My continuing series of what has happened in my away up to this point. I will load all this into my NetBook and upload them when the up-links are clear.
.....
Fourth Morning
I get up early and take another look around town. It’s really quiet. Albeit the town is normally quiet but this is Christmas-Day-and all-the-Stores-are-closed, kind of quiet. I take a back street and go down by the National Guard Depot and have a look around. I have my AR-15 with me and some extra mags. Odessa does NOT know I am doing this. As I drive by I see there are soldiers there, but not really agitated or anything. So I decide to stop and have a chat. I am not really noticed until I walk up to the guy and say hello. He stares at me because of my non-accent (or Northern Accent as it were) I ask him how it’s going. He just kind of nods and looks around. He tells me that a lot of the brass are on the move but the National Guard in Kentucky is only activated around Louisville so far. He says a lot of people are leaving the cities. Official word is it is a terroristic act, just like on the news. He says he doesn’t believe it and he is getting his family and going East into the mountains until all this is cleared up. I ask about if he is afraid to be a deserter and he says better a live a deserter than a dead hero. His partner on duty just snorts and shakes his head. Thinks we are crazy and this will all be over in a few days. The guy I am talking to rolls his eyes and smiles. I bid a good day and leave.
That night we try the phones again with no luck. The power is getting spotty too. Odessa’s older brother the judge says the state police are treating it as a riot or civil disobedience. They were trying to blame all this on Tea Party’s getting out of hand. We had our first news about a small unrest (let’s call it what it was, an outbreak) in Lexington. I lay my plan on the table. Mr. Law and Order doesn’t think it will get that bad down here so he doesn’t think I should do what I am thinking. I talk to a friend of mine who works not far from me and he thinks’ it’s a great plan. His son is home from the Marines and they are coming with me on Friday morning.
Friday morning I met with my friends and we take our truck back to the National Guard Depot. We get there just after day break and discover it must be a good idea as other people have thought of it. Several pick up and a mini-van are sitting just outside the now unguarded gate. The gate itself has one side of the chain link off of the hinges and laying to the side. We cautiously get out with our weapons and even more cautiously creep up to the building. We can here several men talking, some yelling and even some crying (?). We come in the building at arms and notice no one is paying attention to us at all. There are a group of men standing around a table with a map on it and a woman with a crying child in one corner. The men are still arguing and pointing to the map. I clear my throat and suddenly everyone notices us. My friend John just looks at me with a ‘way to go’ smirk. They notice our weapons and scrabble to get theirs in line. I call out to whoa, whoa, take it easy and rest mine in a cradle in my arms. I tell them we are not here to fight and thought this place would be defensible against whatever is coming. An older, grizzled man with a beard (Whom I know I have seen in town. It IS a small town after all.) Claps his hands and makes a crazy sounding laugh. He says, ‘Son, we could use all the help we can get.’ John’s son the Marine is still a bit wary but was caught off guard by this reaction. Admittedly I thought people would fight over this place to keep it for themselves. I guess I was up North too long, sigh. We soon discover other like minded nuts, like us, came here and found the place empty. No guards, a few Humvees missing, some of the weapons lockers broke open that kind of thing. Only 3 men here are from the National Guard, they came back with the same idea. The woman and crying child is one of theirs. Since no fight is evident amongst us, we make plans.
Monday, May 3, 2010
The Beginning, Part One.
The next few posts are my way to unwind and give you all some background of how we have survived so far.
....
Since I was requested by the Major to log everything in my computer, (being the resident computer guru, Watson being the electronics guru, never studied. I am more of a hobbyist. Read: Hacker) I decided to restart at the beginning…
Where were you at the day JFK was shot? The Day the Twin Towers fell? The day the World (as we knew it) ended? I like most was sitting at home. I had satellite TV and rarely if ever watched the local news. I was always on the computer. My job entailed I be there anyway. Something that fateful day told me to watch the news. As was reported here [http://www.livingwiththedead.net/] locally it seemed to start in Cincinnati. I have since heard it kind of happened all at once. I know I am paranoid, but sometimes they are trying to get me…
Anyway we sat there dumbfounded by the news, some of the national teams had crews in and once and a while you would get a real ‘live’ action shot. At first it did look like a riot, and then it got bad. Rumors started with a gas bomb or worse yet a viral bomb (who knows it may have been). I was a fan of the Zombie genre, as well as other horror genres also. I thought it was more Resident Evil, not Dawn of the Dead. I drove into town to see how everyone was reacting. No one seemed to care. This frightened me more than the thought of Zombies running (uh, lurching) in the streets.
