Dead Land Journal August 10th 2027

Picked up another stray today. We were driving down a gravel road, I don't know the name of it because I am LOST. She wandered out in front of the Van and came so close to running her down. I slammed on the brakes and everything in the back of the van tried to migrate to the front seat. The van skidded on the loose grave and the rear wheels slid into the ditch. With that big 454 under the hood it was easy to forget about the Jeep I was towing. I sure remembered it then. The tow dolly went off the edge of the road and the Jeep flipped over the fence along side the road. Dee yelled "Jeep Daddy" and I looked over towards her just in time to see it careen into a John Deere tractor that had come to rest, driverless, under a billboard that by some miracle was still standing. The Jeep remedied that.

I jumped out of the van to check on the woman who had by this time fallen in the middle of the road. I admit that I did take a second to glance over at the Jeep. It was of course destroyed. Jeeps are tough, but it was no match for the tractor.

The woman appeared to be uninjured at first glance. She is blond and tan, not from a tanning bed, but from spending a lot of time out doors. When I felt for a pulse I noticed that she was burning up with a fever. I am in decent physical condition, but no one would ever mistake me for Arnold Schwarzenegger. At 5' 9" and 170 lbs I am best described as average. So manhandling her into the van was not an easy task. And then I had to clear junk out of one of the bunks so there would be room for her. The Jeep had taken off the rear bumper, destroyed the right hand tail lights and damaged the roll up door. After setting her in the bunk I tried to close the door and half of it just fell off the track and hit the ground. The other half then shot back up the track, pulled by the springs that now had only half the intended load on them and fell off the track and across the tops of the shelves.

I managed to get the panels for the door back in place but I can't open it without the whole thing falling apart now. It is in no way secure.

If I can find my way back to the highway I saw and RV dealership that should have what I am looking for.

I stripped the woman down to her underwear to clean her up. She looks like she has been wandering about in the wilderness for days. She is covered in scratches and bug bites. She is dehydrated as well. But what really worries me are the three diagonal lacerations on her abdomen. I have a feeling I know what gave them to her but until I can talk to her it is just speculation. They are badly infected. I'm going to have to find some antibiotics for her. But it's getting dark and I am already lost. I will just have to camp here for the night.

© 2009 R. Keith McBride