The Event Series (Book 1): Life After the Meteor

by Thomas Larson

  Margo and Cody came up with a great idea of us. At dinner time Cody announced that, “We are going to start ‘Family Game Night’.”

  There was no grumbling and Margo added, “We all just get together and play board games and or cards.”

  They had made a scavenger run and the idea came to them when they found a trivia game and a few decks of playing cards. It brought back some memories of Teckla, Matt, Mark and me playing DJ Trivia at the old Friends Café on Thursday night.

  “I wonder if any of the other teams or players made it out alive.” I thought to myself.

  June 4th

  We had a little Powwow this morning about the Lake Garnet issue. We talked about the idea of burning the lake area and the buildings after we went in and purged the area of the undead. That idea in some ways seemed a good one.

  But as Teckla pointed out, “It would be costly in terms of equipment, and ammunition.”

  “Keep in mind that in leaving the place alone it could be a laboratory from which we could get ideas of the decay rates of the undead. We were coming up on summer and that should speed the process, we hope,” she added

  “True but we would be creating a feeding ground for insects and other carrion creatures that could bring infection our way,” countered Anne. “My research and feeling is that although we don’t have to kill all the Zoms, razing the area would be a good idea.”

  Henry and I were not crazy about having a population of Zoms that close to us. But so far the incidents of contact and our ability to cope with them had been workings.

  My two cents were that, “I am not sure that poking at the turd is a bad idea, I am with Anne on this one,”

  Charlene wanted to talk with Major Barkley about the impact of this population and get his input on the situation. Bottom line here was that it is really an issue that need not be decided today but something that should be taken care of soon so further discussion among the members for brainstorming or suggestion was left open and encouraged.

  After the Powwow, Teckla asked me if I would take a ride up to Hinsdale to look into some additional vehicles that we could add to the group. At first I thought it was odd because she really had not shown much interest in that particular area of our community. But I agreed and we were off just after lunch.

  As we drive, I sounded like a bad car salesman trying to talk her into a big 4x4 truck. But she seemed distracted and only half attentive. Finally I tossed out some ridiculous statement that she caught and just looked at me.

  I asked, “What is this trip really all about?”

  “Charlene”.

  Teckla said, “I have developed some concerns with Charlene because of her relationship with Major Barkley. The issues were not that the relationship was wrong but it might have an impact on her impartiality and her ability to lead.”

  “What do you mean? Do you have some examples?”

  “I really don’t have anything serious enough to support the concern,” She said.

  “Well it could be a problem I guess, but then one could also make the same argument about you and Frank, or her and the boys, or Anne, Margo and I, or Nick, and Lauren . We are all compromised.”

  “True,” she said thoughtfully.

  “Until push comes to shove, that would be the test. Until we saw some specific behavior we should be careful about such thoughts. But we should be vigilant” I added.

  “I have always been worried that when the fat was in the fire I wondered how Anne would deal with the need to use weapons and if she could kill, even the undead. I know Margo and I can, we have been battle tested. A lot of us have not, includes you and Charlene.”

  It was quiet for a little while and then finally Teckla said “So, which do you think a Ford or a Chevy?”

  We talked about the vehicle issue for a while and finally decided that if we could find a 4x4 SUV of either make that would be the best vehicle for her. But I must admit that a diesel SUV seemed unlikely. We checked a couple of places, but it was more just to be able to say we had looked.

  We returned to the compound and as we did Teckla said “Thanks on the Charlene thing.”

  We had a pretty good thunderstorm roll in around 9:00 PM.

  June 5th

  Anne surprised me when she asked if we would take a run out toward Lake Danbee or Garnet and actually take some photos of the Zoms for comparison purposes. It was not going to be anything close up but she felt that it might be helpful to see what the decay factors were on them.

  We did head out to Lake Garnet and photographed six specific test subjects that were particularly identifiable based upon clothing. We also considered the condition and size of the undead. Age did not matter in the choice but we picked subjects that were an average sized adult male and female, an oversized male and female and then two children. The children were kind of a hard call because there is a natural sympathy toward children, seeing them in this state hits hard.

  The flights today were getting further and further out but still solo. The idea behind that is it is better to lose one plane and one pilot. We can replace planes to a point. Our pilot supply is limited. Ron actually made a hundred mile flight to the west. While he was up there he reported that he had seen a couple of small columns of smoke. The idea of the smoke is interesting. It most likely means that there are other small camps out there, we were not alone. But then we have already seen that with Hinsdale.

  The concern that I have had about having the guys in the sky is that it sends up a signal that we are and that could invite trouble, like our first contact with Hinsdale there was the chance that it may not be as friendly or amicable as we might like.

