Living for the Lamb of God

They’d been in the store for close to two hours and had shopping carts full of winter clothing for everyone in camp, right down to things for the baby that had yet to arrive.

Conrad had gone back into the store to alert Bill to the Chinese parked up the street.

“Looks like we’ve got company. There’s a Chinese military truck parked up the street about 2 blocks, and they know we’re here” said Conrad.

Bill went outside to take a look, and he could see 2 Chinese soldiers in the front of the big truck, both of them staring him down, and like Conrad, he wasn’t quite sure what to do.

Everyone else in the store was unaware of their presence, so when they all started coming out with their full shopping carts and noticed the truck as well, they were each taken aback, looking at Bill, wondering what they should do.

Bill thought the best thing would be to proceed as if they didn’t notice them and instructed everyone to load up the bus with the things in their carts, so one by one, they filled the seats of the bus with coats, snow pants, gloves, boots, and everything else they had gotten.

All the while they loaded the bus, the vehicle just kept sitting there idling with its inhabitants eyeballing the group with great interest.

Once everything was in the bus, the group followed suit and got on the bus as well, with Randy behind the wheel, and he began to slowly pull away from the curb and head back the way they came, with the Chinese following, staying a safe distance behind them.

Every turn that Randy made, the Chinese duplicated.

“It looks like they’re going to follow us to where we live Bill. What should I do?” asked Randy.

“Just keep driving and let’s see what they do” said Bill.

“Should I run them on a wild goose chase?” asked Randy.

“If we do that, we might make them angry, plus we can’t be wasting fuel. No, just head back to Peaceful Valley like you normally would” said Bill.

And so they did, heading back on all the backroads they had taken to get there, crossing I-25 toward Elbert.

After about 10 miles, the vehicle eased back and they were alone on the highway, but Bill noticed they had a tail.

It was 2 Chinese helicopters far above them, keeping an eye on them to see where they would go, and once they turned into the scout ranch off of Elbert Road, the helicopters disappeared.

“Well, they know of our existence, and they know where we live. Maybe they just want to be aware of us and keep tabs. Who knows.” said Bill, hoping this was not a precursor to something bad happening to them in the future.

“There’s nothing we can do about it except go on living our lives”

Even though they hadn’t yet reached the dog days of summer, they were well prepared now for winter when it made its arrival.

Lots of wood had been chopped, maybe a cord for every cabin, and they now had plenty of winter clothing to be able to function outside in the coldest of weather.

The garden had produced a ton of produce for the camp, and all were happy to be eating ears of corn, though without any butter, but they were still happy to have it.

A lot of the vegetables they canned for the winter, and soon the pumpkins would be ready for harvest, just in time for Halloween.

This was the epitome of living off of the grid, and since there was no grid anymore to live off of, they adapted nicely.

Their lives of leisure were a thing of the past, and everyone had to chip in some way, in order for things to run smoothly.

Conrad had changed since Scott and his wife’s passing, and he wasn’t the same old gregarious man that loved playing with the kids like he used to or riding his horse as much.

He seemed to be spending less time around the village they had created and more time at his place, and he barely made it over for meals, with Viv sometimes bringing him a plate to his house.

The death of the superintendent and his wife hung over the camp like a damp dirty rag, and the spring in everyone’s step seemed to lessen.

Whiskers was very glad to return to the dining hall from the bunk house after the attack on them, wanting as little to do with Andy as possible, instead chasing field mice that had gotten in from outside, and occasionally bringing a mouse head to Julie as a trophy of his kills.

Andy was just Andy, and when he wasn’t at the side of Mandy, he was chasing ground squirrels outside or fetching sticks thrown from the boys,

Andy was also known to steal an occasional fish off the stringer when they were fishing in the lake, much to the chagrin of the fishermen, whoever they would be at the time. He had gotten adept at taking the fish and not getting his mouth caught on the hook.

Every night though, the two animals would be with their adopted humans, Andy in the headquarters with Mandy at the foot of her bunk on a pillow she laid down for him, and Whiskers sleeping on the bunk with Julie upstairs over the dining hall.

The village finally had its first bout with illness, though nothing that couldn’t be cured.

