This was both good news and bad news. While it remained cold we would be reasonably safe from Zoms who were limited in their wandering about. But as the temperatures rose their area of roaming territory would increase. We would have to consider threat removal in the cold weather as an option.
We had confirmed that they responded to sound and movement. It also seemed that there was some form of visual ability. This seemed very odd in that in most cases the eyes of the Zoms were clouded. It might still be a case where it is the smell or hearing that was what gave them their tracking ability.
Finally, we concluded they would go after other creatures, we had seen them go for the puppy. Now the critical question here was what happened if they got the dog. Obviously it would be eaten. But for us an important question was if the contaminant or virus would transfer to other species.
On a side note here, to date we have seen no indication of Zom-like animals. In fact this puppy was the first larger mammal that we have seen. We have come across no cows, sheep or horses even though this was a farming region and Henry had told me that there was a small horse farm in the area. It was possible that the larger animals were consumed to such a degree that they could not change, or that the toxin just did not infect them.
As we reached the truck, Charlene pointed out that the puppy could be a big asset to the community. He would likely sense the arrival or proximity of the Zoms before we might see them or Lance might detect them in the camera system.”
“You’re right but I have no idea of how we might get him to come with us, if we could even find him.”
He had run off away from our position. I was thinking that if we were to leave a little food out, he might find us. As we were getting into the truck, I whistled and called out to the dog, waited a couple of minutes, did it again and then dropped the sandwich I had brought by the side of the truck. We started the truck and drove off. I figured it was worth the shot.
The issue we debated much of the way back in the truck was about insects. One would think that if the blood was drawn by the mosquito it could or would infect the mosquito. When the mosquito would bite a human and the virus would be transferred. But would the mosquito even go after the dead. It seemed unlikely. It would seem however that there would be other insects such as flies that use the dead to act as a breeding ground for their young that could be a much larger problem and threat.
It was about 4:30 in the afternoon when we returned from our research trip. When we got back inside and put our stuff away, we were approached by a couple of the group wanting to know what we had seen and learned. Nick and Mary-Lou were putting the finishing touches on dinner. Fred’s scavenger crew had raided the local grocery store and had brought back some goods from the freezer that had not quite thawed and were still good. Dinner was a shrimp and scallop in a lemon olive oil sauce over pasta dinner with mildly stale bread.
Over dinner we told the community what we had seen and what we felt our observations meant. When we got to the part about the possible insect infestation, Anne stopped us, “The insect threat was not as serious as you think.”
Everyone turned to look at her and she blushed but continued. “I have read all the e-mails to and from Doc Swensen and the health department. Margo and I researched whatever traditional lore we could find on the subject and talked with group members about their personal knowledge of zombies. Based on that I, we feel that the insect and cross species contamination was not a likely scenario.”
She could not be 100% sure but the CDC had said that there was no indication of it. In one e-mail the CDC commented that the virus matched to human DNA and had almost seemed as if it had been specifically engineered with that target in mind.
Everyone sat for a few moments absorbing the information and then Arcelia, Anne’s mom raised her hand and mumbled. “What about the puppy?”
Later that night Anne and I went to our usual sleeping spot. Before we rolled over to sleep that night I thanked her for all the effort that she had put into the research and that I thought she did an excellent job. While laying there I asked, Do you understood why I had to take Brandon out, are you okay with it?”
It was really the first quiet chance we had to talk about it. She said, “I understand why it turned out that way I just feel bad for his family. Why did he have to snap and kill them?”
“I am not sure.” Then I asked her, “How is Margo doing with it?”
“She really hasn’t said anything about it
“I think it is something that she and I need to talk about. I think Margo understands that it was a matter of life or death.”
I remember that she always felt that there was still goodness in her father. I am not sure I would agree with her. But I wanted it to not be an issue between us. I had been her “Dad” for too long to have something like that to happen. A little while later, after a little cuddle time we went to sleep.
I knew that I would probably have a visitor in my dreams, and he did come, and he did rant and rage but as I did on that day, I faced him in the dream. I told him that he did not belong here and that it was time for him to let go of me. But really I knew it was me that was holding him, and that I had to talk with Margo before I could let him go. Now that I knew, and that I would be talking to Margo about the death, okay, my killing of her father, I was better prepared for the talk. Or at least that was what I believed.
This would not be easy, but I had a sort of script building in my mind. Of course, I was also smart enough to know that this would not go as easily as planned.
