Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie (75 page)

They found something scary along the way
, and went to the radio building to tell Chris about it before they unloaded the guns.

Twenty-five miles from here
, you can find Sniper's final resting spot. Unfortunately, the two soldiers who were escorting him are there as well.

Jason noticed a little plume of smoke and guessed it was about a mile away, straight down the two-lane road. He drove another half-mile, hid the Lexus in the trees, and got out. He, Isaac, and Emma went the rest of the way on foot.

They hid behind trees and brush as they cautiously approached the plume of smoke. It wasn't long before Isaac spotted a military vehicle sitting in a ditch on the side of the road. It looked as though it was partially burned and smoke was slowly billowing upward into the sky.

All three of them sat back in the trees and watched for
quite a while. When they were satisfied that no one else was around, they approached the truck.

They recogn
ized Sniper in the backseat because of his left foot, which was missing a pinkie toe. The bandage around it was gone. The ashes were probably floating in the air around them.

Plastic zip ties holding his wrists and ankles together were melted into his body. Isaac turned and vomited behind the vehicle.

Two people were in the front seat. One of them had dog tags handing from his left hand which was lying over the windowsill of the passenger side. Jason took the tags and went around to the driver side to see if he could locate dog tags on the driver.

The air smelled like burning flesh and rancid oil. He hoped
the interior of the vehicle had been set afire after the occupants were shot in the head.

He saw the tags around
the driver’s neck, but they had sunken deep into his flesh. He tried to reach out and pull them loose but his stomach and brain refused to allow it.

Emma reached in and pulled the tags from the
driver’s body and over his head. Burnt skin and flesh came with them. She removed her little sweater, wrapped both sets of tags inside, and held it close to her chest. “Cleve was in the Army when the boys was little, ya know” she said to Jason.

She suddenly stood as tall as she could and told Jason and Isaac to follow her back to the Lexus. She would take the tags to Major Knellson when they returned the compound. Jason said he and Isaac followed her like toddlers back to the Lexus. None of them looked
back in the direction of the smoking vehicle, coming or going.

After Jason, Isaac, and Emma left the radio building
, Chris Knellson came unglued. I could hear loud cursing and banging along with several things hitting the walls. I was extremely concerned because I knew Josie was in there with him. I knocked on the door and no one answered. I knocked again and gave a three count before I opened the door and went inside.

Chris was slumped over and sitting in a metal folding chair with his elbows on his knees. Tears were rolling down his cheeks. He was holding both sets of dog tags in his hands and they were dangling almost to the floor. Tiny bits of flesh and blood was stuck to his fingertips and he was staring at them. Josie was bent over him with her arm around his shoulder and her cheek pressed against the top of his head.

He looked up and saw me. He stood, dried his eyes, wrapped the tags in a napkin, and placed them in his pocket. He turned to ask if I needed anything. His voice was calm, cool, and collected. I wondered if I'd imagined the entire thing.

I told him I was just checking to see if Josie needed anything, and if she didn't, I'd leave them to their planning. He and Josie
both said they had everything they needed. I left the radio building with the sudden realization that Chris Knellson was human after all.

I
felt uncomfortably satisfied that Sniper got his just reward.

Time is flying by and I don't know what to do. I'm too anxious and restless to sit here anymore.

I'm headed out to wander around the house.

See ya later.

11:15 PM...

I have Mick in my bed. Oh my God in heaven. Thank you!

Can you believe it? He's sound asleep and I'm wide awake and I can't stop looking at him to make sure he's still there.

I want to touch him constantly. He needs sleep and I need to let him sleep.

He was filthy when he arrived and I washed him in the big bathtub from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.

He's hungry, but Hisa says he has to take it slow. He's had only a few club crackers from the floor of the trailer, and drank four bottles of water while he was being held captive. Dane's in the same condition except for a lump on his head.

They
have bruises, bumps, and scratches. They're both having a little trouble adjusting their eyes to light and they're both weak, but other than that, they're fine.

He's so beautiful. Oh Lord, I had forgotten how beautiful he is. Every inch of him is beautiful and every inch of him is in our bed.
I feel like I've been put back together. In some way, everyone on the compound feels the same.

It was dark when he got out of the truck. He could barely stand on his own and needed help walking a few feet up the sidewalk. I couldn't wait on the porch any longer. I ran to him.

We fell on the ground, holding each other, touching, crying, and thanking God that we were back together. It didn't take long for Carisa and Marisa to join us. We stayed on the ground, wrapped and tangled in each other’s arms and legs, for several minutes.

One of the soldiers asked if we needed help getting up
, but Chris Knellson told him to stand down until we were ready.

Slowly, without letting go, we climbed to our feet. I had one side of him and Marisa had the other. We made it to the porch and he wanted to sit in the rocking chair. We helped him get settled.

Elaine wasn't here. She was still in bed. Jesse drove Dane down the path to Marisa's house so he could go to Elaine. We heard her scream out with joy while we were sitting on the porch.

Folks began saying goodnight and heading back to their own little houses and motorhomes. Marisa and Carisa took the kids inside, and members of the strike team left the porch to wait near the truck. They told us to call for them if Mick needed help.

Mick said that both he and Dane had been examined thoroughly by the doctor while the team “took care of loose ends.” The doctor said they'd be fine after a good scrub and a few days of food and rest.

