The Event, Life after the Meteor

By

Thomas W. Larson

Copyrighted © July 2014 by Thomas Larson

All rights reserved

Cover Illustration

By

Ariana Patterson

Acknowledgement

I would like to take this opportunity to thank some friends and family who have helped in the creation of this work.  First of all to Marianne and Ariana for being involved in the project.  Also to Heidi and Matt Theriault for their help with ideas and editing.  And finally my outside the family “editors” Keith Hollinger and Beth Burke.  You all were so much help.

This is the disclaimer:

Although a number of events and locations in this story are real however the people involved in the story are all fictitious and do not really exists except in my mind, and now maybe yours.  Any similarity to a person living or dead is strictly coincidences.

The Event, yes, I think that I can call it The Event, occurred while I was taking a nap.  It is funny; a number of the big occurrences such as the Challenger Disaster, or the Reagan assassination attempt took place while I was napping.  They really did not impact me at the exact time, although in the days, weeks and years to follow they would.

I call it The Event because I am still not entirely sure what exactly it was.  So let me go back a little and start to chronicle it.  On February 19th (2013), there was a near miss of the Earth by a large meteor.  Shortly before it passed by there was a smaller meteor that entered the atmosphere and exploded over Russia.  When it exploded, the blast broke out one million square feet of window glass.  I recall the incident, and saw the video on the Internet. Most of us did not think much of it at the time other than it was something that had to elevate the pucker factor for a lot of folks in the Ural Mountains.  Can you imagine what it must have been like for those people who knew the big meteor was coming and then to see and hear that blast?

I’m sorry, I’m kind of rambling on but it has been a while since I’ve had a decent night’s sleep, a hot shower or a good cup of coffee.  I’ve come to the realization that I probably won’t survive in the long term, but then, none of us expect to.  What I mean is that after The Event, survival as we know it changed.  I am writing this as a means to help me understand what happened, what is happening and finally give a record or some insights of what we (my group) may have done well, or wrong, should someone find this and do better at survival than we have.

I will apologize for my poor grammar, I am sure that over time I will bounce from first person to third person as well as past to present tenses.  I am a retired cop, not a novelist and it has been 40 plus years since I had English Comp classes.

Feb 24th

I guess to start let me run through the point where I, we, society….. Hell…. humanity realized that something had hit the fan, and we were in trouble.  It appears that when that meteor hit the atmosphere it did something.  There have been many theories that I have heard.  Initially it was thought to have released a gas, or dust or a burst of some form of energy like gamma rays, only different.

There are those who suggested that it was actually a weapon of some sort that was aimed at the Earth by the larger meteor passing by.  The “What” does not really matter much at this point, although the idea of an attack, with no attempt at conquest seems unlikely. It opened a series of questions as to the possible motive, if it was an attack but that is a discussion for another day.

Anyway, CNN, Fox News and all the rest dropped reporting about the problems of Republican versus Democrats or the issues of Obamacare and all eyes and talking heads were watching Europe, and then Asia. Every channel showed surveillance camera footage of people just dropping dead.  They would be walking along and then boom, they were on the ground, a little seizure and it was over.  Cameras zoomed in on bodies’ that littered streets first in parts of Russia, and then Asia. The TV was filled with reports of the growing areas of the deaths.  There was something about wind direction and at the onset that it was the wind that was moving the death along.

News networks dragged out with their “health experts” who droned on and on about what was happening but really gave little insight as to what the cause was, it was all conjecture.  One of the earliest theories was that it was some form of airborne virus. Some suggested it was a breach at a Russian Bio-weapons lab. The Russian government claimed innocence.

It was on about the third day after the start of die offs that things turned ugly, I guess weird is a better term.  How can you think of a massive die-off of millions of people not being ugly?  It was on about that third day that the re-animations began.  All of those puffy, bloated rotting bodies began to twitch, move and start walking again.  It was in those early days that the military and the research teams were still trying to clear the streets as well as determine the cause of the die off.  Those units suffered the onslaught as they were surrounded by the re-animated.  They were over-run and torn to shreds by the gnawing, slow moving unstoppable hordes that appeared impervious to gunfire.  There was no escape for them.

The Russians and the Chinese were a little slow to act on the re-animation at first, but within about 12 hours they had nuked entire cities, there was very little left.  Actually, I am guessing that there was little left because there was no longer video feed to the networks, only satellite photos of that part of the world with large plumes of what looked like smoke or clouds during the day and blackness at night.  We had always been told that cockroaches could and would survive a nuclear attack, I wonder.

And so that was the end of it, the epidemic was stopped and the danger was over. Or so they said, but there was a small detail that arose. It was the travelers, all those people who flew out, or took the trains, or drove to areas outside of the initial death zones.  It was impossible to trace them and too late by the time they were found.  The Middle East was where the next big die off took place.  That was followed by London, Paris and then, on to North and South America.  The reports by the CDC or WHO said that an airliner or a passenger train were nothing more than a sort of Petri Dish for the virus. I am assuming a virus, the CDC never really said before it went silent.

With all the connecting flights and travel contacts, the virus was pretty much around the globe by the 25th of February.  By that point all we could do is watch CNN, Fox or MSNBC as humanity was slowly blinking out.

Feb 26th

One of the things that was repeatedly hammered home to all of us in the family was my Dad’s famous quote, “Be Smart”.  Unfortunately that quote left a lot of open space and ‘smart’ was never really fleshed out, so often my idea of ‘smart’ and his were quite different. But at this point in time ‘smart’ was to realize the potential of the situation and begin to collect what things would be important to have for when it was time to get out of the area. I wanted to survive, perhaps for silly reasons like, just to see if I could do it.

I began to think about what I would need to make it through.  I created a list of survival needs and began to collect them. And I no longer left the house without a firearm.  I was not sure what I was more concerned about running into, the re-animated….shit…they are what we have all come to know as Zombies, may as well call a spade a spade, or was I more concerned with the still living, in their state of panic, and acting irrationally.

I was not the only person thinking about surviving this. The grocery stores were empty of bread, cereal and milk.  I chuckled as I thought about people preparing for a winter storm or hurricane.  This was no winter storm.  I opted for Spam, and beans, and canned goods. And yes, I even took the canned dog food. I stockpiled items into my self-store unit to allow room in my car for more collecting.

Although we had not reached critical mass, and I had hoped that we never would, but I knew better.  I knew that using the credit cards would only last so long and then it would be cash or barter system and eventually, maybe only a bullet system to eat and survive.

Feb 27th

“Anne, we need to talk, this is important”

Anne, my girlfriend, her 14 year old daughter Margo and Anne’s parents, Cyril and Arcelia lived in a little Cape Cod house on Eagle Circle in South Windsor.  Eagle Circle was part of a PUD which stands for private unit dwelling, sort of a condo complex but with individual units on a series of little streets.

“I think that we are faced with the end of the world and we have to get out of here, if we do, we might survive” I said, intense and hurried.

I was pretty sure that they would freak out or in the tradition of the family dilly dally and put things off to the last minute.  But I was surprised.

“I know.” was all she said.

We talked about what we were going to need and save from our current life.  We focused on things that would keep us warm, safe, dry, and most of all, alive.  I had decided that it would be wise to head up to Webster to Anne’s folks house to pick up what guns and ammunition were stored there.  I would make the run alone early the next day.  The outbreaks had still been restricted to the Boston area in that direction, although hotspots were starting to pop up out toward Brockton, and as far west as Framingham. There were hordes of re-animated bodies moving away from the cities and toward us with their teeth they were gnawing and tearing the life and limb of those unable to escape.  The victims in turn would join the horde when they re-animated. We had to get those weapons, we would need them, and we had to do it quickly.

Initially the government had put out statements directing people to head to the larger cities in their area. That was for the first couple of days. They claimed that they would be able to protect those who made it and keep them supplied with food and water.  But anyone who has ever done even a little research or read a zombie story knew that it was not true. If anything it would result in the worst case scenario of infection. I for one was very skeptical about heading to a city after seeing what had occurred in Russia and China. And although no one had officially called it a zombie outbreak, it was.

Our area around Hartford was still quiet; I was not super worried about Anne and crew for a four hour trip to Webster. I think that TV and movies have “bred” into us the idea to aim for the head when dealing with Zombies but Russians and Chinese had not thought of that when their units were overrun.

I gave Anne and Margo a quick run-down on how to shoot, and where to aim.  I taught them on the 9mm which I left with them along with 4 or 5 extra magazines. Before I left I did take Anne aside and talked to her alone.  She was scared, but holding up well, she had to, for the family.  I told her, “If it came down to it, maybe a single shot to the head for all is better than the other option.”

She looked at me blankly for a moment, and then understood. Tears welled up, and finally she just said, “Hurry back”.

Feb 28th

Be smart, the best way to make it to Webster was to take I-84 part way, and then go on Route 190 through the Hollow, that was Bigelow Hollow, an old state park.  I would run into the least amount of traffic that way.  I found that the part of 84 that I travelled was pretty quiet. It was a main route between Boston and New York.  Both of those areas were infested so there was little reason to travel between them. What I did not know was that there were periodic road blocks that had been set up by the military in major junctions of the highway to check on the people moving through. To pass through the road block all you had to do was prove that you had not been infected or were carriers. Infected and carriers were “quarantined”.

The problem was there was no way to prove you were not infected. It was later discovered that the quarantines were just holes in the ground that the bodies were dumped after a single head shot.  It was not humanity’s finest hour and yet believed at least by some local commanders necessary for the survival of the humanity.

Fortunately, I was able to pass easily into Webster avoiding the blockades and get to the folk’s house.  I quickly loaded up the car and was on my way back home in about 45 minutes.  I still had been fortunate in that I was ahead of the real panic in its full scale.  But as I drove and listened to the radio reports which were now calling it a plague and it had reached Waterbury and Worchester.  The noose was tightening around us and we needed to be on the road very soon.

When I had returned I found that the girls had packed both Cyril’s van and Anne’s Honda CRV with whatever survival gear and food they had available.  Both vehicles had been gassed up, which to their credit was a trait that was a standard with them.  Never get below a half a tank, in the winter time; keep topped off was the mantra.  I was also able to top off, although the lines were getting longer and longer and some stations had run out of gas already.  After gassing up I made the stop at my storage place picking up the items I previously tucked away.

I guess that those who know me, or knew me, were aware of my pets.  I had a couple of cats, Little Moo and Basement Cat. One of the more difficult things for me to do was to decide what should be done with them.  In trying to weigh it out, it seemed that the best idea was to turn them loose into the wild. Both were quite capable of outdoor survival and would hopefully be more comfortable in that environment than cooped up in a car driving to who knows were. Realistically if we took them with, well, I did not relish the idea that should the food situation become such that……you know…….

So far there had been no reports of the infected eating animals.  Or for that matter animals being infected.  This was one of the issues that the conspiracy and alien theorists based some of their argument on.

The various news outlets had talking heads that felt that if this was a universal disease that the animals would be infected, or perhaps subject to consumption by the “Changed”.  The fact that this was not happening seemed to indicate that the cause was specifically targeted at humans.  It went go back and forth between an alien introduced cause and that of an earthly cause such as a mutated microbe or virus.  And of course the question of whether it was natural occurring or was it something that the bio-weapons people created.

March 1st

We were going to finally hit the road.  Initially the thought was that it would be best to try to make an attempt to get across the Hudson River.  That would open up a lot of territory for us to travel and avoid areas I guess you would call Dead or Death Zones.  But the more I thought of it, and based upon the news reports that were still coming out it was clear that the bridges, the George, the Tap and the one up by Albany, were not going to work.  The first two were blocked by traffic and over run by the infected. The military in its efforts to stop the spread blew up the one running off of I-90 into Albany.  I am still wondering what they were thinking on that one.

It also was going to be a mess with the Mass Pike Traffic in the Springfield area which according to the radio was at a standstill.  Clearly the avoidance of interstates out of urban areas was a necessity.  Traffic or should I say abandoned cars and trucks were blocking most of the major arteries.  The best option was to take the lesser travelled roads.   We decided that we would try to head toward the western part of Connecticut and then travel up Route 8 to get to Massachusetts and then on toward Vermont.  Once we got up there ….well, we would just have to see.

About an hour before our departure time the shit hit the fan, not in the appearance of the infected, but in the decision by Anne’s parents that it made no sense for them to come with us.  They had a lot of good reasons for not wanting to go.  They were old, in their 80s, and not well, they needed the comforts of home, for as long as they lasted.  They realized that they would be a drain on the limited resources that we would be carrying. It was a terrible situation. Anne argued, demanded and cried that they should come.  The van did carry enough survival gear and food to initially cover their travel.  But as Arcelia pointed out, only she could drive and that the rigors of the road would be too much for her.

It was Cyril who said it best. “We have in our lifetimes been through a lot of stuff. It has been a good life for us.” He went on to say that “We don’t want to die, but we know that the road will be hard and even without the crisis, our time is short.”

Arcelia piped in; “We don’t want to struggle and scrape.  Your father is nearly blind, and I can’t walk long distances.  We would slow you down, and be a burden that could and probably would reduce your chances of escape.”

They had spent time talking about it the night before and decided they would stay put, and face the end on their terms.  We all knew it was the right thing, and yet it was a difficult reality to face. I think I will skip going into the long good-by that took place and leave to the reader’s imagination can fill these unwritten paragraphs.

I will say that before we drove off I got Cyril into the garage for a brief talk, and while there I slipped a 38 revolver into his pocket, for when the time came.

“I promise that I will do the best I can to take care of Anne and Margo.” I said.

Quietly he said, “Thank you, I know you will.”

There was a lot going on in the preparation and trying to collect the survival goods we would need but we, Anne and I were also in contact with other of our family members and close friends to make certain they were okay and that they also had an escape plan. I shared my plans to head north with Teckla, and Nick, I’m sorry, my sister and brother.

Teckla, Frank, her man, and my nephews, Matt and Mark were already on board and well into the planning and implementation stages.  Frank had been able to secure a box truck from his workplace, the Aqua Turf Banquet Club. They had laid in a supply of food, water and fuel.  Like Anne and I, they had determined the idea of trying to get over the Hudson was going to be a problem, particularly the further south on the river you were.  After talking with them we decided that we would meet in the area of Lee, Massachusetts, near the outlet stores.  It was a reasonably un-populated area so we felt it would probably be a safe zone for a little while.  Our target day was noon on the 2nd.  We had little CB based hand held radios and the idea was to use channel 23 as our “home” frequency.

Nick, Lauren and Jan, my brother, his wife and their daughter were a little more lax and fuzzy in their efforts. Nick, who was a year younger than me had a tendency to put things off. Lauren was the motivator in getting things done. Jan, a college sophomore was more like her dad, but when the time came, she was quite effective in getting what needed to be done taken care of.  They did take an aggressive approach for the escape.  However, they thought they would be able to forage along the way.  They had a Honda Rav4, which Lauren would drive. Nick was relegated to the Miss Daisy seat, but that had been his place for years.  They are also going to meet us in Lee.

