Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie (41 page)

It takes
21 days for chicks to hatch, and we'll need to have a heat lamp in the coop because it's still cold outside. I have several heat lamps that I use during kidding season. We'll need a generator and Pop said we could take the small one from his house.

Dane came back with a couple of pretty good ideas and some great news. He found a backhoe
, but has to figure out how to get it here because he doesn't think our flatbed trailer is strong enough to carry its weight.

He also found a lumber yard with a huge amount of logs stacked along each side
of the large path down the middle. He says there's probably a log splitter in the main building but he doesn't know how much power it'll take to run it. It'll probably be built in and industrial sized, and he doubts we can get it here.

It'd save a lot of time if our guys don't have to fall trees for logs. The problem will be loading the heavy logs onto one of the log trucks at the lumber yard. We can hot wire the log truck if we can't find the keys, but Dane didn't see a
truck with a loading device. Hopefully, they can do it with the backhoe. We'll need 11 or 12 logs to get 10 feet of fence.

Dane says he'll worry about that after he gets concrete from both Lowe's stores. He wants to
go to the first one tomorrow. He plans to store the concrete in our garage and basement. I told him to look for gas ovens as well.

Jason brought
home the gas oven and all the canning jars from the little old man and woman's house across the woods today. Marisa was very happy.

Pop and Mr. Hobbs finished spreading goat manure.

I feel like a gazillion things are going on at the same time. See ya later.

11:00 PM...

Jesse and Deuce were fishing when two HDI's came walking out of the Masterson's pond this afternoon. Jesse said they looked like no other HDI he's seen. They were massively bloated and purple
, like a dead body that's been in water for a while. Their skin was stretched until it was somewhat translucent.

He was stunned, and his first shot hit one of them in the chest instead of the head. Deuce said the HDI popped like a water balloon and sprayed goo and black water everywhere. Jesse said their voices were low and their snarling sounds had turned to growling sounds.
We told them not to bother fishing there anymore because none of us will eat anything that comes from that pond.

Deuce wants to know if we have
a pistol he can use. I'll have to talk to Toni and Pop about it. He's only twelve years old. I don't know what the right decision would be.

Jeremy's been spending a lot of time at the Masterson place. He and Rebecca "enjoy
each other’s company." He doesn't spend a minute alone when he's splitting wood and working there. I told Mick to give him some of the condoms we brought back from Walgreens. He's 21 and she's 19. Something's bound to happen when they spend time alone, if it hasn't already. That's really none of my business, I suppose.

Mick's driving me completely bonkers. He wants to get out
of the house and work so badly that he can hardly stand it. He's annoying everyone that comes in the house.

Hisa says he can try to do
a little light work in another day or two. He's off the pain medication and says he feels good. His wounds are healing nicely. He's getting around pretty good and plans to abandon the cane tomorrow.

The men
were talking about utility poles again. Jason said that the average telephone pole is forty feet long with six feet buried in the ground, but a better rule of thumb is to bury one-third of whatever pole you're planting. He got that information from a job he had before he met Marisa.

I'm pretty sure we'll use the logs at the lumber company if we can get them, even though they aren't treated.

I told Mick that Lilac and Geraldine need to get out of the barn and into a field for grazing. He rolled his eyes and said he'd have Jesse, Deuce, and Jeremy start on it tomorrow unless Dane needs them for digging.

They have one side of a fence finished already because they plan to use the chain-link fencing that's along the side of the compound. The cows will have to shelter under trees until we have time to build another barn.

We had smoked ham from the house across the woods along with green beans, rice, and rolls for supper. We had lots of ham left. Nana said she'll use it for ham biscuits in the morning and ham sandwiches with homemade bread for lunch.

I have supper duty and I haven't yet decided what I'll make. I'm leaning towards beef burrito's since I wanna use the ground beef we got from Caleb's house before we open any more
home canned ground beef.

I think I have two more packages of flour
tortillas in the downstairs freezer. After those are gone, we'll have to make tortillas from scratch.

The freezer downstairs is bare in some spots and I told the kids
to fill the empty spots with water in two-liter bottles. That'll help keep the efficiency level up in the freezer.

Dane wants his and Jason's lunch "to go," tomorrow. Elaine will take care of packing it for them.