Mick didn't wanna go inside, so we used the golf cart to take him around back. He sat on the back porch, grinning from ear to ear, while Emma and Nana heated water and ran back and forth pouring it into the tub. I sat beside him and held on tight. When the tub was full
, I helped him get undressed.

I threw his clothes on the porch and managed to help him into the tub. When he was situated in the warm, clean water I slid the curtain around the tub, threw off my clothes, and climbed in with him. My body wouldn't allow me to stay away. I washed and he
talked. We cried and laughed.

I helped him inside and into bed. I put him in a pair of boxers and a t-shirt. Carisa brought in a mug of chicken broth and he sipped while he talked.

Carisa hugged him goodnight with happy tears in her eyes. He held her for several minutes and thanked God aloud for his beautiful child before letting go.

I can't sleep, so I'll write out what I know. I'll have the whole story tomorrow when Ian and Rick wake up. Mick knows what happened inside the trailer. He doesn't know what happened outside.

He told me how he and Dane were captured. I know he has more to tell, but he's exhausted both physically and mentally.

Mick and Dane drove into town and were shocked to see only a few HDI's roaming about.

They decided to loot a couple of small pharmacies and shops while they could. They parked beside a small mom & pop pharmacy and got out to check the doors. The front door was thick metal and
it was locked, so they decided to head around back. The back door was locked as well. Dane decided to shoot out the lock because the brick building had only long, narrow windows that neither he nor Mick could fit through.

They went inside.

The store had been carefully emptied of all food and quite a bit of supplies. Several shelves in the pharmaceutical section were completely empty. They guessed that the owners had closed up early, taken what they needed, and got the heck outa there. It basically looked like a little store in need of a big delivery.

They decided to load up a few bins and stuff them into the Jeep. They wanted to pack as much as they could get before heading home, grabbing a large trailer, and going back to take advantage of the lack of HDI's in the area.

They packed boxes and bins and placed them beside the back door. They went to the front of the building to get the Jeep, drive it around back, and load their haul quickly and quietly.

Just as Mick opened the driver side door, a man with an M16 stepped out from behind a car on the street and pointed straight at him. He told Mick to stop where he was or he'd blow his head off.

Mick heard a thunk and a grunt from the passenger side, and saw Dane go down. There was a large man dressed in military garb standing beside Dane who was lying on the ground, out cold.

Several men in military garb stepped from behind abandoned vehicles along the road and ordered Mick to walk forward with his hands in the air. If he tried anything, Dane would be shot where he lay. Mick had no choice. He put his hands in the air and walked toward them.

They forced him to sit on the curb and they tied his hands behind his back. It took two men to drag Dane's mass over to the curb beside Mick. They tied his hands as well.

A large
, covered truck came around the corner and parked beside the curb. Dane was shaken back to consciousness by the rumble of the engine. Mick heard him cursing and saw him struggle into a sitting position.

Five people
were led from behind a retail shop and ordered to climb in the truck. Mick knew that he and Dane were next.

He thought of the wallet in his rear pocket which held his
driver’s license with our address and pictures of the kids. He managed to reach into the pocket, pull out the wallet, and hide it with both hands.

He and Dane were ordered to stand and climb into the
rear of the truck.

Mick was last in line
, and when he came to the rear bumper, he turned and asked one of them who they were. He dropped his wallet to the ground at the same time.

He was told to “get his ass in the truck
,” so he turned around and nonchalantly kicked the wallet underneath the rear of the truck before climbing inside. He prayed that no one noticed.

Three armed men climbed in behind him and hollered to the driver to head out.

Dane tried to shake the cobwebs out of his head and struggled to untie himself. He received a strong, verbal warning and decided to remain calm and pay close attention to the men holding them hostage. His mind took in every detail until the truck came to a halt.

The flaps on the rear were thrown open and everyone was ordered to climb out. Mick almost fell on his face trying to get out of the truck with his hands tied behind his back.

When he was able to look around, he knew where he was.

He'd gone fishing
many times in a small lake about a hundred yards from the camp. He knew the rock quarry was nearby and he could easily find his way home if he could escape. He held his tongue and followed orders. He needed time to think and hoped he'd be able to talk to Dane without anyone hearing.

One at a time
, the zip ties were cut from their wrists and they were shoved inside a very dark freight trailer. There were several people already inside, but Mick only caught a glimpse of them before the door was slammed and the lock thrown in place.

The folks inside came to know one another by the sounds of their voices. The quietest whisper echoed inside the small, dark space
, and Mick knew that he and Dane would have trouble keeping any escape plans secret from the people trapped with them. The smell of sweat, filth, and human waste was stifling.

Twice a day
, the trailer door was opened and two boxes of Club crackers along with a case of water was thrown inside. The crackers were grabbed and popped open, spilling all over the floor. Most people had to find food by crawling around on their hands and knees and blindly sweeping their fingers across the floor.

The toilet was a metal barrel, also found only by touch. The barrel was tall and the prisoners had to hang their rear ends over the edge while someone else helped them stay balanced. There was no tissue or cleaning aids of any sort. Mick said the barrel wasn't taken out and emptied the entire time he was there.

Including Mick and Dane, there were ssixteen people inside the trailer. They all were captured in various parts of town except for two women who were captured when they left the barn loft where they'd been living.

Their names are Tessa and B
ree (short for Briana) and they were neighbors in an apartment building when the world collapsed.