First of all, we’re getting more and more survivors checking in on the G.R.I.D. every day – at least, every day that the G.R.I.D.’s online. So keep the messages coming. Tell us where you are, what your situation is, and if you have any information that can help us in the fight. We’ve got some questions for a few of the survivors who’ve made contact, and some advice for others, so check the end of this post to see if you’re one of them.

For now, the most important advice I can give you is to stay where you are. Things are really getting strange out there.

You’ve heard about the helmets, right? As far as we can tell, that new behavior started near Falcon Rock. We don’t know what’s causing it, but the colonel saw it for the first time last September. We’ve all seen it since then – at least fifty individual cases.

Now there’s something else that’s new.

This is from Dr. Cole’s Medical Technician’s After Action Report.

Mission Date: 03 07 2010. Mission Objective: Capture & Retrieve. Mission Outcome: Negative.

TC: I was in the second Humvee with [Captain] Gil and [Sergeant] DiMarco. The way the colonel [Manwary] had planned it, we were supposed to go directly to the Pine Valley shopping mall outside Astoria. We’d cleaned out the pharmacy and Big 5 before Christmas, but the recovery teams were saying there were almost always ten to twenty of them lined up on the other side of the main road, just standing there. Gil pulled the town plans from the municipal center a few weeks ago, and turns out they’re standing right over buried powerlines. Power’s been off for months – not that it makes what they’re doing make any more sense, of course.

Anyway, since the colonel finally agreed to let me try and capture one – intact – that’s important, being intact – he said that getting one from the group lining up across from the mall would be the simplest mission. There’d always be a few of them there, and it saved his people from having to go inside structures looking for nests. We had nets, ropes, and Oxford was in that chain-mail shark-suit we got from the aquarium, so we were good to go. But when we took the turn-off from the highway onto the branch road, there it was – a schoolbus.

Now, keep in mind teams had been taking this route down from the Rock for at least six months. We’d get occasional reports of people seeing one or two of them along the way, but the roads were clear. Until now.

The colonel was in the first Humvee. I remember seeing white smoke come up from its tires when he had his driver – I think it was Corporal Lauzon [Interviewer note: The colonel’s driver that day was Private Coren] – hit the brakes.

By the book, we stopped twenty meters behind him – have to keep the separation, right? Colonel’s rules.

So, over the radio, the colonel tells us to stay in our vehicle, and he – being the hero, or being the guy with a death wish bigger than his ego – gets out to check the bus.

Now, me, with absolutely no experience in this sort of thing, even I’m thinking, this is a trap. Those things aren’t smart enough to pull off something like this, but I’m thinking the Pastor. He’s got the brains, and in those transmissions, it looks like his followers are doing what he tells them to do. Say amen. Right.

Anyway, the colonel’s out there, M-4 in hand, and he uses this little mirror thing – sort of like a dentist’s mirror – to check out the schoolbus. Seeing if anyone – or anything’s – crouched down under the windows.

He gives us the signal – bus is empty.

So he walks around to the back of the bus – later he said he was checking the tire tracks, trying to figure out where it had come from.

That’s when the second bus rolled into place. Behind us.

Okay. So now I know this is definitely a trap. Road’s blocked ahead, and now the second bus – municipal bus line – has rolled down from the trees at the side of the road and it’s blocking our way back.

Worst thing – there’s no sign of anyone. None of them. No survivors. Nothing. I know. Someone – something – pushed that bus out of the trees. Same people or things that rolled it up there in the first place. But that’s planning. And these things just can’t do that. They can’t.

Anyway, before that second bus had even stopped rolling, the colonel was on the run back to his Humvee and Oxford was on the radio telling us to hightail it.

That’s when we found out the ground at the side of the road had been soaked. Big time. Still don’t know how.

I was in Humvee two – I said that, right? Anyway, drove off the asphalt, over the gravel, onto the grass, and wham. When we hit the wet dirt, it was like the tires had fallen off or something, we stopped that fast.

The next few minutes were kind of crazy. Oxford and the colonel got the winch going on the first Humvee, pulled us back on the road. We’re moving doubletime. Gil’s emptying the fifty-caliber into the trees, left and right, but there’s nothing there.

Oxford gets the duty to use the mirror thing on the second bus. I’m thinking someone’s going to come charging out of the trees any second, screaming like Braveheart or some damn thing, but nothing happens. Do you get that? We’re caught in this trap – this clever, complicated, no-way-in-hell-we’re-getting-out-alive trap – and nothing comes out of the trees. Nothing.

The colonel aims his Humvee at the front-end of the muni bus – lighter there, engine’s in the back, and he just slams it out of the way and off we go, back to the Rock.

He sent a full team back the next day, in an APC, and nothing had changed. They pushed both buses off the road, then blew them up. Took most of the day and even with the infrared, there was no sign of any observers.

So that just leaves us with the same old questions, right? Why? Why are they here? What do they want? Are they as clueless as they seem, or smarter in some way we can’t recognize?

Anyway, bottom line is that I still don’t have one to study. At least, not an intact one. And after that bus thing, I don’t think the colonel’s going to be too quick about sending out a team to help me try to catch one.

So that’s it. My report. Six months into this, and all I’ve got are more questions.

END INTERVIEW

Cody back again. What can I say about what happened, other than to ask everyone out there to let us know if anything like this has happened anywhere else.

Before the G.R.I.D. faults out again, I have to get to a few personal messages.

Pat in Massachussetts – Thanks for the mitochondria info. I’ve been looking into the issue, too. On the one hand, excess mitochondria could be supplying the cells with more energy, but where’s that energy coming from in the first place?

Rob in San Diego and Nathan in San Luis Obispo – If you’re moving up the coast, be sure to head inland well before you reach San Francisco. It’s overrun. The last we heard from Alcatraz Island was that a ferry was drifting toward the shore, and it was full of them. That was three weeks ago. Alcatraz may have fallen.

James in England – Give us your location and we’ll try to link you up with other groups nearby. There’re a lot more of you than you may know. As for the powerlines, point taken. But like Dr. Cole says, why do they gather near them if there’s no power?

Thom in New Zealand – North or South Island? Every few days, we have sporadic contact with Major Leonova and her crew on ISS. They report they’ve observed electric lights still working in parts of Christchurch. Can you confirm?

Alan in Portland – How are your supplies holding out? You’re not far and there’s definitely room in Falcon Rock, but Oregon is knee-deep in them. The longer you can hold out in place, the safer you’ll be. Keep in touch.

And Jason – Do you have any idea what they’re doing with the bodies? We’re getting strange reports about the collection process from other parts of the country. We need confirmation. But stick with your binoculars! The ones that collect their dead – they’re fast! You don’t want to be out in the open.

Captain Gil’s powering down the generators for the night, so switching to radio.

Keep fighting!

We’ll talk again.

CJ