Entry 3: Richard Dolan

Richard Dolan here, survivor.  The idiots across the street have six zoms pounding on their door now.  We can't really do anything for them, the only other way in or out of their building is a fire escape and a burning bus is in the way.  It's been going for a couple hours now since one of the idiots threw a Molotov Cocktail out and lit up the leaking oil underneath it.  The zoms here seem to be avoiding the fire, but I've already seen other zoms run through fire to get to their food when someone tried to use a wall of burning tires as a defense.  Didn't go so well.  It's snowing lightly now, so the fires should get put out soon enough once the accelerants get spread out a bit.  Steve and Miriam are bundled up against the cold, but I hope they get back before a snowstorm blows through.  The zoms seem to be moving slower now than they were a week ago, most likely due to frostbite.  There's still so much about them that we don't know, I wish it were possible to capture one for study.  Steve is one of the only others who agrees with me, but we both know we don't have the facilities or equipment to even bother trying right now.  So, here's what I've figured out so far, for what it's worth:

One, the graveyards aren't disturbed, so it isn't the dead coming back to life from prior to whenever this all started.  Two, the people who've committed suicide or died from other means aren't coming back to life either, so there is that I guess.  Damnit, sounds like the wind is picking up.  Three, at some point after the initial infection, zoms need to keep from dehydrating and starvation.  They're not completely stupid.  I've seen a few drinking straight out of puddles and the river, and I have no idea if they're affected by any of the diseases those contain.  I've also seen them tear into catfood bags and chow down when nothing else seemed visible.  They're not going for canned food or fruits and vegetables though.  Mostly meat, fat and oils.  One ate a stick of butter by itself, wrapper and all.  Four, they want to spread the infection.  It doesn't seem to affect other animals so far, but at the very least the zoms are going after humans.  The starving ones are eating flesh if they find it, but the fresher ones, the better fed ones, they just bite and then start dragging people away.  Its terrifying how they're both so stupid and instinctively intelligent at the same time.  Five, they get telangiestsia all over eventually but not right away.  Uh, sorry I was a med student, spider veins for the layman.  Blood trickles out of their eye sockets, nostrils and mouth, even if they haven't fed yet, but that seems to be after the spider veins.  Still don't know what the timeline is on the symptoms or how it initially spread, since I've seen a lot of the zoms that don't have visible bite marks, the older ones I mean.  Guess that's all for now, its my turn to go up and watch by the drawbridge.