Our team sticks together. We take in some neighbours and children. We refuse to close ourselves off from the world, but remain vigilant. We see the world being torn apart via the TV screen. We hear the bombs and the fighting that echo around the world. We experience a few attacks by humans who want to take our resources. The fortress is well designed. It is defended by experienced military personnel. Our losses are minimal. We burn the dead with dignity so that they do not feed the infected.

Mortality is not the same on the rest of the world. The few bits of information we glean indicate millions of deaths. The countries bordering the infected countries drop their bombs without mercy on the population and then take over the territories and wealth. The few who survive are killed by the others out of greed. The dead feed the infected. The infected swarm. They multiply and survive on the abundance of food.

It takes six months before we see the first infected at our walls. At night. Always at night. Humanoids and rats. None of them manage to get through the wall. The humanoids can't swim or can no longer swim. I discover the trap of the water ditch. No carnivorous bugs. Richard has installed an electrical device in the water. As soon as a living thing touches the water, it gets a shock strong enough to kill a bear on the spot. Then the body is decomposed by fish.

We capture other creatures for study. The biologist carries out some tests on human and animal corpses that we recover. Rat poison seems to have an effect on the bacteria. In low doses it kills the bacteria. But also the host on the few rats we test.

By sacrificing poor rats, we are able to establish the beginnings of an answer as to the incubation period, the development of the disease and the life span after contamination. We confirm that contamination can occur through contact with blood, urine, saliva and infected flesh.

Without a host, the bacteria self-destruct very quickly. If the host is not fed, it dies much faster. You have to hole up until the bacterium has no more hosts. This is not a good thing, as it is transmitted to a large number of warm-blooded creatures. Reptiles and fish seem to be spared. Carnivores or scavengers get infected by eating the flesh of infected animals. Others get infected by being bitten. Rats are the main infected animals. They are the most difficult to combat because of their numbers and natural aggressiveness.

We can find no effective disinfectant. No medication that slows down the progression. Some of our guests can no longer stand the confinement. They become reckless. They are attacked when they get too close to the forest or to abandoned houses. They get killed or contaminated. We isolate each suspect in our infirmary. The doctor and the biologist record their observations and conclusions.

At night we see more and more of the infected. We put the infected guests out of their misery by shooting them in the head. Then we burn their corpses. A horse bitten by a contaminated rat becomes a carnivore. We kill it without delay. We leave the front of the walls lit all night. Like a seaside lighthouse, to keep the rats out.

Richard makes traps during the day outside, for humanoids and animals. They are hungry. We'll feed them. With corpses full of rat poison. We'll use the horse as a staple for hungry zombies. Richard digs a huge pit. He points out the trap for any humans that might pass by. We throw in poisoned animal corpses or bits of the nag.

We observe the results. On the first night of trapping, we poison nine creatures and burn them in the morning. We start again immediately. Every night, for two months, we capture humanoids and animals. More and more every day. While our numbers are cruelly diminishing.

Ten months after the start of the war, there are only about twenty refugees left. There were almost a hundred of us at the beginning of the war. Our daytime expeditions in search of survivors do not bring us any new inhabitants. Despite the death of the doctor, we continue to experiment to learn as much as possible and try to find a cure. Endlessly. We have to. We broadcast on the CB airwaves all the battle information we discover. A recorded message broadcast in a loop. French, English, Spanish.

We discover that after contamination, a human takes ten days maximum to develop detectable symptoms. Increased hunger. Loss of coherence in speech or intellectual work. And above all, the first pustules of decay, and intolerance to light. Any torch aimed at the eyes causes screaming and pain. Reasoning and thoughtful actions are no longer possible one month after infection. Life expectancy varies according to the food available. If not fed, a human infected person dies after two months. Fed in quantity, it takes up to ten months.

From the few infected who agreed to serve as guinea pigs during their incubation period, we learned that they had a rapid loss of vision, compensated by a developed sense of hearing and smell. Sensitivity to loud sounds to the point of being disoriented very easily if loud music is played. You can escape if you play loud sounds to them, because they can no longer detect you. Moreover, loud sounds are painful. Especially if they are loud.

A loss of pain sensation and response to nerve stimuli except in the case of a light or thermal burn. The loss or injury of an arm, leg or stomach does not stop an infected person. Only a bullet in the head or decapitation stops it. Fire consumes the flesh to the last cell. A person who has just been bitten can avoid contamination if the wound is burned thoroughly within twenty minutes.

We want the survival of humans. So on our expeditions we leave written instructions on the walls of the houses to find a safe shelter and everything we learn as we go along. Thanks to the traps, we have a zone of about three kilometres in diameter around the farmhouse that is free of creatures. A buffer zone of two where numbers are low. This includes a supermarket, a petrol station, three pharmacies, a dozen places of refuge and a furniture shop. After that, it is considered a dangerous zone.

The production of electricity is not stopped for the moment. The water dam and the photovoltaic fields are working automatically. We are turning on as many lights as possible everywhere in order to prevent creatures from hiding and to secure as many places as possible. In strategic places such as shelters or useful shops, we broadcast techno to prevent the beasts from coming. We set traps regularly. Unfortunately, we can't live in autarky and have to carry out supply raids which cost us lives through attacks by zombies or belligerent humans. Often rats jumping on us. Damn rats.

A year after the war began, we were attacked on one of our expeditions by a group of belligerent survivors. A dozen trained mercenaries. Richard tries to parley, but they clearly have no desire to make survivors. We have to kill them before they find the house. While our group holds the position, Richard and I retreat to the rooftops. Richard and I are snipers. We kill them from a distance.

Our group eventually wins, but unfortunately some creatures take advantage of the fight to come out and feed. They attack us while we are being shot at by humans. The two groups of survivors are contaminated. Five of them run away at the end of the fight. There are fifteen of us, almost all contaminated. We are down to two in a month and a half. Me and Melia.

Richard was contaminated while protecting me from a rat. He lasted the longest before losing his humanity. A month and a half before he lost control of his actions. Of his humanity. I shot each survivor the day they could no longer speak. Richard was the last one I killed. I did not cry as I burned his body. But inside I was destroyed. I had lost a father, someone I love for the third time. Moreover, it was my bullet that had finished him off. I made it my mission to exterminate the rats and the group of belligerents.

Melia and I are organizing ourselves to survive as best we can with our animals. We adopted a shepherd dog crossed with a sled dog. We found him as a baby. His mother brought him to our feet. She was badly injured. She must have been attacked by zombies. She must have known what was going to happen to her. She brought us six puppies and then ran away. Five of them were contaminated, probably by her milk or saliva. Killer was the only healthy one. He became our most valuable ally. He has a better ear and warns us when danger is approaching. He is an asset in our daily life. He has enabled us to escape in time several times and hates rats as much as I do.

We have plenty of food and weapons. We continue to trap. The number of infected seems to be decreasing slightly. The poisoned creatures are getting weaker and hungrier. More and more at the end of their lives. There are very few recent infected. No humanoids around the farmhouse. Nothing but rat filth.

Six months. Six months just the two of them. Six months without seeing another human. Without having heard the presence of anyone else via the TV, the radio, a plane or the many wall messages. Six months of broadcasting the latest information on the bacteria over and over again. In French. In English, which is sometimes approximate. For Spanish, we tried to make sentences with the help of a dictionary and phonetic pronunciation. As good as it gets. Better something incomplete than nothing at all. We tell ourselves that we are saving lives. Survival is also about keeping your mental strength. I'm holding on for Melia. So that she doesn't give up. Nevertheless, we let our madness run free little by little.