11PM TV

Plantar fasciitis - makes your feet feel like they want to break off.  Each step is agonizing and even though I rest when I walk or run again it's just as bad as ever.  *sigh* I hobble along when no one is watching.

Dr. Jividen and the Commander have a loop for me to run but I can't read the map correctly and they keep saying my samples are from the wrong locations so I have to go re-run my mission.

I run the paths everyday and if they tell me, "North of Swash Lake" -- I know that and can follow it.  Or if I could draw my own map of how I see the trails in my head and how the directions 'feel' to me...I could follow that map just fine.  But their map makes no sense at all to me and today I failed to ever locate the drop from Fort Rilea.

The Commander is going with me in three days time to run the course and get it worked out in my head but I'm worried he's lost faith in me. Worse, he's fast as a runner.  He's over six foot tall so I'll have to put on some speed and speed work is what absolutely KILLS MY FEET.  OUCH!! 

My results came back from New Portland and my kidney Creatinine level was a 1.1 which was a drop from the 1.2 and 1.3 it generally stays at.  So although I'll still have to urinate every five minutes and dehydration is still an issue as well as fluid retention, I'm okay.

I have colitis again.  A genetic foible like my kidneys.  I can't digest fructose and we have a lot of dried meal packets.  Some must have dried fruit or tomatos or citric acid.  I don't know where the offending food is coming from yet.  It's hard to run when your abdomen is in a lot of pain.  Ironically it also makes me hungry.  I guess it's from not digesting food too well.  I've been having a marathon

of hot chamomile tea.  I also secured me some aloe and L-Glutamine so as long as I can figure out which food is causing the inflammation, I can cure it. 

When the Commander comes in around eleven pm he ceases being the Commander.  He peels off his shirt and dons a housecoat and we watch funny cartoons on the laptop.  This week he has us watching, "China IL" a Brad Neely cartoon.

During the day he's like a different person.  Him and Grant have a committee put together.  They say if we're going to get attacked it will be before winter sets in.  No one wants to have to deal with the rain.  It has been unseasonably clear lately.

Dr. Jividen says that regular zombies can be reinfected with Mortis slowing them down and eliminating their blood lust.  She says we could use Mortis infected ...individuals....as bait for our local zombie population.  The Commander thought the idea was morbid even if possibly effective.

Grant's forces have taken on downtown Hammond and the South Jetty Inn quickly building fence that gives them a kind of 'chute' to Ft. Stevens, a quick retreat path.

Meanwhile I pointed out to the Commander that there is a lot of underground structures at Fort Stevens that we haven't explored.  Tunnels?  He didn't really reply to me, only vaguely acknowledged my observation.  That happens a lot.  I don't take offense to it anymore. 

I usually sleep until he comes in at 11 then I get up for an hour and watch tv with him.  I make hot tea from a little coffee pot he brought in.  He doesn't drink coffee or tea so I guess it was just for me.  He never said, he just set it up one morning.  So far he hasn't invited any of the new runners or people to bunk in our house.  I prefer it that way, people are so annoying.

I hope for a better run tomorrow.  I need to stretch.  I need to make some arch supports I guess.  I need to figure out my colitis.  Feeling overwhelmed today. 

Ominous

I sat on top of a burnt out school bus that had been dragged under the trees to rust and rot.  It was my place to meditate.

Today the Commander ran with me and he is getting better.  He's 6'2" and has a long stride so I get to go faster which today was fun.  The air was crisp and cool but not windy.  The sun was out tanning my face even darker while burning the Commanders head and arms.

I needed the time on top of the school bus because of a certain confusion growing in me over the Commander.  It was just a thing now that sooner or later at night we would end up holding each others hands and he had gone out on more runs together.  Sometimes we were alone in the bunk together making jokes and he seemed more human and vulnerable then.  We liked many of the same things and always seemed to agree.

I was imagining things - I thought to myself.  No way the commander of the entire base would fall for a puny runner.

I was still awaiting my test results from New Portland but my kidneys seemed to be doing much better.  I noted that my diet had very little sugar in it and they had begun to get better.

Every time I was around the Commander I felt funny, self conscious and odd.  I sighed.  Sometimes it was like a tickle at the back of my mind, something I should remember or dots I should have already connected.

War was coming kinda like winter -- on a day like today neither seemed likely.

Several deer wandered up under the bus browsing at the stickery berry bushes.  I didn't want to scare them.  I sat quietly legs crossed.

The last words I had with the Commander he asked if I would be available for a run tomorrow as well.
I didn't know what to make of it so decided to put it out of my mind - there was no way someone in such a high place would fall for someone like me.  He was always so busy, there had to be another explanation...

Poor Commander - it had been a brutally hard week and people had died and people had been saved and costly decisions had to be made and there was no one but him and occasionally the effervescent Grant to take it all on.  He was a solid cold stone so much of the time, but occasionally his humanity peaked out as we watched funny vids on my old laptop or when he reached for my hand in the middle of the night then he transformed and I knew it was a transformation that he only allowed me to see.  Maybe such trust made me nervous.  He was, I mused, about the most dangerous friend I could possibly have - yet also the most interesting.

