Free Zomblog: Snoe's Journey by TW Brown

mattered. They had no way to cross. A few of them even jumped in and were swept away in the reddish-brown slurry in an attempt to escape the slaughter that came quick.
    I have to wonder…which path would I take given the choice? The killing was, as I said, swift. Yet, some chose to take a chance and risk a much slower death by drowning or simply being pulverized against one of the large rocks that jut up from the water.
    The will to survive is an interesting thing.
     
    Thursday, August 11 th
     
    Plumes of smoke from the fires burning in Las Vegas came into view the day after we eliminated that small group of soldiers. It only took us a little over two hours to fashion the narrow bridge that we laid across the water in order to cross. I will not deny that it seemed far too narrow for my liking. Mato did not seem to notice.
    Anyways, we resumed our journey, and the next morning, not only could you see the fingers of smoke reaching into the sky, I swear that you could smell it. The city/state of Las Vegas was one more day’s ride away.
    I imagine this would be about as close as Meredith came.
    Angel said that we would spend one extra day camped in order to come in and strike General Carson under cover of darkness. It seemed like as good of a plan as any.
    That night, scouts were sent. When they returned, it was not with good news. General Carson and his army were nowhere to be found.
    Vegas is gone.
    It was inconceivable to me how such a thing could happen. And since they were not making any efforts to conceal themselves, it was no secret as to which way they were heading.
    North.
    I wanted to go see for myself, but Angel said we did not have time. If this force could obliterate a settlement the size of Las Vegas, I guess they are even bigger and scarier than we thought.
    What I managed to discover from listening to the scouts is that it looks as if the fires inside the walls became too great. The undead are everywhere and one of the walls looks to have been breached.
    The bits I heard revealed that Vegas did in fact have a power grid in place. Also, outside of the lands of the Confederated Tribes, this was apparently the largest community known. Again, we can only suppose, because there has been nothing from east of the country in over a decade. It is almost as if a line runs from what used to be Minnesota, all the way down to Louisiana.
    The speculations are varied, and most have to do with radiation. Although California had nuclear power plants as well and no such reports ever came from down there. But honestly, considering the fact that we live in a world where travel is kept to a minimum, I could not begin to tell you where fact separates from fiction.
    But back to the destruction of Las Vegas. It seems as if one of the walls was breached, allowing thousands of the undead that had been gathered outside the walls to pour inside. Even if there were survivors within, it would not be possible to help. There are just too many zombies.
    None of this makes any sense.
    If I was leading an army and wanted to conquer the population, what good would it do to just wipe everybody out? Who does this General Carson think he will be leading?
    We got back on the move and had no trouble finding his trail. He obviously does not feel the need to cover his tracks. That is the funny thing about being arrogant; you open yourself to being taken down simply because you do not believe that such a thing can occur.
    The little history that I do know has more than enough examples of such things. Egypt, Rome, the American Revolution. Talk to enough of the old timers, and a lot of them felt that the United States was on such a course.
    When you think about it, humanity as a whole suffered from that same delusion. I can only go by what I have heard, and even by what is in Sam’s and Meredith’s journals. Humanity thought it was invincible…all the way up until the scale tipped over and zombies became the majority.
    So we rode hard until we spotted