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.Pretty folk, especially considering the state of the world.Both of them had a blade and a pistol on their belts.They had slate-like faces until they got to about forty yards away from the gate.Once they saw the humvee, the deuce, and the military issue hardware all over us, their expressions changed immediately.They had confidence before, but after that moment, you could feel their unease.I knew immediately that these people were used to being safe, and having the upper hand.Now they looked like they felt the opposite might be the case with us.Some folks are easy to read.Kevin had his throat mic turned to on, and we could kind of hear them, but the sound was utter garbage.The man spoke first.He introduced himself as Anders, and the woman as Agnes.They politely explained that the Spring Meadow area was their area, under their control, and they were unable to share any of their dwindling supplies, and that they had ample ability to protect themselves should we object with them.They were polite, but insistent.Kevin tried to talk to them in circles, similarly to how we'd talk to English speaking locals in Iraq, asking them the same questions over and over again in different ways to see if we'd get a different answer.I felt like he was losing them though.After about that I had enough and walked up to talk with the two of them myself.Ethan shat an acorn on the spot and thumbed his safety to off.If either of their shooters in the houses did anything funny, they’d be dead.I introduced myself as Adrian.I watched their eyes judge me.They saw the Mohawk and instantly thought less of me.I feel very… Road Warrior-esque when I meet people.They don’t see the fun and humor in having a Mohawk.They take it sheerly on face value.They only think “likely violent and or flesh eating moron who is immature.” I might need to rethink this haircut if we keep meeting people.I told them plain and simple that we were from a settlement outside of the city, and we were making runs for supplies into the city, and we saw their community, and thought it would be absolutely perfect as a secondary place to reinforce and stage from.Walled, gated, large houses that were well spaced, and lots of lawn and garden areas that could grow a lot of food.I essentially framed my talk about how it was awesome that they had already secured the place, how happy we were for them, and how much of a shame it was for us that they were already there.Agnes and Anders both agreed with me on all counts, and were civil and pleasant.After asking a few questions about us and our and various locations, they became far more comfortable, and started to ask us about how we able to go into the city.I told them we had military men on our side, and fuel still, as well as ammunition and whatnot.Without sounding threatening, I made it clear that we were armed, able, and willing to do whatever it was that needed to be done to stay alive, and help others around us stay alive.I exuded confidence, and competence.I tried to avoid seeming arrogant.That’s when they opened the gate, and invited us in.Three of us went inside and headed for the first house to get out of the street.Just about at the same time a few undead had managed to catch up with us, and they needed to be dispatched by one of us with a halligan.It made a lot of sense for us to all move inside the gate, I asked them if that was okay, and they agreed, so we did.Inside the first neighborhood house Kevin and I sat down with the two who’d met us, as well as a few others.Three more adults all armed with side arms, though not holstered, as well as two younger teenagers.They looked hungry, and a little cold, but they also looked hardened.Like survivors.Like people who’d been through it and were still kicking.I had respect for these people right from the jump.From what I gathered, there are four families left in the neighborhood.Agnes and Anders are the Jessen family.They have two kids, a 13 year old boy, and a 14 year old girl.Other families include the Winthrops (mom and dad plus two kids and an uncle), the Cartwrights (mom and dad plus two kids), the Whites (mom plus two kids), and the Littrell family (mom and dad plus four teenage kids).That’s a grand total headcount of 22 souls.Most of which are less than 18 years of age.Luckily, the youngest of the kids is just 10, so even the littlest of them is still somewhat productive.An hour turned into two, two turned into four, and before you know it, they’re sharing some of their small amounts of freshly made beer with us, and we’re sharing some of our fresh food with them.It was really pleasant.We had brought enough food for days with us, so as a gesture, we gave them lunch out of our stocks.We ate chicken salad made with Melissa’s new homemade mayo, and some potato salad, also made with the mayo.These people absolutely, positively devoured our food.I don’t want to say they were starving, but I think they hadn’t had chicken in a very long time.After the food and the subsequent stomach aches from eating all that food, we asked them about their situation.The four families still here have been here since that day.They happened to be home that day for whatever reason, so they didn’t get caught up in the bullshit in the city.They also managed to miss the large scale bombings late in the summer of 2010.(Which apparently were enormous and loud.From the sounds of it, there were several runs late in the summer on the city, and based on their descriptions of the noise of the bombs, it was probably a huge drop of cluster munitions.They’re pretty unique when they go off.)Anyhoo, they knew shit was bad, so they got some chains from their sheds, chained the gates shut early on, parked their Escalades and Expeditions against the gate to prevent ramming, and hunkered down.Lucky for them many of the nice homes in the community already had large organic hobby gardens in the back.They had a ripe harvest that first fall, and with careful rationing, they made it through to last spring.They expanded their gardens over the year, and now they’re essentially vegetarians, and self sufficient.Miraculously, they have been able to save rainwater and snow for hydration up to this point.Of course it’s been really dry the last week or two, so they’re starting to redline a bit.I wonder how you make a pond?They have had to fend off several groups over the last year and a half.Many more than us, but with such an excellent wall and gate, as well as multiple firearms they’ve managed to do well for themselves.They were still jealous of our chicken, and I think that was the straw that broke the camel’s back for them [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]