Entry 56: Jane Knight

Seems we've got somebody on the radio when we went on a curve in the road for a stretch.  we've managed to direct our vehicles toward where the signal seems stronger, but its mostly static, probably a broken microphone.  Everyone is hoping it is Vergil and Tessa, but its doubtful.  Even I'm hoping it despite thinking it won't be.  Managed to get a lone frost zombie captured and tied down long enough to kill it and do an autopsy.  Still don't know what causes the infection, but the strange thing is all of the fat in the zombie has been changed to brown fat cells.  That would explain their energy and staying warm, if not how the mutation did that...  Regardless, just a little food for them gets burned up into energy, and otherwise they seem to be able to just hibernate.  I'm not even sure what else to try to figure out from it, but we've got no more use for it if I don't have more reason to study it, so its being dumped next stop.

Entry 55: Miriam Prager

No sign of Vergil and Tessa still.  They know the highway we were taking, but we have no clue if they're still alive or if they're able to find a way back to it from wherever they are now.  Richard tried the radio a few hours after we were away from the horde, but got no response.  Should have still been in range of Vergil's radio though, but Richard said they might have it turned off to keep from making noise.  He's had one of us try it again every two hours, but now we're finally past the edge of its reception.  I hope they're alright. More frost zombies when we tried hunting today, but we managed to take them down without gunfire.  A good thing too, because we managed to get a deer afterward.  Getting closer and closer to the farm, another couple days at this pace.  Damn snow is getting heavy though, and we've put in all of our backup gas into the vehicles.  Billy and Jamie are getting more at one of the gas stations in a nearby town.

Entry 54: Steven Bryce

No one wants to talk about it, but, I need to say it, even if no one ever hears these recordings.  Markus Pierce got infected last week, and tried to hide it.  Spent more and more time in the freezer of his truck, checking on everything he kept saying...  When he finished turning, we thought that he must have snapped and then let himself freeze to death in the back of his truck.  Didn't think to check him for bites...  Just saw lay there, unmoving for hours.  We tried to give him a proper burial, but just as we finished the hole he got up and bit Graham.  Markus, he got a shot to the head from the Sargent, before he could bite anyone else.  Graham, he just...  His eyes welled up and he ran for the gas station.  Ellis and the Sargent got to him before the rest of us could.  They...  They decapitated him after taking him back into the freezer.

I understand the reasons they...  released him like that.  But...  That's three now dead since we started heading toward the farm.  Is this going to be our El Dorado?  I mean, we don't even know for certain what we'll find there.  We have to hope, because, what else is there?

The zombies attacked us the next day when we were camped.  They literally popped out of the snow that had covered them and started attacking.  These damn Frost Zombies, as Tiana called them yesterday...  They're the proof to what Richard had said a month ago.  The zombies aren't just dying out like we hoped.  They're mutating.  Getting smarter.  Stronger.  Adapting to the cold.  I don't know where Vergil or Tessa are right now.  During our stand against the horde we managed to clear enough for our vehicles to get out, but when Vergil tried following on the motorcycle with Tessa they hit a crawler and crashed the bike.  I told everyone to turn around, but Vergil shouted into the radio for us to keep going and they'd meet us up at the farm once we got there.  I tried to argue, but he cut me off.  I saw them in our rearview, being chased by the frost zombies closing in, slow, but untiring.  I swear, just as we almost got out of view, I thought I saw them head into a small town, but it could be wishful thinking.

Entry 53: Unknown

The recording device listed as ZR13D2 was found in the shirt pocket of one of the male zombies found with the infected of the Zombovirus17 strain (also known as the Frost Zombie strain), in South Dakota.  The zombie itself was missing its head so dental records could not be gathered, and dna testing found no public records.  This was not unusual in pre-Restoration years, as prior to the Day of Infection it was not required to have dna samples on file in a public database (See Craven vs. the State of Dakota court file 134zr, 4 AR).  Due to the pose of the subject and removal of its head, it is believed to have been terminated with mercy shortly after its turning.  Since it was not buried and instead found shut inside a powerless freezer of a gas station, it has been surmised those who terminated it may have intended to return when they could, or have done it so as to at least protect the body from being fed upon by insects and other infected.  The recording device ZR13D2 was damaged and unrecoverable, but due to its found location, and similarity to those in the Bryce records, it is theorized that one of the members of the group that had traveled with Steven Bryce during the seven years before restoration.

