The Solitary Man’s Refuge (32 page)

“I think you have might have something there, most
everybody will stay to themselves pretty much unless they
are going on a community hunt or work detail for the
gardens. Probably most folks will tend to not to stray far on
to each others properties either as from what Donald has
said hunting boundaries is ingrained taboo, as a way of life
around here and not to be trifled with by blatantly
trespassing.” LowBuck said in agreement to Michael’s
conclusions.

“We ought to see if Catherine will go visiting with us.
She is sort of the country matriarch around here and noted
for knowing old style healing methods with roots and
herbs. She is a sweet woman, but don’t let that fool ya;
she has got a double barrel shotgun and the tenacity of
granny on Beverly Hills to point it in your direction if family
or friends are threatened. Neat gal though, has tons of
interesting stories. She told me about the time her mother
and little sister were about 6 and 4 years old, individually.
They decided they wanted to go after a particularly
appealing sweet gum tree way back when. This tree had a
scar that was just a oozing sweet milky sap out and big
sister took the little one out to collect it for themselves.
Their Mama was doing laundry in the backyard of the
house in one of those big old cast iron hog boiler kettles
and didn’t see the two younguns run off. In particular she
didn’t see the 6 yr old grab a garden hoe to take care of
the task. Well anyway, that sap was dripping way out of
reach of the children in the tree and the oldest needed it to
get that what they called a treat, country chewing gum.
She swung at where the sap had accumulated and
hardened a few times with that hoe and then missed the
tree entirely and accidentally hit the baby in the forehead
with the hoe as it came down. Knocked the littlest child out
and sent her older sister screaming in fits to find her daddy
that was plowing with a mule on the far side of a cotton
field bordering where the sweet gum tree stood.

“Daddy! Daddy!” Catherine cried as she run towards
her unaware sweating lanky father in overalls plowing up
some red clay soil.

“”Little sister is hurt! She is bleeding and won’t wake
up!” the horrified child cried.

 

“Where baby? Tell daddy where!” her father had
asked trying to fathom what just happened.

 

“At the sweet gum!” Catherine choked out pointing
with a childlike trembling stick of a finger.

 

To his horror, Buck can barely see an unmoving tiny
mound in a snow white dress off in the distance.

 

“Where’s your ma at darling?” her Father asked as
he hastily unhitched the mule.

“She's doing the washing Daddy. I sorry I did bad
but little sis needs you!” the distraught child tearfully
admonished her Pa Pa to hurry.

“Sugar, Daddy’s coming. Is she bleeding?” Buck
said as he wrestled the traces off the mule.

“”She red DADDY! She red! Look's a fright.” The
little girl said shivering and looking towards her sibling’s
silhouette.

“Come on, girl!” Buck said snatching up Catherine
and almost in the same movement mounting the mule
bareback.

“HA! Get up mule!” Her daddy cried as he dug some
well worn leather boot heels into the animal’s sides.

“Run, Ginger!” Catherine squealed as they galloped
across the cotton patch in the direction of her beloved
“special” sister.

It would have been comical if it was not so tragic of
an event to have witnessed. Buck had become
overwhelmed with worry and had Catherine tucked under
his arm like a forgotten sack of potatoes and was hollering
like a rebel trying to take Chandlerville to spur the old mule
to greater speeds as he dodged tree stumps and mole
holes along the way. He jumped off the mule and didn’t
give the little girl tucked under his arm a moment of
thought as he rushed over to the base of the tree to see
about his bleeding baby.

“Vicky darlin? Sweet heart?” He tentatively checked
out one of the sunshine’s of his life wound with dread in his
heart.

The little girl murmured something close to ‘daddy’
and within seconds an elated old sharecropper had
carefully picked her up and after finally acknowledging his
other daughter under his arm seated them both in front of
him on the old mule and took off hell bent for leather to the
small shack they all called home. The nearest doctor was
40 miles away and Buck was beside himself on how he
was going to get his little darling there in time. Maybe Sibly
would lend him his buckboard and Tennessee Walking
horse.

“MARTHAAA! Martha!” He called as he got close to
the house.