I reached out to some of my friends and found that my cop buddies had their plans set and in place.  I told them about our plans and they shared theirs.  We were all pretty much of the same mindset of getting out of the area. Some were opting to try to go north and then east to the Canadian Maritimes or upstate Maine.  Others hoped for a quiet zone near Lake Champlain. In whichever case we had set some minimal contact plans in place that would work even after the cell phones and texting were no longer available to us.

Anne shared our plans with her brother Daniel in Texas.  We shared our initial plans.  We knew that it was difficult and unlikely that we would be successful in meeting up with them. Daniel and his wife Leslie had a good situation even though they were in the most populated area.  They were scientists hooked up with NASA down in Houston. They believed that they would be well protected.  But should it all start to unravel around them they had good escape opportunities due to its openness and opportunity to get off road.

On the remote chance of getting together with them we set a couple of target dates and locations to try to meet up.  The first was to try to get to Dodge City in Kansas for the beginning of September.  If one of us made it, and did not find the other, we devised a plan to leave information (Graffiti?) pointing to the next location.  That would be in southern New Mexico near Roswell a month later.  We were all of the opinion that finding warm dry climate might be advantageous in that it would quicken the pace of deterioration of the infected.  We would have probably headed that way immediately except for the Hudson. It was not that big a river, but it was a barrier.

In the course of those early days after The Event there were moments and demonstrations of great love, humanity and sacrifice but there was also the darker side of human nature that also came out. There were those who just floundered, wringing their hands, praying to God and expecting some miracle.  And then there were those who could not or would not wait for the infection to bring them down.  They chose to surrender themselves to death.  The tragedy is not that they did so but that they did it wrong, slashed wrists, poison, or hanging to take their own lives only created small pockets of undead to bite and slash at everyone in their path.

The houses around Anne’s were for the most part empty, either everyone had left already or the residents had crawled into the shelters or basements to wait for the inevitable.  It seemed foolish to give up so quickly and just wait for a horde to come and overwhelm you in your hidey hole. As I looked around the neighborhood, I could see a few cars being loaded for their run.

As I looked around, after putting the finishing touches on our repacking the car due to Cyril and Arcelia deciding that they would not make the trip with us, Brandon, Margo’s dad showed up. He and Anne got together in their 40s and had a late child.  The divorce was ugly and in the end he lost all control over Margo.  He had since remarried and shared a house with his new wife and her parents.

I was standing at the back of my Kia when he drove up.  He partially blocked the driveway with his car and got out.  He was beet red, disheveled and smudged with soot and blood.  He never looked at me but started walking toward the front door.  He was calling out to Margo, telling her to come out.  I stepped into his line of vision and said, “Brandon, stop, you don’t belong here.”

He stared at me for a moment and than said “Yes, I should be here, I have to save her from the hordes, from all of this.”

“What is your escape plan? Why aren’t you taking care of your wife, your parents, getting ready to go?” I asked but looking into his eyes I knew this was not going to end well.

“I have already taken care of them.  They are safe, now I am here to get Margo and save her too, and then I can be safe.”

I felt the hair rise on the back of my neck.  I knew what he had done, and what he was planning to do with Margo.  I was not going to let that happen. “Brandon, get back in your car and go home” I told him.

By now Anne and Margo were standing in the open garage. I was between Brandon and them and he kept trying to look around me.  I had not noticed until then that he had a long kitchen knife.  He had kept it close to his side and tucked away.  He called to Margo to come to him.  She looked at him, then Anne and simply asked “Why?”.

“I am your father, and I don’t want you to be one of them”, He said.

“What do you mean?  She asked.

He said “I am going to take you back to our home and you will stay there with me, forever.”

All she said very matter of fact was “No, I’m not going”.

Brandon got louder and louder as he ranted and demanded that she must obey.  He was her father and he had the right to do this, to make sure she did not turn.

“Brandon it is time for you to go, get into your car and just leave.” I said.

He looked at me briefly and ranted at me that I could not, should not be involved in this because I was a simple minded drunk who had no right to interfere.  He was getting increasingly agitated, slobbering and yelling. The knife was now in the open and he began to flail it around.  Then he started to walk toward the garage.

I had never shot anyone before; I had seen death by gunshot but never had to be the one pulling the trigger.  It was a brief surreal moment that I know would stay with me for the rest of my life. I could see the bullet leaving the gun……

As his body hit the ground, I knew that we could, would survive this ordeal.  Not the Brandon part, that was already over, but the enormity of this situation, The Event.

I knew that there could come a time when I might have to kill another human being but I had not expected it to be this soon, or that it would be someone I actually knew. Anne and Margo looked from him, to me, to him in shocked silence.  We stood for what seemed hours but really were minutes.

While we stood the acrid smell of smoke blew toward us from the north and I could see the smoke from the direction of his condo. I was sure that he had killed his parents and wife then set the home on fire.  He had come to take Margo to join them.  Sadly I had a feeling that a similar scenario in which family members, children were killed in quiet desperation had played out over and over again throughout the country and the world.  In a way it was like those jumping from the Towers of the World Trade Center on 9/11.  So hopeless, so desperate and yet wanting to control their own end.

Anne finally broke the silence and said. “It was time to go.”

It was a tearful goodbye with her parents. We had talked out the idea and impact of their going, not going and what the eventualities might be.  They were still adamant that they should stay.

I had a 2004 Sorrento with 200,000+ miles on it, I would have preferred something with a little less mileage but it was a good tough vehicle and it had a lot of room. Anne had the Honda SUV with less mileage.  Our plan was to initially take the two vehicles to start.  Then to discard one when we reached a point when one broke or was no longer drivable.

I had the Kia set up with one back seat set for a passenger and room in the front for another, although I put small, loose and disposable items in those seat areas to save room for important survival items but made sure those items could be quickly or easily removed if a rapid consolidation was necessary.

In the back part of the car I had placed my cans of spam, and other food stuffs, water, a little generator, some clothing for cold or foul weather, fishing gear, a tent, sleeping bag, and weapons.  We had the guns, but the ammunition was the limiting resource and needed to be conserved.  Melee weapons could be needed quickly so a baseball bat, and machete were in the front seat where they could be easily reached.  Spare oil, and vehicle fluids, a tow strap, a battery jumper and first aid equipment were all packed in or on top of the car.

As I strapped the five gallon cans of gas to the top of the car I chuckled thinking back to trips out west with Anne where we would often run well below what she felt was a reasonable quantity of fuel.

“I wished that I was back there again,” I said aloud.

Margo heard me and asked, “What?”

“Nothing, just thinking.”

Anne’s car carried much of the same things.  The idea was that if we had to abandon one of the vehicles we would still have a half of everything rather than lose all of some items.  It was the smart thing.

When we finally hit the road, the ability to text and cell phone still worked and satellite radio was still on the air.  In those early days the radio that was a great help. Satellite radio has had channels for large urban areas that advised on traffic to which they added escape information.  It helped to guide people out of places like Boston, or New York.  I am not sure how they did it, if it was using the traffic cams or if they actually had spotters on the ground.  But it prevented a lot of people trying to escape from driving into a traffic traps or bottle necks. Of course, it probably added to the spread of the disease by those already infected but asymptomatic.

Cell phones and texting were the only way to communicate while you were on the road, unless you had taken the little CB Walkie Talkies to talk car to car. We had one and were able to monitor channel 9 or 19 and receive road updates and traffic information.

As time when on, I knew that the satellite radio channels and the cell phone towers would blink out.  Power plants would be overrun and then the backup generators would eventually begin to run out of fuel, so eventually we would be reduced to just the CB radios and the GPS.  The GPS system is not land based.

We left the house and the folks and moved out onto Route 5 north.  The information was that the Interstate (84 & 91) out of and around Hartford and Springfield was slow, but still moving in both directions.  It was the outbound traffic that was the bigger problem.  I also remembered the checkpoints and wanted to avoid them.

As it turned out it was not the Hudson River, as I first thought, but the Connecticut River that was the barrier.  We avoided 91 completely and were able to get across the river on the Route 149 Bridge into Windsor Locks and then headed west toward my parent’s farm in Canton.  It had been abandoned since they had both passed away years ago.  We had put it on the market but due to the economic bubble issues of 2008 and the economy tanking it had not sold.  We still used the place for storage and had not cleaned out some of the out buildings that held tools, and equipment. I felt that there might be some items at the farm that would be of value to us on the road.

On our way to Canton I had Margo call Teckla and told her what we were doing. I prompted Margo to ask her if she could think of any items that we should take while we were there.  She and I were pretty much on the same page although she suggested a couple of small tools and items I had not considered.

We arrived safely and were able to load up with some additional items. We loaded up a few tools like a come-a-longs and a power winch, also a little fire wood. The gem that we found was the hand operated gasoline pump off of the old fuel storage tank that my dad had keep behind the barn. That would be huge when the power grid finally went down.

By the time we had finished looking around and packing up we had only a little daylight left and decided that spending the night in the old farmhouse was the safest thing to do.  There were hayfields that surrounded the house on three sides making it difficult for someone to sneak up on us.  Even though we had not seen anyone and the houses in the immediate area all seemed to be empty.  We hid the cars in the garage and spent the night inside the old farmhouse. We were careful about using the lights so we didn’t advertise that we were there.  It could be the last night in a house for a while, and the last time I would ever sleep in any property that was owned by my family.

I found that sleep eluded me much of the night as I dozed only to be awakened by a noise, or a nightmare. Had one of the infected gotten in the house?  It was like it had been back in the day after my Mom had passed and Dad was living there alone. He had health issues and needed to be watched. We kids took turns staying there to keep an eye on him.  I could not sleep back then either, every creak or noise and I would be awake and listening to make sure Dad was okay.  I was exhausted as it finally got light.

March 2nd

It was a sunny morning.  Over handfuls of cold Cheerios, Anne and I discussed the idea of dumping one of our vehicles.  We decided that it was better to hang onto both for the time being.  We were on the road by 9:00 and pretty much still on schedule. Margo who had been monitoring the CB gave us a little bad news.  It seemed that there was a crash on Route 44 in the area of New Hartford.  As a result traffic was not moving for a couple of miles.  God bless GPS because we were able to circumvent the problem by using back roads and continue on our way to Lee.

Margo was in periodic text contact with Teckla, my sister, as we made our way out toward the northwest corner of the state. Teckla messaged earlier to let us know that Uncle Elgin was up in Otis at his lake house and that the infected were not an issue there, so far. He had invited us to make our way up there.  We agreed that it seemed a good place to join up rather than in Lee. Anne, Margo and I arrived at about 4 PM, Teckla and crew rolled in about 45 minutes later And much to my surprise Nick, Lauren and Jan  arrived about 15 minutes after that.  We staked out a little area in Elgin’s lawn for our vehicles and ourselves.

The area was a fair sized lake with housing ranging from simple little cottages to larger elaborate homes as well as a marina area with a couple of Mom and Pop stores.  There was a campground on a little peninsula, and for this time of year surprisingly full, but then it was a refugee area.

There was a state of turmoil that existed in the area.  Apparently, there were two mind sets at play.  There were those who were truly prepared to fight through this mess and survive. Those folks had already begun to fortify and work toward making the area a safe one.  But there was also a faction that seemed bent on going out in style, or at least having the time of their life, short though it might be.

My first thought was that we might be able to fit into the part of the Otis community that was prepared and this could be as good a place to settle as any.  Some of us wandered around checking the place out.  Be it the retired cop in me, or just being smart, but I made certain that we kept some of our people at our campsite, just in case, and it was just as well that we had.  While Teckla and I were out checking the surrounding area there were a few visitors who were asking about our plans and our supplies and weapons.  No information was given out but it was clear that plans for our inventory were in the works.

While Frank and Nick took a turn to look around Teckla and I watched our gear.  We talked softly but we both had the same feeling, there was something that seemed wrong.  It was clear that this was not going to be a democracy and that there were already a few people who had taken to the idea of being the king, or prince of this little fiefdom.  It might be safe enough to start, but it was evident that some would merely be cannon fodder for a few of the more established people on the other side of the reservoir.  This was not a good place to stay.

While we talked we were visited by a couple of men from the other side of the lake, Barry Johnson and Nate Harrington.  A box truck and a SUV with a trailer were just too attractive a curiosity.  In talking with them it became clear that they were a couple of the movers and shakers of this community.  They were curious about our intentions, questioned of our plans, and what equipment we had.

They were willing to share certain rumors and travel information that they had heard hoping in the exchange for information from us.  I was not sure if it was by design but their information was outdated, and generally slanted to make us want to stay at the lake.  They said that they had heard that the bridge to Albany had been destroyed and that the Mass Pike was closed and littered with broken down cars and trucks. They said that a walking horde of infected was coming west from Springfield but the horde was sticking to the Interstate.

“You should consider staying with us; we have plenty of water, lots of good people and a highly defensible area.”  Said Nate

But in the sales pitch, or part of it, Nate said “We really don’t need your meager supplies, but they would pay your way into the collective. It is the fighters that we are looking for.”

It just did not sound right.

While they were talking with us I could occasionally pick out an armed person moving through the woods.  I was not sure if they were guards for the community or sentries to keep an eye on us.  Throughout the conversation the little voice in my head was screaming, “Danger, this was not a good place and that we needed to get out of there, and quick.”

It was about 8 PM when a bell rang, it sounded like a church bell.  Barry and Nate looked at each other and then turned back to us.  They explained that the bell was a warning that the nightly curfew was coming up and that everyone needed to be inside by 8:30.  Since we had not yet officially decided to stay or been assigned housing we could stay in our own area for the night but that we should not wander very far because of the guards. They said that we could talk about arrangements more in the morning.  Then they walked to their little golf cart and drove off.

It grew dark and as it did, I caught a smell of cigarette smoke or saw a soft glow nearby.  I felt, knew, we were being watched.

Uncle Elgin, my Dad’s brother, come out from his cottage.  We were parked on his property.  He had been sort of a local character up at the lake for years. Although in his early 70’s he was still doing well.  But he was slowing down, and one could see the effects of the sore knees, and back.

He had bought the place back in the 1970’s for snowmobiling. Over time he has expanded it.  He was somewhat of a collector, tag sale maven, and scrounger.  The cottage had the main building with room to sleep between 10 and 15 people easily.  If push came to shove, I am thinking he could double that number. There were also a couple of out buildings; one had a billiards table and play room with a three bay garage that was as large as the cottage.  There was a boat house and he had added three additional small temporary buildings since I was last there.

Elgin brought us out a large pan of ziti and sauce. Matt had built a little campfire; we were not worried about starting it because we had seen a number of them in various locations around the lake. As we sat around the fire enjoying the dinner we talked. We really stayed away from the subject of the infected and the community at first.  We reminisced about the good old days, telling stories about Christmas’ past, and relatives who had long since passed.  The story of the burning presents came up.  That story had become a family legend.

