A grim story told through a friends diary

https://imgur.com/a/e5GVZPO

Night one in the mall - it is very dark here, i brought my tent it will do for the time being. Its very scary hearing the dead roam the mall. Hopefully backup will arrive soon. In the mean time i'm going to clear some more. If anyone finds this note, I'm either dead or had to run and lick my wounds. Fuzz

Night two in the mall - I hooked up some speakers to a radio and played my favourite song to attract some zeds. It's quite eerie hearing the music echo in the hall, followed by the groans of the undead. I ready my shotgun and see the shells piled up in my bag, I should be able to rid a big group of them. Ironically the song is called "You're gone"... will this be my last stand off?

Night 3 and 4 at the mall - I was making great progress in the mall. It started to get quieter and I started to feel safe. Clearing it with that shotgun and ammo that I found was so satisfying. Thought it did nearly get me killed. My shotgun jammed just as I was going to kill a zombie at point blank range. Luckily I could hit the zombie in the face with it and distanced myself again.

While I was looting the BBQ store, I found the holy grail that we have been looking for quite some time. It's the magazine that teaches us how to use generators. In my enthusiasm I radioed back home, shouting with joy.

Ché, Anvi and Peet were chuffed and told me to rest there one more night. Come dawn they were going to head towards me and fetch me by car.

I was exhausted but exited to see my friends again so I went back to my tent. I made sure I barricaded the storage room I was camped in and put the shotgun next to my sleeping bag. I actually slept really well since the first time in ages.

The next day we all were chatting and laughing on the walkietalkies while they were heading to the mall. For the very first time in ages, I really felt alive. Anvi souped up one of the cars making him drive like a speed demon. It was funny but also nerve wrecking to hear him nearly kill himself while swerving out of the away from the zombies while racing the rest of the crew.

When they arrived the mood was still joyful. Perhaps I was too optimistic and gave them a false sense of security. We put the magazine and some supplies I gathered in the trunk of the car. We decided to do a quick look before we left. We all to separate parts of the mall trying to find some more valuable loot. It wasn't long before we could hear screaming and shouting coming from the south side of the mall. It was Anvi, he got boxed in on the escalator and was panicking and screaming for helm. I ran there as fast as I could, and readied my shotgun. Just as I walked around the corner I saw that my friend was being mauled and eaten by the undead. I was filled with rage and started to blast them. Perhaps I could still save him.

The zombies around him were dead, though not much was left of him. I couldn't bare the sight, so I turned around and tried to find the rest of my friends. I heard another groan and looked behind my shoulder. It was Anvi he was shambling towards me while almost tripping over his own intestines. I couldn't shoot him, even though he turned into a zed.

I started to run to my other friends and saw Che, he saw my grim look and didn't ask any questions. Just as we made eye contact we heard more screams of pain. Before we could react and figure out where he was they stopped. We eventually found his eaten corpse with his duffel bag just behind the counter with the popcorn machine. The zeds were no where to be seen.

We fled to the car and drove back to our base. We didn't say a word during this ride. I felt terrible and very guilty. It's because of me and my stupid idea of living in the mall, that my friends are gone. I shouldn't have stayed there for so long and shouldn't have said it was safe. I'm going to drink that bottle of bourbon I found and hopefully drown my sorrows. Tomorrow will be another day in this hell infested world and I cannot let it consume me too. "

The community seemed a bit low on content, so I rummaged through our private dedicated servers history to get some OG lemmy content up in here. A friend of mine wrote this when he was off solo. Hope you enjoyed!