 

“A shrill sharp whistle and a yodel answered him
back as Martha heard him and she came a running.

“Oh hell, I hope nobody's snake bit" she thought as
she gathered up her dresses and hightailed it to the front
of the shack her husband had built. Granny Parsons had
just depleted her stock of snakeroot to treat old man
Cummings and they lived far from modern medicine.
Damn rattlers were as thick as thieves here abouts lately
and the pygmy rattlers were just as dangerous as their
giant timber rattler cousins except for fang size.
Copperhead snake maybe? She hoped it was one of
those; they ain’t nearly as deadly or destructive to skin
tissue. Cottonmouth water moccasin? No, Lord the saints
be praised, shouldn’t have been anyone at the creek she
figured.

“What happened? Gimme the babies.” Said a
shocked momma as she was handed her two blood
soaked daughters.

“Cathrine is alright, it’s little Vicky that is hurt sore.
She got a nasty gash on her forehead from something; I
think it was a hoe.” Buck said beside himself in anguish
and reaching gnarly red clay stained finger towards the
wound.

“Get your grimy paws back, you are dirty as sin, let
me see about this and I will tell you in a minute if you need
to go borrow a horse. Sweetie, Mama Ma is here, Vicky do
you hear me?” She said looking at a 3 inch gash in her
beauty’s face as she tenderly explored the wound on her
child’s forehead.

“MMGUGF… Mam Ma?” the child spoke.
“Yes, baby it’s me. You stay still Me Ma make you
all right. Your head hurt peanut?” Catherine’s momma said
as she stroked the soft hair curls away from the wound.

“I didn’t mean it!” Catherine wailed. “ I really didn’t!”

“I know baby, you and Daddy go talk about it while
I see to little sister. Find out what happened, Buck, if you
can. Looks like she is going to need a stitch or two, but
Vicky will be alright with a bit of care and time to heal up.
Go find me a big spider's web under the porch so she
doesn’t scar much and I can stop some of this bleeding.
We going to pack the wound with it like my granny taught
me.” Myra said rushing off her interfering husband and
daughter who reluctantly left her patients’ bedside.

“You know that woman never had a scar or went to
the emergency room or that country doctor?” Michael
concluded.

“Wow, man that was interesting, so this old woman
can serve as a paramedic of sorts if need be based on her
learning of some home remedy tricks from the past?”
LowBuck asked.

“That and she has been researching and studying
for years both modern and ancient herbalism. She is wise
in more ways than one too, almost psychic about some
things. It’s kind of spooky, but she sees things or feels
things. Folks around here hold her in high regard.” Michael
said, finishing his thoughts.

“Well, believe you me, I can relate to that and say
please get her to join us. A witchy woman is just what the
doctor ordered as far as I am concerned. Wise women are
a gift to a community, but keep in mind we got some freaky
religious rascals around here that may not view that talent
in the best light. Yeah…probably ought not to refer to her
as witchy, huh?” Bubba replied.

“In a crisis it isn’t irrational to expect an attack but
on the same hand you don’t want to get negatively
irrational about it. We got to try to realize most folks won’t
have mayhem on their mind when they come by to ask for
a handout of food. We would probably be thinking of doing
the same thing if Donald hadn’t thought to provide a little
insurance we could rely upon.” Michael cautioned wisely.

28
Zombie Arguments

“Damn it, Janice, sit your ass down and listen to
me.” Donald said, worn out from the last hour and half or
so of bickering with her to just bug out now before it was
too late in his opinion.

“You got 10 minutes, and then I got to go over to my
mother’s house.” Janice said finding a plausible reason to
get rid of him and his foul doomer mood until the morning
when they could talk things out more calmly after some
well thought out self reflections.

“Now then, this explanation of why I am packing my
mom up and leaving in the morning will become self
apparent if you just bear with me and listen for a few
minutes okay?” Donald replied watching the tone of his
voice this time so not to get into an argument with his best
friend.

“Ok. But I still need to get over to mom’s and my
sister. I am listening.” Janice said taking a seat and folding
her hands in impatience waiting on his response.

