4th October

Okay I need to tell this. I met another survivor.

I was on my way back from Hanley when I had to turn off of the route I was using. There were zombies on the road, at least a dozen of them. I had to sneak down another road, one I wasn't very familiar with. I wasn't too worried though, because I tend not to get lost provided I know the rough direction I need to head in.

Anyway I'm walking along until I come to this little residential street. I realised that there were corpses lying around. Some of them seem to have been there a while, but strangely there weren't any flies though, meaning they must be zombie corpses. For some reason the zombies didn't attract flies. I drew closer to a couple of them and saw that they had been shot. I'm serious! Every single one had a bullet hole in its forehead, right between its eyes. I looked around, trying to see if there was any sign of who had done this, when I heard a zombie moan behind me. I turned around to deal with it, only to watch as its head snapped back before it collapsed to the ground, a loud bang permeating the air. I turned around to see where the bullet had come from and found myself face to face with a tall raven-haired woman, early-mid-forties, holding a bolt-action hunting rifle. She casually reloaded the gun, but kept it raised towards me. I put both hands up, saying that I'm not after hurting her or anything. She tilted her head, a curious expression on her face, like she didn't know what to make of me. I introduced myself, asking if she had someone safer we could talk. She finally lowered the gun, telling me to follow her.

We walked into one of the houses nearby, a red-marked house with a solid oak door. The plastic sheeting had been ripped though, as though someone had escaped after being sealed in with a zombie. The house was relatively tidy, a large bloodstain on the carpet which someone had cleaned, and soot marks on the walls from the open fireplace in the living room. She gestured me to sit and propped her gun against the wall. She said her name was Lauren, and that she was sorry if she had scared me, but I was the first living person she had seen in a week and a half. I echoed the statement, only now realising that it had felt like so much longer. I asked how she got the gun. She said it was her husband's, who was a gamesman for some of the big landowners in the nearby countryside. He used it to hunt rabbits, foxes, etc on their land. She said he had been infected, which was why they had been left behind by the army. She had woken up on the Thursday morning after the attempted evacuation to find that he had turned and was eating the dog he took hunting with him. She had grabbed the gun and killed him, burying the body in the back garden. She stopped and I could see tears in her eyes. I apologised and she shrugged it off.

She asked what I was doing out there. I told her everything, about Judi and the kids, my little adventure in town, the army's bolluxed evacuation attempt, the spread of the virus, the survivor forum, everything. She took it all in, starting at me intently the entire time. She said that her and her husband, Jeff, had never bothered with a computer, and so she had no idea what was happening. Her only concern had been staying alive. She said there was plenty of ammunition for the rifle, and that Jeff had shown her how to use it when he had taken her rabbiting. She had started killing them just to keep them away, but once she realised they only died with headshots she had been using them for target practice. I had to admit she was good.

She started the fire, offering me a cup of tea. I refused politely, saying I never drank the stuff. She lowered the blackened tea pot into the fire. I watched her, fascinated at how she had survived this long. She had been actively facing the zombies, granted she'd been doing it with a gun, while I had been too scared to venture out of my house for ten days! It might be that she was older than me, giving her more confidence, I don't know. Either way I found myself in awe.

Over the next several hours, where we just talked constantly. I can't even remember what about! I think we were both just so glad to see another human being. I realised far too late just how dark it was. There was no way I could head home, the zombies were more active and with no streetlights I didn't want to put my eyes to the test trying to find them. She invited me to stay, saying that there was a spare room, and she specifically warned me against any funny business, which I had no problem with. I reiterated that I was trying to get out of the city and find my fiancée, so funny business was not on my agenda! She seemed happy with that and made up the spare room for me, which is where I am as I write this.

I don't know what Lauren's plan is. When I leave tomorrow I have no idea if she'll come with me or stay here. And if she did come with me would she be a help or a hindrance?