Terry had a real bad toothache, one that he’d been dealing with off and on ever since the Jenkins and Price families joined up with them, but it was now to the point where it was affecting his health.

After lunch one day, seeing Terry struggling to eat because of the pain, Bob Hawkins had urged him to see Jack about it, not really knowing what he could do, but Jack was better than leaving it alone entirely.

When Jack looked in Terry’s mouth in the Health Lodge, he could see immediately the affected tooth, as Terry didn’t have many left in his head. He had always suffered from having bad teeth and had many of them pulled over the years, so this one was easy to identify, mostly because there wasn’t another tooth in the vicinity of the pain, plus the condition of the tooth itself. Jack could see a gaping hole in the side of it, and after reading about it in his PDR, he figured Terry now had an exposed nerve, but the real telltale sign was the gum around it.

It was bright red and swollen, meaning his tooth was abscessed, so before doing anything else, Jack prescribed him Clindamycin to get rid of the infection, and would wait 5 or 6 days until the infection had gone away before proceeding to remove the tooth.

Everything up to this point was nothing Jack couldn’t handle, but he was not sure he could handle this.

He had never given anyone a shot, especially in their mouth, and he had never done anything even remotely close to surgery, which is what removing a tooth is, but he had a few days to figure it out.

Jack consulted with Bill, then with Viv, and finally read his PDR for anything tooth related.

When Terry’s infection subsided, Jack would attempt to give Terry a shot of lidocaine in his mouth, hoping that it would numb him up enough to try to pull his tooth.

Mandy agreed to assist him, though she had no experience in these matters, but nevertheless would try to the best of her ability.

6 days later, Terry came into the Health Lodge feeling much better, as the pain had gone down significantly due to the lack of throbbing from the previous infection, so they all decided that the time was right to attempt to remove the tooth, and along with lidocaine, Terry decided to be half lit with a bottle of whiskey.

After half an hour of drinking a quarter of a fifth of whiskey, Terry was pretty well buzzed, and laid down on the table for Jack to begin.

In there to assist was not only Mandy, but Bill and Bob as well, to hold Terry down if need be, especially when Jack was extracting the tooth.

Jack knew from reading the PDR, that no more than 4.5 mg of lidocaine could be given, which meant he had to be sure where he would be injecting the gum, making sure he was hitting the right nerves.

He first drew up a tiny bit to squirt into the hole of the tooth, hoping to numb it enough to stick the needle in the surrounding gum. When he did this, Terry jumped a little from the lidocaine hitting his exposed nerve, but within a minute, Jack was able to touch his tooth and gum without Terry feeling it.

So far, so good.

Jack then drew up 2 mg more of the lidocaine, and was able to stick the needle into the gum just below the tooth, with no major reaction from Terry. He then put another 2 mg in the gum on the other side of the tooth, and after waiting 5 minutes, terry could not feel a thing and could barely speak because his mouth was now paralyzed from the numbness, and that is when Jack began to remove the tooth.

The only thing Jack had to do this was a pair of needle nose pliers he had gotten from Conrad out of the quartermaster building.

Beforehand, the pliers were boiled in water to sterilize them, then cleaned with alcohol.

Jack put the pliers on Terry’s tooth, but he could not feel them until Jack began to move the tooth back and forth to loosen it, and then is when Terry became unglued.

Jack apparently had not gone deep enough to hit all the nerves, so he gave Terry another shot, but this time underneath the previous shot, going deeper than he had before.

Waiting another 5 minutes, he attempted to remove the tooth again, and this time Terry could feel nothing at all, and after a twist of the pliers, the tooth came out intact, with a very long root.

Mandy applied gauze to the gaping hole where the tooth used to be and had Terry bite down to stop the bleeding.

All in all, Terry’s extraction was a complete success, and though Jack did not go to school for dentistry, he had earned his title of Camp Dentist.

Bill and Bob were both very impressed with Jack and told the rest of the camp as much.

Mandy was beside herself with pride for Jack, and Terry was glad to be out of pain and was very appreciative.

Jack was sure to tell Terry to finish the medicine he had been prescribed, and after Terry had left to go lay down for a while, Jack let out a big sigh of relief and thanked God for giving him the ability to perform this act without messing it up.

