man and we took that moment to go around him.

Other Screamers came rushing from out of God knows where and descended on the little meat pile. I heard Brad fart when they all came rushing from back yards and opened up houses and I'm pretty sure he shit his pants but I'm way too good of a friend to ask him.

I panted, "Do you have anymore?"

"Nope."

I knew then that we'd used up our last bit of luck. I could see my house when we rounded the corner but wouldn't you know it, more fucking Screamers.

Brad said, "I got this," and went ahead of me. I think we'd gotten so lucky that he assumed we were on an unstoppable roll. Turns out he was right and it turns out that nunchucks work ok against Screamers.

All he did was run up behind the nearest one and with a whirl of motion, bashed it in the head. I do not like violence so I hate that I had to see my best friend do something so barbaric.

I also hate the way it all worked out. The couple of other Screamers turned Brad's way and started running at him. He ran back to me and said, "I think we might be fucked," but he was wrong. The Screamers pounced on their fallen comrade and started to tear it to bits.

My heart jumped for joy, even as I witnessed a fellow human being eaten alive by blood thirsty monsters. Then again, the victim was a blood thirsty monster too so shouldn't that knowledge lessen my guilt about being so excited?

We ran right past as though they weren't even there. They didn't so much as give us a passing glance.

We got home without further detection. I handed Sarah off to Brad once we were safely indoors and I hefted my mattress from my bed to the laundry room in the basement. I put it on the ground and Brad put Sarah on it. Then I went back upstairs and found some more cling film. We wrapped her to the bed around her midsection so she wouldn't hurt herself.

Once we'd wrapped her up tight, Brad said he needed a drink and then left me alone with her.

I wish I could say that I was deeply saddened at the sight of her, or that memories of days gone by rushed through my thoughts and brought a wistful tear to my eye, but the truth of the matter is that we now had a noisy Screamer, barely muffled, in our basement and night was fast approaching, so the only thing I felt at that moment was intense dread.

When I went into the main rec-room to join Brad for a beer he was putting plastic over the windows. When I asked him why he was doing it he said it was because we were going to have to feed Sarah a shit-load of meat to keep her quiet and he didn't want wandering Screamers to smell it and break in. He's smart as fuck sometimes. I hadn't thought that far ahead. I hadn't even thought ahead enough to figure we'd need to feed Sarah to shut her up. To be honest I don't even know if it'll work, but it's still a good idea.

Brad just told me that they're saying that many of the infected have some new hybrid type of tape worm inside their intestines. (I thought they said it was a miniscule fluke worm, but I guess no one's talking about fluke worms anymore.) As long as the culprit is some kind of worm I think the scientists will be happy.

It makes me wonder how those scientists found the tape worms though. I can only assume they're chopping up Screamers in some type of locked down hospital. If this ends well, a lot of people have a lot of explaining to do. If they wipe us out however, it'll be because of cowards like me not bearing arms and taking the fight to them.

I think I'm on the side of righteousness. I can only hope I'm taking the right stance.

Brad interrupted again. He says Mexico has locked down its borders and border agents are shooting on sight, whether you're infected or not. I guess a lot of people down south are trying to flee that way. Oh well, the tables have turned on us I suppose. Brad says Canada also expressed their intent to close their border up tight.

Flights have all been grounded to and from the United States. We're basically being treated like a leper colony. Whatever. When we get through this, they'll all look like chumps for abandoning us to our fate. If we didn't have all the nukes, they'd have probably turned us into a giant smoldering crater by now.

Sarah just started making a racket so I'd better see if I can coax her into eating and then maybe she'll shut up long enough so we can get some sleep (do Screamers sleep?).
That was not fun at all. I was no sooner done with my last entry when the house was attacked from all sides by fucking Screamers (attracted by my wife's muffled screaming, no doubt). Luckily we have the basement door fortified or else we'd be inside many stomachs right now.

My basement windows are glass-block which is pretty indestructible, and they're boarded up (to keep the lights from showing and to further fortify them), and finally, they're enveloped in plastic wrap to keep all scents from reaching hungry noses.

What I'm saying is that we were safe, despite the fact that dozens of Screamers were starving for our flesh. My house is probably wrecked but I'll find out for sure later on.

The sun's coming up now and there's still a scream or two every ten or twenty minutes, but I think whichever Screamers had us in their sights, just forgot why they were even at my house in the first place. Maybe they caught sight of an easier meal and that's why they left. They don't think like us so it's hard to understand their motives.

Brad said he fed Sarah a bag of hotdogs and it seemed to placate her for awhile. She didn't fall asleep or anything, it just looks as though that weird bloodlust has left her for the time being. She's just staring at the ceiling like she's at peace with the world. I wanted to wrap her up in a hug but I think I know better than that by now. I know it won't last much longer but we have shit loads of hotdogs in the fridge to keep her sedate so I hope she doesn't get sick of them.

I'm ashamed to admit this (only because I want to come off as too smart to believe in zombies) but I checked her pulse just to see if she had one. She does. She's not dead or undead. She's not a zombie because zombies don't exist.

Entry 5: Day 5

Brad went out alone today (he broke into a couple garages in my neighborhood for gas cans and was even stupid enough to go fetch my truck). I think he just doesn't want to miss out on what's going on. I think he's a dip-shit but I'm not his mom, so I kept my opinions to myself.

I stayed behind because I no longer had any reason to leave. I have my wife and now I'm just waiting for her infection, or whatever, to go away, or for a cure to get discovered.

Here's what Brad told me he saw (Brad's a bit of a story teller, but he's not a liar despite the crazy shit that comes out of his mouth from time to time):

Brad saw military personnel using food to distract Screamers so that they could net them and drag them off to their trucks. He doesn't know where they went afterwards but we both assume it was to some type of lab where they'd be dissected and analyzed (another reason I'm thankful we found Sarah so soon).

He saw a Screamer trying to rape a woman (that would've been a new Screamer trait). He fired a warning shot to get its attention, hoping it would come for him instead, but what it did was jump to its feet and then it took off running in the opposite direction, afraid for its life. So it wasn't a fucking Screamer at all. It was some God damned lunatic rapist, using the chaos to his advantage.

Brad said the guy was caked in blood, but now that he's thought twice about it, it could've been ketchup for all he knew.

Luckily, the guy had only barely begun his attack when Brad scared him off, but the woman was still sexually assaulted.

Her name is Megan and she's with us now. For someone so recently sexually assaulted, she's bounced back from it like a true champ. I'm glad she's here to be honest. If I had to spend another night talking to my drunken friend, I might've just draped hotdogs all over myself and went for a walk. At least I have someone sane to talk to now.

Megan's boyfriend took off on her. She knows he wasn't infected because he texted her to meet him across the border (Canada) in some crappy little town he'd holed up in. The asshole didn't care enough to come and fetch her before fleeing, so she's pretty much over him.

I think Brad's happy about that, but it's hard to know for sure. I've seen girls throw themselves at Brad only to have him walk away, oblivious. Then later he'll complain to me that he can't find a girlfriend. That folks, is what makes a person a fucking idiot. They say genius and insanity go hand in hand but in Brad's case it's genius and stupidity.

