Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie (34 page)

They use
each other’s bodies to climb over anything blocking their way, including buildings. They'll take down a good-sized building to get to any live person inside. If there are no obstacles, they travel in a group about fifty-feet wide at the front.

The
HDI's at the front are bizarre. They stay in formation, marching forward. They seem to have some intelligence because they step aside and allow the horde to form an HDI ladder before using them to climb over anything of substantial height.

There's a motorcycle gang traveling
behind the horde. They occasionally use the slower horde members for target practice, but scoot away on their bikes when several horde members try to come at them at once. They're more dangerous than the horde because they will kill anyone, other than their own members, who tries to escape or fight the horde. They loot and burn any building in their path as well. For some reason, the front portion of the horde ignores them, and vice-versa.

Adam's group
joined forces with four other groups in the city to fight against both the horde, and the gang. They were completely over run and barely got out alive. Adam's group lost three of their six members. The remaining members took refuge in a junk yard to wait out the horde's passing.

Adam found the diesel motorhome along with several empty metal drums behind the junkyard office. They strapped six of the cleanest looking drums t
o the sides of the motorhome.

They've been looting any diesel vehicle they come across and adding the fuel to either the motorhome tank, or the metal barrels, as needed. The barrels on one side are for fuel and the barrels on the o
ther side carry water.

They're trying to make it to the mid-western plains because of wide open spaces, low population, and abundantly rich farm lan
d. I pray they make it safely.

The horde is headed straight for us and will be here in less than two days.

Jeremy's headed to the Masterson place to tell them to get here as fast as they can because we are all in serious danger and need to have a meeting to discuss our options.

Jesse
went across the road to get Dane and Elaine, and I sent Carisa to Clinic Diane for Hisa and Valerie. Everyone else is already here.

We have several major problems but he biggest of them all is the size of the horde and the fact that we don't have
anywhere near enough ammo and competent shooters to put up a fight. We are all terrified.

1:00 PM...

It's been de
cided.

Everyone here will move everything we can to Pop and Nana's house until the horde
and gang have passed our hill.

Mick says, if we had more hands and the fence was fortified, we would stay here and fight. We have to use common sense and try to keep our families safe from something this big. We were lucky to get a warning and we intend to heed that warning. We ar
e not heroes. We're survivors.

We'll put any food we can't carry inside the tornado shelter and try to disguise the entrance. Dane says he'll rig it with some sort of explosive device he plans to make from things in the
basement and the garden shed.

He wants to place several
devices on the hillside. Marisa's old house trailer will be set to explode, as will the Hobbs house.

Dane is pure, all-out, wild man crazy and plans to stay and protect "our home." He'll be up in the tree tops with his guns ready. He'll also have the AR-15 and a bow
with several flammable arrows.

I didn't even know we had flammable arrows. Mick probably got them at a yard sa
le. I hope they're still good.

Elaine is about to give birth to a calf because she doesn't want Dane to fight. I don't blame her. I don't want him to
fight either, and I'm not even the one that's been "taking care" of him.

The Masterson's refuse to go anywhere
and say they have a large safe-room in their home. They'll pack it full of supplies and stay inside. I think the pond and creek will protect them somewhat but I'm sending up a request to Jesus for their safety.

We'll take every vehicle we have, including Pop's motorhome and Clinic Diane, along with us. They'll be packed with food, clothing, linens, and personal supplies. The trucks and Jeep will be packed with tools, firewood, gardening equipment, water troughs, and any other
outdoor equipment we can fit.

The Kubota in Jason's tractor shed will be loaded onto the fla
tbed trailer and taken along.

We'll load all the goats into the little goat trailer and take them with us. We can keep them in the empty stalls of Pop's barn
.

The chickens will come as well.

We'll take Buttercup if we have time to come back and get her, otherwise, she'll be turned loose to fend for herself. We have no way to carry her because the trailers will be full when we head out..

While the women are packing up the trucks and motorhomes,
the men will be creating, hopefully, a big problem for the HDI's and the gang.

There's a strip of land that's about twenty feet wide between the fence and the road, so there's plenty of room for a small "land moat" of sorts. They'll dig the moat as deep as they can before the horde is due to arrive. Mick's hoping to get down
three or four feet along the entire length. I doubt that happens, but they'll give it their best shot.

Tarps will be placed along the floor of the moat and pools of gasoline will be ready for Dane's flaming arrows. I told them to remember that Adam says the HDI's will climb each other and they'll come right up the sides of the moat. Mick says the moat is mostly for the gangs and their motorcycles. Hopefully
, a few of them will drive into the moat and be devoured by any HDI in there with them.

Pop and Mr. Hobbs plan to cut old bamboo canes from my big patch of bamboo at the rear of our property. They'll cut them into twelve-inch lengths and sharpen the ends. These "stakes" will be buried six inches deep all along the fence perimeter with the sharp end pointed up to puncture motorcy
cle tires and tear up HDI feet.

When the horde is due, Mick and Jason will be in the S10 on the o
utside perimeter to wait for them to appear. When they see the horde, they'll send up a gunshot to notify Dane, then skedaddle back to Pop's house by taking some of the dirt roads we have around here.

Everyone's out there doing what they need to be doing. I don't have time to write anymore. I'm heading
out to move an entire hillside. See ya later.

11:50 PM...

