Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie (93 page)

Josie asked to spend the night at the house because she feared walking back to her motorhome in the dark with an HDI fly on the loose. That caused us to postpone our little meeting we had planned for tonight to decide when to begin carrying food and supplies to our hidey-holes.

Flies are holding us hostage. This is like a curse that a wicked witch would put on a beautiful princess.

I was ready to head in here, and looked for Deuce to tell him goodnight. Carisa told me he was in his room and wouldn't come out.

I knocked on his door and got no answer so I entered the room and saw that he had clothing and towels stuck in the crevices between the wall and the plywood over the window. He also had a towel stuffed along the bottom of the door. He was in his closet, cutting a “door” in the back so he could climb inside to hide and pull the sheetrock back after him. He was scared.

I held him and talked with him for a good 30 minutes before he told me he'd be “brave” and come out of his room in the morning. I told him I was proud of him, closed the door, and headed in here.

We'll need to clean up HDI bodies and take them to the power lines to burn in the morning. It'll take all day because I'm sure they'll be covered with flies and no one will want to work on the project unless they're wearing a beekeeper suit. We have only four suits.

What a mess.

I'm sending someone back to the specialty store tomorrow to see if they can find more suits.

I wonder if we could spray the outside of the house from top to bottom with insect repellant.

I wonder what Mick's doing right now. My heart hurts.

Bye for now.

Saturday, May 3

I woke up this morning with flies on the brain. Finally, I had an idea and I asked Carisa to run downstairs and bring up the book with the colored
photos of flies with HDI and every known mutation.

I remembered that the book also contained
photos of several other flies like house flies, horseflies, dragonflies, etc.

Deuce was true to his word and came out of his room for breakfast. While we were eating
, I asked him to go through the pictures and show us which fly he saw. He pointed to the photo of a regular old horsefly.

The entire room sighed with relief while I explained to him that the horsefly photo was in the book so we could identify the bad flies from the “not so bad” flies
, and that he'd seen a normal horsefly.

I figured it looked huge to him.

Heck, horseflies look huge to me and I've seen plenty. I know how quickly a twelve-year-old imagination can run wild, especially when someone's told you that mutant flies are out to get you. He understood, and his face turned bright red. I had to give him the old “better safe than sorry” and the “we’re so proud of you for keeping a watchful eye out” spiels.

Everyone there told him they were glad he was aware of what was going on and keeping a watch out for unusual flies. That made him feel better. In fact, he headed straight to the meadow after breakfast.

Dane, Jason, Ian, and Jeremy took two loads of HDI bodies to the power lines before breakfast

I miss Mick so much. I'm sure my heart is bleeding. The feeling is almost like jet lag. My whole body misses him. I can't go 10 minutes without thinking of him and wondering what he's doing. I'm trying to send unlucky vibes to any enemy he faces.

Josie said she didn't sleep a wink all night, and she headed to her motorhome after breakfast. That made me happy because we'll be able to load the delivery truck with a few things and take them to the cave. We'll have to be careful and not move too much at once in case Josie or Velma are actually aware of what we have.

Dane has the delivery truck backed up to the basement door. We plan to tell anyone who asks that he's getting ready to go on a lootin' run with Ian and Pao.

I told everyone that I'd let Carisa in on our plans right away because she keeps a sharp eye on the supplies and she'll notice something missing in a heartbeat. I'll have a talk with her after the crew leaves.

Kevin, Rona, and Shawna are actually the ones going on a real lootin' run. They're headed back to the
specialty store to pick up beekeeping suits.

Even though Deuce's HDI fly turned out to be a false alarm, we still want to have as many suits as possible. I wondered aloud if we could find HAZMAT suits at the hospital. Kevin said they'd stop and check it out if there aren't too many HDI's on every floor.

Luke and Larson are standing watch in the front guard towers today. Pop will be spending time with each one of them in each tower. Rona feels safe enough to let them handle it because of the locks on the inside of the doors.

Luke and Larson would take out any fake military folks who try to make the jump from the top of the trailer fence to the middle floor window of the towers. I think that area's our most vulnerable spot and I asked the men to come up with some sort of plan to make the top of the trailers beside the towers dangerous.

I came up with two ideas. My first idea was to stick long spikes through the top of the fence trailer, but Pop reminded me that the hay inside would get wet. I suppose we could use the hay from those trailers first so we can employ the spike idea.

My second idea is to add metal shutters on the inside of the watch tower windows that can be closed and locked if entry is threat
ened. Plus, there's always the badazz guns on the top floor. Anyway, I'm no good at stuff like that so I'll give Dane my suggestions and leave it to him.

I just heard the truck engine start up. Dane's probably ready to head out. I'm gonna grab Carisa and fill her in.

See ya later.

3:00 PM...

Carisa listened to everything I told her and replied “It's about time.” She completely agrees that we needed to stash and cache. She said she'd work on a dummy list in case someone wants to check the food and supply list.

Rona, Kevin, and Shawna came back from their lootin' run pretty darn fast. They brought nothing home except information and fear.

They were sitting in the Dodge, about ready to open the doors and head inside the specialty shop when Kevin noticed movement in the rear view mirror.

Military vehicles were headed towards them, and they all three ducked and laid down in the seats praying the vehicles would pass them by. They had no idea whether it was real military trucks or fake military trucks.

Rona swears that she held her breath for two minutes as the small convoy slowly passed them by.

All three of them were afraid to raise their heads to make sure every vehicle had passed. Shawna finally said “what the heck” and slowly raised her head until her eyes were above the windows. She saw no vehicles on the street at the rear or the front.

They decided to take the scenic route home. They didn't get out of the vehicle. I prayed that the convoy passed the pull-off and wouldn't run into Dane on his way back from the cave. Thankfully, he didn't see them.

Kevin decided they had acted ridiculous, running after the danger had passed. He and Dane are in town now, getting what they need to get. I hope they remember the beekeeper suits.

Josie said they radioed in about half an hour ago and told her the noise device is loud and clear, and it's working. They've seen several HDI's headed toward the rock quarry.

We're due to check the quarry in a few days. I think I'll go along. Surely I can't get into trouble staring at a bunch of HDI's in a deep hole.

I wonder what Mick's doing right now. I'm imagining him in a martial arts class with his shirt off and wearing sweatpants. He's barefoot and throwing some mean karate chops toward his instructor who's praising him for his ability to catch on fast.

Maybe he's on a shooting range, firing at moving targets. He's wearing his uniform and his brow is furrowed as he concentrates on his targets. I can almost smell his shaving gel on the wind.

I need to get out of this funk. It can't be good for me.

Elaine and Lisa have been filtering water all day. They're working on filling the two large white tanks behind the house.

It's eighty eight degrees outside and I'm miserable. Have I ever mentioned that I hate bras? Well, I hate bras. I think of them as torture devices, especially in the heat of summer.

After we get all the water containers filled, I plan to use one of the above ground pools for what it's meant to be. I have a feeling we're all gonna need it.

To hell with my back. I'm heading out to visit the big room at the end of the tunnel and find out if it's cool in there.
Summer’s gonna make me crazy.

See ya later.

10:30 PM...

I was walking up the hill toward the tunnels.

I was almost past the garden when Pop hollered for me to come over and take a look.

Right there, on a beautiful green vine hanging from the weight of the fruit, was a gorgeous ripe tomato about the size of a tennis ball. I pulled it to my mouth with the vine still attached and took a bite. It was divine.

I saw several more red beauties
, so I picked a couple, kissed Pop on the cheek, and took them to the cave.

As I walked down the tunnel
, I could feel the darkness grow cooler with every step. I heard tiny clumps of dirt crunch under my feet and a few pebbles scoot along the floor to rest against the walls. I went inside the big room and waited as long as I dared before turning the switch on the solar lantern. I sat on the ground and ate my tomatoes.

The sound of my movement and scuffling of my feet echoed slightly in the large room. I knew I'd found my haven. I plan to spend as much of the summer there as possible.

I'm guessing its sixty-five degrees in there, and that's perfect for me. I felt safe, and I turned off the lantern to soak up the cool darkness. I thought I could feel Mick there with me even though I knew he wasn't. I knew he was somewhere thinking of me. I was sure of it.

I knew I'd better get back but I loitered for several more minutes in the cool air. It was divine. I'm sure I looked like a different woman when I emerged from the entrance. My new favorite place is that tunnel room.

Kevin and Dane returned with three more beekeeper suits. The see-through bee hives are still alive and kickin' on the walls. They brought home several books so we can learn how to move the hives. I would love to have fresh honey on homemade bread.

They also visited a couple of antique stores and came home with a lot of old-timey gadgets along with several crocks in different sizes. They stripped all the linens off the antique beds and wrapped several sets of china in them. I hope there's no lead in the patterns on that china because we need intend to use it.

I asked Kevin to put away an elegant, solid white set for Marisa so I can give it to her for her birthday in July. I don't think she has anything other than a few old chipped plates and saucers at her house. We have a small section in the basement reserved for gift type items and he said he'd put it there.

Emma canned tomato chutney this afternoon with the small harvest they got from the early tomato plants. I've never eaten chutney.
Since it has tomatoes in it, I'll probably love it.

We have so few members who can stand watch that we're beginning to wear ourselves out. We always have two guards at the front of the property and two in back. We have 19 members who can reliably stand watch if you include
Luke and Larson.

We need at least four guards per shift and we need to work on other projects like looting, catwalks, towers
, tunneling, gardening, preserving, laundry, water filtering, and getting our secret supplies to the proper places.

We're working from dawn 'til dusk
, and there's always something extra that pops up like repairing the onion fence where Pao busted through.

I'm trying to stay busy and avoid thinking about how much I miss Mick. It's impossible. He's in my head all the time and I can't shake it. I don't know how Josie handles it. Maybe she has it easier because she and Chris have only been together for a short while.

Maybe she's stronger than me. If she has some sort of secret about how to handle this loneliness, I wish she'd share it with me.

It's hot in here because of the warm weather and because Nana and Emma were canning most of the day. I'm tempted to take Mick's pillow and blanket to sleep inside the tunnel room. If folks wouldn't freak out because I'm not in the house tomorrow morning, I'd already be on my way there.

Goodnight Mick. I love you and miss you terribly.

Bye for now.

Sunday May 4

The first thing on my mind when I woke this morning was Mick and the fact that it's only 28 mo
re days 'til I see him again.

I crawled out of bed and thought of him while I dressed. My back's feeling better but I'm still a litt
le sore. I abandoned the cane.

I took care of nature and came inside to talk with Nana and Valerie as they mixed up
muffin batter for breakfast.