I'm yawning, so I think I'll head to bed.

Bye for now.

Wednesday, March 5

It's 8:30 AM and I only have a few minutes to write.

Jeremy came up the hill late this morning. He spent the night at the Masterson house, so we didn't think anything of it when he didn't show up for breakfast.

It's cold this morning, so h
e decided to build a fire and warm up the front room before everyone else in the Masterson house crawled out of bed. He walked into the garage where the family keeps their firewood and saw something large hanging from the ceiling in a back corner. He went to investigate.

It was Toni Masterson. She hung herself.

The first thought that came to my twisted brain was that we wouldn't be eating any more peppermint oatmeal. Someone needs to slap me, hard.

Toni left a suicide note and Jeremy brought it with him for me and Mick to read.

She wrote that she couldn't stand to live without David any longer, and she couldn't bear her life the way it's been since the world collapsed. She listed all her valuable jewelry and property and where it was physically located.

She left the house and property to Rebecca and Deuce. Rebecca will have full owner
ship until Deuce turns eighteen. Then, the house and property will be half his. If Rebecca sells the house, half the money will be put into a trust fund for Deuce to withdraw when he turns eighteen.

If the world never goes back to normal, she trusts that Rebecca will do the right thing and give Deuce half of "anything of value" that comes from the benefit of owning the house and property. Deuce will be able to
claim half the property and live in the house, or build his own on the property, when he turns eighteen.

The note told Rebecca that, if she loved Jeremy, she should marry him before allowing him to
take up permanent residency there. They have "have her blessing to marry and raise many children."

David has a brother who, last she knew, lived in Boston with his wife and three children. They are "well established," and
have no need or desire for the Alabama property. David and his brother were estranged and haven't spoken in seven years. She wrote that they are to have nothing to do with raising Deuce because they are "narrow-minded and hateful people."

Until he turns eighteen, she leaves guardianship of Deuce to Mick and myself. Jeremy says he's packing now, to come and live with us.

This is too much, too fast.

Mick's jaw is almost laying on the floor and I'm right there with him.

Jeremy wants to marry Rebecca and Deuce is coming to live with us.

Oh, crap!

2:00 PM...

Toni Masterson is buried beside her beloved husband. Pop said a few words and we all said the Lord's Prayer before heading back up the hill. Nana made lunch and there was barely any conversation to go along with it.

Rebecca and Jeremy went back inside the Masterson house and didn't come up for lunch. The marriage idea hasn't been mentioned again. I'm sure they'll talk about it when they're good and ready
. I don't plan to push them on the subject. Surely, they aren’t serious about it. They barely know one another.

All the kids
, except Deuce, are at Marisa's house and it’s very quiet around here. Hisa's at Clinic Diane and Nana's in the motorhome. Pop and Mr. Hobbs are working on the garden spot and everyone else is either gone, or working on whatever they had originally planned for the day. Mick is dozing in front of the fire.

Deuce is in Marisa's old bedroom. We saw him at lunch and haven't heard from him since. We all understand why. It must extremely difficult to lose a parent, and he's lost two.

I have no idea how to raise a boy. I had two girls, and raising boys is somewhat of a mystery to me. Mick and I both agree that we'll do the best we can for him, and we told him so. He only nodded as he headed down the hall to his new room.

I still plan to make
burritos for supper. Valerie will be my helper and I'm looking forward to spending time with her. She runs around the place just like Carisa and Merry. On occasion, she stares into space. You may have to repeat whatever you've said during those spells. She snaps out of it pretty quick and goes right back to whatever task she was working on before her mind wandered.

I'm gonna knock on Deuce's do
or and see if he needs anything. Then, I'm gonna straighten up the house and clean the bathrooms before I have to fix supper.

I hope Dane and Soo get back from Lowe's soon. I feel nervous about having people off the compound today.

See ya later.

11:30 PM...

I don't know where to begin.

Something horrific happened this evening. I can't think of any word strong enough to describe it. I'll be as brief as I can before I go on to the other news of the day.

Jeremy came in the front door about an hour before supper. There was snot and tears running down his face and he had trouble catching his breath long enough to tell me what had happened.

