Day 103
Sarah has run a low-grade temperature most of the day. Rachel and Waleski both have been monitoring her to see if it is just a reaction to the trauma or infection at the wound site. The puncture wounds are enflamed but not more than expected. We have to continue to watch her closely; it could have been so much worse than it was. Cats often snap the neck of their prey before you can say bob’s your uncle.
Rachel assured me that the antibiotics should be all that is needed to keep her on the road to recovery. I asked her why they hadn’t stitched her leg because it still bleeds quite a bit in my opinion. She responded by explaining so that the wounds can drain. If they were to stitch them up too soon they could actually seal the infection In.
It’s strange but somehow the tiger attacking Sarah has released all of us from an almost complacent stupor. We were just making do; reacting rather than being more forward thinking. Suddenly creative juices are really flowing like they were in the beginning of this plague.
Partly I think it’s the zombies. As an enemy they are almost mythic. They engender a kind of morbid fascination and are definitely real but at the same time something more than that. Our mind treats them either like an avoidable disease or an unimaginable horror that takes all of our time and mental energy to deal with. We forget there are other horrors out there other things we have to be prepared for. We haven’t had to deal directly with raiders in a while though we’ve heard they are still around. But it’s almost a case of being out of sight, out of mind. Unless something is an immediate threat it doesn’t register.
But this tiger attack, it is outrageous but real in a way the zombies mentally aren’t. It struck at the heart of Sanctuary, at the heart of what Sanctuary stands for. It struck our children, our future, what we are working for. And it was the children who defended themselves – and us – from our new enemy. We should have been there for them.
It has changed our way of thinking. The first thing I noticed was that we stopped being stuck on using those storage containers to complete the Wall. Suddenly we branched out and found such an easy fix. There are plenty of semi trailers around. I don’t know why we didn’t see them as a solution before.
And what about using those stationary exercise bicycles to make generators? David has promised Rose a better way to grind corn and wheat with one of those bikes as well. It was a charming offer in a dorky sort of way but maybe that’s what courting is going to look like from here on out.
Those of us who were soldiers are talking about making supplies of black powder rather than suffering through greater and greater shortages of ammo. This made the kids think of fireworks as potential weapons. The grown ups thought of homemade bombs and homemade rockets.
Scott said he wants to bring in a school bus, strip out most of the seats, reinforce the windows and doors and use it for longer-haul gathering runs. Cease said to add front and rear gun turrets and it would be even better. David said to add an extendable ramp at the rear emergency door and pack three or four motorcycles in the rear for short runs. The bikes would use less fuel and they would also make for a quick exit in case a bugout from the bus was necessary.
As far as for my own ideas I have two main ones. First is a large pole barn built next to the library. We could take more picnic tables from Nye and Lake parks and use the covered area both as a “mess hall” and as a school once it gets too warm for the kids to study inside. And of course I want a summer kitchen too.
My other idea is to build several greenhouses. I don’t want to use up good gardening areas so I would likely stick them out in the orange grove. Why I hadn’t thought of doing this since Mabel’s house was demolished I don’t know. Maybe I’ve been thinking too small, or too traditionally; still in lockstep with the way things used to be. Sanctuary has been growing but somewhere along the way I stopped.
A concern that has amazingly enough been raised by Samuel and Sarah is that we need to hurry up and gather up as many domesticated animals as we can. They have no defense against the African predators. It will mean another expansion of our fenced in territory but I think we’ve come up with a way around that. We’ll make at least one layer of the semi-trailers parked end-to-end. We’ll use a mini dozer to push earthen berms under the trailers. On top of those trailers we’ll stack cars that we’ve crushed and cables and bolts to tie them in place. Using broken down cars will also do something with the cars and trucks that we’ve just pushed off to the side of the road to get the out of our way.
This innovative thinking has even stretched into my menus. I pulled out some of my old-fashioned, Depression-era cookbooks and recipe files and found a few new ones I want to try on everyone. A “pretend” apple pie that doesn’t have apples in it, but saltine crackers. “Crab” cakes that don’t use crab but zucchini. A spice cake that doesn’t use milk, eggs, or white sugar. Ways to extend flour by adding various other ingredients. I knew about all these recipes but I had just forgotten them because my focus has become so splintered.
