The Emerald Virus

by Patrick Shea

  Sam looked at Noah with raised eyebrows and Noah told her that almost all members were assigned. She asked the group about remaining skills.

  A young man in the back of the room raised his hand and timidly told the group he was a geek. He knew he wasn’t too good with people but he knew computers intimately. A young woman added that she wasn’t ‘intimate’ with computers, but she was pretty good. The group laughed.

  The geeks told the group that they would want to interview each person and find out what automated equipment they had in their RVs. The woman smiled and told the group not to worry, if they didn’t know she or her colleague would simply look for themselves.

  Next they told the group to be careful with printing documents or spreadsheets. They weren’t sure how many extra ink cartridges the group owned and for some of them, once the current one was empty they wouldn’t be able to print until the spring when they could get out of the park.

  Sam looked around the room and saw relief on a lot of faces. She smiled and told the two that they were now the lead geeks in the community and everything about automation would go to them. She asked if there were any other computer experts and while a number of people said they were good users, no one else wanted to open a box or a laptop.

  The group decided that once they settled in, the computer experts should put on training classes and the geeks were happy to agree.

  Sam told the group that since almost everyone had jobs they would adjourn now. She asked that everyone meet her back in the lobby after dinner that evening. She smiled when she set the time for seven o’clock and told the group that she wanted to talk about some lighter topics this evening.

  Sam then asked those who did not yet have assignments to stay after the meeting. Everyone but her and Noah left.

  She looked at Noah who said, “I’m sure we still have a couple of folks unassigned, and obviously they’re planning on staying that way. But I want to meet with the men bringing in the tankers before they get started, so maybe we can talk later today about what you want to do about slackers.”

  Sam agreed and they went their separate ways. Noah had turned himself into what Sam called the ‘Trail Boss’, and she was still contacting people on the list from Jack. They had tried to talk to everyone on the list once they got settled in, and they were now down to thirty people she had not yet talked to or traded emails with. She had told both Noah and Ben she would continue the effort. By the end of the day anyone who had not yet answered she would count as not interested.

  Sam didn’t see Noah until that evening. He came into the lobby right after the meeting started. He looked out of breath and she knew he had not eaten since breakfast, unless it had been somewhere else.

  Sam started the meeting by thanking the group for coming and then asked for a show of hands from those that had arrived during the day. She knew from the welcoming committee that she should see twelve hands, and she did. She thought that was a great start. She also knew the skills of each person and she told them that as a group she would meet with them in the lobby at seven in the morning to talk about work assignments. This was not a surprise to any of them, so again the committee had done its job.

  Sam asked any group leaders who needed additional help to join them for the morning meeting and told all of the others to plan on meeting when and where the various leaders asked them to meet, although they were all welcome at the morning meeting if they so wanted.

  Sam then told the group that she wanted to ask some questions and she wanted them to be honest. The only restriction was they could not refer to past family or friends in any way.

  Sam was concerned that it might be too early for the question, but she hoped most of the group would be able to participate. It had been two weeks since the last death, and longer for many. She and others had spent at least some time each day talking about loved ones and Sam had done all she could to help people with the grieving process. She was now going to try to take another small step, but this time as a group.

  Her first question to the group was “What aren’t you going to miss from the old world? Remember, you can’t mention anyone you knew.

  “I’ll start and the rest of you add what you want. Personally, I’m not going to miss TV commercials about four hour erections.”

  The group laughed and one person stood up and said, “I don’t believe I’m going to miss soap operas too much.”

  Again the group laughed and another person added, “I don’t think we’ll have a great need in the future for mowing lawns.”

  This brought a round of applause from the men in the group and Sam added, “I always knew if it was left up to men that front yards would be made of concrete.”

  Everyone laughed, and the next comment was made by Billy Sidle, an eight year old who had captured the group’s heart already. Billy said, “I’m not going to miss school, especially on rainy days when I have to stand outside and wait for the bus.”

  After the laughter Sam said, “Billy, that reminds me, we’re going to have to set up a school for you aren’t we?”

  Billy looked at her with his big eyes and even bigger ears and very seriously said, “No Miss Sam, you will not have to go to that trouble just for me.”

  As everyone laughed Sam looked at the serious expression on Billy’s face, and then saw the impish grin come and go as he looked around the room. She realized that what she had heard was true. This one was going to be the rascal in the group. He was going to help this group she thought, and they were doing all they could to help him and the other children.

  A young man said, “I probably won’t miss speed limits too much.” And the laughter continued.

  And now the comments were flowing readily, one after the other, and the group was having fun trying to outdo each other. She had asked a couple of people to help keep track of the better comments and she hoped they would be able to capture them all.

  As things started to quiet down she said, “Okay, this might be harder but let’s give it a try. I’d like to hear what you will miss from the old world, but again no comments about anyone you knew.”

