Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie (57 page)

My family has lots of summer clothes but everyone else needs some except for Deuce and Rebecca. We also have plenty of winter clothes and again, e
veryone will need those as well.

We need to start lootin' houses again and take all the clothes we find along with the food. We need all the quilts, comforters, and blankets we can
find before winter comes again.

I wasn't surprised to find out that Elaine can sew. She said she can make clothes out of curta
ins, so we'll take any we find.

Mick just sighed and that's a signal for me to get off this stupid computer and get in bed,

Bye for now.

Monday
, March 24

They're gone. They left right before dawn and were prepared as they could be. Now
, the worrying starts. It's only 25 freakin' miles but it seems a lot farther than that. I pray they don't run into a fake military group.

Maybe they'll be back before supper.

Jason and Rebecca are at the Masterson house, gathering clothes. I asked for all the bed linens and towels. Rebecca told Jason they should take the goat trailer because there’s a lot of bed linens, clothes, and towels. That sounded great to me.

Soo and Elaine ar
e on watch out front and Pop is on watch with Luke out back. Rona went back to her motorhome right after the men pulled out. I'm sure she's worrying as much as I am.

Carisa's sitting
in the radio building and has made contact with the men already.. They said they'll check in again when they get close to the stash. That could be any minute, I'm guessing.

Mr. Hobbs is in the garden harvesting whatever he can.

I need to get out to the kitchen, unload the dehydrator, and start a load of parsley.

Carisa brought up a large garbage bag full of pint-sized plastic containers last night. I'll be filling one of them with dried basil leaves this morning. I also need to get my nose in a book and find out how to preserve fava beans.

See ya later.

3:00 PM...

They're safe and on their way home.
They had trouble with a few HDI's, but there was no fake military group to be seen.

Dane
said they got quite a bit from the stash and he'll talk about it when they get here. I can't wait for them to arrive!

Just about everyone is on the front porch
, waiting for them. I'm headed there myself.

See ya
later.

10:30 PM...

The only trouble the men had was driving through a very small town about five miles from the stash. There were HDI's on the street and they had to shoot and drive their way through. Mick said they probably took out about 40 HDI's. Thank the Lord for small towns. I wondered aloud where the rest of their population went. Mick said there were HDI's on the side streets and in several of the shops and buildings but they only took out the ones that were close and blocking their way.

The stash was inside a little rundown shack back in the woods. There was a red X painted on the roof, duh. They had to park on the edge of the woods and carry everything, but the hand dolly made it a lot easier.

The delivery truck held three large tubs of flour, one large tub of sugar, and a large tub of salt. It also held two barrels of sweet sorghum syrup along with six
12-count cases each of corn, green beans, potatoes, beef ravioli, and chili.

There's a huge box labeled “beef jerky” covered in layers of plastic wrap. There's
a case of sauerkraut, a case of dill pickle spears, a case of brown gravy, and a large box full of Jell-O and Jell-O pudding mix in many different flavors. I was drooling over the glass jars full of sauerkraut, gravy, and pickles.

They also got a huge box full of
Corel dishes and mugs along with two nice propane grills.

Rounding out the delivery truck was a 50 lb propane, two 100 lb propane tanks, three M16's (yeah baby), a large tub of .223 ammo, 6 hand grenades , a tub of .45 ammo, and several pieces of what Rick says is a M79 grenade launcher. A GRENADE LAUNCHER?

The Jeep held a large amount of medical supplies. There were several more rifles and pistols, and ammunition to go with them. Mick said they found 20 National Guard uniforms but Rick thought it would be a bad idea to have them on the compound..

This was a good haul and we're very happy to have it. It may not sound like much, but we probably added on a good
one or two weeks to our food supplies. The flour, sugar, and salt will last a lot longer than that.

There's a bus full of gypsy t
raders behind the trailer fence. They pulled up right before dark and Samuel asked if they could hide the bus behind the trailers and camp overnight. Of course, we said yes. We saw firelight from their charcoal grill about an hour after they parked. I need to find out if they have anything for Lisa’s birthday.

I didn't get the fava beans taken care of but I found instructions for them. We'll blanch them and fr
eeze them in plastic containers.

Jason and Rebecca brought the goat trailer home full of cloth
es and linens.

I think Luke and Larson can wear some of Deuce's clothes and Rebecca can share hers with several of the girls. Most of Mr. Masterson's clothes are fancy
, but Elaine says she’ll make something of them. She'll also alter Mrs. Masterson's clothes. They brought quilts, comforters, and a good number of towels and sheet sets. They brought home a huge amount of cloth dinner napkins and Elaine says she can make summer blouses and halter tops with them.

Right before dark
, Jeremy took out two HDI's in the big field across the road. One of them was walking on his knees because he had no legs and feet below them.

The men will take the HDI bodies to the power lines tomorrow morning and burn them. I bet they came out of the woods when they heard Jason and Rebecca at the Masterson house.

Fence work will resume tomorrow. I think the men are looking forward to it. They should be able to get a lot done since most of them will be here.

Mick's finally sleeping and I'm heading out to the porch for my last cigarette of the day. I have 11 cigarettes left. I'm gonna miss those terrible little coffin nails.

Bye for now.

T
uesday, March 25

I wanna scream but... oh, hell... THERE ARE 15 BABY CHICK
ENS IN THE COOP! They're yellow, fluffy, and adorable. Go Rusty! He's an awesome rooster.

I hope at least half of them
are female. Soo said it'll be a few weeks 'til we know for sure. I'm sending a big thank you up to Jesus that we have baby chicks.

