Dead Land Journal February 24th 2028

Just heard back from Billy on the radio. He thinks Springfield is empty. He circled around and came up from the south. He breezed into town unmolested, no shots were fired or alarms raised. But there are fires burning all over town. He says it looks like a damn war zone. There are dead animals all over the place. He said it looks like they were shooting anything that moved. The Marine Corps Reserve training base was abandoned and in flames. He found one dead body, gutted like Scratch had been and a few patches of blood. Billy says Springfield is unnaturally quiet so he will be headed out tonight. He will not even stay the night in town.

We were right about them stockpiling weapons and food. The had enough food and ammo to supply an army for a prolonged siege. Personally I am not interested in the weaponry, but in the absence of large game animals we might need those food supplies.

In light of Billy's report I am eagerly resuming my radio broadcasts tonight. I have been recording some radio chatter with a community to the north. Someplace called Beaver Island. Google Earth shows it's an island on the far north end of Lake Michigan. From what I have been able to gather from the radio chatter, there are about fifty people on the island. They had a rough winter but that far up north they are used to it and the houses are built for it. Plus being on an island they are probably more self sufficient.

After what happened last time I am reluctant to even consider sending Kyle out again. He has already found a replacement plane to his liking though. Of course it is another Cessna. I think he said it was a TU206 made in 1977 with turbos removed. He said the turbochargers made very little difference on this model. The only thing they really did was just make it noisier when the turbo's were engaged. Kyle will talk your ears off about planes it you will let him. The important thing in my opinion is that it's an amphibious plane capable of water landings. This is important because no one is taking care of these airstrips now so the ability to land on a lake or river could make the difference between Kyle making a safe landing or circling around till he runs out of gas and crashing.

It was floating out on the lake. Don't know why or how it got there. There was an empty set of clothes in the pilot's seat and judging from the fuel on board it had recently landed when the pilot disappeared. He and Billy hauled it ashore shortly before Billy went to Springfield. Kyle has it almost ready for a test flight.

Beverly has been helping me so much lately. Just been so damned exhausted. I've been waking up tired in the morning by afternoon I am just dragging ass. This morning, if it had not been for Beverly I probably would not even have gotten out of bed. She laid out my clothes and got me breakfast and coffee. She even went out and found me some energy drinks at a local convenience store a few days ago. Those seem to help a little. They taste horrible though, way too sweet.

Going to go take a nap then talk to Kyle.

© 2009 R. Keith McBride