Jack couldn’t fill a cavity or give a teeth cleaning, but he certainly could remove a bad tooth, and that was worth its weight in gold.

No one had to remain in agonizing pain as long as Jack was there to remove the source of the pain.

His best advice to everyone was to brush their teeth regularly in order not to be in the position of having to have a tooth removed, because once a cavity was gotten, removing the tooth was how it would eventually end up.

The difference between now and the days before Novocain and antibiotics was stark, making Jack’s successful extraction one of timing.

July had now turned into August, and the leaves were beginning to change color.

It wouldn’t be long before they got their first frost, with autumn being right around the corner.

The boys continued to chop wood for the cabins and for the cooking fire, and the kids resumed their schooling after taking a break for the summer.

The sun was going down earlier each day, and soon they would attempt their version of daylight savings time. The only thing they had now to keep time was old fashioned wind up clocks, as there were no more electric clocks to be used, so they kept time the best they could with what they had.

It was almost 6 PM on a Sunday night after an early dinner when they heard the sound of trucks out on the main road, stopping in front of the entrance to Peaceful Valley.

They could hear them, but not yet see them, but from the sound, they knew they were coming up the dirt road toward them.

No one ran to hide, but instead just stopped what they were doing to prepare for a possible confrontation with the unknown.

As soon as they got up to the lake, they could be seen by the whole community.

It was a long caravan of Chinese military trucks, about 8 or 9, led by an American military vehicle, an MRAP. When they got to the headquarters building, they stopped, not knowing exactly which direction they should go, as the roads went in several different directions.

Out of the MRAP stepped out two American Soldiers, dressed in battle gear, as if they were in Iraq.

One of them walked back to the Chinese vehicle behind them and spoke to the driver, then went back to the front of the MRAP with the other American soldier.

Bill was at the dining hall with mostly everyone else and decided to walk over to the caravan to see what they wanted.

As he walked up to the soldiers, they both put their hands on their holstered firearms, just in case Bill was bringing trouble with him, but when he got up close to them, they both eased their stances.

“Mr. Jenkins. Long time no see Sir” said one of the Soldiers.

“Sergeant Sanchez. Yes, it has been a while, hasn’t it?” answered Bill, remembering the two soldiers from when they escorted him home from Base 12.

Sergeant Sanchez was accompanied by Sergeant Halliday, the other soldier Bill knew.

Bill shook hands with both men, then walked over to inspect the MRAP.

“I’ll tell you boys, there’s been a couple times when I sure wish we had this vehicle” said Bill.

“I’m surprised to see that you are still alive Mr. Jenkins. We’ve been hearing stories out here. Surprised you haven’t been eaten” said Sergeant Halliday.

“We’ve come close a couple times, believe me,” said Bill. “What are you doing with Chinese soldiers? And why are they on American soil?”

“It’s not American soil anymore Sir. Hasn’t been for about 3 months now,” said Sanchez. “They’ve been on the west coast for about 6 months, and they made their move on D.C. They were able to breach Mt. Weather and took the President and killed most of Congress, at least all the Republicans. The Dems laid down to them and surrendered everything, meaning the military and everything else. Halliday and I have been assigned to escort them around Colorado, mostly to our bases to see what was valuable to them.

We just came from Fort Carson and NORAD.”

“NORAD let you in?” asked Bill.

“They had to. Like I said, they have the President, so they have to do what he says. It’s done Mr. Jenkins” said Halliday.

“The Chinese are very curious about you. They know that practically everyone is dead now because of the hunters. That is what you folks call them, right?” asked Halliday.

“Yeah. I don’t know who stuck that name on them, but that’s what we call them. They hunt humans the same way we hunt animals, and for the same reason, a food source” said Bill.

“How have you managed to survive this long?” asked Sanchez.

“After you guys dropped me off, we loaded up a bunch of shopping carts with supplies and headed to a state park with a reservoir about 15 miles away. We were looking for a water supply with hunting and fishing capability, so we decided on there, and we weren’t the first ones with that idea. We met up with a bunch of people that got there first, so we joined up with them.

3 months ago we were attacked in the night by a small group of hunters that discovered us, but we were ready for them and killed most of them.

