Wausau zombie apocalypse comes to life 140 characters at a time

Two years ago, Wausau's zombie population came to life through a story spun by a Rib Mountain man. His tale has evolved 140 characters at a time.

With fall in the air, spooky stories show off their supernatural powers.

"Wausau Loner's world is just like ours except two years ago, zombies rose and killed 99% of the population," said David Coulthurst, who created the Wausau Loner on Twitter.

You may not be able to see zombies around town, but Coulthurst does. He's breathing new life into the world of the undead  -- one tweet at a time.

"It's a strange medium to work with both because it's so limited in terms of characters and because there's a real time factor to it," said Coulthurst. "If a tweet comes out at four in the morning, there's something happening at four in the morning."

Coulthurst uses real places to ground his stories, bringing a sense of reality to this parallel world.

"It's kind of a treat for people who live in that place to say, oh yeah, I work there or I drive past that place," said Coulthurst. "That would be a cool place to hide out from the zombies or that would be a death trap if the zombies rose up."

When he has time, Coulthurst drives around in search of details, smoothing the edges on a story he's spun for more than two years.

"I might look for fencing," said Coulthurst. "I might look for places you could get water, places that might be dangerous if you got in them and got stuck."

Most recently, Wausau Loner's travels have taken him to Mosinee, in search of others who may have survived the zompocalypse. As the two year anniversary of Z-day inches closer, memories of the world he used to live in haunt him.

"Halloween decorations from then are still up in his world," said Coulthurst. "For him it's a bad joke to come around and see a zombie who might have zombie make up on him or is wearing a Halloween costume."

Each day brings new discoveries in the saga -- some live and others die, but that's all part of the game. And even if the zombies catch you, there's always the chance to live again.