Diary of a Zombie Apocalypse

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

From the journal of Nathan Sanchez, June 5

June 5, 2017

It's been a hard few days. There's just no way to get everyone here comfortably settled in the space we've got. Fernando led our group on a run to the closest RV and trailer sales lot and we took all six trucks. We cleared the lot and sales building, set up sentries and set about choosing the six trailers to tow back. Then, we went through the RV's. Some of them were already showing their lack of care, so we ended up with 12 working RV's to take back with us. That gives us 21 more rooms, but ones with no power, no water and only a little propane for heating but cooking is still done by Consuela and her crew. Each one sleeps several people, so we'll be looking at getting a couple of the families into them that have been stuck in a small bedroom or enclosed back porch. At least with one of the RV's or trailers, there is a little more space and more beds.

We took in the 17 surviving members of the school band and we were already cramped when we did, so the added space is needed. With all the family members and now the band kids, we've got close to 80 people here now. Plus, we've been talking about getting some space for a school room for the kids. We've got to think about the future for the children and for us. We need to get things like the school going, get the kids back onto a schedule and get them learning the basics. We'll have to teach them some non traditional stuff too, like how to defend themselves and how to use a gun. But basic subjects like math, reading and writing are still important.

We have several family members that are elderly and have health problems, and then there are also injuries that happen. With us always working on our defenses and repairing the buildings and building new stuff like the corral to hold the livestock we've found so far, people get hurt and Rosita, our cousin who studied to be a Nurse Practitioner, needs a place to see patients. She was two days away from walking in her graduation ceremony and had already been given the job she wanted at the local medical center, when the dead started rising. Guess she got really lucky, if it had been a couple of days later, she would have been in the middle of the biggest outbreak in our area and might not have made it to the Ranch.

Luckily, with all the old farmers, we've gotten a good crop of corn going and are going to try sowing oats next. Our vegetable garden looks like Martha Stewart had a hand in it and we're really lucky to have the room to grow as much as we have. We've got four types of tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuces (several kinds), radishes, carrots, beets, bell peppers, jalapeno's, squash, zucchini, herbs, strawberries, blue berries, raspberries, blackberries, watermelons, cantaloupe and honeydew. We have large patches of each, enough to supplement the food we find that's still good. We'd been lucky enough to find a couple of freezers that had been attached to solar power and had been able to bring the meat and the solar systems back to the Ranch.

Some of the cousins had been out looking for livestock to bring back. We had a small herd of milk cows, sheep, goats, and five horses. We'd had to make a couple of trips to feed stores to stock up on feed, hopefully, next year our crop will supply this for us. So far, we've just been milking the cows and feeding the rest, but they would be food when we needed them to be. Again, having a large family can come in handy, since Victor and Mario had both been butchers before the pandemic.

We're in a really good place right now and I really hope it continues. We have people that aren't related to us in our group now. Shiela and Darren have been spending a lot of time together and I've been spending time with Marianne, she plays the clarinet. Life is good, or as good as it can be in this time.

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.

Saturday, June 9, 2018

From the journal of Kelly Vargas, June 7

June 7, 2017

Conner, Alicia and I are so lucky that Manny and his people pulled in yesterday. This morning, we were packing up all the stuff in the post office that was going with us when we all heard a bunch of vehicles pulling through town. Manny and I climbed up on the platform in the front window and froze. There had to be 50 vehicles of every type parking along the Main Street and men were pouring out of most of them.

In the middle of the vehicles, there were 10 RV's. They had all the windows tightly covered by black cloth no one peeked out any of the windows that I could see. The doors I saw all had chains on the outside, securing the people inside, or keeping them prisoner. As soon as the RV's were stopped, a circle was formed around them with trucks and men stood in the beds with rifles facing out, guarding whoever was in the RV's.

Manny started cussing under his breath and then pulled me back off the platform. He said they had people watching the windows and he didn't want them to see out shadows against the glass. Once we were back on the floor, he motioned us all closer to tell us he didn't know if these were the same men that had been following his group, but the way they were keeping the women didn't bode well for us, if they found us.

It's a good thing we all came back here before leaving town. Conner, Alicia and I had covered all the windows with wood, so they couldn't see in. We hadn't done any other obvious changes to the outside of the post office and now, I'm really glad we didn't. Several other buildings and businesses on this street had had the same thing done to them, so we fit in with the rest of town.

