out. I looked out over the parking lot, but with the sun still down it was difficult to see anything. I didn’t see anything moving at least. I stayed there as the sun started coming up and I heard people behind me talking. Since I still didn’t see any movement, I headed towards the back door.
When I got there, I found that it had already been opened, and several people were already in the process of loading up. I waved to everyone who greeted me, and watched the process unfold. Everyone was pretty focused, and I noticed we did have several standing guard outside. I watched the organized chaos for a while, making sure that not only were everyone's personal belongings being stowed, but we were packing the food, medical supplies, pretty much anything that would be useful on the road as well. We had placed several metal shelves in the trailer of Jeff's rig and bolted them to the wall. I went and checked and saw that all of our gas cans were there being strapped down, supplies were loaded so that we could find things easily, not just thrown up there. I liked it, and it was going well.
Around seven thirty I saw Jeff coming up with Michelle and the girls in tow, their things loaded up and ready to pack. I assumed Jeff would have his in the truck with him, and I was hoping to put Michelle and the girls in the first RV behind Jeff. I passed the word that I wanted everyone in the cafeteria for one last meeting before we actually left, but after all the packing was done. I went back to the cafeteria to wait.
Once everyone filtered in, I was told a few had stayed as guards since some movement had been seen down the street. It was undetermined if it was infected or not, so guards had stayed just in case.
"Alright everyone, here it is. We have no power, no water. We have enough food and water stockpiled for about two weeks if we don't go nuts eating and drinking. We are low on ammo, but several of us have, and are good with, a sword. I am anticipating it to take about four days to get to Norfolk Naval Base, which is my goal. We are limited on gas, and will have to scrounge for gas along the way. I don't expect us to sleep in the RV's every night either, so hopefully a secure area will present itself where we can stop and rest along the way. The RV's do have working restrooms and are fully stocked on water for them, but I would ask that you only flush when necessary to keep it that way. Also, the more flushes, the faster we will have to dump them. Jeff will be in the lead with his rig, in case we run into any roadblocks, stalled vehicles, etc. Each RV will be towing a car as well, for extra storage and guard posts to help keep watch. We have shortwave CB radios for every vehicle, so everyone should stay in touch at all times. We have one stop to make along the way for the rest of my family, and I understand others have friends and family along the way they would like to check on. That should be no problem. I know everyone in this room has already lost people to this virus, or whatever it is and my hope is we don't lose any more. Let's saddle up and get moving." I told them, trying for inspirational. I knew the odds were against us finding others still alive, but we had to try. I just wanted to get to Norfolk with everyone alive, find a ship, and hunker down for a while. Most of the looting and rioting should be done since there were probably not many people left after what the news had started to call 'The Event' just before they all went off the air. The last news was that there was still no cure for it, no one took responsibility for it, and no one knew where it came from. I was hoping that the news I heard about Italy, Great Britain, and Ireland shutting down their borders early on was true, so maybe there were other survivors we could link up with. My hope was that a ship would be there, and still be functioning with
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley