Well… Shit.
I was really hoping to end February on
a high note. Before we begin, we are all safe and whole. We haven’t lost
anyone. That is the good news.
Now for the bad news. I have theorized
about it but we never actually witnessed it until yesterday. A massive undead
horde just shambled past the store. I mean massive. Words cannot properly
convey the size of this group we are talking about. It must have been tens of
thousands.
This is my speculation on how this
whole thing shakes out. Let’s take a city like Dallas, TX. Probably a
population of over a million people. And that is not counting Irving, Plano,
Arlington, Ft. Worth and all those surrounding areas. Let’s say that whole city
falls and half the population die in such a way that they can be turned into
zoms. So, now we’ve got 500K. Half of that population is outside and mobile.
250K.
Somewhere amongst this group is an
Alpha Male. Using his alpha powers of perception, he knows that the meat is all
used up in the city. There is not a living being left to be found. So, he gets
a bug up his butt and just makes the decision, “You know what? I am heading
north.” And he just starts walking up Highway 75, which becomes Highway 69, and
lead you up to Adair, OK.
(I have not been north enough to
properly speculate on this scenario but, if it helps you, swap out Dallas for
somewhere like Kansas City or St. Louis.)
So this shambling alpha is moving like
he has a purpose. The other zoms see it and start shambling with him. I imagine
this is like an avalanche. The farther it goes the bigger it gets. A dozen
zombies all moving in the same direction might not kick up much of a fuss in an
entire city’s population. But as more and more join the cause, more and more
are likely to join the cause.
The horde comes rolling through Adair.
They are growling and hungry. Zoms in Adair, with no other stimulation or
reason to stay, rise up and join the horde as well. I think this is how you could have entire
small towns cleaned out.
Now, let’s say that this theory is
correct. Well, at some point, one of these massive hordes has to come rolling
past. We would have to see one eventually. And we finally did yesterday. We
heard them coming and smelled them coming first. Lance and Hunter were up on
the roof and called everyone up to see it.
Now, he did not try to call attention
to ourselves. We still have the “Bobs” staked out there. We cannot tell if they
slowed down for them at all. The horde came down Hwy 82 and then turned east on
Hwy 28. I cannot tell you why they turned instead of continuing south but they
did.
Even if we brought our entire supply
of ammo up to the roof, I don’t think we could have snipered the whole horde. I
could not imagine coming across a group like this on the road. Unless you were
in a steamroller, a tank, or an armored car, I don’t think any car would hold
up to this. If you drive so slow that you don’t get high centered on a pack of
zom bodies, there would be so many assaulting the windows and the rear of the
vehicle, eventually, you are going to get overtaken.
Despite the Bobs and the distance,
there were a few of these things that turned in our direction and worked to
breach the perimeter. We used the silencers to drop them fast. They did not
kick up enough of a fuss to turn the horde and bring the rest of them down on
us but it was enough to generate genuine concern.
Thankfully, they moved on down the
road with minimal incident. But a horde that size, I could see them
overwhelming the defenses of a single house. Thankfully, we are protected more
than most. I don’t know what we would do if we met them on the open road. This
is why you cannot drive at speed of 90 mph up over a hill.
Your only hope would be to turn around
and outrun them. But these shambling hordes are very real. You have been
warned.