A Death In The Smoke

I was out in a slow loping jog that carries me along with no worries or thoughts and I was about three miles away from camp doing some surveillance of the houses around our perimeter when I thought I was running into fog but instead the air filled with smoke.  It was fragrant from a hard wood source I could tell, possibly a hold out resident trying to get the chill out of their dwelling.  With heavy air pressure and high humidity the smoke rolled around the ground spreading out slowly like a fog.  It had saturated the area.

I couldn't breathe the damn stuff and my eyes started to water.  Visibility was going down the further I went forward, and it was the right conditions for the Zombies to get more interested in the hunt.  From my flank I heard a familiar gurgle of a zombie and possibly ahead.  It was hard to tell. 

I abruptly stopped, there was a wrecked bicycle and more noises just ahead.  My heart sunk, I picked up the bike and hopped on riding the same direction I had come as quickly as I could.  Whoever had owned the bike must have happened into the same trap and had become entangled with zombs.  It must have been one of our South Jetty Inn residents under General Grant, but which one?

I road the bike back to South Jetty Inn and returned it with as short of an explanation as I could because I'm not good with grief or comforting people.  I loped off at a steady fast jog back toward the Fort with my next mission, informing the Commander of the bicyclers death.  He would know who she was and tonight in the camp there would be a lot of hushed conversations, some tears, some fanatical terror and alcohol consumption.

I would hide in my bunk, play with my pink bouncy ball and curse the stupidity of humanity that had lit that fire. 

1000 Calories Down Today

Dr. Crow said today that if I finished my physical therapy for my ankle that we could play "CLUE Advanced Dungeons and Dragons." 

I swam, did the elliptical and took on a small run today.  The better diet is helping and I've put on more lean muscle.  The tendonitis is in both ankles but especially my right and is leading to other difficulties in my feet. 

Tonight I'm going to go wrap my ankle up in a heating roll and play a game.  

Goodnight Fort Stevens!  Goodnight! 

Grocery Shopping Day

Fred Meyers, Warrenton Oregon 10-13-13

Letters get passed along through the camp.  I have two I need to read.  One from a grandpa, and one from a cousin.  We don't know the letter writers and they're probably deceased but it's a way in which we still get mail.  A few people write back and those get sent out through the zip line the post apocalyptic USPS to destinations like New Portland and from there sent on again. 

My letter today has a photo of a thin blond woman and a man considerably shorter than her with his arms wrapped around her waist. 

You may have guessed that if I'm looking at letters I have the day off in my bunk and am trying to stay off of two very sore ankles.  Dr. Crow says I have tendonitis and something I can't pronounce that sounds like plantar fascititis.  In other words my feet feel like they're going to break off at the ankle with every step I take.

Dr. Jividen has setup a laboratory and has been spending a lot of time with Grant working on some logistics of getting information quickly to New Portland and having the help she needs on hand to process samples as well as people reporting in when they see possible Mortis infected people and animals and a bicycler dispatched to quickly check out the report.  Grant being a smooth talking people person has facilitated the arrangements as best as one could possibly hope to manage in this place. 

The Commander on the other hand - well, he lost his composure and the remnants of the Tourists have seized the opportunity to, "make their voices heard".  Just yesterday they wanted to recommission some of the forts many canons to help defend us during attack.  The canons do still work, they were always maintained --- BUT --- Fort Stevens and it's canons face out to sea so they could shoot at ships.  They're not meant to mow down people and the noise it would create.  *Cringe* 

The Commander has a hundred extra people to feed as more refugees have come in to seek shelter through the winter.  The elk in the park which he had planned on culling to help feed them may or may not be carriers of a deadly virus that causes a non-hostile form of the zombie virus.  A slow acting virus that is difficult to detect.  How the virus is transmitted and its animal hosts are unknown but it has been found in our Runner 8 whose dog was first infected and then himself despite the fact he appeared to be unbitten.  Then an elk was found with the virus and a whole host of people.  Dr. Jividen said the spread is faster than she expected.

So the Commander with shortening food stores, hostile people in his ranks has also been working on

Most Cans Were Missing Labels

widening the camp and adding residential areas adjacent to the main Fort.  Much wire and fortifications have been obtained for this reason and his right hand man "General" Grant has been working on a bold plan to expand and fortify the encampment, but the plan was to be done in phases over several years.  Dr. Jividen and myself arrived with a secret document on Mortis (which she will not disclose any details about) and news from our former runner Hero 13 that civil war had broken out.  With limited radio communications we have no idea of how much of an immanent threat is posed to the Fort.  With so much calamity driving down on our Commander he has been reserved at all times, not eating, not sleeping -- just in the Comms room or doing what he can around the camp. 

