On days like this trying to figure out what to do is usually difficult. It turns into a game day, or repair day or just interact with fellow camper day. Although by now there are not much in the way of new stories or topics to discuss.
I wish that Fred and Jan had decided that staying in bed all day was the better way to spend the day than to take a ride into Pittsfield, but the wedding is getting close and they felt that it would be cool to get a real wedding gown and bridal party stuff. Heather and Ron had gone along as they were going to be the Maid of Honor and the Best Man. We did not think much about it until it was supper time and they were not back. This lead to some concerns, they may have gotten stuck on the road, the truck may have broken down or some other less pleasant options.
Frank, Matt and I suited up for a search party. We had a few others who wanted to go along but we needed to keep this small and simple for now. If it was a truck issue or a stuck issue, it would be a quick deal. If it was something else, well more people would likely not help. Of course when I say Frank, Matt and I it is understood that we would be accompanied by Teckla, Tanya and Asuna.
We were on the road by 6:30 and headed toward Pittsfield. Over time as the amount of Zoms diminished we found that it was more practical to head into Pittsfield rather than Hinsdale. The resources were more plentiful there and we had pretty much picked Hinsdale clean of the desirable things.
We were almost to the city limits when we saw a set of headlights coming toward us. There was a collective sigh of relief I am sure in each of the truck. When we met up with them, it was Ron who had been driving and he was not looking pleased.
“We hit every bridal shop and tuxedo store they could find and got some good stuff but it took much longer than we thought it would.”
Heather added that they came out of the mall to find it had gotten dark.
Fred explained, “When we started back toward camp, they saw tire tracks. It looked like one set.”
“We decided to do a little tracking and followed them. We did not make any contact but found that the tracks headed off to the southwest out of town,” added Ron.
When we got back to camp, a general meeting was called to fill everyone in on what was discovered and to lay out some initial plans. There are some things that we can just do nothing about. We need to have fires for heat. The problem there is smoke. It is traceable, but we cannot freeze to death. Then there is the other side of the coin. What should we do on the offensive side? Do we take a group and attempt a raid on this camp to take it over or do we send out the huntresses, the flyboys or the helicopter to see if they can find it and get some scouting reports first. By the end of the debate, in which there was a lot of pro and con offered, we came up with a plan.
We take the Hummer and retrace the path of the other camps truck (I am assuming 4x4 truck) and get a feel for the direction of the camp. Then we let the huntresses go scouting. They will have radios so we should be able to have contact with them.
If they find themselves in a bind, we can get the chopper up quickly and bring in added support. The Hummer will stay in the area for fire support if needed but this is a scout mission only, no contact; just get the lay of the land and a head count. From there we can decide what we could or should do.
It may be a case of their camp having just a couple of people and they can join us, or it could be they have 50, and well then we have to start thinking other options. We are all of the mindset that a battle is not the best of plans for either side. But let us get some intelligence information first.
Nov 15th
Early the next morning Nick had some meals packed for us and the Huntresses, Cody, Asuna and I piled into the Hummer and headed back up to where they had encountered the tracks. It would be the beginning of what could be either a simple scout mission or a risky game of cat and mouse.
We followed the tracks which eventually led us to the Pittsfield Municipal Airport where we found their broken down truck. It was an older Toyota Tundra that had overheated. Feeling the hood and engine temperature it had been there for a while, it was cold. Leading away from the truck we saw that there were 4 sets of footprints that continued to the southeast. The best guess was the tracks were from two adult males and either a couple of kids or women. It looked like they had dragged whatever that had scavenged using some kind of sleds.
We decided that the Huntresses should follow them on foot and once they got out in front of us by about a mile or so we would follow along in the Hummer. This initially worked pretty well for about the first mile, but then the unknowns cut into the woods and headed straight south. The Hummer could not follow but in looking at the map we seemed to be able to move along parallel to them and eventually come out by a small lake.
At noon we arrived at the lake area. The road signs had shown that there was a Camp Russell on the south side of the lake. That could be a logical place for them to be holed up. We stopped and waited. The plan had been that once the unknowns were found and determinations of what kind of group it was we would either pick up the huntresses or we would support them in their efforts to make contact.
In this case the contact was benign. What the Huntresses had found was a group of five people who had managed to set themselves up in Camp Russell. I must admit that the unknowns had done a nice job, it was not as elaborate or well established as our location was but it was livable. The main structure that they were using was a Mongolian Yurt. This was kind of the idea that I had tried to create back some time ago.
The people in the camp consisted of two men, a woman and a teenaged boy and girl. The leader of the group was a guy called Ken. He was a deer hunter and pretty savvy in survival techniques. Along the way he and his son had come upon a family and they had joined with them to try to stay alive. Mike was the other older male, with his wife Susan. They were in their mid-thirties and had a 17 year old daughter, Avalon. Ken’s son was Steven, about the same age.
