Back in the second week, I did an
entry called “Enemy at the Gates.” For all I know, if you are reading this,
then maybe this apocalypse hasn’t reached you yet. Maybe society hasn’t
degenerated around you. If it hasn’t, I envy you. But don’t kid yourself. Judgment Day is shuffling and staggering
towards you on decomposing limbs. It may be slow and stumbling but it is also
relentless. It is not a question of if
it will reach you but when it will
reach you.
For that reason, I am going to begin
posting (I think weekly) information about the zoms that we have learned. This
will be through our own personal observations. Nothing in these reports will be
false but not all of them may turn out to be true. None of us are rocket
scientists here and we are in a grocery store not a science lab.
We have no clue where this nightmare
started from. We may never know. But it is here now and spreading amongst the
living. We saw this first hand with Diane Dunham, the shopping customer that
suffered a defensive wound on her arm.
Diane was bitten on the back of her
forearm while trying to defend herself and she was one of the few customers
that made it back into the store before the lockdown. I try not to think about
the others that were trapped outside. But it was not like we had a mass of
people bang at the doors while the undead horde shambled towards them and we
had to watch as they died at our doorstep. You know what? Let’s just move on.
This is about the timetable.
Now, Diane had a clear bite and we saw
the visible fingernail punctures. So, the movies appear to have it right. Whatever
this thing is, it appears to be transferred via bodily fluids, bites and maybe
scratches. You get bit, you have it. If you come into contact with tainted
fluids, like in your eyes, your mouth, an open wound, etc. there is a pretty
good chance you will contract the disease. I would treat any zombie blood as
toxic. So if you are forced to engage in combat with them, before you do, check
your cuts, open wounds, and getting any zom fluid in your eyes or mouth. I
guess treat it like AIDS.
The other thing is that it was like Diane
was hit with a double dose of anticoagulant. The bleeding from the wound is
absolutely tremendous. Despite bandaging and apply all sorts of antiseptics,
the wound just continued to bleed.
Back during Zero Hour, I watched a
woman trapped in a van get taken down by a pack of these things. If it seems
like dying from a few bites seems unrealistic, think about what a hungry man
can do to a steak even without utensils. Combine that with five of these things
chomping furiously on you, a few doses of the anticoagulant that they give you,
and a major artery. Add all that together and you have a deadly combination…
Diane just received one bite and we
went through a small package of diapers trying to staunch this wound. The
incubation time seemed to be only a matter of minutes. She started complaining
almost immediately of nausea and stomach pain.
After an hour, she was suffering from
cold sweats, pain, and muscle stiffness. Approximately 12 hours into being bit, we saw
the wound turn necrotic and the veins surrounding the bite turned purple and
sickly. Then there was the massive fever spike. And when I mean massive, I mean
massive. It was like her skin was on fire.
After 24 hours, she seemed to swing
back and forth between bouts of dementia and hostility. When she was in her
right mind, she would snap angrily at simple questions. She grew increasingly
irritable even when people were trying to help. Her temp elevated from
103-degrees to 106. Then 108.
When the fever was starting to hit
record spikes, she was really out of it. We tried to give her the strongest
pain medication and fever reducers we had in stock in the pharmacy. She would
moan and writhe about in pain but after I would say 24 hours, there was no
getting up and moving around. We even tried packing her down with ice from the
ice machines up front. Nothing seemed to help.
Approximately 36 hours in, she had one
really bad convulsion and then slipped into a coma. I mean, I guess you call it
a coma. I am not a doctor. But she was completely unresponsive. She was still
breathing but there was no response to questions. I mean she was gone.
Then 48 hours in, her body shut down
from the virus and that was it. She was gone. She was completely still and
silent for about ten minutes and then she started twitching and her eyes opened
back up. But that moment was not like a horror movie at all. After seeing what
was happening outside, Lance took her out the second she came back to life. No
hesitation. No questions. Boom. And it was over.
So in conclusion, 48 hours and that
was it. I think because we were offering her medication and such, I think we
might have slowed the process but nothing – and I mean nothing – seemed to
work. Healthy people with a heavy dose of drugs may be able to ward it off
longer but I am willing to bet that if your immune system is compromised, you
are stressed out, extremely old, or something along those lines, the virus
burns through your system pretty fast and death is pretty quick.
Regardless, two days and you are done.
Whatever this thing is… How did something like this happen?
