Leader of Men

I'm sitting in an SUV, waiting for my wife to get finished feeding our dogs before we head out.

Just have to say, with the cold weather around here lately, there have been almost no zombies to be found. It's strange to me, that lack of shambling (and occasionally running) hunger driven corpses at the walls around the clock. I became so used to them that not hearing the moans and wails is nearly uncomfortable. I just hope no one gets complacent with the silence.

Jess is almost recovered from her wounds, and though he disagrees with her decision to leave, Evans tells her that she's fit enough to go. There wasn't a lot of argument on my part--before she lost the baby, she had to stay safe, avoid danger as much as possible...which meant that often she had to watch her loved ones take risks on her behalf and only watch as many of us were injured or killed.

We are leading a team to Kansas today. We're going to get Rachel and her people out, with no blood spilled if at all possible. I don't know how long it's going to take us to get there, but I will update if possible along the way. We're taking a mixture of hybrid cars for light maneuvering and armored vehicles for assault and carrying supplies. The large amount of fuel we're taking with us is being carried in a modified pickup truck with a five hundred gallon tank in it that Roger made for us. That, along with the backup tanks all our vehicles get when they go out should give us way more than enough for the trip.

The election results were interesting, at least to us. Roger has been elected leader, and his second in command is a woman named Judy Starks that I don't know well, other than she works making chainmail and other handcrafted goods. She wasn't one of Jess's original students, but has been trained by others that my wife taught.

Roger almost declined the job. He would have, actually, if the council hadn't given him guarantees that he would be able to continue his work and other pursuits. He's been promised an assistant who will help him sort through most of the daily work of being leader, and who will hopefully be able to give him concise summaries of major decisions that need to be made.

I think he's flattered, myself. He should be. Everyone around here respects the hell out of the guy, and he deserves to get recognition for his good work and intelligence. I wish him well, though I find it difficult to wish that job on anyone.

Ok, here comes the wife. I'll try to post as much as possible about our progress. I know that we can make it at least to southern Illinois fairly safely. We've made that trip a few times and the highway's clear. After that, though, it's an unknown until we get within thirty miles of Rachel.

Off we go.