It was lunch time so we all sat down and had lunch (on us). We shared stories of what we had seen, what we had done and what we knew. This group had experienced some trials that we had but were more on the run than we had. They had found themselves out in the open and had to play a little different game than we had played.
They had originated in Burlington, Vermont area and had stayed in that region until about halfway through October but when the weather started to change they decided that it might be better to head south for the winter. Their plan had been to live on the road but that quickly was abandoned because of the amount of fuel that it required.
After they found that the RV was not a viable idea they switched over to large 4x4 pick-ups but that kind of ended when they found that it was increasingly difficult to find gasoline. They had not considered the diesel option.
They were trying to find a way across the Hudson River but they had missed the one that we had used to get to the Arsenal. They had rolled into the area about a week earlier and had in fact run out of gas on their way back from Pittsfield. They had found the Tundra and were trying to use that but it broke down on them so they were planning to dig in for the winter at Camp Russell.
“I have done enough survival training and hunting to believe that we could survive at Russell for the winter, we might have to foray into Pittsfield for some canned goods or some of the other things that we might need,” said Ken. “I know it will be tight, but our options are limited.”
I got the feeling that Mike was more than a little uncomfortable about our presence. I am not sure why he was uncomfortable. It was clear we were not there to take his woman and ravage his daughter. It was also obvious that there was something “going on” between Steven and Avalon. But then raging teenage hormones at the end of the world is not something we were unfamiliar with in our little world.
In the end we offered to take them back up to Hinsdale and at least get them set up in a truck with a diesel engine to give them some added mobility. I also tossed out the idea that if they wanted to they could consider joining us
at Camp Romaca. Adding five people would not really impact our food issues that greatly and having another hunter would not be a bad call. But in the course of the suggestion I was not so quick to give details of our numbers, resources or location.
Ken agreed that another vehicle was a good idea so he and Mike rode up to our favorite Ford dealership and found a nice F 250 king cab for them. It was diesel powered and would fit the program nicely. We left the Huntresses with the rest of the group to keep them safe and well, Margo knew what to do.
On the way back I rode with Ken while Asuna and Mike drove in the Hummer. It gave me a change to get to know Ken a little better. He was a decent guy. Although he was the leader of the group he did not want to commit to moving over with us. He needed to talk to the rest of the group..
“One of the things that we have discovered is that there is a radiation issue in the area. It seems to be worse the further south you go. But I think once you get past Maryland you will be ok,” I told him.
We also talked about the military issues and that the best thing to do was to avoid them completely if they had the chance.
“Look, if you are really interested in trying to run down south, there is a bridge in the area of Kingston. I am not sure that I would head that way with the radiation and all but it’s your choice and your plan was as good as any.”
After returning to Camp Russell it was time to start back to Romaca.
I told Ken, “Look, if you want to join us you’re welcome. You all talk about it and decide. We will meet you in Pittsfield at noon in two days at the Pittsfield Amtrak Station. If they wanted to join us, we would escort them to our camp.”
“That sounds fair,” said Ken.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see Mike; he did not look like he was a fan of this idea. But who knows.
“If you decide to head south instead, that is cool too, just remember that you need to get south of Maryland quickly due to the radiation.”
We drove back toward Romaca; we pulled behind a building about five miles down the road just to see if we were being followed. We weren’t.
On the trip back we talked about those we had interacted with. Overall there was a general feeling that this group was pretty good people and could fit into our group but there was also an overall consensus that there was something about Mike that just did not seem right. Asuna said that in their trip back from Pittsfield she felt that he was a very controlling sexist asshole with a definite abusive side to him. What can I say, she had the chance to talk to him.
When we got back, we reported in to The Three.
Nov 16th
We are still in a cold spell so the morning run today was invigorating. While we chugged along, Asuna and I talked about the new found group. It would be good if they joined us. We had the room and it was very likely that Ken and his son with their hunting skills could help with the food issue.
Cyril has started to slide again. The weather, the cold in particular, really impacts him. He is staying inside more and more and his hygiene is slipping again. He does not take the daily walk out to visit with Arcelia unless it is in the afternoon and a warm one at that. Biter is no longer taken for walks but rather just let out to take care of his business.
The Three called us in and asked us some more questions about the Camp Russell group. They are good to go with the move if Ken and his crew decide to join us. It is troubling in the sense that they were so close and yet we really found them by accident. How many other groups are also out there, and of those other groups, how many are not as benign. The idea kind of falls back to the days with the biker gang and the issues we had with them. But on the good side it shows that there are still reasonable, sane people out there. We shall see what occurs tomorrow.