Anyway, Brad's not drinking yet, so I guess that's a good sign that he's hoping to impress this girl. He's wise enough to give her time to heal emotionally and physically from what happened to her today, so he won't be making any moves (not that he would even know how).

On the way back to the house Brad says they came across two Screamers (Megan likes our nickname for them by the way) who were tearing at their own flesh. Brad said neither Screamer was tasting the blood, or trying to eat themselves. They were just clawing at their abdomens and arms and necks. He chucked them each a hotdog and he said that seemed to shift their focus enough to stop them from ripping themselves to shreds.

I fed Sarah at least a dozen bags of hotdogs today. I did try to mix in some veggies but she wouldn't eat them. She likes chips. Go figure.

I know I should have tried to turn her over or clean her up (to stave off bedsores or whatever) but if things had gone wrong while Brad was away, she'd have overpowered me. Sarah weighs about a hundred pounds and I'm nearly double that, so it's not that she's physically intimidating, it's that that crazy energy, or aggression, or ravenousness, has turned her into a freak of nature.

I just asked Megan and Brad if they thought I should be readjusting Sarah and cleaning her. They agreed that I probably should, but that it isn't crucial just yet. She's only been secured to the mattress for a day and a half, so maybe after a week we'll hose her off or something and flip her over. I pray she's better before that has to happen.
Entry 6: Day 6

Brad and Megan went out today and I stayed behind again.

Megan said she came across an old college friend. Her friend was outside with his pistol, just shooting whatever came his way. Brad said the guy even pointed the gun at them so he was forced to stomp the accelerator. The guy fired several rounds as they fled so now the rear window of the truck is broken. Thanks a lot Brad!!!

Megan explained that the guy was normally a nice person. I have my doubts.

I watched the news most of the day but it got me no closer to understanding what's happening in my life. It's all just theory. Now those genius scientists say that it can't possibly be tape worms and they're back to blaming fluke worms. I'm just glad no one's mentioned toxic waste or contamination from a passing meteor as a culprit. I don't think I could handle that just now. They're still treating it like a natural plague.

It managed to make its way into Mexico though so I guess the stringent border control was about as effective for them as it used to be for us.

I went online (I have a computer down here that, to be honest, I mostly just used for porn before now).

I found a bunch of zombie apocalypse sites full of scare tactics and bullshit. It was tough to wade through all the nonsense but I eventually came across a couple of thoughtful websites. One of them discussed fluke worms and detailed how to rid the body of them with herbs and spices (this website published the article months before this weird epidemic hit so I know it's not all a bunch of crap).

It said that flukes can be killed off with cloves, black walnut, cayenne, ginger, wormwood, garlic, and thyme. Some of the ingredients only kill the adults while others only kill the eggs, so all of them need to be administered to cleanse the body fully. I checked the cabinets upstairs and I have cayenne, cloves, garlic, and thyme but we're fresh out of ginger, black walnut, and wormwood (I don't know what black walnut or wormwood even look like).

I brought down everything I had and then I left Sarah alone for about ten minutes while I raided the neighbors houses on either side of mine. I didn't find what I needed but I did find a gruesome mess in Greg's house. Luckily, the Screamers that killed Greg and his family were long gone. That sucks because I always liked Greg.

A week ago I would've cried about it, now I'm just glad it wasn't me. I know how terrible that sounds, but so what?

I cut a hotdog open and stuffed it full of the spices I had. I don't know if this means anything, but Sarah would not eat the fucking thing. Does that mean she knows it will cure her. I guess what I mean to say is, does the thing that has taken over her thoughts, and functions, know that I was trying to kill it? I don't know.

I tried to force feed it to her but she thrashed around so much that it ended up in broken up chunks all over the floor. I gave in and fed her a regular, untainted hotdog. She ate that one up greedily so I think I'm on to something here. For the first time in days, I feel giddy about the future.

I just checked in on Sarah. I constantly worry that after I wrap her mouth back up with the cling film, that she'll breathe it in and choke on it. She was ok but she stunk. I talked Megan and Brad into helping me clean her up. Normally I'd be pissed that Brad got to see my wife's privates, but this is a different world with different rules. We sponged her down while Megan fed her raw hamburger meat. The worms will love that shit. We wrapped her up tight when we were done, but she was well fed so she's pretty sedate.

I asked Megan if she'd stay with Sarah so I could go out with Brad tomorrow. I need to find the rest of the ingredients. She looked a little taken aback, and I don't blame her. We're still strangers after all. I was about to tell her to forget about it but she agreed before I could. We will be lifelong friends after this is over (if there is an end to it. According to the news, all of America is basically screwed and it's moved to Africa now too, so we might be in this for the long haul).

For about five minutes straight, there was gunfire coming from close by. I really hate when that happens because it just serves to attract even more Screamers to my house.
Entry 7: Day 7

Brad and I saw military trucks all over the place. They were dumping meat and other food stuffs as they went.

At the time we had no clue what they were up to, but luckily I figured it out before heading back home. The food must have been dosed with the ingredients to cure the plague. I can only assume this because the Screamers did not eat a single bite of any of it (just like Sarah wouldn't eat the laced hotdog I tried to feed her). In fact, in a few cases, the Screamers would attack the food, stomping it to indistinguishable mush.

I managed to grab a hunk of meat from off the ground before the Screamers had a chance to pulverize it.

I brought it home, but now I'm having second thoughts about feeding it to Sarah. What if it's not a cure? What if it's poison?

Here's another thing that happened today: I shot at some people. There were these, I don't know what to call them; dorks or wannabe badasses, just walking down the street shooting at Screamers. They had formed up in a semi-circle, all facing outwards. As a unit, they moved purposefully and fired on sight.

Brad slowed the truck to a stop about half a block away from them (they were moving away from us). A cop car came down the cross street ahead of them and slowed to a stop. We could hear the cops telling them to get indoors or they'd be arrested. Then the cops drove away.

A second later, the dorks were shooting again, and the cops just let it happen. I don't know if the cops were more concerned about the dorks committing murder or if they feared they'd add to the ranks of the Screamers. Either way, they showed that they weren't overly concerned either way. That wasn't what made me furious.

What sent my adrenaline spiraling out of control was this:

A Screamer; clearly a teenage girl, came rushing at them. They all aimed at her and unloaded. Her head basically came off before she even hit the ground. I'm not good with blood or gore. I used to think it was because it made me queasy but now I know it's because it brings out my indignation and rage.

These infected are our mothers and sons, our neighbors and our friends. They're not clay pigeons.

Brad crept the truck forward and without a word of warning I opened the door and got out. I aimed the shotgun at them, and without a single decent, rational human thought, I fired right into them.

They looked at me like I was a madman but that was good because at that moment I really was crazy. They took off running and I fired again. I don't know if I hit any of them or, if I did, if anyone later died from the wounds. I suppose I don't care. I hope they got the hint. I noticed that one of them was wearing a fucking cape like he was some kind of super hero. People make me sick.