Manny said we have to be quiet and stay away from the windows. He said there was no way to get to the RV safely. If he was part of their group, he would send out scouts to check the side streets and alleys around town, so he was going to assume they had done the same. We were stuck and if we were really quiet and really lucky, we would make it through this.

That's when the doors started rattling. He moved really quietly and got close to the door to listen to what was being said. Then he motioned us back and followed really quickly. He grilled the three of us who had been in the post office the longest. Did we know of any other areas in the building? An attic? A basement? Had we seen any access panels anywhere in the building? In the floor? In the ceiling? In the walls?

Conner remembered that we had seen one in the office at the back of the building. Manny had us grab all the stuff we'd packed up and hustled us into the office. He grabbed a chair and a broom and used them to open the access panel as quietly as possible. He pulled himself up into the space and was gone a full minute, although it felt like an hour. Then he slid back out and motioned for Alicia to go first. Within a couple minutes, all our stuff and all of us were in the small crawl space above the office and Manny sweeping up the floor below the panel.

He motioned for us to stay quiet and then slipped back down the hall to the front room. I don't know what he was doing while he was gone, but it felt like forever before he came back, moving fast but silently. Manny put the chair back where it had been and jumped to grab the edge of the access point, then pulled himself up. He whispered that they were almost through the door. He'd scattered some of the bags of mail around on the floor and made it look like no one had been there for a while. While he was telling us this, he put the cover back, closing us in the crawl space and closing out the light.

Conner pulled out a flashlight and turned it on, aiming it at the ceiling. Manny whispered that we needed to get away from the panel, just in case they noticed it. If possible, we needed to get to the opposite side of the building and we needed to it quickly and quietly. We formed a crawling line, all of us balancing as much of our supplies on our backs and moving across the space together. We made it to the other side and had just settled ourselves as closely together and as comfortably as possible when we heard the door give below us.

From the voices we could hear downstairs, several more men had come inside with the two who had first been at our door. They were talking about what they hoped to find, mostly “young girls, ripe for the picking.” My stomach turned at the thought of what would have happened to the three of us if Manny and his friends hadn't come yesterday. We wouldn't have had a chance. From what they were saying, they would have killed Conner immediately, unless one of the men wanted him for whatever. Then Alicia and I would have been gang raped by the leaders of this group before being given to the one who found us for his enjoyment. Lastly, we would be put in one of the RV's with the other “birds” and would be available to those who earned the honor of our use.

Alicia and I huddled together and cried together while we stayed still and just hoped they would leave and we would be ok. It was probably only took an hour for the men to go through all the rooms below us. We could hear them walking around and the sounds of them going through the bags of mail and pile of packages. They laughed, joked, fought, and opened packages to see if anything cool was inside. They talked about the girls in the RV's that they'd already enjoyed and how they hoped to find something cool to earn another go round. I looked up and Marny caught my eyes with hers. She was crying, too. Alex was holding her tightly and was whispering in her ear, but I could see that she was just as sick and scared as Alicia and I. The men would die, dying is easy compared to what would happen to us.

We heard the group below get called back to the street. None of us drew a deep breath until we heard the door close downstairs. Manny whispered for us to get comfortable and take a nap. He'd keep watch and would let us know if anything happened. He promised that once they were gone, we'd leave too, but not in the same direction they went in. I piled some of the blankets and clothes into a mat and Alicia, Conner and I huddled together to sleep. Alex and Marny did the same and Manny sat against the wall, settling in to listen to everything happening outside in the street. We slept for hours, but the men were still there when we woke up. Manny told us we were in for the night and we ate cold snack food before getting comfortable again.

Hopefully, they'll leave in the morning and we can get out of this cramped, dusty space. But if they don't leave, we'll just have to deal with it for as long as have to. But no matter how long they're here, we'll have to stay silent, just to be safe. Please, let them leave!

From the journal of Earl Thompson, June 1

This journal was brought to me by Earl Thompson while they were headed West. This was the first word we'd gotten on any battles that had happened, even if it wasn't good news from the Battle of Boston.