With everyone pulling together we’ve almost finished raising the second layer of the Wall. All that needs to be done is in the fenced sections we need to attach another layer of aluminum fencing.
Tomorrow we’ll finish that work and prepare the crew that is going to Busch Gardens on Monday. We’ve also started the new animal enclosure. We are building a small gate from Sanctuary into the new animal enclosure but otherwise the new “pasture” area will be inaccessible from the outside.
With no more truly wide open spaces left inside Sanctuary we’ve annexed the closest thing to it by choosing to fence in some houses sitting on acreage at our NE corner. We didn’t include them originally because we thought we were limited on fencing material, now we have more than enough to build another wall. After we close the area in we’ll cut more of the grass, right now it is really high. We are going to draw the zombies out of those areas by setting off an air horn a good distance from Sanctuary. We’ll sanitize the few stragglers and then we’ll close the new enclosure in completely.
Not even “Brother Jeremiah‘s Dog and Pony Show” has interrupted our work; although our work has interrupted their plans to continue their seven circuit march. Of course Lawrence’s delusions led him to believe we were making the improvements for his grand entrance that is supposed to take place in the very near future. They left around lunch time taking some of the debris we had tossed out onto US41 … calling it a tithe.
I know we are going to have to do something about the Ehren Cutoff group sooner rather than later … Jerry and Muriel in particular are extremely distrustful of them … but so long as they have the semi protection of the Hale Hollow group we need to tread carefully; no matter how annoying they are, at least for now.
Speaking of Hale Hollow, we had bandied about the idea of asking them if they wanted to go hunting with us – safety in numbers – but they are in the midst of another “reorganization.” A contingent of five families has definitely broken away from that enclave and plan on setting up their own enclave back on the old Geraci Brothers property at the corner of Dale Mabry and Van Dyke Road. Their problem is a lack of food. They had to leave everything behind to escape from Hale Hollow. They stopped by and traded some work for enough food to get their group through two days so that they can get going on their own gathering runs.
The extra hands were much welcomed and that is why we are as far along as we are. They are building a little close for my comfort – we’ll easily have problems with overlapping territories unless they stick to the west side of Dale Mabry – but hopefully we’ll be able to stay at peace and maybe even build a good trade relation. Their group is made up of adults and a couple of teens; no children. People with children are too scared of leaving Hale Hollow, worried that they wouldn't be able to protect the youngest members of their group without support.
They did tell us that they know of a couple of families with kids desperate to move from Hale Hollow. Apparently the Hale Hollow group isn’t for everyone. They have an elitist outlook and what you were before the NRS plague still matters quite a bit. Also, though they say they welcome new comers, new group members start so low on the pecking order that it is almost impossible for them to get ahead enough to influence their situation. Newbies are little better than indentured servants; working to “pay back” what the community storehouse “gave” them to get them started when they came in with nothing. And until you pay back what you owe you don’t leave the compound. Sounds more like a form of slavery to me; like what the railroad and mines used to do to their employees.
Hale Hollow has gone even further and set up a police force that sounds more like a communist committee than public servants. They have a ton of rules (soon to be called “laws”) and infractions against these rules at a minimum result in a “fine” usually in the form of desirable goods or in community service hours. They have exiled a few people but usually they send habitual offenders to Brother Jeremiah for what is termed re-education.
That whole situation up there sounds like it is turning scary. At least it sounds like their numbers are coming back down. They were up to nearly 300 people. Two dozen people left last week to continue north (why do this in the middle of winter I don't know). The New Geraci group numbers 26, leaving Hale Hollow with roughly 250 members. There is a huge schism that could break off another 75-100 people that Greg, the spokesperson for the New Geraci group, said could happen any day the way hostilities are escalating. Their group got out while the getting was good, trying to avoid the potential bloodshed of civil war.
We’ll tread lightly with Brother Jeremiah so we don’t become an outlet, or focus, for all of the antagonism and anger in Hale Hollow.
Well I'm tired. Tomorrow is supposed to be a day of rest but I think we'll have to work through the whole day. It happens like that some times. But if we won't to go hunting on Monday we want to make sure we leave Sanctuary in the best position possible.