I have to add that the infected are starting to look like the zombies from the movies. I wish they wouldn't because it just makes it easier for people to treat them as though they're not human beings. Thankfully, Sarah has few wounds, and her teeth aren't rotting out. Her eyes are milky but not bad; like early stage glaucoma. I think it can be reversed.

She's getting noisy again so I'd better go feed her.

Oh, I nearly forgot to add; I got almost everything I need to kill fluke worms (according to the internet). I'm still looking for the wormwood, but I got a bunch of ginger and a little bottle of black walnut tincture from the grocery store (I looted again. I promise I'll pay when this all goes back to normal...I mean if it goes back to normal).

I don't know where the hell I'm going to find wormwood but I'm real close to having this under control.
Entry 8: Day 8

I got the fucking wormwood today (at this new age hippie store in the mall I'd never been in before the apocalypse. Funny how the end of civilization changes you).

I already mixed everything together with a little drop of water to thicken it up. I didn't know what proportions to use so I hope I got it right.

Brad's feeding Sarah right now (we're hoping that by feeding her in advance she'll be more relaxed when we force feed her the concoction. I don't think it'll work but we'd be morons not to try it).

I sure hope the scientists have it right this time and that the cause is fluke worms and not tape worms like they thought a couple days ago because this mixture won't do a thing to a tape worm but make it stronger.

Before I go in there, I need to write down that we saw some horrendous shit today. The Screamers are degenerating, probably from lack of available food.

Some of the Screamers we came across were eating themselves. One of them didn't have any eyes, so we assume he popped them out and ate them. A lot of them were missing fingers and even hands. We saw one girl eating her own lips. But mostly we saw Screamers with big chunks of flesh missing from their forearms.

We used up half the hotdogs just to feed these idiots so they don't eat themselves to death. Can I call myself a good Samaritan for feeding the enemy? Not many people would approve.

I believe what's happening is the worms are getting desperate for food, so as it becomes scarcer they're eating their hosts to get by.

It's a good thing Sarah is secured to the mattress, and also well fed, or the same self-cannibalistic fate might've befallen her.

I'm worried now that her worm could eat her from the inside out if we don't feed it. Well that concern is about to be alleviated because her worm is soon to be deceased...if all goes as expected.

Alright, Brad says he's stuffed her so it's time to see if this works.

Fingers crossed...
Entry 9: Day 8

That was not fun. Megan got bit so we had to keep some of the mixture for her. Now I desperately hope this works because if not then I'm directly responsible for Megan's infection.

Sarah went fucking ape-shit when she smelled the mix. Megan held her jaw open while Brad tried to jam the corner of a book between her teeth. That's when Sarah bit Megan's finger, right down to the bone.

Sarah thrashed and bucked as I poured the mix down her throat. She tried to cough it up but Brad covered her mouth after each spoonful.

It's been at least an hour and so far Megan is still a rational, non-cannibal. That gives me hope. Sarah's unchanged though, although she has broken out in a cold sweat. We'll see if that means anything.
The news reported that the President of Iran insists that America got what was coming to it. He says that God has struck us down for our imperialistic ways. I don't think so. I'll hedge my bets and blame it on nature instead.

Watch though; when it's proven to be worms, he won't feel compelled to retract his absurd statement.

The news reported that certain cities have erected physical borders to keep out the infected. It's probably a good idea since it spreads like wild fire once it gets going.

But it's too bad too. Some folks have traveled from far and wide to find a safe haven, and they're being turned away as soon as they get there.
Entry 10: Day 8

Megan is ok. It's been three hours now and although I feel like a shit head for watching her like a hawk and keeping my shotgun close by, she hasn't changed. That could mean one of two things; either the concoction worked on her, or the bite somehow didn't carry infection into her bloodstream. You know which option I hope proves to be true.

Sarah's been struggling, sweating, pissing, and shitting for the past hour. I tore the cling film open around her mouth when she started gagging on her own vomit. Thankfully she didn't scream out or else we'd be swarming with Screamers right now.

I had to uncover her nether regions too. It was getting too messy to leave it be. I cleaned her up but it just kept coming so I'll have to check up, and clean up, every half an hour or so.

She's my wife; she deserves some dignity, and yet I'm having a hard time viewing her as a human being anymore, let alone the person I love the most in life. I might need to have a drink. I'm getting despondent, and I don't operate well when I'm feeling this low.
Entry 11: Day 8

Sarah was Screaming, but this time, there was pain in her cadence. That meant something had significantly changed.

My heart was racing as I ran into the laundry room, with Brad and Megan hot on my heals. What we saw was right out of a horror movie.

A fat, white worm was wriggling out of her ass. But it was too large so it was hurting her.

None of us knew what to do. Brad was in a state of shock and Megan just turned around and left the room as soon as she saw it.

The worm was pretty nondescript, but that might have been what was so horrendous about it. It was about as big around as a can of coke. Although it was mainly white, there were pinkish areas too and even some spots that might have been somewhat translucent.

There was a small slit at the end that I can only assume was its mouth, but it had no teeth or a tongue, so it's just a guess.

I don't know how it knew we were there because it had no eyes or ears or a nose to speak of (why would it need any of that when it had been using Sarah's?). But it knew because it started to try and wriggle back inside my wife.

I didn't know what to do at that point. I didn't want to touch the thing but I certainly didn't want it back inside Sarah. If it got back to the safety of my wife's abdominal cavity and if my potion killed it inside her, then what? Would its rotting carcass become septic inside her? Would I need to cut her open to get it out?

The truth is, none of that crossed my mind at the time. I just ran up and grabbed the thing and started pulling. Sarah screamed bloody murder the whole time but I couldn't let it go. The worms body was hard too, the way snakes are firmer than they look.

As an aside (and so I can gather my thoughts) it's no wonder the scientists were blaming it on tape worms. The thing was fucking huge. From what I've read, fluke worms are really small, with the largest only growing to a few inches long. This thing was massive, but it was also definitely a fluke because the fluke antidote expelled it.

Anyway, I was making progress when Brad wrapped his hands around it too and we both pulled it free.

When I stood up, Brad freaked out and let it go immediately which meant it swung towards me and hit me in the leg with an audible thump. It must have weighed fifteen or twenty pounds. It was about five feet long, maybe longer.

It was my turn to freak out and so I dropped it. For something that had grown in one dark secluded place its entire life, it sure was mobile out here in the world because it started to thrash around on the floor, working its way towards the gap between my washer and dryer.

Brad and I stood stock still from shock, as we watched it make its escape, unhindered.

But then Megan came rushing past us and lopped it in half with the machete. I knew that machete would come in handy.

The thing didn't even twitch, it just lay there, dead.

Sarah was still screaming but her natural voice had returned.

I tended to her wounds while Brad mixed some more of the antidote up just in case. He fed it to her and she accepted it without a fuss.

Her eyes were still milky, but it was clear she was taking it all in. Maybe she even understood what had happened to her.

When Brad finished dosing her, he ran off again and returned with a bottle of whiskey. He tilted her head up and rested it on his knees while he coaxed her into drinking the booze. It seemed to do the trick because she settled down after that. I worried that the alcohol would thin her blood, causing her to bleed more profusely, but I think it was worth it to stave off the impending shock that would have surely overtaken her.

