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

by Larson, Thomas

  Asuna was able to give us some insights there, and with his background the Major was able to confirm that it was within the logic of the military. It appeared that there were three major hubs that were operating and then a cascade that worked it way down to places like Waterlveit Arsenal.

  Fort Knox, Kentucky was the hub that Waterlveit had reported to early on. It did make sense because of the gold reserves and the underground vault complexes. It was really not all that close to much other than Louisville and was tucked away in the mountains which would also help. Other forts and bases may have been more susceptible to being overrun or suffered from the cleansing. Fort Bragg, for example, was too close to Atlanta. Early on the orders and control came through loud and clear from that base but as time when on it became increasingly quiet and eventually the transmission came that the command was transferring to the Cheyenne mountain facility in the Rockies.

  Lance was able to put together a list of the bases that had actually transmitted over the last six months by checking cookies or something on the computer. It was evident that the only base in the north east that had survived was Waterlveit and that was not much of a survival. The New London (Connecticut) Naval Base, Westover AFB in Massachusetts and the bases in Rhode Island and Portsmouth, New Hampshire had been written off quickly and the troops were transferred out of there. Fort Drum lasted a little while, but not long.

  We have not attempted to make any contact with the military. It did not seem really necessary or for that matter a good idea. We were hanging on, and actually kind of comfortable, or as comfortable as one might be at the end of the world. Perhaps it was watching a few too many apocalyptic movies in which the military was simply used to purge the non-military or those who might have the disease.

  In reality the military was really the only logistical infrastructure that could have even come close to dealing with this disaster. They had the command and control network that could have done it. They had the toys to make a difference. But over the years, between the misguided budget priorities, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and general anti-military attitudes that resource was greatly diminished to the point that they could not really get the job done.

  We had come to rely on the citizen soldier rather than a warrior class and in fairness to the citizen soldier they had families so where were their priorities. The desertion rate was high, most going home to find no one there, and quickly falling victim to Zoms or suicide. I could not blame them for doing what they had done. In a way those of us who have survived, in one form or another had become the warrior class. We were all warriors, a Spartan forged in the battle for survival.

  The girls from the dorm along with Tanya, Teckla and Charlene are all out making a gathering run of whatever plants and nuts that they can find. They are working in teams for safety. Margo and Delany are out hunting and Frank and Matt are fishing. I think that we all have come to the same idea that food is going to be an issue this winter and that we would be better to have too much than finding ourselves boiling bark and acorns come February.

  The guys from the boy’s dorm have been working on wood cutting and splitting. We have a pretty good supply so that the individual cabins will have enough to work with for most of the winter. Over time we may need to consolidate some of the cabin occupants if the supplies start to get low. We also should probably think about trying to find a couple of propane trucks to use for the hot water heater and the cooking. I will have to bring that up.

  Oct 7th

  Anne and I had a nice talk last night. I have been feeling a little guilty about the time that I spend with Asuna. I will admit that I get kind of lonely. Margo has her own group of friends now and although she is still good about hanging out with me they are in many ways becoming her universe and I understand that completely. It is a part of growing up. She and they are the future for the human race. At this point my job is to do all I can to see that they get a good start and are ready to deal with what is out there. In the end, Anne told me that I had “done good”.

  In that vein of thought I wonder how many other groups there are like us out there. The various experts seemed to feel that 1% of humanity would survive. I am on one hand hopeful that there is at least that many. But I am also hoping that we really do not run into any of them, we have not had such good luck with some of the folks that we have had contact with. As the season progresses and winter rolls in, I am not sure that all the groups will be or are as prepared as we are. I am nervous about raiding parties. We have more to fear from the living than the dead.

  Oct 8th

  I talked to The Three about the propane issue and they agreed that it was a good idea. I approached Frank and Joseph to see if they wanted to head up to Hinsdale to see what we could find. They agreed. As we were loading up, Asuna came over.

  “Need a wingman?” she asked.

  I could see in her eyes that “No” would be the wrong answer.

  It was a milk run and we were back at camp by noon with two propane trucks. We parked them near the kitchen building.

  While we drove back from Hinsdale I actually asked Asuna out on a real date. Not that there was a lot of options available, but I asked her if she would like to go on a picnic away from the camp on one of the Harleys. I was nervous as heck. She said “yes”. So my focus was a little off for the rest of the day trying to think where a good place to go would be and what I needed for the trip.

  Oct 9th

  It was pretty much a free day and the weather was rather nice. It was warm. I had long since given up on trying to figure out the temperature. We have no thermometer and really had no need for one. We classified the weather very simply. It was sunny or not sunny, it was raining or not raining and so on. And when we consider the temperature it is real hot, hot, warm, cool, cold or real cold. At either end of the range some colorful metaphor might be added. So today was a sunny day and warm.

