Not Dead in the Heart of Dixie

by R Kralik

  The Hobbs crew spend most of the daylight hours here. Elaine helps with every meal and Jesse takes care of the animals. Mr. Hobbs spends a lot of time helping Mick with the fence, filtering water, and various other projects.

  Anyway, here's their story.

  Mr. Hobbs is an average looking man of average height and average skin color. He has quite a bit of gray in his formerly brown hair. He’s tough as nails and knows a lot about hunting, trapping, and fishing. He was a game warden for a national park near his Tennessee hometown. He says he’s been trying to catch, or trap, a new wife for the past five years, but he hasn’t had luck finding a “keeper” yet, ha

  Elaine is a pretty blonde. She is a total housewife and knows a lot about caring for a home and “making do”. She’s never worked outside the home and was happy to make a career of raising her son and caring for her husband. She’s a “happy homemaker,” and I like that about her. She’s soft spoken and polite. Elaine shines in the kitchen. She’s already taught Nana several tricks for stretching food.

  Jesse has a devilish grin. There’s still a little immaturity in his personality but he’s eager to please and will do anything we ask of him. He has a mop of curly brown hair and green eyes to go along with it. He runs everywhere he goes, even up the hill. He’s cute as a button and I suspect he’s already over six feet tall. Elaine says he was a “B’s and C’s” student, but she thinks he could have been a straight a student if he had put some work into it.

  Mr. Hobbs is fifty-four. Elaine is his daughter and she’s thirty-seven, and her son, Jesse, is sixteen. They brought what was left of Neil with them and buried him in the graveyard close to Mr. Peterson and Diane.

  The Hobbs family is originally from Lewisburg, Tennessee. They were “getting’ the hell outa dodge” and planned to hunker down on his brother’s small farm near Pensacola, Florida. They had only the Silverado and the tiny camper to carry whatever they could fit inside. They brought along $2,000 cash and planned to stop somewhere along the way and get a “bunch a food and ammo.”

  They’d been driving for a couple of hours and needed to take a bathroom break and stretch their legs, so they pulled off the Interstate.

  When they stopped at a fast food place, all hell was breaking loose. The road was blocked with car accidents and traffic jams at almost every turn. A military truck pulling a cargo trailer full of HDI’s had gone off the road and into a utility pole. A Trailblazer had slammed into the side of the cargo trailer, and its occupants were being pulled from the vehicle through the busted windshield by HDI’s.

  HDI’s were pouring out of the cargo trailer’s bent and broken door. They were all over the road, grabbing at passengers in vehicles, howling, and banging on car hoods, roofs, and trunks

  Mr. Hobbs abandoned the bathroom idea pretty darn fast. He started driving down back roads, trying to find a way back to the Interstate. They drove in and out of traffic and tried to stay with traffic that was actually moving.

  They ended up in the “boonies” without a map and couldn’t find their way back. They drove until they came to the outskirts of our little town.

  As they approached town, they saw HDI’s roaming all over the streets, attacking living human beings. They made a couple of turns and ended up on the street in front of Lowe’s. People were breaking windows and hauling out all sorts of merchandise as Mr. Hobbs, Neil, Elaine, and Jesse, looked on. They didn’t see any HDI’s in the area, so they pulled into the Lowe’s parking lot and decided to wait it out.

  They slept in the Silverado that night, afraid to get out of the truck for fear of being shot, or worse. They decided they’d pull their truck and camper around to the back of the building and try to come up with some kind of plan to get them headed back to the Interstate. The area had become quiet. It seemed that all the Lowe’s customers got what they wanted and were long gone.

  They went inside the little camper to discuss their options and get something to drink. As they were talking, a loud banging sound came from the direction of the truck.

  Mr. Hobbs grabbed his .30-06 and went to take a look out the camper door. He cracked the door open and saw a teenaged HDI girl, banging her rotten hands on the driver’s side window. He stuck the barrel of his rifle out the camper door and shot her in the side of the head. She fell to the ground and didn’t get back up. Within five seconds, Mr. Hobbs felt the camper door slam into his shoulder. He quickly pulled it closed and locked it.