It was about 25 years ago, while we were living on Flanders Road in Southington.  Each Christmas Eve the family would get together and celebrate it there.  Our whole family, including my sister Greta would be there along with the Grandparents. The routine was that we all ate upstairs and then headed down to the family room where the Christmas tree was set up. There was a big crackling fire in the fireplace making it nice and warm down there.  After about 45 minutes one of the older relatives would sneak away, dress up as Santa and make an appearance to pass out the Christmas presents.  Things were running according to schedule.  While the women were cleaning up the rest of us were downstairs checking wrapped gifts and tags.

There was a stack of presents over by the hearth. The entire pile was for Matt and Mark, my nephews.  Suddenly, Uncle Elgin announced loudly that he had spoken with Santa who told him that the boys had been bad and they were not going to get any presents.  He picked the pile of gifts up and tossed them into the fire.  Matt was about 6 and Mark about 4 so you can imagine their reaction.  It was the end of the world, at least for them at that time.  Mark kicked Elgin in the shins and there were tears aplenty.  My reaction was simply “Oh wow”.

What had happened was that my sister Greta had decided to prank the boys.  She had gift wrapped and tagged a number of empty boxes.  She had conspired with Elgin to do the actual deed earning him the name of “Mean Ole Uncle Elgin”. I am to this day somehow considered a conspirator even though I had nothing to do with it.

We laughed and remembered.  Then grew quiet thinking about how the world had changed. Elgin brought the ziti pan back into the cottage. After about five minutes of the quiet we heard someone coming.  I was concerned because of the curfew idea and reached slowly for my side arm.  We had all started wearing them after we hit the road.  Actually I had started long before that and had I not the incident with Brandon might have turned out a very differently.

It was Uncle Elgin.  He had come back out to join us and to pick up the plates from earlier. He said he wanted to talk to us about staying.  I figured that a sales pitch from him was coming, although I had expected it to come later if we faltered in our decision to stay.  As he walked around collecting dishes; he sang the praises of Barry and Nate. They were the top dogs in the Lake Community Association.  Barry was a civil engineer with some local government experience and Nate was a former volunteer fire chief.  Elgin went on about how the place had fallen together and was becoming a community, a safe community.  But something did not seem right in his pitch.  He seemed nervous, looking around as if he was being watched.

As he came to take my plate, he commented that it was good that I had decided to join and shook my hand, in that offered hand was a folded piece of paper.  I caught on, and replied, “We have not fully decided to stay, but were going to vote on it shortly.”

I added, “The place seemed wonderful and I was certain that we could fit right into the program.  I personally was looking forward to it.”

This caused more than a few double takes and looks of concern, but also some smiles and facial expressions of hopefulness.  Uncle Elgin also smiled; he knew he had successfully passed his message and returned to his cottage.

As we sat, we put on some background music just to muffle the discussion from prying ears.  I opened it saying “I don’t feel comfortable in this place. There is a seeming hierarchy, and what appeared to be a caste system developing.”

I continued that, “I had a brief meeting with Nate and Barry. I feel that Nate is the top of the food chain and Barry, his lieutenant. But I just have this bad feeling about them, there is something not right here.” While I talked Teckla’s head bobbed up and down in agreement with me.

Frank said that he had done a tour of the lake by boat. “The surrounding shore was divided into sectors, some of the sectors are defensible, even heavily fortified, there are others including the one we are in that are open to attack.”

Nick, who was the least prepared for the trek, said that “I am all in favor of staying, tossing in our supplies to the collective and staying put.”

This took responsibility off of him, and he could just drift along, or so he believed.  I could see that this was a point of contention between Lauren and him.  She seemed to have a different feel for what was happening here or in the outside world.  She had no intentions of burying her head into the sand.

I think the two things that put us over the top, although I think with the exception of Nick we already were decided was when Jan spoke.  She “ahemed” and said “I was just wandering around near the water when I overheard a couple of the men talking.  They were talking about us and that we looked like most of us would be good fighters, particularly the big bald kids (Matt and Mark).  But they also talked about the young girls, Margo and me and how they would be prime breeding stock.”

She was a little flushed and adamantly exclaimed, “I am not going to be breeding stock.”

After having heard what Jan had to say we all sat in silence.  I put my arm around Margo and Anne giving them a hug and whispered, “We will be all right.”

Anne and I have a long history, 30 years together, some of which was not so shiny, but I never felt closer to her than I have over the last year.

After Elgin left, I excused myself to head to my tent to check on my cell phone to see if I had any texts or calls.  I took Elgin’s note out of my pocket and read it.  In his scrawl it said “It is all a lie, danger, get away quick!!!!!”

When I returned to the fire I still had the paper in my hand.

“I have just gotten a text from Anne’s parents.  They said they were still safe and that they wanted to be picked up if we can do it.”  I made it look like I was reading it from the paper like I had written it down.

I had added to Elgin’s note that we were going to vote on going or staying at the lake.  It was phrased that we wanted to go get Anne’s parent, and escape the community then thumbs up. If we were in favor of staying, then thumbs down. I knew it might sound confusing, because the way we voted and the hand gestures of thumbs up or down were opposite of the true meaning to confuse any of our ‘watchers’.  I passed it to Teckla, who passed it to Frank and so on.

After about 10 minutes of the quiet we took the vote. It was a unanimous thumbs up vote.  Once done with the vote we talked about how to get out of there with a minimum of muss and fuss.  I had laid out a frame work with the idea of the rescue, so it was more a case now of planning it as if we as a group were going to head back to South Windsor. Margo sent a text message to Anne’s parents and to our pleasant surprise they answered. The news was actually pretty good.  It seems that so far things had remained quiet and that there had been no significant undead activity in the area.

They said that the roads from what they had seen on the TV were all still pretty passable with the exception of the Interstates.  Through Margo I asked them what the status of the van was and if they could get out.  The said that they might be able to.

I remembered Brandon’s car.  I had them check it. The keys were in it. He had a Hyundai Santa Fe with four wheel drive. That would make them more mobile. Margo tested that they needed to charge the batteries of the walkie talkies and that they should be on Old Main Street by about 9 AM tomorrow morning. The cavalry was coming and we would hit the beach soon.

I had an idea. There was a little of the road off of Main Street that led to the Connecticut River.  I thought that this might work.  In the morning we would tell Nate and Barry that we were impressed by the place and that we had decided to stay.  And that in looking at the set-up we wanted to go back home and get Anne’s parents as well as pick up some additional items.  We had access to a good sized generator, additional food and supplies that had been packed into the minivan.

I would explain to them that the reason we had left the folks behind in the first place was that they had not wanted to be a liability to us.  But now that we see what the future could hold it made sense for them to come along.  We had been in text communications and had set up a rescue plan.

I felt that it was unlikely that Nate would be happy about the extra mouths to feed knowing that they were so old, but the mention of the generator was to sweeten the pot.  I would also lay out the requirement that this was a full team effort as we had information that things were getting hot down in that area and we would need our full complement to insure our success.

I really did believe that we could get the folks and bring them safely with us, but that it had to be done quickly, like in the morning, and it had to be a water rescue.  I would need two volunteers to go with me.

The rescue plan was really kind of simple.  We would take one car, probably the KIA because of the trailer hitch back to South Windsor with three of us.  I had seen a boat shop and a Honda dealership off of on Route 8.  The plan was to grab a couple of the jet skis and a trailer to get them to the Connecticut River boat launch in the area of Windsor, by I-291. Two of us would cross the river after signaling ahead have the folks and meet us near water’s edge. We zip back across the river, jump in the car and head back toward north.  Part of the plan was contingent on the amount of ice that was in the river, we would need open water for it to work. The weather had been on the warm side, so it should be fine

Matt, Mark and Frank all volunteered at once. But I held off on taking Matt.  He would have a very important role in the morning activities.

“Matt, I want you to hunker down in the back of the box truck with the rifle with the laser sight.  You are our insurance policy, and the edge to close the deal if need be.” I told him.

He and I spoke further after the group broke up to grab some sleep.  Our wake-up time was going to be at 5 AM and I wanted to be ready to roll by 7 AM.

March 3rd

Nate, Barry and Uncle Elgin were at our camp by 6:30.  It seemed that our morning activities, although watched did not become a concern until about 6:15 when we began to load our gear into our vehicles. They had also gotten the word from their eyes and ears after our vote last night but did not realize that we were making a move.

Barry was the first to speak, “I want to know what you are doing.”

But he and I were not located in the right spot of this discussion.  I invited him over to our fire for a cup of coffee and then asked him “What do you mean?”

He fumed, “You are taking advantage of us and now you are going to leave? We invited you to stay and this was how you repay that hospitality?”

“No, No, you misread our intentions.  We were very much in favor of the set up that you have. We’re so impressed that we were going back to South Windsor to pick up the two elders that we had left behind.” I explained.

Anne jumped in and tearfully added, “When we left South Windsor we were forced to leave them behind. They felt the road would be too hard a journey for them.  But now that we had found a sort of Shangri La, we want them to join us.”  She asked “If the situation was reversed could you just leave your mom and dad alone to die when there was the chance to save them?”

I let that sit for a moment and then jumped back, “Look, we packed additional food, some wines and a 2000 watt generator that would be a very handy addition to Shangri La.”

Nate entered the fray, “Those items would be a big asset to the community, but I don’t understand why you all had to go.”

Ah, a classic case of good cop, bad cop.

“Why don’t some of you stay here?” he suggested.

My answer was simple, “We’re a herd and we travelled together and watched each other’s back.  At this point the risks are low but it’s an ever changing situation.  The larger rescue group would be in and out much more effectively than trying to sneak a small group in.”

Barry looked at me for a moment, and then said, “That’s not acceptable, half your group has to stay.”

I looked at Barry, and then at Nate, and made a little nod to the left.  Then told Barry, take a look at Nate.  I asked him, “Is Nate your leader?”

With a smug look he said “yes”. As he turned to look at Nate, the color drained from his face.  He saw the little red dot on Nate’s forehead.

“In fact, I think that it might be real meaningful if Nate helped us out by driving with me to the edge of their territory.  Just so that your folks understand that we are sanctioned to leave and that we will be welcomed when we return.”

Fortunately, Barry was quite happy to be the #2 guy and stuttered that it seemed like a good idea to him.  Nate, with a perplexed look on his face turned to Barry, and at that point also saw the red dot on Barry’s forehead.  Instantly he understood the dire situation they were in.

Nate’s last effort to win this was to say, “You won’t give the order; you can’t just kill a living human.”

In some cases this might have worked, but I could only smile, and said, “That was what Brandon thought too, so let us take a little drive and we will get this all done quickly so you can be back for your mid-morning coffee break”.

Check and mate, both the men were deflated. They knew what the situation was, and neither was not about to give up his life to try to prevent our rescue mission.

Nate said “I will go with you to the edge of the compound but you might not find so warm a welcome when you get back.”

“I can understand that, and we will see how that all works out, remember, part of our return to good graces might be based upon the delivery of the generator and some other useful or luxury goods.”  But realistically, I knew that they did not want us back, we were not sheep and they needed sheep.

“Barry, why don’t you stay behind and keep things calm and quiet while we are gone,” I said. “Uncle Elgin, you ride with us to give Nate a “wingman” and a little security.”

I had no desire to just dump Nate out in the woods by himself.  I was not sure if there were infected in the area, but I would not want to be dumped that way. Elgin accepted the idea, as did Nate.

We “mounted up”, with Nate getting into the Kia with me.  I made certain that my side arm was not anywhere he could get at it, and I also made certain that he was unarmed.  I would return his Colt, a nice revolver with pearl handles when I let him out at the edge of his little fiefdom.  I think this guy did have a little Patton complex.

Elgin rode with Teckla.  They talked about the compound and where it was going and Elgin basically confirmed what we had figured out.  It was a place in which everyone was equal, but some were more equal and would be sacrificed very quickly should push come to shove.

Teckla offered him a place with us.  He was family after all.

“No” he said, “I am high enough in the food chain that if the place was going to hell that I will be in the final ring of defense and until then I have a good gig going. We’re family, but I’m part of the herd that lives comfortably at the lake, it has been like that for years. From now on you’re a herd of nomads and I am not ready for that change in lifestyle.”

While we drove I talked with Nate.  He was actually kind of a likeable guy on the surface and it was that charisma that was the glue that held the community together.  But you could also feel his dark side.  He asked me point blank if we were planning to return.  I was honest with him and said “No”.  It did not shock him much.  But he did ask why.  I explained to him that I did not feel that the place was right for us.  He pressed a little more, for some solid details so I laid out what I saw and how I read it. The safe and unsafe areas, the selective fortifications and “crumple zones”. But I did not betray Elgin.  I knew that Teckla was talking to him about joining us.  But I also knew Elgin, and I was reasonably certain he would stay with the lake folks.

When we came to the main road out of the lake area we took a left, which kind of surprised Nate.  I don’t think he realized that we knew about the dirt road back to Route 57.  If he had any set plans to stop us from our run, I had just put a wrinkle into those plans.

We drove down about a mile and a half and then stopped.  We let them go. Elgin and I hugged, and I wished him well, as did the rest of the family. Nate and I faced each other and kind of shrugged.  We had made our peace and knew where we stood.  He told me “You could have been a Prince.”

“For a while, but only for a while,” I answered.

We climbed back into our cars and the caravan drove off briskly, but not recklessly.  I was not all that sure I trusted the lake folks.

Several hours later I got a text from Elgin.  “I’m fine and have weathered the accusations and inquisition ”  was all it said.

Barry had apparently showed up shortly after we had dropped them off.  The back road idea had been a good one and Barry was tear-ass that he did not get a chance to teach me a lesson for the little laser dot thing.  But rather than have them chase us down, and they probably could have, Nate ordered him to let us go.  No good would come from the groups fighting it out.  It would be a waste of resources that would be needed sooner or later when the undead showed up.

Overall we only lost about 40 minutes in the exchange and activities spent in getting out of the Otis Compound.  That left us enough time to get to Windsor and make the rescue attempt, provided we had an easy time in finding and loading up the water craft to do it.  As we travelled down Route 8, we came to just the location for the items we needed.  It was fortunately abandoned also.  It seemed that more people were interested in ATVs and dirt bikes than a new jet ski.

It was Frank’s idea to take a bass boat instead. To me that seemed a little cumbersome for our efforts and needs at first, but as I thought more about it there was a sense to it.  It would be safer and easier to get the folks across the river. So we hooked the trailer with the boat to the Kia and started toward the Windsor boat launch. As Frank, Mark and I traveled toward Windsor we found a motorcycle on the way.  It was a Honda Goldwing which was good to carry two people comfortably but was definitely not one that would be good in an off road capacity. But it opened up some interior room for the trip back.

