Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie (83 page)

Kayla found Vicki alone in the woods two days prior and decided to take c
are of her the best she could.

Darlene woke from the sounds of their voices and they sat together for several hours
, telling each other their stories.

Vicki had a can of clam chowder and a box of matches in her purse. They built a fire and
warmed the chowder over the flames. That chowder, split four ways, was the last packaged food any of them had.

They traveled west together, eating bugs, insects, and mushrooms from the forest floor. They ate acorns and wild strawberries and anything else they decided was safe enough to eat. They found several dead squirrels on the side of the road and cooked them over a small fire. They continued traveling west and had no idea where the
y were headed.

One day, they were sitting on a log at the base of a large tree pulling mushrooms and cramming them in their mouths. They heard a sound from behind the tree and looked up to see two small c
hildren standing and staring.

Tom asked the children where their parents were
, and the young boy said “we ain't got none no more.” The young girl tried to repeat what he'd said but she was still in the “learning to talk“ stage and didn't do a good job of it.

Tom, Darlene, Kayla, and Vicki took the children with them. The
ir names were Tricia and Dale.

Several days later
, they came upon a small camp. They watched the occupants for a while and decided to introduce themselves. Tom kept his hand on the pistol while the group talked.

There were two men in the camp and they seemed to know which plants to eat and which ones to avoid. They a
lso knew where to find water.

The men were startled when Tom and his group walked into their camp. A few minutes later, they were all sitting around the fire while the two men fed wildflowers and weeds to the group. The men were Jose' and Car
l, and they were headed west.

They all decided to travel together, camping when they needed to
and walking when they could.

They came to our fence and decided to spy on the compound and see if there was food they could beg for
. That's when Soo heard them.

Soo's shot didn't hit Jose'. The bullet ricocheted off a
tree and scared him enough to trip over his own feet, but that was it.

Ian and Rick found them sleeping about a hundred yards to the east of the compound. They took one look at the group, picked up the children, and demanded that the rest of them follow them back to the compound. Rick and Ian promised them at least one meal. The group stood and followed thei
r good Samaritans.

You
know the rest of the story.

Josie stuck her head in the door a few minutes ago and told me that Mick and the crew are headed home. I'm going out to wait for them on the porch.

See ya later.

11:15 PM...

Mick and the crew made it back with no trouble. There are four little wooden buildings on flatbed trailers beside the trailer fence. It looks like a munchkin village already around here.

Dane says he'll... hold that thought.

O M G I smell smoke and I hear yelling and gunshots!

Wednesday
, April 23

2:00 PM...

The only thing I can do is pray for help from God.

The kids, including the older ones, have been in the basement all night with Nana and Emma. We allowed them out an hour ago. They were crying and worried, and had to use a bucket for potty time because no one was a
llowed to go to the outhouses.

I was interrupted last night by the smell of smoke and the sounds of gunfire. Mick jumped out of bed before I could get out of my chair. We both ran to the kitchen door and I waited as he grabbed his weapons and headed to the front of the house. I saw Pop come out of
the motorhome to follow him.

Jason and Jeremy were running down the path. They stopped at the porch and asked what was happening. I told them I didn't know and asked them to come inside to look out the peep holes in t
he living room window plywood. The three of us put an eye up to a peephole and I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

The old Peterson house was in flames and people with torches were trying to light the little wo
oden buildings on the trailer.

Flaming arrows were coming over the trailer fence
, and I saw one of them stick in the roof of Dane's woodshop house.

Flashes were coming from the road and all over the field where the fence crew had camped. There was so much gunfire.
It sounded like it was all running together.

Five seconds later
, I ran back out the kitchen door to the motorhome. Nana was sitting on the couch in the dark. I told her to go to the basement immediately and she followed me back inside to take the stairs.

Kevin and Rona burst in the kitchen door and I told them what I saw. Rona ran back to the motorhome to get Luke and Larson. She met Marisa on the path, heading to ou
r house with the kids in tow.

Kevin headed inside to take a shortcut out the front door. The door was standing wide open a
nd Jason and Jeremy were gone.

Rona sent Luke and Larson to Mick's office and told them to yank the plywood off the window, break the glass, and stand watch. Deuce wanted to go with them but I told him to get his 12 year old butt to the basement
. Against my mothering instinct, I allowed Carisa to take an M16 and go to the office with Luke and Larson.

I ran to the bedroom and threw on a pair of pants. I threw a black jacket over my white t-shirt and zipped it. I grabbed the Glock and
Marley and headed to the front. Emma was coming in the front door as I was headed out. She was calm, cool, and collected. I told her to go to the basement with Nana and the kids.

I ran in the kitchen to grab my
Ka-Bar and an extra blade just in case I needed it. Marisa was standing in the dark and I almost had a heart attack when I saw her. I told her I was going down the hill and she was to remain in the house and shoot from the front door if she needed to. She nodded, told me the kids were already in the basement, and headed to the front door.

Folks were coming out of their wooden buildings and motorhomes and I was trying to c
ount heads. It was impossible.

I was half-way down the hill when Soo and Hisa's house exploded. I stopped in my tracks and prayed to God that this w
as all a bad dream. It wasn't.

I decided to try and get to Hisa's house to see if anyone was alive. I had no idea how I would find anyone or what I'd do with them
but I had to try.