Brad and Megan had the decency to allow me to finish cleaning Sarah up alone. It was a mess, but I guess I've now proven that my love has no bounds because, ugh!!! It was gross.

Sarah's head lolled around and a couple times it looked like she might try to talk but she was pretty wasted. She dozed off before I was even done.

I pulled a towel out of the dryer and used it to gather up both halves of the worm. I put the towel in the bathroom and shut the door. I know it's dead, but still...

I'm going to take a break from writing here and post a message on the internet telling the world how we flushed the worm out, and that it still has to be killed once it's outside the body. I hope it makes a difference.
Entry 12: Day 8

I was about to post our success with a little tutorial about how we cured Sarah but it turns out I'm too late. Not only that, but others managed to eradicate the worms with far more finesse than we did.

One person said to wait by the butt for it to peek out, then grab it with tongs, pull it out just enough to stab it, or otherwise kill it, without letting it go. Apparently when it's dead it's easier to pull free. I sure wish I'd known about that an hour ago.

One guy said to burn the remains but he was the only one who said that so I'm guessing it's just some internet paranoia or a scare tactic. On the other hand, I'm glad I shut the worms corpse up behind a closed door. Maybe I'm paranoid too, but can you blame me?

Brad just showed me online footage of a group of Screamers eating a sheep alive. I don't know where it occurred or when, and I don't know why he'd think I'd find something like that fascinating. The sheep just stood there and let it happen. It was as horrifying as anything I've seen (which sounds silly since it was just a dumb sheep).

Apparently the guy or girl filming it didn't care to try and stop it from happening which tells you more about the person behind the camera than the people in front of it.

Sarah's mumbling so I'd better go see.
Entry 13: Day 8

Sarah was still pretty wasted but she did manage to ask me where she was. I didn't have the heart to tell her what had happened so I just cleaned her off again, clothed her, and then wrapped her back up in the blanket. It's sure nice that I no longer need to shrink wrap my wife to a mattress to stop her from trying to eat me.

Once she heals up well enough, we'll need to start thinking about trying to go north and cross the border. It's calmer up there right now and calm is exactly what the doctor ordered. I wonder though, if I'll ever be able to sleep peacefully, even if things get better.

And if I'm so ruined by this bullshit, how will Sarah react? She might be traumatized. It remains to be seen.

Brad and Megan went upstairs against my wishes. They said they were going to look for more ingredients to make more of the antidote. I argued and pleaded with them to reconsider but they did it anyway, and now I know what an idiot I was to say anything in the first place because the floorboards overhead are creaking rhythmically. Good for Brad. He deserves a nice girl.
Entry 14: Day 8

Megan and Brad have been upstairs for two hours so far and the creaking's still going on. I'm not going to admit to Brad how impressed I am by that.

It's lasted so long that at one point I felt like checking to make sure it really was them and not some Screamer just kneeling on the floor eating their remains, but it's quiet overhead, besides the creaking, so it's definitely not a Screamer.

I found some footage on a website that's devoted to conquering this scourge. Similar sites are popping up, but this one's the most credible. The video footage was horrifying, and I wish I'd have watched it before tackling Sarah's infestation just in case things had gone tits up.

On the video, a girl had a guy (husband/brother/boyfriend?) strapped to a chair. She fed him the concoction and then waited as he freaked the fuck out. He thrashed so much I was worried he'd get loose.

But then the worm thing came busting out of his ass (either his butt hole is big or the worm was smaller than Sarah's was).

Instead of trying to flee though, it came right at the girl and wriggled straight up her pant leg. She batted at the writhing form but it didn't do any good. It apparently made its way into her ass because the seat of her pants went dark, probably from blood or shit.

Then she just hit the deck like a sack of potatoes.

The boyfriend (or whatever) whimpered from the pain but he slowly started to come to his senses.

He was trying to figure out the restraints when the girl got to her feet.

He had a blank expression on his face so he clearly had no idea how fucked he was. Then the girl started to eat him.

I turned the video off right then because that kind of shit makes me sick to my stomach. But, I have to say, thank God for Megan. If she hadn't chopped that thing in half, it might have decided to make me or Brad its new vehicle.
Entry 15: Day 9

When I woke up this morning, Megan and Brad were spooning on the couch, fast asleep. I had to stifle my smile when they woke up. When Megan went to the bathroom, Brad winked at me and nodded towards the bathroom door. I nodded, meaning that I'd kind of figured out what he'd accomplished last night.

Then Megan started to scream bloody murder. Brad was up like a spring-loaded Jack in the Box. He rushed by me and kicked in the bathroom door because she'd locked it behind her.

I'm so glad I watched that video last night because I knew what to do when I saw her swatting at her pants leg.

I yanked her pants down (I'm sure that must've surprised Brad), grabbed that fat half worm that was working its way up her leg, threw it on the ground, and stomped it and stomped it and stomped it some more, until it didn't move any longer.

We had to calm Megan down in a hurry so no Screamers outside would hear her. She was shaking and crying, and had it not been inappropriate, I would've wrapped her naked body up in a bear hug to help her settle down. Brad beat me to it, thankfully.

My brain doesn't work well under such harsh conditions.

But it worked well enough that I remembered that there was another half worm in the bathroom. I started to frantically search for it, and soon enough Brad realized what I was doing and helped me.

Then, on a hunch, I dashed into the laundry room, and there it was, working its way towards Sarah's sleeping body. Brad dashed past me, picked it up and held it tight in both hands while it struggled to get free. This was the bigger half, maybe three feet in length, so Brad had his work cut out for him keeping it under control.

He argued with me that we should keep it to test out ways to kill it. He was probably right, but I knew we couldn't risk it getting loose again. Megan talked him into killing it. He must have a soft spot for her already because he conceded.

He said we could put it in the garbage disposal, but I told him I didn't have one (I do but he doesn't know that. I just thought killing it like that was a little too much). Megan said she could chop it up with the machete but we were starting to figure out that it might live afterwards (maybe if we diced the shit out of it, it would die, but none of us thought about that at the time).

I mentioned that one guy online said to kill them with fire. Brad told me to turn the oven on, but I called him a moron. It could break through the glass door, and then we'd have to recapture it.

In the end we all agreed that we had no better plan than Brad's stupid idea to cook it. (Sarah slept like a baby through all of this back and forth banter.)

The worm must not have understood English because it didn't struggle as we quietly made our way upstairs. Brad turned the oven on and we waited for it to preheat. When the little beeper went off, Brad put the worm on the countertop, Megan cut it clean in two with the machete, and Brad put both inanimate halves in the oven. He locked it with that self cleaning lever on the door that I've never actually used before.

I suppose I expected the two halves to screech or thrash around in there, but they just cooked to a golden brown.

Brad joked with Megan that it might be delicious and that we should at least try a piece. She punched him in the arm good naturedly but he deserved to be hit in the face for saying something so sick. Maybe my hatred of the thing was too great, but then again, that fat bastard had nearly killed my wife, and then once we saved her, it tried to get her again. Joking about it was in bad taste.

