Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie (78 page)

I had a chance to sit with Pao earlier this evening
, and he told me his story. It's interesting. I'm surprised he's still alive.

Pao's mother was Vietnamese and his father was American. They met when his father was stationed at Da Nang Air Force base during the Vietnam War in 1973.

His father, Jim, had just turned eighteen and was deployed three weeks after his birthday to work on military aircraft at the base. His mother, Vien, was sixteen years old and lived with her family about half-a-mile from the base.

Vien delivered goat’s milk to the Commanding Officer at the base because he hated powdered milk in his coffee.

To make the story short,
I'll jump a little. Jim and Vien fell in love and spent every moment they could together while Jim was stationed there for two years. Then, the war ended and Jim headed back to the United States.

He kept in touch with Vien for two more years before he was able to get her out of Vietnam and into the United States. They were married the day she arrived. Several years went by and Vien never became pregnant. Jim didn't care, and they were both happy. When she was thirty-eight years old, Vien became pregnant with Pao. She and Jim celebrated
, and Pao was born nine months later.

Pao's name came from a Filipino man Jim was stationed with. His name was Pao and Jim always called him “Old Pao.” He and Jim were friends during the war and several years after.

They were stationed together in California, and Old Pao's wife took Vien under her wing and taught her the ropes of living on a military base in the good ol' USA. Several years went by and old Pao was diagnosed with cancer. He fought it for six months before finally giving in. Jim and Vien were both devastated over his loss.

Jim retired from the military and moved V
ien and baby Pao to his native state of Georgia. They bought a nice house in town and a little cabin in Tennessee where they spent summers hunting, fishing, and basically, enjoying life.

Pao was trying to get to the cabin when he was captured.

The world collapsed and Pao's family was at home in their little subdivision. Several residents left their homes to head out to unknown places.

Jim and Vien began packing their truck and trailer with supplies, food, weapons, and sentimental items. Pao and Jim were loading a large generator into the back of the truck when Jim grabbed his chest and fell to the ground. He told Pao he was having a heart attack and asked for Vien.

Pao ran inside and yelled for his mother to come as fast as she could. She ran out the door and Pao followed. Vien had the phone in her hand and was trying to call 911, but no one was answering. She handed the phone to Pao and told him to keep trying,

Twenty minutes later, Jim was dead in Vien's arms. Pao bent over his father's body and cried with her. After several minutes
, Pao tried to get his mother up and back in the house while he took care of his father's body. She wouldn't budge, so he went inside the trailer and sat on a box while watching her grieve.

He heard something bang up against the trailer. The trailer shook and
he was thrown off his box and onto the floor. He heard snarling and a sudden howling sound. He got off the floor and stood up just in time to see his mother being dragged across the road and in between two houses. He grabbed the closest gun, which was his Browning AB3 Bolt Action rifle, along with a handful of 7mm ammo and went after her.

He ran between the houses where the HDI's had dragged her
, and came to a halt as soon as he cleared the rear. There were approximately a dozen HDI's snacking on a woman, three children, and his mother. Several of them noticed him and headed his way.

He was able to shoot
three times toward the group. One of his shots hit an HDI in the knee and it fell to the ground. His last two shots missed. He turned and ran as fast as he could back across the road and inside the house. He threw the locks on the door and slid down to the ground, up against the door, to regain his composure.

Several seconds went by before the HDI's began
banging on the door, and Pao felt the vibration against his back. He jumped to his feet and ran to the basement. The lock to the basement door was on the outside, so he couldn't lock the door. He wedged a chair underneath the knob.

He went to the far corner, sat down, and tried to figure out what to do. It took about twenty minutes for the HDI's to crash through the b
ay window on front of the house, and he could hear them walking around the main floor and banging into things. He sat at the top of the stairs and waited to see if they'd try to come through the basement door.

He stayed there several weeks, eating what his mother
had preserved and stored. Then, he heard the HDI's leaving the house and there was silence.

He waited another day before opening the door and sticking his head out. The interior of the house was mostly destroyed and HDI goo was all over everything.

He drove the truck and trailer down to the basement door and loaded everything he could inside the trailer and the truck bed. He pulled his father's map out of the dashboard, checked his route, and headed toward the cabin near McKelvey Hollow, Tennessee and the Tennessee River.

He made it as far as Leeds, Alabama before he ran out of gas and left the truck on the side of the road. He grabbed a gas can, and started walking. He'd seen a sign advertising gas, lodging, and food three miles ahead and he hoped to find gas there. He had to run from several HDI's on the highway
, but he made it to the gas station.

There were cars abandoned all along the road and in line at the gas station. H
e siphoned what he could out of several vehicles until his gas can was full. He noticed a bicycle behind the station and hopped aboard to ride it back to the truck and trailer. He had to prop the gas can and hold it on the handlebars with one hand while steering with the other as he watched the mile markers go by.

He finally came to the area where he'd left the truck, and it was gone. It seemed like it had disappeared in
to thin air. He rode the bike another mile down the road, just to make sure his memory was correct, and found no sign of the truck.

He had no choice. He left the gas can on the side of the road and started pedaling, trying to remember the route he was supposed to take. He spent nights sleeping in garden sheds.

He made it to Cullman, Alabama several days later. He found a small shed behind a house in a residential neighborhood. He pushed the bike inside and slept on the floor.