I met Soo, Merry, and Valerie coming up the hill. I sent Merry and Valerie to the basement and told Soo to run in the kitchen and grab guns and ammo, He screamed that he was already armed and going back for Hisa before he went anywhere else. We both he
aded toward the burning house.

Bullets were flying in the field
, and several made it to the hillside. Soo's shoulder barely missed getting hit.

Elaine met us a little further down the hill. She was carrying a rifle and pistol, and said that Dane and Jesse were in the middle of the fight and they were loaded for bear. I sent Elaine to the corner of the house to stand guard. I told her to holler to Marisa and the teenager
s as she approached the house so she wouldn’t get shot.

I wanted to know where Josie was but I had to find Hisa first. My mind told me that Hisa was dead bu
t I didn't want to believe it.

We were
near Soo's burning house when one of the women from Wilky Place came stumbling toward us.

She was burned so badly that I couldn't tell
who she was.

On her hips were the two young
est, starved children. She dropped them at Soo's feet and fell to the ground, moaning. I bent to try and comfort her but she yelled for me to get to the house and find the third child, Vicki. She said I would find her in the cellar behind the house.

The woman
was dying, but I didn't stay with her. I carried the two young children to the basement and handed them over to Emma. Soo went after Vicki, and Hisa, and whoever else might be alive.

I headed back down the hill and saw Darlene and Tom Sulligent
coming toward me. Tom was carrying Vicki in his arms. I asked about Hisa and Tom shook his head. My heart almost flew out of my chest. Hisa was gone. I couldn't believe it.

I shook myself back to the present moment and told Tom to go to the basement with Darlene and Vicki. He said he'd leave Darlene and Vicki there but he wanted weapons and he wanted to fight. I told him where to find several of the weapons that Emma brought
home, and to holler as he approached the house. He headed toward the house with Darlene and Vicki.

The air was lit by the fires and I saw Buttercup run past, barely
missing me. I felt the wind.

I looked toward the direction she
was headed and saw Jesse at the bottom of the driveway with his hands in the air. A stranger in a military uniform was aiming a pistol at him. I knelt to aim at the man, but didn't get a chance to shoot. Buttercup plowed into the stranger and Jesse hit the ground. The gun fired, but the bullet missed.

I watched in awe as Buttercup
reared up on her hind legs, whinnied, squealed, and stomped the man's brains out. She headed to the trailer fence and began pacing the length of it, snorting out her demands. She wanted out but I wasn't about to let her out. I yelled at her to protect the house and kids, and she actually turned and trotted back up the hill.

Jesse ran to
ward me and asked about Carisa. I told him where she was and that Elaine had one side of the house guarded but he needed to guard the other. Of course, I warned him to holler as he approached so he wouldn't get shot.

My mind went back to Hisa and I had to pull it away. I concentrated on finding Mick without getting myself killed. I dropped to the ground and crawled down to
the trailer fence. Dane's woodshop was fully engulfed and the night was lit with flames.

A body fell from the top of the trailer fence and another one jumped down after it. The first body was a stranger in a military uniform and the second was Shawna. She was beatin' the hell out of the first body. She raised a large knife and thrust it through the
stranger's chest. She pulled it out, raised it again, and shoved it through his eyeball. Then, she smiled at me and disappeared into the night before I could say a word.

I heard a voice say “Hey, sister.” I knew the voice and looked up to see Pop crouched and walking toward me. He sat beside me and we leaned against the trailer fence
while he told me what he knew.

He believed we were under attack by a group of fake military. He said their primary target was probably the fence crew. He told me a few things he'd witnessed
, including the explosion of Hisa and Soo's house.

He saw two men launch grenades into the house and he had barely a moment to tuck himself behind the trunk of a large pine before the
grenades exploded.

I asked about Clinic Diane and he told me it was fine but probably had a little blast damage. I told him that I saw Soo, Merry, and Valerie, and that Tom Sulligent said Hisa was dead. He stood
from his crouched position and headed toward Clinic Diane without telling me what to do. I couldn't believe it. I had no idea what to do, so I crawled in one of the trailers and hid behind several bales of hay while I thought out my next move. Dane's house continued to burn.

I was in the middle of thinking when
I heard tires squealing and vehicles on the road. Someone had arrived. I prayed it was someone who'd be on our side, and God said “Yes.”

I had no idea who was on the road
, but I could tell they were shootin' at the bad guys 'cause whoever was manning the machine gun was cursing up a storm and shouting nasty things to the “fakers.”

I wanted to climb on the trailer fence to wa
tch but, of course, I didn't.

I crouched and went back up the hill toward the house. I almost forgot to holler as I approached
, and felt a chill run down my spine. Carisa or Marisa could have shot me. The thought of either one of them having to live with that scared the crap outa me. I hollered “It's Momma, Don't shoot!” Thank goodness, no one shot.

I ran inside and almost tripped over Marisa who was lying on the floor, a
iming her pistol out the door.

I grabbed the binoculars from the kitchen, went out on the front porch, and squatted behind one of my huge concrete planters. I almost had a bird's e
ye view of what was happening.

The Strike
Team had arrived.

I wouldn't have been able to see a thing if the flames from Dane's house, Soo's house, and the Peterson house wasn't roaring with life. Flashes from all the gunfire made me think of lightening bugs. The flashes were everywhere, and moving
.