  Elaine looked out the window and said there was a male HDI launching himself at the camper door, and she could see four more HDI’s roaming around the area near the truck and camper.

  Neil, Jesse, and Mr. Hobbs made a decision. They bolted from the door of the camper and began taking out HDI’s one at a time. There were only five HDI’s in total, and the Hobbs/Halston crew made quick work of them.

  They were low on gas and had no idea where to find more. The radio was announcing chaos, rioting, and murder in every city of the United States, so they decided to stay put. They’d retreat into the Lowe’s building if they needed to. They hoped the military, or police, would come along and get them out of there.

  They stood watch in shifts. The daytime shift sat on top of the camper and kept watch, and the night time shift sat in the Silverado and kept watch. They had to shoot several HDI’s each week, but no mobs appeared. Every time they shot an HDI, one or two more HDI’s would show up within an hour or so. They figured out that the gunshots were attracting any HDI that was close enough to hear them. They piled the HDI bodies in an empty lot at the side of the building 50 yards away.

  Food became scarce and they were cold because they were out of propane to keep the heat running. They’d go one or two days at a time without food, and then Neil and Jesse would have no choice but to go out and try to find something. They said they were lucky to get anything at all because most of the houses and shops had already been looted.

  They have been drinking water out of the toilet tanks inside Lowe’s, and they caught rain water in a barrel they got from the warehouse area. Neil used one of those square, fabric gazebos from the garden center. He inverted the top and put a hole in the center so the rain and dew would run down into the barrel underneath the hole. Clever man!

  They considered leaving Lowe’s several times, but had no idea if they could find fuel or food before their tank ran completely dry. They were afraid they’d be stuck in a situation worse than the one they were already experiencing. So, they stayed there.

  The HDI mob was there five or six minutes before Mr. Hobbs heard our vehicles coming around the building. He hoped we were the Calvary, and in a way, I guess we were.

  So, that's the Hobbs story. As I said before, we are happy to have them with us.

  I'm going out to the living room to have supper with everyone else. Hopefully, they won't laugh at me and my metal walker.

  Bye for now.

  Sunday, February 2

  9:00 AM...

  Jesse came inside this morning and told Mick that we need to get goat feed. He says we have enough for two or three more weeks. He knows a place where we might find some, but its forty-five miles away and there's no guarantee the place hasn't already been looted.

  There's a milling company near Lake Slatersville. Jesse has spent a lot of time at a two-week-long summer camp on the lake and has paddled past the place many times.

  The milling company makes food for several varieties of livestock, so we could possibly get chicken feed there as well. They also make dog food and cat food.

  We'd have to take a lot of little country roads to get there because the place isn't even close to an interstate, but we may not have a choice.

  Mick thinks that, since the place is well off the beaten path and in an industrial warehouse area, there's a pretty good chance it has gone undisturbed. It might have been looted only for the corn, grains, and the cattle and horse feeds. There's not a lot of goat farms around with owners that know, or care, enough to give their goats pellet feed to improve m
ilk and meat production.

  We want to try the feed store first. If there's nothing there, we'll have to cross our fingers and head to the milling company.

  Mick's planning the trip for next Friday because he wants to get more of the fencing up before we go.

  I told him that we need to start bringing in hay as soon as we can. I want to go barn lootin'. We'll need to store enough hay to last through next winter, at least, because there will be no farmers cutting hay in the fields this coming summer and fall.

  I'm headed out to see what's going on. I might sit on the big tree stump and help Marisa stir the laundry. The weather is quite cold, so I'll need my scarf and gloves.

  I hope the metal walker can get me to the sittin’ stump.

  1:00 PM...

  Oh Yeah! Mick came inside a few minutes ago and yelled "It's venison burgers for supper, baby! Jason got a deer!"

