Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie (102 page)

Chris and several of his staff retrieved radio equipment from the undamaged vehicles and the tunnel room.

They're in the radio building. The door's shut and the window is closed. It's already eighty-nine degrees outside. I don't know how they can stand it in there.

Marisa's house and Pop's motorhome were still locked and untouched. I have no idea why. It may have something to do with the location of Marisa's house and the fake chicken feet Pop hung above his door to ward off “those that believe in such a thing.” I didn't asked where he got those chicken feet and I probably don't wanna know. I'd guess he used them to prank some of his old fishin' buddies. Maybe he used them to fish for alligator. With Pop, you never know. He saves the strangest things.

Rona's and Josie's motorhomes were ransacked.

Our beautiful sectional and chaise was gutted and raped. It's beyond repair. I asked Emma if she wanted to save the leather but she declined and I don't blame her. Pop said “hold up a minute
,” and he pulled the sectional from the wall and cut the leather off the back. I'm sure he has plans for it.

Everything we left in the refrigerator and both freezers was devoured by the North Korean's.

We took most of the meat to the tunnel and put it in coolers full of ice before they came, but we didn't have room for it all.

The reefer trailer was left empty and the switch was off. We hoped they'd believe it was just an empty trailer. I guess it worked, because there was no damage. The only thing they did to it was leave the door open. Anyway, it's on and cooling down.

The reefer trailer for the unit is still good. It's still full of meat and other frozen products. Thank you Lord!

One of the supply trucks carrying dry goods survived as well. The other was destroyed and it makes me sick to see all the little food packages ruined and laying around on the ground. We need to get out there and go through those packages. I'll bet some of it's still good.

I've been sitting in front of the fan and typing on this thing for 30 minutes now.

I need to get my rear in gear,

See ya later.

2:45 PM...

The big propane cooker is amazing. We were able to make enough beans and rice for everyone with two pots on the cooker and two pots on the stove in the house. The pots on the propane cooker make our big stock pots look tiny. That thing is truly made for mass production.

The large grill is hooked up as well. We'll be able to make a lot of sausage, bacon and powdered eggs in the morning.

We're still getting over three gallons of milk a day from the goats and we've been sharing with the soldiers as best we can. You should see their faces when they taste real milk instead of powdered stuff. It's priceless and makes me happy to have the goats, again.

Those does deserve an extra cup of food every once in a while, but we just can't do it. We must pay close attention to efficient rationing of the animal feed.

I have a new bed. Well, not a new, new bed, but it's new to me.

The furniture stores still have furniture inside, but a lot of it has been damaged and vandalized not to mention that HDI's have broken the windows and black goo is all over most of the floor model stuff.

The men were able to get a good bit of furniture from the storage areas
, but there wasn't enough to fill our order, so they began looting houses and second story apartments. The crew headed back out after lunch to get the last of what we need.

They came across two furniture stores that had already been looted. They also came across a lighting store that was missing all
the lamps. Mick guesses that the folks from Times Nine Farm or another group have been busy in town.

Mick said there are still HDI's in town
, but you have to look hard to find them. The residential area between town and the rock quarry is more populated with HDI's than downtown proper.

They also ran into a few HDI's inside houses.

Rona, Elaine, Marisa, and the teens went to look through the remains of the dry goods truck that was destroyed in the battle. Marisa had to leave and come back up the hill because she felt nauseous and light-headed, probably from her pregnancy.

The “expert
s” say the garden produce hasn't been tampered with. Pop said he could a told 'em that because there were no foot prints or evidence of someone trying to hide footprints in the garden. They may have missed the garden completely. There's several trees and a lot of weeds between here and there and the garden is on a little plateau. They may have ignored it because their bellies were full from eating the cows. Who knows? I'm just thankful it's still there.

Chris let it slip that a large truck from home base will arrive sometime during the night.

Josie said it'll be full of gas masks. Here we go again.

I'm tired of the damn secrets. If we need gas masks, I wanna know about it now. What reason is there for holding back until the truck arrives? It's ridiculous and I told Chris that I didn't appreciate it one little bit. Of course, he didn't give a hoot about what I thought and I got no more information. I guess we'll find out more when the truck arrives.

Someone's calling for help outside!

See ya later.

10:00 PM...

We have Isaac back and he's in rough shape, but Velma says he'll live.

He was walking down the road toward the compound when he was spotted by a guard in the left guard tower. The guard saw a man, stumbling down the road, and was just about ready to take him out. He thought Isaac was an HDI before he looked through the sites on his rifle.

He sent a truck to pick up Isaac and drive him the short distance back to the compound and up the hill. Velma had to examine him because the unit doctor was killed in the battle.

He's dehydrated and suffering f
rom dysentery. He has a through-and-through gunshot wound in the palm of his left hand. His shirt was wrapped around it. Velma removed the shirt, and the hand looks and smells terrible. Velma believes she can save his hand if she can get the infection under control.

He's hooked up to IV antibiotics and fluids found in the remains of the unit's medical tent. She's fully prepared to remove the hand if she needs to. Isaac says she'd have to do it over his dead body.

While she worked on him, he told us what happened and where he's been.

He left with Ian, Rick, and “a
bunch a other guys” to take care of a few NK soldier's who'd escaped. He has no idea how many men are with them, but he says they're taking out NK's left and right.

