I have told you
before how quiet the world has become. Without cars zipping around and all the
hustle and bustle of the world, things can get almost scary silent. I used to
love to get up really early before the world had stirred and was still tucked
in under the blankets. I loved that peaceful time. I remember this one time (at
band camp), we were on vacation in the Ozarks. My dad, a friend of the family,
and me (I must have been 10?) took the boat out on the lake – literally – at
the crack of dawn. There was no wind and I swear the lake looked like a mirror.
There was not a wake or a ripple to be found. My dad jumped out of the boat and
slalom skied for what must have been an hour. Man, I have not thought of that
memory for years but I can still see it in my mind’s eye. I just wanted you to
try to imagine the serenity that we experience in those early hours. It is
calm. Wind is low. The world is peaceful. The zoms haven’t gotten all stirred up
yet…
So when something
comes along and disrupts that silence, everyone takes notice. And in the last
169 days, I cannot tell you any single sound that is louder than a helicopter.
And what is even louder than a helicopter? Five helicopters.
Now these guys didn’t
come screaming directly over the store but off to the west, running south to
north along the horizon was a military echelon made up of five Black Hawk
helicopters. Kasondra confirmed their designations. Now, these things were
hauling. They were flying way too fast and way too far off in the distance for
us to signal them properly and they were moving so fast, I am guessing they
could have flown right over us and not seen us.
However, this means
we are not the only survivors out there. I cannot tell you the significance of
them travelling north. I have no idea where they were coming from or where they
were going. But these Black Hawks are known for their firepower, which means
the military is still kicking and out there somewhere. Which means there has to
be a safe zone… We just have to find it.
But it is not like we
are gassing up the vehicles right now. We are going to stick with the Year One
Plan and let these zombies rot off before we venture out into the great
unknown. And who knows, maybe a convoy of tanks will come rolling through. It
would be a lot easier to get their attention…
Needless to say,
everyone seems to be rather stirred up and excited after that sighting. We
still don’t really know any more than we did but it opens the imagination up to
possibilities. And trained soldiers sporting M4s and grenade launchers and
shotguns seemed to be a lot better equipped to handle all this than a group of
grocery store employees with .22 rifles…
Still, we are not the
only ones out there.
