Entry 55

Well apparently the zombies could not decide and half are now standing near the laundry room door and the other half near the walkway where I had been. A few seem to have gotten lost or confused halfway between and now are just standing in place. Either way there are still more than the ideal number of zero. The only good part is the number of zombies seems to have stayed the same. I figured the gunshots would have been enough to bring in more zombies. This means if I could get rid of/kill/destroy/whatever these I might be free from zombies at least for awhile.

This brought me back to the issue of killing zombies without bullets. I was a bit annoyed and depressed by yesterday's failure. Not only did it not even injure a single one but it wasted precious supplies. I determined whatever my new plan was it needed to not use bullets or fuel. I considered a long spear, so I could try and spear the zombies one by one. I ruled that out as the ways it could go horribly wrong seemed much higher than odds of it working. I considered mixing bleach and ammonia to make a toxic gas. I always remember being told mixing those could be dangerous. I figured it probably would not affect them anyways. Most likely it would just get blown away in the open air before having a chance. I had a variety of other increasingly worse ideas until I came up with a real idea.

I was thinking how badly I wanted a machine gun so I could just walk outside and take out all the zombies. The Tommy gun came to mind and then as my mind was wondering a bit I remembered in some of the old gangster movies they used Molotov cocktails. That was something that would not require using up the propane or any bullets. I did not have any gasoline to use so I had to look around for any other flammable liquids. I first tried kerosene and found it did not actually catch fire when lit with a match. Alcohol seemed an obvious choice but everything I had was way too low of a proof to be flammable. I went back to apartments which had alcohol in the kitchen (and a dresser drawer in one) to check to see if they might be flammable. Apparently no one in these apartments liked to drink anything flammable.

Having struck out again I settled back in to try and brainstorm more. I was thinking about hairspray being flammable and wondered what was in it to make it flammable when it clicked that some had alcohol. I could use rubbing alcohol. I grabbed a lighter and headed to the bathroom. I splashed a small amount into the sink and lit it. Sure enough it lit with a very light blue flame and burned for little bit before going out. I did not have much left so I dug through the other apartment bathrooms for more. My search yielded several quite a bit of 70 and 90 percent varieties. I knew 70 percent burned from my test so I did not even bother testing 90 percent. With the fuel source all I had to do was prepare a bottle and a rag and I was set.

I had some of those clear beer bottles made from cheap thin glass in my kitchen. Back in the day I used to try to recycle stuff so I had a cabinet of empty bottles to work with. The beer bottle seemed like a good choice since it should break easy and be a good amount of alcohol. I went ahead and got two bottles and filled them half full with a mix of 70 and 90 percent. Hopefully the higher percent alcohol meant more fire. With alcohol in the bottles I was at the iffy part. I had seen Molotov cocktails on tv, but I really had no idea how the fuse/rag worked. My biggest fear is that I would light the rag and it would just explode in my hand. Using an empty bottle to practice on, I made some rags from a cotton shirt so they mostly sealed the opening and would hopefully wick up the alcohol. With the weapons almost ready I figured it was time to protect myself.

I did not possess fire-proof clothes so I settled on putting a pair of water-soaked clothes on over my normal clothes and wrapped my head with a soaked towel. Leather boots, gloves, and a pair of sunglasses completed my, hopefully, fire-proof outfit. I quietly opened the door and set both bottles on the walkway with the rags next to them. Then, lighter in hand and quite a few calming breaths, I stepped outside.

I stayed low hoping not to draw attention to myself as I put the first rag into the bottle. I carefully packed the rags in and let them soak up some alcohol. Once the alcohol had soaked up past the mouth of the bottle I picked it up and walked to the railing. It took a second for the zombies to notice me but very quickly they all were running towards me. Once it looked like most of them underneath me I leaned the rag away from the bottle and lit it. It flared to life instantly with a strong flame. I gave it a strong toss directly at the middle of the zombies and jumped back. I was just in time to avoid a nice gust of flame. Even through my outfit I could feel the wave of heat as well as a solid thump. I looked back over the railing and saw quite a few zombies smoldering on the ground and even more were simply standing there burning. The ones on fire did not seem concerned about it and had simply filled in the gap over those burning on the ground. To the left was a group mostly unharmed by the fire. I quickly put the second Molotov to use on them.

Within seconds of throwing the second one, the smell of burning rotten flesh wafted up to the second floor. It was not nearly as bad as the corpses in the apartment, but bad enough that I hurried inside and shut the door. Luckily, this smell did not seem to linger or permeate my clothes. I changed clothes and dried off and watched the smoke through the window until evening.

I left through one of the other apartment doors hoping the smell would not be able to waft back into my apartment. I looked over the railing to find a heap of charred remains. I had gotten almost every zombie! Only a few zombies were still active. A couple had only been mildly burned and a couple more managed to avoid any fire. They all quickly headed to where I was and looked hostilely up from the ground at me. There were a total of five which were still a threat. I decided to leave them to be dealt with tomorrow.

It is so awesome realizing how effective that was. I now know how to deal with masses of zombies. In the future I can set up zombie traps in alleys or other confined spaces so I can quickly eliminate large groups without wasting bullets. I still have enough alcohol for another Molotov or two and I am sure there is plenty more in the rest of the unopened apartments.

I am finally starting to get the upper hand in this new world.