Entry 6 ~ Wheels Within Wheels, Plans Within Plans

15 July 2014
2000
Location: Apartment 0

Reflections: Nature designed everything with functional redundancies so when one system fails, our bodies are still able to perform. Plan your life the same way.

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Nursing a hangover from calming my nerves two nights ago, I spent yesterday and most of today at home. To while away the time, I tried to be productive and made plans to ensure a more long-term survival to avoid thinking about myself as a murderer or killer after the incident two days ago.

1. Electricity will not last forever, I will need portable power generator(s) to ensure comfortable living and to prevent myself from going crazy. Like I said, I'm a city boy.
   
2. Safety considerations. I have yet to ensure the entire complex was safe. Eventually, I will need to clear all three stairways so I can survive being without the services of the elevators. To be safe, I need to block them off at strategic areas. I planned to block the entrances of the two stairwells closest to me on my floor from the outside. This leaves me with the last one to exit the 14th floor from. Then, I will block off the two closest ones to me on the ground from the outside as well. If anybody or anything wanted to come in, they would need to pull apart whatever it was I used to block the entrances. As for the Ground floor entrance of the farthest from my HQ, I would block it from the inside when I was in residence, so I can unblock from the inside when I wanted to venture out. I could either block it from the outside after I have left or leave it bare for a quick re-entry. The reason I chose the stairwell farthest from me was due to the fact that every entrance to the stairwells was a fire escape, and they each have an emergency Fire Alarm button next to the doors, where you pull a chain to ring the bell. I intended to tie the chain to the door knob so that when the door was opened, the alarm would ring. The farther away the security breach occurred, the more time I would have to plan my escape. In fact, I would tie all 3 chains to their respective bells, but it was still safer to give them the "easiest" entrance as far away as possible. The closer two doors can have the bulk of barricading while the last one would have a softer barricade so I can go in and out without killing myself with fatigue.
   
3. I need to find materials or items bulky enough to block the doors in the first place, this is a problem I have yet to solve.
   
4. I will need extra vehicles. In the event my complex was overran and I escaped via rope ladder, it stands to reason I would not have the time to run back towards the carpark while escaping zombies. The spare vehicle needs to be near the rope. I had been taught how to hot wire cars from some helpful Aussies, but I still have no idea how to break into the car without shattering the windows. The fact that I am a visual learner and the Aussies could only explain the process to me via text-based emails did not help. Having a windowless car while driving around dodging zombies did not strike my fancy at all. Visions of one or more Problems hanging to my door while I screeched off did not appeal to my sense of safety.
    
5. Other than Apartment 0, it is imperative I find a secondary egress site so I have options to turn to in the event of emergencies.

I had a lot of issues, none of which had immediate solutions, but I felt better for having a list of priorities to work on. The issue of power generators was one I could see myself solving. There were limited things in my apartment that I could use to block just one of the stairways, so that doesn't provide a complete solution, not yet anyway. I planned to break the window of one of the cars in the parking lot and driving it to my rope escape site anyway. Beggars can't be choosers, and until I found an intact car I could break into, that would have to do. If I did get overran by a horde, I suspect being in an exposed car would be the least of my worries.

After I managed to mail my findings of the zombie from the previous entry to my contacts in Australia this noon, I dressed myself for another outing. It felt good to have sturdy magazine bracers on my forearms instead of flimsy newspapers. I was highly concerned with personal protection after my first encounter. The golf club that was used for the kill was left in the corridor, in case any stray blood was left on the head. After two days though, the blood should have dried and virus dead. But hey, why take any chances, right? I tried not to think about any possible contaminations in the car where I rested the club on the way home.

I had tied strings around my hardware so I could sling the crowbar and cutters across my shoulders as I did not plan to head out today with a backpack in tow. I did, however, bring along my sling bag with some items that might come in handy.