As soon as we were confident the thing was deader than dead, Screamers rushed the house. There's a part of me that thinks they sensed their comrade being killed through some kind of psychic link and they were coming to save him, but I'm pretty sure they just smelled the roasting meat and thought, yum.

We ran downstairs and secured the basement door just in time. The Screamers went fucking nuts trying to figure out how to get at the meat in the locked oven.

Megan was worried that the house might burn down if I let the oven keep cooking but I knew better. I accidentally put a pizza in there once, forgot about it, and then went to work. The house smelled like smoke for a few days afterwards but it didn't burn down.

I had to calm Sarah down when she awoke to the sounds of howling monsters overhead. I don't think she has any memories of what happened to her. Brad fed her some more whiskey, but she asked him to stop after a few glugs. I don't think she knew why he was doing it.

She started to whimper and then the unmistakable scent of feces hit the air. Brad and Megan once again left me so I could clean her up in private.

This is gross, but it has to be said: There were little white eggs in her poop.

I knew at that point that our little potion had worked its magic to the fullest extent.

The whiskey must have worked its magic too because by the time I redressed her, she'd drifted off to sleep again.

By then, the Screamers must have given up. I didn't notice it until I left the laundry room, but the house was silent. Maybe the worm meat had burned to the point that it was no longer considered edible, even to a Screamer.

I found out then that Megan had scooped up the mushed worm that I'd stomped flat in the bathroom, and she'd managed to cut it up enough to flush it down the toilet, piece by piece. If she wasn't a stranger I'd have yelled at her for doing it. Now I can never use the toilet down here again. I don't even want to imagine that thing, or even a severed part of it, launching out of the toilet water at my unprotected butt-hole.

We'd had our fill of adventure for the day so we stayed in. I think Brad was glad for that. I think Megan was too. I know I'm in no hurry to go outside now that Sarah's getting better.

I spent some time online. I added my own account of how we killed the worm. I noticed that nobody agreed with the guy who said you had to burn the worms once you got them out, so I added a comment to his thread that said he was absolutely correct; that stabbing or cutting them does no good and only burning ensures that they stay dead.

I don't know what good any of it will do, but I felt like I should be doing something. If only one person reads my account and learns from my successes and failures, then I made a difference.

The worms might see it otherwise of course. Thank God they barely understand how to work a door handle, let alone the internet. That makes me wonder about them though. How are they sophisticated enough to manipulate the human brain, a thinking machine more powerful than even the most complex supercomputer, and yet they can't do easy stuff like open doors, or use a can opener to get at food?
Entry 16: Day 9

By mid afternoon Sarah was able to sit up on her own. She was still sore, and kind of out of it all day but she might've just been hung over for all I know.

She crapped out some more eggs, but she had the presence of mind to clean herself up afterward.

Her eyes have cleared up a bit but the scrapes and cuts will take more time to heal.

It's good to have her back. I hope she's more lucid tomorrow. It would be nice to hear her voice again.

The news is showed aerial footage taken from somewhere last night. I think it might have been Chicago. Believe it or not, it was pretty boring to watch. Then again, most things shot from afar look less than spectacular. But if I didn't know that those little running figures were either running for their lives, or else chasing down a person to eat, I'd have just thought I was watching a Cops rerun, or something equally inane. But knowing the context made it scary.

It's odd to me that all the stores are closed and industry has ground to a screeching halt, but the news networks are going strong. I guess this is the type of shit the execs have been secretly hoping for to boost ratings. They're like pigs in shit now that the apocalypse is upon us. Then again, I'm jaded so my opinion's probably not worth a hill of beans.

The news also stated that scientists are now sure that the infection or whatever it is, is caused by fluke worms and not tape worms (yeah, no shit). They said to stay away from beef and Brussels sprouts but they mentioned nothing of a cure. Maybe it's because they don't know that a cure exists but I doubt it. It's probably because people are having mixed success with it. I wonder how many people have to die before the establishment has the balls to intervene in any way that matters? I know they're just covering their asses, but now's not the time for that. I guess old habits die hard.

On a positive note, Screamers stayed away for the remainder of the afternoon and evening. We heard intermittent gunfire throughout the day but it was mostly distant.

Brad said he thought he heard a squadron of fighter jets outside but he has an overactive imagination. If the military decided to bomb all the hot spots, most of America would be sizzling rubble right now.
Entry 17: Day 10

It looks like the military have resorted to force feeding Screamers that tainted meat I mentioned before. They must have figured out that Screamers weren't ever going to voluntarily eat it.

But because it was the military, they were cocking it up. I saw them fire on Screamers that got out of their control more often than I saw them handle the situation and force-feed the infected. I sure hope they stop trying to help or there won't be any people left to help.

Me and Megan went out, which was weird, but it would have felt even weirder asking her to baby-sit Sarah again. Brad stayed back to tend to her and hold down our little makeshift fort.

I was out to collect more ingredients (I made my mind up last night to try and help cure as many Screamers as I could - I might have been riding a high since curing Sarah). I hit the health food, hippie store first for the worm wood, plus I found some black walnut tincture there.

We hit the grocery store for the rest but that was a big fucking mistake because the place was swarming with Screamers. We didn't even get inside the doors before we had to rush back to the truck and take off.

But here's what I witnessed them doing in there: They were coughing, or puking, all over the food.

Now I'm no genius, but I'm assuming they were doing it for a reason. I think they were tainting the food with their eggs to try and infect even more of us.

So that was the end of our quest because now we had a new challenge; destroy all the food before people ate it. Megan was on board so I think it was a reasonable plan.

As soon as we talked it through, I turned the truck about, went back to the grocery store, and rammed it into the glass windows in the front. I thought we'd go right through but that glass is tougher than it looks. It went through one pane easily but the two on either side of it held fast. The Screamers came at us though, so, mission accomplished, I guess.

I backed up and took off again. When we went all the way around the building, and the Screamers were still coming around the corner, I jumped out and Megan took the wheel.

As she took off, I made it into the store on foot. Luckily most of them had went after the truck and the few that were still inside seemed pretty preoccupied with barfing all over the damn place.

I grabbed a basket, ran to the spice aisle, and loaded up with the remaining ingredients I needed.

I ran to the front of the store, dropped off the basket by the exit, and then I went after the flammables. I used charcoal lighter fluid and one of those weird lighter guns that old ladies use to light their stoves. I doused the birthday card aisle, the cereal section, and basically every place where cardboard or paper were predominant with the lighter fluid. Then I went back around and lit a bunch of fires.

Still the Screamers ignored me. I heard the truck rushing around outside in the parking lot, so I looked over my work one last time, was entirely unimpressed, and then I retrieved my basket and chased after the truck.

Megan said she didn't recognize me at first and that's why she kept driving away from me, but that didn't stop me from yelling at her after I got seated. We kept our speed down just enough to ensure none of the Screamers trailing after us lost interest and went back to the store. I remember hoping that the ones inside had the sense to get out as soon as they saw the fires but that was an unnecessary fear because when we passed by the store again, the fire alarm was going off and the sprinklers had kicked in. When we saw our failure, we ditched the trailing Screamers and headed home.

