Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie (62 page)

BOOK: Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie
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Isaac lost control. He charged from the tree-line
, roaring like a lion and heading straight toward the large tent with his pistol and
machete
raised in the air. He shot two gang members in the head before they even knew what was happening. Isaac screamed at the top of his lungs “SIX DOWN, SEVEN T
O GO!” as he entered the tent.

Our crew had no choice but to charge from the woods an
d begin shooting and fighting. Dane swung his new club into the face of the nearest gang member. The man fell to the ground and Dane stomped his head with his size 14 steel toed boots until it was nothing but mush. “SEVEN DOWN, SIX TO GO” he screamed. Isaac's rage had infected Dane and he was like a mad man. Mick said Dane looked like he was ten feet tall.

Mick, Ian, Kevin, and Rick shot and fought the remaining gang members, shouting out the count as each gang member died. Dane threw one of his “little explosive devices” into a group of three gang members and it did
its job. Pieces of them fell from the air and blood fell like misty rain. He was glad he didn't use one the hand grenades because everything in that clearing would have been mush.

Mick said the clearing was covered in red fog for several seconds before the fine mist either
settled to the ground, or was carried away on the wind. Steam rose from body parts of assorted gang members.

During the battle, HDI's in the pit howled in harmony. Dane said the sound echoed through the trees and he thought his eardrums wer
e going to burst from his head.

Finally, Ian sho
uted “TWELVE DOWN, ONE TO GO!”

Several seconds of silence passed before Isaac dragged Red out of the tent by his long, stylish
Mohawk. Red was begging for his life while Isaac was dragging him to the HDI pit.

Kevin jumped inside the Jeep and backed it off the screen. It took four of them to slide the heavy scr
een off the corner of the pit.

Dane said our crew was out of their minds with primal rage
. Their blood was pumping from the excitement of victory and they raised their weapons and shot into the air.

Isaac punched Red in the face, re-opening the knife wou
nd that Chastity had put there.

Each man painted a stripe across thei
r foreheads with Red's blood.

They fed Red to the HDI's a little at a time starting with his feet. After the HDI's had devoured him almost halfw
ay to the knees, Red passed out.

They waited for him to regain consciousness and threw him into the pit. They watched the HDI's devour him. One of the HDI's was Chastity, and she removed huge chunks of flesh from Red's midsection and face. She placed her mouth on the knife wound she had put there when she was still alive. She bit down to taste more. Her teeth pulled flesh from
his face and she swallowed it.

Ian located a full gas can and doused the HDI's it he pit. Isaac threw a lit match into the pit and fire whooshed to life. HDI's who were soaked in gasoline began to raise their flaming arms, reaching
toward the men standing beside the pit. Ian quickly drove the Jeep back on top of the screen.

Mick ran inside the large tent and found Isabella there. She was standing in the rear corner of the tent like a blood covered statue. He picked her up and ran as fast as he could toward the road. Everyone
else followed closely behind.

The young girl whom Isaac had seen earlier serving the
boar was nowhere to be found.

They left the dead gang members there to rot and
didn't feel a bit of remorse.

They pulled Anna and Sabrina out of the bushes and were trying to comfort them when they heard the gas tank on the Jeep explode. All three girls screamed and fell to the ground
. The men had to pick them up and carry them down the road.

They were about 30 yards from the military truck when they heard the engine roar to life. They turned to look and could barely see the truck being driven away on four flat tires. It was moving fast. They were shocked and r
an back inside the tree-line.

Isaac wanted to chase after the fast moving truck and shoot through the rear but Rick and Ian convinced him that he'd never make it in time to take out the driver or anyone else who might be inside
, and that someone might be in the back, waiting for him.

They began walking home and had to take turns carrying Isabella. She was in shock and has dozens of shallow knife wounds all over her body. I thought she had been rolled in razor wire. I was felt that “all too familiar” sorrow make
its way into my heart.

T
hey arrived home this morning. They all looked like half-human

beasts that had been living underground deep in the forest. They were covered in dust, mud, leaves, forest debris, and blood.

The girl’s eye's looked distant and empty. Anna ran over to stand beside Larson and he put his arm around her shoulder. Rona almost went toward them but decided to let it go and stood there watching like the concerned mother of a teenage boy.

Hisa has
all three girls in Clinic Diane and Rebecca's there to assist her.

It's taken me so long to write out their experience that I've missed lunch. I'm starving and I'm gonna head out th
ere to see if anything's left. See ya later.

11:00 PM...

We need additional little wooden buildings because Isaac, Nicholas, and the girls want to live here with us and we are not going to turn them away.

Isabella is
twenty years old and was raised on a sweet potato farm. Hopefully, she'll be Pop's new partner in the gardens. She has been cut with razor blades and small knives all over her face, limbs, and body. Hisa is scared to death of bacteria and started her on an antibiotic regimen. She'll have scars. She'll have lots of scars.

Anna is
sixteen years old and from Birmingham. She lived with her single mother who was bitten by a coworker and came home early from work. She tried to attack Anna in the middle of the night. Anna locked herself in the bathroom and spent two days there before her HDI mother left the house.

Anna walked to our area with a small group of refugees. One of the male members of the group began making inappropriate suggestions and touching her when no one was looking. She waited until everyone was asleep one night and crept away with only the clothes on her back. Samuel found her sleeping in a barn where he parked the gypsy bus to camp.

