From the journal of Carol Evans, May 17

May 17, 2017

We went out to look for medical supplies for Dr Ben today. Mike is hanging on with the little that Dr Ben has been able to do without a lab. He used Henry's blood and did some kind of filtering of it. He has been giving this to Mike and it has kept him alive, but no one knew if it would help him to get better. For all we knew, we were just prolonging his suffering. He hasn't been able to eat or keep anything down for days, he has a high fever and just shakes. Where he got bit is swollen, red, purple and black, and oozes a yellowish, greenish liquid. Dr Ben gave us a list of supplies he needed, both for a lab and medications and such.

Sean, Williams, Gary, Jenna and I all went together to the Aspen Medical Care Center. We spent hours going through the building, suite by suite. It had been looted a bit, right at the beginning, but the stuff taken from the pharmacy was found in the cafeteria next to a stain on the floor, so I'm guessing they didn't make it out of the building. We got all the medications we could find that Dr Ben requested, from pain meds to antibiotics. We got bandages, sutures, every kind of scissor, tweezers, and small instrument we could find. We hit the lab and got everything that he had asked for, then we went to the cafeteria and got loads of industrial sized cans of food. We used gurneys as carts and pushed them back to our truck. It was a tight squeeze to get everything in and all of us too, but we managed and made it back to the compound.

We made one stop and brought home a large trailer, we had to have somewhere to put all the stuff we had brought back. We pulled it up to the back of the house since there was a large wash room/work room behind the kitchen. We  gave the room to Dr Ben for his lab and the trailer for his medical suite and helped him get the supplies where they were needed and set up his lab. When I left him, he had already started Mike on a stronger antibiotic and had taken more samples from Henry to analyze in his lab. We had even managed a small fridge and an incubator for him and he was humming to himself while getting them ready. I doubt we will be seeing much of him aside from meals and probably for while.
While we were gone, Linda, Aaron, Elisabeth and Eric set up two sentry stations and they are going to be manned all the time now. We had worked out a schedule already and had also set up a schedule for patrols around the compound and the immediate neighborhood.
Margaret, Donna, Charles and Larry went out and searched the nearest neighborhoods, looking for supplies and keeping their eyes open for play structures for the kids. They showed me a bunch of drawings and plans they have been working on for their area. They have great imaginations and if we can get them anything close to what they want, it will be awesome!

Amanda and her crew have taken over the kitchen and food supplies, and I don't mind a bit. It's been really nice to have meals prepared by trained cooks and not made by these humble hands. They can work magic with all the supplies we have and have put some items on the watch list for scavenging to make some special items. I heard mention of a cake in our possible future and almost died on the spot. Hopefully, we can find whatever they need.
I think we made the right decision to combine with their group. Now we have a lot more people to keep the compound safe. Everyone has their abilities and knowledge and it makes us stronger and more apt to survive with everyone working together. If anything happens, we will be more prepared to deal with it.

As a writer and artist, I appreciate any readers and their comments. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. Please, come read the other blog I write for our artisan collective, Raven's Castle Creations, on our website at www.ravencastlecreations.com. It includes posts on art, the mythology of symbols we use in our art, history and more! Also, come see the art we produce in our Etsy store at etsy.com/shop/RavenCastleCreations. Follow us on Twitter at @ravencastleart and on Facebook at @ravencastlecreations.