The rest of the group took some time to make certain there were not items in the marine shop that we might need.  Then they followed our route scavenging as they went.  They were careful to not engage any of the locals that were still around but if there was a business that seemed as if it might hold something of value, it was checked out.  There are some items that were always on the list of things to grab.  I mean food, and water was always sought after.  But also things like batteries and gasoline are also very high on the list.  In the weapons department guns and ammunition were must haves. Medical supplies were always a must. If we came upon a small trailer that we could add to one of our vehicles, it would be great for extra carrying space.

Cash, while it did not take up much room was not of any real value unless you were trying to light a fire. Cigarettes and alcohol would be potential barter commodities although most of us were not big into the use of either item. We would be living in a trade and barter society as well as one that relied on scavenging and perhaps even eventually raiding.  We would become like early Native Americans or for that matter Asians, Europeans or Africans living in a hunter gatherer society of small nomadic tribes.

In the course of our searching we kept an eye out for precious metals and such, although they were rare. We did not take jewelry off the dead. Eventually we might, but it was too soon.

In the scavenging part of the group Nick let his inner World of War Craft alter ego go wild, they found a machine shop which he put the time to good use.  He made a dozen melee weapons. It did not take long to make them. The shafts on them were made of aluminum and the heads were steel.  He had a couple of different designs, some were like war axes and others were like a morning star.  The heads and shafts were bolted on making them interchangeable.  He designed the weapons to work well for the individual wielding it.  He made one that was painted up as a Hello Kitty for Lauren, and some kind of pink ones for Jan and Margo.  His, of course, was the biggest, sharpest and shiniest.

The forage team found some fair sized school backpacks at one of the dollar stores. Teckla and Lauren filled these packs for assorted survival goods so that if someone had to make a side trip or if the need for a general escape occurred someone could easily get away with some basics.  Each kit contained some medical stuff, and a couple quarts of water, snacks and canned goods, a Swiss army knife, compass, flashlight with some spare batteries, a Mylar survival blanket, some matches or a lighter, a whistle and the all-important roll of duct tape.  These packs were kept near Nick’s little head knockers.

As we travelled through the Unionville area toward Windsor, we found that the Farmington River was much higher than we had thought due to the winter snowmelt.  We would be able to save time and exposure to any hordes that had come out of the Hartford / Windsor by using the area of Plantation Golf Course in Farmington as our launch base for rescue operations.  This would mean that there would be no eyes and ears at the crossing but there would be less cold temperature exposure or likelihood of someone falling into the icy river.  The benefits seemed to outweigh the risks.

We were able to find a suitable place to put the boat into the water.  Frank said “It has been a while since I fished the river, but I’m fairly familiar with it.  I’ll take Mark with me,”

It was about 8 AM when the two of them set off.  I sent a text to the folks; “The cavalry was coming”

I got back “We don’t see them.”

“We changed up the plan, will still be there at 9”

I realized texting in this case was stupid, so I called and spoke with Arcelia.  I told her “It would be good if they could get a little jump start that would be good.

She said they were already there she went on to tell me that the area was still pretty clear and that the only problem area in traffic was Route 5.  They said that after our text of yesterday they had made a test run and were able to get around a few cars and onto Pleasant Valley Road and down to Old Main Street.

I reminded them that it would be a water rescue, which they already knew and also that it might be a little cold so make certain that they were bundled up with rain gear on the outside.

This was a risky plan.  We were going to try to evacuate two people in their 80s, and not in the best of health.  If one of them hit the water, it is likely that they would not survive long, if the heart did not give out from the initial shock of the cold water and the potential panic they were going to be heavily dressed which meant sinking quickly was likely.  But it was the only way to get to them.

I messaged Frank and Mark.  “Packages ready for pick-up, it was all up to you.”

I did not expect a message back but was surprised when Mark said, “We are at the junction of the Farmington and Connecticut rivers.  We are close.”

I had a little time to think while I was waiting for their return.  I guessed it would be at least an hour before they got back, if all went well.  The question was what do you think about when the world as you have known it was basically coming to an end and that your chances of survival were not all that great.  I decided that I would forgo the philosophical things like is there a God, what it is like to die, or do the infected think or feel and go for the more pressing issues of the moment.

I knew that to survive we would have to develop and hone a warrior’s mindset and skills.  We were not by nature hunters and gatherers but we might be faced with other groups who were.  We needed a code, a sort of philosophy, oops; I guess I am going to get philosophical.  I really did not think that it would be that difficult to put a code together.  It seems that we, humanity, have a built in code of ethics when it comes to the big things.  It is like in nature, you do not kill unless it is necessary for your own survival.  On the surface that is easy.  But then the old saying is that the devil is in the details.

We shall have to sit down as a group and make our social compact, but more importantly will have to develop our plans for dealing with other groups who may have a different view of right and wrong.  Avoid, attack, defend or merge seem to be the four main choices.  And I think that in each choice I would like to see the other group make the choice based upon their actions.

But these are my thoughts on it and although I seem to be the de facto leader right now it is not a job that I want, or enjoy.  It is just a job that has fallen on me or the old cop in me just made me step up to it.  In the crisis we need to have security, and the belief that we can and will survive.  Initially I have provided that but it is draining.

In the back of my mind there is always the questions of what should be done, and what happens if I mess up.  My hope was that we find somewhere to settle, and build our new world where I am relieved of the duties.  I can hang on during the crisis because with the exception of Teckla, I see no one else able to step up.  Once we get through the crisis I think that things will be easier and we will be able to make a small community with some type of clan leader(s) instead of what I am now, a sort of war chief.

I received a text from Mark. “Packages picked up, only minor difficulties, ETA 25 minutes.”

I am looking forward to hearing the details of the minor difficulties. We have just added two very old and frail individuals to our group.  I think that they can and will be useful and productive, but the medical side is going to be an issue, and there will come a time when we lose them.

It is kind of funny, (peculiar, not ha-ha) that even though they chose to stay, and we knew what the end result was going to be, it was kind of like Schrodinger’s Cat, we would never be given real proof of the demise, so you continued to consider that they were still fine, and alive.  Now, we would be forced to face that final reality.

In our initial plan of escape it was going to be a head southwest to meet up with Anne’s Brother in the area of Dodge City, Kansas.  The logic was that in the hot and dry of summer time the infected would be exposed to a faster rate of decay and hopefully become less mobile to the point that there were basically skeletons that if you put your foot into their mouths they might have enough jaw muscle left to take a bite.  But they would not be able to chase you down.  I am still thinking that it is a good plan.  But in listening to some podcasts from various “experts” it was also suggested that in the winter and cold of the North might be good because the infected, like reptiles or insects would become dormant.  I am not sure, and I think that is a question that will only be answered definitively over time.

While contemplating the issues of the infected I thought back to some of the old movies that I had watched.  One of the questions that concerned me was how well these things held up under water.  Could they survive, I am not sure what other term to use here, under water?  Did it cause them to lose orientation?  If you were being tracked, how would the water and reduced visibility impact their ability to target you.    What is the difference between salt water, and fresh, moving and still, these questions are all important because it could help in finding a safe haven.

If, for example, they are rendered ineffective by water, which ever type, would that make a boat or island safe?  If not, it could be disastrous because they could be on top of you with minimal warning.  The ironic part of this thought session is that so far I have not seen a single infected individual in person.  I have not had to terminate one, or even see how quick or slow they moved.  All of my knowledge was based upon fiction and the dribs and drabs that have come from the news media.

I heard something, and at first thought I may have wished myself bad for not seeing an infected person. Fortunately the sound I heard was not the moan of a turned victim, but the boat in the distance.  It was a relief that they were nearly back. It was about 2 minutes and I saw them coming down the river, although thinking about it, they were going against the river so I guess it would be that they were coming up river.  Either way it was now just about getting them ashore and loading up. I could see four heads, so that was a good sign.

As they pulled up on the bank by the golf course, it was a hug fest.  When I went to hug Arcelia, but she said to hold on a minute and unzipped her jacket.  A furry little head popped out and although not looking overly happy, it was Skidder.  Cyril had Rosy in his jacket and she in true cat tradition had the look of not one shit being given.

Frank said, “All went well and that there was really no issues or contact with infected (he used the term Zoms), or for that matter anyone.”

This seemed wrong to me.  We were still too early in The Event or crisis for everyone to just be gone.  But that was a puzzle for another day.  Right now it was time to get moving and get back with the larger group.  We had a lot to talk about and develop for the future.

It was lucky that we had taken the Goldwing.  It would have been very tight in the Kia with 5 of us and the gear we were carrying.  After loading up we climbed in and started back toward the other part of our scavenging group.  They were still in the Barkhampsted / New Hartford area.

As we drove, I got a message from Teckla.  It was not good news.  She told me to turn to the EBS channel on the radio.  I did and the message was devastating.  The elected Government had basically fallen silent and the military had assumed the worst, as well as command.  Hartford and Springfield had been overrun and it was time to cleanse the area.  I was not certain what cleanse meant, but my guess was like London or Moscow it was time to burn the city, and it would be a nuclear fire.  The cleansing was scheduled to commence at 16:00 hours.

We were all quiet for a few minutes as I drove on, each of us thinking about the impact of this announcement and the situation that would lead to this type of action.  We would in a later time discover that a small armada of US Naval ships and cruise ships had departed from Baltimore.  Those ships had most of the elected government on board.  They, in essence, deserted their post and left the rest of us on our own.  Their plan was to find a safe haven and maybe return in a couple of years when the crisis had burned itself out.

As Mark drove, I texted Teckla back and told her to get her group into the Berkshires thinking that the hills would help us survive the initial shock waves.  She should look for a place like a valley or glen to hole up in. I was reasonably certain that although it was not mentioned, Albany was also a target on the hit parade.  We would be running about an hour behind them. I texted her to keep us posted as to their location and travel conditions on the way.

We really had no trouble in our drive.  The roads were empty of moving vehicles and we were able to navigate the parked or broken down ones.  Frank was on the Goldwing and he would run ahead of us checking gas stations for refueling options.  We actually found a couple of abandoned convenience stores on the way which had power.

As Teckla’s group moved toward the Berkshires they had to make a pass through the vicinity of Otis Reservoir.  In their scavenging they had come upon a generator (Ingersoll), one that had wheels and required towing.  It was really too big for us to drag along for any distance, but could help Camp Overrun.  The name, Overrun, just struck me and I hope that it is not an omen of things to come for them.

They made a brief stop at the intersection of Route 57 and the dirt road that was the back way into the camp and unhooked the generator. They also left a couple of bottles of good Scotch Whiskey.  As they drove away, they texted Uncle Elgin and told him where the camp people could pick up the gift.  It was a gesture that could pay dividends down the road if we were ever back that way. He thanked us and warned that the Mass Pike was rumored shut down from exit 8 back to Springfield.  It seems that a mile or so before that exit there had been a plane crash, a big military craft, a C-5 or C-17. It was trying to make it to Westover AFB. The wreckage blocked the road, which was already clogged with traffic, and the fire that followed pretty much ended the threat of Zoms (I guess I like Frank’s term) from that cluster of traffic, at least for a while.

Teckla asked him if he was aware of the cleansings that was planned for Springfield, Hartford and other medium cities.  He said that they had heard about it and were as prepared as they could be.  The terrain was to their advantage and they had created a number of small shelters to give that little extra protection from the blast, but he doubted that the shock waves would even reach them.  They had a retired Air Force Colonel in their group and to his best guess the plan was to introduce “suitcase” nukes into the city and activate them.  The weapons were low yield, about 1/5th the size of the Hiroshima bomb but enough to wipe out or burn the city leaving minimal radiation residue.

Elgin also said that when those weapons went off the EM blast would pretty much wipe out the communications and unshielded computers.  He suggested that it might be wise to wrap any electronic devices in metal foil, seal them in a waterproof container or bag and then put them in a large barrel or bucket of water.  This would hopefully reduce the damage.

It was 2 PM, I had two hours to get to the Berkshires and hook up with the rest of our group.  Through texting they told me that they had decided that Peru, Massachusetts as a good place to meet.  It was in a good geographic location and hopefully cleared of Zoms.

We had just passed through Blatchford and were still heading north.  When we went to cross under I-90, aka the Mass Pike, we found our first true victim.  A Mass State Trooper had crashed. The strobe lights were still blinking and the car was still running.  We stopped, thinking that we could help. The trooper was strapped in and his blood covered head was lolling back and forth.  When he sensed us he began to gnash his jaws and growling.  I could not leave him like that and dispatched him with a single shot to the head.

The trooper was pulled from the car, and burned.  I check out the car and found that the police radio was still working.  I tried to transmit to his dispatch or barracks.  To my surprise I got an answer.  I identified myself as a retired detective from the Manchester Connecticut Police.  I told the voice on the other end of the radio what we had found and the situation with the dead trooper.  He calmly acknowledged saying that he had received calls from other people saying that they had similar finds.

The dispatch trooper said, “I am the Barracks Commander, Captain James.  It is just me here, the trooper you found was Bill Warner.”  “I am glad to have a chance to talk to someone our situation was pretty bleak.”  “I am going to hold the fort for a little longer and at 3 pm I am going to make a break for it, in the direction of Pittsfield.”

“Captain, if you don’t mind I was going to toss the cruiser for weapons and supplies and then we are going to continue in direction of Peru,” I radioed.

James radioed back “The Peru area was last reported as clear, but that was almost two days ago.”

He said that in some ways we had hit the jackpot.  It seems that Warner was a SWAT guy and should have some goodies in his trunk that may be of value to you.

The trunk of the cruiser contained a pair of sniper rifles.  The first was a 223 Remington with a scope.  It had about 100 rounds of spare cartridges.  There was also a 50 cal. Barrett M082.  At first I was almost not going to take it because it was a single shot weapon and not the best weapon for Zom termination.  But then I thought about the non-Zoms we might be dealing with and decided that the big gun and the 50 rounds could be a good thing to have in the event of a situation similar to the Otis face off.

We still had a way to go and it was 2:30.  A text came in from the main group “We have reached Peru, it is empty”.

The residents must have evacuated a couple of days ago.  They had found a small warehouse building with pretty good protection and a five bay garage.  As it turned out, it was a town maintenance and repair shop.  It still had power, and water, hot water. While people from Teckla’s team were cycling through a shower the rest of the group was in the process of setting up defenses and safe areas should the blast reach out that far.

We continued on and reached Peru at about 3:10.  We had a little time to help out with the setting up, although most of it was done before we arrived.  This gave a brief chance for the scavenger crew to show what they had found, and made.  We were shown the melee weapons, and Teckla / Lauren’s go packs. Margo and Jan had found a little lunch room that had a TV and a stove in it.

The Keurig was in there and I could not pass up on a hot cup of coffee, the first I had drank in a few days.  Sometimes the simple pleasures are the best and here I am going on about a cup of Newman’s Own as the world is ending.

As time ran down before the cleansing, the girls were monitoring the TV to get information as to what was going on.  CNN and Fox were still on the air.  They were telling of the widespread chaos, what to expect from the cleansing, and what the post cleansing impact would be.  There were also a couple of channels in which there were famous religious people talking about the end of world….Revelations.