“There is an expression, coined by Lord Cameron of
Dillington in the UK, which states, "We are nine meals
away from anarchy." It was Lord Cameron's estimation
that it would take just nine meals - three full days without
food on supermarket shelves - before law and order
started to break down, and British streets descended into
chaos.Cameron's quote expressly depicts how quickly a
population can descend into anarchy if supermarket and
grocery store shelves remain barren for three days.

We already know this from previous studies that Ethics,
morals, self-value systems, religious beliefs, and
lawfulness will quickly disappear, as the need to feed will
completely overwhelm the affected individual or a group of
people’s minds.” Donald began.

“What studies?” You mean something like the
holocaust?” Janice said not wanting to hear anything from
that horrible era.

“Hard to answer that question directly but it was to
help folks after WW2... At the end of the WW2 a nowclassic study was undertaken to prepare to re-feed the
starving millions of people in Europe in the best possible
way. The Minnesota Starvation Study set out to create a
controlled starving population, and then find the best ways
to return them to good health as fast as possible. The
team of scientists studied 36 physically and emotionally
strong and healthy young men over 12 months, who
moved onto the campus of the University of Minnesota for
the duration of the study.

The first three months of the study closely
monitored the men’s normal eating and activity patterns.
For the next six months, they followed a semi-starvation
diet of around 1500 calories a day, and the final three
months involved re-feeding.

During the six months of semi-starvation the men
lost around 25% of their body weight, and some startling
patterns emerged:

•
They became obsessed with food, it was the
major topic of conversation and reading, several so much
so that after the study they changed their career plans and
became chefs. They dawdled over their meals for up to
two hours.
•
They ate every last crumb and many even
licked their plates.
•
They drank more tea and coffee and ate
more gum.
•
They smoked more, some non-smokers
became smokers.
•
Their weight loss was also an endless topic
of conversation. Several reported being annoyed about it
in others, but were unable to stop themselves doing it.
•
They became highly nervous, restless,
anxious, apathetic, moody, tired, and depressed.
•
Mood swings were common.
•
They were unable to concentrate and their
interests narrowed.
•
They became very self-centered and
antisocial, looking out only for themselves; their sense of
compassion for others faded along with their idealism,
previously a driving force in their lives.
•
They lost their ambition.
•
They neglected their personal appearance.
•
They lost interest in their girlfriends,
replacing their pictures with pictures of food. They seemed
to lose their libidos.
•
Psychological tests confirmed that their
hypochondria, hysteria, and depression had all increased
markedly.
•
Their metabolisms dropped by almost 40%,
saving 600 calories per day.
•
Their heart volumes shrank by about 20%.
Their pulses slowed and they felt cold.

Many other physical symptoms rose: skin ulcers,
thinning hair, aching eyes, ringing in the ears, insomnia,
dizziness, stomach pains, headaches, muscle cramps,
tingling in their extremities, frequent urination, and they
reported
feeling old
.

There were extreme reactions to the psychological
effects during the experiment including self-mutilation (one
subject amputated three fingers of his hand with an axe,
though the subject was unsure if he had done so
intentionally or accidentally). The participants reported a
decline in concentration, comprehension and judgment
capabilities, although the standardized tests administered
showed no actual signs of diminished capacity.” Donald
advised before getting to a more gruesome point needing
to be addressed.

“I am not trying to shock or scare you any more
than necessary to make you aware of a situation
developing; well maybe I guess I am, in a way. I am doing
it so that you become fully aware of the gravity of the
situation we are in as well as a horrific danger. These
previously so called well adjusted people in that
experiment all had one thing in common. They all thought
about how cannibalism is a terrible option for a starving
person, and tried to put it out of their minds, but they
couldn’t seem to stop thinking about it and contemplating
who to eat. Keep in mind these people that volunteered for
this were religious conscientious war objectors who
volunteered to ”do their part” and knew that it was a
controlled experiment and that they would not die from
starvation. The men had responded to a brochure that
asked: “Will You Starve That They Be Better Fed?” to help
malnutrition and starvation in people in war torn Europe.