  June 6th

  It is D-Day, the longest day, at least according to history. It has been kind of different to look at what is now ancient history to us. Since The Event it has almost been as if the calendar has reset, we still have history, and holidays and memories but we are in a new age. I guess that in some ways it is like the change from BC to AD.

  I think that it has a lot to do with perspective. I am sure that the real hardcore Christians see this as the Book of Revelations coming to fruition. It has in many ways been the apocalypse but I am not going to even try to draw the lines and fill in the blanks on it. Unfortunately I have now set the contemplation wheels in motion and will dwell on those issues for the balance of the day and for some time to come.

  There is not really much else to report for the day. All else seems to be running pretty much as usual although it seems that our hunting efforts have been meeting less and less success in terms of larger animals. I think the deer population has diminished or moved. We have occasionally found a pig running around but that hasn’t happened in a while. We know there are farms that had livestock in the area but they have been overrun by the Zoms and we assume what they did not kill had escaped.

  We have been seeing an increase in small animals such as rabbits, and squirrels which are reasonably easy to trap. There are also a fair number of escaped chickens and wild turkeys. This Zom thing has thrown the natural balance way off. Henry and Nick have been talking about it and suggest that it might not be a bad idea to try to capture some of the assorted small creatures and begin a breeding program to help us through the winter.

  June 7th

  Another wicked thunderstorm came through last night and hit close to home. We had a few trees come down in the area, but no damage to the compound. We often see them pass a little south of us in Peru. They seem to focus on the Great Barrington area more toward the border of Massachusetts and Connecticut, that area has been a little storm alley in the past.

  Nick and a few people have constructed some small animal pens and cages. The plan is to capture some rabbits to serve as a protein food supply. In conjunction with that the youngers, Lauren, Jan and Margo continue to work on the green house / hydroponic garden to keep us in veggies. Overall we are looking more and more like we night be self-sustaining and not relying on scavenging as much. If we can survive the first winter,
then we will be okay. But there is much to be done.

  Anne and I had a talk this evening. It seems that Cyril and Arcelia are wondering why we are not continuing to head west to try to meet up with her brother Dwayne. That was the original plan at the start of our escape but with the Hudson Bridge out, and all that has happened since it seems like a lot of risk for the group to make the trip. Particularly because we have no idea if they have actually survived the initial onset and subsequent events.

  Jan and Fred are pretty much attached at the hip these days. The same could be said for Major Barkley and Charlene; they get together as much as they can. I am kind of surprised that one of them has not switched camps. I find that many of the pairs that had been in relationships were closer than they had ever been. I think the idea of the crisis has resulted in a new bonding in the existing relationships. I feel more attached to Anne than ever.

  June 8th

  Just another day in paradise, and another series of storms in the evening. Nothing to report here.

  June 9th

  We had a close call with the flight crew today. There was an engine failure in Armand’s plane as he was coming in for a landing. He touched down a little earlier than he would have liked but there was no damage to him, or the plane. When they went through the plane, they found that there was a little water in the bottom of the fuel tank. It is unclear if it was the result of the weather we have been having, or if it might have come from a contaminated fuel can. The rest of the planes are all being checked very closely.

  This news did not go over well with Jan for obvious reasons.

  Charlene and Mark were off to Hinsdale early this morning. I know that Mark is looking for a new vehicle of the diesel variety. I am not sure what he is looking to find but he said that something a little smaller than the Coyote or Raven would have some advantages in where it could go as well as in fuel efficiency.

  June 10th

  Lance and I took a drive out to Hinsdale today. We had made a call to just let them know we were coming. It has really gotten to the point where we are pretty much moving between camps on a regular basis. Lance wanted to look to see what they had for computer parts and equipment at a couple of the small shops in town. He had some ideas for expanding our surveillance network but needs some gizmos to make it work. There were a couple of small independent shops that might have what he is looking for.

  While we were there we found the perfect vehicle for Mark. I say that in jest. We found a red Prius. I had Lance drive it back to Peru. When I arrived I was blowing the horn creating a commotion. (Yes, I know it was a stupid thing to do because could bring a few Zoms our way.) As everyone rushed to the yard thinking there was a major calamity afoot, I hopped out of the Coyote, “I have found the perfect vehicle for Mark, it meets all his needs and is a perfect match.”

  Then I turned to the road and got on the radio calling to Lance to bring it on in. The onlookers had not noticed that Lance had actually slipped in earlier while I had created a distraction. He drove the Prius behind the dumpster and just waited. While everyone watched the road expecting some magnificent set of wheels Lance slipped from behind the dumpster and revved the engine.

