The Event Series (Book 2): The Gospel According to Matthew, Margo & Lance

by Thomas Larson

  We found a bunch of what I think might be tomato plants or maybe squash coming up at Henry’s old farm. The question was whether or not we can move them, or if we try to let them grow where they are at. Matt or Tanya will have to give us the word on that.

  We also found a small apple orchard about 8 miles to the south of the camp. I guess we knew it was there, sort of, Del and I had hunted the area last fall but never thought about it as a real good source for food. Just goes to show how much we all are used to going to the grocery store.

  Matt, Stephen and LJ are trying to get the tractors fired up and running, they have been sitting for a year so the batteries are dead and other issues like mice eating wiring all have to be attended to. By the end of the day they had one running and one just about there.

  (Matt) Wow, it is good to be back with the thing I love the best, hands in the soil, seeing things grow. The Earth has always been good to me, and yet, I let it get away from me and got caught up with other things. It is so obvious to me now that She, the Earth, Gaia, whatever you want to call it is the answer to so much.

  I am hoping that we can get that other tractor fired up tomorrow, the wiring was pretty messed up. But we have replaced or repaired the damage and should be good to go. The batteries are good for now but we need to keep in mind that sometime soon we need to replace them. There is an auto parts place in Hinsdale and if the batteries did not have their acid pre-installed, well they should be fine.

  I kind of like LJ, I never really had a lot of time to get to know him, but when you’re in the middle of knuckle busting with rusted bolts you kind of get a feel for people. When he first joined us he came across as kind of a hard ass, but I think that was all the cop veneer that he put on. He is different now and really kind of funny to listen to.

  Tanya and Langley are working on the ideas for the herb garden. And now with the possible tomatoes and squash plants that Margo and crew had found, space may be a little more precious. Imagine fresh tomatoes, our deer bacon, and if we could only find some lettuce, wow, a BLT on acorn bread toast.

  May 7th

  We got the second tractor started and were off to start plowing the cornfields this morning. It is funny, a year or so ago when Henry was doing this we had to send a couple people to guard him from Changed. We have seen so few of the dead since winter that it is no longer a big deal. We run into a few here or there on scavenging runs to the cities, or like when Tanya and I were on our pilgrimage.

  Focus on the food and getting ready to plant, that is my job right now.

  (Lance) Another day of going out to look for and removing solar panels from some from the area homes. We left Ron behind today. It is amazing the number of solar cells available. I think that by the time we get done we cold have probably about 20 or 30, not that we can use them all right away, but it will give us a supply to work with and some spares.

  I talked to Stephen and we are going to take a ride out to the farm that has the wind turbine and see what it is we could do to get it moved to the camp. I think that the turbine was not that critical in the summer, but when the snow falls it may be something that gives us a little edge for when the panels get covered.

  (Margo) Del, Code, and I had to sit through hours of listening to Nick and Grace tell us about what to look for in the way of edible plants that we could gather. I would much rather have been hunting, or running, or for that matter repeatedly hitting my hand with a small hammer.

  It is all good, and all important…..but BORING!

  May 8th

  (Margo) Keith and the new girl, woman, Pam are settled in and Keith is fitting in well, he has already started to work on setting up a little area where he can play dentist. It is going to be a simple spot, and mostly he can do cleanings, and tooth pulls. But it is another luxury of the days gone by.

  Pam, now she has had a hard time of it. I mean in some form or another we all have, but what I have heard is that she was basically a sex slave to the guys running that Fort Sandwich or whatever it was called. She is stand-offish and very withdrawn, and I can see how that would happen.

  Michelle has tried to talk with her, and she seems to be warming up a little, they have some shared experiences I think, with Michelle’s former career in holistic medicine and as an exotic dancer and then the getting kidnapped by the biker gang. I hope it helps Pam out of her shell.

  Code, Del and I headed out to look for more resources among the local farms and houses. We found a couple of different types of fruit trees (more apples and some peaches) in some of the yards. One of the houses checked out seemed to have been owned by a hoarder, there was stuff everywhere. It was stacked like 4 feet deep with little trails through a maze to get from room to room, and each room had a center passage, but was stacked with things, newspapers, books, empty bottles and just all sorts of weirdness. I think that we may have to empty this place out because I have a feeling that there are some treasures among the trash.

  Not much else going on, last night Code and I sat out and watched the sky; it is so beautiful without the extra lights of the old days. We just lay side by side on top of the blanket. He is a good guy.

  (Matt) Not much to report today, I spent most of the day plowing and we have the main cornfield ready for planting. It is good to feel the sun on my back, the smell of the earth. The work gives me time to think, and be grateful for where we are and what we have.

  Tanya and I were talking tonight, it is Wednesday and she was wondering if we are going to start back up with our Sunday services. That is a good question. Part of me says that we should do some kind of enlightenment, or shared activity of kind of a spiritual nature, but I am not sure if Sunday is really a necessary part of it. I mean now, every day is a blessed day, and it really doesn’t matter which we choose.

  “Do you think we need to pick a day, or maybe would we be better to just take a little time, now that the warm weather is here and take a little time at sunset to have a little, like a campfire with sort of Vespers or prays at the end of each day?” I offered.