Sarah has run a low-grade temperature most of the day. Rachel and Waleski both have been monitoring her to see if it is just a reaction to the trauma or infection at the wound site. The puncture wounds are enflamed but not more than expected. We have to continue to watch her closely; it could have been so much worse than it was. Cats often snap the neck of their prey before you can say bob’s your uncle.
Rachel assured me that the antibiotics should be all that is needed to keep her on the road to recovery. I asked her why they hadn’t stitched her leg because it still bleeds quite a bit in my opinion. She responded by explaining so that the wounds can drain. If they were to stitch them up too soon they could actually seal the infection In.
It’s strange but somehow the tiger attacking Sarah has released all of us from an almost complacent stupor. We were just making do; reacting rather than being more forward thinking. Suddenly creative juices are really flowing like they were in the beginning of this plague.
Partly I think it’s the zombies. As an enemy they are almost mythic. They engender a kind of morbid fascination and are definitely real but at the same time something more than that. Our mind treats them either like an avoidable disease or an unimaginable horror that takes all of our time and mental energy to deal with. We forget there are other horrors out there other things we have to be prepared for. We haven’t had to deal directly with raiders in a while though we’ve heard they are still around. But it’s almost a case of being out of sight, out of mind. Unless something is an immediate threat it doesn’t register.
But this tiger attack, it is outrageous but real in a way the zombies mentally aren’t. It struck at the heart of Sanctuary, at the heart of what Sanctuary stands for. It struck our children, our future, what we are working for. And it was the children who defended themselves – and us – from our new enemy. We should have been there for them.
It has changed our way of thinking. The first thing I noticed was that we stopped being stuck on using those storage containers to complete the Wall. Suddenly we branched out and found such an easy fix. There are plenty of semi trailers around. I don’t know why we didn’t see them as a solution before.
And what about using those stationary exercise bicycles to make generators? David has promised Rose a better way to grind corn and wheat with one of those bikes as well. It was a charming offer in a dorky sort of way but maybe that’s what courting is going to look like from here on out.
Those of us who were soldiers are talking about making supplies of black powder rather than suffering through greater and greater shortages of ammo. This made the kids think of fireworks as potential weapons. The grown ups thought of homemade bombs and homemade rockets.
Scott said he wants to bring in a school bus, strip out most of the seats, reinforce the windows and doors and use it for longer-haul gathering runs. Cease said to add front and rear gun turrets and it would be even better. David said to add an extendable ramp at the rear emergency door and pack three or four motorcycles in the rear for short runs. The bikes would use less fuel and they would also make for a quick exit in case a bugout from the bus was necessary.
As far as for my own ideas I have two main ones. First is a large pole barn built next to the library. We could take more picnic tables from Nye and Lake parks and use the covered area both as a “mess hall” and as a school once it gets too warm for the kids to study inside. And of course I want a summer kitchen too.
My other idea is to build several greenhouses. I don’t want to use up good gardening areas so I would likely stick them out in the orange grove. Why I hadn’t thought of doing this since Mabel’s house was demolished I don’t know. Maybe I’ve been thinking too small, or too traditionally; still in lockstep with the way things used to be. Sanctuary has been growing but somewhere along the way I stopped.
A concern that has amazingly enough been raised by Samuel and Sarah is that we need to hurry up and gather up as many domesticated animals as we can. They have no defense against the African predators. It will mean another expansion of our fenced in territory but I think we’ve come up with a way around that. We’ll make at least one layer of the semi-trailers parked end-to-end. We’ll use a mini dozer to push earthen berms under the trailers. On top of those trailers we’ll stack cars that we’ve crushed and cables and bolts to tie them in place. Using broken down cars will also do something with the cars and trucks that we’ve just pushed off to the side of the road to get the out of our way.
This innovative thinking has even stretched into my menus. I pulled out some of my old-fashioned, Depression-era cookbooks and recipe files and found a few new ones I want to try on everyone. A “pretend” apple pie that doesn’t have apples in it, but saltine crackers. “Crab” cakes that don’t use crab but zucchini. A spice cake that doesn’t use milk, eggs, or white sugar. Ways to extend flour by adding various other ingredients. I knew about all these recipes but I had just forgotten them because my focus has become so splintered.
