Author's note: part of the lull between posts has been due to things going on in my life, prepping for finals and medical issues in the family. However another part is I've been attempting to contact a few government institutions for what the N.B.C. response would be to something like an attack of this magnitude.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've seen a few more signs of humans poking around out there around town, however I haven't seen anyone, just evidence. My project with the solar lights didn't work out like I'd hoped, shorted out mess of electronics is what happened, but the satellite modem is working, so I'll have internet on the go to keep people updated.

I'll give the solar project another go. I think I learned a good bit out of it, so with any luck I'll have a steady supply of power to keep the laptop and bag phone charged without having to run the jeep all the time.

That dog's still stalking me when I go out. I looked up the breed, and it looks like an angry bulldog and a German shepherd had puppies....I wish I'd paid more attention when my mom dragged me to some of those dog shows when I was a kid.

Not much else to say.

For the last couple of days I've found myself at odds with myself.

I have access to all this stuff. MRE's rope, camping gear, all at the military surplus shop, and yet due to what I learned in scouting I know I don't need it, so I've been trying to decide what to take with me and what not to take with me when I make the drive over.

I'm probably going to make a small pack that I can take with me in case I have to abandon the jeep, but I'm going to also take a good amount of supplies with me\ so that way I do have things I can use but don't necessarily need.

Yesterday I think I saw signs of someone else out there, but I'm not sure. It might've been that dog from before.

I've had very little luck with my idea regarding the solar lights.

Other than that not much to talk about.

It's been dumping a lot of rain since I last posted. Heavy heavy storm. Power flicked off and on a bit. I spent it all inside working on the longcoat I talked about. Well it's a waterproofed long vest with a hood now. I haven't made sleeves, and I haven't looked for a set of sleeves to put on it yet.

I haven't tested the waterproofing yet though.

Took a break and spent a few hours looking up news regarding my hometown. It looks like a couple weeks before everything went to hell there was a big bundle of documents declassified regarding my hometown in response to an ongoing lawsuit against the E.P.A. due to birth defects in a city near my hometown. They were detailing experiments done in and around the area.

They were still heavily censored but my hometown was mentioned, as well as the two surrounding cities. Apparently some kind of experiment with the drinking water, my hometown and the other were used as the test cases, since they both had prisons with stable populations that were easily monitored. The third one, which was in the central valley itself was the control group more or less.

The experiments lasted from 1986 to 1995 and the results were inconclusive.

Didn't even say what they were looking for, but there wasn't really a spike of any abnormalities.


There's a lot more to the story but in short: Coalinga [Test Group A], Avenal [Text Group B] and Lake Huron [control group]. It was also repeatedly stated that the in and around area around Kettleman City hasn't seen any testing secretly sanctioned by the U.S. government since the 1950's.

Wonder if I can find a non redacted version to find out what was being tested for in the late 80s early 90s.

Whelp other than that not much happened, well part of the carport flew away, but that's about it.

So I spent most of the last two days messing around with the jeep. I found a note in it too, above the sunvisor.

"Heard the sirens, didn't believe till we saw a mushroom cloud to the south so we're leaving with the Mennonites for the national park, can't get the jeep to start back up anyway.

Jill and Jimmy"


So anyway, I learned that it runs on diesel, or any reasonable substitute for that, dunno why I thought it ran on just oil, dad was talking about bio diesel and using it at the farm a couple months ago I guess I just sorta forgot with the apocolypse and all. It took me five tries to figure out how to push start it, I'm really glad the road wasn't filled with cars, I guess things were pretty quiet when it all started. I then started figuring out what exactly was wrong with it out front of the napa store.

Put a new alternator and starter on it, battery still has a charge and the amperage is where it should be, I also replaced the inline fuel pump, after a bit of work I got the ignition to work.

The electrical harness is shorted out, the good thing is the engine is an older cummins and doesn't have electronic fuel injection, not to mention is no more complicated than the tractors I worked on at my dad's farm.

 I grabbed a spool of electrical cable an electricians kit that has cutters, strippers and fuses and a few other odds and ends and used the old harness as a template. The new one works and the jeep fires up easily enough.


I'm not sure why but I think it's going to rain tomorrow.

I keep seeing that dog occasionally. I think it's stalking me.

I've been thinking about it more and more, and I'm going to see if I can make it across the valley to my hometown. I know that my hometown was full of people ready for something like this, between the correctional officers and the ranchers, and some of the hillfolk I know, as long as it wasn't hit directly that it should be safe, but I need to make sure.

I did some more scouting today and I think I found a prospective vehicle to use. It's a stick shift jeep, 4 door and a rag top rather than a hard top and it looks like someone converted it to run on vegetable oil because it has a "I run clean on french fry oil" sticker on the bumper. I found the keys under the front seat. I'm going to keep an eye on it for now. It also has a couple "I Heart Hemp" stickers.... I didn't know we had hippies here. I'll see if I can get it running tomorrow and I'll also see if I can get something setup for a mobile web hotspot. I've got a couple leads on what to do thatnks to some how tos I found on the internet, but I'll need to find a satellite bag phone and a few other things. Like what my dad used in the 90s after we stopped using the radios and the base station.

I did see some of those solar lawn lights, and it looks like they're still working, so I might be able to get some of those from the hardware store and use them for something. I'll need a sauntering iron though, but it shouldn't be too hard to find that.

Picked up that Chinese radio signal again for a few minutes but it faded out before I could write the phonetics down.

So tomorrow, unless the weather gets bad I plan to go looking for stuff to build something silly, like a solar powered satellite modem. If the weather sucks, I'll look at news stories regarding my hometown. Time to sleep I guess.

So I spent today in longsleeves wandering around town, well the one became sort of half longsleeved half short sleeved.. more on that down below.

Still a ghost town to my best knowledge, but I found signs of life. A couple of the Mennonite churches, the signs out front said "Congregation in King's Canyon Park" so I'm assuming that's where all the Mennonites went to ride out the apocalypse.

I spent most of today looking around for and older model car or truck, something I can push start. No luck so far, all I've seen are newer ones that are dead. Tried hotwiring one, not even a spark.

Got chased by a dog today and it god hold of my arm. took part of my shirt off with it, just the sleeve. Scraped the skin but didn't get a good hold. I ran all the way back to the apartment after that. I think I'm going to take one of the pistols with me from now on because I saw it around some but didn't really think till it was running at me.

Going to get some more sleep. Been scanning radio channels. Picked something up in Chinese around 103.9 fm for a bit before it faded to static.

I think the fever broke mid-afternoon.. I'm not sure, cause I spent most of today asleep. I don't evene remember yesterday. Everything aches, and the noise of..well nothing is so annoying..I mean nothing. No engines, no people no background noise of the city. I don't even hear any animals. that's what's worrying me the most. This close to the mountains I should hear something, birds even. I don't know how long it's been quiet. Maybe it's always been quiet and I never noticed. Aside from the radio, though I haven't had that on lately.

Kinda cold, but I'm tolerating it a bit better. I still have a bit of a cough but it's not bad. the food in the fridge went bad, I think there was another power outage, or maybe the milk soured and everything else soured with it.

Turned the radio on in time for an announcement. The Secretary of the Interior is still alive. Some person by the name of  Glauchester, so until things get sorted out I think he's actually president. I think I remember something in the news about him going to inspect the work being done on one of the forest fires up in the Sierra Nevada's.

Gonna go back to sleep now.Maybe I'll have less aches in the morning.