Even though he'd put many miles on that bike and rode all day, he was restless and was in and out of sleep. He never got to the deep sleep, you know, the kind of sleep where you're oblivious to everything happening around you.

During hazy moments when he thought he was sleeping, he had nightmares. He was yanked to his feet inside the muggy shed. Dust was riding sunlight, streaming through the one and only window, and he tried to shake himself awake and out of his dream. It wasn't a dream. He quickly figured that out.

He was punched in the gut so hard that he doubled over and pain shot through his abdomen all the way to his spine. Someone kneed him in the chin so he'd stand up straight again, and he bit his tongue so hard that he thought he'd bitten it in two. He fell on the ground, vomiting. He watched the steaming contents of his stomach pool on the ground with blood from his mouth. He felt numb and his
confused mind “stepped out for a minute.”

He finally came to his senses in the bed of a Chevy Avalanche. It was traveling so fast that Pao had trouble keeping his glasses on his face. There were two men in the truck bed with him. They were
in the deep sleep of the “recently knocked unconscious.”

He found that his hands were zip tied behind his back
, and his ankles were in the same predicament. He scooted on his butt to the rear window and looked inside. He saw two men dressed in military garb. He had no idea why they'd taken him and figured they'd let him go once they got a chance to interrogate him. He leaned back against the window and waited for the soldiers to reach their destination.

He guessed he'd been riding for 45 minutes before the truck came to a halt inside a large clearing.

He was ordered to scoot down to the tailgate so the ties on his ankles could be cut. He did as he was told and stood beside the truck while his traveling buddies were brought back to consciousness by a bucket of cold water to the face.

Pao received no explanation as to the reason he was taken and ordered to keep his mouth shut. He had no idea why he was
thrown into a dark trailer without the ability to explain who he was and that he was no threat to them. It didn't take long for him to realize that his captors weren't the real deal. He moaned with the realization and sunk to the floor.

He sat on the floor and waited. He scrambled for crackers and water along with the rest of the group. He waited until Mick and Dane were captured, and then he waited some more. Finally, he was rescued. He has no idea how long he was inside that trailer.

He asked to stay here because he has severe anxiety about traveling alone to his family cabin.

I like this kid a lot. We're keeping him.

It's dark and I'm tired. Chris assured me that the mess tent will be set up tomorrow morning and I'm looking forward to it. I wonder if I can steal a couple of those metal folding picnic tables.

Bye for now.

Thursday
, April 17

I've just returned from breakfast in the big mess tent Major Knellson's group set up. It was a smorgasbord of all the basics and I ate my fair share and then some.

The hill and field have come alive. There's troops working on the Wilkersons's compound, now called “Wilky Place.”

Early this morning
, the wood shop was brought over from the old Peterson property and now, Dane and Elaine have their own place. They’ll let Jesse to bunk with Jeremy while Rebecca’s gone.

The magic log splitting machine is back and working on wood for Wilky Place as well as Kapper Hill.

The vet is thoroughly checking Lilac, Buttercup, Madonna, and Peaches to find out if they're pregnant. I wondered aloud why he hadn't done it before. He rolled his eyes and said the only males we had on the place was a gelding and a little bull.

I smirked and asked if he could recall they'd only been here for a couple of months. He marched out to the meadow with a bag of gear and his young assistant in tow.
Let’s just say, I wouldn't wanna be a horse right now, or a cow... OR the vet's rear end if Chris finds out that he didn't thoroughly check the animals the first time around.

Battle-axe will have Tessa, Bree, and Pao along with the folks from Wilky Place on display in the tent with the flimsy flaps today. She doesn't trust the “big-fingered” doctor traveling with the strike team. I told everyone to make sure the flaps were tied to the center post of the door before they even th
ink about removing anything covering their bodies.

By the way, Battle-axe's name is Velma Dodson. She's been in the Army 29 years.

We sent the survivors to Clinic Diane for hot showers last night. Carisa asked for their sizes and went to the basement to see if we had anything to fit them. I took what we had over to the Clinic.

I swear, if I didn't know better
, I would a thought someone was in the shower with Tessa. The sounds she was makin' while that water poured down almost made me blush.

Pao was seated
on the couch, waiting his turn with his hands folded in his lap. Bree was sitting beside him, giggling every so often behind her hand. I left the clothing there and headed back, laughing the entire way. I told Mick about it and he said we should torture the single men and send them to stand guard on that side of the motorhome. We laughed but of course, we didn't send the single fellows over there.

Oh joy. Amber just ran in and told me that Buttercup's having a baby. I wonder if she meant NOW or “pretty soon.” I better go find out.

See ya later.

1:00 PM...

Buttercup has a little filly! The vet stuck his arm in and, whoosh, he broke the sack. He was covered in lovely
fluids (snort). Serves him right, dontcha think?

Anyway, we're all excited and Jason's throwing together a stall in the tractor shed.

Chris' “special weapons” arrived right after Buttercup gave birth. I saw two women and three men get out of a vehicle and go inside the command tent with him. A larger vehicle held its occupants inside. I wonder if I can sneak down there and listen. Nah... I like my head on my shoulders.

Peaches is about three months pregnant and Madonna is about five months pregnant. Hay needs have doubled, again. We'll need to fill the horse barn behind the Masterson house and try to come up with more trailers
, simply for storing hay. I believe we only have one empty trailer left on the trailer fence.

I'm headed out to watch the new little filly trying to stand and walk.
See ya later!

3:30 PM...