Tiffany Crystal's Forecast for the day:

Well, the good news is that the sequel to “Say ‘No!’ to Zombies” is coming along nicely, and looks like it will start with the New Year. Bad news is…it’s still untitled. Oops? Hey, at least it’s not big bad news, right? Also, I’m in a somewhat good mood, so I figured I’d share a (very) short excerpt. Enjoy.

   Right after we locked everything down, we all called our families. Jo got ahold of her husband. Told him to keep their daughter home, and lock the house down. Basically, sit tight for as long as they could. Ryan got ahold of his mom, but his father had already turned and attacked her. She was on her way to the hospital when he called. His sister was with her. She refused to leave their mother, but passed the warning on to her husband. Everyone else…I don’t know all the stories. I know, by the end of the second week, between family members and the people they brought with them, our number had more than doubled. Neither of my parents answered their phones, but I kept calling anyway.

In the first week, we had six people turn, three people killed themselves, and ten? Twelve? I think? A bunch of people. They left. By the end of the second week, though, things calmed down and everything started blurring together. Joe ended up in charge, which, frankly, never should’ve happened. He was a terrible manager, and an even worse leader. It was Jo, or me, or Lori coming up with ideas, like hooking up the hoses outside for showers. Using the shelves to give us all our own private spaces. You know, things that make living a bit easier to bear when the world is falling apart.

Then the power started flickering. I knew it was coming. I tried warning Joe, but he wouldn’t listen. I started making plans with Lori and Jo that day. We had never unpacked the cars in the garage, so whenever one of us was on monitor duty, the others would sneak more supplies out to the cars. We caught Ryan doing the same thing one night with the pickup truck, and brought him into our plan. He and his son, AJ were a huge help. He had worked in the sporting goods department, so he had snuck out a bunch of camping supplies. Camping stoves, cans of propane, tents, guns, the whole works.