Mick was napping in the bedroom and Deuce was still in his new
bedroom.

I'd heard several gunshots earlier, but I thought it was Jesse and Jason having target practice because Jason had planned for a little pistol training with Jesse while they worked on the cattle fence.

Jeremy and Rebecca were sitting in front of the fire at the Masterson house when they heard noises. Jeremy thought it was us, bringing food or something. He went to the door and opened it.

There were three HDI's digging in Toni Masterson's grave.

They had her body out and were eating her as they fought over pieces of meat they'd pulled free. There was a fourth HDI dragging one of her arms and head into the tree-line.

Jeremy turned to grab his rifle and found Rebecca standing behind him, watching the HDI's with a shocked look on her face. He told her to
stay in the living room while he took care of the HDI's

He said his mind was as clear as it's ever been. He shot the three HDI's smack dab in the center of their foreheads. He began looking for the one that had disappeared into the woods with Toni Masterson's arm and head.

He quickly located the HDI by following a bloody trail through the leaves where the monster had dragged the body parts.

It
was sitting on a rock in the middle of the woods, trying to pull flesh off the severed arm with its teeth. There was another HDI headed straight toward it.

He shot both HDI's and
grabbed the arm, but he couldn't find the head. He heard howling coming from further back in the woods and he turned and ran back to the house. He left the arm beside the destroyed grave before going inside.

Before he entered the house, he heard Rebecca screaming. His heart dropped and he thought he was
gonna pass out.

Rebecca was lying on the rug in front of the fire, screaming at the top of her lungs. He finally got her calmed down en
ough to stop screaming. Her body began jerking with loud, uncontrollable, sobs while she rocked back and forth. Her eyes were distant, like she didn't even know he was there. He held her and talked softly for several minutes before she emotionally came back to him.

He told her he was going out to take care of the grave and head up the hill to let us know what the gunshots were about. He left her softly crying, but coherent, in front of the fire.

There were parts of Toni Masterson and the clothing she'd been wearing spread all around the area. He kicked the HDI bodies off the grave and began gathering bones, organs, and other pieces of Mrs. Masterson to bury again. He searched for several minutes and couldn't find the arm he'd brought back through the woods. He was struck with terror.

The sun was going down. It took him a good bit of time to find every piece he could before he was satisfied enough to fill in the grave and run up the hill to our house.

On the way here, he fell apart. He's beside himself over the fact that the arm he placed beside the grave is missing. He's afraid Rebecca will find it when she's out in the yard, or that there are HDI's hiding and watching the house.

I was holding him and rubbing his head when I looked up and saw Deuce standing in the hallway door. He turned and walked
back to his room without a word and he wouldn't come out for supper. Mick's in there with him now.

I sent Jeremy to get Rebecca and bring her here. I told him just to hold her, talk to her, and tell her everything would be okay. He headed back as the rest of the crew
was coming inside to eat.

I don't want to write out everything Jeremy said to me, but I will tell you that he cares for me like a Mother
, and my heart was breaking for him. I was almost frozen with fear, waiting for him and Rebecca to come up the hill and inside the house.

He wants to move Rebecca into Marisa's house until he can get something built inside
the compound. I told him he’d need to speak with Marisa and Jason about it but I'm sure they'll agree.

I didn't say a word about it to anyone other than M
ick. I'll make sure the men help get rid of the HDI bodies first thing tomorrow morning.

There a
re more HDI's back in the woods and we need to stay as close to one another and the compound as we can. No one goes out alone, day or night, until they get the fence up.

Even though the wind has been taken out of my sails, I need to write down everything else that happened today. Some of
its good news. I need to keep a record in case any future history students or my quadruple great grandchildren get a chance to read this diary.

Jason and Jesse finished
putting up a fence for the cows. They used one side of the chain-link fence that was already there and drove t-posts into the ground to hold new fencing around the other three sides. The enclosure is 50' x 75' and Jason says the cows will need more than that, but it'll do for a while. The walk-in gate is only six feet wide, so we won't be able to get a vehicle through it. They rolled one of the round hay bales inside the fence and put one of the horse troughs in for water. There's a pine thicket they can get in for shelter and they seemed to enjoy being out of the barn.

