Today in the twelve o’clock hour, we
saw a small caravan of three vans and a mid-sized U-Haul truck come through
Langley. They came up Highway 28 from Adair, made the turn onto Highway 82, and
then preceded to head north towards Vinita. From there, the roads can take you
up to Joplin, Missouri and from there pretty much anywhere in the American
Midwest.
Now, we weren’t exactly broadcasting
our presence but we were not exactly buttoned up tight either. We are still
flying our flags upside down in distress, hoping some military convoy will see
us. The caravan slowed down, as if whoever was in the lead vehicle was
contemplating something and then they advanced on.
The chances of them doing some sort of
secretive double back to hit us under the cover of darkness are pretty
unlikely. They have to have seen the barricaded store front, the flapping
flags, and considered stopping. But if they are loaded down with supplies and
have all that they can carry at the time, why risk it?
For all we know, they cleared out that
rinkie-dink grocery store in Salina or Chelsea. Sure, the Tulsa grocery stores
probably got looted and picked clean but a small town – overrun before the
chaos was telegraphed – that place would be ripe for the picking.
Plus, all you have to do is look
around. As of this moment, there are not a lot of walking zoms prowling
Langley. Sure, there are the stragglers and we are always at risk to a
shambling horde but, right now, there are more bodies littering the parking
lots across the way than there are the occasional dawdlers and lingerers. And
if these people have survived into September, they must know that you have to
brainpan these things to put them down.
If you see a collection of corpses
scattered about a parking lot with bullet holes in their skulls and no other
major damage, wouldn’t you start looking around wondering where the sniper nest
is? Maybe that inadvertent show of force told them to keep bumping it down the
road.
I mean, we know that we are nice
people but they don’t know that we are nice people. Best to avoid the stress
and keep pushing on to wherever they are going. Still, it would be nice to hear
some news, see some new faces, or maybe meet some new people…
Maybe this means all hope is not lost?
If people are still out there and they are venturing out, maybe there are more
survivors than we anticipated. Those cars were headed north. Maybe there is
something up north that we don’t know about.
Maybe we are not alone after all…