It is supposed to be a nice clear night tonight and I think that I am going to stay up and do some sky watching. It has been a while and I think that the Leonid Meteor Shower is sometime around now. It will be cold, but not brutally so. Asuna is going to join me so we spent the afternoon building a little viewing spot so we will not have to sit in the snow.
Nov 17th
There were about 10 of us who decided to brave the cold air. Nick and Grace, who joined us, whipped up a batch of hot chocolate. It was a treat, and I had not even thought about hot chocolate in a long time. Whipped cream or those little marshmallows would have been a nice touch, but we are at the end of the world.
The showing was quite breathtaking with a meteor ever couple of minutes. As we watch we got into the old fireworks thing with “oooohhhhhhs and aaaaahhhhhs” It got to be about 3 am and it was peak time for the show when on the horizon we saw a light moving through the sky, it was definitely not a meteor. It was too slow and did not burn out, Cyril’s UFO?
Best case scenario was that it was a satellite in low orbit, worse case it could be an aircraft. I say worse case because to have night flying like that it was most likely a military plane, or drone and the military, well, they had done some things that were not or might not be in our best interest if they found us.
We watched the light, and it took a while to cross the horizon to the south. There were no blinking lights, just one steady light so it seemed most likely that it was a satellite. We would have to check to see if we could see it again. But then the more we talked and thought about it, most satellites are in a geo-synchronic orbit which means they pretty much stay in their particular point in the sky. This was not doing that. We hung out until about sunrise watching but did not see the moving object again; I guess you could actually call it a UFO. Although I rather doubt it was a “flying saucer”.
About 11:00 Matt and Henry took a drive up to Pittsfield to see if Ken and crew would show up to join us. They came back at about 1:00 but were alone. They had met with Ken and Steven. They had been in favor of joining us but Mike and his family wanted to continue south.
Their choice, but Matt had told them that should they change their mind they could get in touch with us by CB Radio or Police radio set on the Massachusetts regional police channel. Lance had set up a scanner to monitor them. It still did not make sense to me. What was the issue that Mike had?
One of the things that we did once we discovered that there was no real dangerous group hovering nearby was to go back to the simple motion detector monitoring system on the fences. The Monitor Room Duty was discontinued for the time being.
The rest of the day was quiet and Asuna and I took a nap to be ready to stay up all night to watch for the UFO.
Nov 18th
We had talked with Cyril about what he had seen the other night and it did sound very similar to what we had observed. It was just a light that moved low in the sky. It was a white light and it did not blink like an airplane would have. Asuna and I had watched during the night and came up empty, we saw nothing that matched up with what we had seen the night before or that Cyril had described.
At this point the snow and the weather have pretty much slowed down all outdoor activities. It is not that there is a lot of snow, but we really have nowhere to go. It will be okay to do this for a while but I see that eventually we will be faced with some cabin fever. Looks like it will be lots of reading, and such.
I am not happy; the decision has been made that we will have to start taking cold showers 6 of the 7 days a week. So now it is hot shower Sundays. This is in order to save propane that has been used to heat the water. It does make sense; we need to stretch out supplies, particularly fuels as far as we can. But not getting my morning hot shower is not a great thing. Asuna and I set up a kettle so that at least we can get some morning cleaning water that does not feel like it just came from a refrigerator.
It is probably a good time to go into what some of the other folks are doing as far as their activities and where we are at with each other. This is not meant as gossip but more just to see how we have evolved as a group.
I guess a good place to start would be with Matt and Tanya. They are our sort of religious leaders. Matt over time has gone fr
om his Internet anointing as a minister who was prone to wearing jeans and flannel shirts to taking it very seriously looking like an Amish farmer on his way to Vespers. I can kind of see that at the end of the world we all need something to believe in. It helps us over the rough spots, and we have seen a lot of them. I think that between those events and the connection to Tanya who was a very religious person also they have grown in God. We refer to them as The Reverend Matt and the Deaconess.
Their, or should I say, our religion is really an amalgam of many of the Christian beliefs, borrowing a little from many different sects of Christianity. It, the Christian influence, was common to us all. We each believed or had exposure to some form and this was just a distillation and it works for us. The two of them did a service each Sunday morning. It includes the hymns and prayers and contained a sermon of hope, the hope that we can survive this and pass on our legacy. I include myself in this group of believers.
In writing this I just had the thought that in the course of all of this there has never been any mention of the End Times and the Book of Revelations. It is clearly an end time, humanity is on its heels and holding on by a thread, but there has not been talk of the Devil, or Armageddon, and yet the belief in a God is strong.
The Event Series (Book 1): Life After the Meteor Page 38
