Rocket City Outbreak Journal 2

11-22-07: Still quiet so we are definitely moving today. Cody and Dave Star and Pete are going to stay here another night before they move out.

Marla saw me carrying this notebook and asked me what I was doing. I showed her the first entry and she said that I should start at the start and explain who everyone was. She said if someone reads this years from now they wouldn't know what was going on from what I wrote.

I probably don't have time to go into the whole story, but I could give a quick overview of the "cast of characters" in our little motley band. I'll try write how we got to where we are now later. If I feel like going into it.

George Calloway: Kinda our leader, but he's not a jerk about it. Before it went down he lived out in Harvest and did pest control and was a volunteer deputy for the Madison county sheriff's department. He was being held in the sick camp on Redstone Arsenal for observation when that whole situation blew up.

Peter Brewer: When our little group first formed, before George came along, Pete Brewer tried to lead us. I have to think he did the best he could, but it didn't go well and that's all I'll say about that for now. He worked for a big bank out of Atlanta and was in the Georgia National Guard. He was here on business when things went down.

Jimmy Nelson: George met him in the sick camp out on the Arsenal and they made it out together. He was a semi-retired self-employed mechanic (he was on some sort of disability, but you wouldn't know it to watch him work.) He's a good guy if a little cranky, but, hell, the world's ending.

Dave Star: Dave Star's been with us from the start. He was an optometrist and an amateur athlete (running and rugby) and he's in really good shape. He's one of our "front line" guys along with George and Pete. It's gonna hurt us loosing him and Pete.

Cody Jay: Cody's one of the newest additions to the family. We ran into him and his mother Elise right before we holed up in this building downtown, about a week ago. He's an engineering student out at UAH. His brother, like I said, is in the Air Force and did something out on the Arsenal. At only 20 years old, he's our youngest.

Elise Jay: Elise is Cody's mother. She's in her late 50s, I think. I don't know her well. She doesn't say much and doesn't help out a lot, but she doesn't complain and keeps up with us and stays out trouble. Everybody kind of takes care of her.

Dave Rice: Dave Rice is another from the original group. There have been two Daves from the beginning, hence everybody got in the habit of calling them by their first and last names all the time. Dave Rice was an engineer (you can't swing a t-square without hitting one of those in this town) and plays a pretty mean guitar. I'd actually saw him play with a little trio called the Rocket Scientists at a thing in Big Spring Park last summer. Dave Rice is a good guy, down to earth to be so educated.

Marla Spires: Marla's my wife. She's the only reason I'm still going, I guess. She split her time between real estate and photography before things went to hell. Don't have words for the rest. She and I round out what's left of our original group.

Wow. Those are the last living people I know. Eight people. I can't [rest of line illegible]

Greg Spires: That's me. I'm the idiot spending time writing this stuff when I could be sleeping or eating or something else needful. I was an artist which, in the part of the country, meant that I worked a string of gas station/video store/restaurant jobs and made awful paintings that nobody would buy in my spare time.

Pablo, Wanda, Morris and Shep: They all died. They were there in the beginning but what happened is part of "things not going so well." Maybe I'll write more about that later if I have it in me.

I don't know who I'm writing this for. Marla's more optimistic than I am that there will be people left to read any of this stuff. Even if there are, nobody who made it through this is gonna care to read any about any of this for a long time after.

If you're reading this, I hope things are better where and when you are. If nobody's reading this, then it didn't matter. I hope Marla's right. I really do.

I think we're moving. Bye.