  “I think that would work better, we start it tomorrow night, we get the word out and just see who wanders by.” She suggested.

  “Yes Earth Mother, you are on target!”

  “Thank you Sky Father,” She smiled back at me.

  (Lance) Mark, Fred and a couple of the others were out gathering more solar panels today. Nick, who I discovered was a plumber before the fall, worked on starting to get the panels we had already collected ready for installation. It is not hard work, but tedious. I smacked my hand with a hammer today, hurt like crazy.

  It is all moving forward, I actually think that if this goes the way I want it to we could use a few electric space heaters. That would be cool, or should I say hot. Oh crap, that was bad.

  Del is giving me a hard time about always having that stupid tiger hat on. I am not ready yet, I am not ready to let my secret out, and to her credit, and she has respected that wish by not trying to pull it off.

  May 9th

  (Matt) It was another good day getting an early start on preparing the earth to receive our seeds. I am planting the corn today; Tanya is going to finish clearing an area for the herb garden.

  After a little discussion on the herb garden they, The Three and some of the others, thought that it would be better to plant the herbs, and for that matter also the vegetables in the ball field across the lake. It would leave it open for visits from the local animals, but it gave a lot more room, and it did have a chain link fence around it.

  As I was finishing planting, something caught my eye, over against the stone wall. I doubt I would have even noticed if that raven had been cawing on the stone wall. I jumped down from the tractor and walked over, a hatchet, actually a little larger, it was a throwing ax. It must have been dug up when we were plowing.

  It was old, very old, and rusted. The wooden handle, which was in need of replacement, was decorated with leather, and strings of beads, a gift? There was irony that a raven would cause me to find it,
and they are one of the “tricksters” of this region.

  That night Tanya and I built a little fire in the pit by the flagpole. As we sat, just enjoying the weather, the quiet, the beauty, I worked on the ax, cleaning the rust off of it easily, and I sharpened it. My thought was that it might have been left by one of the Native American tribes in the area.

  The handle, I would need to be replaced, but in doing so I transferred the leather, and the beads. Actually I am not certain it is leather, per se, but might have been the hide from another animal, a deer, a bear, a badger. I guess I will never really know. Thank you Earth Mother, Raven, I shall hold this dear to me.

  (Lance) Code and I were finally able to get through to the Pittsburgh, they had been in dive mode for a couple of weeks. I actually spoke with the Captain, Tom Katzung. I told him about the radiation issue that we had been so worried about and he said that it was not that big an issue which confirmed what I had kind of figured out.

  We also talked about the HD141. He had one of his minions, a Petty Officer Collins explain to me what the thing was and how it worked. The device was a sort of scrambler deflector. What it did was to send a message to the Hunter’s control target mechanism that basically blocked any reading of the virus for a quarter mile radius. That meant that if we placed it in the camp near the east side of the lake we would have a half mile of safe zone. If a Hunter was in the area it would not bother us. Awesome!

  After Collins filled us in I spoke to Katzung a little more. He said that he had heard of rogue groups out there, some were military; some were just a militia that was thrown together. The reason that he knew they were out there was because like us, the rogues had Sat-Comms. Just something to be mindful of I thought.

  “We are going on another deep run and will be out of contact for about two weeks, we are heading down to the Gulf of Mexico to try to see what is happening at Pensacola. We will try to reach you when we are back in the area. I figure about June 1st.” He said.

  “Okay, be safe, and don’t forget to close the hatch when you dive.” I said.

  “Ah Yeah, ah, right,” he laughed.

  (Margo) Ah yes, here we are, Lucy and I, in the wild, armed only with high-powered hunting rifles and little cloth bags hunting the elusive wild but safe to eat mushrooms. Yeah, that was my day; we found some, so that is good, but it is pretty boring.

  After dinner, as it was getting dark, Code and I saw that there was a fire in the pit by the flagpole. We joined Tanya and Matt and just sat and watched. Matt told us the story about the old hatchet that he was cleaning. It was kind of cool; I had not really thought about what the tribes, the Indians might have lived like in the area, or what they experienced. But in thinking about it, we are kind of heading to some of those adventures, and that lifestyle.

  May 10th

  (Matt) It is Sunday, and back in the day, well, maybe about 5 weeks ago Tanya and I would do a morning service praising God and being thankful. A couple of people asked us if we would be taking that up again. And we will, sort of, but it will be a little different. She and I have pretty much decided that we would do a nightly fire with sort of Vespers. But it will be different than the old Bible stories, it will be about being in the moment, and about the wonders of nature, and how the Earth and the Sky provide for us.

  The moral lessons will be very much the same, but just presented in a different way. It will be more a group bonding session than a worship service.

  Tonight was pretty sparse as far as those who joined us. It was Cody and Margo, Teckla, and Mark and Michelle. We just sat and talked about the old times before the meteor, and how we lived. It was just a general get together, just community, kind of family, a new family, but family just the same.

  (Lance) Nick and I had another day of electrical work on the solar panels while Fred and some of the others were out collecting more panels. We have installed one cabin so far, it is taking longer than I expected. But we have all summer, so that is not a problem. At this rate, we will be done by the beginning of June.