One channel even had the sense of humor in this time of tribulations to put on the music “Closer to thee my God” that was played when the Titanic went down.  It reminded me of a movie I had once seen in which the world was going to end, and how people lived out their last days.  The big difference was that the movie had given months before the end, we had days, and many still did not accept that this was truly the end.

One of the news channels was talking about the means by which the government / military had planned to implement the cleansing.  There were three separate parts to the plan that would be used based upon the size of the area in question.  Large cities such as NY, Boston, DC, basically anything over 500,000 populations would take a nuclear blast from a traditional aerial warhead or missile. In cases where several cities were all in close proximity it was an assessment based upon head count per square mile.  In some cases the plan was an aerial detonation to maximize the burn.

Cities under 250,000 to about 75,000 would be done with W-54s which were the suitcase nukes that we claimed we never had.  The weapons in both situations were already in place and had been brought in by rail about two days ago. The placements were set-up to maximize the kill zones and minimize escape or re-animations.

They would all be detonated simultaneously by some sort of satellite signal.  That signal was to be transmitted in about 20 minutes, so basically, if you were in your home in one of these cities, it was pretty much over for you.

The military even had a back-up plan if a city did not go up in the initial detonation because of poor signal, or some other fluke, the devices had already been programmed to detonate on a secondary schedule 12 hours after the initial signal was set out.

In retrospect I never did come up with a logical reason for the military to use the rail yards as ground zero.  I would have thought that when we started to reclaim or clean up areas the most effective way to bring people and equipment in, or out would have been the railroad.

The timer was down to 10 minutes and it was time for us to hunker down and wait.  We had built a fairly good little bunker using the oil change bay of the garage.  The only real concern at this point was how intensely the shockwaves would hit us.  I think that because of our location and the terrain we would be okay.  I think we were all praying to God that we had it right with our rabbit hole.

Five minutes to go and what do you do?  I kind of laughed, not a roaring laugh, but a chuckle.  To all in the bunker I said “Back to the days in the 50’s and early 60’s when I was, a number of us, were in elementary school we were in the era there was the Cold War. The US was very concerned that there would be a nuclear attack by the Russians.  As a result, in addition to the old school fire drills we also had bomb drills or nuclear drills.”

As I told the story, I saw Anne and Nick nodding their heads.

“In a bomb drill there was an announcement over the school PA telling us that we were having the drill.”

In the real world I am not sure if we would have been told if it were a drill or was the real thing.  I am thinking the former to prevent a school filled with scared little kids panicking.

“So when we heard the announcement we would all hide under our desks in an almost fetal position.  The lights would go out and we would wait. Then the teacher would flick on the lights and we were supposed to duck and cover our heads.” I ended the story.

In retrospect, with all the windows and the nature of the construction of the schools of the 1950s we would probably have been killed by the broken glass from the shockwave, or toasted by the heat wave.  But it was a simpler time and we believed in government and what they said.

The story took us up to zero hour and suddenly we no longer heard the TV talking heads but just a buzz of static.  Next there was a little tremor.  Fifteen or twenty seconds after that there was a series of soft booms from different directions.  Then there was nothing.

We waited, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes….nothing.  We had not suffered from the shockwave; the mountains appeared to have dissipated it. We crawled out of our rabbit hole and looked through the glass and saw that nothing really had seemed to change.  Being in the glen left us very little visibility of what the larger area looked like.  Were there mushroom clouds, fires, or other unseen destruction?  I think that each of us wanted to know, yet, there was a sanctity in not knowing, it meant that it had not happened or wasn’t real.

Finally a number of us piled into two of the trucks and we used Route 143 which ran east west through town and up to high points in the mountains.  My group, with Anne, Matt and Margo went to the East.  Frank, Teckla, Jan and Lauren went to the West. Nick and Anne’s folks decided that they would stay behind. As much as Mark wanted to go, we had to leave someone behind to guard the fort so to speak.  In the time we had been there we had not seen a soul, or a soul-less but who knew if we might get a sudden visitor.

Looking east from the top of the mountain road there was some smoke from fires many miles away.  That would be something that we had to keep an eye on.  The idea that there could be forest fires raging was real.  One could also still see the mushroom clouds that had blossomed from the directions of Hartford and Springfield.  There also seemed to be some clouds further out that could have been from Worcester, Boston or Providence.

Teckla and her team found their view blocked by higher mountains but could make out the top of one cloud from Albany.  The smoke of fires on her side seemed less dramatic, and less likely to have impact on us. But that could have to do with the smoke just not getting up that high. The Hudson River may have acted as a fire break from the Albany blast.

It was about 40 minutes later that we all got back to the garage / repair shop.  We talked about what we had seen, and also what we had not seen, specifically population.  There were supposed to be 800 plus people here in Peru, yet we have seen no one. We decided that we should post someone up on that east hill until we had a better idea what the fire situation was.  It was a little higher up than the west side so we could kind of keep an eye to that side also.

We drew straws, actually numbers to determine what the watch slots would be and who teamed with whom. We put the time slots into a hat and took turns picking. There were two tickets for each slot.  The shifts were 6 to 10, 10 to 2, 2 to 6 and off. Nick and Teckla teamed up for the first watch. I drew the 10 pm to 2 am slot with Mark as a partner. Matt and Frank teamed up for the 3rd shift. Anne and Lauren drew the 4th shift. The way that we had set it up each team would get a night off as we cycled through.   I was not happy with the prospect of Anne and Lauren being out there alone tomorrow night but did not say anything.  After getting through the night we would reassess the fire situation and whether to continue, if the fires seemed not closer, we would discontinue the watch. By leaving Anne and Lauren in the cycle it was a confidence builder for them as well as not making a big deal out of something that might not even be an issue.

We did not include Margo, Jan or Anne’s parents in the draw. Cyril, Anne’s dad, really wanted to be part of the guard, but his eyesight was so bad and he was always cold.  We did make him fire warden, to keep the wood stove stoked and burning.  It was not much of a task.  But it was a task and he accepted it gracefully and actually handled the job with a great deal of vigor.

March 4th

One of the things that had worked to our favor so far had been the weather.  It was early March but the weather had been reasonably mild for the time of year.  It was in the 40s during the day and into the 30s at night.

Mark and I had taken up our post at 10 PM. and around midnight the wind picked up out of the West and it started to snow.  After we had gotten a couple of inches of snow we decided that it was probably best if we just ended the fire watch thinking that the weather would help in curtaining the fires.  They had not seemed to be getting closer than when we had first seen them anyway.  We were more concerned with our getting stranded on top of the hill, or the way back down.

When we got back I was still not ready to go right to sleep so I can give you a little rundown on Peru, MA and where we were in the town.  The building we occupied was the town maintenance garage.  It was a good sized building that easily housed us and our vehicles. About 100 yards to the west was the town hall.  According to the sign, the population was 847.  It seemed odd looking toward the downtown area to see one traffic light which no longer worked, a gas station, a half dozen homes and a couple of small businesses that it would hold that many folks.  It troubled me that there was no one around.  It was fairly clear that the town had emptied out; the question was when, and why.  I turned in about 2 AM.

It was a fitful sleep.  I was exhausted after all the events of the last week, but there was something that kept creeping into my dreams.  It was just there on the edge, waiting, watching and tormenting. I could not see it clearly, but there was a murky figure just out of my dreamscape.

Sleeping late was not much of an option considering the layout of the building.  By 7 AM we all were up and moving about. After a coffee and a shower, we still had hot water; I was actually feeling somewhat civil.  Around 8:30 Anne and I took a walk over to the town hall building to see if there were any clues there as to what happened to the population. The wind had died down but we were still getting snow, about 9 inches had fallen. We found that the building was locked up, but there was a little sign in the front door window saying that the people had all moved out to the area of Camp Danbee by the lake because it was safe there. Initially that did not help much because we were unfamiliar with the area.

In peeking in the window we found a sign that said the police department and the fire chief’s office were housed there.  Thinking that there might be something of value inside the town hall, like maps, radios, or who knows what else we found a “broken” window and were able to get in.  The power was out so it was pretty dark.

We started checking though the offices as we walked around the building.  In the Town Clerk’s office we found a couple of terrain maps that laid out the area.  We also found some information about the town with regards to civil defense, water, and planning.  The water for the town was drawn from wells at the individual buildings.  The town hall and maintenance building were on the same water line and the pump was located in a small out building. The pump did have provision for manual use as well as a connection to a generator that was located off the back of the maintenance garage.

In the FD headquarters we discovered that there had been 18 volunteer firemen in town.  The fire truck was kept at a small fire station out by the lake front where the bulk of the buildings in town were built. We found nothing else of value there. It seems that this office only housed the fire chief and the dispatcher.

In the health department office we found some contamination suits and masks.  They were really only a kind of Tyvek suit that one might use in a dirty or dusty environment.  They were not the kinds that were self-contained with breathing apparatuses.   On the main desk Anne found a number of e-mails from the CDC and the Massachusetts State Health Department that had been printed out.  A quick look showed that those e-mails were regarding what the government knew so far about the plague.  It outlined some information on how the disease spread, what to do with those infected, and other things that needed to be addressed in terms of containment.  It also gave their best idea of the origins of the illness. We really did not have time to go over it all so we ended up packing it up and taking it with us to read and study later.

Finally, there was the Police Office.  It was a 10 x 12 room with a desk, a closet and a holding cell. It was darker in this room than the others because the windows had been painted over.  I guess that they did not want people peeking in.  The room smelled bad. Anne thought it was rotting meat left in the refrigerator.  I knew better and using a flashlight we had found, scanned the room. This revealed that there were spots of blood, and bullet holes in the walls.

There was a rustling and a growl in the holding cell; it was a burly shape of a man who looked like a biker.  His face was partially covered with blood and there were a number of bullet holes in his chest.  He moved to the bars and was reaching for us. Anne was freaking out over all this, and I was a little queasy looking at him; imagining the circumstances of what might have happened.

I said to Anne, “Wait outside the office, our friend here is secure and I need to look around a little.”  She did not argue.

The area showed a scuffle had occurred so there were papers, and items strewn about.  On the desk printer was a police case report.  The guy in the cell was Arnold Parkins.  He had been at the local bar and started acting weird.  The cops, two of them, the entire department it turns out had gone to the bar to deal with him.  They ended up arresting and transporting him back to the PD with the intentions of letting him sleep it off.  The report went on to say that he suddenly went nuts and came after them, growling and trying to bite them.  They followed their training and first tried using the Taser him and when that didn’t work they shot him.

In the scuffle, Arnold bit Chief McCoy on the arm.  It seemed that they shot him center mass rather than in the head under the mistaken belief that it would kill or stop him.  Somehow they forced him into the cell and then locked him in. They finished the initial report and then the Chief started to not feel well.  They decided that the prisoner could be dealt with later and it was best to get the Chief up to the lake area for some medical help at Doc Swenson’s, the local physician and head of the health department.

The report had been completed on the 2nd of March.  That was two days ago and it appears that they did not come back.  This was not good.  The lake folks may have been taken by surprise when McCoy “changed” and the infection began to spread.  By this time the entire lake could have been infected and turned.

I looked around a little more and found there was a police radio in the office.  I turned it on and tried it to see if anyone would answer.  There was no answer.  I looked around a little more and found a few weapons and ammunition tucked into a gun closet, but that was it.  It was time to go, but before walking out I reduced the Zom population by one.

It was a quiet walk back to shop. Anne was sick along the way and I can’t say I blame her.  But I was thinking, we are safe for now, but we could have a hive of infected about 5 miles west of us and we need to make certain that it stays that way.  We need to keep a low profile and be vigilant.  The shop was a glowing beacon with the generator running and a flurry of activity.  This was not a bad thing right now in the daylight, but we would need to tone it down when it got dark.

We got back into our little building and something smelled fantastic.  I guess those cooking classes that Nick had taken over the years had done wonders. But then he had always had a little flair for the culinary arts. From items he had been able to scrounge from a nearby store and mixed with some of our canned goods created a kind of casserole of rice, carrots, onions, spices and Spam.  I know it sounds rather bad, but it was hot, and quite tasty.

As we had a sort of brunch, Anne (she passed on eating) and I filled everyone in on what we had found in the town hall.  This not only included that information about the infected inside the cell, but also what might have happened at the lake.

After eating we started going through the e-mails that we had brought back from the health department to see if there was anything helpful.  Basically it was pretty obvious stuff.  The best guess was that the malady had come from the dust of the meteor; it contaminated the area in western Russia and because of the prevailing winds blew it east toward Asia.  Some of the infected people had boarded planes and flown to airports all over the world not realizing what was going on or that they were infected.  The travelers began to turn and the illness just went viral from there.  The e-mails had some suggestions for containment but nothing that could help us or that we had not already heard on the news.

The weather was still bad; the snow was still coming down.  We were not going anywhere for a while so we settled in the best we could. We took time to go through our vehicles, changing oil, adding defensive shielding, re-arranging the loads and getting them ready to roll if we had to make an escape.  In the garage it was warm and it seemed safe.  But that did not stop us from keeping someone on watch over night.  We each would take a 2 hour shift.

March 5th, (Teckla’s Birthday)

I did not realize until I laid down how tired I really was.  I usually cannot fall asleep quickly if there is something going on or I know I have to wake up.  But I was out like a light in about five minutes. The dream came back.  It was the same murky character, but this time it was closer, and now it was menacing.  I could not tell who or what it was other than man shaped.

Margo woke me.  It was dark except for the little glow from the wood stove in the corner.  She seemed excited.  I asked if it was time for my watch and she said no, but there was someone on the police radio that I had taken from town hall and handed it to me.  I heard a click, and then a whisper.  I turned it up all the way and spoke softly, “Hello?”

I heard a male voice say “This is Fred, there are eight of us up at the camp by the lake.  We’re in small house and trapped there.”  He went on “Everyone else has turned to monsters over the last couple of days.  It seems that the monsters could not deal with the cold or snow and were just sort of standing.  But I’m not sure how long we can hold out once the weather breaks. Help us, Please!”

By now everyone was awake and we were all huddled around the table that we had set up in the middle of the big garage area.  I was talking with Fred and asked what his status was on weapons and supplies.  Their weapon situation was not terrible.  He said they had several handguns, a shotgun and some bats and pipes.  He had enough food for a couple of days but that was it. I asked about cars.  He said that they had an SUV and a 4x4 pick-up outside.  But they were not going to be able to get to them easily because the creatures would be on them if they went out.  He also said that there was about 12 inches of snow outside the house so they did not think they could get far down the road.  I told him to sit tight (yeah kind of dumb considering), we needed some time to think on our end and told him to radio in about 30 minutes.

