Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie (6 page)

After Marisa and I left, Mick and Jason decided to get a closer look at Unky Bo. Jason bent down to identify the "thing" in Unky Bo's hand. He slid it away from Unky Bo with a stick and discovered that it was the leg of a child. Unky Bo had been gnawing on it like a KFC drumstick. When he realized what it was, Jason had to turn away and
call Ralph in the bushes.

Mick said that Jason looked green when he came ba
ck over to Unky Bo's body. He held the rest of breakfast down, if there was anything left to hold down.

There wasn't much else to describe about the remains of Unky Bo. His skin was loose and hanging. His hand looked like it had been chewed on, and when Mick used the barrel of Mr. Win
chester to raise his pant leg, they saw a dirty bandage with a perfect shaped bite mark bleeding through. Mick thinks the big red bubbles were blood bubbles coming from the tear ducts of his eyes, and he wasn't about to burst them and risk getting any blood on himself or Jason.

Black, thick blood was oozing from the back of Unky Bo's head along with a side dish of skull fragments and brain matter. There was a big ol'
bullet hole right smack dab in the middle of Unky Bo's forehead. Thank you, Mr. Winchester.

They decided to check the outbuildings before venturing into the house. As they approached the
enclosed shed, Jason tripped on a tree root and shot a maple tree with Sam Colt. Mick almost smacked him in the head before he bellowed at him to put his safety on and keep goin'.

They sneaked up to the
enclosed shed and took a look in the window. There was nothing except piles of junk, a bunch of sand, and leftover bricks from the recent construction of the house. They opened the door as quietly as possible and made sure there was no living creature inside. It appeared that someone was building a blacksmith oven at one side. They closed the door and headed toward the tractor shed.

At this
point of the story, I just about laughed my rear off. I asked them if they really thought they could sneak up on someone after letting loose with two big ol' gunshots and Jason loudly calling Ralph a few minutes prior. They just stared at me. Marisa and I giggled off and on until Mick threatened not to tell us anything else. We shut up and let him tell his tale.

They sneaked up (giggle) to the west side of the tractor shed.

Jason went around the back as quietly as he could and came up to the front on the east side. Mick motioned to Jason, and they both jumped to the front of the shed with Mr. Winchester and Mr. Colt pointing straight ahead. They saw a Kubota tractor, a riding mower, a good sized flatbed trailer, and a few yard tools.

Jason told Mick there was a little goat path behind the tractor shed, so they went to see where it led. It took them into the tree-line and straight to one of those tornado shelters
buried most of the way in the dirt. Mick opened the door and looked inside. There was a couple of lawn chairs folded and leaning against the wall, but that was all. They closed the door and headed back up the path.

They dec
ided that it was time to go inside the house, and they were going in by the back door. There's a wraparound porch that goes from the back door around the west side of the house. Mick said there are pots of dead flowers and herbs all over the back porch.

They noticed a few spots that looked like dried blood and drag mark
s leading up the porch steps, disappearing underneath the back door. When they reached the door, they saw that it was cracked.

Just above the doorknob
, stick to the door and frame, was a lot of blood and pieces of flesh. I'm guessing that Unky Bo might have gotten his fingers slammed in that door and had trouble pulling them out. Mick guesses the same thing.

They slowly pushed the door open and stepped into the kitchen with Mr. Winchester and Mr. Colt leading the way.

Mick said they stepped into the kitchen. Jason said they stepped into hell itself, and Mick decided to agree.

Between the oven and the little kitchen island was a gurgling, snarling young woman, or what used to be a young woman. She was bent down, sitting on her knees and having a feast from the midsection of a young boy. The boy was snarling and gurgling himself but, even with half his midsection and one leg gone, he was still alive... err... undead.

Jason pointed Sam Colt and relieved the woman of the top of her head. She fell on the floor beside the still gurgling boy. She was covered in blood and entrails from head to toe. Mick said he wasn't interested in rolling her around to look for a bite mark. It was obvious she'd been bitten.

Blood, guts, gore, and some type of
fettuccini dish is spread all over the kitchen. There are bits of flesh and hair stuck to the walls, laying among broken plates and appliances.

The gurgling boy was confused as to whether he should reach out to his mother
, or reach up to Mick and Jason. He was snapping his teeth and almost convulsing. He couldn’t roll himself onto one side or the other. The little stump where his leg used to be had black goo oozing slowly into a puddle on the floor. Mick didn't shoot him at that time. He said he just wasn't ready yet.

Jason ha
d become very still and quiet. Mick decided to get him moving by checking out the rest of the house. Sam Colt and Mr. Winchester led the way into the remaining rooms.

Mick said three of the bedrooms upstairs have homemade name plates on the doors. They read "Caleb, Frankie, and Davis" respectively. I remembered that those were the names of the three little boys who'd visited the goats last summer.

Mick sent Jason to check out the front porch while he went back downstairs and relieved little Davis/Frankie of the torture he had must have been feeling. They dragged both bodies outside and laid them beside Unky Bo. They made sure the doors were closed and locked before heading home.

Jason's expression is very
solemn and he's going to lie down for a while. I'm afraid he was thinking of his young son when he saw that gurgling boy being eaten by his own mother.

I'm
goin’ in the kitchen and put together something for supper. See ya later.

10:00 PM...

I'm lying on my bed
, watching reruns of Letterman from the nineties. The TV stations still on the air are playing reruns of old shows. I can't sleep.

Caleb has attached himself to Marisa and he's asleep between her and Jason. Amber's sleeping in Carisa's bed, snuggled up against Carisa's back. Amber has about three-quarters of the bed and Carisa looks like she's about to fall off the side.