  We'll have venison burgers for supper tomorrow, and we'll pressure can the rest to add to our pantry. Elaine says she knows how to make homemade burger buns. Jason was so excited, I thought he was gonna sprout wings. We'll can the meat tomorrow morning. We need to get the manual meat grinder out of the basement and make sure it's clean.

  I can't believe he got a deer in the middle of the day. He says he was sitting on the branch of a big oak tree in the middle of the woods. It was cool, shady, and quiet. About an hour after he got comfortable, he saw movement and it was something big. He got his hopes up and waited.

  The eight-pointer was schmoozing around, eating off the ground, when he schmoozed right over into Jason's line of sight. He fell about fifteen feet past the spot where Jason shot him.

  Jason climbed down and made sure the buck wasn't going anywhere. He ran back to the house, grabbed Mick and Jesse, and the three of them brought the creature home. Jason was about to have a nervous breakdown before he got back to that buck. He was afraid something was gonna take away his prize!

  We need more news like this.

  I forgot to write about the rabbit stew we had when I was still bedridden. I'll make it short. I don't even remember what day it was.

  Mr. Hobbs set a few snares the night before. When he went to check on them the next morning, he had two rabbits. One was in the left woods, and the other was in the right. He butchered and cleaned them, and Elaine made a yummy rabbit stew. Mr. Hobbs says he'll be setting more snares this week. Hopefully we'll get enough rabbit meat for canning.

  Jesse thought he saw fish rings in the big pond behind Mr. Peterson's place this morning. They were probably feeding on insects that were landing on the water. If he finishes the chicken run, he and Soo are going to head over and try their luck catching fish for tonight's supper while Jason and Mick work on the fence.

  I'm going back out to the recliner and bask in the glow coming from the happiness on Jason's face. I think he's in the middle of telling the deer story for the third time to Amber, Caleb, and Michael.

  10:00 PM...

  Someone is living in the big house near the pond behind Mr. Peterson's place.

  Jesse and Soo went fishing there around 3:00 this afternoon. They each had a fat worm on a hook and was about to get them in the water when Jesse thought he heard a door opening. They both looked toward the house, which is about thirty yards away.

  A head appeared at the screen door. "I don't appreciate ya'll fishin' in my pond without permission." the head said, “now, get on outa here."

  The head pulled itself back into the house and the door closed. Soo saw curtains moving at one of the windows. He was afraid they were about to get shot, so they grabbed their fishing poles and ran home. They left the bait box beside the pond.

  We were all in a tizzy. We sat at the kitchen table, trying to figure out who was in that house, how many there were, and whether we should go over and knock on the door to introduce ourselves.

  Mick says we need to think about it for a couple of days and everyone agreed. In the meantime, folks standing watch will be looking through binoculars toward that house and pond, trying to get a glimpse of anyone or anything. Mr. Hobbs and Jeremy are on watch duty tonight.

  We had fettuccini with Alfredo sauce, and asparagus on the side, for supper. We didn't have any meat, but I don't think anyone missed it. Pasta is filling and we were all stuffed.

  We spent the rest of the evening sitting in the living room near the fire, talking about the big house with the pond and how we should process Jason's deer. It's hanging out there now, waiting to become sustenance for our family.

  Mick says they have fencing up on three-quarters of the road frontage. He says that's about a tenth of what we want to get enclosed overall. I'm hoping that, since almost everyone is back on their feet, the fencing project will move a little faster now.

  Mick says we'll need a lot more fencing. He doesn't plan to put posts along the sides or across the back of the property unless he comes to a spot that doesn't have a tree in the right place. He says it’ll be easier to use the numerous trees that are already there as posts.

  So, most of the posthole digging is done. After the perimeter is fenced, Mick wants to put in divisions between the Stang house, our house, and Caleb's house. That will make it harder for anyone to make a full assault on every building we have at the same time.