  Asuna and I hopped on the Harley and were off for a ride. I had talked Grace into packing us a picnic lunch for the trip. The trip itself was going to be about an hour ride out toward the east, back through Peru and then on towards some of the higher hills in the area. I thought that Mt. Greylock might be good with a nice view and that had a large empty area near the top.

  The open area would be a good place to picnic because we would see if any Zoms started to come into the area. We brought a CB radio and a portable scanner that was set for most of the local police / fire bands. (We had gotten a book for frequencies from one of the book stores). It would give us the chance to hear if there was anything happening out there in radio land.

  The trip out was pretty uneventful and we reached the mountain top at about noon time. We checked the area and then enjoyed the goodies that Grace had packed for us. Then we just laid back and watched the clouds go by. We talked about the past, the future, cabbages and kings. We really did not have much about the present moment to discuss, it was wonderful and I think neither of us wanted to spoil it.

  We all seem to have an arch type of attraction on the physical side and it is that physical attraction, that infatuation, that holds the relationship together until love kicks in or you realize it is not going to work. It is a complicated thing but we all have that idea of what our mate or companion should be. I have always been drawn to dark haired, dark eyed women. It is the eyes that do it for me. The rest is really kind of icing on the cake.

  Anne had those eyes, Ellen, my high school crush had those eyes, Debbie, my college sweetheart had those eyes. I know it is a bad pun, but for me the “eyes” have it. Anyway, Asuna has the eyes.

  It was about four o’clock and as we were getting ready to pack up and head back to the camp the CB radio suddenly kicked in. Whoever was transmitting had to be a pretty good distance from us. But we could get bits and pieces of conversation. One side was probably a base unit because it was pretty clear, and strong. The other transmissions were weaker and broken up.

  The gist of the conversation seemed to indicate that whoever it was
they were under attack from a horde of Zoms. They referred to them as “walkers”. They seemed to be holding the horde off pretty well and they talked about evacuating to “the island”. The defending parties were trying to make it to the boats to do just that. Then it became clear where this was all taking place. There was a transmission from the base that went out to the defenders that simply said “This is Nate, burn the west side of the lake, repeat, burn the west side of the lake then come to the island.” There was a garbled message but it was something about not all had been evacuated. Then there was nothing.

  I am not sure if they discontinued transmitting or if they had nothing else to say. But I know that Otis, Camp Overrun, Uncle Elgin were in a bad situation. They had hundreds at the lake; they were well fortified, and had crumple zones to fall back on. But if they were now heading to the island, it was bad and our 30 people were not going to change the odds.

  We could see the black smoke starting to rise to the south, it had to be 30 or so miles by my best guess. My thought was that we should get back and tell the others what we had heard and seen. It was going to be too late to get Steven up to check on it. But perhaps a little recon work in the morning to see what we had would be good.

  When we got back, we told The Three what we had heard and what we thought the situation was.

  “We need to send a group to check out what was going on, and if we could do anything to help,” said Teckla.

  “Yeah, but it is almost dusk, we can’t go out there now,” said Henry.

  We all sat down after dinner and talked through a few ideas and all came to the same conclusion, we would do what we could from the air, but we were not going to get on the ground that was too risky based on what we knew. The flyboys and Steven began making some plans.

  After dinner we went to work getting the planes and the chopper ready. We loaded the chopper with a lot of ammunition and planned on door gunners. The small planes would also have some gun capability.

  Ron added the idea of maybe some gasoline bombs, basically the old Molotov Cocktails. It is a good idea, but a dangerous one. It was left to each of the pilots as to whether they would carry them or not.

  Jan, of all people suggested “What if each plane had a “bombardier” along to add to the safety of getting the gasoline bombs clear of the aircraft.”

  Fred excitedly responded, “That is a good idea!”

  But, and this was a big but, the airplanes could not use firearms until all the gasoline bombs were disposed of. This was to prevent an accidental explosion.

  Steven suggested “If we were planning to take the small bombs, well why not make a few bigger ones. By taking some one gallon milk containers and filling them with gasoline or kerosene we would drop them on the horde. The containers would burst open on impact and then the small ones could be dropped to ignite the spilt fuel.”

  Everything was built and loaded by 10pm.

  Oct 10th

  The dawn broke and we were airborne as soon as we had a little light. There was a sense of urgency in getting in to do what we could. Stephen, Mark, Asuna and I were in the chopper. I was in the co-pilot seat with the CB and other radio gear. The Three had finally given me a mission. Mark and Asuna were at the doors. Jan was Fred’s bombardier, Ron and Cody teamed up and Ethan had Larry flying with him. I can only imagine the discussion between Fred and Jan about who was going with him and she won out. I will admit that I was not real enthused about Asuna at the door, but I also realized she was the best person for the job.

  As we cleared Mt. Greylock, I tried to establish contact with Otis. It took a little time but we finally got through. At first they were shocked that there was anyone out there, but when they realized what it could mean, they were very glad for us to help them.

