To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Ryan
Mathews. If you are reading this… and I don’t know if anyone even is… but if
you are reading this then that means you are a survivor. What I have witnessed
over the last few days defies belief. I don’t know if I have the writing skills
to even put a proper face on this whole tragedy. Tragedy is not even a strong
enough word. This is… Well, there is no other way to say this… This is the end
of the world.
Most people follow up
a statement like that with some tired cliché like “and we have a ring side
seat.” But to say that means you’re not involved. You’re on the outside looking
in. Unfortunately, we’re smack dab in the middle of the ring. For some reason,
we have been picked up and dropped in the meat grinder. What you are about to
read… Well, I can scarcely believe I am even writing this…
This is being written
on Wednesday, May 1st, 2013. Near as we can tell, at least for our
region of the country – maybe even the world – this is Day 3 of the viral
outbreak that could very well be labeled as a pandemic. I have seen this
atrocity first hand and this is my eye witness account of what I am
experiencing coupled with the accounts of the people that I am currently
surviving with.
We are in the town of
Langley, Oklahoma at the intersection of Highways 28 & 82. Langley is about
an hour drive north and east of Tulsa by way of the Will Rogers Turnpike. It is
what they call the “Gateway to Grand Lake.” Population is around 700 and is a
popular vacation retreat for the rich people of Tulsa. Or at least… it was.
As of right now, we
have 22 survivors barricaded ourselves within the Reason’s Foods grocery store.
This is almost too impossible to even write out. We’ve all seen movies or heard
the horror stories and now we’re in one. We are in the middle of what I can
only describe as the apocalypse. The dead have risen. We have seen this
reanimation process happen personally. And given what are shambling outside,
the only thing we can say is that we are besieged by ZOMBIES. This is the Zombie Apocalypse and this is the story of our
survival.
I don’t even know if
“zombie” is the right term. I don’t really even know the origin of that word.
But these creatures that were once human beings – my coworkers and friends –
they are now the walking dead whose sole purpose seems to be feasting on flesh.
We don’t really know what else to call them but zombie seems pretty darn
accurate.
Thankfully our
internet has remained connected and I am broadcasting this blog via my laptop
computer. Twitter has crashed. Facebook is gone. Google only works about 25% of
the time. And I don’t know how long this domain host will remain active. But as
long as it does and as long as I can transmit, I will do my best to chronicle
our story.
Which brings me to
you. If you are reading this, then you have survived as well. Hopefully you can
learn what has worked for us and maybe by reading this, we can extend your life
expectancy. I wish you the best of luck. I truly do. And if no one is reading
this, consider this a record of what happened to be discovered some time years
from now. Maybe future generations, if there are any, will use this as a
history lesson. But I can hardly tell how a produce clerk from Adair, Oklahoma
is qualified to record the end of the world…
If you are reading
this, God be with you. God be with all of us.
More to follow…