  After the perimeter is fenced and the divisional fencing is started, he'll have a crew start on the area around Mr. Peterson's house and field. Then, they'll work on getting the rebar in place. I have no idea how long it's going to take to finish this fence.

  Mick asked everyone to start calling the various houses and properties by the names of the people who are living in them now. So, Mr. Peterson's place is now called the Hobbs place, and Caleb's house is now called Jason and Marisa's house. The old Stang place is Hisa and Soo's place.

  It's time to start checking the homes and house trailers on the other side of the eight acre wooded property to our right. I don't have a good feeling about going into those places.

  I'm almost to the point of hoping there's no one else living in the neighborhood. I'm at that point because of the experience Jesse and Soo had at the big house beside the pond. It makes me nervous. Will they be friend, or foe?

  The women will be canning venison, and the girls will be filtering water. We're getting just enough water in the pool to take care of ourselves and the goats. Extra water for bath's and showers is a luxury that we don't get as often as we'd like. Marisa's been using the kid’s bath water to do laundry. It helps a lot and gets the clothes just as clean. We're still taking "bird baths" in the bathroom sinks.

  I'm heading to bed. I seem to be getting around better tonight. I'm hoping I'll continue to improve tomorrow.

  Bye for now.

  Monday, February 3

  8:30 AM...

  We had cold cereal with goat milk for breakfast this morning. It tasted wonderful and no one complained. The kids loved it. They're running around like wild animals from the sugar rush. Elaine and Nana said they didn't feel like cooking this morning, and I’m still using the walker. I think I'll try to graduate to a walking cane this afternoon.

  The men started butchering the deer before dawn. We're in the middle of processing and canning venison this morning. I've been sitting at the table with the meat grinder going while the rest of 'em are cutting up meat, packing jars, and loading the canner. I'm surprised the cook stove gets hot enough to run the pressure canner. That cook stove is a magnificent thing.

  Mr. Hobbs and Jason have already headed out to look for fencing. They took the Silverado and flatbed trailer. They said they'll spend a lot of time in any neighborhood where posts are in the dirt and the fencing will come down easily. They'll bring back as much as they can before dark. Elaine packed a lunch for each of them and they have the trusty backpacks as well.

  Opie and Tig are acting a little "off" this morning. They came back from their potty run smelling like they'd rolled in something dead. I won't let them in the house. I don't know if Marisa will let them in her house, but I
doubt it. They're getting baths in laundry rinse water after all the laundry is finished tomorrow. We don't have enough water to use for washing dogs exclusively.

  Valerie actually responded to one of Jeremy's questions this morning. He asked if she was feeling any better and she said "yes." That's all she said. Hisa says she is starting to come out of her shell a little, but she was severely traumatized and it'll probably take a while for her to come around, if she ever does.

  Her sores are healing and her hair is growing back. She's filled out a tiny little bit, but the only way Hisa can tell that is because she sees her body when she bathes her. Hisa's hoping she isn't pregnant.

  She believes that Valerie’s strong enough to get up and move around, but her emotional pain is keeping her bedridden.

  I'm off to grind more venison. If they don't get venison burgers for supper, the men will run us off the property.

  1:00 PM...

  We decided on sweet potatoes to go with the burgers tonight. All we need to do is heat them up and add a little butter, sugar, and cinnamon since I cooked them before I canned them.

  Jason and Mr. Hobbs brought a load of fencing back. After they unloaded, they turned right around and headed out again.

  They've found a neighborhood that has a lot of fenced yards and should be able to get two more loads before dark.

  We had canned ravioli for lunch. The kids loved it and I thought it was "bleh," but I ate my portion anyway and was grateful. It was commercially canned ravioli with watery tomato sauce. I'm spoiled. I like the homemade stuff better.

  Elaine's busy making burger buns. She uses yeast in her recipe and the dough has to rise a couple times. They should be hot and ready when Mick takes the burgers off the grill around 5:30. He can hardly wait.