The Event Series (Book 4): Filling in the Cracks

by Thomas Larson

  “Okay, well what were the ideas and I will tell you if you’re right.”

  “So we are going to play a kind of 20 questions?” I asked

  “Yeah” she shouted with glee.

  “My first thought when I wrote the book and the way it pointed was that there was a kind of gas or illness behind the wall. Was that it? I asked.

  “NOPE, wrong, you’re cold, ice cold!”

  “Okay, then my thought was that there was bomb or something like that back there.”

  “Oh, you are still cold…..” she was wiggling with excitement as she answered.

  “Well, you did say that there was death behind the wall and that we should not open it up.” I told her.

  “Yes, I did say that, and it was true.”

  “Well, I am at a loss, was it not human?” I asked her.

  “You’re getting a little warmer” she said.

  “Okay, was it one of the little alien guys, the QUalz?”

  “Still kind of warm, but colder.”

  “Some piece of UFO stuff, Area 51, a space ship.” I asked, I was getting frustrated.

  “You mean like one of the little pod ships that KHriz or the clones used?”

  “Yes, yes, one of those.” I thought I had her.

  “Nope, good try, but nope.”

  “Damn! oops, sorry.”

  “Give up?”

  “Uh, yeah, I can’t think of nothing else.”

  “Oh, you got it! I knew you would!” she shouted with peals of laughter.

  “Wait, what, I got it, but I said I had no other guesses.”

  “No silly, you said you could think of nothing else.”

  “Yeah, but I……wait, you mean there was nothing back there?” I asked, sounding a little confused.

  “It was nothing, there was nothing back there, and it was just a wall put up at the end of the tunnel.” She said with smile.

  “But you said there was death beyond the wall.”

  “I did, there were spidees…..I am scared of big hairy spidees and they kill things.” She proclaimed with a shiver.

  I stared at her, incredulously, “Spidees……really, that was it?” I broke out laughing and after a minute or so. “So I am going for a walk, want to join me?”

  “Yes, but doggy will be here soon I will run with her when she gets here.”

  We turned and started walking toward the east end of the tunnel and when we had gone a quarter mile or so beyond the opening I saw Lucy, standing a short way ahead in the middle of the bike path. We stopped.

  “Doggy!” she squealed and ran toward the coyote.

  When she reached her she give her a hug and then the pair raced off down the path away from me. She turned and waved at me. I knew I would see her again.

  I stood for a few minutes thinking about what had just happened. I hate to say it, but I really like these visits. Asuna is sending them to me?

  In a way, they scare me, am I okay? The night dreams are okay, or nodding out during the day to have them, but these daydreams……….

  Slugs and Drugs

  As I was driving along listening to the Sirius Radio, the song “Something in the Air’ by Thunderclap Newman came on. It made me think that with the contentious elections between two inept and unqualified candidates on the horizon and rapidly closing in the potential for violence and even revolution is definitely in the air.

  I think that it is a motivator for me to make a trip to a local gun shop to stock up on ammunition. I am beginning to believe that I will see a variation of The Event, which it will not be a meteor or a virus that brings about the end of society, and maybe it will just happen by our own hand.

  As I drove on I thought about that. It is scary, what would I do if the ‘revolution’ or ‘civil war’ did erupt. As I did, another song from my youth came on the radio, ‘Monster’ by Steppenwolf. A musical perspective from the tumultuous 70s that has meaning today, perhaps even more than ever with current events.

  I think that the Trilogy could certainly be a guideline, get out of the area, find someplace isolated, and keep one’s head down would be the order of the day.

  “Bullets, that would the coin of the realm,” a raspy voice said from the back seat. “Bullets, medicine, and gold’

  I looked in the mirror, a toothless old man was there, unshaven, with his dingy white shirt was partially burned and as wrinkled as the lines on his face, a face that was half covered with third degree burns.

