Profit where you find it.

This doesn't look fresh. I see flowers growing around the dead.

Even so, caution dictates I ease into this. I am no hero, I don't even play one in my own mind. I creep back down my side of the hill to the trike. Stashing it is easy enough for now. I figure if shit gets strange, it will be much easier to hightail it back to the trike for reinforcement. Even so, the PSL is going with. The Winchester is fine but I want the ability to reload quickly if needed.

I creep back up the hill to survey a bit more. No real way around to the other side without taking days to do it. This was a pretty good spot to set up whatever went down here. Only one thing to do.

Walk in like I belong right there by God's decree.

Oh to be home by the fire with Granbehbie prattling on about whatever Mama is teaching her this week. Much preferable to Intel gathering in an unknown AO.

Strolling up to the scene with a confidence I don't feel inside, I can see that whatever happened, took place sometimeago. The corpses don't stink. They look rather dry actually. Looks to be about 4 or 5 hundred rounds of spent brass around them. The Hummer looks like blackened swiss cheese.

No hardware. No M4's, No mags, no support gear like canteens. Nothing. They have been stripped of everything but the clothes they were wearing. The hummer is empty too.

I am guessing that who ever ambushed them took it all but burnt the hummer since it was shot to shit.

National Guard.

Well, at least they died in this country and not another third world country halfway around the world like so many of ours were/are doing. I still wonder whats going on now that things have flipped to the other side of the looking glass. Did O abandon them there? Were they pulled out to 'help' against the rising resistance before he blew it all up? More unanswered questions. Who knows when or even if we will find out.

Time to get the trike and keep on, keeping on. At this rate, I will be on the road for 5 months before I reach my destination. Still, gonna have to keep my eyes wide open. Seeing lots more signs of trouble more frequently. May even have to figure out a different route with fewer towns on the way. That may be hard to do since I am getting closer to the Gulf.


We started seeing Aircraft in the stratosphere about two years after the lights went out. Heck, most of us probably wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for the little ones. They spotted the contrails and wanted to know what made those 'funny clouds'. No real way of knowing what or who they belong to but the likelihood of them being commercial is pretty slim. Did they bust out the old spy planes? Are they moving troops and gear?

Dammit, TOO many damned questions. NO answers. Not knowing drives me flat nuts. Not having a way of finding out pushes me a little further to complete hopelessness. I won't quit though. Can't. Too much at stake.

We had one 'visitor' to our little compound not long after the planes were spotted again. This guy came riding up on a horse and walked right up to the doors like he was on a mission. I saw the whole thing from the beehives. My Daughter answered as she was on teaching duty that day. Not even three seconds later we all heard the gunshot. Seems this guy said he was from the government as a census worker. My kid didn't need to hear anymore. She rammed her .45 right into his throat and squeezed the trigger before the guy could react. I asked her what made her do it.
“ Fuckers think they can just ruin the world then want to know how many of us lived through it? Fuck the rat bastards! Hell, He was probably a scout for a raiding party anyway.” she spat back. “Besides, I am not going to let anyone take what we have put together here just because some dumbshit elsewhere can't get off a couch.”

I raised her right.(proud papa moment.)

And we got a horse for the cost of one .45ACP round. You count your profit wherever you can find it. My dad took the mess away, but I doubt he buried the guy. Probably fed the hogs.

Asking around, this guy seemed to come out of nowhere. Ours was the first stop. Since we are on the western side of town and the first place you really bump into, I figured he was a scout. Now, seeing the hummer, I am sure of it. I knew the military vehicles would be alright with EMP's even if fuel would be an issue. If this guy had been from whatever is left of the Government, he wouldn't have been on horse.
We started a watch at that point. Having the mountains around there is a huge plus. Great vantage points for lookouts without giving away position. You really have to be in shape though. Getting around in the hills is not for the timid or weak. Most people, in vehicles or not, won't cut through the hills when the roads are relatively clear. Horses make it easier, ATV' made it real easy before the computers fried. Now, unless we are hunting, we stick to the roads. I am guilty of it too. I have stuck to the side roads this whole trip. Who knows how many times I have been spotted. I am just lucky so far that I haven't been held up.


No loss is a profit these days.