I am a computer geek, but I am also a gun aficionado, I get this from my Dad who is a WWII vet. Those who know me also know I was a ‘survivalist’ type. Had a generator, emergency stuff, had all kinds of books on medicines, plants, surviving nuclear war. You know, light reading. I already had a few rifles and handguns, Odessa was a better hand gun user than even me (gritting teeth while I say that), so off into to town to max all the cards to buy ammo and stock up on non-perishables.
We tried calling Odessa’s younger brother who is in Fort Thomas, going to NKU, but all the circuits are jammed. I told her, he had seen enough movies, if anything he was heading here now.
Three days later…
We know the house we live at is not defensible no matter how well fortified. Too many windows, it’s out in a field with a clear line of sight for 100 yards in any direction. All by it’s lonesome. Cattle fencing runs all along all the property but a few strands of barb-wire won’t do much to a zombie hoard. We called Odessa’s brother in Cincinnati again, still no answer, no getting through. My brother and Mom live together in Lancaster Ohio, same thing. I don’t worry about them so much as my brother is an avid hunter and has more guns than I. He does live in town though. He will probably go to his friends place out in the words outside of town near a swamp. His buddy, Barry has more guns than both of us put together; they should be safe there for a long while. Odessa’s older brother lives about 2 miles from us and is a local judge. He’s worried but not showing his wife, who works at the local hospital. She would be in the most danger. We talk it over quietly that night and he is going to use his ‘pull’ to see what he can dig up. The local police are on high alert but thankfully nothing has happened yet.
....
Since I was requested by the Major to log everything in my computer, (being the resident computer guru, Watson being the electronics guru, never studied. I am more of a hobbyist. Read: Hacker) I decided to restart at the beginning…
Where were you at the day JFK was shot? The Day the Twin Towers fell? The day the World (as we knew it) ended? I like most was sitting at home. I had satellite TV and rarely if ever watched the local news. I was always on the computer. My job entailed I be there anyway. Something that fateful day told me to watch the news. As was reported here [http://www.livingwiththedead.net/] locally it seemed to start in Cincinnati. I have since heard it kind of happened all at once. I know I am paranoid, but sometimes they are trying to get me…
Anyway we sat there dumbfounded by the news, some of the national teams had crews in and once and a while you would get a real ‘live’ action shot. At first it did look like a riot, and then it got bad. Rumors started with a gas bomb or worse yet a viral bomb (who knows it may have been). I was a fan of the Zombie genre, as well as other horror genres also. I thought it was more Resident Evil, not Dawn of the Dead. I drove into town to see how everyone was reacting. No one seemed to care. This frightened me more than the thought of Zombies running (uh, lurching) in the streets.
I am a computer geek, but I am also a gun aficionado, I get this from my Dad who is a WWII vet. Those who know me also know I was a ‘survivalist’ type. Had a generator, emergency stuff, had all kinds of books on medicines, plants, surviving nuclear war. You know, light reading. I already had a few rifles and handguns, Odessa was a better hand gun user than even me (gritting teeth while I say that), so off into to town to max all the cards to buy ammo and stock up on non-perishables.
We tried calling Odessa’s younger brother who is in Fort Thomas, going to NKU, but all the circuits are jammed. I told her, he had seen enough movies, if anything he was heading here now.
Three days later…
We know the house we live at is not defensible no matter how well fortified. Too many windows, it’s out in a field with a clear line of sight for 100 yards in any direction. All by it’s lonesome. Cattle fencing runs all along all the property but a few strands of barb-wire won’t do much to a zombie hoard. We called Odessa’s brother in Cincinnati again, still no answer, no getting through. My brother and Mom live together in Lancaster Ohio, same thing. I don’t worry about them so much as my brother is an avid hunter and has more guns than I. He does live in town though. He will probably go to his friends place out in the words outside of town near a swamp. His buddy, Barry has more guns than both of us put together; they should be safe there for a long while. Odessa’s older brother lives about 2 miles from us and is a local judge. He’s worried but not showing his wife, who works at the local hospital. She would be in the most danger. We talk it over quietly that night and he is going to use his ‘pull’ to see what he can dig up. The local police are on high alert but thankfully nothing has happened yet.
Home Coming
Well we arrived after midnight (2402 hours exactly) to our loved ones waiting for us in the pouring rain. Many road and bridges were swamped from all the rain, so the way here was slow and treacherous. They also had to be sure it was us; a predetermined radio call and countersign were used before we got too close. We have teams of forward observers away from Home Base armed with rockets we scavenged from the National Guard Storage Depot that would put a hurting even on our vehicles if someone were to capture them and return as a ‘Trojan Horse’.
We Laid Peter to rest in our cemetery, which is nothing more than a plot outside our walls, in the rain and then unloaded the trucks. It was near 0300 when I finally got ‘home’, a concrete block room inside the National Guard Depot we took as ours. My wife, Odessa, was extremely glad to see me. I almost missed our de-briefing the next morning at 0900.
