Welcome To Strange: Scorched Earth.

 

Sunday, March 12th, 2084. 10:00 AM, Outskirts of Parkview. 

We hid up on a rise at the southeastern corner of Parkview, we stopped to take stock of our supplies, food and water, we were still in good shape, but we were down to a little over half a tank in the main fuel cell, so we needed to survey the area. We were all out in front of the truck scanning the scene below as it played out like some sick, bloody, twisted opera. It was crawling with stiffs, swarming mindlessly, like angry locusts, over anything that moved. The thing about zombies, the truly disturbing thing, is that when you look at them, when you truly look at them, at least in my case, I couldn't help but wonder who they once were. They were human once, not so long ago, they were someone who mattered, to other people, son's, wives, daughters, fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers. They had lives once, families, hopes and dreams, lives enriched by both love and fear. Now they were just an unfortunate side effect, of a disease that had only served to destroy a once vibrant world, and had left it a shattered dead and dying shell of its former self. Welcome one, welcome all, to the new normal, to the age of the undead. Scotched earth, where all that there is left to live for is one more day amongst the living.

The numbers we watched below were growing at an alarming rate, when we first got there, if I had to guess, I would have to say that there were probably 75 stiffs stumbling around down there, in the short amount of time that we'd spent watching them, their number's doubled, down the street there were even more, sure, we could have rolled up and shot the shit out of them, but we would have run out of ammo before they ran out of stiffs, and the numbers would have won, again. After checking the map, there was a little place just past Parkview where we might be able to score some gas a little more freely and quite possibly easier than to attempt a run at Parkview. There was a dirt road running along the treeline on the ridge above us, if it wasn't too rough we could bypass Parkview completely without losing much time. We got back in the truck and as quietly as possible turned around and made our way slowly to the dirt road, up one rut and down another We slowly made our way around Parkview, an hour or so later the dirt road took a turn downward toward highway 40, and we were back on pavement heading to the small town of Calico. 

We pulled into the deserted convenience store/gas station just outside of Calico around 3:00 PM, the skies were getting cloudy, and it began to feel like rain was coming. There were four abandoned vehicles and I grabbed the siphon pump and two 10 gallon gas cans and began checking the cars for gas, as it turned out one truck had almost a full tank after 3 trips I siphoned it dry, Ashley and Henry made their way inside the store to see if they could find anything useful, within seconds they found themselves engaged with five stiffs, Two tried to swarm Ashley, but she got off two rounds and shot them both in the head before her and Henry made a break for the door, but the last three stiffs were hot on their heels, Henry ended up with a baseball bat and just outside the front door by the gas pumps he swung at the lead stiffs head and the barrel of the bat landed with a wet thumping sound as he splattered its head all over the wall. I took the last two out with headshots with the Desert Eagle, we went back into the store, Ashley found ten, one gallon jugs of water, we got six boxes of ibuprofen, and a couple of plastic jars of teriyaki sticks, and eight rolls of paper towels. We counted our blessings and got back in the truck and headed for the New Mexico border, we would be there before nightfall.

By the time we hit Bixby, New Mexico just across the border, the clouds opened up, and we found ourselves in a downpour. Bixby, New Mexico, just a bump in the road, with a few old buildings and some overturned cars and dead bodies on each side of the road, I found myself holding my breath ever so slightly, almost relieved that nothing was moving. Welcome to New Mexico, The Land of Enchantment. It didn't look too enchanting to me, to me, it looked deserted. Empty fields, stretched out for miles in every direction, I looked over at Ashley, her eyes staring blankly out of the passenger window, at miles and miles of nothing, Henry slept peacefully in the back, the wind began picking up, and I could feel it pushing slightly at the front of The GMC. Four more miles down the road we found a gas station with an empty garage I pulled up in front of it and checking behind for stiffs, I slowly backed the truck into it, I got out and pulled down the overhead door and stuck a bolt through the lock hasp to keep out unwanted guests. I entered the office through the side door and secured the front door as well, Ashley appeared in the doorway behind me.

"No back door?" she asked. 

"No, it doesn't appear so." I answered. "This is a solid brick building, The storm is going to get bad, the wind is really picking up, but we should be okay in here." I told her.

We slept through the night without incident, but just at the break of dawn, Ashley nudged me awake, she had gone to use the office restroom, and when she came back out, over the top of the dunes across the highway she had seen a lot of movement, heading toward us. I started the truck and kicked the bolt out of the hasp lock and raised the door, they were still a good 55 or 60 yards across the highway up on the hill, the wind was giving them trouble, as I pulled out onto highway 40 two stiffs wandered out in front of us, their bodies made a wet, crunchy, thumping noise as they bounced off of the brush guard. I hit the gas and didn't look behind me, twenty more miles down the road we passed by yet another abandoned gas station, Ashley and Henry watched the door for stiff while I scavenged for whatever tools and such we could use to keep us on the road. There was an enclosed metal cage still locked, it had slates in between the chain link fencing so you couldn't see what was inside. there were four heavy locks securing the door. 

~Scratch. A.B.T. Copyright © 2025~