Judy
Savage: Judy Savage
(or “Demo” Judy) is the last member of our original crew before the ACE
Hardware group showed up. So she is a Group One Original. Demo Judy is so named
not because of her demolition skills – all though that would be way awesome.
No, Judy worked at Sam’s Club down in Tulsa and she was one of those workers
that were positioned throughout the store that gave out free samples to the
customers. Naturally, we needed a distinction between the two Judies living
within our stronghold and the nickname stuck quickly.
Survivor 1: “Hey, Judy is making a
stew.”
Survivor 2: “Hobbit Judy or Demo
Judy?”
Survivor 1: “Demo Judy.”
Survivor 2: “Sweet.”
Judy is one of the older members of
our crew so that naturally aligns her with people like Fred, Janet and Sharon.
There is nothing wrong with that and I don’t want to paint Demo Judy as a
curmudgeon or anything… but you kind of get the impression that the antics of
the “youngins” like Dillon and Kanen are not exactly her cup of tea. She often
just smiles but I get the impression that more often than not, she is biting
her tongue. As time rolls on and patience starts to wear thin, I think that
there could be a bit of a situation.
Now, the sad part is that back in
January of 2012, Judy lost her… well I don’t know what he was and I am
certainly not asking now. She said only that his name was Dub and I have to
assume that might be a nickname. I know he wasn’t her husband as she was
divorced. They were a romantic item and they lived together. They might have
been common law married? Regardless, Dub died of a major heart attack. He went
quickly. There was no suffering but Judy has been making some off-handed
comments about how he was lucky and he never got to see what the world had
degenerated into.
I do understand what she is saying and
there is probably a sentence or two somewhere here in this blog where I make
that comment regarding my own mother. But Judy’s comments tended to linger. And
when a person starts talking like that, it could often be a signal that the end
is near. That they have given up hope. I don’t say this to dog Judy but not
everyone is going to be all sunshine and rainbows in this thing. It is just the
truth. So we have to keep an eye on Judy to make sure she stays upbeat and is a
happy camper.
Speaking of which…
Shannon was a pretty big contributor to the
information that we acquired about Zero Hour because she was working as the
police dispatcher in Vinita at the time of the attack. Shannon is technically
not a police officer but she was working in the thick of things when everything
went down. (Look for the article back on June 15th so I am not
repeating myself.) It was because of her that we learned to call this thing
Kharon, that Vinita and Tulsa was being hit at the same time as Langley, and
her truck load of police guns and ammunition is what saved the ACE Hardware
crew’s life. She could only escape out of Vinita by heading east, so she was
trying to circle around to Adair (through Langley) to get to her daughter. The
rest is history.
We have had a few “getting to know
you” sessions. She seems nice enough. Wow, just typing that makes me sound like
I am about to talk trash. That is not the case. She is nice. I don’t know how
to describe it without coming across as a jerk. What is that movie? She needs a
little “My Fair Ladying.” (Yes, spellcheck didn’t like that word either.) She
likes Rob Zombie – which is kind of a strike against her in my book. She is
just a little too tattooed and enjoys too much of the euphoric pharmaceuticals
for my tastes. She is nice. I don’t want to sound like I am dogging her. She is
about as subtle as a sledgehammer – which is a refreshing change of pace from
the “I’ll just have a salad” girls that are out there.
But I get worried at how much she
wears her emotions on her sleeve and much like Judy Savage, the possibility of
depression rearing its ugly head is all to possible with Shan. It does not take
much to get those tears welling up in her eyes and that worries me. Okay, here
is the blatant honest truth. I think Shannon survived because she was
surrounded by armed men during the outbreak and then got lumped in with our
crew. I can type this because I don’t think she will ever read this… but I
think if it wasn’t for the rest of us propping her up, she would have been
zombie chow a long time ago.
I catch her pining over pictures of
her little girl. I don’t want to sound insensitive and I know that since I have
Alex with me it totally makes a jerk to even type stuff like this. But Shannon
is not letting go. And this is not like Ashlynn who is trying to heal by just
not thinking about it. I think Shannon’s little girl was her entire life and
with the thought of her gone, Shannon wants to lie down and die but since she
is surrounded by all of us, she can’t. And so in quiet places and in dark
corners, people whisper if she is a liability. Obviously, no one is talking
about taking her out, but there is a song lyric that says, “Think of how much
quicker we would all reach the top if we didn’t have to carry your weight.”
Shannon is breaking and we HAVE to find a way to fix it…