  Now there was silence and people looked around the room self-consciously.

  Lily was the first to speak and she said, you know, I’ll miss listening to the weather forecast each evening. They were never right so why I’m going to miss it I don’t’ know.”

  One of the men said, “I’m going to miss tinkering with my old truck on weekends. I’ve been rebuilding this 1948 Dodge pickup truck for eight years now. I don’t know if I would have ever finished it, but it must have been like therapy or some such thing because I’ll miss it.”

  A young man said, “I think I’m going to miss live concerts, although not all of them.”

  This got a laugh from the group and then a young lady said, “I’m going to miss going to the mall on Saturdays and trying the latest in new makeup.”

  Some of the men groaned and this got a laugh.

  Sam said, “All is not lost. We might have to learn how to create makeup from scratch and practice on each other.”

  The horrified look on the young woman’s face started another round of laughter.

  A middle aged woman said, “I think I’m going to miss having policemen and firemen around. I always have been a worrier and knowing such people were around to protect me always made me feel good.”

  Sam said, “You’re absolutely right about that. That’s a topic we’ll discuss during one of our meetings. It’ll be important to the whole group.”

  A young man looked at Sam and said, “Sam, I’m not sure I agree with you about the policemen. I like not having someone looking over my shoulder at everything I do.” He then looked at Noah and said in a humorous way, “No disrespect intended”, and everyone who had been at the first meeting laughed, even Noah.

  Sam answered, “You have a right to feel that way, and when we discuss the subject you can tell all of us why you feel we’re better off without constables of some sort. Between now and then I want
you to think your feelings through a couple of times. While there are some advantages to no constables, there are some important disadvantages as well.”

  Sam had been smiling as she said this and the young man looked at her and said, “Thank you Sam, I’ll do that.”

  He reminded Sam of a person she had known from some of her college classes who had to disagree with what was said, no matter what. Consequently, almost everyone ignored him and no one gave anything he said any credibility at all. She thought if she asked this young man to posit a positive reason for his stated view it might help keep him quieter in the future, or perhaps more valuable to the group. She knew she’d find out soon enough.

  The answers continued and Sam felt she had done the right thing. The feeling in the group was generally light, and there had even been some good natured heckling during the session. More importantly she had a much better feel for what the group as a whole felt strongly about. She wanted to be able to create a list of issues she needed to work through with the group and she thought tonight would lay the groundwork for doing so.

  After ninety minutes Sam adjourned the meeting and went back to her R.V. She knew that some of the group would stay and talk and that Noah would be there until the end. She wondered where he had been all day.

  Sunday: Yellowstone National Park, Old Faithful Inn, Wyoming

  As Noah entered Sam’s RV on Sunday morning he said “Sorry for being late last evening, and for not getting back to you during the day. As you know the fuel group found a full tanker truck about fifteen miles from here and we brought it to the park today. I didn’t know how difficult it would be, so we took two snow plows and two snow cats along with a pair of men for each. It turned out that wasn’t enough. We learned a good lesson today though.

  “What happened?”

  “Well, first of all we didn’t have any tire chains for the tanker, but we thought with all of the other equipment we had with us we could still move it okay. That turned out to be true except for the going downhill part. The back wheels simply locked up at the lightest touch of the brakes and twice they slid into the ditch. We were darned lucky that the tanker didn’t overturn.”

  “It took forever to figure out how to get the back end out of the ditch and back on the road. After the first time we sent one of the snow cats to find some tire chains, but by the time he got back we had just finished with the second recovery. We kept it on the road after that, but we put towing chains around the back of the tanker and the front of the trailing snow plow so we could use the snow plow to keep the tanker slow and straight.“

  “Well, I’m glad it turned out to have worked for you. Did you eat last night?” Sam was surprised she had asked the question but it was too late to take it back. She didn’t want to start sounding personal to Noah, even though she was concerned for him.

  “No, I didn’t get a chance to eat. By the time we shut down the lobby and I got out of those wet clothes and through a hot shower I couldn’t seem to keep my eyes open. I’m hoping you made a big breakfast for us.”

  Sam laughed and said, “You might be in luck, I have a normal sized breakfast bur Lily just called and said she is sending the first loaf of bread out to me, and the second to you. I told her about our eating arrangements and asked her to have both of them sent here. You’ll be able to eat all of the fresh bread you want.”

  A moment later the knock on the door announced the delivery of the bread by one of the young helpers. Sam thanked him and set the bread on the table, next to the stick of real butter.

  Sam looked at Noah and started laughing. His eyes looked like they were starting to water and his nose was working like a rabbit’s. He looked like he had just arrived at the pearly gates.

  Noah looked up and said, “It ain’t polite to laugh at a starving man.”

  Sam laughed again and said, “Unlike you, I know the difference between a hungry man and a starving man, and you’re a long way from starving.”