Entry 52: Vergil

Damn fucking zombies!  Lost the bike and nearly myself and Jamie today.  Did a fast drive scouting while everyone was cooking meals and on the way back zombies had blocked up the road.  No idea where they came from, no house within view.  Just snow.  Snow everywhere.  Shit.  The bike got through those bastards, but the damage made the tires go flat.  No spare with us, so we had to leave it.  Damnit.  Maybe what Richard said before is right.  The deadheads are changing.  Something about them...  I mean, fuck, where were they hiding?  How were they keeping warm enough not to freeze up?

Entry 51: Ellis Vaughn

One of the good things about the whole damn mess is having plenty of things to take aggression out on without being stared at so much.  Admired more like it.  Not like me and the boys' return from war.  The zombies...  So far I haven't met anyone who does anything but fear or pity them.  Sad to say that I did see a soldier from the war earlier today.  Had saved his platoon back then, but now...  He and his family were in a farm we gathered supplies from.  He shot them and then himself.  Had a radio turned to a local news station, though without power it wasn't still playing.  He gave up without putting any bullets into the deadheads.  I checked his gun's magazine and the ammo boxes we took along with it.  I didn't let anyone else see the family but the Sargent and Steven.  Together we buried the family in the back.  All the animals on the farm were already starved, so beside the ammo we didn't take much with us.

Entry 50: Tessa Cooper

Finally starting to...  Not hurt as much.  My brother's gone, but, not completely.  Fuck, that sounded so sappy.

*empty air for two minutes*

Let's try that again.  Uh.  Right.  My brother got infected before we even spotted the first part of the group I'm with now.  He staved it off longer than he should have been able to, but...  He was protecting me, knew he couldn't forever.  He died so that I wouldn't get infected as well.  At first, I hated him for it.  Hated the people that killed...  No, put him to rest.  Then I hated the zombies.  Killed as many as I could each day I saw them.  I still hate that they exist, but, they were people too.  Like my brother before he got infected.  He's gone, and he was losing what made him my brother.  Just like the zombies have lost it.  I can't even hate them anymore.  I hate the infection.  And I'm learning to put down the infected faster now.  To put them to rest.  It still hurts, but its getting better.

Entry 49: Graham and Kathy Ross

Graham:  First time eating chipmunk today.

Kathy:  It was...  Different.

Graham:  That's for sure.

Kathy:  Also some canned peas and carrots from a grocery store.

Graham:  Very little else there that wasn't gotten into by animals that wasn't past expiration or taken earlier by looters.

Kathy:  Some jelly beans though.  Keep our energy up, even if not the best of food.

Graham:  True, though more as an emergency snack than for a meal.  Can't go having a sugar crash.

Kathy:  Mm.  And the beans and hot sauce.

Graham:  Be a lot better with eggs and toast on the side.

Kathy:  But none to be found.

Graham:  Of course not.  Anyone sensible took those things early on.

Kathy:  Shame about the deli man in the freezer.

Graham:  Rather go out fighting than freezing to stay hidden.

Entry 48: Jane Knight

Good to see Miriam doing well.  That at least she's healed up physically.  She grabbed some rocks alongside the road today with Tessa.  Showed her how to pitch them with decent accuracy.  A zombie shambled close from one of the fields and they got live practice.  I...  I wanted to join in after seeing the zombie, but I didn't.  I shouldn't just let myself get used to them.  There has to be a way to stop it all.  I just don't know how.