Since we had the next few days ‘off’ (no guard duty, no outbound missions, etc.), I will take some time to relax, check to see how my Dad is doing, and look in on Eillen. Reports of her condition have not yet improved. Watson said I should take some time to write up the background, how we got here, who we are, that kind of thing. I may or may not get time to do that. I just want to relax and maybe take a small crew into to town and hunt for survivors, destroy some Z, you know, relax. We have had a few sightings of people running around in town quickly and from building to building. They didn’t have the bandit ‘look’ but who knows. I was told a small crew of heavily armed men came knocking while we were up in Lexington. The people here repelled their advances with extreme hostility. I feel better knowing that my Wife and Dad are safe even if I am not around. Sure, sure, hero complex, male chauvinist, some other label insert here. (I forgot control freak, thank you dear.) I am writing this little bit today after making my rounds and talking to people. The morale seems okay. People would love to widen our fences and make our home bigger. We’ve already looted Lowes for as much as we can, and even started an indoor garden there. We reinforced all the walls, used metal over the glass doors, and even opened the roof in some spots to let rainwater inside. We are building terraced vegetable gardens now that the weather seems to be warming finally. It seemed easier to leave some people there than trying to drag all the supplies to the base to make gardens. We do have some here, with a stream just out back and the soil is good enough, but having more than one food supply is just good thinking.
Watson just walked in and said we should have the solar panels working in a few days at Home Base and the ones on Lowe's roof is making the grow lights work at night enough that we already have some sprouts. Good thing I grew up on a farm or I could be bored out of my mind. Odessa’s job keeps her busy; she helps in all the food preparation, storage, and some cooking. At first she hated it, but she began to see she had a skill that could be put to use, feeding a lot of people with next to nothing. Well, that’s about it for now, the day is too dry and pretty to be cooped up in my room tapping on these keys.
I think I will grab my gear and head over to Lowe's and have a look around. The Major is sending some people over to transfer supplies and to send Watson over to check on his stills. I know this is Kentucky, but it’s not what you think. We are making fuel. I’ll tag along as guard for Watson, besides I want to see this still of his, I have some ideas.
Over.
We Laid Peter to rest in our cemetery, which is nothing more than a plot outside our walls, in the rain and then unloaded the trucks. It was near 0300 when I finally got ‘home’, a concrete block room inside the National Guard Depot we took as ours. My wife, Odessa, was extremely glad to see me. I almost missed our de-briefing the next morning at 0900.
Since we had the next few days ‘off’ (no guard duty, no outbound missions, etc.), I will take some time to relax, check to see how my Dad is doing, and look in on Eillen. Reports of her condition have not yet improved. Watson said I should take some time to write up the background, how we got here, who we are, that kind of thing. I may or may not get time to do that. I just want to relax and maybe take a small crew into to town and hunt for survivors, destroy some Z, you know, relax. We have had a few sightings of people running around in town quickly and from building to building. They didn’t have the bandit ‘look’ but who knows. I was told a small crew of heavily armed men came knocking while we were up in Lexington. The people here repelled their advances with extreme hostility. I feel better knowing that my Wife and Dad are safe even if I am not around. Sure, sure, hero complex, male chauvinist, some other label insert here. (I forgot control freak, thank you dear.) I am writing this little bit today after making my rounds and talking to people. The morale seems okay. People would love to widen our fences and make our home bigger. We’ve already looted Lowes for as much as we can, and even started an indoor garden there. We reinforced all the walls, used metal over the glass doors, and even opened the roof in some spots to let rainwater inside. We are building terraced vegetable gardens now that the weather seems to be warming finally. It seemed easier to leave some people there than trying to drag all the supplies to the base to make gardens. We do have some here, with a stream just out back and the soil is good enough, but having more than one food supply is just good thinking.
Watson just walked in and said we should have the solar panels working in a few days at Home Base and the ones on Lowe's roof is making the grow lights work at night enough that we already have some sprouts. Good thing I grew up on a farm or I could be bored out of my mind. Odessa’s job keeps her busy; she helps in all the food preparation, storage, and some cooking. At first she hated it, but she began to see she had a skill that could be put to use, feeding a lot of people with next to nothing. Well, that’s about it for now, the day is too dry and pretty to be cooped up in my room tapping on these keys.
I think I will grab my gear and head over to Lowe's and have a look around. The Major is sending some people over to transfer supplies and to send Watson over to check on his stills. I know this is Kentucky, but it’s not what you think. We are making fuel. I’ll tag along as guard for Watson, besides I want to see this still of his, I have some ideas.
Over.
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