2/21

Hello friend.

We made it to Tom’s apartment. I wish that I could tell you Jules and he were reunited and that at this very moment we are on our way to salvation and happy as all fuck.

But that would be a lie and I will never lie to you.

We got to the apartment but there was no way to access the building. Someone crashed a bus directly in to the revolving front lobby doors. Luckily (or more accurately, unluckily) we were able to gain access by using the fire escape. It seems there is no where in this city that death has not covered. As we climbed up the rusty fire escape I noticed the horror all around us. A foot here, a hand there. How many people had died trying to get up this thing? How many people just jumped off rather than be eaten alive?

When we reached Toms floor it was evident that Jules was losing it. All of the doors where either completely off the hinges or there where bloody holes about the size of a fist. It was apparent to me what had happened here. I knew in the pit of my stomach that we would only find death in the building.

By now we all know to speak in hushed tones. Daylight or not, there are simply too many of them. But the sight of this war zone of a hallway where Jules and Tom had spent and ended so many days and evenings together was too much for her. As soon as we got through the window Jules started screaming on top of her lungs for Tom. As if she believed that he would come out from behind his fractured damage doorway holding flowers and chocolates. I can’t blame the girl, it actually does sound kind of nice… if you’re onto that sort of thing.

I tried to cover her mouth but maybe I was going crazy too. Maybe I wanted her to run for the door and prove it to me and Aiden. Prove to us that where we had doubted her we were wrong and that maybe there was hope after all.

But there wasn’t hope after all.

I don’t know if it was the volume of her voice that awoke whatever was stirring in Toms apartment but as soon as she made for the door it lunged after her. Jules jumped back against the wall and attempted to duck away from it but how could any of us hope to be faster or stronger than one of them? We have no will to fight, they seem to only think about consuming us.

Aiden and I stood frozen as we watched it sink its teeth into her right shoulder. Her scream broke Aiden from a trance and he finally swung his heavy bat at the back of its head.

“GO, NOW!” He screamed while nudging his head towards dead(?) Toms apartment.

I had no problem listening to this and grabbed Jules’s wrist and ran into the apartment. I looked left and right and realized I had no idea where to go. I grabbed Jules and said “where is safe?”

I know Im this is going to sound insensitive but… I was kind fo pressed for time and she is just standing there bleeding. I could hear Aiden struggeling in the hallway and it brings out a mortal terror from inside me.

“WHERE THE FUCK DO WE GO.” I screamed at her.

This snaps her back to reality and she realizes that whatever fantasy she dreamer up that was going to happen when we arrived here at her boyfriends apartment has not transpired and now we are all seconds and one wrong decision away from having the flesh peeled from our bones.

In a flash Jules pulled my arm and began dragging me frantically down the hall and into what I assumed was Tom’s bedroom. We barricaded the door and waited. Jules was disoriented and trying to stop the bleeding with a garment laying by the bed. I stood infront of the door waiting.

I heared the struggle. The grunts and I could hear Aiden screaming. I started to cry. Is there really any way Aiden is going to be able to over power the thing outside? Is this where I was going to die? In dead(?) Tom’s bedroom?

Like an answered prayer after a long silence Aiden speaks to us from behind the door. I felt like my heart had stopped beating and began racing all at once . When he peeked his head into the door I ripped it open and began squeezing him tighter to me than anyone in my entire life.

The Scary thing? He was hugging me even tighter.

Afterwards we dressed Jules wound and Aiden and I barricaded the front door. He and I don’t want to say anything but every zombie movie we have come across is telling us that Jules is minutes away from turning into ‘one of them’. But she seems fine and is convinced since we have not found Tom’s body he is still alive somewhere.

While Jules sleeps in Tom’s bedroom, sobbing into his old t shirts, I prepare cans of Chef Boyarde on the first working stove we have come across in days.

I asked him how he killed it and he said he tried hitting it in the head but when it kept struggeling he managed to push it onto the open elivator shaft. After it fell more than 10 floors Aiden said he was pretty sure it was still twitching.

I still don’t understand how he did it. Or why. He doesn’t really know anything about me other than the fact that I worked in Manhattan and was taking the train to Hoboken.

When I said thanks for saving my life he just laughed and said “how else was I ever going to take you to dinner.”

My name is Ruby. I am here and I am listening.

9/20

This is what a post apocalyptic NY looks like at night.

Its weird that only a few weeks ago I remember being crammed along Times Square waiting for the ball to drop. Boy did it.