Hefting a new golf club, I descended to the Ground floor again and proceeded directly to the car park complex. I drove my car around every floor again until I reached the rooftop. I knew my task would leave me exposed for a long period and did not want anything creeping up on me. The complex was empty, as I far as I could tell, and I chose a car as my target on the rooftop as it would take any creepers to get up 6 floors to reach me.

Parked my car back at its usual spot and took a lift to the roof. I tensed, ready for bear, as the elevator arrived. For some reason, there was a bicycle inside the elevator. It got removed and I rode the moving cupboard up to the roof and approached my victim. First, I checked if any of the cars there was unlocked, but no luck. This was Malaysia, after all.

I chose a somewhat solid-looking Ford pick-up truck. I jiggled the handle, no luck. I climbed onto the truck bed and smashed the glass of the back window with my golf club. Well, it was obvious how unprepared I was as it suddenly hit me that I couldn't very well slide into the truck from the back as there was glass all over the backseat!

Scanning my surroundings quickly, I ensured nothing was moving and unslung my lock cutters. I leaned into the hole I made and grabbed the lock knob thing of the backseat with the cutters and pulled the knob up. Mercifully, there was no alarm! Wow...that was a big surprise. I was rather worried as I wasn't completely confident with my ability to hotwire a car with the alarms blaring.

Stepping off the bed, I unlocked the front door after opening the back one, and went to work. Hands under steering wheelhouse, yank, and unjumble the spaghetti of wires. How hard could it be?

As I found out much to my chagrin, pretty darned hard. Firstly, I had trouble finding the wires and ended up having to break the plastic that shielded the wheelhouse. Eureka! Wires! I pulled the whole bunch out of the frame and used a pair of pliers from the sling bag to trim the sheaths of the wires I had to cross. The truck started protestingly. I was grinning like an idiot. I was now officially a master criminal! A glance at my watch showed that the whole process from breaking of window to starting the car took nearly half an hour. Well, that burst my bubble. I can't need 30 minutes to escape from zombies! Practice will be needed.

I drove the truck (conveniently with an almost full tank of gas) to the landing zone of my escape spot. I should be able to drop right onto the truck bed, and climb in via the non-existent back window. I took the chance to clear the glass from the backseat with my gloves on and practiced starting the truck a few times until I was satisfied I could make a quick getaway if necessary. I hung a rubber mat thing that was in the truck bed over the broken window to prevent rain damage, and made my way back to the courtyard.

I still had time, so I decided to raid the grocery store. That was why I had brought along the lock cutters in the first place. Placing my golf club on the ground carefully near me, I "unlocked" the store and swung the shutters up.

Treasure! The store was pristine. Apparently the shopkeeper must've just abandoned the place and NOBODY thought it would be a good idea to loot the store. I guess everyone must have had assumed that the old man took everything with him. I had a veritable mine of food stuff here, though the rotting fruits and vegetables did not look overly appetising.

Taking note of the extra tables and shelving I could use for my blockade, I resolved to wheel my trolley down tomorrow to block at least one of the stairwells. I pulled the shutters down again and made my way home.

I felt more confident with how to handle things now, especially around my apartment which has been very kind to me and appear to be Problem-free. However, I tried to remember Zaph's rules #3 and #4, I hadn't explored the whole apartment yet, so there could still be zombies lurking somewhere. And as I had discovered, they could run to me from somewhere anyway even if I was in a safe zone. I once again mentally thanked my helmet for making my life so much easier, and wondered briefly if I was starting to go crazy like Tom Hanks in Cast Away, replacing his ball with a helmet. Yikes!

I secured my floor's corridor again upon dinging back on 14, and redusted the place thoroughly. I was very pleased with my activity today: finding a spare escape vehicle and an emergency food store.

End log.

OOC (Out of character): I realise this chapter isn't really up to my usual standards as I couldn't seem to get myself into the zone of "being alone and scared shitless". That said, most of the stuff said here are essential to the follow-up storylines, so I'll just leave it be for now. Might return to re-write it if I feel inspired.