We began to look at the maps.  The lake (Danbee) was about 5 miles away with a paved road from the center of town out to where they were.  We discussed options. There were some who felt that we couldn’t do anything for them.  One felt we shouldn’t do anything for them.  But the bulk of the group felt we had to at least try.  The odds were very much against them, eight people versus who knows how many infected or as Frank named them, Zoms.  The downside was that we had an up-hill battle, literally to get to the lake.  I looked over at Frank; he was staring out the back of the shop.

“It is going to be a bitch, but it might work.” He said

He explained, “There is a dump truck outback, it is the town snowplow.  Assuming it starts, we could make a run, plow the road, get up to them and have them follow us out.  If, as they said the Zoms were frozen, there would be minimal risk.”

The first thing that we needed to do, if we were going to even consider the attempt was to see if the truck would start, and if it was drivable.  Frank and Matt dressed and headed out to see what they could do.  A couple of us also kept an eye on the area around the truck to cover their approach and efforts.

The truck would not start, the battery was dead.  That slowed our efforts down, but there were several new batteries in the shop, so replacing the batteries, the truck had two, was the easy fix. Anne’s dad was getting dressed into warm clothing to help and his intentions were good.  But we had to get him to stand down on that one as he would be a bigger liability than an asset.

While Frank and Matt were changing the batteries Fred radioed in.  I told him what we were thinking and that we were still trying to get the plow up and running.  I asked “Have any of the frozen Zoms moved?”

At first he was confused by the term, but then said “The monsters?  No they haven’t”.

Cold or not, with the noise and lights from the plow I was not sure whether the Zoms would become active. I told Fred “Monitor the radio because if we get the truck running we are coming for you.”

Originally I felt that keeping the radios off and saving the batteries was a good idea.  But if this plan did not work, well, the radios would not help much and I don’t think I would want to hear the pleas for help as they were overrun.

After I signed off I heard the roar of the diesel engine, the truck was running.  I heard the warning beeper as it backed up and then saw the lights.  But rather than just pull up to the door Frank began to plow the parking lot.  At first I was confused about what he was doing, and then it made sense.  He was building a barrier around the building that would slow or stop any Zoms.  Matt had also gotten a small bucket loader started and was adding to the snow piles.

I radioed back to Fred that we had gotten the truck up and running and that we would be coming for them shortly.  I could hear the relief in his voice.  While we were waiting for Frank and Matt to come back in I began to ask Fred about who was up there with him.  He told me that there were eight people including him.  Perhaps it was the old Hostage Negotiator in me trying to keep him busy I asked him about himself.  He told me that he was a 22 year old college kid from up-state New York who had been on Spring Break and was visiting his brother. He told me he was an animal science major. He said that his brother had not made it and was taken down two days ago in the initial attack.  In the back of my mind it fit with the incident involving the police chief getting bitten by Arnold.  Fred was starting to get a little emotional thinking about his brother so I tried to get his mind off of him by asking about the other people trapped with him.

He told me about the seven others with him.  Ron Backland was a construction worker who had been in the military.  Fred said that Ron had told him that he had been in Iraq for a couple of tours.  Ron was a local and was kind of scary because he wanted to take out some of the “Changed”.

“We call them Zoms” I said.

Then there was Burt and Mary-Lou, a married couple, he was in his 70s, she in her late 40s.  She seemed okay, but Burt was kind of a know-it-all asshole.  Fred said that they had a school nurse with them, Charlene who was old, in her 50s.  She seemed okay with the situation, not freaking out or anything.  She hung out with an older guy Henry who was the local farmer.  And finally there were the two younger guys, Cody, a junior in High school; and Lance, a steam punk nerd kid.

Frank came in and gave the thumbs up on the truck.  It was set and running fine.  I radioed Fred and told him that the cavalry was going to be on the way shortly.  But we needed to know exactly where he was so we did not waste time or effort in the rescue.  He gave us the street address and we looked at the map.  It looked like a pretty straight shot taking State Route 143 west out of town.  About 4 miles out there was a left turn into a driveway for Camp Danbee.  Once in the camp there was a large building on the right.  That was the one with a large group of Zoms.  Then as you continued down the road a little further there were three smaller cottages on the left.  Fred said that his group was in the third one with Ron’s Truck and an SUV parked out in front.

It was a dead end at the furthest point out by the lake.  Frank and Matt were the only ones who could drive the plow, so they drew the short straw and Frank won, or lost, whichever way you wanted to look at it.  Matt suggested that he follow the plow in the bucket loader.  Mark offered to ride shotgun with Frank.  I was not going to step in on this.  They were the right people with the right plan.

I turned the radio over to Mark and he told Fred that they were heading up.  Mark suggested that they try to dig out their trucks.  And then the plow and bucket loader were off.  As they pulled out of the gap left in the parking lot snow fort they did not drop their plows.  At first this seemed odd.

The rest of us were just going to have to sit and wait. Margo manned the public works radio and we were in communications with the rescue team. Mark radioed they had left the snow as untouched as possible except for tire tracks in a hope that it would not make an easy path for the Zoms should some of them try to follow the plowed trail back. I felt a little better about the situation being able to talk with them. I could tell that this rescue mission was real hard on Teckla.  She had her two boys and her man running it.

We listened as the plow proceeded toward the camp.  They were going a little slower than I thought because it was an uphill grade.  But finally Mark announced that they were turning onto the camp road. Mark confirmed that the Zoms seemed inactive.

In what seemed a long time they had reached the last cottage on the left. Mark said that SUV and truck were running and they were loaded and waiting for the plow, ready to roll. When Frank plowed in front of the trucks there was a little pile of snow left that could have hung up the trucks so Matt used the bucket loader to clear it out.  It took a little time and with all the noise and lights Mark noticed that a couple of the Zoms who were standing close to the newly plowed path that seemed to be becoming active or at least looking around.

Frank got the plow turned around and started to lead the group out.  Where he could, he tried to knock down and plow any of the Zoms that were an easy target.  He may have gotten about ten by the time he reached the big building.  As he passed it, the SUV followed close, but the pick-up truck suddenly stopped. Fred and Ron hopped out of the truck.  They each had a couple of gasoline bombs.  Ron lit them up and they tossed them at the big building.  The throws hit their target and exploded. The fires covered the road side of the building.

The Zoms outside also seemed to react to the light and began swaying and trying to walk in the deep snow.  Ron, who had thrown the first bottle raced back to the truck and jumped in the driver side.  Fred, who had gotten a little closer to the building finished throwing his and ran back to the truck.  As he come around the back of the truck he slipped and fell, but he was up quickly and into the truck.  They took off with Matt following behind in the bucket loader.  They left the camp and about 15 minutes later were all back at the parking lot. The group piled out of the trucks and came into the garage.  Matt and Frank parked their plows at the entry of the snow fort they had made to act as a gate as well as being ready if we needed to get out in a hurry.

I greeted Fred, and he looked like the type of person who would have been a Vet doctor or zoo employee, sandy haired and innocent.  He introduced us to his group.  Each was pretty much as he had described. First was Ron who had that hungry look of a wolf on the hunt.  Burt, about 70, looked like he had been sucking lemons while Mary-Lou his younger wife just looked frightened. In her day Charlene was a hottie, she still looked good for an older woman, the term cougar came to mind.  Cody seemed to by the typical high schooler, zits and all, while Lance had a certain nerdy look about him that I could not explain but he definitely was a loner.   Henry, I knew I would like Henry, he was happy to be alive and happy to be saved. There was just something infectious about his grin.

Nick had heated up some of his Spam and rice dish that we had been served for dinner.  For the rescued people, it was a welcome hot meal after a couple of days of granola bars and cold cereal.  For the moment we all just enjoyed the company and the conversations. Each side of the group, ours, and Fred’s relayed the adventures since the beginning of The Event.

I know that our group had not really had any opportunity to just release some of the stress, although we had been safe, relaxed was not the way any of us felt. The stories and chance to share was therapeutic. We knew that there was a lot of bad stuff out there and we were soon going to see some of it.  But we had some time and the weather was our friend at the moment.  But when the cold and snow disappeared things would change.

I was sitting in the corner, alone, as they others talked and laughed. I was thinking about Peru, it was a place that could be somewhere we might be able to stay.  We might be able to make it here.  But the fact that there were still a lot of Zoms about five miles up the road made me a little doubtful as to how well we would fare come the summer.  But whatever the case this situation was most likely only temporary and we needed to start thinking about what to do next.  We needed to have plans in place for some likely eventualities.  Sadly, being the cynic that I am I felt that those eventualities would include dealing with the living uninfected as we made contact with other nomadic groups.  We also had to face the eventuality that one of us might be infected and how we would deal with that.

I laughed to myself thinking back to a trip I had made to Iceland years ago.  Actually, that would be a pretty good place to survive this ordeal, but not a place that we could get to.  But I remembered the T-Shirt I brought back for Anne. It had a nervous little guy with a metal helmet with horns and the caption of “Viking Worrier”.  Right now I was that character.

Matt came over and joined me.  “I saw Fred fall” he told in a low voice.  “I was following the truck out of the camp when Fred and Ron jumped out and firebombed the house.”  Matt went on to say, “Fred did not slip; he had been grabbed by one of the Zoms that had been mowed down by the plow.  Fred had kicked free and then ran to the truck.” Matt said “I couldn’t tell if Fred had been bitten, but I felt you should at least know and keep an eye on him.”

This did not sound good.  I remembered a quote from Langley, an old friend of mine who said to go easy on your fears because they will meet you halfway.  I had been thinking about the potential of what to do if someone was infected and now it may have happened.

I told Matt, “Go get Teckla and Charlene so I can talk to them, but keep it low key.”

When they joined me, I told them what Matt had said.  This situation was serious and we had to get a look at Fred to see if he was bitten.  I could understand that in the heat of the moment he might not remember the details of his fall, or he could be in denial if he was bitten.  But we needed to know for the safety of the group.

I suggested that I take Fred aside and talk to him.  We needed to get him to disrobe and give Charlene a chance to inspect him for any bite or blood.  Once we knew one way or the other we could go from there. Teckla and Charlene both agreed and felt it was important to keep this low profile to prevent panic.

I took a walk over to the table and rejoined the story telling.  I had sat down across from Fred.  As others talked, I asked him if we could talk in private, kind of group leader to group leader to just clear some air.  He agreed and we went into the office.  Once inside I did not waste any time.

“What happened when you firebombed the house?”

He looked at me and then said, “Ron and I put the plan together and they were actually intended to bomb it before we talked to you but the weather had thrown a wrench into their plan.  When we came up to rescue them, they saw the opportunity to still do the bombing and opted to do it as they all were leaving.”

“Based on what you told me I would have expected that kind of act from Ron, your involvement kind of surprises me.”

“I have seen what the Zoms had done to people I knew, my uncle, Doc Swensen. I wanted a little pay back.”

I understood.

I asked him “What happened after the last bomb was tossed and about his run back to the truck?”

He seemed straight forward, “I was running back to the truck and my foot got tangled in a branch and I slipped in the snow as I ran back to the truck.”  He said, “I fell, then got up after kicking the branch loose and got into the truck.”

I asked him, “Have you looked at the leg that was caught by the branch?”

“No, why?”

I watched as the color left his face when I told him what Matt had seen from the bucket loader.

“Fred, we have to know if you have been bitten.”

He said, “I wasn’t!”

But I think he likely would have said that even if half his leg had been gnawed off.

I explained, “We needed to know and that the only way to be sure was to have Charlene take a look at it.”  He reluctantly agreed to the exam.

I called Charlene in to the office and she took over from there.  By now the rest of the group had figured out that there was something wrong and had guessed what was happening.  They quietly talked among themselves.  Ron remained very quiet.  He realized that it was his plan that may have been what brought this about.

Charlene had Fred remove his clothing, first his boots and sweater then his shirt.  He was fine from the waist up.  Then his jeans came off.  While she was checking him over I looked at the boots.  There was no blood on the inside but there were scrapes and some blood stains and a broken tooth partially embedded between the sole and the upper on the outside.

While Charlene was doing the inspection I thought about the options that might face us.  Could any of us take him out and put a bullet in his head for the sake of the group?  Or do we lock him up under guard until he turned.  This is a kind of ethical dilemma that we were faced with in the new world.  It was not a choice I relished.

If it were me, I think that I would want to be taken down before I became very ill thinking of the safety of the group.  But at the same time I wondered if it would not be a good idea to be secured and for as long as I was lucid try to relay what I was experiencing, even though it might be very painful.

Charlene also found some blood on the left leg of his long woolen socks.  It was not a lot of blood.  When the socks came off we looked.  There were only the marks that are left from the fabric pattern.  There was no broken skin, no bite marks, no bruising on either leg.

When the Zom grabbed him, and chewed on his boot, but that was it.  Fred was okay.  Fred flushed, more from being naked in front of Charlene than anything else and even made a weak quip about her not even taking him for a drink before she got him out of his clothes.

Charlene laughed and then said, “He is okay, no bites.”

I let out a sigh of relief and left the office.

After he dressed we emerged from the office. Fred was smiling and gave a thumbs up.  There was applause and tears. It was one of those surreal moments, so stark and yet so fitting.  Ron came over to Fred and hugged him, apologizing for the insane plan. Teckla, Charlene and I stood back.  We had dodged a bullet, or should I say Fred had dodged a bullet.  But we were all thinking the same thing.  We need to get some things laid down to deal with this and other potential situations before they arise.

Anne, Margo and I had staked out a little space in an old supply closet.  It gave us enough room to stretch out and gave us a door, privacy was such a premium.  I had lived alone over the last twenty five years and found that I liked being with just me.  I could get up when I wanted.  I could keep things the way I wanted them.  There were times of course when I would travel with someone.  And for a few days or a week I could tolerate company.  I was pretty spoiled and this new world did not allow for much alone time.

The dream was back.  This time the figure was closer than ever.  I could see the outline, I could see the shadow in its hand, and I could hear the mumbling.  At first I thought it was a Zom but it was moving wrong.  It was reactive but more rapid moving and the mumbling was not groaning or moaning.  It was saying something.  I could not tell what it was saying.  I did not know if it was a threat, a warning or just gibberish.  All I could tell was that the dream had an apocalyptic flavor to it. I often had those types of dreams and even on occasions found that I would get into recurring loops with the same or similar dreams.  But this one, it seemed different.  There was something haunting about it.

March 6th

Today there was nothing exciting, tragic or very interesting going on.  Everyone kept busy doing small tasks. Nick whipped together another series of meals that were made of unusual combinations of items, yet tasty.  Mary-Lou had signed on as his assistant. Matt, Mark and Frank worked on vehicle maintenance and adding some defense items like window re-enforcements and running lights.  Charlene took a look at our medical supplies and also created a shopping list of items to scavenge. Cody, Ron and Henry took a walk downtown, if you call it that, a drug store, a grocery store and a hardware store is not much of a downtown.  They brought back some canned goods, some frozen foods, meats and some pasta.  But more importantly they took a kind of inventory of what was available to us in town.  They figured that at this point it was not necessary to bring it all back to the garage because the threat of it disappearing was pretty slim. Anne and Margo were working on something but I could not tell what.  They seemed to be interviewing everyone.