June 1, 2017

I used to live in Boston. I loved that city, all the history, all the architecture. I loved seeing the houses that had seen so much history. I used to frequent the oldest pub in the city, the Green Dragon Tavern, established in 1714. The Boston Party was planned there.

Then the dead rose and the police and military fought them, and lost. The Battle of Boston was more of a skirmish than an actual battle. There were only about 5,000 on the side of the living, police, National Guard, Army Reserve, a small group of regular Army. But there had to be at least 250,000 zombies. I watched from a hill, not far away, with my binoculars. I watched as those brave men and women held their line, even though they knew there was no way they could win. They gave everyone trying to get out of Boston those few hours. They saved thousands that day.

I watched until the end. I knew I was still too close, but if they could sacrifice themselves, I could watch their sacrifice. I saw them start to run out of ammo, one by one. Each one took out a knife and formed up behind the ones that still had a few shots left. Once the last bullet was fired, they took out as many undead as they could with their knives, but it was only a couple of minutes before they were overwhelmed and disappeared under the sheer numbers of zombies.

I put my head down for a moment of silence for their bravery, then jumped into my four wheel drive truck and headed away from my city. It's a shame, what was once a living, breathing city, full of history, is now a city of the dead. Maybe, some day we'll take it back. If we do, and I'm still alive, I'll be there.

I realized really quickly that I needed to get off the interstate and highways. I took one of the first exits, once the city was gone, and then found an abandoned gas station to find a map. I planned out my route on the back roads and headed West. I went around all the major cities I came across, stayed away from other survivors and didn't stop for any hitchhikers I passed. That first day, made it 40 miles from Boston and had to sleep in my cab, hidden behind an old building, so covered in vines, I couldn't tell what it had been.

The next morning, I ate a granola bar and headed West, staying off the main highways and interstates. By mid morning, I was making good time and had just decided to pull over for an early lunch when I saw the cars ahead, three of them, blocking the road. The one in the middle, a small foreign deal, was smoking and there were people on their knees with people behind them with guns to their heads. I made a snap decision. I was going to save the people on their knees. I slid my truck to a stop, already aiming and shooting before they knew what was happening. The five men with the guns were dead and on the ground before the truck was completely stopped. The three on their knees just stayed where they were, obviously in shock.

I yelled out my window for them to tell me if there were more of the bad guys, one of the woman, a red head, started pushing her friends to their feet and yelled back that they didn't know. I motioned them to the truck, keeping a sharp eye out for any movement on the sides of the road. The three of them ran to the car, grabbed their bags and ran to my truck, throwing their stuff in the bed and getting in the cab. I got us around the jam of cars and out of the area as fast and safely as I could.

Then, I started asking questions. I learned that the three of them, Annie, Lisa and Phil, were driving along when the two cars of thugs came out from behind a barn about a mile back and started tailing them. They tried to get away, but their little car had no chance to out run the thugs car. They were over taken where I found them and had just been pulled out of their car and thrown to their knees when everyone noticed my truck barreling up to them.

I told them about the Battle of Boston and about everything I had seen. We drove for hours and finally found a farm that was obviously deserted, at least, by the living.

We cleared the barn yard and barn first, hid the truck in the barn, then headed for the house. We didn't find any undead we went into the basement. The farmer had shot his wife and two children, but he'd been bit before and had turned instead of shooting himself. He'd eaten part of all his family members and was still undead when we got there. I took him out and we left him in the basement and closed the door.

We stayed in the living room that night, all together. We've been together ever since. We travel as far each day as we can, find a good place to hide at night, and keep going together. Maybe we'll get lucky and find some people to join up with.

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

From the journal of Charlie Fast Fingers Pearson, June 13

June 13, 2017

Yesterday, we had a really fucking scary day. We had just finished breakfast, John and Mark were just starting to talk to those of us not on patrol duty about going up the mountain and learning about the native plants. That's when we heard Frank yelling from the beach. We all jumped up and ran for all we're worth to see what the hell was causing the man with the nickname of “The Tank” to scream like a girl.

Once I had a clear line of site, I no longer had to wonder. There on the ocean, not far from the beach was a cruise ship. Frank was staring at it through the binoculars and it took Mick shacking his shoulder before he stopped screaming for us. Frank jerked the binoculars down and turned with the whitest face I have ever seen on him and said “They're all dead, or undead, or whatever. If it crashes or runs aground anywhere near us, we're all dead.”

