Surviving Us

The End: Survival

Two weeks had passed, and we had moved my camper and shed to his property, cleared out what we needed from Margie's house and although I hadn't known her long, it was harder than I imagined it would be. We had harvested the animals that were ready and filled freezers and turned some into jerky so we'd have food in case we lost the freezer meat. We had canned what was left from the garden since everything needed to be harvested. Now that it was October, we had his greenhouse up and running with things that we could plant and harvest, just from the greenhouse. We had put up electric fencing around everything, hidden weapons throughout the property in caches that were easily accessible in case something happened, unforeseen.

Wade had been honest about his knowledge about things to come, and we had some deep talks about things from his past and worked through some issues on both our ends. He had taught me how to make antibiotics from certain plants. We had made other herbal medicines and put them away. He had a stockpile of real medications, but we knew what was coming and he said he didn't know when and if those would run out, or if we'd lose this property and couldn't take everything, so we needed as much as we could. He also explained how he wanted to have as much on hand in case we found other survivors later on to help.

We slept in shifts at time as we'd had several people wonder onto the property, mostly by accident, but once one person had seen the property, they had to be eliminated for our safety. As hard as that was, and you never knew who was a real person and who was working for the new government who had come in and took over.

One of the hardest to eliminate was a mother and her small child that had been running for days and were starving. I didn't know what to do and Wade had begged me to go inside, but I couldn't leave him out there to do that on his own. We discussed it quickly and decided to take them both out together, as not to have one watch the other go first and before the other knew it, they were both gone. Wade and I both struggled that night, neither of us saying much to the other.

Our burn pile was basically full of ashes of people who had been burned just in the recent weeks. We had accumulated several new guns just in the recent weeks, most of which, we had stored somewhere else. We watched the fall of society happening all around us, but were powerless in stopping it.

It hadn't been all bad. I had learned a lot about Wade and why he was the way he was. I learned about the strength I had within that I didn't think I had. I hadn't spoke to anyone I left since I moved. Once my mother had passed, I had no reason to call or even try to get anyone from there. IF she had still been alive, then I might have tried to get to her to bring her out there, or at least I hope I would have, knowing everything I know now. But since that wasn't the case. Knowing that everyone I knew would be gone soon, did leave a hole in my chest that I don't think would ever be filled, no matter how long I survived. But all I could do was survive with Wade and do the best I could do. That was the only choice I was given.

"Baby," he said, calling to me from the porch. I got up and stepped outside. My jeans were tucked neatly into my boots, or Margie's boots that I had taken from her house and my sweater hugged my body. It had also been Margie's. But anything that I could take from her house, I took. I didn't want someone to take her things and keep them for themselves, not knowing how precious her stuff really was.

I stepped outside and the wind whipped my hair around my face. I tried taming it, as I fought through the limbs and branches, he had set up on his porch to make it look abandoned. "Incoming," he said, as he pointed towards a group of what appeared to be four men walking towards us. We looked through the branches and saw they all had on the same vest, over the same shirt.

"What's their vest mean?" I asked. He grabbed me and pulled me closer while trying to get a better look.

"A black flag used to mean that they were against the government, but who the hell knows now?" he said. He picked up two rifles and handed me one. As I tried to grab the rifle from him, he handed them both to me and said, "Turn around." I held both guns and turned around, and he grabbed my hair and his hands and bunched it up before spinning it in a circle and finally wrapping a rubber band around it to hold it tight.