Yesterday I went on a mission with five other "Runners" (albeit all but two were on bicycles) to what was left of the Fred Meyers grocery store.  It was pretty well ransacked as you can imagine.  The smell of stuff that had rotted was only mildly mitigated by time.  We were looking for canned goods.  Those that were left were mostly missing the labels.  The bicyclers had saddle bags to pack in the canned goods.  I had a noise maker so encase zombies arrived, and we figured the would, I would lead them a merry chase (if they didn't flank me and eat me.)

As it was a bakers dozen of zombs did arrive about midway through packing up the cans.  I had found an old bottle of Coke and drank it so had some caffeine and sugar in me:  good to go. 

The problem I had with the zombs was when I got back to the Fort, the small side gate I typically run through and which is covered by one of our soldiers was locked.  So, I frantically had to run to the main gate and it was locked.  Exasperated and now almost pinned in (since the main gate is set between two thick areas of trees) I had to run up to the Marina, where I picked up more Zombs and climb up and through the hole in the fence to get inside Fort Stevens. 

As far as I know the bicycle people didn't have trouble but I think they had the radio head set with them and they opened the main gates, but luckily I had lead the zombies away because all our military personnel are gone.  Dr. Crow and Dr. Jividen are still about and a few other familiar faces but many of the Tourists and our 25 Coast Guard citizens are missing. 

The Commander bunks in my room and he finally fell asleep but he looks like hell.  He was having a nightmare.  I reached over from my cot and caught his hand in mine.  He looped his fingers through mine and held my hand tightly then rested easier.  When I woke in the morning he was gone again. 

The weather has been nice - so there is that.  Rain in the mornings generally, but the sun comes out which allows me to run missions.  Soon I'll be a rain runner, and everything will be more complicated. 

99 Problems

Hero 13

We had a transport drop us off at the Lewis and Clark State Park in Clatsop County Oregon.  I was with Dr. Jividen and today we were seeing how far Mortis, a strain of the zombie virus, had spread into the wilderness.  There were about ten miles of trails, one all the way down to the ocean from this point just past Warrenton.  With so many turned to zombies the area was far more wilderness now then it had been previously.  The zombs seemed to prefer areas in the city where human flesh was more plentiful, but we were still weary of the very quiet surroundings. 

 We had to get back to a special meeting the Commander had called but Jividen insisted we work and go out everyday and make the most of each and every opportunity.  We were hanging out at Netul landing, and it didn't make sense to me because we were more or less in the open and we weren't doing anything.  A lonely raven showed up and squawked at us.  I saw a dead mouse being eaten by a slug, that was pretty gross, but we did nothing but wait.

Forest at Fort Clatsop

Eventually I saw a runner in the distance.  Long powerful strides closed the distance easily and with grace.  He was pretty much naked I noticed, except for mud covering his skin. I recognized him, it was Hero 13, my old bunk mate from Fort Stevens.  He carried an old Coke bottle with a rolled message inside.  He ran up to Jividen and stopped handing her the bottle.  He nodded to me and clapped me on the back as he caught his breath. 

Jividen took her time reading the paper which was yellow and looked as if it had been produced on an old IBM electric typewriter.

"What is it?" I asked hesitantly.  She was very focused.

"A recipe" She replied, "for making the Mortis virus more or less anyway, and also for how it's going to be used as a weapon." 


"That's the meeting at Fort Stevens today," said Hero, "Fort Rilea was invited but we declined, you need to know war has broken out.  Alliances are forming and some say that someone attacked Canon Beach colony with Mortis and turned them all in their sleep, that it is now completely a grey colony." 

"Just think all those colonist going about their day to day business and none of them even know they're dead.  Even the animals..."  

"I'm not even supposed to be here," he continued, "Rilea has not allied itself with Fort Stevens or anyone else.  We have enough weapons to remain autonomous for a long while and fortified.  But I had to warn you."  Hero looked at Dr. Jividen.

"Someone is going to come and try to kill you.  I just heard part of it, so I don't know how, and I don't know when but I do know that you're the target.  You need to get out of here.  Like New Portland or someplace large and safe."  Hero looked at us desperately.  "The message isn't from Rilea, it was passed off to me and passed on to that runner.  It came from as far away as Tilamook, maybe even further.  It was meant to go to New Portland, but I knew you were here which is why I contacted you."  I raised an eyebrow, so it was no coincidence we were hanging out at Netul Landing. 

Jividen looked to the sky a helicopter was over head.  Time to go.  

Running Sprints With The Commander

It had been raining on and off all day and there was a camp meeting at five so I was in the bunk playing with the bouncy ball against the wall.  The Commander came in.

"Would you like to go for a run?"  He asked casually.  I had noted that the Commander had come by a pair of track shoes in the last few days and some really pathetic old blue sweat pants. 

"Sure" I replied.

So his run was more sprinting his heart out and then a walking pant.  I explained to him how his Oxygen would get better the more he ran and that he was using 'fast twitch' muscles to sprint but that 'low twitch' muscles were what would get him miles down the road and away from zombs.

He was a fast sprinter so it was a good workout for me, I don't sprint unless I have to because it burns up my energy stores. 

It was a good day until the meeting.  At the meeting all hell broke loose.