Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie

by R Kralik

  Elaine made sour cream and it tastes great! We all had a little spoonful on our scalloped potatoes for lunch.

  Someday soon, I'll make beef stroganoff over egg noodles with some of the stew beef I have canned. I'll let Elaine know how much sour cream I need a couple days in advance. Those people won't know what hit them when I dish up that beef stroganoff with re-hydrated mushrooms mixed in. Yum!

  10:00 PM...

  Jeremy and Jesse brought home three more round bales and several square bales of hay before supper. They unloaded them after we ate because supper was ready when they got here and they were "starvin' to death."

  Supper was delicious. Hisa and Merry made a huge pot of rice and stir-fried all kinds of canned veggies with soy sauce, coconut oil, crushed pineapple, chunk chicken, and various spices.

  We haven't heard from the Masterson family in a few days. I'll send Jeremy over tomorrow morning with a half-gallon of goat’s milk to check on them.

  Mick says we should cut trees for our log fence from the mountainside instead of inside the compound, and Dane agrees. He wants to keep trees that are close so we don't have to go outside the compound for firewood next winter. Hopefully, we'll be using a gas oven this summer.

  We're having thunderstorms with lightening and high winds right now. Pop was right.

  The wind is blowing the rain sideways and the trees are swinging and swaying. The storm is whoopin' up on everything out there. I'll bet Lilac and Geraldine are glad to be in the barn and Buttercup is glad to be in the tractor shed.

  The rain'll make a great lullaby as long as the wind behaves.

  I'm going out to sit on the porch and watch the lightening for a while. It's my favorite things to do during thunderstorms. I wrap up in a blanket and sit in the middle of the covered porch, hoping the wind will blow the rain sideways just enough to gently spray my face. I guess I'm "easily entertained."

  Bye for now.

  Sunday, March 2

  We had pancakes and canned fruit for breakfast. Everyone here loves pancakes, and we still have a good bit of the mix we looted from the restaurant. Hopefully, everyone got their bellies full.

  Jesse and Jeremy plan to finish getting the hay from the barn where they found the cattle. They'll head out when Jeremy gets back from the Masterson place. Our hay requirements have doubled since we got Buttercup, Lilac, and Geraldine.

  Dane and Jason headed off in the Silverado to pick up two more metal barrels and find enough diesel fuel to fill them. Dane wants to check the big rigs at the truck stop, just in case one of them wasn't completely empty when the driver pulled in to refuel.

  Nana told Pop that she needs him to "run down to the elementary school and pick up books" so she can use them for teaching Michael and Amber. He just looked at her like she was nuts. Uh, sorry Nana, Pop isn't allowed to "run down to the elementary school." They will eat him at the elementary school.

  Hisa told me in confidencethat Valerie isn't pregnant. She went to Hisa for feminine products last night. That's a relief!

  Nana just stuck her head in the door and told me that Jeremy is back from the Masterson place and he's upset. See ya later.

  2:00 PM...

  When I saw Mrs. Masterson digging around in the yard, she wasn't digging a garden, she was digging a grave. Mr. Masterson passed away. He became ill and died within 24 hours. She thinks he died from the flu because "he's always had frail health and had trouble if he caught something as simple as a cold."

  They buried him in the front yard. He didn't rise back up and try to bite them, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't HDI.

  Hisa's furious that they didn't come to her for help. She doesn't know if she could have helped, but she would have "damn sure tried." Hisa's been around us southerners too long.

  Mrs. Masterson, Rebecca, and Deuce are the only three living in the big house with the pond now. I don't know if there's anything I can do to help them, but I'll offer.

  Jeremy's upset that Rebecca didn't let him know, and he's worried that there's no "man" there to protect them. My snarky mouth wanted to say that there probably hasn't been since the "help" left, but I kept it shut and should have slapped myself for thinking ill of the dead.

  Jeremy plans to spend more time there, and Mrs. Masterson's all for it. I bet Rebecca will be pleased.