  He jumped out of the car and shouted, “Need a new car, why not Zoidberg? Hurrah”.

  Those who knew Futurama, Jeff Dunham and Mark were in stitches, the rest just looked at the Prius in shocked disbelief.

  Realistically for the long term it was not a good choice of a vehicle for our needs. Yet for the commute to and from Hinsdale it was not all that bad an idea. The biggest thing was that it gave us all a good laugh, and we had not had one of those in a while. I mean we have had chuckles, and humor, but this was the first “foolie” on a grand scale in a long time.

  June 11th

  It was a quiet day, with little to report. The weather has been good with a little rain that has helped the corn and other crops. It is really a status quo kind of a day.

  June 12th

  Charlene was off to visit Hinsdale. She took Mark as her wing man. He planned to look for options for the “real” Zoidberg. The Fly Boys reported another good day of flying and there was talk of it getting near time to do some pilot/copilot flying as well as starting to consider the mission for radiation pattern tracking, which was after all what this flying thing was all about.

  June 13th

  There are many days or periods of time in which the boredom is almost intolerable. We all try to do things to keep ourselves busy but there are times when that is just not an option. There is only so much reading, chatting, card / game playing and so on that can be done. It makes me wonder what will happen come winter time and the weather really keeps us indoors. It is another motivator for keeping this journal. It has given me an activity to look forward to doing.

  June 14th

  Matt and I talked today about the prospect of starting to explore the area around our compound. And by explore I am talking about expending some fuel and driving out on the major roads for up to an hour to see what we find and what we might face if we needed to use them for escape routes or if we just simply needed to move on. We presented the idea to The Three. They considered it among themselves and after a brief discussion gave us the okay.

  They decided on a four person exploration team. Matt and I would go. Anne decided that it would be a good idea to tag along. Jan also volunteered thinking that her basic engineering skills might be of value.

  I am not sure if I had mentioned it before but Jan had been an engineering student at UMass in the old world. She may have some insights that would be missed by the rest of us regarding the bridge, its design and its safety.

  We loaded up the HumVee with food, water, and an assortment of equipment that could get us out of a lot of trouble if we needed it. We also brought some science stuff to take samples of water, bugs, or to test for radiation. The plan was for us to leave early morning to allow us plenty of daylight.

  June 15th

  We set off in the morning as headed west on 143 to I-90 and on to the Hudson River. When we reached the rail bridge, it was clear that it was un-damaged and would or could handle vehicle traffic but it would be a slow, rough and nerve wracking crossing.

  As we were leaving the bridge Matt said, “There has to be other crossing points in the Albany areas”.

  Matt had attended school in upstate NY and was familiar with some of the area around Albany.

  “We are ahead of schedule; we could check some of that out I guess,” was my response.

  We tried to use the GPS to show what routes might be available and discovered that there were a number of towns and cities that had bridges that would allow for crossing. But and this is a big but, most of those cities were of a size that it was likely that we would experience radiation issues or like Pittsfield a potential for a colony of the undead.

  We decided that it might be better to hold off on further exploration for the day and head back for some geography lessons about where safe crossings might be. As we were driving back, we talked about the idea of giving a task to the air group and have them do some recon flying to see if they found a crossing.

  When we returned, we went to work looking at what maps we had of the area. We found that there are a number of highway bridges that cross into Albany, or even a little north of it coming out of Troy New York but they were all based in once heavily populated areas and reaching those crossings would be a potential dangerous effort. We did not know what we would find on the roads that might block passage or even if the bridges were intact.

  We found that there are some additional potential crossing points to the north in Schuylerville or southeast in the area of Kingston and Rhinecliff, just north of Poughkeepsie.

  Rhinecliff is that it is not very far from Rhinebeck Airfield which is a place that we had wanted to check out earlier for potential aircraft. In both cases we were looking at the minimum drive time of an hour each way to check these locations out based on best case scenario.

  However, this wou
ld or could be an easy jaunt for the air corps and much less risky to us all. If the bridges were found intact, then we could make the drive out there to explore them further. So it was back into the office with The Three and we pitched the new idea. They in turn contacted Hinsdale as well as Blueberry Hill to see if this was a viable option.

  The option was viable and the plan was made for two planes to make the runs. They would both fly west to the Hudson and the break off with one going north and one going south. They would fly about 50 to 75 miles in each direction and then return. It actually turned into a dual mission because they would also record radiation readings as they travelled. This would help in setting some base line research into the radiation issues we had detected earlier. The mission was planned for tomorrow morning and would be flown by Ron (north) and Armand (south).