Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Homeward bound (almost)


Well, true believers, your friendly neighborhood Patrick is free from Florida and back with Dodger's convoy of hope. I even liberated his laptop to write this, teach him to give me middle watch. I thought that we would be headed to North Jackson for some much needed R and R, but Dodger had other ideas. The convoy was getting real low on ammo, so they would have had to head there soon. Guess I should have thought of that before we brought about ten thousand rounds with us. So now we get to travel the eastern seaboard, lucky us.

Right now we are in South Carolina headed to a smallish post of survivors. Then we have stops in Maryland and New Jersey. Sigh, I might never get everyone back together again. Oh well, it's good work. This trip we are bringing fuel to some rural camps. Courtney negotiated with a group of people on the Gulf Coast that had set up at one of the refineries for a couple of tanker trucks. David and the rest of Dodger's convoy picked them up. I know the group in S.C. really need the gas badly, their reserves got water in it and haven't been able to go out foraging in weeks. So off to the rescue.

Tell you what though, it's real good to be back with friends again. To be able to talk them, share worries, fears, and joys. To be able to tell the whole truth and not the half truths I had to always tell the girls for fear I might upset them. Only problem being back in semi-civilization is temptation. They have pain killers here, and good ones at that. I told Dodger and Jamie about what I went through coming off of them, they agreed to keep an eye on me. Being a former three hundred pound chain smoker I can tell you self control isn't my strong suit.

Alice is really glad to have kids closer to her own age to play with, and I mean play. She followed Kylie around constantly, mostly because Kylie is short for her age, but they never played together, they just did what needed doing. I'm afraid that Alysa and Kylie are still to wary of every one around them to relax and be kids again. I don't even know if they can anymore.

Part of it was my fault. When we met up with the convoy, only those on watch carried guns and I didn't think to tell anyone how important the guns were to the girls. Well, David tried to get Alysa and Kylie to give up their guns while I was off talking to Josh on the phone. The shot brought me running. I found both Alysa and Kylie with guns drawn, their backs to the wheels of a bus, and David with a look of surprise, anger, and just a little bit of fear. The shot was of the warning variety and only put a little hole in the ground, albeit right in front of David's feet. Hours of talking, pleading, negotiating, and even yelling by me, and David, found us in the same position, final result, girls kept their guns. Hate to say it, but I'm more than a little proud of them for standing their ground.

Well that is how things stand now. As to how we got out of the Nazi HQ, well I guess I still have some time until my watch shift is over.

We got out pretty much the same way we got Dodger and Jamie in, lots and lots of ammo. Luckily Dodger, Jamie, and Alysa are better shots than me. The lack of cold to help us meant we needed to get rid of the smarties and they did just that. All three lining up shots on the same smartie, if one missed the next fired, before the bastard could run off. Even Alysa got one, though Dodger claims that he hit it, it just hadn't fallen yet.

The next part of our plan was the systematic genocide of all zombies around us, easy enough without the smarties to guide them. Just start at the back of the horde at the walls and work your way inward. No automatics this time though, no need to waste any bullets. It took the better part of a day to get the numbers down to hand to claw fighting numbers.

The next few hours after that were still a little tough on me, the memory of Mom and Dad zombie still fresh in my mind. I don't know why I had more trouble mentally with close up fighting than through the scope of a gun. Who knows. Well the last fifty or so fell to Jamie and Dodger's swords and my mace. Thats right, I got to use a mace. Damn sight better than the crowbar I'd been using up to that point. Thanks for the loaner Jamie, won't even ask why you have a mace, buddy.

Alysa had to save my ass, though. A mace is not as fast a weapon as the swords I'm used to using, and when it got a little crowded, my reaction times were a little slow. Alysa's sharpshooting kept me from being zombie burgers.

After that the guys went out and found a box truck with some gas, jumped the batteries and brought it back. Even though it was well after dark when they got back, we started loading up all the ammo and some of the guns and finished a couple hours before dawn. Man, I hadn't been that tired in awhile, guess that's what easy livin' gets you.

We started out shortly after dawn, we took turns driving and sleeping on swaying crates of ammo in the back. We took it slow most of the way. Luckily there are not a lot of cities along interstate 75 in Northern Florida, so no major herds of zombies. We finally met up with David and the rest of the convoy outside of Lake City GA.

Well I'm sad to not be headed home yet, but then again North Jackson isn't my home.

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