Queen Anne 2012-08-22 20:03. Captain: Korben Shaw. From: Nantucket, Massachusetts. Towards: Washington D.C.

Notes:

Boston burned. Fingers of smoke spread through the orange haze and over my head and into the night sky. I stood on the boat and looked out over the ocean; put the burning city at my back to find some peace. But I could still hear the zombies let fly their death rattle shrieks as they scoured the streets for fresh meat.

Four months ago zombies appeared, first in Oklahoma City and then New York, Los Angeles and Boston. I took to the ocean on the boat the Queen Anne to escape both zombies and desperate men. I stayed on the boat and I stayed alive.

My name is Korben Shaw. I first saw the zombies when they attacked our base at Montauk. I had been called in from the reserves to assist in evacuation and quarantine. Guess we were a little late on that.

We opened fire on the zombies as they hurled themselves at the perimeter fence but there were too many of them and too few bullets. We couldn't drop them fast enough. They reached the top of the fence and pulled themselves through the razor wire on top of the chain-link to drop one by one onto the grounds.

I remember a zombie in a white shirt and tie covered in its own blue gore as it climbed over the top of the fence, ripping its body apart to get at me. I blew off its skull with rounds to the head. Another nasty piece of work scrambled up the businessman's back to avoid the razor wire and leapt at me. I stumbled backwards, watched it fall towards me: its face like a grey tumor, with a gaping mouth and sunken green eyes that flashed as they caught the light of weapon's fire. I felt nauseous.

Will hurled a grenade at the zombie. It caught the grenade as it leapt in mid-air and bit it like an apple before the grenade exploded and blew apart the zombie from head to waist. The explosion sent Will and I into the dirt. My ears rang.

A second zombie launched itself at Will from off of the fence. I emptied a clip into the thing until it was nothing but head, teeth and torso. It fell on Will's back and sunk its teeth into Will's bald head. Will scalped the zombie with a shot over-the-shoulder. Then he collapsed. I held my position until I ran out of ammunition. Will grabbed my leg and tried to pull himself up off of the ground. Blue veins spidered-out from the bite on Will's head. I saw the whites of his eyes turn green and his pupils bleach. He told me to run.

Floodlights from the base lit the forest. Zombies leapt over the fence through the spotlight beams. I saw pair after pair of their iridescent cat-eyes catch the light as the climbed over the fence and infiltrated the base en masse. I heard the snap of weapons-fire, together with the sound of men screaming, and this sickening zombie howl that rattled my teeth.

I ran, eventually finding myself at the main gate, crouched in the shadows. I watched zombies from the forest attack every vehicle that left the base. I guessed that it was the sound of the engines, or the activity, that drew them to the roads. In the end it was an easy choice: dark forest and zombie besieged highway or the open ocean.

The last time that I saw you, you were at your father's on Nantucket. I could make it there in four or five hours by boat.

I ran for the boat-house and prayed that I would see you alive again.