With everyone pulling together we’ve almost finished raising the second layer of the Wall. All that needs to be done is in the fenced sections we need to attach another layer of aluminum fencing.
Tomorrow we’ll finish that work and prepare the crew that is going to Busch Gardens on Monday. We’ve also started the new animal enclosure. We are building a small gate from Sanctuary into the new animal enclosure but otherwise the new “pasture” area will be inaccessible from the outside.
With no more truly wide open spaces left inside Sanctuary we’ve annexed the closest thing to it by choosing to fence in some houses sitting on acreage at our NE corner. We didn’t include them originally because we thought we were limited on fencing material, now we have more than enough to build another wall. After we close the area in we’ll cut more of the grass, right now it is really high. We are going to draw the zombies out of those areas by setting off an air horn a good distance from Sanctuary. We’ll sanitize the few stragglers and then we’ll close the new enclosure in completely.
Not even “Brother Jeremiah‘s Dog and Pony Show” has interrupted our work; although our work has interrupted their plans to continue their seven circuit march. Of course Lawrence’s delusions led him to believe we were making the improvements for his grand entrance that is supposed to take place in the very near future. They left around lunch time taking some of the debris we had tossed out onto US41 … calling it a tithe.
I know we are going to have to do something about the Ehren Cutoff group sooner rather than later … Jerry and Muriel in particular are extremely distrustful of them … but so long as they have the semi protection of the Hale Hollow group we need to tread carefully; no matter how annoying they are, at least for now.
Speaking of Hale Hollow, we had bandied about the idea of asking them if they wanted to go hunting with us – safety in numbers – but they are in the midst of another “reorganization.” A contingent of five families has definitely broken away from that enclave and plan on setting up their own enclave back on the old Geraci Brothers property at the corner of Dale Mabry and Van Dyke Road. Their problem is a lack of food. They had to leave everything behind to escape from Hale Hollow. They stopped by and traded some work for enough food to get their group through two days so that they can get going on their own gathering runs.
The extra hands were much welcomed and that is why we are as far along as we are. They are building a little close for my comfort – we’ll easily have problems with overlapping territories unless they stick to the west side of Dale Mabry – but hopefully we’ll be able to stay at peace and maybe even build a good trade relation. Their group is made up of adults and a couple of teens; no children. People with children are too scared of leaving Hale Hollow, worried that they wouldn't be able to protect the youngest members of their group without support.
They did tell us that they know of a couple of families with kids desperate to move from Hale Hollow. Apparently the Hale Hollow group isn’t for everyone. They have an elitist outlook and what you were before the NRS plague still matters quite a bit. Also, though they say they welcome new comers, new group members start so low on the pecking order that it is almost impossible for them to get ahead enough to influence their situation. Newbies are little better than indentured servants; working to “pay back” what the community storehouse “gave” them to get them started when they came in with nothing. And until you pay back what you owe you don’t leave the compound. Sounds more like a form of slavery to me; like what the railroad and mines used to do to their employees.
Hale Hollow has gone even further and set up a police force that sounds more like a communist committee than public servants. They have a ton of rules (soon to be called “laws”) and infractions against these rules at a minimum result in a “fine” usually in the form of desirable goods or in community service hours. They have exiled a few people but usually they send habitual offenders to Brother Jeremiah for what is termed re-education.
That whole situation up there sounds like it is turning scary. At least it sounds like their numbers are coming back down. They were up to nearly 300 people. Two dozen people left last week to continue north (why do this in the middle of winter I don't know). The New Geraci group numbers 26, leaving Hale Hollow with roughly 250 members. There is a huge schism that could break off another 75-100 people that Greg, the spokesperson for the New Geraci group, said could happen any day the way hostilities are escalating. Their group got out while the getting was good, trying to avoid the potential bloodshed of civil war.
We’ll tread lightly with Brother Jeremiah so we don’t become an outlet, or focus, for all of the antagonism and anger in Hale Hollow.
Well I'm tired. Tomorrow is supposed to be a day of rest but I think we'll have to work through the whole day. It happens like that some times. But if we won't to go hunting on Monday we want to make sure we leave Sanctuary in the best position possible.