Day Sixty Six:

Day Sixty Six:

AJ wanted to leave the red stuff hanging out our window like I mentioned in my last journal entry but I convinced him otherwise. Instead, we managed to sneak over to a house down the street from mine that we would be able to see from my upstairs window. We hung the sheet there instead. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any actual red sheets so, we just stapled, sewed, glued, anything red I had to a normal bed sheet and hoped that would get the attention of our possible new friend.

Additionally, we gave the common courtesy of doing a quick sweep of the entire house so that the outsider didn’t walk into an unintentional ex-hume booby-trap. Then we left a note on the front door that said, “Went for supplies, if you arrive while I am gone please prove that you aren’t hostile.”

We intentionally left a window open a crack. My theory being, if this guy was up to no good he would either raid the house, or hide inside it waiting for the victim to get home. Turns out I was worried for nothing.

Our rescue party of one arrived shortly after 5pm. The vehicle he drove wasn’t exactly a tank but it definitely would have made the A-Team proud. Instead of opening a door he climbed through a hole in the roof and after scouting the area, made a quick run over to the door, read the note, and ran back to his homemade tank.

Then he surprised us by running back to the door and wound up leaving a handgun on the front porch along with a note of his own. As he was walking back to his vehicle we both decided to take a chance and called out to him. He seemed surprised at first but then broke into a big toothy grin. Turns out the note he left with the gun simply read, “I would be crazy not to carry a gun with me but in case you don’t have one, perhaps this would prove I’m not hostile towards you? I will try to be back the same time tomorrow.”

His name is Arnold and before this all happened he worked as a fish and games warden for the local park services in the area. Like AJ, he had lost his entire family when this hell started and figured he might as well try to make some new friends while there were still friends left to make. We asked if he had found anyone else and he just shook his head. He said he thought he had seen people in windows a couple of times but, either they were just ex-humes trapped in houses or they suspected he was up to something fishy like AJ and I did at first.

After that it was pretty much just a conversation filled with theories and rumors. You always assume the other guy knows more than you but before long, you realize that everyone is in the same boat. At the end of our conversation we asked Arnold what happened now?

He wasn’t really sure. He asked if we had enough supplies and when we seemed a little hesitant to answer he explained to us that we didn’t have to worry about him trying to get to our supplies. If this were a different type of disaster, where all the food was in short supply maybe then but, the supermarkets were still stocked with canned goods, water, everything that didn’t spoil. He told us that he knew we had plenty of food but wanted to make sure we didn’t need help with anything else.

We explained how they were trying to get in through the ceiling but, after showing him what we did to solve the problem he was impressed. With immediate concerns addressed, he said we were more than welcome to come live with him but since that might be awkward without knowing each other, he would love it if we came along with him on his survival patrols.

We agreed. So starting tomorrow, we actually have a purpose. I’ll be damned.