It felt like an old-fashioned holiday the past few days at Falcon Rock. Real heavy rain, so the colonel had all the search-and-rescue and supply teams stand down. Get stuck in the mud these days, and it’s not the auto club that comes calling.

The rain cut down on our solar reserves, too, so Captain Gil has us on limited power. We know the weather’s going to break in a day or two – we’ve got a screen in the command center with a feed from a NOAA satellite showing the west coast of North America. So cutting back on power isn’t too grim. It’s just temporary.

The kids are really treating this down-time like an adventure. They’re putting on some kind of a show for everyone tonight. Captain Gil’s even letting them light up the auditorium. Having the kids here, it makes a real difference. Always reminding us what we’re fighting for.

Here’s the round-up for this upload. As always, if you’ve got access to the G.R.I.D., let us know where you are, how many are with you, and what you’ve learned about fighting them. You can count on us to spread the word!


UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY

From Jay at the University of Kentucky – Wish this was better news, but at least there’re a lot of survivors making a stand.

Greetings from the remains of the University of Kentucky.

We just got our local power grid up and running (thank God for coal). There are about eighty of us – started out with one hundred thirty six. Mistakes and suicides take their toll.

We are stuck here – major interstates 256/64 west are blocked. Our local airport has runways clear. If you can do any kind of airlift it would be nice.

We are doing what we can against them. The city was about 250,000 before it all fell apart, but with the chaos we had a lot of travelers flooding in, so no telling how many there are.

We haven't seen any with head protection – they’re just slow and stupid. We haven't had any communication with Louisville.

We too are alive. It’s good to know we aren't alone. We will keep our eyes peeled and ears open.

God speed, Lexington Kentucky

Cody here – good to know about the airport runways being clear. We have had a few reports of planes being spotted, so we’re hoping another group of survivors has access to an airfield. The Rock has a good heliport and five – count ‘em – five helicopters. But we don’t have any qualified pilots. The only one we know of so far is on the ISS!


KANSAS

Josh in Kansas sends us this report. He confirms what we’ve started to notice: The more of them that are in one place, the smarter they seem to be.

Cody and everyone at Falcon Rock,

I don't know if you've got many reports from the Midwest yet. Things are bad out here. They’re ganging together and we've spent so much time picking them off and reinforcing our barricades that we've barely managed to get electricity running on an hourly basis. We're powered with a pretty basic set-up and this needs to be brief or my friend on the exercise bike is going to get tired.

I don't know the regional make-up of your group or if any of them have family out here but, Kansas City is gone, Cody. Well maybe not gone yet; it was in its third week of burning when my group pulled out of the area. We don't know what started the fire. We were about twenty miles away camped out in what passes for a wilderness area. Some of my people said they saw planes and think it might have been a bomb of some sort (or just good old-fashioned napalm). We don't know though, it could've just as easily been an ordinary fire that got out of hand. Some of my group were scavenging in the city when it started and no one got back. That noise they make, that whining moan, we could hear it for miles. You could see them running around covered in fire. Most of them ran for the river. They’re smarter than you think, and the more of them there are in a place the smarter they seem to get.

Things are getting hairier out here, Cody. We're holed up in Pittsburg, Kansas on some land a friend of mine owns, but between the fire and trek out here we lost half our number and more of them show up everyday. We're running low on ammo and hope. There's thirty of us but only about ten are fit for combat or anything more than light work. Fifteen are kids, just kids. The attacks seem to come worse at night so every night we lock the kids in the basement room with one of the older folks. If they bust in, you know what I'm going to say, don't you? You've heard all this before.

Are there any groups near us we could link up with? Any abandoned bomb shelters? Anything that's going to provide more cover than a boarded-up house?

We need help, Cody. We need it bad.

– J

Cody here. According to the manuals here – at least, the ones the colonel has allowed us to see without security clearances – there are about fifty major Continuity of Government facilities throughout the States. Some of these “COGs” are for emergency communications, some for disaster-relief coordination, and some, like Falcon Rock, are for the preservation of the military. When all this started, everyone who knew about the COGs thought they’d be a sure bet to provide safe strongholds. But then, three weeks into it, we almost lost the Rock when a single infected survivor got past the medics. So, all we can say is if your boarded-up house is secure, it’s better to stay put than to go out into the open, searching for safer ground that might not exist.

Now, a few other bits of business to attend to.

Alex in Nashville – Electrolytes? What makes you suggest that? Dr. Cole wants to know what you’ve seen.

James in London – No theories on the dog. Dr. Cole’s mutt has been bitten, but whatever kind of disease vector we’re dealing with, it only seems to affect people, and so far no evidence to suggest that animals are carriers. Send more info as you get it.

James in York – Yeah, we’ve read all those, too. Inspiring, but what we’re facing is something completely different. Be careful checking out that gunfire and let us know what you find. And congratulations on your promotion!

There’s a stern-looking Army engineer standing over my shoulder telling me I’ve hit my power limit for this report, so I’ll be signing off.

Keep sending in your updates and we’ll keep spreading the word.

We’ll talk again.

CJ