SURVIVOR'S JOURNAL

CHAPTER 14 - Zombie Watch and Enemy Lookout

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A YEAR AGO BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE

It was another day after another few months later in the zombie-infested apocalyptic city for the lone survivor inside the abandoned apartment building.

Eden was on the rooftop that very day and she is on the lookout for any zombies or living enemies that might be out there wandering and roaming the seemingly-empty streets.

She looked around through her binoculars with sharp senses and made sure that she didn't miss anything even under the hot sunlight blazing over her.

She is becoming more vigilant than usual, and the reasons are visibly physical she had sported recent and new bandaged wounds and injuries on her person which wasn't there before. She had a slightly bleeding scratch on her neck, a half-darkening black right eye, three bandages wrapped on her upper arm, her right wrist, and lastly, around her left lower leg.

When she didn't seem to spot or see anything yet she put down her binoculars on the small table beside her chair and reached for her journal and wrote another entry on it to put on record what she was doing now and what had happened before and how she had gotten those injuries.

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JOURNAL ENTRY: DAY UNKNOWN, 8TH MONTH AUGUST, YEAR 2XXX

It's been three months now, and the greenhouse is growing good budding plants in its first batch and the water and storage units are halfway full in their rooms, while the bath-house is kept clean and good for cleaning use.

Despite all of that, and not to mention how it's been a little depressing and lonely for me after spending almost about 9 months of my stay in this apocalyptic city all alone, I had to make do with what I had and how long I'm planning to stay until I'm brave enough to venture out beyond the outside world from the city.

Nevertheless, it's better that I stay here for the time being while I make plans and preparations on what I needed to do, so for now, I just have to keep on surviving and staying alive until in the future when things might change or something might happen for me to plan to leave.

Right now, the only thing I need to do, besides doing basic house chores and daily necessities, such as maintaining healthy exercise and diet, training to fight and defend myself well, and other tasks, is also doing the important post of the zombie watch and enemy look-out.

Such as these survival rules, written and listed down for me, are RULE #7: Maintain good exercise, especially cardio.

RULE #12: Stand your ground and observe.

And RULE #15: Be prepared for anything.

You're probably wondering what I've gone through that I needed to look out for hostile enemies as well.

It had happened before during my supply runs. I had also gained some injuries for that and they're healing well from the treatment I've done for myself, albeit I'm not that very good as a self-doctor.

What had happened was that I had come across living survivors that had gone into the city to try to look for more supplies just like me, except these kinds of people are hostile.

The time when I had the injury on my lower leg was that I had almost encountered a group of men who were all sick in the head and loved to torment any women they come across--and I mean 'physically'. I almost sprained my ankle trying to outrun a far away distance from them before they could spot me. It had me hide out in my haven for almost more than a week before I had the courage enough to venture out again.

The next time when I had the slight scratch on my neck, is when I went to a supply run, I encountered another group kind of hostile survivors, only they made the mistake of angering a pack of Alphas when they tried to brave into one of their nests and wipe them out.

A few of the Alphas had noticed me even when I was hiding and I obtained the scratch when I escaped by squeezing through a slightly tight open hole of a metal barred fence and got myself wounded from the sharp edges. The Alphas couldn't be able to catch me because of that fence and I managed to flee and outrun them back to my place.

That made me vow to myself to be extra vigilant and careful to be on guard and look out for both enemies of the undead and the hostile living.

That is included in the list, which is RULE #5: Always know your way out.

Now, lastly, the injuries I had to my arm and my black eye, is that I had encountered one lone survivor like me, trying to find food in one of the abandoned food stores and I had thought that he was a decent kind.

But I was instantly fooled when I lowered down my guard and almost led him to my hide-out when a herd of Omegas spotted the two of us from a short distance away and then he hit me, trying to knock me out, and sliced my arm with a hidden blade he had to attract the zombies at me while he made a run for it.

I cursed myself for being deceived and managed to escape from the Omegas again, and I made another vow to myself to never trust another survivor at first glance, even if there is only one and alone. I have to be careful again and make a plan into fooling any survivor I come across to reveal their true nature.

In which I listed and made up the rules, RULE #23: Be cautious of anything, even yourself.

RULE #25: Be wary of anything, even your own shadow.

RULE #33: Always assess every situation, either good or bad.

The injuries I had, including my black eye, weren't serious. But after what I've been through in those three incidents, I promised myself to be very careful and super-vigilant in the case in the future I come across any more of these hostile dangers. Both the non-living and the living.

After making up these rules, from my experiences through these incidents, including these added to the survivor list which are 'Rule # 21: Any hostile in range, hide for three days,' and 'Rule # 13: Spot anything or anyone, watch, observe and evaluate first.'

These are some of the rules I had thought of, made up, and listed down and they have worked for me so far, during my stay here in the Safe Haven and during the supply runs in the city.

Granted, I know that there are a few similarities among these rules that I have listed and written in my journal, but it helps me remember them all and be reminded of them, to ensure my safety and survival.

That's everything that happened, and the time passed so fast that I'm surprised it was already late, so I'll stop right there and then go to sleep and rest for another day.

And I know very well that this is going to be the kind of routine I'm going through, staying here in this apocalyptic city, but I'm used to it and besides, it's not so depressing and lonely since I have my journal as an outlet for everything I'm going through, trying to stay alive and survive in this new life.

This is Eden, signing off and still staying alive and surviving.

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Eden sighed as she stopped and finished writing another entry and did another sweep to watch out for anything out of place or unusual like more dangers that might be hidden from her sight.

But so far she still didn't see anything yet which is fortunate for her in her sanctuary and she left her lookout perch and went straight to her tent to sleep and rest.

Eden had wondered to herself as she lay down on the bed of a sleeping bag how long she might be able to keep on surviving in the city and stay alive until the time comes when she made her plans and preparations to leave the city.

Little did she know that it will take a long time for her, for the lone survivor to be brave enough to dare to try venture out into the beyond of the zombie-apocalyptic world.

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