  “You’re on target with the bullets, those will be important, as many as you can get. They will be important in the early days and over time, you can trade them, or use them for protection. The medications, those will be important too. But don’t trade those off too quickly. Think of it this way, ‘slugs for drugs’ not the other way around if you can help it.”

  “I am guessing you’re Burt.” I offered.

  “Yeah, that is me. Oh and I am not pissed that you killed me off, it was kind of cool actually, the way that you did it and all. And you, well, the book Tom didn’t get the chance to screw my wife.” He said with a kind of funny laugh that broke into a coughing jag.

  I just listened, no one had screwed Mary Lou, and no one was going to, his alcoholic rantings were just wrong.

  “Mind if I have a cigarette?” he asked.

  “No, I am okay with it,” I figured he was not real, so the smoke, if I saw it would not even smell.

  “So Burt, you think slugs and drugs are the way to go?” I asked.

  “Yep, and the other thing that you should look at is gold, jewelry, watches, but not the cheap ass Timex or Casio ones, nope, you want the good ones, like your Rolex.” He replied.

  “I remember you suggested that early on in the trilogy.”

  “Damned straight, but you pussies wouldn’t go for it.” he blustered.

  “Well, in the end……”

  “Bullshit, you were lucky in the trilogy, in the next event, when this country goes to war you will need it, it ain’t gonna be all slugs and drugs! There will be a need to trade, to buy things with gold and shit. That will be what you use.”

  I thought about this for a minute or two, someone, one of the other characters had talked about something bad in the future too, about something that would happen. Was it from within the story, or was it a warning from, shit, I think I am getting too wrapped up in this world I created.

  “I remember now, yes, you did speak of that jewelry thing to the group, about how there was no moral issue with removing valuables from the dead. Do you really think that the jewelry will make a difference?” I asked him as I glanced in the mirror.

  “In the world you created, no, it wouldn’t have had much impact because there were not enough people. But in the future, in a land in revolution, yeah, it will,” was his reply as he took a drag from his cigarette.

  I thought about this a little, and he is probably right. Even in the case of a civil war there would still be production, there would still be things made, including drugs and bullets. So yeah, valuables, gold, silver, gems would be of value. Credit cards, or paper money would be pretty much useless.

  “Burt, can I ask you something, you were in the Viet Nam war. Did you ever” I started.

  “Do you mean did I take things from the dead? Yeah, I did, see when we came upon or made a kill, NVA, Charlie, we searched them.”

  He went on to say that most of the time they had shit, a photo, or something in their pocket that had no value. We were looking for maps, or intel. He told me how he hated touching, searching the dead. Some fresh ones weren’t bad, but the ones around for a while, it was not good.

  “The ones a day or two old, all smelly and puffy. I remember one that was so bloated it blew up on me. I got covered with guts and shit.”

  I let that sink in and remembered a couple of dead body calls I had been on. I knew what he was talking about.

  “What about money? Rings?” I asked.

  “Nah, a few did, but not me, most of us had this superstitious belief
about a dead man’s money. It was bad luck, it was cursed.”

  “Then why did you suggest it in the story?” I asked.

  “Easy, I figured we were all dead anyway, so why not.”

  “Okay, so let me ask you this, if you had survived would you have, you know, ah, scavenged the dead?” I asked.

  “Probably, if they were fresh, yeah.”

  “Why?”

  He took a big drag of his cigarette, “Because we were all gonna die and it seemed a good idea, just in case.”

  I thought about it, I guess it was new ethical territory for them, so it did kind of make sense.

  “Okay, I see you are almost at gun shop, so I am going get back to the others. Mary Lou says ‘Hi’.”

  I looked in the mirror, he was gone, if he had ever been there. Funny, I can almost smell a faint odor, smoke, cigarette smoke.

  The RV, The Trip Begins

  I have often considered another drive cross country, to check out some of the National Parks that I have missed. I have hit most of the big ones, Glacier, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, but some of the smaller ones I have missed.

