August truly lived up to that title
as the Dog Days of Summer. At this point, we have had to write off Dillon
Hernden. We just feel that if he was going to make it back, it would have
happened by now. I think Kanen took his loss the hardest. They were the closest
when it came to age and friendship. They had the most in common and did the
most things together. I feel his pain. I imagine I would feel the same way
about losing Luke… It is terrible that we do not have a body to bury. But if
movies and comics have taught me anything, it is that if there is no body then
he is not dead.
Perhaps he did make a bolt down into
Adair and came across a military convoy that provided him with an evacuation
option. And right now he is arguing with a hard-nosed lieutenant that doesn’t
want to risk his platoon for a bunch of people that are safe and supplied in a
grocery store. Does a lieutenant even lead a platoon? I have no idea. I am just
saying that the possibility still exists that he is out there somewhere. We
just don’t know…
As for the rest of the month, the
sweltering heat has been really bad. I know it completely makes us sound like a
gaggle of wussies but there were some choice moments where we had some brown
outs and I thought that we were going to lose power. If we lose power, we lose
refrigeration, air conditioning, fans. I know that there are some people out
there who would frown upon this but heat like this does kill people. I cannot
even begin to explain how we still have power but I am not going to look that
gift horse in the mouth.
We have collectively agreed to stall
our looting through our sweeper teams. We all have our own mattress, linen,
comforters, and a fairly decent collection of clothes. We’ve looted cold
weather gear for later on. We have plenty of entertainment options and a small
collection of vehicles now. The exposure risk is just not worth the reward at
this point.
We’ve fended off looters and met
people that are staying alive by staying on the run. While major metropolises
(Houston, Dallas, Tulsa) are overrun, small pockets of resistance are surviving
in the rural areas. This means we have a chance. We can survive this.
Much like the Starks of Winterfell, we
just have to remind ourselves of one fact. “Winter is coming.” And maybe winter
is our chance to start taking things back. So until then, I think the general
game plan is to stay hunkered down. Stay happy. Stay healthy. And just wait
things out.
But I cannot help but sense that
nagging sense of doubt that seems to creep into the back of my head. What is
that line? The best laid plans are laid low by mice and men? Hmmmm…
