Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie

by R Kralik

  All three of them stood behind the trailer fence and yelled toward the bus. I couldn't make out what was said, but I knew they wouldn't come out from behind the trailer unless someone friendly stepped off the bus or it went on its way.

  I crouched down behind a rocking chair and sent everyone else inside. I told Carisa to grab my binoculars and toss them out to me. I looked through them and watched the bus door open.

  A figure stepped off of the bus and I could tell it was a woman simply by the way she walked. She approached the gate and began loudly talking to the men behind the trailer. Again, I couldn't understand what she was saying, but shortly after she and Mick had a few words it became very clear what she was offering. She knocked on the rear of the bus and the door opened again. Four women stepped from the bus and walked toward the gate.

  When they were close enough, the first woman motioned to them and they opened their coats. All four of them were wearing bikini's and high heels. I almost flew down that hill to rip their hair out. I mean, I was MAD!

  Dane, Mick and Soo talked with the woman a little longer than necessary before the four young women closed their coats and headed back up the bus stairs. The door closed behind them.

  “Madam-never-stop-here-again" had a few more words with the men, then she burst out in laughter and went back to the bus. The door closed behind her and the bus slowly went down the road and out of sight.

  The men turned and began walking up the hill. They were laughing and joking with one another. I couldn't make out a word they were saying but I figured that I had the jest of it.

  I stuck my head in the front door and yelled to the women inside “The hookers just left.” Elaine was out on that porch before you could say boo. She was waitin' for Dane. Poor Hisa, she missed the entire show.

  When Mick, Dane, and Soo stepped back up on the porch, they had already stopped laughing and had their “serious” faces on. I asked Mick if the survivors on the bus had anything we needed.

  He was almost tongue tied and had to swallow before he could answer. He said they were trading alcohol, cigarettes, and women for food, weapons, and supplies. I smacked him in the arm and asked why he didn't get a pack of cigarettes for me. He had a bewildered look on his face when I turned and headed back into the house, I almost choked, trying not to laugh out loud.

  Seriously, that bus better not stop here again. If it does, well, I'd just have to believe that the women on the bus were somehow encouraged to “check back.”

  Rick, Ian and Josie didn't come home for lunch and I'm worried. Why in the world did they find it so important to go into town? I hope they get back soon. I'll be worried sick until they get home.

  10:00 PM...

  Josie, Rick, and Ian are home. They pulled in about an hour after supper. We had full plates waiting in the cook stove oven. They spoke with us for a few minutes while they ate, and then went to their little homes.

  I told them they look like they've been through hell and Josie said she's pretty sure they have. All three of them are covered in dirt and grime. Their eyes are red-rimmed and their faces look sunken from exhaustion. Shawna sat with Ian and they talked between themselves while the rest of us drilled Josie and Rick with questions.

  Yes, they found some good stuff. Yes, they found some clothes. Yes, they found some food. Yes, she'll tell me everything that happened while we're working on laundry tomorrow morning.

  They have the trailer loaded full. I have no idea what’s in there, but I'll check it out with everyone else in the morning.

  Since it's still a little early, I've decided to get Emma's story written out. I truly don't know how that woman’s still walking around.

  Emma Jane Riley and her husband, Cleve, have two sons. The family is Mormon and both sons were in El Salvador on mission trips when the world fell apart. Emma says she'll never see her sons again.

  She and Cleve lived on a small farm way out in the boonies. Cleve was a mailman and had a walking route in the city. He was three weeks away from retiring.

  Emma was a homemaker. She tended the animals, garden, and little produce stand they had on the side of the road. She sold produce, eggs, and blueberries during harvest season. She never had a permit to sell any of it. She didn't know she needed one.

  She had several customers from the city that visited her regularly for eggs. Other customers were those that happened to be driving by, or neighbors from a trailer park about a mile down the road. She says a bunch those neighbor's owe her money to this day.

  She and Cleve had a good sized flock of chickens, a dairy cow, three barn cats and a dachshund. Cleve had a couple of hunting dogs that he kept in a large pen off the side of the barn. He had a doggie door installed in the side of the barn so his hunting dogs could have shelter at night and whenever it rained.

  Her little dachshund was named Loki and he was almost twelve years old. She got him when he was six weeks old and he's been her constant companion ever since.

  They had a big garden and rarely bought groceries except when they needed things like coffee, flour, sugar, etc. Emma canned all sorts of things from the garden to see them through winter.

  She quilted, kept house, and took good care of Cleve.. He told her that any money made from the produce stand belonged to her. She bought herself a new sewing machine for Christmas.

  She loves to make quilts. She hand quilts them after she puts them together with the sewing machine. She's a “little bit famous” in a couple of fancy stores “up north in Tennessee” for her homemade denim quilts. She makes them from blue jeans she buys from thrift stores and yard sales. She told me there are about 25 different shades of blue denim. I didn't know that, and she seemed proud to share the information with me.

  She and Cleve also had a stockpile. Emma says “you're not a real Mormon unless you have a stockpile.” God Bless her!