Since yesterday we have made progress towards Tom’s (Jules BF) home in the Upper West Side. I don’t know exactly what she plans to find in his apartment but it is important to her. I wonder what it must be like to have attachments like that to worry about. All I have really is, you. Whoever you are reading this. You are the only person I am worried about and/or anxious to meet. Proof that everything has not gone to total shit.

Bellow is a picture of the map Aiden was able to rip out of a brochure the tourists use to carry around here.

As you can see, we have not thought very far ahead. Much in the way Aiden and I are unsure of why Jules is so adamant about seeing Toms vacant apartment I am sure he doesn’t understand why I am so adamant about getting to my own. I told them it was because I have a car with a full tank of gas. I’m praying that is true. How do I know that someone didn’t break into my garage and steal the damn thing? Or leave it there and siphon out the gas? I guess I could ask YOU to check for me but I would have no way of knowing if you did or not, so around in circles we would go.

Since yesterday we have managed to pick up a few extra weapons. I have picked up a baton out of a police car we found parked down time square. Coming across a car without broken windows, flat tires, or one that is not covered in blood is a rare find. I have, up until the end of the world, always been a law abiding citizen so just for the record Officer Alvarez, if I run into you sometime during the end of the world I will return the baton to you so please don’t arrest me.

Aiden wasted about one hour of our time trying to open the police car trunk. He insisted that there are always shotguns in the trunks of a police car. But when he finally managed to pry it open it was empty. In my mind I pictured how the events played out.

Deputy Alvarez was probably on patrol when all the shit hit the fan. In an attempt to try and protect himself and the others around him he ran to the back of the car and picked up his shotgun. I wonder how that worked out for him.

They don’t seem to be able to see very well during the day. But at just around dusk they start to move with the aggressiveness and purpose of a hungry lion. Nighttime is when I am sure there are others out there like us, other survivors, because we can all here them. The screams. Are they your screams friend? I pray they are not. I pray that you and yours are safe, or as safe as you can be like we have managed to be.

At night Aiden will say we are some of the ‘lucky’ ones. I don’t know how true that is. Jules just keeps looking at her cell phone hoping it will ring. I think we are all hoping our cell phones will ring.

I don’t have much time. I can hear the mad shuffle beginning out on the streets below.

My name is Ruby. I am here, and I am listening.

2/19/2013 NY

If you are reading this then you are one of the survivors of the NY outbreak that occured January 1 or in some other unaffected part of the world. I pray that there are parts of the world out there that are still normal. Cities somewhere that have streets filled with cars instead of bodies and monsters.

There are 3 of us myself included.

Aiden; Jules; and myself were all on the subway coming home from work when the train exploded. I don’t mean a fiery explosion I mean the explosion of panic that errupted when one of them ran onto the train. The thing looked human but the way it attacked was more like a rabid dog. He lunged at the first woman he could grab and began biting and ripping her apart.

A few passengers tried to fight him off but he was much stronger than he looked and quickly we all learned that nothing was going to break him away from her. Five more of them piled onto the train. Blood and screams were all around us. It felt like we were trapped on the train for an eternity. As soon as the train stopped the three of us ran out. I didn’t realize they were even behind me until we got out onto the street. Maybe we would’ve been better off staying on the train…

We have been traveling for days. Mostly during the day. It is too dangerous to go out at night as you already know. They are faster at night and they seem to have better vision. We have been fortunate enough to have found buildings in the city to provide some form of shelter after dark. I want to try to get back to my house in Hoboken but the route across the Hudson River seems impossible. In the begining all we heard was people trying to cross and being eaten by those things. But we have not heard anything from anyone in a long time. If we can make it there we can get my car. Its not exactly new but it would sure beat walking.

I know Jules wants to go to her boyfriend Tom’s place first. I don’t have the heart to tell her that he is probably dead. Before everything went dark I was able to read some reports on facebook and twitter. But eventually fewer and fewer people kept tweeting… and then everybody stopped. Regardless of his vital status that is where we are headed right now. So far we have not had any encounters with these things one on one which is good because although Aiden seems to think he can do a lot of damage with this bat he has been carrying around I would rather not run into them at all.

They go out in hunting parties. Usually in groups of 4-6. They are rotten and you can smell them comming. Jules and Aiden insist they are zombies but that cant be it. Zombies don’t exist.

I have a camera on my phone but I have not been able to snap a good picture of one of them yet. Aiden… he thinks I’m crazy but if we are the last people on the Earth we have an obligation to document this thing dont we?

If you’re out there… My name is Ruby. I am here and I am listening.