Jan and Fred took a walk to the east to some unattached buildings.  Had I known that was what they were doing I probably would have told them not to.  But then I need to get away from being mother hen. Their ventures lead them to some interesting discoveries.  They hit the first house they found and broke in.  Inside the house, on the first floor they found a few bottles of water, some canned goods and a handgun.  On the second floor they found a 9mm handgun that had been used by the family to remove the threat of their changing.  It was a couple in their 30s and two small children.

Jan and Fred left the house and had a little better luck in that one.  There were no dead bodies, moving or not moving.  They also realized that they had only to inventory the contents; it was not going anywhere, although Fred did find a treasure or at least a treasure in my eyes, but hold that thought for a bit.

Burt and Cyril, Anne’s dad sat and talked most of the day.  Because of his eyesight Cyril really was not able to do a lot as far as building or guarding and Burt had a heart issue that also prevented him from heavy activities.

Teckla was working on one of our laptop computers in the office, as was Lauren. The efforts that we had made to protect them from the EM burst seem to have worked. Lance was sitting listening to music on his iPod but he had figured out the surveillance cameras that were on the four corners of the maintenance garage as well as those associated with the town hall. He had them up and running and was monitoring the area for activity.  He could see some of the things our people were doing and if there were any immediate threats to the area.

I was catching up on this diary but I was also thinking or trying to think ahead.  What to do, I considered what would happen if I was suddenly removed from the picture. I have been a sort of war chief since the crisis began, the man with a plan.  But what if there needed to be someone else in charge.

When Fred came back, he found me and said “I found this, what do you think?”

“Wow” was all I could say. He had a series 6 Boy Scout Manual, the good old fashion one that still had tracking, cooking, first aid and survival information in it. It was back from the days when I was a Boy Scout.  That book is a simple resource that had so much good information in it. If it were still alive, we could have used the Internet to get some of the survival information but it isn’t. Granted we had some of those skills in the “data bank” of people like Henry, Burt, Cyril and others but we have forgotten so much.  This gives a hard copy for all of us particularly, the youngsters to reference.

The dream was back last night and it all came together.  I think that the activity and exhaustion had caused me to block parts of it.  It was Brandon.  It was reliving the day that he came to get Margo.  It was him screaming at me that he had to save her.  I awoke with a start, sitting stark upright in bed, sweating. My heart was pounding. My twitching woke Anne.

She asked “Are you okay, you’re soaked.”

I reassured her, “yes, I’m fine, go back to sleep”.

I laid there for a bit and finally fell back to sleep.  I did not dream anymore.

March 7th

The sun was up and the weather had cleared.  It was another day of standing down and catching up.  Some of us went about further exploration of the town, or working on the projects that we had set out for ourselves.  I really had nothing pressing going on and thought that it might be a good day to take a ride out toward Camp Danbee to assess the damage that had been done by the firebombs and try to get a feel for the numbers of Zoms that were out there.  The weather was warming, it would also give an opportunity to see their reaction to some things like noise, movement and the temperature.

Before The Event I had been a member of the Zombie Study Group (ZSG).  There had been a number of articles by fellow members theorizing on how the Zoms would act under various conditions.  I am not sure how many members of that group are left but having read theories written by many of them I guess it had fallen on me to do some field study even though that research most likely never become integrated into the ZSG database.

One of the theories that had been put out there was that the Zoms tended to react like cold blooded animals such as snakes and insects.  This had seemed to be true based upon the initial observations of Fred’s group.  But it seemed a little questionable based upon the part of the rescue where it appeared that one of the Zoms had tripped Fred, and gnawed at his shoe.  The information itself could be helpful in determining our plans over the short term as well as the long term.  If cold stopped or slowed them down significantly, then it would be wise to head further north.  But if it only slowed them a little, then perhaps the direction did not matter.

I was gearing up to go but I needed a wingman.  I looked around for who was available.  It really boiled down to Burt, Cyril or Lance.  I know that Burt and Cyril were not an option so Lance seemed to be the only choice.  Then to my surprise Charlene came over and asked what I was planning to do.

“I’m planning to head back up to the camp to do a little looking around.”

“I am done with the medical inventory and gave a shopping list to Fred.  I have nothing to do and could use the walk,” She said.

For whatever reason I felt that she could handle herself if the bacon was in the fire so she packed up and joined me.  We were not planning any lengthy trip so we didn’t take the big packs with us but each took some water, binoculars, snacks, a handgun and a melee weapon.  I figured we would drive part way to the camp then walk in from there.

It was actually a pretty nice day, clear and in the forties. The snow on the road where the plowing had been done was gone. The woods still had snow. We drove to about a half mile from the camp.  While driving we looked off road to see if there were tracks in the snow that might show movement by the Zoms.  We did not see anything. While we drove we chatted about life before The Event.  I discovered that in addition to being a school nurse that Charlene had been an army nurse in Desert Storm.

“I’ve seen some things and had some issues with some of them after the war.  Drinking was an issue but I’m not sure if that was because of what I saw or who I married.”

She went on, “Bob, my ex, was my high school sweetheart.  He had not been in the war and had attended a college in the Midwest, where we were both from.  He had become an insurance adjuster.  After the war I came home and married him. I got a job at the Veterans Hospital near home.”

“But between taking the job, the home life and the memories of the guys I had seen come into the MASH unit I served in I started to drink, a lot. Bob became very jealous and we fought, finally we had the big blow-out and it was over.  Six months later I’m in rehab and a friend of Bill W ever since.”

She turned to me and asked, “Where did you do your military time?”

I said, “Me? I never served, or at least not in this lifetime.”

This surprised her based on the way she had seen me operating the last few days.  She had me pegged as at least a captain.

I explained, “I was not military, although I’m a retired cop, detective, who had worked with the Emergency Services Team and was the commander to the Crisis Negotiation Team.  That may have been why you thought I was military.”

I told her about my life in a Reader’s Digest version.  I explained my relationship to Anne and Margo as well as the family ties of our group.  It almost seemed like it was life in the normal world for a little bit.

About a half mile before the turn in to the camp road we parked and then continued on foot.  We kept to the woods.  As we neared the camp, you couldn’t help but smell a combination of burned wood, rotting flesh and roast pork.  Had it not been for the rotting flesh part of it I could have been hungry.

We came to a little hill at the edge of the camp where we stopped and just watched.  The main building was gone.  It was just a pile of rubble that was still smoking in places.  Due to the heat there was a snow free gap of about 50 to 100 feet and then the snow cover started again.  In that gap there were a few burnt bodies but there were no standing Zoms.  Where the snow started again there were Zoms standing.  They were not moving.  They did not show any signs of life, or better yet, let me rephrase that, activity.  We watched for about 30 minutes and saw no movement.  Point one seems to show that inactivity breeds inactivity in the undead.

I whispered, “Let’s add a little stimulus to the equation.”

We tossed a couple of snowballs at a car abandoned in the area of one of the cottages to see if the noise would attract attention.  We were careful to do so from cover to keep us out of the equation.  The hits did cause a few heads to perk up, and slowly turn toward the car.  But it did not stimulate any other movement on their part.

We quietly talked about what to do next. The danger was that we could find ourselves in a situation in which we were at risk, or worse that we got them to start chasing us and lead them back to our little community.

We caught a break.  As we were getting ready to jump around and yell, a dog wandered into the yard.  It was more a puppy.  It barked and yipped and ran around in circles.  It ran up to one of the burnt Zoms in the yard and playfully jumped at it.  This sudden flurry of activity, although it seemed innocent enough was potentially deadly to the puppy.    At first I was fearful for the pup, we both were.  But the little dog seemed to have some idea of what it was doing.  It was testing.  It was learning and adjusting to the new world order.

The dog soon became bored with the dead Zom and began to run toward one that was standing in the snow. The thing began to track the puppy with its head.  Initially we were not sure if it was by sound or by sight.  But as the puppy yipped and yapped and ran around the Zom it followed him.  The Zom grunted and growled and then started to move trying to follow the puppy as the little dog raced around him.  Other Zoms had also noticed the commotion and were starting to move toward activity.  I wanted to call to the dog but that was dangerous.  We could make the Zoms aware of our presence making us and not the dog the target.

When the Zoms closed in the dog it seemed that he sensed that he could be trapped, so he surprised us both running full speed toward the Zom he had been taunting, jumped and hit the Zom in the chest with its paws.  It pushed the Zom back, and it toppled over.  The dog, untouched raced off into the woods.  The Zoms started to follow but as they moved into the deeper snow they slowed, and came to a halt but we were not sure if that was due to the temperature or just that they no longer sensed prey.

The show was over and we had been given a lot of information to consider. As we walked back toward the truck, we talked about what we had seen and learned.  It did seem that the cold had some impact on the Zoms, and that they were cold blooded but not completely dormant, it was more that their activity area was greatly reduced.  It would be like sticking ones hand into a wasp nest in the middle of winter.  The wasps would still get you, but only in limited proximity.

This was both good news and bad news.  While it remained cold we would be reasonably safe from Zoms who were limited in their wandering about.  But as the temperatures rose their area of roaming territory would increase.  We would have to consider threat removal in the cold weather as an option.

We had confirmed that they responded to sound and movement.  It also seemed that there was some form of visual ability.  This seemed very odd in that in most cases the eyes of the Zoms were clouded.  It might still be a case where it is the smell or hearing that was what gave them their tracking ability.

Finally, we concluded they would go after other creatures, we had seen them go for the puppy.  Now the critical question here was what happened if they got the dog.  Obviously it would be eaten.  But for us an important question was if the contaminant or virus would transfer to other species.

On a side note here, to date we have seen no indication of Zom-like animals. In fact this puppy was the first larger mammal that we have seen.  We have come across no cows, sheep or horses even though this was a farming region and Henry had told me that there was a small horse farm in the area. It was possible that the larger animals were consumed to such a degree that they could not change, or that the toxin just did not infect them.

As we reached the truck, Charlene pointed out that the puppy could be a big asset to the community.  He would likely sense the arrival or proximity of the Zoms before we might see them or Lance might detect them in the camera system.”

“You’re right but I have no idea of how we might get him to come with us, if we could even find him.”

He had run off away from our position. I was thinking that if we were to leave a little food out, he might find us.  As we were getting into the truck, I whistled and called out to the dog, waited a couple of minutes, did it again and then dropped the sandwich I had brought by the side of the truck.  We started the truck and drove off.  I figured it was worth the shot.

The issue we debated much of the way back in the truck was about insects.  One would think that if the blood was drawn by the mosquito it could or would infect the mosquito.  When the mosquito would bite a human and the virus would be transferred.  But would the mosquito even go after the dead.  It seemed unlikely.  It would seem however that there would be other insects such as flies that use the dead to act as a breeding ground for their young that could be a much larger problem and threat.

It was about 4:30 in the afternoon when we returned from our research trip.  When we got back inside and put our stuff away, we were approached by a couple of the group wanting to know what we had seen and learned. Nick and Mary-Lou were putting the finishing touches on dinner.  Fred’s scavenger crew had raided the local grocery store and had brought back some goods from the freezer that had not quite thawed and were still good.  Dinner was a shrimp and scallop in a lemon olive oil sauce over pasta dinner with mildly stale bread.

Over dinner we told the community what we had seen and what we felt our observations meant.  When we got to the part about the possible insect infestation, Anne stopped us, “The insect threat was not as serious as you think.”

Everyone turned to look at her and she blushed but continued. “I have read all the e-mails to and from Doc Swensen and the health department.  Margo and I researched whatever traditional lore we could find on the subject and talked with group members about their personal knowledge of zombies. Based on that I, we feel that the insect and cross species contamination was not a likely scenario.”

She could not be 100% sure but the CDC had said that there was no indication of it.  In one e-mail the CDC commented that the virus matched to human DNA and had almost seemed as if it had been specifically engineered with that target in mind.

Everyone sat for a few moments absorbing the information and then Arcelia, Anne’s mom raised her hand and mumbled.  “What about the puppy?”

Later that night Anne and I went to our usual sleeping spot.  Before we rolled over to sleep that night I thanked her for all the effort that she had put into the research and that I thought she did an excellent job.  While laying there I asked, Do you understood why I had to take Brandon out, are you okay with it?”

It was really the first quiet chance we had to talk about it. She said, “I understand why it turned out that way I just feel bad for his family. Why did he have to snap and kill them?”

“I am not sure.” Then I asked her, “How is Margo doing with it?”

“She really hasn’t said anything about it

“I think it is something that she and I need to talk about. I think Margo understands that it was a matter of life or death.”

I remember that she always felt that there was still goodness in her father. I am not sure I would agree with her.  But I wanted it to not be an issue between us.  I had been her “Dad” for too long to have something like that to happen. A little while later, after a little cuddle time we went to sleep.

I knew that I would probably have a visitor in my dreams, and he did come, and he did rant and rage but as I did on that day, I faced him in the dream.  I told him that he did not belong here and that it was time for him to let go of me.  But really I knew it was me that was holding him, and that I had to talk with Margo before I could let him go.  Now that I knew, and that I would be talking to Margo about the death, okay, my killing of her father, I was better prepared for the talk.   Or at least that was what I believed.

This would not be easy, but I had a sort of script building in my mind. Of course, I was also smart enough to know that this would not go as easily as planned.

March 8th

It was kind the kind of day that no one wants to have.  After the group breakfast I told Margo that we were going to spend some time together doing some important things like a little shooting, and some basic driving lessons and that was what we were going to really do.  But we also had to talk about something.  I had not told her that part of it.  I wanted to finally take some time and try to explain to her why I had to shoot her father.  I was not looking forward to it, and I had no idea what to expect.  She did not seem to have much of a reaction after it happened.

We started out the morning by jumping into the KIA.  I figured that was the best way to start her driving lessons because it was an automatic transmission and pretty easy to drive. I was not really too worried about this part of it because she had done some go kart racing and was pretty competent in them.

We went through the process of setting the seat, checking the mirrors and so on.  I had her do it a couple of times and tried to push her faster and faster each time.  That would be in the event that a rapid escape was necessary.

The next step was to actually start the car, get it into drive and move it. When I told her to start it up and take a left out of the driveway, she looked at me.

“I don’t have my license yet!” She said.

I just gave her the look.

“Oh yeah, guess we do not have to worry about that anymore” she said.

I guess I should explain the look.  It is one that is given to someone when they make an obvious, annoying or dumb comment.  It involves a sort of stare blended with the look of I can’t believe that you just said that.

The driving was, as the saying goes, a piece of cake. She had watched her Mom and I do it enough times.  The entire lesson was done in about forty-five minutes.  There were a few curbs that may have suffered a little contact from taking the corners a little too tight and perhaps she was initially a little hard on the braking.  But overall it came quickly to her.