  He says he won't shirk on anything he's promised to do here and he'll make Deuce help. That’s not what I'm worried about. He feels like a son to me now, and... Oh... never mind.

  I’m gonna help Nana ‘cause she’s putting together a casserole of some kind to send over to them. That's what we do when friends, family, or neighbors have lost someone. If you're reading this sometime near the year 3,000 or so, I hope you didn't let that tradition die along with the rest of them.

  See ya later.

  10:30 PM...

  Dane and Jason came home with both barrels full of diesel fuel. They backed the truck up to the hill and wiggled the barrels off to sit with the others. They brought something else with them.

  No, it wasn't a person, but it may make a huge difference for us. It's a set of keys on a fat key ring. Dane says it's a set of keys to unlock underground gas tanks!

  It was getting dark when he and Jason made it to the truck stop to check for fuel in the big rigs there. Bodies from "restaurant haul day" are lying all over the place. Dane was walking past several HDI bodies when he noticed something shiny on the belt of a corpse wearing a uniform with the name of the truck stop on one side and the name "Chuck" on the other.

  He looked closer and noticed that the shiny object was a set of keys. He grabbed the key ring and pulled them toward him. Along with the keys, he got Chucks belt. He'd pulled it right through Chuck's broken body.

  He unhooked the keys and flung the belt to the ground. He said he almost had to call Ralph because the open body cavity of Chuck released “the most god-awful smell he's ever smelled in his life." He had to walk away to catch his breath and “settle his gut.”

  It was getting darker by the minute. He couldn't read what was written on the keys and didn't want to use the flashlight in case bad guys were nearby. He stuck the keys in his pocket to check later.

  He got about ten gallons of diesel fuel in total out of three trucks. They'd been running on fumes when they pulled in to refuel.

  The truck stop looks and smells horrible, so he and Jason finished lootin' what fuel they could find and headed home.

  Dane brought the keys inside and the men examined them closely with light from the solar lantern.

  Dane swears they’re keys to the underground tanks, and he can't wait to go there tomorrow morning and find out if he's right.

  We pray he's right. We pray there is fuel in the underground tanks and the cashier was lying when he told Diane's dad they were completely out.

  Jesse and Jeremy brought home the last of the hay from the farm where they found the cattle. I hope we can find enough room for what we need to store. The loft looks mighty full right now.

  Jeremy's staying at the Masterson place tonight. He says they have plenty of empty bedrooms and there are fireplaces in most of them. I'll worry about him all night.

  Everyone's sleeping except me. I'm turning in now.

  I hope those keys work and I hope there's something left in those tanks.

  Bye for now.

  Monday, March 3

  7:00 AM...

  I can't help myself. I'm going with Dane to find out if the keys work. Mick's jealous because he wants to go. That's what he gets for kicking Jason out of the truck and leaving me to worry when the horde came through! It's payback time!

  Carisa said she'd watch out for him while I'm gone. I told her to ask "When do you think Mom's gonna get back?" every 15 minutes or so.

  Elaine wanted to go, but she has breakfast duty. I told her I'd take care of her man. I was just kidding around but I don't think she appreciated it one bit. She knows that she has nothing to worry about because I adore Mick.

  Regardless, I'm gonna be
the second one to know if those keys work. I'll letcha know what happens when we get back.

  See ya later.

  3:00 PM...

  The keys work and there’s gasoline and diesel fuel at the truck stop! That's the "good" part of our experience this morning. I'll start at the top.

  Dane and I headed out with a set of keys and a lot of hope.

  Neither of us ate breakfast before we left. We took a thermos of coffee along. It took about ten minutes to get to the truck stop.

  When we pulled in, I could see bodies everywhere. I knew we didn't kill that many HDI's when we looted the restaurant. Someone else has been there, killing HDI's. I was almost too nervous to get out of the truck.

  Dane got out and waited for me to join him and I told him what I was thinking. He went into defense mode and reached back to grab his rifle to go along with the pistol on his hip.