That means we'll need another horse trough for laundry. Jason said there were a couple more at TSC and he'll get them before laundry day.

Dane and Soo brought home a big yellow backhoe and a bunch of concrete on the flatbed trailer of a bright green big rig today. He and Soo took the big rig from beside the gas pumps at the truck stop.

Jason, Soo, Mr. Hobbs, and Jesse helped him unload the backhoe beside the driveway.
He parked the trailer in the field and Jason covered the bags of concrete with a tarp. Soo followed Dane and the big rig to the pull-off and they left it there.

They also brought
home a small delivery truck, much like the wrecked one that Jason found. It's full of concrete. Dane says there's enough concrete to finish a third of the front fence line.

They left the Silverado in someone's enclosed garage and will go back for it tomorrow. They'll be driving the delivery truck to the
distant Lowe's tomorrow. They’ll look for a big rig with an enclosed trailer to bring home anything that doesn't fit in the delivery truck.

Dane said it doesn't matter that ther
e’s a lot of diesel fuel at the truck stop. He doesn't want to waste any of it and can loot a big rig closer to Lowe's if they find enough concrete that they need one to get it all. He wants Jason and Soo to go along and speed up loading time.

He wanted Jeremy
and Jesse and go back for the Silverado, but Mick says he’ll take Deuce and Jesse, because today is the end of the "prison sentence" Hisa gave him to heal from his wounds. He tried to dance a little jig and show us that his leg is much better, but stopped pretty soon after he started. Hisa yelled "Aha! See, you leg not all the way good!"

That sounds fine with me because I'd rather have Jeremy stay home with Rebecca tomorrow. I'd really like Deuce to st
ay home too, but he wants to go and Mick plans to let him. Because of his size, it's hard to remember that he's only twelve years old. I reminded Mick of that fact, and told him he darn well better think about it.

Dane said there are several gas ovens and heaters inside Lowe's, and he'll get them as soon as he has the chance. Mick said he might take the Jeep and
flatbed trailer there tomorrow. He’ll watch as Deuce and Jesse load them up. There's no arguing with Mick. He has done his time, and needs to feel productive again. I totally understand how he feels.

Pop and Mr. Hobbs will
be planting lettuce, cabbage, English peas, and broccoli tomorrow. They're raring to go and plan to be out there at sunrise, getting those plants in the ground.

Pop said
that two of the tomato plants in the greenhouse already have blooms on them, but we need to wait 'til after the last frost date to put them in the ground.

Marisa
and Jason said that Rebecca is welcome to stay with them. She can stay in one of the spare bedrooms and Jeremy can sleep on the couch in the living room.

Rebecca was a little more talkative than Deuce at supper, but she only made small talk and clung to Jeremy throughout the meal.

I'm sorry that I wasn't more enthusiastic in my descriptions of the good stuff that happened today.

Getting the backhoe and concrete is a huge accomplishment for us
, and I wish I had the energy to tell you Dane's story about how they got the big rig.

I'm emotionally beat and feeling depressed about what Jeremy and Rebecca had to go through, and that Deuce heard Jeremy and
me talking about it. I'm scared to death of the HDI's close to us.

I'm gonna hit the sack and try to sleep, but I doubt it'll happen.

Bye for now.

Thursday
, March 6

8:30 AM...

It's not cold this morning. The temperature gauge reads fifty-seven degrees out there.

I really dread summer. I know we need it for food production
, but I hate the humidity and the heat. Maybe we won't break any "record highs" this summer.

I had breakfast duty this morning and I made blueberry muffins. I used the last of the blueberry muffin mix, so I guess we'll have to move on to other flavors. I may try mixing my chunky blueberry jam into plain muffin mix. I make way too much jam every year. It's my favorite thing to can, and we probably have every flavor
of fruit jam you can think of.

Rebecca looked better at breakfast this morning and, as a result, Jeremy looked better
as well. I don't know what they plan to do today, but I told everyone to leave them alone.

Deuce was anxious to be Mick's shadow. He seems to be snapping back pretty fast. I hope it's not too fast.
From what I understand, he’s never had a strong male role model. Hanging out with Mick and the others will be good for him, especially now that the world has collapsed and cash no longer speaks volumes.