I'm wired up. I can't sleep because
there's too much to do.

After the meeting broke
, we began filling Pop and Nana's motorhome with all the food we could fit inside. We finally got it full about thirty minutes ago. There's not even room for Nana in there, so she'll be riding along with me in the Jeep.

I'll be a "people mover" and so will Marisa. She and I will be carrying anyone who isn't driving something else.

Pop and Mr. Hobbs have a big pile of bamboo stakes, ready to install. The older kids will bury them along the fence perimeter as well as the opposite side of the road. Jeremy and Jesse will have their weapons handy in case any trouble appears. They're using my bulb planting tool to make the holes deep enough.

I'm nervous about the girls working that close to t
he road, but it has to be done.

I'm praying the horde and gang will pass through during the night. Please Lord, let there be big black clouds covering the moon when they pass through. Bette
r yet, let it be pouring rain!

Dane spent the majority of today between the basement and the garden shed. He can't do any digging because he's still too weak and we don't want him to pass out or relapse
any further.

Every available hand will be busy digging the moat tomorrow. The rest of us will be packing up Clinic Diane and the vehicles. I'm taking my laptop because I'll go crazy if I can't write. P
op has a small generator there, so I’ll be able to fire this thing up.

I'm heading back out to see what I can get ready to send o
ur first thing in the morning.

I don't know if I'll have time to write tomorrow since we plan to be o
n our way right after supper.

Bye for now.

Sunday, February 23

9:45 AM...

I'm just popping in to say hello. Gotta run.

6:00 PM...

We're
getting the last of it packed heading out. I'm here to grab this computer. See ya at Pop's house.

10:00 PM...

We got here about three hours ago. All I can do now is write, worry, and wait. Mick pulled a good one on me. I hope he lives to regret it. I pray he lives to regret it!

I've been furious, sad, upset, sick, worried, enraged and anything else you can think of during the past three hours. I've screamed, cried, sulked, and thrown a few things as well.

Mick drove the S10 over with the rest of us. He was last in line. I thought he was gonna make sure we got here safely and head back out with Jason to wait for the horde to appear and warn Dane.

He stopped the S10 near the house and I saw Jason come flying out of the passenger side and hit the ground. His face was as red as a beet. Mick went speeding out of the driveway without saying a word to anyone. He left Jason to explain. Poor Jason!

On the ride over, Mick told Jason his plan to back-up Dane. He said he felt he had a responsibility to protect our home so we'd have some place safe to come back to. Jason wanted to go with him but Mick refused and told Jason to take care of the rest of us if anything happened to him. Jason argued the entire way here.

When Mick brought the S10 to a stop, Jason tried to jump out and let me know what Mick was planning. When Jason opened the passenger door, Mick raised a booted foot and sent him flying out of the truck. There was no chance to stop him. He sped away.

The horde should be there around daybreak. I think I'm going to need a Xanax of the blue variety and I don't think I'll sleep a wink.

It's so crowded in this house that I probably couldn't find a place to lay down even if I wanted too.

Carisa's upset as well. She's pulled herself into a little ball and is sleeping in one of Nana's fluffy chairs. I need to tell her to find a spot to lay down, or she'll be sore and cramped up when she wakes.

Well, since I'm not sleeping, I guess I can tell you what we did before we left today.

We got as many linens as we could
into Clinic Diane.

We packed all our pots and pans, cooking utensils, dishes, and other food service items including any small electrical appliance that the generator might run. We also packed more of our food and all of our small water containers.

We had a plethora of backpacks and suitcases full of clothing and personal items to pack as well.

We got Pop's seedlings, and he took one of the greenhouses apart and stuffed it in. Soo drove Clinic Diane.

We had four wheelbarrow loads of food we didn't have room for, so we took it to the tornado shelter.

Jesse cut a door in the back of the tractor shed so Buttercup could get shelter if she needs it. He untied her rope and she stayed right there, in the field, to graze the areas she hasn't got
ten to yet.

The guys put a makeshift tree stand in a big oak tree just inside the tree-line. It's a perfect spot because it overlooks the entire front of the property. That will be Dane's perch fo
r viewing the road and hillside, and storing his small arsenal.

We put tools from the garage and all our smaller gas cans in the truck beds. We added all of our chemicals, topsoil, pots, potting soil, and fertilizer.

We loaded the Kubota onto the flatbed trailer and filled space around it with our empty blue water barrels. Jeremy drove the truck down to the pool and siphoned water directly into the barrels. The men strapped the Kubota and the water barrels down to the trailer.

Dane loaded the propane tank from Clinic Diane on back of the hoist truck. He said Mr. Hobbs could drive it to Pop and Nana's.

The moat is almost three feet deep and there are small tarps arranged for gasoline pooling on the floor. We left three full gas cans for Dane to pour in the moat when he hears Mick's warning shot.

The older kids got 129 bamboo stakes in place along the fence line and the opposite side of the road.

Dane came inside around 5:00 and told us that no one is allowed anywhere on the hillside except for a straight path down the driveway to their assigned vehicle. Mick and the guys had the vehicles lined up and ready to pull out.

Dane told us that the tornado shelter, Marisa's old house trailer, and the Hobbs
house have been rigged with explosives. He then disappeared with several cans of pork 'n beans, a gallon jug of water, his multi-tool, and a plastic Spork. We didn't see him again.