It was worth a shot, but it made me feel like a bit of a dumbass; I should have thought of the sprinklers.

Note to self: Don't eat anything from a store until it has all been replaced. Also, burn all the stores to the ground.

At least I got the spices, so it wasn't a complete failure.

We saw a Screamer laying in the middle of the road eating its own biceps. Its hands and forearms were gone, so it was working its way up. I considered feeding it a hotdog to make it stop, but the blood loss would kill it regardless of what I did.

Megan stopped the truck to watch. I asked her if we could keep moving but she said she had a theory. She thought that if one of us approached the Screamer, the worm would see us as a better host, and vacate the guys dying body.

It made sense so I volunteered her to do it.

At first, when the Screamer saw her, it tried to get to its feet but it must have already lost too much blood because it just couldn't do it.

Then Megan's theory proved to be correct because the guy started flailed around on the ground, yelling out in pain.

The worm had made its way out of his pants leg when Megan ran back to the truck and got behind the wheel.

It started writhing towards us so Megan inched the truck forward and slowly crushed it beneath the tire. For a second I was scared she'd miss it and it would climb up my door and bust in through the window, but then we heard a wet squelch so we knew it was dead.

I hate to admit this but I was glad the guy was dead by the time we got to him. It was probably from shock or else simply from blood loss, but either way, we weren't going to be able to save his life and it was fortuitous that we didn't have to because it would've broken our hearts to watch him die despite our best efforts to save him. Megan voiced the same opinion so if I'm a selfish prick, then she is too.

After that, we got back to the house without too much drama and we've been trying to replicate our concoction with the ingredients I scrounged up ever since.

Brad said that I forgot to get cayenne which pissed me off because he wouldn't have mentioned it if he knew what I had to go through just to get what I got. I let him know and he apologized right after calling me a drama queen. He's right. I'm letting this all get to me and I'm taking it out on the wrong people.

Sarah was up and about by this point and her voice was returning to her. Thank God for that because she said we had a bag of cayenne in the cupboard upstairs.

I didn't know that. I thought we just used a jar but she said she refills it from the bag whenever it runs out. For the second time I felt like a dumbass, but who cares. I got the bag and we have what we need to fight back.
Entry 18: Day 10

We just got done mixing all the ingredients together. Sarah watched the news while we worked because she says she gets dizzy if she stands for too long. She just told us that all the cattle in North America are being slaughtered and their carcasses are being burned in giant fire pits, kind of like how the Brits did when Mad Cow Disease popped up over there.

The scientists say that the fluke worms eggs originated in the digestive tracts of cows, then they'd crap the eggs out on vegetation, and we'd eat the infested vegetation. Afterwards, the flukes would grow into adults within our bodies.

Now we all know that our food isn't being properly cleaned before it hits the grocery stores which is gross, but who could have imagined this might happen?

I don't know why Brussels sprouts were the one vegetable that seemed to cause all of this but then again, they haven't mentioned Brussels sprouts on the news for a while so maybe that turned out to be wrong. Whatever the source was, it's something that the elderly eat more than the rest of us, so maybe Brussels sprouts were the culprits after all. Who knows.

Sarah suggested that we need to fully cook our food and as for food that doesn't require heating, we should nuke it for ten or twenty seconds to make sure the eggs are killed.

Now I don't think I ever want to eat again.

After Brad and Megan fell asleep together, Sarah came over and started to ask me what had happened to her (it was the first intimate conversation we'd had in a week and a half).

She knew she'd gotten infected but she didn't remember anything that had happened until after we cured her. I started to tell her everything but she kept tearing up and shaking at the gruesome parts and the disgusting bits, so I gave her this journal and let her read it through. She just now gave it back.

She said, "I'm so sorry for everything."

I told her it wasn't her fault.

She called me a hero and thanked me for saving her life.

I never knew I had much of an ego but that's only because no one's ever called me a hero before. The pride is still welling up inside me as I write this. I hadn't set out to be a hero but when life gives you lemons, blah, blah, blah.

Sarah's fast asleep now. I sure hope she isn't ashamed of what happened to her because none of it's her fault.

Good night.
Entry 19: Day 11

The news just told everyone not to drink tap water. At first I had no idea why but when I looked it up online, I got my answer. Someone said they saw Screamers (they called them Walkers in the article) climbing up a water tower, breaking into it, and then puking and shitting all over the place.

They're strategically attacking us now, that much is clear.

Another report alleged that Screamers had contaminated water treatment plants in the same way but that article looked to be made up. It's hard to know what's true and what's fake online.

The news advised us to boil our water, as well as to use filtration systems because the eggs are apparently too big to get through.

I'm just glad none of us drank any water last night. Brad and Megan had a bottle of red wine between them, and I had a beer. Sarah fell asleep early so she got lucky too. We all got super lucky. For once the news has come through in time.
Entry 20: Day 11

I was wrong. As soon as I got done writing the last entry, Brad came out of the bathroom, and his breath was minty fresh. He missed the news because he'd been brushing his teeth.

I told him what the news had reported and he freaked out. He tried to puke in the sink, but I walked him over to our bowl of antidote and made him eat a few spoonfuls.

He's ok so far, so either he wasn't infected in the first place or the mix killed the eggs before they could start to grow.

He said he'll check his poop for eggs later on just in case but I told him that was too much information and that it was his problem now.

Then he said he'd leave a sample next to my pillow tonight so that I can check it for him in the morning because he didn't want me to worry about his wellbeing needlessly.

He's a true pal.
Entry 21: Day 11

The news has just asked for our help. They need everyone to bring every spice they own to their nearest police station. They even set up a hotline for those too afraid to leave their homes. They said they'll send someone over to pick it up. It looks like someone somewhere high enough up the ladder has caught on how to defeat this. That's encouraging, but in the mean time, we can still do our part in administering our home made cure to the Screamers that cross our path.

I told Sarah that we have more Cayenne than we need but she won't let me take it down to the cop shop. I don't blame her. She's the one that had a worm inside her body, working her like a remote control car. Of course she's nervous about giving away part of the antidote, no matter that we have an abundance. I feel like a punk for even mentioning it.
Entry 22: Day 11

Megan said she saw a tiny white thing slither out of the faucet, even though it was turned off. She watched it start to climb the bowl of the sink before she called us all in to check it out. Sure enough, those little fuckers are sentient, even as eggs (I know eggs can't move so I guess it was already in the larvae stage or something).

Megan put a finger near it and it changed directions and started wriggling towards it.

She killed it.

So I had to shut the water off at the main and then open all the faucets to flush out any eggs or larvae that made it into the pipes.

This is getting scary now.

I posted online what had happened with the baby worm in the water and then I called that hotline from the news and tried to tell the lady on the other end that she needs to send out an alert about it.

