Two of our survivors are Lance
Wiggington and Hunter Woolsman. They are both high school kids but I could not
be happier to have them with us.
Lance was going to Vo-Tech to get his
electrician’s license. Lance goes to Ketchum High School but if you are in the
Vo-Tech program, you go to that school in the morning and then show up at
school after lunch for your regular classes. But Lance was such a go-getter
that he finished with his course on April 12th. So he didn’t have to
show up to school until after lunch. Not one to just sit around the house and
wanting money, he finagled his way into coming in and helping us set up the Produce
Department before leaving for school. Thankfully, Lance was helping us out with
the truck. And I am thankful every day that he is here.
Hunter… well, let’s just chalk his
survival up to dumb luck… which is kind of his M.O. anyway. Hunter goes to
Vinita but spends as much time out of doors as he does in. He is always hunting
or fishing or working on his pickup. He is a first class welder (taught by his
father since he was nine). And on this day of all days, Hunter decided he would
rather spend time fishing than sitting in a classroom. So he was skipping
school and fishing out on Grand Lake when Zero Hour began. The distance from
the docks to Reason’s was less than three miles for Hunter.
Working a lot of evening shifts
together, Lance and Hunter became fast friends and drinking buddies. (Gasp!
High school kids drink? Cold Beer? Oh the humanity!) So thankfully, Hunter was
pretty quick on Lance’s speed dial when things started to go south. Thankfully
the cell service had not quite collapsed yet. Being out on Grand Lake, Hunter
got to the store relatively easily and I thank God for that because he and Alex
rolled up to the store at the exact same time.
Hunter carries at least two weapons
with him at any time. He keeps his hunting rifle behind the bench seat of his
pick-up and a pistol under his seat. And clearly, Hunter came charging in with
guns blazing and with no compunctions about putting bullets in some zom heads.
He saved Alex and got him inside the store with me. So to Hunter, I owe a debt
of gratitude that I don’t know I can ever repay.
With Alex inside, I started to turn my
attention towards barricading the store. I know several people tried to get
others inside but Alex and Hunter were the only successful steals into the
store. Then, we started securing all the doors and started building the
barricades that I told you about in the beginning of the blog.
After we were secure, Kasondra thought
of the roof access hatch above the ice cream freezer. As the sun was setting,
most of us went up to the roof to do some zombie watching. To see all these
things milling around, the screams of people echoing across the wind…
Later, under the cover of darkness and
with Hunter and Lance acting as snipers on the roof, Tommy, Luke, and I snuck
outside to the pickup and passed the ammo to other waiting with shopping carts,
bringing in all the weapons and ammo that Alex brought with him.
I will tell you this, when Zero Hour
was erupting all around us… It wasn’t Hell but we could see it from here.