All of us stared at it for over an hour, taking turns with the binoculars to get a closer look at the undead on deck. They were all just standing around and they had these vacant looks on their faces. Now, normally, when you see these fucks, they're snarling or snapping their teeth, all feral like. But these ones, they just stood there and swayed with the boat, like they're waiting for something. Maybe this is a natural, I know when we were still at the airport, the zombies on the runway would start to go into a sleep walking state when they didn't get any stimulation. But birds would land and they would all go after the bird, so they never got all the way into the sleep state, like the ones on the cruise ship.

I think the worst part of the whole thing is that we couldn't do a fucking thing to help the ship just go by. All we could do was pray and hope and watch. We set up shifts to keep watch on the ship's path and everyone decided to stay in the village instead of doing our normal chores. We needed to be together if things turned out in the worst possible way. Lots of us just stayed on the beach, even when it wasn't our turn to keep watch. I wanted to know if the undead were going to come on shore, not that we could do much, 22 of us against at least a thousand zombies and some of those ships can have hundreds more than that.

We all ate our meals on the beach together and by early afternoon all of us were sitting on the beach in little groups talking about life before this shit-fest and what we would be doing right now if none of this happened. We ribbed each other, saying shit like “Yeah right, like you would really be sleeping with Sandra Bullock if there were no zombies.” Or “Sure, you'd be driving in the Indy 500. Fuck yeah!”

It was oddly a good afternoon because of all the hanging out and talking. Even if death was, literally, right off shore and could come for us at any moment. We had spent so much time making our record together and on tour, not to mention in the airport when we were trapped. I hadn't realized how much I missed just shooting the shit with these guys. I made sure to say so, in a really macho ya of course, and everyone agreed. We decided right then and there that we are going to take one day off a week, if we survived the day, and spend it all together. What's the point of surviving if we lose the good things in life, like friends.

It took all day for the cruise ship to make it's lumbering way past our little island. We were all exhausted from the stress of wondering all day. We still don't know if it made it through all the little islands here. If it didn't, we might get some of them walking up out of the ocean. Tomorrow, we are building beach defenses, just to be safe and not sorry. We can't take the chance that it didn't run aground and if it does, we have no idea how the undead will react. Will they just mill around the ship? Will they walk off the side of the ship into the water? Will they need to get some kind of stimulation to get off the ship or will the sound of the ship running aground be enough to get them moving overboard? Who the fuck knows, sure as hell not me.

From the journal of Carol Evans, June 13

June 13, 2017

I haven't written lately because I've been so busy getting the school ready and getting the kids started. Ashley used to be a kindergarten teacher, so she's taken the youngest children. The two of us had to go through all the books in the library and figure out which ones would work for any kind of school. Very few of them were school material, so we had to go with a group to the nearest schools and library where we got the books we wanted for the kids and also for anyone who wants to learn about something. We made sure to take every how to book we found, no matter what subject it was about. Who knows, someone might want to learn to make stained glass windows one day.

We were given the library for the school, but have so many books that a lot of the how to books are on bookshelves around the compound. I've had to come up with a catalog of the books we have and where they are located, just in case someone wants to read them. May one day, we can get more rooms for the books. Yeah, in my fantasy. In this new day and age, books are still a luxury and if we had to run from this compound, the books would be left while the food, medicine and weapons were pack to go.

At first, getting the kids back on a schedule of going to school was like pulling teeth, but after the first week or so, they started getting back in the groove. We still teach reading and writing, basic math, basic science and history, there are some new subjects specifically tailored for the new world. The kids over seven are being taught small arms safety, archery with bows and arrows, basic hand to hand defense, and the basics of food safety if they have to forage through houses. The smaller kids are being taught almost the same, just no firearms yet. A vote was taken and somehow seven was the magic number to learn about gun safety. Liberals are rolling over in the graves, or on the roads where they're roaming.