She kept asking me to calm down. She asked if I had spices I wanted picked up. She read off a list of the ones they needed. She told me she was only in charge of spice acquisition and that I'd need to call someone else. When I asked her who, she said she didn't know and then she hung up on me.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is how the human race is going to be defeated, because of nonchalance and a who gives a shit attitude.

Brad filled each sink, and the toilet with bleach just in case one of those buggers makes it through. We don't know if bleach harms them at that early stage of growth, but it's worth a try.

We're going to head out soon because we're getting creeped out in here. Sarah wants to come along, and that should be fine as long as she stays in the truck. It's going to be a tight fit though.

I grabbed a pack of dust masks I use when I'm wood working. We'll look like the Japanese, wearing our dust masks everywhere we go, but it's our last line of defense. It might be worth considering finding a way to seal up our butts too, so the adult worms can't get in. Maybe we can just all wear really tight jeans with extra layers of underwear?

Anyway, we're headed out now that none of us can come up with any more defense strategies.
Entry 23: Day 11

We ran into a group of crazy people today. They weren't shooting at the Screamers, or anything like that. They were firing upon the military personnel. The military dudes could have fought back and killed every last one of them, but they had better things to do, like save the human race from the brink of annihilation. Plus Screamers came running at the sounds of the gunfire from the crazy people so the military booked it out of there before things got too intense.

We watched the nutty people while they mowed down the Screamers. We planned on giving them a wide berth but they saw us and as soon as the Screamers stopped coming, they drove over to greet us. I was pretty scared but Megan said she thought she recognized one of the guys. She said she used to work with him. We hoped she was right.

To make a long story short, they came over, said hi, and then explained why they were shooting at the military. It turns out that they believed that the military was responsible for the plague. They saw the food the military trucks were off-loading and so they assumed that it was tainted with a zombie virus or something.

They explained that it wouldn't be the first time the U.S. government has used its own citizens as guinea pigs. They mentioned contrails, and the Tuskegee syphilis experiments and a bunch of stuff I've never heard of. I know contrails are bullshit but they were right about the syphilis experiments that were performed on black people in America back in the thirties.

It doesn't matter what they believe because I know that nature is responsible for all of this. In the short amount of time I've spent researching parasitic worms I've come across numerous accounts of those little fuckers hijacking other species (like ants and snails and fish) the same way they're hijacking us right now. I didn't explain any of this to the crazy people because they were crazy and they were armed.

Megan gave the guy she knew a hug and then we all said goodbye. I was shaking from the ordeal. To me, being around those people was scarier than being around a Screamer because at least you know what a Screamer will do, so you can take measures to protect yourself.

About an hour later, the fucking military fired on us (every shot went wide so I guess they were warning shots to scare us off). At first we thought that maybe the crazy people were right about everything but after we made our escape and thought things through, we realized the military had probably mistaken us for the crazies and were simply defending themselves.

We went to the sporting goods store and Brad ran inside to get a soccer goal net so we'd have some way to ensnare Screamers to dose them with our cure. He came back with the net but he also had a brand new set of nunchucks. I didn't even bother arguing with him about it but Megan called him a dumbass.

That seemed to make his day.

He said the store had been gutted by looters so I guess we got lucky finding the net.

I have to say that as soon as we had everything we needed to start our mission, we couldn't for the life of us find a Screamer. We drove round and round, and all we saw were hillbillies, cops, and military personnel. Defeated, we gave up.

Before we headed back home, we saw all kinds of small planes flying overhead. At the time we couldn't figure out what they were doing, but once we put our heads together and let the theories percolate, we're pretty sure they're crop dusting, but instead of dusting plants with insecticides, they're dusting Screamers with wormicides. It's a theory but I hope it's true. It would explain why the news asked us to drop off all of our herbs and spices at the police station earlier.

If it's true, I hope it works.
Entry 24: Day 11

The news confirmed that our theory was right. It reported that the drinking water had also been dosed with wormicides so we should refrain from drinking it until they're sure the eggs are all dead. I turned the water main back on and then let my water run until it turned a pinkish hue. I can only assume that it was discolored from the spices.

I didn't see a single worm egg, but then again, they're small and the water wasn't clear.

The news said they can not confirm or deny that these measures will in fact work (they're just covering their cowardly asses again).

It'll work. Anyone who's tried it knows it. Brad just popped a champagne bottle open so I'm going to go ahead and get drunk tonight.

Sarah's already got her glass at the ready so tonight should be fun.
Entry 25: Day 12

We're staying indoors for the day because the news has asked us to. That's ok because we're all too hung over anyway.

The news reported that what's left of the spices has been redirected to some kind of funny looking truck. They showed a picture of it. It looks like an ambulance but it's been retrofitted with this fat hose that has a fan on the end of it. The hose will deliver the spices to any nearby Screamers, dousing them in the cure. So they must think that the crop dusting was effective so now they're just mopping up the ones that got away.

This is all good news. If I didn't feel so lousy, I'd celebrate again.

Sarah's still sleeping. She's healing up well enough. As soon as things get back to normal, she'll need to be examined by a doctor in case she has any internal damage, but that's not a big deal.

I nearly lost her, and now she's safe and sound. That is a big deal. That's a story I can tell my grandkids.
Entry 26: Day 12

Sarah thanked me profusely last night for saving her life. Because she was rolling drunk, things started to get physical but I had to put the breaks on because she's sustained a ton of bruising and tearing down there (I know it's crude to mention but this is my journal and it's private). I'd hate myself if I added to her misery in any way.

She acted all pouty when I rejected her advances but I bet she'll be thankful when she wakes up this morning.

I called my boss to see if he's alright and to see when I should plan on coming back to work. No one picked up so either he's dead or he ran away to a safer place. I hope he's alright though. He's a good guy.

I thought about leaving a message on his voice mail but then I considered how petty it would sound to be asking about work at a time like this.

Brad and Megan have been upstairs all morning, so I'm basically all alone down here watching the news.

Sarah just woke up so I'm signing off.
Entry 27: Day 12

I saw footage on the news of these guys in Hazmat suits with flamethrowers just destroying entire crops.

Don't fuck with humans you ugly fucking worms because in the end we will take the fight to you and we fight to win.

They're still slaughtering and burning all the cows It's unfair because they have as much to do with the scourge as we do; they're just incubators or whatever. Oh well, it's got to be done I guess. Thankfully I'm not a farmer or I'd be pissed about it.

I might have to start a garden to grow some of the spices we used in our cure because I just went online and a small bottle of wormwood extract is selling for as much as two hundred bucks right now. There are opportunists everywhere, even in times of tragedy.

I haven't heard a Screamer or a gunshot all afternoon.
Entry 28: Day 12

Megan and Sarah went upstairs tonight and scrounged up some bread. They microwaved the bread as well as some peanut butter and jelly, and then we ate like kings of the new world. It's the first real solid food any of us have had in a long time (well, we don't know what Sarah's had to eat, but I don't want to think about that).

Sarah seems ok. Once in a while I catch her just staring off into space but the truth is that I can't remember if she's always done that or if it's a side effect of what happened to her.

She didn't eat much of her sandwich. She told me afterwards that it's because her guts still hurt.

