THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE

ENTRY 412

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FENCE

(Bolivia, North Carolina)

I allowed Marcus the right to handle my .44 Magnum today.

He turned 12 Monday, three days ago...

The pressure on me to teach him how to shoot the living dead was overbearing.
And now... that time has finally come to him.

He is as tall as I am now... a huge kid,

And his hands are as big as mine.

He ran through the main gate yesterday,

 When he noticed his dog had somehow slipped through the fence.

We all watch in abject horror as he single-handily beat back the zombie hoard...

While scooping up his dog with his free left hand.

He ran back to the gate to be let back inside as though nothing had happened.

What the hell could I say?

He had just breached the Zombie Apocalypse Rubicon --

Him smiling at me,

While stroking that dog,

As if they has simply gone out for a walk.

Marcus is not yet a man!

But, he has the size of a man...

With the impulse control of a 12 year old anxious to kill zombies.

He was one years old when the world became hell.

I  can no longer pretend that he is my little baby boy!

So, today we practiced shooting wooden figures.

Tomorrow, much to my waining chagrin,

We will take him out for our next Wilmington supply hunt.

He reminds me, every day, that we use his dog as an alarm!

Tomorrow, I will see just just how close to being a man he is!
He will take the dog along with us.
Responsibility learned... for his dog, himself, me and everybody else, to be a man!

SEM