I have no idea what to do with them. Soo's gonna take care of it. We're gonna need more chicken feed
and Mick says there's none at the milling company. Pop said they would eat garden scraps so we'll make sure to pick some out of the pigs bucket for them.

Nana and Elaine made sausage biscuits for breakfast. They put out several jars of jam for those who didn't want sausage.

Last year, I bought several pork roasts when they were on sale. I ground them up, added a few spices, and made sausage from a recipe I found on a YouTube video. I fried the sausage patties and canned them in some of my tall canning jars. I was able to get nine patties in each jar. Nana used several jars for breakfast. No one complained, and we emptied more canning jars to re-use.

Josie came in for breakfast
today. She says she's anxious to get on the duty rosters. She's gonna have scars across her back from the lashings she took. She says she's lucky to have her life and anyone who's turned off by her scars is not worth the time of day.

Kevin was on watch out front and saw two pickup trucks driving slowly down the road. That made everyone nervous and, of course, Mick will worry about it all day. I'll be right there with him.

Rick and Ian are building a pig pen attached to what's left of the shed at Marisa and Jason's house. The pigs will have a lot more room and can root for acorns and whatever else pigs root for.

Ian said they'll have the pen finished before lunch, then they'll help with the fence.

I'm thinking about going back to all the refrigerators to look for pickle jars and other glass jars we can use for canning. I'm sure we won't enjoy it but we can clean and disinfect them before using them. Actually, we must do it. We need jars desperately.

Samuel came up the hill and told Marisa that they'll be leaving in an hour or so. I
need to get down there and see what I can find for Lisa. I have no idea what to use for trading. We need every speck of food we have. Maybe they'll take water or dried basil. I suppose I can offer them a pint container of salt.

I'm heading down there now. See ya later.

3:00 PM...

I couldn't find a darn thing for Lisa's birthday. I traded the Gypsies a barrel of water for two jars of Uncle Scott's Liver Pate' and two boxes of instant mashed potato flakes.

Shawna told me that Lisa likes weapons and camping.

I pulled out a nice backpack, took it to Rick and Ian, and told them to make a “killer bug-out bag.” They started digging through boxes and tubs right away. Shawna said that Lisa will love it.

Jesse and Jeremy came home with a trailer load of square bales. They ate lunch, unloaded the hay into one of the trailers, a
nd left to get a second load. They're gonna continue to look for hay until they run out of places to look or all the trailers are full.

They looted a house several yards from the hay barn. The windows were boarded up and there were two fresh graves beside the house. There was a man HDI inside and Jeremy said he
was somewhat “fresh.” It took two bullets to put him down for good.

They brought home a small amount of home-canned food and 24 empty quart jars. Jeremy said the sheets were disgusting and had blood all over them
, but he'd grab them on their second trip if I wanted him to. I declined the sheets.

They also brought home a 12 gauge shotgun and a half-full box of shells.

Dane and Kevin went out for another load of logs. Rick and Ian finished the pig pen and took their places working on the fence.

Larson brought in four
more quail. Rona cleaned them and added them to the freezer with the others.

Pop and Mr. Hobbs are almost ready to start planting seeds in the garden near the pools. Pop said they need to rake the ground two more times before planting. I hear the tractor at the bottom of the hill so I guess they're working on it now.

I just heard gunshots! I pray it's the boys getting quail, but I'm going out to check anyway. See ya later.

10:00 PM...

It wasn't the boys getting quail.

Two pickup trucks stopped at the front gate and four teenage boys got out. They motioned to Mr. Hobbs and Pop who were working in the garden. Mr. Hobbs headed toward the gate on the Kubota. Pop was walking, so he was good distance behind.

Rona and Deuce were on wat
ch duty and they started down the hill to find out who they were and what they wanted.

Pop saw one of the boys swipe his hand across his throat, indicating that he wanted Mr. Hobbs to cut the engine so they could talk to him. Mr. Hobbs cut the engine, climbed down off the tractor, and began walking toward the gate. Pop
panicked and yelled at him to get behind the tractor, but I guess he didn't hear him.

Rona and Deuce were almost down the hill and Pop was standing behind the Kubota
, aiming his pistol toward the gate when one of the boys propped his arm on the shoulder of the boy in front and used a .357 Magnum to shoot Mr. Hobbs in the chest. He fell to the ground.

Rona motioned to Deuce to hit the ground and he dropped like a rock. Rona and Pop began shooting toward the boys
, and two of them fell to the ground within seconds. The remaining two jumped inside the front pickup truck. The tires squealed as they drove away. Pop says he put at least two bullets through the rear window of the pickup but it kept going.

Rona sent Deuce running toward Clinic Diane.

Pop and Rona ran to Mr. Hobbs who was lying on the ground in a pool of blood. Several of us began running down the hill, and Hisa came running from Clinic Diane with a black bag in her hand. She passed a few of us and made it to Mr. Hobbs several seconds before we got there. Pop was bent over him and holding his hand.

The buttons flew off his shirt as Hisa ripped it open to look at the wound. She sat back on her heels and looke
d up at the rest of us. I saw no hope on her face.

Mr. Hobbs pulled Pop closer and whispered to him. His hand went limp in Pop's hand and he laid his head on the ground and left this world.

Elaine was screaming and crying at the top of her lungs. She said “dad? Dad? DADDY!” as she shook him. “No daddy! You’re gonna be fine, get up, it's gonna be okay” she screamed. The rest of us were crying as well. Hisa grabbed her by the shoulder and told her that her Daddy was already gone. Elaine started wailing just as Dane and Kevin pulled up in the log truck.