Zombie apocalypse fiction – Ruth’s story #152 Settling in at Kayak Point and Yet Another Unexpected Encounter #TEOTWAWKI #SHTF #WROL

My response is an elegant, “Huh?”

“During the siege of the old village, there was a reason that no artillery or other indirect fire weapons were deployed. We tried to catch the attacking gang in a pinch between our two forces. Thanks to you my men were decimated, and nearly overran.”

“I did not know that there were friendly forces outside of our barricade,” I reply.

“Yeah, well Sam and I could not be certain who the traitors are within the village, so that information was kept strictly need to know. I guess they figured you didn’t need to know,” he replies sneering at me.

I walk away from the man before I decide to hurt the asshole. Tempting as it is for me to thrash the odious man; I am more pissed at Sam and Doc for not telling me that there were friendly forces. I also feel somewhat betrayed. I make an effort to avoid the asshole for the next few days as every time I see him my blood pressure rises.

The next few days pass uneventfully. Shack and I get into the guard rotation taking our turns manning the guad-50 on the main gate and the 20mm Oerlikon cannon facing the beach. I prefer standing behind the old 20mm cannon, despite the lack of shelter it offers. I prefer the view of the bay and water over looking at the abandoned highway.

I find myself often fondling the huge; seven-inch long 20mm shells each weighing a solid half of a pound. Today, Sam is tearing around Kayak Point Park in his old Ontos, playing in the sand and rocks on the beach.

Brenda said that before some of the dams on the Snake and other rivers in the area were removed, most of the beaches here were plain rock with no sand or other sediment. All of the dams on the major rivers kept the sediment out of the bay, were it settled along the beaches as sand.

Brenda explains that the lower Snake River dams were the last to go before KCAP hit. She explains that the lower Snake River dams were the largest ever removed in the US. Many groups and several of the local tribes pushed to remove the three major dams on the Columbia River.

Brenda felt removing the three, large Columbia River dams was not something that the government would allow because of how much electrical power the three dams provided. I get to make some small talk with Brenda today at lunch.

I am closest to Brenda and Carol, while the Princess and I strive at least to be civil to each other. The Princess and I do not talk unless necessary, even on woman’s bath day. I suppose she has never forgiven how I treated her in the first few days of my joining the convoy.

I admit that I was not nice to the Princess, but she needed someone to put their foot in her ass, and it was my foot, so she hates me. Today, we are eating Jerusalem artichokes, steamed asparagus, dried banana chips, and a decent celeriac soup with garlic, green beans, leeks, onions, tomatoes, and blanched horse parsley.

Brenda and the cooks are miracle workers coming up with meals for this bunch of people. Our cooks apologize for the bland taste, but when cooking for so large a group, there is not really anything they can do about flavor. The important thing is that there is food, and plenty of it.

I did not know that Shack hates asparagus, so he gave me his portion. I have always loved asparagus, although Amy hated it too. Our cooks have actually started to make decent bread, and the Indian fry bread is common at meals too.

Someone recovered an ancient Corona grain mill which the cooks have put to good use. Along with the Corona grain mill a Little Dutch Maid mixer has also been pressed in to service in the kitchen.

Doc has been hanging out with an infected black woman from the group in the houses to the north of the park. Shack, Longfeather and Doc often get together to eat and talk. Honey, LM and I usually tag along for some of these discussions as sometimes they are really interesting.

On this occasion I got to meet Doc’s new lady friend, a very tall KCAP infected, black woman with bright red, straight hair full of small colorful beads that falls to her ankles. The smaller of the two infected women, the black woman is willow thin and has naturally bright red hair.

I was curious about her retaining her hair for as I understand it, KCAP infected lose all of their body hair. Doc was stumped too because usually anyone infected with KCAP, loses all their body hair. Viridiana is unique as far as we know. For some reason that Doc has not figured out, Viridiana (“Viri” for short) did not lose all of her hair. I was not aware that black people could blush.

Although Doc is not ethnically black, it was fun watching him blush when discussing Viri’s hair after Shack asked if the carpet matched the drapes. Doc thinks Viri’s red hair might have something to do with her keeping her hair after infection. Viri was a geneticist at the College of the Bahamas. Doc and Viri are quite interested in how KCAP works in the body. I have to admit that between the two of them when they go all scientificy on me, I get lost and there is no way I can write everything the two doctors discussed.

Both Doc and Viri agree that KCAP improves its host, bettering the human race by removing all of the infirm and sick. Doc chose infection hoping to cure his diabetes. Viri chose infection because her group on the boat after a harrowing crossing of the Panama Canal suffered Ciguatera poisoning from farm-raised salmon they took from an abandoned fish farm.

The group KCAP infected themselves curing the Ciguatera poisoning. I had never heard of Ciguatera poisoning as it is not common anywhere that I previously lived. Ciguatera poisoning is also not common here in the Pacific Northwest either. Ironically, Ciguatera poisoning is quite common in the Bahamas, so Viri was very familiar with the symptoms of Ciguatera poisoning.

Viri carries a nice Japanese tanto of modern manufacture. Amy was a collector of fine Japanese knives; the tanto was always her favorite Japanese knife. She carried a modern tanto at work in the firehouse. I am not the knife expert that Amy was but I can appreciate a good blade. One of Amy’s favorite Japanese blades in her collection was a “cursed” 16th-century tanto made by famed Japanese smith Muramasa Sengo.

I gave Amy her Muramasa tanto for our fifth anniversary. I was not aware that there were many forged Muramasa blades. Most forgeries of Muramasa blades were particularly made during the Tokugawa Shogunate. I was concerned that perhaps I had bought a forgery.

I was contemplating how much pain I would inflict upon the antiquities dealer once I returned to Haifa. Amy alleviated my fears, silencing my rumblings of bloody revenge by verifying that the tanto was indeed an authentic Muramasa. The mirrored hako-midare hamon was a specialty of Muramasa.

It was not until a few years later that Amy learned that her treasured Muramasa tanto once belonged to General Tojo. The tanto was once part of the former MacArthur Museum, and was listed as stolen. The MacArthur museum identified the tanto as a forgery but Amy was able to verify that it is a true Muramasa tanto.