Mick's in the recliner, staring at the walls. His head falls to the side every once in a while and it looks like he might sleep, but he jerks back and continues to stare.

He's thinking. I can almost see the wheels turning. Mr. Winchester's on his lap.

Opie's asleep on the floor at the base of the recliner. He has doggie running dreams every so often and his legs twitch like he's running through a meadow.

The goats are locked in the barn again.

Mick and I are both concerned that they didn't find the other brother or the daddy. I told him that he had to go back in the morning and grab a family bible, or mail, or something else so that I can get Caleb's last name. I also want him to grab any photo albums he can find so we can determine which brother was "Momma's" victim and which one might still be out there.

We need to figure out a way to find out where "Daddy" is. I might go back with Mick
, if only to grab some clothes for Caleb. I'll keep trying to call but, if the sheriff or coroner’s office hasn't come for the bodies by tomorrow afternoon, we'll have to bury them. We can't risk illness from dead bodies lying around, especially HDI infected bodies.

Carisa's not al
lowed in public at all. I’m afraid she'll get "requisitioned." I'm worried they might want Jason and Marisa too, maybe even Mick.

I wish he would come in and hold me. I know he has to mentally come to terms with what happened today, and he will protect his family at any cost, so I will not push him. Nothing is funny anymore.

Saturday, January 4

2:00 AM...

We heard a huge explosion from the direction of town. It was so loud that it shook the ground and rattled the windows. If we didn't live where we do, I would've thought an earthquake had just occurred. Mick said he came up out of the recliner so fast that he almost hit his head on the ceiling. Marisa and Jason are coming down the hallway to see what's going on. I just heard Carisa's door open and she's headed out as well. Caleb, Amber, and Opie are still dead to the world asleep. I don't like using the d-e-a-d word to describe them. I might have to edit that out for my own sanity.

We'll be up for the rest of the night.

The power's out again and the phones are out as well, at least for us. We don't have any corded phones in the house so, when the power goes out, our wireless phone base goes dead and we can't use our phones. We have our cell phones but can't get through to anyone, not even by text, which makes them basically useless.

Mick says the phone company relay stations usually switch to battery power when the electricity is off, and they could last as long
as four hours. If I ever get to a store again, I plan to pick up a corded phone or two for "just in case." This will only work if the person I'm trying to call also has a corded phone, so I'll pick up a couple extras for Marisa and Nana.

Mick and Jason are planning t
o head into town this morning and see if they can find out what the loud explosion was. We've put off going back to the new house, now called "Caleb's house," until they get back from town. I'm afraid for them to go into town, but we need to find out what happened and we need any other local or national news we can get. I don't want either of them to go into town alone.

Mick's in a snit this morning, worrying over his family in Michigan. There's no way we can hop in the Jeep and make a fourteen-hour trip to see about them. We can't get through to any of them on the phone.

They're prepper's too. They have goats, chickens, rabbits, and pigs. I know they have plenty to eat. I just worry about someone attacking them and trying to take over their farm. Grampa also has an assortment of burglar deterrent devices and he's pretty darn good with a bow and arrow. I still worry about them. Mick has two brothers and two sisters who are all good with weapons. I pray they're all together and safe.

I couldn't get through to Nana last night. I couldn't get through to the sheriff's department either. I hope Pop and Nana will stay inside and be on alert. I hope my sister, brother-in-law, and nephews are okay. Please Lord, let them be okay.

Jason seems to be in a better mood and ate a big breakfast to make up for the empty stomach he had most of yesterday. His eyes still have that haunted look, but I think he has come to terms with the fact that he did what he had to do. We had cold cereal and fruit cups since I couldn't cook with the power out.

Caleb won't allow Marisa to get more than five feet away. He's clinging to her like a small cashmere sweater on a big college girl. He's still calling her "You Momma!" and I believe she reminds him of his own Mom. Marisa and the girls spent an hour this morning, drilling him with subtle questions to try and find out where his brother and daddy might be.

They found out that he's either two or three years old. Every time they ask how old he is, he holds up two little chubby fingers, then slowly puts a third finger up. He goes into snort giggle mode and pulls the third finger back down. We are dubbing him two and a half until we can get paperwork or the family bible from his house and find out his actual birth date.

When asked where his brothers are
, he says "scoo." I suppose he thinks they're at school, but that's not possible since school's out for the Christmas break. Daddy is at "wok" and I'm sure that means "work" but he can't tell us where daddy works. Momma, Unky Bo, and Frankie/Davis are in "hebin." Bless their souls. I don't know how Caleb figured that out.

Carisa says staying inside is driving her bonkers. I may take her with us when we go back to Caleb's house but I don't want her to see the kitchen or the bodies of Unky Bo and the gang. I think, if we go in the front door and straight up the stairs, we can avoid the side yard and the kitchen. Marisa can stay home with Caleb and Amber.

Carisa will grab every piece of boys clothing, shoes, and toys that she can find no matter what size they are. We plan to use the big wheelbarrow, Amber's little red Radio Flyer wagon, and a couple of laundry baskets to bring back whatever we find. Mick said he could drive the S10 up the driveway, but I'm worried that someone might see us going up the drive and coming back down with a loaded truck. For now, we'll take the path through the woods.

We'll gr
ab any frozen food in the house. Actually, we'll grab any food we can find no matter what it is, as long as it's still good and isn't covered in guts and blood. With the power off, the freezer and refrigerator stuff will go bad in a hurry and we want to get as much use out of it as possible. I might talk Mick into checking out Mr. Peterson's house to see if any food is left in the kitchen. I haven't seen anyone there in the past few days, but the windows are boarded up. I hope we don't do something that might cause trouble or land us in the pokey. It'll all depend on what Mick and Jason find out in town.