March 8th
It was kind the kind of day that no one wants to have. After the group breakfast I told Margo that we were going to spend some time together doing some important things like a little shooting, and some basic driving lessons and that was what we were going to really do. But we also had to talk about something. I had not told her that part of it. I wanted to finally take some time and try to explain to her why I had to shoot her father. I was not looking forward to it, and I had no idea what to expect. She did not seem to have much of a reaction after it happened.
We started out the morning by jumping into the KIA. I figured that was the best way to start her driving lessons because it was an automatic transmission and pretty easy to drive. I was not really too worried about this part of it because she had done some go kart racing and was pretty competent in them.
We went through the process of setting the seat, checking the mirrors and so on. I had her do it a couple of times and tried to push her faster and faster each time. That would be in the event that a rapid escape was necessary.
The next step was to actually start the car, get it into drive and move it. When I told her to start it up and take a left out of the driveway, she looked at me.
“I don’t have my license yet!” She said.
I just gave her the look.
“Oh yeah, guess we do not have to worry about that anymore” she said.
I guess I should explain the look. It is one that is given to someone when they make an obvious, annoying or dumb comment. It involves a sort of stare blended with the look of I can’t believe that you just said that.
The driving was, as the saying goes, a piece of cake. She had watched her Mom and I do it enough times. The entire lesson was done in about forty-five minutes. There were a few curbs that may have suffered a little contact from taking the corners a little too tight and perhaps she was initially a little hard on the braking. But overall it came quickly to her.
We drove up the road about 3 miles and I had her pull over and park the car. Next to the road was a field with a fence about 25 yards from the road. It was an old wooden fence with posts. I opened the hatch back and pulled out two handguns. One was a 380 semi auto that we had found in our travels; the other was my old police 9mm automatic. I was carrying my H&K USP 45 that was department issue which was presented to me on retirement.
I always liked the 9mm Smith & Wesson that we had been issued, but for today I thought that giving her
the smaller weapon was a better idea, less recoil. I walked her through the safety talk about treating each weapon as if it was loaded. I taught the laser principle in which you envisioned a laser beam coming from the barrel of the gun and that anything that the laser touched was destroyed.
“There are no do-overs. Once you pulled that trigger there is no taking it back. You understand that right?” I asked.
“Yes” she said softly.
“Which gun do you want to try? I asked.
She pointed at the 9mm and asked “Tom, is that the gun you used to shoot my father?”
I had not thought of that, I dropped my head, “yeah” I said softly.
I was sorry I had brought that one out here. Then I sat on the back of the KIA. “One of the reasons that we came out here was to talk about that. I need to have you try and understand it was not something I wanted to do. It has bothered me since and I need your help in dealing with it.”
I was a wreck.
She sat next to me and looked at the ground. She said “When it first happened, I knew that he had come to take me and he was going to kill me. He was sick, scared, but he was my father. I still thought, wished there was good in him. I wish things had gone differently and he just drove away. But he didn’t.”
“For a little while I was angry for what you did. At one point I really kind of hated you. But then as I thought about it I realized that even though Brandon was my father, you were my “Dad”. You have been there for me and Mom, he had not.”
She told me about a recurring dream she had in which her father came and talked to her. He apologized for how he had been. He regretted that he had not done the things that he should have so that he could have been in her life. He told her that he was sorry for the whole mess at the end with his showing up, and for what he did to his family.
By this point we were both in tears. It was not a happy talk. I think I finally said something goofy, and we chuckled and hugged, and cried. It was okay. We were going to be okay.
“I love you Margo”
She looked at me and smiled weakly, “I love you too Dad”.
After about a half an hour we finally got down to the final part of the lesson and decided to run a few rounds though the weapons. She tried the 380 first. She was not a bad shot with it. I had her work a little on her stance and breathing and she was hitting the fence posts consistently. I let her try my 45, and although it was way too big for her she managed with it. I was about to call it quits and she asked if she could try the 9mm. I loaded it up and handed it to her. She held it, looked at it and then fired off five quick shots, all accurate in a pattern of about four inches. My jaw dropped, and I finally asked how she had done that. She simply said that in her dreams she had learned it, and that she visualized death coming after her.
We had been firing for about 30 minutes and thought that it was time for us to get out of there. The weather had been good and the snow was now mostly gone so all the noise might attract attention for the Zoms. We packed up and I tossed her the keys and started to climb into the back seat. I figured it would be good to let her try driving without a mother hen watching over her. But as I got in she said, “I am not going to be driving Miss Daisy so get in the front seat.”
It was a comment I made when she had reached 12 years old and no longer was required to sit in the back seat while riding. Apples don’t fall far from the trees. I miss those days.