  I remember the last time when I did the southern route from home to Santa Monica, California. I always told everyone that I just decided to make a coffee run. But really it was more about visiting or driving Route 66, the mother road. Another item on my bucket list check off as done.

  That was a good trip. It gave me time to think, to settle my soul and just reconnect with the inner me. With all the visits from characters from the trilogy I think this could be a chance to finally put them to bed so to speak, to move beyond the story and start thinking about the new writing project.

  I actually did a little blurb when I got back on ‘How to Plan a Cross Country Trip’ for Wiki-How. It has since been modified and improved by some other folks, but I am proud that 120,000 reads have taken place with a 4+ star rating. If only my trilogy could be as successful.

  Anyway, I-90 is the longest Interstate in the country, it runs from Boston to Seattle along the upper part of the country. I think that it would be a good choice to drive since I have covered the southern routes, I-10, I-40 or at least parts of them.

  The other aspect of it is that initially I-90 was part of the story when Tom and crew headed west to distribute the medication that the QUalz created. It was also the way that Matt and Tanya continued west for a while and eventually ended up in Canada. But I will not deviate that much from the route. I-90 it will be.

  In the last trip I drove the KIA, actually the SUV that I did talk about in the Trilogy for the trip. It was comfortable and I enjoyed it with stops along the way at various hotels, motels and casinos. I actually had only one bad night, a rundown dump of a room in a HOJO in the Kansas City area. The rest were fine. But this time I am thinking that rather than rack the miles up on the new car I would rent one of those RVs, a small one, the Cruise America ones or something like that with the gaudy images of the country all over them. It might not be the most cost effective way to go, but it would give me a chance to stay at some cool camping places in the national parks.

  I remember on one of my trips out west I stayed at a campground in the area of Zion National Park. It was different because you slept in a teepee, on the ground with a pad and a sleeping bag. I spent three nights and it was one of those experiences that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

  The first night it was about mid-night when the coyotes came running by yipping and yelping as they chased a deer. I am not sure if they caught it because about 2:30 they were back by again doing the same song.

  Then the second night, it was a balmy 37 degrees, which was not too bad with the sleeping bag, but that middle of the night pee call was not exactly swell. Teepees do not have bathrooms or toilets and it was about a 100 yards in the dark to the outhouse. Although, the sky with no ambient light left the stars bright and beautiful and worth the walk.

  And finally, there was the last night, it was not so cold but there was this cricket. I swear it had to be the size of a small house cat based solely on the noise it made. But then, part of that may have been the acoustics of the teepee itself.

  So, like I said this time I take an RV which I rented from a place in Windsor Locks, just off of I-91. Luckily, because it was getting late in the season, early September, I was able to work a deal in which I would drive it out to Seattle and drop it off there and then I fly back.

  The Camper was not very large, enough for sleeping two, with a little stove, refrigerator and a potty. But there’s no one to ride with me so it is just Ning (my cat) and I going to make the trip. I could hardly leave her home and I had gotten her accustomed to riding in the car long ago.

  I have stocked with groceries, and packed assorted clothing and necessities and was ready to go. I left the condo on September 17th, thinking that by about the 30th at the latest I would be in Seattle although I had no specific dates or places I had to be so it could be earlier, or later, I‘m not really concerned.

  Ning settled into the passenger seat and almost immediately fell asleep as I drove north on I-91 and took the left onto I-90. I know, technically I am cutting off about 70 miles from the trip, Boston to Springfield, but its close enough for government work.

  My plan was to travel about 300 miles a day and doing so would get me to Seattle in 8 days. But I had made provision to spend a little extra time in a few places along the way, Devil’s Tower was one of them.

  Captain’s log, Day 1, September 18th 2016 Yeah, I guess my writing style from the books is taking over.

  We left this morning at about 9 am, stopped for a Dunkin Donut coffee and a toasted everything bagel. I was able to avoid the morning commuter mess on I-91 in Springfield, Mass and hit the Mass Pike by 10. First Officer Ning was sleeping in the passenger seat.