  I looked down to make sure I wasn't dreaming when I strapped my Glock on this morning. When you get older you'll understand that, sometimes, you have to check on things two or three times just to reassure yourself.

  There were two tanks on the east side of the building, and two on the west. There are 21 keys on that key chain. "This is gonna be interesting," I thought to myself.

  We approached the east side first. I felt like I was standing out in the open, waiting to get shot by a stranger or eaten by HDI's. Dane was flipping through keys until he found one he wanted to try.

  He lifted the manhole sized cover off the tank with a crow bar and knelt down to try the key on the inner hatch. It was the wrong key, so he went to the next one. Nope, not that one either.

  The third key fit and Dane exhaled before he turned it. Bingo! It was the right one! He unlocked the hatch and lifted it off. The tank was open and I could smell gasoline fumes. It was the best smell in the world.

  He said could tell by looking that the tank wasn't full. Hey, if it has only six inches in it, that's six more inches than we had before, right?

  We moved on to the next tank. It took three or four minutes to find the right key, but he found it and I could smell gas fumes again. I was jumping up and down and he was just about to join me when something over my shoulder caught his attention. I instantly ducked and turned while pulling my Glock.

  There were five HDI's coming across the parking lot toward us. Two of them were children, and they were so decayed and dirty that I couldn't tell if they were male or female. While I was staring at them, Dane was shooting their companions.

  Both children had only splotches of hair left. One child was a few inches taller than the other. The taller one had large chunks of flesh missing from both sides of the face and one side of its neck. It was missing the tips of its nose and ears. Black goo was sitting on top of the wounds, jigging like Jell-O. I swore I would never eat Jell-O again.

  One of its arms was completely "skinned" and I could see muscle, tendon, and bone from its shoulder to its wrist. There was no hand at the end of that arm, and strings of rotting flesh and skin were hanging almost to the ground.

  There was a gaping hole in the center of its torso and I could see the rotted organs inside. Those organs looked as though they were moving around in the large cavity. Its intestines were hanging to its knees and dripping goo from the ends. They had snapped apart in several places and created a sort of "fringe" covering the HDI's lower abdomen and the front of its thighs.

  There was a large piece of meat missing from the side of its left upper thigh. There were maggots, and they were wiggling around in the black goo, going in and out of a smaller hole. Every step the HDI took caused maggots to fall to the ground. My brain took me to the "why are there maggots in winter?" question again.

  Dane was panicked. He was yelling at me to shoot while he was trying to take out HDI's.

  I just stared. I was hypnotized by the maggots. I finally looked away and saw three more adult HDI's emerging from the grassy field.

  I heard Dane scream my name and I turned to see him being dragged backwards by two adult HDI's who had a hold of his coat. They'd come from behind us.

  Dane was cursing and kicking, trying to get enough room between himself and the HDI's so that he could aim his pistol behind him and blow their brains out.

  I felt something grab at the bottom of my coat and when I looked down, I saw the child HDI I'd been watching. I was pulled down to my knees and was scrambling to get away and back on my feet. The HDI was hissing like the possum in the ckd's garage.

  I heard a gunshot and saw that Dane had been able to eliminate one of his attackers. The other was still pulling him backwards and had him almost to the gas pumps. Dane was stumbling backwards, trying to keep his feet underneath him.

  I was finally on my feet and running as fast as I could toward Dane and the Silverado. I aimed my Glock and took out his second attacker. Dane gave me a grateful look as he raised his rifle to shoot the three additional HDI's that had come out of the grass.

  The child HDI was almost upon me again. I aimed the Glock and shot, without hesitation, through its left eye. It fell forward, and when it landed, I could see that its entire left buttock was missing. The remaining rotten flesh was covered with a colony of goo covered maggots. I almost called Ralph, but adrenaline took over.

  Right then and there I decided that I was never again going to look at any HDI long enough to be able to describe every wound it has. I raised the Glock and helped Dane take out the remaining monsters like a serious HDI killing expert.