March 9th
Frank woke me at 4 AM for my turn at the watch. I had not been visited in my dreams. While I was sitting at the watch post and doing periodic sweeps of the area, it was quiet. When it is quiet like it was you think, and I thought. I realized that so far we had succeeded in surviving, and that was pretty good considering all that had happened.
For the short term, a week, two weeks, we were in pretty good shape. We had not run into a big problem yet, but this was new and there would be issues. We needed to have people in place to act in roles of authority when the time came. I knew my situation and that I really did not want to be the “King”. I thought that the idea of a Triumvirate was the best one. That was small enough to act quickly but not so small as to be controlled by one person.
We also needed a framework to live by, an ethical code. We needed some rules or guidelines. But the key was to keep it simple. It could be as simple as the Ten Commandments with perhaps a tweak here or there. The group would need to talk about it.
About 6 AM I heard the rustling of Nick in the kitchen area. He was up and beginning to put together a little breakfast for us all. It made sense to have group meals, for bonding and communications purposes. It made the group stronger. He was making coffee, pancakes, and formerly frozen sausages that had to be used up or go bad.
Everyone was pretty much up and active by 7ish, so it was time to eat. While we were eating I started to relate the thoughts I had on the issue of a “government” and rules to live by to Anne. I laid out the frameworks I had considered during my watch as a starting point. She felt it was a good idea and something we should work on.
Throughout the morning there were little discussions going on. About 10:30 Lance called me into the surveillance area. “We are being watched. I think that there was someone, or a group of someone’s up on the mountain to the east that is spying on us.”
How do you know?”
He cued up a segment of the video from about five minutes earlier. At the point where the road seemed to go over the mountain there was a series of flashes from the same spot. They were irregular and did not seem to be any signal. It was something that he had not seen before.
I called Fred, Teckla, Matt and Charlene aside and quickly told them what Lance had seen. Based upon our memory of the drive in to the town it was about a fifteen minute trip from the flash point to our front door assuming that you drove right to our camp.
In the discussion that followed we were of the same opinion that we should assume that there were others out there and survived as we had. We also had to assume that the living, in their efforts to survive would do what it needed to continue to survive. If that meant raiding, robbing and even murdering, so be it. All recommended that we proceed as if the intentions were hostile. Only Matt and Ron wanted to go offensive and try to reach them before they reached us. Teckla, Charlene and Fred were of the mind that we are better off in a strong defensive position. I agreed with their approach. We could post at least one sniper observer on the roof ready to engage targets as necessary. We would also have Lance and others watching the surveillance monitors. We did not want to get surprised.
We all headed into the big room and called everyone together. Teckla had Lance explain what he had seen and then Teckla gave the group our recommendations. The group went along with it. Ron piped in that the 50 cal sniper rifle in the right hands could be used to reduce the threat if we were to see the flash again. But the problem was at that distance there was none of us capable of getting the accurate shot off.
Jan asked “Are we going to monitor the radios and if we hear someone will we try to reach out to them?”
We agreed that we should listen, and depending upon what we heard we could respond. I had forgotten about the police radio so I ran and dug that out of my car. Jan, Margo and Cody were assigned to the radio detail. Lance and Fred were assigned to the camera detail. We set up a schedule for the roof top observer post between Matt, Mark, Ron, Henry and me. Frank, Henry and Nick set about to further secure the compound. Rifles and shotguns were issued to those who could handle them, and handguns to the rest. The rule was no shooting unless under attack.
At 12:15 the police radio came to life. “Trooper James to Peru, Trooper James to Peru. Is anyone there? Tom, can you hear me?”
Margo raced out of the little surveillance room with radio in hand. She was calling to me. I turned and as she came close I heard the transmission.
I took the radio, “Yes, we are here, we are safe, and here.”
James, the Trooper captain that I had spoken to before the
blast said, “I will be at our location in a couple of minutes.”
There was excitement in the group, we were about to have some contact with someone who might actually give us a run down on what had happened and what was going on since this all started.
The Massachusetts State Police cruiser pulled up in front of the building we were in. We had opened the driveway and often left it that way during the day while we could see what was going on. We walked out to meet him. He looked like a typical black trooper, lean and mean with his head shaved, although at this point there was some grey stubble starting to show. Actually he looked more like a pro-football middle linebacker. There was a smile as he offered his hand.
I asked, “Why aren’t you in Pittsfield with your family?”
The smile disappeared, “They’re gone.”
At first I did not know what to make of it, or what to say. Were they gone to another place, or gone as in changed, or dead. I did not ask.
The Event Series (Book 1): Life After the Meteor Page 8