  The plan is to get through Albany today and continue west until about 5 PM. There are no specific stops that need to be made at this point, the early part of this trip is more about covering ground than sightseeing.

  As the day progressed, I considered making a stop at Fort Plain, just to see if it had changed, but then, I knew it hadn’t, it was the same in the real world as it has been for years, so no need.

  But I did decide that it would be interesting to make a stop at Fort Stanwix. That had been a place that was important to the story and the only idea of what it might be really like was based upon my Internet research and not a real time visit.

  We reached the site at about 4:30 and I had a little time to wander around the fort. It was really nothing extraordinary, a colonial fort made of earth and stone. And yet, I could imagine, vividly the events that had occurred in my story. I could see what Matt had seen with the guy being staked out for the zombies. I could hear the pop of the gunshot and …… screaming about being shot in the balls. And I felt the anguish when Keith was found all busted up.

  When I returned to the RV, I sat for a bit, just thinking about what took place there, in the story. Ning was sprawled on the dashboard just soaking up the sun. As I sat, there was a tap on the window. A woman, a park ranger was there. I rolled down the window.

  “Hey, not for nothing, but it is off season, if you want to you can park here overnight,” she said.

  “Oh, okay, thank you.”

  I sat and thought about it for a minute, part of me said it was as good a place as any to stay, and it was getting late. But then a little ding went off in the back of my head. A warning that I may have a ‘visitor’ or two overnight, this place could be haunted by my characters. I had faced them before so I really was not frightened of them. And the insights had been good, so I decided I would stay.

  I crawled into my sleeping alcove about 9:30, Ning was asleep by my head.

  Captain’s Log: Day 2, Sept 19th 2016

  Ning was softly pawing at my face, her ‘I want breakfast’ announcement. I looked at my watch, 7:42. I stretched and found that I was refreshed, but also kind of disappointed, I had a dreamless night with no visits. I tho
ught it strange, I mean consider that I was in one of the real places that I had written about I would have thought that, well, anyway. Breakfast time, mixed grill for Ning, and pumpkin spice Cheerios for me.

  We were on the road by 8:30. I did not get a shower this morning, but that is okay. The goal for today was a little place in Erie, PA, a campground called Presque Isle State Park. It is a little peninsula that juts out into Lake Erie.

  I probably could have traveled a little further than Erie, but there was something, some reason why. That part of the trip, well the countryside is pretty boring, the industrial east, and the rust / coal belt. But it was about the 300 mile limit, although I am finding that over 300 miles in some parts of the trip are going to be necessary.

  As I drove along, I listened to the radio. Fortunately it was a satellite radio so it was not necessary to tune and re-tune to find stations I wanted to listen to. For this leg it was music from the 60s and 70s mostly.

  As the tractor trailers rumbled by, I stayed in the right lane. The 6 cylinder of the RV was not up to trying to run with the big dawgs. But that was cool, I had no were to be and plenty of time to get there.

  Wow, Judy Collins, I thought as I listened to the radio, Send in the Clowns. As I listened, the words, they shifted and the voice, I remember that voice, it was one I had heard recently, in my computer, General Welles. And the clowns were now drones. ‘Send in the drones, people are dying here, send in the drones, too late, they’re already here’.

  I saw one, on the shoulder, to the right, sitting on the side of the road, that metallic master of murder. (Sorry, got into the M’s for a moment there.)

  As I looked in the mirror, I realized it was a traffic control box. I laughed, Ning looked at me funny. I am still way too into my little universe, but that is in part why I am making the trip, closure, if I can.

  Then there was a ping on the back of the RV, I checked the mirror, I could still see the traffic control box, but I shouldn’t.

  “They are single minded when they lock on to you. They don’t give up said a voice from behind me.”

  I have turned and saw them, a couple, in navy police BDUs sitting at the little dinette table with steaming cups of coffee in front of them. The woman was smiling at me, the male was looking toward the back of the RV.