  Anyway, they had enough food to last the two of them about 18 months. She had plenty of flour, sugar, and other staples along with all the food she canned and a lot of long term stuff they bought. She had a strict rotation system. When anything was taken out of the stockpile, it was written down on the grocery list to replace the next time they went grocery shopping.

  Cleve came home from work one day and said he wasn't going back. Emma was shocked because he was very close to retirement. He told her what was going on with the virus and she agreed that they needed to lock themselves up and sit it out.

  They stayed on their little farm two weeks before she saw the trailer park burning. A little boy and two little girls escaped the fire and showed up at Cleve and Emma's place. Emma and Cleve took them in.

  The children were there a week before a big problem arrived in the form of a small National Guard unit.

  It took 15 minutes to convince her the men were pretending to be National Guard troops, and were not the “real thing.”

  She was shocked.

  Back to the story...

  There were fifteen men in the unit. The leader was a man called “Top.” That's the name he went by and Emma never heard him called anything else.

  They told Cleve and Emma that they were requisitioning all their supplies and weapons. They would be staying on the farm until they received orders to leave, and that Emma and Cleve had to make sure they were taken care of. Emma said they had no choice. The men had taken all their weapons and they were helpless

  Things went smoothly for several days before two new men joined the group. The new men had brought along quite a bit of rum and vodka. By supper time, every man in the unit was “rip roarin' drunk” and some of them were mean drunks.

  They began teasing, pushing, and hitting the children. The kids were terrified. The men made the kids carry alcohol in a shot glass balanced on a small log. They had to carry it 10 yards and then turn around and bring it all the way back without spilling a drop. If the kids spilled one drop of alcohol. the men would beat them and make them start all over again. Emma said it went on for thirty minutes before Cleve came out of the basem
ent, saw what was happening, and stepped up to put an end to it.

  The men began arguing with Cleve and sent him on an “around the circle” punching fest. Cleve screamed out to Emma and the kids to run and hide. She grabbed Loki and wiggled in behind an old recliner they had sitting on the porch. She was not going to run. If Cleve was going to die, she wanted to go with him.

  The children began to run toward a wooded field. Two of them made it but the third one didn't. One of the little girls was running past the porch when Top pulled his pistol and shot her in the back. She fell to the ground but didn't die right away. She cried out for her mommy.

  Emma stuffed Loki behind the chair and crawled out. She headed toward the little girl. Top stuck his foot out and tripped her. She hit the ground and two men grabbed her and pulled her to her feet. Top instructed them to tie her to a post facing the little girl.

  Emma was tied to the post and couldn't get loose. It felt like a hundred painful years went by as she was forced to watch and listen to the little girl cry and scream for her mommy. Whenever Emma tried to close her eyes, she would get smacked in the face with a hickory switch until she opened them again. When the little girl finally passed away Emma breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Top” stood on the railing at the edge of the porch and hollered for the men to “bring 'im 'round!”

  Several men pushed and shoved Cleve until he was standing across from Emma.

  There was an old Volkswagen Beetle that one of her son's drove when he was a teenager parked behind Cleve. The men were ordered to push the Volkswagen up to the base of the porch.

  When they got the VW in place, they were ordered to strap Cleve across the hood and roof with his feet hanging near the headlights. This put him right below the post where Emma was struggling with all her might to free herself.

  Emma started begging. She begged until her voice was hoarse, the bib of her apron was soaked with tears, and blood was dripping from her wrists from trying to pull herself free of the post.

  She made any promise she could think of, if only they would free Cleve and let him live. She tried to get them to let her take his place. She tried over and over until Top screamed at her to shut her mouth or he would kill them both. She knew he was going to do it anyway, so she continued to cry and beg.

  She looked directly into Cleve's face and he looked into hers. They silently said everything they needed to say to one another with their gentle, loving eyes.

  An old metal barrel was pushed up beside the Volkswagen and a fire was lit inside.

  Top stuck out his arm, rolled his wrist, and said “Begin.”

  Two drunk men stepped up beside the car. They pulled out large knives and cut the buttons from Cleve's modest plaid shirt. They pushed the shirt open, exposing his chest, and began to carve.

  Cleve's body lifted several inches from the hood and roof of the car while the two men slowly removed strips of flesh from his torso, limbs, and face. They threw the strips into the fire. Cleve's flesh sizzled and crackled in the flames. He didn't scream. Emma didn't scream either. She had nothing more to say.

  She stood as tall as she could in defiance and watched those devils from hell skin alive her husband of 45 years. She knew she would see him whole again very soon.

  His body rose and jerked, and pulled at his restraints unconsciously. Blood ran from his wounds and down the sides of the car, salting the earth. Forty-five minutes later, his body gave one last pull at the restraints.

  His body made a loud thud as it hit the car for the final time. He was unrecognizable, but he had the strength to lift his remaining first finger for a few seconds and point toward Top. His finger and hand fell limp, and he was gone. He never screamed.

  Emma sighed, slumped in her restraints, and tried to will herself into going with him. After a few seconds, she fainted.

  When she regained consciousness, she found herself on the basement floor. Her left arm was tied to the leg of a storage shelf. There was no light. She called for Loki but he didn't come. She laid her head on the concrete floor and tried to recall every moment of her life with Cleve. She fell asleep with a smile on her face.