Jenna and Sean

Dr. Ben was finally able to get some part of the blood separated out from Henry's samples and gave it to Mike, who improved rapidly. He's still weak and we're not sure he's cured or if it's just a temporary fix, but it's a step in the right direction. Dr. Ben wants out scouting teams to keep their eyes open for a real medical research facility or lab so he can go through their equipment and get stuff he doesn't yet have. He's determined to be able to save anyone else in our group who gets bit, and from how Mike is doing, he might be able to do it. I know Kim is really relieved, since her and Mike are seeing each other after spending so much time together. Kim used to be a LVN and has been helping Dr. Ben with all his research and any patients he gets.

There for a while, no one saw Dr. Ben unless we went to see him in his lab. But since him and Carol S have been seeing each other, he comes out for meals and was even at Saturday Movie Night last week. It's nice to see people getting interested in dating and love again. Besides Dr. Ben dating Carol S and Kim dating Mike, Gary and Ashley are dating and, as everyone here knows, Jenna and Sean are in young love. It's a start on things getting more back to normal.

Saturday, June 2, 2018

From the journal of Manny Stone, June 6

June 6, 2017

Yesterday, we pulled into this little town that looks like most of the other little towns we've driven through. I slowed down and we drove down main street, looking to see what there was to see. At the far end from where we started there is a little diner and that's where I stopped the truck.
We'd been on the road for four days without resting more than overnight in any one place and I knew I was exhausted. We got out of the truck and I told Alex and Marny to wait outside, but be prepared for the undead to come along. I went inside the diner and there had to be more than a dozen zombies waking up from that weird, waiting state they fall into when there's nothing to stimulate them.

I used their slight hesitation to my advantage and took out four of them before the moaning started. From then on, it was just slash, stab, and move, slash, stab and move for what felt like hours, but was really only about 10 minutes. When I came back to myself, I looked around and saw that all the zombies had been take out and I was covered in their black blood and viscera. I shook my head to clear out the last of the battle haze and then checked the rest of the diner from the kitchen to the restrooms.

Once I was sure the whole place was clear, I went out the door and brought Alex and Marny into the diner with me. We had Marny wait in the store room while Alex and I took all the undead bodies and put them out the back door and into the dumpster. I checked the gas stove and found that it was still working, then we searched the kitchen and store room to see what food was left to eat. Marny loves to cook and took over planning the meal with what was on hand. She had both of us opening cans and helping her get all ingredients she wanted together, then she put them all into a pot and made the meanest stew I've ever eaten. Thank God the woman can cook.

We took the food out to one of the clean tables and sat down to eat. That's when I saw the three people walking down the street. I told Alex to cover me from the door and went outside to confront whoever it was. I went through the door and once I was out from under the overhang, it became even harder to see clearly, with the sun shining in my eyes. I called out to them to identify themselves and they said they were the only survivors in town. The three of them held their hands out from their bodies and started across the street. I took two steps back and then I could see them clearly. They're teenagers!

I felt a smile break across my face and I motioned behind me for Alex to stand down. I opened the door and we welcomed them in. We spent the next hour listening to the horror of their Prom night and everything that they had done since. Then, Kelly, the girl who seemed to be their spokesperson, hesitantly asked if they could go with us when we left. We immediately agreed and Marny made sure they had something to eat. While that was happening, Conner told us how they had secured the post office and we decided to stay the night there. Then I suggested we find bigger vehicle, preferably an RV.

We packed up all the food that was still edible in the diner and then made our way to the post office to settle in for the night. Today, I went out really early while everyone else still slept and found an RV behind a house on the other side of the town. When I drove back to the post office, I didn't see any other living or undead soul the entire time. I pulled the RV into the alley behind the post office and went inside. We all talked and decided to stay one more day so Alex, Marny and I can rest. Tomorrow, we keep heading west in our new RV. We have enough food between the food from the diner and what the kids have on hand. We're just going to fill the water tank in the RV from the hose in the alley and be on our way.

It's a good thing we ran into the kids, if they hadn't come forward, who knows who would pull into this town next. It could be the men from the mountains or even men like the ones who destroyed that town none of us can forget. Thank God they ran into us.

From the journal of Kelly Vargas, June 5

June 5, 2017

Late this morning, we heard an old truck pulling into town. We built up four platforms in the post office so we can look out a high slit window on each side. I climbed up to look out the window facing the main street and saw this old, beat up, brown truck rumbling down the street. From the shadows through the windshield, it looks like there are three people traveling together. I told Conner and Alicia what I saw and watched the truck go past us and continue down the street until they got to the diner.