  I had Steven take up a position over the lake and at first we just looked at what the situation was. The island seemed to be okay, there were a lot of people there, but they were safe. Along the shore however were a large number of Zoms. My estimate was about five to six hundred. They were still on the land and but moving about, I kind of chuckled; they reminded me of a Black Friday crowd at Wal-Mart.

  The ones in the back, away from the water kept pushing and surging forward pushing the ones to the front into the water. The ones in the water were floaters, they would thrash around for a while. But they did not seem to sink, or at least the ones that were mostly still intact.

  I wish that Anne and I had considered this when she was doing her research. It would have been good to know if the Zoms could function underwater. We have never seen any come out of the lake, but that may have been sheer luck.

  The floaters created a problem for us. We could deal with the ones on the shore, but the floaters would be hard to dispatch. We decided that the best way to handle this was to drop out kerosene near the shore and then have the planes work from there on the horde from the back. That should create a fire storm that would toast the majority of them.

  We set to work. The fires were going well and doing what it was supposed to do. After we got the kerosene down we could then start taking care of some of the floaters. It was Mark that saw the big gasoline tank on the shore by the boat launch. He figured a couple of rounds piercing the tank and it would drain into the cove with the floaters. Then we just had to light it up.

  The planes were now empty of gasoline bombs, and there was not much else they could do so they were sent back toward our camp. We finished up with our part of the task of getting a floating fire going in the cove with the floaters.

  I contacted Otis Base and told them that we had done about all we could do for them and asked if “Uncle Elgin” was still around. They said he was and got him to the radio. He recognized my voice.

  “How is it going down there?” I asked

  “We’re pretty good right now, but we have lost about a third of our group between illness and Zombies.”

  He went on to say that they were still well supplied and now that the horde was knocked down they could clean up and get back to their feet.

  “Thank you for coming to help us, you want to drop in for a landing?”

  But both Steven and Mark shook their heads indicating it was not a good idea. I gave Elgin an excuse that we were low on fuel and needed to get back. But as we were flying away told him; “We will be back in a couple of days to see how you’re doing.”

  I had a bad feeling about the whole series of events. I still did not trust Nate and his buddy Barry, assuming they survived the horde, and I was certain that they did. But beyond that, all those people suddenly evacuating to the island made me wonder if there might not have been a few that had been infected and had hidden it.

  It was a good night at our camp tonight. We had done something good, heroic. It felt good. Asuna knocked on my door. It appears that there was some fraternizing going on in the Girl’s Dorm and she wondered if she could spend the night.

  Oct 11th

  There was still a sense of euphoria in the camp this morning from our helping out Otis.

  I hadn’t noticed it before but there are some new seating arrangements. It was more of who was sitting with whom than how the seats and tables were arranged. I think between just being together as a group, and the seeming stability that our little community had developed there was romance in the air. It had been obvious with many of the youngers. Fred and Jan, Mark and Michelle, Margo and Cody had all been together for some time. But there were new connections like Nick and Grace. Delaney and Lance have connected and seem to be doing well and interestingly Matt and Tanya have been spending a lot of time together. They are particularly interesting because of the spiritual nature of their lives; each is a religious leader in their own right.

  I feel bad for Cyril; he is very much alone now with the loss of Arcelia. Margo, Cody and I do our best to keep him going but it is wearing on him.

  I had felt guilty, and sometime still do, I feel like I am cheating on Anne by spending the time I do with Asuna. But we have talked about that, Anne an
d I, and she made me realize that in this uncertain world, time for anything was very much a luxury and that it was best if I moved forward because it could come to an abrupt stop so quickly.

  Frank and Teckla took a ride out today to find some additional gasoline to replace the supplies that we had used in our efforts to assist Otis. Taylor and Chelsea went with them. It was thought that getting them some scavenger time would be a good idea. We were safe and secure, or so it seems, but in the back of a lot of minds was the idea that Otis had been safe and secure and look at what happened to them. So the thought was that a little front line action was a good thing to acclimate and test people before the real shit hit the fan.

  Henry, Ron and I checked the fence lines around the camp. What can we do to make them better if there was a horde at the door? The answer is really nothing unless we want to bring in a bunch of semi-trailers. It could act as a fortress, to a point and buy us time. That is something we need to discuss with The Three.

  The other issue that comes this winter is that we may face is the Zoms coming across the lake. We had nothing in place to stop them. I probably should not be thinking this way, what is that old saying about your fears meeting you half way? But if we are going to survive we need to try to be as ready as we can be, always.

  I had no visitor tonight. I am kind of disappointed. It was nice to be alone, I was pretty used to it before the meteor, and had gotten used to the close quarters afterwards.

  Oct 12th

  It was another pretty nice day, clear and warm. We have not seen much of the turbulent weather that we had back in July and August which is good. I am hoping that things will remain settled like this for the next six months or so. A mild winter would be a great help.