Day Twenty. It has been almost three
solid weeks that we have been besieged by zombies. The first step to survival
was to lock this place down. Once we were secure in here and safety was
established, we were able to come to grips with the reality of what we were
dealing with. This means that people in surrounding towns (Adair, Ketchum,
Pryor, Vinita, Jay, etc.) are dealing with this too. And if this is a global
event… it means that all our loved ones could be gone.
So we took some time to talk about the
people we had lost. When you have 22 people sharing stories, it takes some time
to get around to everyone but – let’s face facts – time is something we have
plenty of.
Everyone has lost someone close to
them. Luke spoke of his wife. Becca spoke of her fiancé. Fred talked of his
sons, particularly Joe who is serving in the Navy. Hunter talked about his dad.
But there were two stand outs in the group (in my humble opinion).
 |
| Dillon & his girlfriend (Her status is unknown) |
The other person that choked me up
when he spoke was Tommy Holt. In working with Tommy for the past year, I often
accused him of being a serial killer because he showed a complete lack of
worry. Nothing ever seemed to rattle him. Problems in the department, people
calling in sick… It was all just water off a duck’s back with him. I finally
found something that made him crack. And it was his kids. Tommy’s kids are all
real young. Two are just barely is school and one hasn’t started yet. Even now,
I think Tommy regrets not charging to his car and not driving to Claremore.
Now, Tommy is by no means a coward. I
think that if anyone of us were in trouble, he would charge forward selflessly
to come to our defense. And if armed with a baseball bat, a shovel, or a
wrecking bar, I am betting big money that no single zom could stand against
him. But when Zero Hour broke, those things were crawling all over the parking
lot. Getting out of the store and to your car could have been complete suicide.
Even now, we have no clue what condition Claremore is in. But from Langley, it
is easily a forty-five minute drive.
Tommy tried calling his wife, his mom,
his brother, his sister, even his brother-in-law that he could not stand trying
to get some word on his family. He called until his phone ran out of battery
and then we scrambled through the lockers in the break room until he found a
charger and then kept calling. He tries calling every day for an hour when he
wakes up trying to get in touch with anyone.
He considers himself a coward. I don’t
see it that way. We don’t know if the zoms even reached Claremore. There is a
chance that if his wife and the kids made it out of the city and out to their
farm that her family has outside Skiatook. If that is the case (and we don’t
know that it isn’t), then Tommy has an obligation to his family to stay alive.
For all we know, they could be slowly making their way here to us. I can see
dying to save a friend or a family member in immediate danger. But I am not
going to risk my life on a trip to Oklahoma City on the off-hand chance that my
sister might be alive. And quite frankly, while I am sure my sister would fling
the door open wide if I showed up (uninfected) at her house, after the hug and
the kiss… there would be a punch to the stomach or a kick to my nertz for being
so stupid as to risk my life to come to get her.
I think that is what unnerves everyone
so much… It is just the flat out not knowing. If you knew that your wife or
husband or mom and dad were positively dead, you could mourn, move on, and stop
thinking about them. I know that sounds insensitive, maybe even a little cruel
but it is true. I hope Tommy’s kids are okay. I think he is mad at me because I
have Alex here with me. He would never admit it and if he felt that way, he
would be the first to admit that such thoughts are wrong.
But I will tell you that after the
circle, I gave Alex a little tighter hug tonight before he went to bed and I
slipped away to write this article. One day at a time, guys. One day at a
time…