When I told my friends what the people in the truck were doing, getting out of the truck and going into the diner, Conner jumped up on the platform with me and grabbed his binoculars. He started telling us his observations. The big guy walked like he had military or police training, you know, like characters on the TV are trained to imitate. The other guy was very protective of the woman, and she looked really tired and scared.

The couple waited outside, him with a machete in one hand and a pistol in the other. Her, standing right behind him and keeping an eye behind him. The military guy made his way into the diner and was gone about 10 minutes.

Now, Conner, Alicia and I had tried to get into the diner to get any food still not spoiled, but there were at least 15 undead in there and it was not worth it to us to take them on. We just hit the corner market and then started on the houses. We don't really know what we are doing, it's not like our school offered classes in how to kill zombies. So far, we only know what we have learned through trial and error. Conner told us to go for the brain, since that is information available in every zombie movie, like ever! We know that's the right thing to do, since Alicia got one in the chest and it did nothing. We also know they can still somehow hear us, or smell us, or something, when we aren't being sneaky enough. We've learned to move really quietly and to not use any products that have a scent and we rub garbage on ourselves when we head out.

When the military guy came out, he was covered in black blood and goo. He said something to the couple and then they all went inside the diner. We climbed down and had a quick discussion about what we should do. We know that we need to find others we can survive with. The three of us just don't know enough to do it on our own and there just aren't enough 'how to' books in the library to get all the information we need.

The three of us decided we needed to know more about the three people in the diner and the only way for us to learn about them is to sneak into the back of the diner and listen to them. We went out the back door of the post office and made our way a couple of blocks over, across the street and down the back alley to the diner. We knew the back door was unlocked and was quiet when you opened it, so we made our way into the hallway behind the kitchen. Very quietly and slowly, we made our way down the hall, in the dark, and worked our way close enough to the people in the kitchen so we could hear what they were talking about.

We listened to them for over two hours, while they went through the food in the kitchen and then prepared a meal for themselves. They talked about some people who were after them, but said they hadn't seen or heard anything from them in about 100 miles. They talked about places they had driven through and some of the cool things, not zombie related, that they had seen on the way. Like the stone cottage they had stayed in six nights ago. It looked like it should be in the English countryside, not near the Rocky Mountains. There was this cool honky-tonk club they had searched and it still had power and hot water! They found a full bathroom in the dressing room in backstage and took turns taking a hot shower.

They also talked about a horrible experience they had in some small town where some really bad people had been through a couple of weeks before and had tortured and killed everyone in town. The woman cried and told the men she still could see the bodies of the little girls tied to their beds every time she tried to go to sleep. Both men comforted her and both admitted they had nightmares about it, too.

Then the conversation turned to where they should go next. The woman took off the small back pack she was wearing and pulled out a couple maps. All their attention was turned to the maps as they talked about what options they have on which way to head.

I motioned for my friends to quietly pull back and go outside. We made our way a couple blocks away and then back on our side of the street before I stopped moving and turned to the others. We had another conversation about what we had heard and we all agreed we should try to meet the three people in the diner and see if we can go with them. Better to try than to wait and end up running into the people they were trying to stay ahead of.

We made our way out to the main street and then walked down the sidewalk where they should be able to see us from across the street in the diner. It didn't take long before the military man came out and called out to us. I answered that we were the only survivors in town and just wanted to talk. He kept looking around, like he was looking for others we might have with us. We held our hands out and walked across the street toward him. I could see when he realized how young we actually are, and his whole body seemed to relax. He broke into a smile and held the door open for us. We spent the next hour telling them about Prom night and what we had done since then. Then, I cautiously brought up the possibility of us going with them, and they all immediately agreed it was a good idea.

Once he heard about how we had secured where we were staying, the military guy, Manny, suggested we stay at the post office tonight. He also said we should probably look for a bigger vehicle, like an RV, so we would be more comfortable while traveling. They fed us and we all went to the post office to settle in for the night.

I really hope this is a good idea, going with Manny, Alex and Marny. But from what they've said about what they've seen, it sure seems like a better idea than staying here. Who knows who pulls into town next, it could be the devil incarnate and his minions, as Father McGraff would say.