We were able to secure one of their vehicles, believe it or not, and we decided we were too exposed there, so we decided to look for a bigger vehicle that runs and we found that city bus over by the dining hall. It ran, so we loaded up all of our stuff and the people, and we came down here off the beaten path.

This used to a boy scout ranch, and me and my son had been here a lot, so it had everything we needed, and we came down here in May.

Everything was fine until a month ago, when we were attacked again by a traveling group of hunters that found us by accident I suppose and they killed two of our members that lived away from us.

We were tipped off by that and had a good feeling they would be attacking us that night, so we waited in the dark and saw they coming from the direction we figured they would be coming from, all in the moonlight, and we picked them off one by one.

That’s how we got here and what we’ve been through to survive” answered Bill.

“That’s a remarkable story Mr. Jenkins. How many of you are there?” asked Sanchez.

“Close to 40 of us. One of the women are pregnant, my daughter-in-law, and we are just trying to survive. We don’t want any trouble with anybody, and we don’t intend to cause any trouble for your friends. I hope they understand that and will leave us alone” said Bill.

“I used to come here in the summer when I was a Boy Scout’ said Halliday. “We use to come here from out of state. Came here two summers in a row. I know this place.”

“I don’t think they want any trouble either Mr. Jenkins. The only reason they are here, first and foremost, is the oil. They are already pumping oil out of the ground in North Dakota. They rebuilt all the electrical infrastructure up there and are using the existing pipelines to shuttle it down to the gulf, where they are loading it on to tankers, going through the Panama canal, and shipping it over to China.

Their whole economic infrastructure has changed, and as powerful as they used to be, you can say they’ve increased that by a hundred-fold.

They’re plan is to utilize every source of oil there is to be had in the United States, so they’ve been doing reconnaissance missions here in Colorado, Wyoming, and especially Oklahoma and Texas.

America is practically a dead country now, but it still has resources, lots of them, and the Chinese see America the same way they’d see an uninhabited planet out in space, full of resources.

They just want to mine it, not populate it.

I’ll bet there’s not more than a million people left alive in America, and most of them are out here in the mid-west or somewhere around the coast, but not near a major city.

They aren’t interested in hurting anyone that has managed to survive. From what I’m told, they feel if you’ve gotten this far, you deserve to live your lives the best way you can, but don’t expect any help from them either.

I guess what I’m saying is if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone” said Sanchez.

Bill let those words sink in and was relieved to hear them. He already assumed that America would not be coming back, at least not in his lifetime, so if the Chinese were exploiting the resources here, there wasn’t a damn thing he or anyone else could do about it, especially if we had surrendered to them.

“Why don’t you come with us so I can introduce you” said Sanchez, so Bill and the soldiers walked to the front vehicle behind the MRAP, to the passenger door, and out of the vehicle stepped out an officer of the Chinese Army.

“This is Captain Lee with The Chinese National Army. Captain Lee, this is Bill Jenkins, and he speaks for a small village of people that have managed to survive several attacks from cannibalistic hunters in the area.

I have explained America’s situation to Mr. Jenkins and your reasons for being on American soil. He understands everything and does not wish to engage your army or interfere in any way. They just want to be left alone” said Sergeant Sanchez.

Captain Lee then extended his hand out to Bill, and Bill accepted his handshake.

“You are a survivor. There are not many of you” said Captain Lee.

His English was perfect, as if he were born and raised in America.

“So I’m told” answered Bill.

Jack and Mandy had by this time joined Bill, Captain Lee, and the American soldiers.

“We will not be in this area for very long. You were discovered by one of our helicopters, so we wanted to introduce ourselves and see what your intentions are. We have no designs on you and your community. We do not want to be interfered with, and that is all we ask. In return, we will not interfere with you” said Captain Lee.

Mandy was becoming increasingly uncomfortable at the way the driver of the truck was staring at her, looking at her like she was a bowl of pork fried rice, and he hadn’t eaten for days.

It wasn’t the look of a cannibalistic hunter, but instead a sexual hunter.

An understanding was come to, with everyone bidding each other a good day, and the trucks made a wide birth in front of headquarters and turned to exit the camp the way they came.