  Emma doesn't know how many hours went by before she was awakened with the beam from a flashlight on her face and a kick to her hip. She pushed herself up on her side and waited.

  The rope was cut from her wrist and she was ordered to stand. She didn't move. She was kicked and hit several times and still wouldn't stand. Top bent down to speak to her.

  He grabbed her by the chin and forced her to look him in the eye. He told her that she was their cook and caretaker. If she refused the job, he would skin one innocent soul per day and force her to watch until she agreed to comply.

  The wheels in Emma's mind began turning and she readily agreed to do as he wished. He stepped to the side, and she busied herself gathering ingredients for breakfast. Top seemed pleased and he turned and headed out the basement door. Emma picked up a lantern that was left on the floor and went about her task. Loki ran in and sat at her feet. She picked him up, gave him a quick squeeze, and placed him back on the floor. Her “wheels” continued to turn.

  Several days went by before one of the men completely blew apart the toilet, literally.

  They had been drinking, and one of them had to visit the bathroom. When he finished his business and pushed the lever to flush, nothing happened. In a drunken stupor, he pulled his pistol and blew the toilet to smithereens. The camp went into a panic for several minutes before Top was able to regain control. He ordered the “toilet shooter” to be killed by firing squad. It took 10 minutes for the remaining squad members to carry out his request.

  At Emma's suggestion, a wooded area behind the barn became the new toilet area. Her wheels continued to turn.

  She cooked, cleaned, and washed clothing for the unit for several weeks before one of the men came into the kitchen with a dead animal in a plastic bag for her to clean and roast for supper, per Top's orders, of course.

  She held out her hand, took the bag, and set it on the table. The man snickered as he went back out the door. That snicker told Emma she'd better be careful opening the bag.

  She used two wooden spoons to part the opening and when she realized what she was looking at, she felt her face go white and sweat break out on her neck and forehead.

  The bag contained Loki. He was dead and his eyes were open and staring out at her.

  The man who brought in the bag stuck his head in the door and threw an apple toward Emma. She didn't even reach to catch it. It hit the ground and rolled underneath the table.

  The man told Emma that Top “wanted his treat well done and served on a platter with the apple in its mouth.” Emma slowly nodded at him and turned to prepare Top's meal. Her wheels turned even faster.

  She went outside and told the guard that she needed to go to the bathroom. He stood aside and let her pass. She headed toward the wooded area they were all using as their bathroom.

  When she was sure no one was looking, she stepped off the path, gathered four large handfuls of leaves, and stuck them in her apron pocket. She pretended to take care of nature's call and headed back to the kitchen. Her wheels were running at “Top” speed.

  Emma took special care to make sure that Top had a delicious and satisfying supper. She cleaned and gutted Loki's body and stuffed it with cornmeal stuffing. She roasted it in the oven with the apple in its mouth and served it with scalloped potatoes, seasoned peas, and very tasty cornbread muffins which she made plenty of so that any man who wanted seconds could have it.

  The men ate until their waistbands were tight and nothing was left on the table. Emma stood several feet from the table with a pitcher full of water, ready to top off anyone's glass that needed it. Top watched her as he ate. He made a strong effort to tell Emma how delicious the meat tasted, and that the cornbread muffins were “delightful.” Emma told him she was happy he enjoyed the meal.

  She gathered the dishes after supper and went to the well to wash them.
She dried them and put them away, swept the kitchen, and went to bed on blankets in the basement. She prayed and ask for forgiveness of all her sins. She didn't go to sleep.

  Two hours later, the house was in and uproar. Men were losing their supper from both top and bottom. Many were lying on the floor, holding their stomachs and screaming in pain. None of them could stand up long enough to walk. Emma assumed the guards outside were in the same condition.

  She went to her old bedroom where Top had been sleeping. He was vomiting all over himself and the bed. His hands were holding his stomach and his knees were pulled toward his chest. Emma looked at him and shook her head. “Sometimes, a little dog's bite is MUCH worse than his bark” she said to Top.

  While he died she told him exactly what she'd done. She said it was too bad he couldn't say hello to Cleve because he'd gone to a place far away from the one where Top was headed.

  She had made one more trip to the bathroom area before supper. She fed the men hemlock by the handfuls.

  She left every man there dead and rotting, but she took all of their weapons with her.

  The next morning, Emma loaded what was left into her old pickup truck. There wasn't much. The men had devoured almost everything she had stored. They never fed the cow or the hunting dogs, and they were dead inside the barn. Several chickens were left and Emma was able to get three of them into the cab of the truck.

  She headed down the road to get as far away from there as the gas tank would allow before she pulled over to the side of the road and made camp in the woods.

  She spent two or three weeks in her camp. She didn't count the days and has no idea how long she was there. She was running low on food and had eaten her chickens, so she walked to a small town where she met the six stagecoach men. They told her they would watch out for her and give her shelter if she'd cook and wash their clothes. She agreed to the arrangement.

  They drove her back to her camp in the tan Toyota with the stagecoach attached. They loaded everything into the stagecoach and headed down the road.