  No sword work today, but I focused on fluid movements and balance.

  Del and I had a great night tonight, we took a walk out into the woods and just enjoyed the warm air, and it is nice to not be cold. I still can’t believe that she has hooked up with me.

  (Margo) Another day for the “Mushroom Hunters”, Del and I were LOL’ing about that as we stalked our elusive prey. I know I make light of it, and really, what we’re doing is all part of who we are now. Can’t go killing things every day, and besides, I would rather have a nice mushroom soup rather than deer stew.

  Tonight Code and I joined the fire circle. It was kind of nice; it is like being back in 4H camp at the end of the day. We told stories, and remembered stuff. I thought about Mom, and Meme, and Gramp and Tom, and all we have been through. It was at times sad, and yet, being with the group, and Code, it was good, it helped.

  May 11th

  (Matt) LJ and I got the rest of the cornfield done today and now it is time to move on and get the smaller fields done. Tanya had asked that we turn the ball field area so that they can get some things like squash, pumpkins, tomatoes and cabbage planted. A raid of the Pittsfield Home Depot has resulted in many packages of seeds. Yeah, they are GMO based in some cases, but who cares, I think that in the long run it’s unimportant, it beats starving.

  We got a thunderstorm tonight around sunset. We watched it roll in and it was breath taking, the lightening, flickering over the trees, and the rumble of the thunder. But when the rains came we moved into the dining room and held Vespers there. I use the term Vespers, mostly because I think it is kind of a cool term.

  It was the usual suspects again tonight, Mom, Mark and Michelle, Code and Margo. We had a few others join in also, Taylor and Chelsea joined us and Keith came by, with Pam.

  Pam, I feel so bad for her, she is so withdrawn. It looks like she is going to cry at any moment. I can understand her pain, and her suffering, I just don’t know how to get her to release it.

  (Margo) Code, Del and I all headed out on foot this morning to scout the area for orchards or maybe some fields or farms that might offer additional food stuffs. Lucy was right there at my side the entire time. She was not going to be left behind.

  We figured that we would try going to the east a little bit, so when we left the camp we went to the right and picked up Michaels Road. We would walk away from the camp until 2 pm and then start back. That should get us home for dinner.

  We followed Michaels out to Route 8 and took that north for about a mile where we came to Middlefield Road. We took a right onto it and headed down the road. The road, really all the roads, were definitely seeing the effects of not being used, there were plants and even little trees coming up in the cracks in the pavement.

  About ¾ of a mile down Middlefield we came to a farm that extended across the road on both sides. We began to check out the buildings on the south side of the road. It was a standard farmhouse, kind of old, like one hundred years, white, shutters, you now the type. It kind of reminded me of Tom’s parents place in Canton.

  We checked out the house and the barn. There were some things that we could certainly use. There were seeds, and some farm tools, and a tank, probably 200 gallons with diesel fuel in it. This was someplace that we would have to come back to with a truck to pick up the goodies.

  We moved across the road and started checking out the buildings on the other side of the road. It ran deeper into the woods and was the main part of the working farm. There were some tractors, and different types of farm machines, I think one was for hay making, a Baler/Bundler maybe? And this really big thing that had some funny looking nose on it that looked like it was almost a scooper grinder thing that had a big pipe in the back to shoot out something.

  We went further back and as we did Code stopped us with a single utterance.

  “Horseshit!” he exclaimed.

  “What? Huh?” Del said, sounding a little confused.

  “Horse shit, there is
horse shit on the ground and it looks fairly fresh”, added Code, pointing at a small brown pile.

  We were excited, this was the first time we had seen any indication of larger animals other than deer in the area. A horse, or wow, horses, what that could do for us. We looked around some in the fields and the area, and found lots of poop, but no animals.

  It dawned on me that with Lucy there with us it could be scaring off the horses. Or maybe they just aren’t close by right now. But this was something that we had to explore further.

  We checked out the big barn, and found hay stored there. And there were some stalls that meant that at some time there were horses kept there. We also found saddles, and bits and riding equipment. In one of the stalls, we found a mummified body of a horse. But even so, we knew that we were onto something. We would have to come back and try to find these animals, or animal. We would tell the folks back at the camp.

  Over Vespers we talked about our day at the farm and what we had found. Matt and Teckla were both very interested and Tay said that when she was younger she used to ride and work with horses. As they talked, it became clear that they had some knowledge of the animals and that they may be the ones to go try to capture them.

  Wow, horses, now that would be awesome.

  (Lance) Slipped on the roof today and fell off, Doc Barkley says it is only an ankle sprain and I should stay off of it for a few days. Del chewed my ass for falling, but it wasn’t exactly my fault, one of the panels just kind of got unsteady and knocked me over the edge.

  Nick stopped by in the afternoon, looked at me and my taped ankle and grunted, “Well, I guess you are limited in your movements today.” So he gave me a lesson in “sitting Ninja”.

  Del found me a couple of things I could use for crutches. So we were able to go to the fire tonight, although we ended up inside because of the storm. It was neat to hear about the possible find of horses. That would be great, we could become even less reliant on cars and trucks.