The Long Winters Night

Hero
Part 2: The Long Winters Night


Cleveland, Ohio


You really thought it was the end of the world?

We had flesh-eating zombies shuffling across the entire globe, governments collapsing and a small-scale nuclear war going on out in the Middle East. What else was I going to think?

When did you realise that it wasn't?

Truthfully, when I got word from a guy I know in the government. I think he might have been in one of those Alpha Teams, but he never said and I never asked.

Can you give me his name?

Sure, but then I'd have to kill you.

[he looks me in the eye]

That's not a joke, by the way: I really would have to kill you.

Okay, what about the stories? You took in a lot of survivors from the nearby suburbs, and some of them have spoken about strange events here.

I've heard a lot of stories from the first year or so after the Panic; people weren't ready to deal with what was happening, and so kind of ran everything through a mental filter. You can blame all those 'superhero' movies that came out before The Panic if you want, but I guess that some people found super-powered girls easier to believe than what was really going on out there, and to an extant I can't say I blame them.

So there's no truth in the rumours?

What do you think?

I think you're probably right. But getting back on track, when did you decide to turn the school into a Blue Zone?

When we finished burying the dead, having first had to make sure that none of them were going to reanimate. We paid for this ground in blood, more than we should have, but we owed it to those who'd died to try and hold it rather than just run away. As I said before, the school is almost totally self-sufficient, and at first we were able to get anything else we needed from the surrounding area. You can call it looting if you want, but it's not like there wasn't anyone we could buy it off. Almost everyone else had headed north into Canada by that point. Those we did find were offered the chance to join us, but only a few did; most though that they'd be better off on their own, or following the others north.

What do you think happened to them?

Most probably died: heading into the Canadian winter unprepared as basically an elaborate way of committing suicide. We offered what help we could, handed out a few CB radios the school had gotten in for a class project so they could try and keep in touch with the rest of humanity, and wished them the best. Who knows, maybe some of them made it

You sound unconvinced.

I've seen the films and spoken to people who went north; it wasn't pretty.

How did you prepare for the winter? Ohio isn't exactly know for mild weather at that time of year.

We sent well armed search teams out into the city and the surrounding towns, picking up as much equipment as we could. We found a lot of looted shops, but most people had just taken what they could easily see; stock rooms and warehouse were almost untouched, so we concentrated our efforts on them. I helped set up some temporary huts, the kind you see on construction sights even today, insulating them as best we could. We also collected snowmobiles and a number of military-issue ATV's from an abandoned National Guard armoury we found. But by then there were just too many zombies around to risk going out, so we stopped sending out teams and barricaded the gates.

The start of the siege?

If you could call it that back then: there were perhaps a couple of hundred zombies that first autumn, enough to keep us on our guard, but not enough to really worry use. We just patrolled the walls, finished setting up the greenhouses as best we could, and made sure we had enough supplies to last us the winter. Someone in the governments PR division decided that we made a good story, so they sent us a few supply drops. Most landed in the grounds, but a couple were blown off course and we had to sit and look at them until it got cold enough to freeze the zombies solid. Then and only then would Faith and Robin let anyone out to grab what they could. Best thing we were sent was a prefabricated wind-turbine: that helped a lot, once we got it up and running.

How was that first winter?

Actually, it was kind of nice at first; everyone was still confident that someone, somewhere, would find a way to deal with the zombies, a new weapon or something. He had fresh water, lights, heating thanks to the old boilers here that could be run on wood, and enough food to last us maybe six months, more than enough to keep us going until spring. At least, that's what we thought.

The so-called Nuclear Autumn?

Yeah, that messed up a lot of our plans. We didn't think much of the early winter at first, given how helpful it was. And as long as we stopped the snow getting too deep on the paths and roof's we should have been okay. But the way it jest kept snowing and snowing, for days on end? We all started to develop a bad case of cabin fever. Once it god cold enough, Robin sent out more teams to try and locate anything else we might need. Probably one of the smartest things he ever did; let everyone grab some fresh air.

[He shakes his head]

It's a damn shame what happened to him.

The ambush?

If you want to call it that; some separatist, Michigan Militia type group got wind of the school and decided that a compound full of young girls would be a very nice base of operations to start their own little country from. We were too well protected for them to risk a frontal-attack, so they set a trap for one of the search teams. It was only dumb-luck that Robin was leading it, and that he was the first one to get hit.

To Be Continued...