  The only choice we had was to kill, or be eaten. Between the two of us, we took out nineteen HDI's. Four of them were children.

  When every HDI was dead on the ground, I called Ralph and lost what little coffee I'd swallowed on the trip over.

  Dane was leaning against the Silverado, trying to catch his breath and calm down. I went over to him and put my hand on his arm. We gave each other a quick hug and decided we were not leaving until we found the correct keys for the other two tanks.

  We drove the Silverado around and parked beside the tank covers. It took about fifteen minutes before we found the keys for both tanks. The fuel inside is diesel and the tanks are not full.

  The HDI battle had taken our joy away. We climbed in the Silverado and headed back home.

  On a side road between the truck stop and home, we saw a hippy bus from the sixties. It was moving away from us. We looked at one another but didn't say a word. We kept heading home.

  When we got here, I ran inside as fast as I could.

  Mick was lying on the chaise lounge and I fell on top of him. I forced him to put his arms around me and buried my face in his chest. I was crying while Dane explained to everyone there what happened. Mick held me tighter and tighter as the story progressed.

  I couldn't eat anything for lunch.

  11:00 PM...

  Sometimes, pain is a good thing. My knees are sore from hitting the pavement at the truck stop, but I don't care. Pain lets me know that I survived, and I'm relishing in it. I'm not taking a pain pill for sore knees. Hisa had me put ice on them.

  Dane came out of it unscathed. Ah, youth! He even had the guts to go back with Jason and Soo so they could try to measure how much fuel is in the tanks. They used our laundry lines and long ropes with a concrete block tied to the end. Soo said that Dane had to do some tricky math to figure everything out. We'll have to soak all our laundry lines to get the gasoline smell out. That ought to be pleasant, not!

  The diesel tanks are both about half full and so is one of the gasoline tanks. The other gasoline tank is close to a third full. Dane isn't exactly sure what size the tanks are, but he's guessing they hold about 8,000 gallons which would be a normal size for a large truck stop just off an Interstate. They could be larger, but he's going with the 8,000 gallons estimate.

  He says there's plenty of diesel fuel to build our log fence and plenty of gasoline to get us through quite a bit of time depending on our usage. He plans to head out tomorrow and look for a backhoe.

  Pop and Mr. Hobb
s began spreading goat poop on the garden today. Pop says they'll finish up tomorrow and begin tilling it in the day after.

  Soo and Jason cut down several large trees behind the Hobbs place. They'll try to use Buttercup and some of the chain Jason found at TSC to drag them here. If Buttercup won't do it we'll have to use the Kubota or one of the pickup trucks.

  Jesse, Jeremy, and Deuce are going on a barn lootin' run tomorrow. They found a small barn today and were able to get 46 square bales. It took one trip with the flatbed trailer to get it all.

  Deuce says there's a large horse stable behind the Masterson house and we can use it to store hay if we need to. Jason asked if he knew anything about Buttercup, and he doesn't.

  Rebecca and Mrs. Masterson are coming here tomorrow morning to make breakfast for everyone. It'll be nice to get to know them better. It'll be interesting to see what two former rich chicks can cook up for this large crew.

  I feel better tonight. I was able to eat a bean burger for supper and everyone was nice to me for the rest of the day. I just hope I can sleep without dreaming. Hisa told me take one of my Xanax of the blue variety before I go to bed and I'm not gonna argue about it.

  Hisa, Valerie, and Marisa finished all the laundry today. It's hanging all over the house because we can’t hang it on the gasoline soaked laundry lines. I'll need to get up early and pick up laundry before the Masterson women arrive.

  I need to ask Dane about the hippy bus we saw. I wanna make sure I didn't imagine it.

  I don't know what I'm supposed to do tomorrow. I'll figure it out when I get up. Right now, I just want to lie down with Mick.

  Bye for now.

  Tuesday, March 4

  Rebecca and Toni Masterson made oatmeal for breakfast. They added peppermint tea to the pot while it was cooking. It wasn't good, but I'm not sayin’ a word.