The men have taken care of the HDI bodies a
nd made sure the grave was undisturbed at the Masterson place. Neither Jeremy nor Deuce went with them.

Mick, Jesse, and Deuce brought the Silverado home before breakfast. Mick was ready to get outa here as soon as his feet hit the floor this morning. I reminded him that Deuce can't drive at this time. He said he would keep him safe, and that I shouldn't worry. Yeah, right.

They plan to hook up the flatbed trailer and go to our Lowe's for a couple of gas ovens and heaters after lunch. Right now, Mick's walking around all over the place, checking to see what changed while he was an invalid.

Dane, Jason, and Soo have already
pulled out to go to the Lowe's forty miles from here. They took cans of beef ravioli in case they aren't back for lunch. Somehow, they all three fit in the delivery truck. Dane said that Jason and Soo both have a "skinny ass" and could sit on the passenger seat together.

They have seven
, five-gallon, cans of diesel fuel tied to the wall in the rear of the delivery truck. Dane said that they may not need a big rig and enclosed trailer, but if they do, he'll try to find one that still has a good bit of fuel in it and save what’s in the cans.

Pop and Mr. Hobbs are planting veggies. We're all excited. I can't wait to eat something fresh. Pop say's it
'll take all morning to get the seedlings planted and watered in.

Hisa and Elaine have lunch duty today. I don't know what we're having but I'm sure it'll be good.

Nana says we need an accurate number of how many pounds of flour we have left. I had about 350 lbs before we did the restaurant haul, but mine is all-purpose and we need to keep it separate from the self-rising. I voted for using all the self-rising flour first and Nana thinks that's a good idea because it'll save us from using baking powder and salt until we have to.

I think I'll walk out to the garden and see how Pop and Mr. Hobbs are doing. See ya later.

3:30 PM...

Mick, Jesse, and Deuce came home with two gas ovens and two horse troughs this afternoon. They went by TSC to get the horse troughs before heading to Lowe's. They also brought home a nice surprise for Pop.

In a corner of the warehouse area at Lowe's, Mick found a huge box of garden seeds. The paperwork enclosed said that the seeds were to be "on the floor for retail sales by February 15th."

I’m guessing the seeds were shipped before Christmas so managers would be prepared to get them out for customers who plan their gardens early.

Pop is thrilled. There's all kinds of vegetable seeds and all kinds of flower seeds. Mick brought home the whole kit and
caboodle. Pop told Amber and Michael they can plant flowers everywhere except the garden

They saw no HDI's while they were at Lowe's, but they took the scenic route and didn't go through town.

Mick’s leg and hip was aching when he got home, so he's in his favorite recliner with a couple of Advil on board.

Jesse and Deuce were l
ooking for something else to do, so Nana had them unload the horse troughs at the laundry area and put the gas ovens in the basement.

She has Carisa, Merry, and Valerie working on laundry right now. They're washing all the sheets and comforters, which will greatly reduce our work load on big laundry day. Nana told them that washing bed linens is now their Saturday job, and they should
wash the comforters every three weeks and the curtains every six weeks. Sounds good to me.

There was a knock at the front door. Mick
jumped out of the recliner, grabbed the Benelli, and went to see who was there.

He cracked the door and looked out, then opened it wide. I went to
the door to take a look. There was a young man, probably in his thirties.

His name is Daniel Sturgis, and there are two little girls named Abby and Alicia with him. He said they're his daughters and the three of them are headed to his mother's house in Hamilton, but they
ran out of food or water and wondered if we could spare any. He said he would do any work we asked of him to pay for it.

The three of them have been walking for four weeks from a relative's house in South Carolina. Daniel's wife, and mother to the girls, was bitten when an HDI surprised her while they were going through abandoned vehicles
, looking for food. Daniel was forced to kill her when she went after the girls. He had to use a tire iron because he has no other weapon. If you’d seen the look on his face when he told us what happened, it would've broken your heart.

We spent an hour talking and getting to know more about them while they drank water and ate several pieces of Nana's homemade bread with strawberry jam.

They are sweet, humble, and pitiful. I asked if they'd like to stay here for a day or two. Daniel said it was nice of me to ask, but he wanted to keep going until dark because they want to get there as fast as they can because his elderly mother was all alone.