  Noah didn’t say a word until he had sliced a couple of pieces of bread and covered them with butter. After a couple of bites he said, “I think I’m going to ask Lily to marry me.”

  Sam said, “I think she might have enough offers from some of the men closer to her age, but you’re welcome to try.”

  Noah smiled and said, “Well, maybe we should talk about what to do with slackers before we head to the meeting.”

  Ben had just entered and asked, “I’m not sure what the choices are. I think they either work or they leave.”

  Sam said, “Well there are always more options, the question is always about how many are actually viable. For example, one option is simply to let them be. That’s what I would consider less than viable. Being with the group has distinct advantages over being alone somewhere, or being with a group where no one does anything for the collective good.”

  “The other extreme would be to force them to leave because they didn’t volunteer to work when they had the opportunity. But again, I don’t think this is viable. We don’t know why they didn’t volunteer. Heck, as far as I know maybe one of these people is a double amputee and isn’t able to do physical things.”

  Noah added, “But even so that person should have let it be known what the problem is and ask to be assigned to non-physical tasks.”

  “I know Noah, I’m just saying we don’t know the reasons and we should at least find them out before we make a decision.”

  “I agree. So the first thing we need to do is ask them what the problem is. So now let’s talk about what to do. We’ll need to be prepared for any eventuality so you can make a good decision. I think we give them one chance to volunteer for something they are capable of doing and if they don’t agree we ask them to leave.”

  Sam said, “That’s harsh. Are there any other options?”

  Noah responded, “Sam, I don’t think so. We would risk upsetting some really good people in the group if we don’t act; Maybe all of them. It simply isn’t fair to the group to carry the weight of some people who just don’t feel like contributing.”

  “I know your right, but I was hoping for another option I haven’t thought of. I don’t think there is really anything else to talk about, but expulsion in the middle of winter might not sit well with some either.”

  “That’s true. Maybe I’d better at least get a feel from the group. I sure don’t want to give the impression I’m willing to give up leadership though, because I’m not. I may not be the best leader, but for me to step down voluntarily I need to know a lot about my successor.”

  Ben said, “Sam, I just don’t think that will be a problem. No one wants to face Noah, and even the new people have heard that story by now. My guess is that the welcoming committee let’s all of the newcomers know that we aren’t looking for a leader.”

  Sam smiled and said, “Yeah, you’re probably right. One way or another I’m not going to worry about it until I know I need to.”

  Sam asked, “Noah, what will happen to anyone we ask to leave because they won’t work? We have enough people to take care of everything we need to do.”

  “Sam, it’s not that we have to need everyone so much, as they need us as a group. But as a group we work because we have to in order to survive now, and create a better life in the future.

  “I’m sure some groups out there will be willing to sit around and let everyone fend for themselves, and if that’s how they want to live that’s fine with me. But our group wants to do things better than that.

  “We want to have fresh baked bread, and real eggs, and our own horses, and a place to congregate and all of the other things we’ve started here.

  “While I’m not excited about tossing people out of the group, it’s just remarkably unfair to the group to allow people to stay who aren’t willing to help.

  “To answer your question I don’t know where they will go, but I know from reading the web page each evening that there are choices they can make. And as long as the big snow hasn’t hit us they can still leave in safety. If they g
o east and then south they can get almost anywhere, so now is the time for them to leave.”

  “I know you’re right Noah, I just hope the group understands.”

  They finished their coffee while Ben cleaned up, each of them thinking about possible problems in the group meeting. They walked together to the lobby.

  Sam walked through the crowd to her normal position by the fireplace. She was surprised that the room was almost full. Apparently nobody wanted to miss the meeting. She knew this was a sure sign that she should continue to distribute information and assignments in a large group forum for as long as she could make that work.

  As always she opened the meeting by asking, “Any newcomers since our meeting last night?”

  One hand was raised as Sam expected. Colleen, the lead for the welcoming committee, had been waiting by the front door to tell her that they had met with and gone over everything with the newcomer early that morning. Sam was impressed with the diligence of the committee. She realized yesterday that two of the members had parked there RVs so that any newcomer joining them would have to drive between them, or stay back on the plowed single lane on the road. Sam now realized why.

  She would always ask about newcomers in the meetings though. She knew that more and more people were using the opportunity to introduce themselves to the new people.

  They went through the normal business and made additional assignments based on the people who had arrived since the meeting yesterday morning.

  Same glanced at Noah with a questioning look and Noah shook his head, implying that not everyone was yet assigned.

  Sam addressed the group by saying, “We have a problem I’d like to let you know about. Some members of this group have not yet volunteered to participate on any workgroup. My thought is to interview them and find out why. Where a good reason might be excused, I think a bad reason needs to be dealt with quickly. We only have one option available to us, and that is to ask them to leave our group.”