She was raped by gang members several times but Hisa expects her to get through it faster than the other two girls because she is very strong-willed.

Sabrina is Samuel's granddaughter and Nicholas' sister. Nicholas is the oldest.
Samuel raised them since Sabrina was four and Nicholas was seven. They lived in the gypsy bus on a rented t lot at a campground. No one from child services checked on them.

Samuel never legally adopted them
, but claimed them as his own on legal paperwork and medical forms. Nicholas and Sabrina loved life at the campground and being home schooled by Samuel.

Their father was Samuel's son. He is/was in prison for killing a burglar who tried to break into their home. He was convicted of murder because police officers found marijuana in the home and the prosecutor convinced a jury that the
incident was a drug deal gone bad.

Their mother is somewhere in the wind and they haven't seen her since their father went to prison.

Hisa said they lived a fairytale life with Samuel and were allowed to do whatever they wished as long as they caused no harm to any living being. They became twenty-first century hippies with the influence of their grandfather who loved life, nature, freedom, and people

When the world collapsed and many of the campground residents
became HDI's, Samuel gathered his grandchildren, looted every camper he was able to enter without getting eaten, and hit the road. He picked up lost folks along the way and together they became the Gypsy Traders.

I'm yawning and ready to climb in bed and try to sleep. Wish me luck.

Bye for now.

 

 

Sunday
, March 30

Hisa was quietly freaking out at breakfast this morning. She grabbed my arm, and her evil little fingernails dug in as she
dragged me to the back porch.

The girls say that most of the men who raped them didn't use condoms. Hisa says there's a high chance that at least one of them is pregnant. I told her it was too early to worry because there's nothing we can do about it. If any of them are pregnant, well, we have nine months to figure it out but I'm almost 100% positive that God won't drop a world-renowned obstetrician on our
heads.

I've always believed that a woman who became pregnant from rape might try to consider a young, innocent, baby as a gift from God for living through it. If she can't do that, I believe adoption is the best solution for unwanted children of rape. I'd take as many as I
could care for in a heartbeat.

Everyone has their own opinion and they're welcome to it
, but I don't wanna be drilled about mine, nor do I want to see giant posters of aborted babies being slammed against my car windows. I believe those photos extort innocent babies. Besides, sometimes I have Amber in the car and... Geez!

Anyway, I asked Hisa to concentrate on the girl's physical
and emotional wounds for now.

We have all of the clothes the girls and men were wearing soaking in bleach water. They'll come out splotchy, completely white, or funky colored, but we can't afford to throw away clothing. This is the apocalypse
, and clothing is a highly sought after commodity.

Mick, Jason, and Kevin are at display lots
, loading up little wooden buildings. They left right after breakfast and that was three hours ago. Hopefully, they'll be back soon. They took two big rigs and two huge flatbed trailers.

The remaining men are working on the fence. Shawna, Lisa, and Rebecca are helping them. That ought to be interesting. The “wooden building” crew will join
them as soon as they get back.

Jesse and Jeremy are looking for hay and Rona allowed Luke and Larson to go along. I was shocked and Nana was ticked off but didn't say a word to Rona about it.

Pop is in the garden, harvesting more broccoli.

Deuce is on “log dragging duty”
in the meadow with Buttercup.

Carisa is on dusting and cleaning duty and I think Marisa is doing the same at her house. I believe Merry and Valerie
are Hisa's assistants today.

I'm headed out to get broccoli f
lorets on the dehydrator tray.

It's gonna be a
busy afternoon. See ya later.

 

10:15 PM...

Th
e world has gone crazy, again.

Mick and the “wooden building” crew came flying down the road right before supper. Mick was driving one truck and Kevin was driving the other. They were both laying on the horns and headed toward the gates driving fast. Pop was in the lower garden
and he ran to open the gate.

Mick got his big rig and loaded trailer in safely. He parked behind the trailer fence where Mari
sa's house trailer used to be.

Kevin came flying through the gate and tried to turn into the empty spot beside Mick. His turn was too sharp and the trailer and buildings went over on their sides taking the big rig halfway with them. The truck was balanced on two wheels stuck deep in the ground whe
n Jason and Kevin jumped out.

One of the buildings landed about a foot from where Mick was standing. Kevin said that Mick
was white as a ghost.

All three men grabbed their weapons and climbed on top of Mick's big rig. They jumped the gap between the roof of the big rig and the top of one of the fence trailers. They laid on their stomach's and aimed their rifles in the direct
ion they'd come from.

By this time
, everyone near the house was on the front porch, watching them.

A few minutes later we heard bells ringing, but the right side woods blocked the view o
f the road from the hilltop.

Mick, Jason, and Kevin began firing and I almost strained my neck trying to get a look at what they were firing at. I sent Carisa inside for binoculars
and she brought out two pair.

The fence crew came running from the rear of the property because they'd heard the shots.

Dane snatched the binoculars out of my hand and I snatched them right back and gave him a look that dared him to try it again. He got the message and headed down the hill with his rifle in his hand and his pistol on his hip. Ian and Rick followed.

It felt like forever before I saw the front of a “vehicle” come past the trees. It was an old tan colored Toyota pickup truck and it was pulling a stagecoach. Yep, you heard me. A stagecoach was somehow attache
d to the rear of that pickup.

I recognized it as the old stagecoach that used to sit in front of a restaurant advertising home style cookin' in the next town over. I had no
idea it was a real stagecoach.

BOOK: Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie
4.57Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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