Project Dyszombie – Journal Entries

This file was found rummaging through the ruins of a cottage in a place called Camp Meeker, California. It appears to have been written by a woman whose family was succumbing to aerial DZ over the space of 2 weeks. The descent into the condition is fairly typical of other such journals, where the compulsion to keep a journal, and other sorts of compulsive behaviors, survived the earliest stages of the transformation. -ed

By William “Doc” Stodden

Tuesday

We lost mom today. Well- I shouldn’t say we lost her per se. She is still very much here, but just sort of, not. We thought we could escape it by getting out of the city and keeping her busy, and we’ve been making a go of it up here for a while. But she’s been getting worse for a while and this morning, she just got up and went outside. Didn’t say anything to anyone, just went outside and stood in the sun for a while.

The weirdest thing is, she still gardens… I don’t quite understand this. Since we’ve been up here, Mom has spent a little time each day in her little flower bed, and then spends some more time in her vegetable garden, pulling weeds.

But for the most part, she is not responsive, and when she looks at you, you know she is just gone. The doctors said this would happen- Alzheimer disease, or whatever mom has (might be dementia, might be after effects of the stroke, whatever) just hits different people differently. Today, she called little Billy “Wally”, and Wally is her brother’s name. Then she got angry with us when we corrected her. That’s the first time that has ever happened. Tom and I always said that if it came down to not recognizing one of us, we would have to bring her back home and get help for her.

But of course, I heard that keeping her mind active would hold it off. I suppose I was wrong. She needs a bit more help than we can give her.

Friday

Tom came back up the hill today. He’d stayed overnight in town. When he got here, he told that something strange was going on in town. There had been a few inexplicable killings there! Can you imagine? Our sleepy town and there was a murderer on the loose?! We decided to postpone taking mom to the Home for a few days.

Monday

I think this cabin is getting to us. Tom and Billy have been oddly quiet. We shouldn’t have told Billy what was going on in town. I think it affected him. I am pretty sure it affected Tom too. Seriously, I am surrounded by three zombies- a mom that just stands around outside and goes through the motions of gardening, and then gets agitated if I try to bring her in before she is ready, and a husband and a kid who just seem to mope around… I need to find some batteries to see if I can get some news from town… see if they caught the murderers so we can go back.

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