There was a gunfight with four NK soldiers who had stopped to rest on the other side of the mountain. Rick found them, and the group planned their attack. The four NK's were killed but not before one of them put a bullet through Isaac's hand. Several hours later, Isaac became ill and knew he needed medical attention.

Rick sent two men to escort him back to the compound.

He told them to stay out of sight, get Isaac back, and return to the group. The men escorted Isaac over the mountain and through the woods until they were about 50 yards from the compound.

They stayed inside the tree-line and sent Isaac walking down the road, knowing that our guards would look through their sites before shooting.

I suppose they've headed back to Rick and Ian now. Isaac says that Rick and Ian are both doing fine but they're crazy determined to kill every NK they can find. He has no idea when they'll return.

The looting crew returned with the rest of the furniture we needed.

Carisa got bunk beds in her room because Merry belongs to us now. I intend to treat her as my own. I owe it to Soo and Hisa. They saved us so many times.

Valerie's very attached to Lisa and will be living with her.

Tim Stein has recruited a group of men to use the lumber mill and build a new little house for Lisa since she was living in Isaac's old building and it was damaged beyond repair.

Tim needs help getting the frame up. He plans to take siding, insulation, and sheetrock from the ckd's house or the home where we found the canning jars. It'll have two rooms and be larger than her previous building. She and Valerie will be living with Ian and Shawna until the house is complete.

Mick says they'll be bringing home little
buildings to replace Pao's and the two buildings the Wilkerson’s were using.

Isaac said he'll need a new building because there's no way in hell he's leaving with the unit.

Velma will need a new building for Clinic Diane.

The attached building she was using for living quarters made it through
, but the clinic with all the rustic cabinets was destroyed.

Three soldiers have asked to join the compound instead of leaving with the unit.

There is one young woman and two men who were either retired, or close to it.

We said we'd love to have them because we need more hands
, and having ex-military folks around won't hurt a bit.

Chris will allow them to stay. I'll have Josie see to that. Anyway, that's three more little buildings we need.

Most of the space left in the basement has been taken up by furniture awaiting new owners. Carisa isn't happy about it because it makes it hard for her to get around down there, but she'll just have to live with it for now.

Three military cooks survived the battle and they'll take over the cooking with the aid of Nana, Emma, and Elaine. The rest of us will rotate as assistants if needed.

Most meals will be prepared in the new little kitchen building. Thankfully, they'll be using supplies from the unit's reefer trailer and surviving dry goods truck.

Jeremy's building, hidden in the tree-line
and covered with new growth provided by Mother Nature, was undamaged. I'll bet he's snug as a bug in a rug there right now.

Tomorrow's another day
and we'll be concentrating on fixing ourselves and welcoming our new members. I'll introduce them as soon as I get their names.

Mick's already asleep on our new bed and I'm heading there myself. I wanna touch him as much as possible before he leaves again.

I'm ready for the gas mask truck to arrive. That news has been bothering me all day.

Bye for now.

Friday, May 16

The gas mask truck arrived while I was sleeping. I didn't even hear it come in.

Chris scheduled a meeting for 1:30 PM. Every member on the compound and every soldier not on watch has been ordered to attend.

Four wooden buildings arrived before breakfast. The looting crew took it upon themselves to go out for them before dawn and left Mick sleeping in my bed. I love those soldiers! Anyway, they're back out for more so they can make it here in time for lunch and the big meeting.

Chris took a crew to check out the rock quarry for himself and decide if it's ready for bombing. I expect him back any minute now.

We haven't heard from Rick and Ian's group. I'm worried about them and Shawna is royally ticked off at Ian. I wonder how long they'll chase NK's. Please Lord, don't let them get killed.

I hear the lumber mill going strong on the hillside. I'll bet they have that sucker framed up by tomorrow afternoon, maybe sooner.

I got the
short stories on our new compound members this morning.

Destiny Blankenship is twenty-eight years old. She's originally from Jacksonville, Florida. She joined the military when she was twenty-one.

She planned to become a doctor
, but had no idea what she wanted to specialize in. She wanted to wait until rotations to decide. She was working on her basic associate’s degree when her parents were killed in a car wreck.

There was no will, so she had to drop out of school because she had no money to pay tuition
, and her parent’s income from the previous year prevented her from being eligible for a grant. She refused to take out a student loan and went to work as a waitress.

The estate was tied for a year before she was able to get it settled. When all was said and done, she got a few family heirlooms and ten acres of land with a house trailer. Her parents were deep in debt and the debt collectors got the small amount of money they'd saved.

Her older brother also received ten acres of land which he promptly sold and used the money to feed his drug habit. His inheritance was gone within a month.

She decided to join the military and save enough money for medical school.

Seven years later, boom! The apocalypse came and all her savings are gone. She has medical training as a corpsmen and worked in a military hospital doing triage for one of the clinics. She's been with the unit since the world collapsed, and she's had enough of the constant travel. Guess who Velma’s new assistant is.

Monty Lollar is fifty years old. He was into his third year of retirement when the world collapsed and he was recalled. He was a Marine and he's been to Afghanistan and Iraq four times. He works with munitions and says he has a talent to rig things up and make 'em work. He's also good with small engine repair, but he says he's mostly a “grunt.”