Zombie apocalypse fiction – Ruth’s story #117 Life on a farm with cannibals #SHTF #TEOTWAWKI

Life on a farm with cannibals

There were not very many things of note over the next few weeks, so other than a few jotted notes, my journal remained empty.

I finally dug out my Yoga roll, and started stretching. I was extremely tight for the first few days, but have loosened up enough to meet most of the proper forms. I will never be a true yogi, but at least the stretching helped me to limber up.

I have also started teaching basic military Krav Maga to a few of the soldiers including Shack. Some of the lads have had some basic hand to hand training. But as most of them were rushed through training to fill the rapidly depleting ranks of the army, few have any real skills. Shack has proven to be an apt pupil as has Honey.

How to train a cannibal in Krav Maga …

Honey’s reflexes, strength and speed are startling. She is nearly as strong as I am, and soon will be much quicker. Honey’s nails leave terrible-looking red welts when we spar. I was hesitant at first to teach Honey any Krav Maga. Sam and Doc asked me to teach her since that might strengthen her bond to our company. Honey learns fast. I have to be careful teaching her, less I end up hurt.

When Honey smiles the sight of her black teeth is unsettling to say the least. While Honey’s speed and strength are amazing her control is not so good. When frustrated, or worse, hungry, the beast comes out in her in full force. I remember Cauley describing how hunger made the KCAP virus sing in his head like a coke-fueled monkey. I imagine Honey has a similar problem.

Frustrated Honey, when hungry, is frightening, causing more than one soldier to back away from her while reaching for his side arm. We have made sure that Honey carries snacks with her to stave off her hunger. Even she has mentioned that when hungry, she gets the urge to nosh on someone.

Honey has to fight the urges of the virus when hungry. As she cares for Thing 1 full-time now, I have to wonder if she is getting or giving further infection from Thing 1. Thing 1 is crawling now at barely three months old and will be walking before five months if Doc’s estimates are correct.

Some personnel changes are in effect as well. Our long-suffering engineer Mal will be remaining with the Adventists when the convoy moves north. Also staying behind are Bill, his two wives (both now pregnant) and their younger children. Junior has decided to stay with the company; I suspect because of a certain young lady he is sleeping with.

Parting will be such sweet sorrow, but that is how it is going to have to be. Other personnel changes I am sure are in the works and will show themselves as time passes. Mal and the other engineer types are still struggling to get the methanol production vats in proper order.

Assault pig truck …

Rick tore the front end off of the snow plow and is busily up arming the plow with plate steel. The lads found something nearby called a Maximus/Minimus urban assault pig truck with a ridiculous amount of steel. Busily stripped by Rick and the engineers, the once pig-shaped metal former hot dog truck is being cannibalized for parts.

The pig truck provided not only a wealth of sheet metal but also several useful fittings, appliances and small bits like wires that come in handy. With places like Home Depot and Lowes long stripped of anything useful scavenging and cannibalizing are the only ways that we can find repair parts.

Speaking of cannibalizing, Sam has decided that there will be no more bargains with cannibals. Sam I would not say has the loathing of cannibals that Iain possesses, but has learned that for the most part, they cannot be trusted.

For the next time that a cannibal’s enclave is found, there has been some discussion that a trebuchet might come in handy after all. The Scout lads have found some text books, and some of the younger children are being schooled by their parents or older siblings.

Some of the sharper kids while reading the history books noted that sieges were often shortened by the sieging forces using trebuchets. Large trebuchets hurling rotting and diseased carcasses into the besieged cities were especially effective after the Black Death erupted in Europe. We do not have the plague but we have something that is almost as good if not better.

We would use a similar tactic, but we would be hurling zombies into the cannibal’s enclave. I imagine that dropping zombies in someone’s compound would suck for them on so many levels. Not really a workable attack tactic for a number of logistical problems, but still out of the mouth of babes …

In the present …

I still need to find all of my notes about this month with the convoy. Not only do my notes include some of the convoy member’s first zombie kills but also Shack’s and my first time making love. I hope that I have not lost the notes.

Iain is shouting for me to come grab a horse. Another one of the goddamned beefalos is loose again. Great shaggy, stupid beast. Well at least chasing some stupid, loose one ton beast takes my mind off of poor Shack. God I miss that boy.