Chapter 45

Sitting here, watching the final few families moving their belongings back to their homes again, gave me a lot of satisfaction. The last six years had been heartwarming as well as heartbreaking for me personally. I had lost my best friend BK when he passed in his sleep three years ago. I think little Sarah had taken it harder than I had 'cause when I wasn't around he had been her rock. She had developed a liking for weapons and BK had been her teacher. He passed on everything he knew to her, and it seemed like she had absorbed it like a sponge. Shelly had turned into a beautiful young woman who was almost as wild as some of the cattle that hadn't been attended to over the years. She and Sarah were closer than most sisters and were always into some mischief along with Mikey, who always had their backs. Those three had been a source of laughter as well as worry for Barry, Brenda and me. Last year, I had quit running the teams to spend more time with Sarah, and we had grown closer than ever.

Thinking back about when I had assigned the commander and his men the full responsibility to handle all outlaw gangs, as well as to make sure there were no more slave camps that we could find or hear about, it had been the best move I could have made. It kept me closer to my town as well as making our area the central command center for the teams working in the field. We had been set to start moving into the bigger cities when for some strange reason all the zombies just started dying. It was almost like someone out there had pulled a switch 'cause they just seemed to fall down and within a day or so they turned to dust. The few thousand Mexicans still living, had moved up into southern California and started farming. We kept men stationed there to make sure there were no gangs or any dope runners left over from the cartels, and so far we hadn't had any problems. Now we had an active barter system with them for fresh crops. All the active forts had consolidated into two main ones and since most of the personnel had decided to start farming or ranching, we had less than 3,000 active troops. Everyone over the age of 14 had to take militia training so we had a large force of trained people to call on, just in case they were needed. Getting a head count of the remaining people who still lived had been the hardest, but we finally got a more or less accurate count. In the US alone, there were less than one million people. In Canada, there were approximately 680,000. In all of Mexico, we counted less than a million people, and most of those were families that had lived far away from the most populated areas. They were doing well and had record crops, and were more than willing to trade with anyone for some of the basics we all needed that each other had. There had been no battles since just before I had resigned to be here with Sarah.

I had finally gotten around to rescuing Jack and his family from Colorado, as well as finding out that a friend of BK's and mine had also made it to the cabin. Rex was a big surprise when our chopper landed in front of the cabin. They all decided to join Ben and his family on the tug but I didn't get to spend any time with them as I was called out to another hot spot for a rescue. By the time I got back, they had already been transported to where Ben was. From what I had been told by the team on the chopper, Ben and Jack were headed to the Marine base in the Carolinas to offer their services. Maybe Sarah and I would fly down later to meet them finally.

"Pops, I got everything in the trailer, can we go home now?" I felt her arms wrap around my neck from behind as she hugged me, knowing I was saying good-bye to our temporary home.

"Can't we just stay here, Sarah? I am too old to be moving all the time."

"No, we certainly can not! I have plans and you promised me we would go to Tucson to look around the stores tomorrow. Besides, you promised Shelly and Brenda you would drive so Mikey and Barry can go hunting for elk. I want to sleep in my own bed and spend some time with you for a change without everyone interrupting our conversation."

"Are you sure you're only eleven and half years old?"

"I got a grin and a kiss and a "let's go home, Pops."