Out of the clear blue, Brad said, "I think those worms are what killed off the Neanderthals. Shit, they might've killed the dinosaurs too."

We all ignored him.

The news has requested that we remain indoors tomorrow, but I think we're getting stir crazy in here, plus we know they're just being overly cautious.

We all agreed to talk about it more in the morning.

Entry 29: Day 13

The world outside was still and silent today. It was like the calm after the storm.

We were nervous at first but we didn't see a single Screamer all day. We heard distant gunshots at one point but that could have been anything. It was probably hillbillies having one last hurrah before their fun gets shut down for good. Maybe it was the conspiracy theorists firing on the military again? None of us believed it was Screamer related; the atmosphere was too serene for that.

We all took a large dose of the cure before we set out to make our bodies as inhospitable to the worms as possible. In the end though, it turned out we'd over prepared.

We saw two dead worms. One had been stomped to a pulp. The other one was coated in a thick sludge; the cure. Brad ran it over even though it was clearly already dead. None of us tried to stop him.

The unfortunate side effect of the crop dusting is that it seems like it came about too late for some people. We saw a ton of lifeless bodies all over the place. In most cases there was a slime trail leading away from their ruptured asses. We went off to follow the slime trails three different times but the trails all dried up after about thirty feet so there's no way to know where the worms went. That scares the shit out of me.

Because we didn't see much of anything during our rounds, we basically got bored and headed back home. Brad said he'd be taking off back to his place in the morning and Megan said she might head out tonight if everything is still safe by then. Brad got a hang dog look but she whispered something to him that seemed to brighten his mood.

I hope they stay together after this is finally behind us but you never know; it could just be a fling of convenience. For Brad's sake I hope I'm wrong.
Entry 30: Day 13

I guess the water department must have found some eggs or larvae left alive in the treated water because they've shut down all water supplies for the time being.

We managed to fill a couple of buckets up with what was left in the pipes and we nuked it to kill anything in it that might have been alive. I have one of those water filtration jugs in the fridge and we're filtering it all as I write. We even considered siphoning off the toilet water but we decided against it because of the yuck factor. I hope we don't regret our decision down the road.

Sarah said to stay away from salty foods to keep our water intake down to a minimum. She said salty foods make you thirsty. I trust her. She knows a lot about food.

It turns out that we were the guinea pigs for wormicide crop dusting, and based on the results, the government is doing the same thing all over the country. It's nice to be a guinea pig when the experiment is a success.

Megan said her goodbyes to me and Sarah and then left for home. Brad went with her. That's a good sign I suppose.

It's weird being left alone with Sarah all night. Just a few nights ago she wanted to eat me alive and now she looks like an angel, softly snoring in front of the TV.

I forgot to mention that when this is all over, we'll have to contact our homeowners insurance because the upstairs is a disaster. Screamers destroyed my house. The windows are all busted, the furniture is upended and ripped or otherwise broken. There are holes in the walls with blood running from them. In fact, anything even remotely salvageable will still need to be hosed down just to get the blood smears off. The carpet's going to have to come up too.

What's funny though is that my bedroom is intact. I left the door closed and those morons weren't able to figure out how to get in. The door is cracked so it'll need to be replaced but otherwise, the room's good.

I'm not going to get my hopes up about insurance coming through though. Too many people will be making claims all at once. It could take years to get our money if it comes through at all so it's probably better if I just call it a write-off and move on.

I'm actually more worried about simple shit like, how will we eat if the government destroys all of our food? Will the worms make a come back? Is Sarah going to be alright? Are the people I know still alive?

I just read an article online about something called the Z-cult. It was a cult whose members all wanted to become infected. They thought it would turn them into mythical zombies. I don't know why anyone would want that, but maybe they'd romanticized it or something.

The cult operated in Atlanta and it was comprised of around fifteen young men, all in their late teens and early twenties. There was a video link at the bottom of the page and I wish my curiosity hadn't compelled me to click it because it was gruesome. On the video, all the men walked out into the middle of a road and then they started to yell at the tops of their voices. Within a minute, their voices were drowned out by Screamers.

Screamers showed up one by one and took out all of the guys. But it backfired because the Screamers didn't bite them, the Screamers ate them.

The person holding the camera must have realized the folly of their plan because he took off running. Then the camera hit the ground and there was a loud yell from the cameraman. Screams got closer as the Screamers pounced on him. I shut the video off by that point.

What a bunch of dumbasses.

Good night.
Entry 31: Day 14

Things are slowly renormalizing. I had an agenda for the day and it was this: Go back to that grocery store and burn it to the ground. The agenda was necessary for two reasons:

One: Screamers had contaminated the food with their puke (laced with eggs, no doubt).

Two: That rapist with the cling wrap who shot at me and Brad is the manager of that grocery store.

I was too late though. I can only guess that those Hazmat suit guys with the flamethrowers (that I'd seen on TV) beat me to it because it was a smoldering pile of rubble by the time Sarah and I got there. We hit a couple of other nearby stores and they were the same way, burnt to the ground.

We saw a bunch of normal people outside today too. Some of them looked shocked, while others just seemed confused. I'm guessing that none of them have left the safety of their homes all week. That's a good thing. That's why they're alive today.

Some Red Cross trucks came through and dropped off bottled water and some snacks for us. That was nice.

I also came across my friendly neighborhood grocer. He wasn't raping anyone this time though. He was stocking up on water, begging people to sell theirs to him. He locked eyes with mine, and he must have recognized me because his face flushed and his eyes started to well up. I approached him and thrust a bottle of water in his hands. I told him that I had looted his store and that the water was partial payment for what I'd done. Then I said in my most ominous voice, "We'll all pay for what we've done."

He couldn't look me in the eye. He turned away and left.

I shouldn't be writing this down but I'm tempted to find out where he lives and do something terrible to him. But it's just a fantasy. I saw the worst of humanity and I'm still able to hold my head high because I didn't stoop to what others stooped to.

That shamed grocer is probably upset that the apocalypse has been averted. How's he going to get away with rape now? Anyway, I reported him to the police, and I gave a statement. I called Brad and he agreed to give a back-up statement too so hopefully the guy will go to prison for it. Then again, who knows how things will be from now on. Maybe everyone will be exonerated for their crimes.

I know the cop I gave my statement to over the phone didn't care about the rape. He probably thought I was being petty, or otherwise wasting his time. On the other hand, maybe he'd been fighting monsters for a week and a half so he had no room left in his heart for indignation.

I shouldn't be making excuses for the cop. A lot of really bad things had happened in a short span, but rape is rape, no matter how bad things get.

My hands are clean, but not everyone can say the same.

Finally, we saw a heavily guarded Hazmat truck at the center of a convoy, leaving the city. I think I'm right to suppose that it had samples of worms and eggs and larvae inside. Why else would it have been under so much protection? It's only a matter of time before the powers that be decide to weaponize it and unleash it on our enemies.

I don't know for sure, and I really don't care. As long as the people I care for are safe, that's all that matters to me.

I believe the worms will make a comeback at some point in the future. I just hope they give us enough time to heal before they do.

THE END

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