We drove up the road about 3 miles and I had her pull over and park the car. Next to the road was a field with a fence about 25 yards from the road.  It was an old wooden fence with posts. I opened the hatch back and pulled out two handguns.  One was a 380 semi auto that we had found in our travels; the other was my old police 9mm automatic.  I was carrying my H&K USP 45 that was department issue which was presented to me on retirement.

I always liked the 9mm Smith & Wesson that we had been issued, but for today I thought that giving her the smaller weapon was a better idea, less recoil.  I walked her through the safety talk about treating each weapon as if it was loaded.  I taught the laser principle in which you envisioned a laser beam coming from the barrel of the gun and that anything that the laser touched was destroyed.

“There are no do-overs.  Once you pulled that trigger there is no taking it back. You understand that right?” I asked.

“Yes” she said softly.

“Which gun do you want to try?  I asked.

She pointed at the 9mm and asked “Tom, is that the gun you used to shoot my father?”

I had not thought of that, I dropped my head, “yeah” I said softly.

I was sorry I had brought that one out here.  Then I sat on the back of the KIA.   “One of the reasons that we came out here was to talk about that.  I need to have you try and understand it was not something I wanted to do. It has bothered me since and I need your help in dealing with it.”

I was a wreck.

She sat next to me and looked at the ground.  She said “When it first happened, I knew that he had come to take me and he was going to kill me. He was sick, scared, but he was my father.  I still thought, wished there was good in him.  I wish things had gone differently and he just drove away.  But he didn’t.”

“For a little while I was angry for what you did. At one point I really kind of hated you.  But then as I thought about it I realized that even though Brandon was my father, you were my “Dad”.  You have been there for me and Mom, he had not.”

She told me about a recurring dream she had in which her father came and talked to her.  He apologized for how he had been.  He regretted that he had not done the things that he should have so that he could have been in her life.  He told her that he was sorry for the whole mess at the end with his showing up, and for what he did to his family.

By this point we were both in tears.  It was not a happy talk.  I think I finally said something goofy, and we chuckled and hugged, and cried.  It was okay. We were going to be okay.

“I love you Margo”

She looked at me and smiled weakly, “I love you too Dad”.

After about a half an hour we finally got down to the final part of the lesson and decided to run a few rounds though the weapons.  She tried the 380 first.  She was not a bad shot with it.  I had her work a little on her stance and breathing and she was hitting the fence posts consistently.  I let her try my 45, and although it was way too big for her she managed with it.  I was about to call it quits and she asked if she could try the 9mm.  I loaded it up and handed it to her.  She held it, looked at it and then fired off five quick shots, all accurate in a pattern of about four inches. My jaw dropped, and I finally asked how she had done that.  She simply said that in her dreams she had learned it, and that she visualized death coming after her.

We had been firing for about 30 minutes and thought that it was time for us to get out of there.  The weather had been good and the snow was now mostly gone so all the noise might attract attention for the Zoms.  We packed up and I tossed her the keys and started to climb into the back seat.  I figured it would be good to let her try driving without a mother hen watching over her.  But as I got in she said, “I am not going to be driving Miss Daisy so get in the front seat.”

It was a comment I made when she had reached 12 years old and no longer was required to sit in the back seat while riding. Apples don’t fall far from the trees.  I miss those days.

March 9th

Frank woke me at 4 AM for my turn at the watch. I had not been visited in my dreams.  While I was sitting at the watch post and doing periodic sweeps of the area, it was quiet.  When it is quiet like it was you think, and I thought.  I realized that so far we had succeeded in surviving, and that was pretty good considering all that had happened.

For the short term, a week, two weeks, we were in pretty good shape.  We had not run into a big problem yet, but this was new and there would be issues. We needed to have people in place to act in roles of authority when the time came.  I knew my situation and that I really did not want to be the “King”. I thought that the idea of a Triumvirate was the best one.  That was small enough to act quickly but not so small as to be controlled by one person.

We also needed a framework to live by, an ethical code. We needed some rules or guidelines.  But the key was to keep it simple.  It could be as simple as the Ten Commandments with perhaps a tweak here or there.  The group would need to talk about it.

About 6 AM I heard the rustling of Nick in the kitchen area. He was up and beginning to put together a little breakfast for us all.  It made sense to have group meals, for bonding and communications purposes.  It made the group stronger.  He was making coffee, pancakes, and formerly frozen sausages that had to be used up or go bad.

Everyone was pretty much up and active by 7ish, so it was time to eat.  While we were eating I started to relate the thoughts I had on the issue of a “government” and rules to live by to Anne. I laid out the frameworks I had considered during my watch as a starting point.  She felt it was a good idea and something we should work on.

Throughout the morning there were little discussions going on.  About 10:30 Lance called me into the surveillance area.  “We are being watched. I think that there was someone, or a group of someone’s up on the mountain to the east that is spying on us.”

How do you know?”

He cued up a segment of the video from about five minutes earlier.  At the point where the road seemed to go over the mountain there was a series of flashes from the same spot.  They were irregular and did not seem to be any signal. It was something that he had not seen before.

I called Fred, Teckla, Matt and Charlene aside and quickly told them what Lance had seen.  Based upon our memory of the drive in to the town it was about a fifteen minute trip from the flash point to our front door assuming that you drove right to our camp.

In the discussion that followed we were of the same opinion that we should assume that there were others out there and survived as we had.  We also had to assume that the living, in their efforts to survive would do what it needed to continue to survive.  If that meant raiding, robbing and even murdering, so be it.  All recommended that we proceed as if the intentions were hostile.  Only Matt and Ron wanted to go offensive and try to reach them before they reached us. Teckla, Charlene and Fred were of the mind that we are better off in a strong defensive position. I agreed with their approach.  We could post at least one sniper observer on the roof ready to engage targets as necessary.  We would also have Lance and others watching the surveillance monitors.  We did not want to get surprised.

We all headed into the big room and called everyone together. Teckla had Lance explain what he had seen and then Teckla gave the group our recommendations.  The group went along with it.  Ron piped in that the 50 cal sniper rifle in the right hands could be used to reduce the threat if we were to see the flash again.  But the problem was at that distance there was none of us capable of getting the accurate shot off.

Jan asked “Are we going to monitor the radios and if we hear someone will we try to reach out to them?”

We agreed that we should listen, and depending upon what we heard we could respond.  I had forgotten about the police radio so I ran and dug that out of my car. Jan, Margo and Cody were assigned to the radio detail.  Lance and Fred were assigned to the camera detail.  We set up a schedule for the roof top observer post between Matt, Mark, Ron, Henry and me.  Frank, Henry and Nick set about to further secure the compound.  Rifles and shotguns were issued to those who could handle them, and handguns to the rest. The rule was no shooting unless under attack.

At 12:15 the police radio came to life. “Trooper James to Peru, Trooper James to Peru.  Is anyone there?  Tom, can you hear me?”

Margo raced out of the little surveillance room with radio in hand.  She was calling to me.  I turned and as she came close I heard the transmission.

I took the radio, “Yes, we are here, we are safe, and here.”

James, the Trooper captain that I had spoken to before the blast said, “I will be at our location in a couple of minutes.”

There was excitement in the group, we were about to have some contact with someone who might actually give us a run down on what had happened and what was going on since this all started.

The Massachusetts State Police cruiser pulled up in front of the building we were in.  We had opened the driveway and often left it that way during the day while we could see what was going on.  We walked out to meet him. He looked like a typical black trooper, lean and mean with his head shaved, although at this point there was some grey stubble starting to show.  Actually he looked more like a pro-football middle linebacker. There was a smile as he offered his hand.

I asked, “Why aren’t you in Pittsfield with your family?”

The smile disappeared, “They’re gone.”

At first I did not know what to make of it, or what to say.  Were they gone to another place, or gone as in changed, or dead.  I did not ask.

He said, “They left Pittsfield just before the blasts and were headed north.  I’m not sure where but I’m going to try and follow.  I thought they might have come here, I told them you were here, that’s why I stopped, just in case”.

We had not seen the trooper’s family. Fred said that his group did not recall seeing any out of towners.  But they were restricted to only a small part of the camp and there were other areas where people gathered.  Fred offered to take the trooper up to the area and show him.

We went inside and sat down.  There was much to talk about and I suggested doing it over a coffee. The trooper accepted the offer and we sat down.  The Keurig was fired up and a nice cup of hazelnut was placed before the man.  I apologized for not having cream.

Trooper laughed and said, “No problem, like my women I take my coffee hot, black and bitter.”

As we sat in our improvised dining area, I think we spent more time asking him questions than the other way around.  The first and one on most of our minds was if it had been he who had been checking us out on the mountain to the east.  He said that it was him and that was how he knew that we were there.  He was not sure if it was us but he knew there was someone living in town.  He had called on the radio in hopes of finding out who it was.  The idea of just showing up was not one he felt good about.  But he was going to have to stop because his fuel situation was not good.  He knew where the municipal garages and fuel stations were so he figured he could probably get some gas.

Frank, more or less our de facto vehicle manager said, “I can hook you up”. He jokingly asked, “Do you want an oil change while I am at it?”

The idea was actually not a bad one.  It was just a matter of time before such luxuries might be hard to come by.

Teckla asked, “What is happening out there?”

He sat and thought for a moment, “Mostly it is damage control, where damage control can be done.  The highway bridge on I-90 had been blown up to prevent the infected from crossing it.  You know about the cities.”

We had figured the government felt it was a good idea to compartmentalize the outbreak.  Ironically they did not destroy the railroad bridge that ran parallel to it.  But then when we thought about it the bridge would still afford passage for the living, and vehicles, but the nature of the structure with the gaps where the railroad ties were would make it difficult or impossible for the Zoms to cross without falling the several hundred feet to the ground.

He told us that some of the police and emergency radios had come back on line and there had been some chatter.  But the cell towers and cellular phones were still off, and likely to continue to be off.

“Most of the information I have was by word of mouth as I travelled. I have found some other groups like yours.  There is one big colony at Otis Reservoir and a couple of other smaller groups around”, he added.

We asked about the one at Otis.

“It was doing well, but there was some in fighting among the group and the leader. The boss is a guy named Nate. He seemed to be a megalomaniac.

“Was there a guy named Elgin still at Otis?” I asked.

“I met him briefly, and that he seemed to be doing well, but one of the leaders, Harry or Jerry was not real happy with him.”

James said that while he was there a retired Air Force guy had told him a story that he could not verify but the story was that when the order was given to set off the nukes, a satellite trigger was activated.  Unfortunately that trigger detonated a W-54 suitcase nuke that had been forgotten about and left in a carrier based helicopter.  That carrier, the Ronald Reagan was part of the armada that had left Baltimore with the President and most of the high ranking elected officials. So if that were true, we were leaderless on the large scale, unless you consider the military and even that seemed questionable.

At first there was quiet as this information settled it.  As I thought about it, I come to the realization it really did not matter.  The government had pretty much abandoned us from the get go so their demise had no impact on us.  We were on our own.

We discussed potential threats to our community and I asked the trooper what he felt we could do to make our place more secure.  He felt we had done pretty well against the Zoms.  But he made a point that as this new world thing continued it would be the humans that were more dangerous than the undead.  You could out run the zombies and for a zombie to kill you they had to be real close.  The threat for roaming packs of human scavengers could be more dangerous.  They could have weapons that had a long kill range.

Captain James, knowing that his family was not with us, wanted to get moving to continue his search, he wanted to try to follow them the best he could, believing that they were headed further north.  But it was late in the day.

“Why don’t you stay with us for the night, night driving might be risky.” I suggested. “Stay and get a good night sleep and a decent hot meal before you continue.”

“Okay, you’re right and in trade I will show a couple of you how to use the sniper rifle for the long shot.”

Ron was our first choice to use the thing.  I also suggested that Matt and Mark would be good candidates as back up.  Besides the “shootists” we would want to have a couple or three people trained as spotters.  I asked for volunteers and Cody, Henry and Margo volunteered.  I was a little surprised by Margo volunteering.  And I was not surprised by Anne who was very much against the idea.

I took Margo aside talked to her about the realities and responsibilities of what she would be taking on.

“You may find yourself in a situation where you are laying in the cold or wet for long periods.  You may find that you have to pee, and would have to do it where you are, and lay in it.”

She said, “I need to do my part and really, do you think I will be in that pee situation?”

I was both afraid for her, and proud of her.  And in the long term, it would be a good thing for her to know.   I felt that she would likely be the last called upon of the three spotters.  After talking to Margo, I took Anne aside and explained it to her.  She was still not happy about the prospect, but agreed to allow it.  Arcelia, Margo’s grandmother was furious with me.

The six of them headed off to a field that Henry knew of to get some practice in.  It was different than the one that Margo and I had used earlier.  It was further away from our base although in the same direction.  We figured it might get any straggler Zoms moving away from us.

The Captain had them take one of the 308 scoped rifle and a 223 scoped rifle to use for that training and initial practice.  When proficient with the smaller weapons, each would get a round with the 50 to just get the feel for what it was like to fire the beast.  That would leave us with 44 rounds should we need them. What we planned to do was to make three sniper teams.  Team One would be the top “shootist” and spotter.  Then Team two and Team Three would be made up of the second best, and finally the third best.

The remaining group continued preparation of the garage as living quarters.  Frank worked on the trooper’s vehicle making certain that it was ready to run.  We put together a couple of teams to scavenge in the houses and stores in the area, I teamed with Teckla and Charlene.

As we were checking out the downtown area, we began to talk about how we were living and what to expect.  I tossed out the ideas I had about who was going to be in charge. I explained, “I felt we needed a few basic rules to live by and a formal structure of who runs what.”

I was kind of surprised when they said that they had been having the same thoughts and agreed with the idea.  What we came away with was that it would be brought up at the nightly meal to see where it went with the rest of the group.

In our scavenging we recovered three backpacks of canned goods, five boxes of 12 gauge 00 Buckshot shells, a Remington 870 pump action shotgun, an assortment of prescription and non-prescription meds, and some flashlight batteries.  We also created an inventory notebook with where we could find some other items that were too bulky to carry or in the “nice to have” category.

As we were picking up the canned goods, I saw that on the bottom of a can of Spam the expiration date of Jan 17, 2017. I hoped that we would still have it or be around to enjoy it on that date.

Dinner that night was probably the last time any of us would ever have shrimp. Nick had to use up the five bags of once frozen shrimp before they went bad.  He cooked it in a buttery scampi sauce, with no capers, and then poured it over elbow macaroni, one cannot have everything, but it was very tasty.  As dinner wound down, Teckla started the discussion that she, Charlene and I had talked about while scavenging.  The group was for the most part in favor of the idea.  The rules were going to be simple; basically the biblical Ten Commandment model.

There were a couple of twists added that were logical, yet surprising.  The first was that the Golden Rule would be applied to non-group members.  But if and or when the outsiders defied the ethical code the Golden Rule it changed to the Rule of Survival of the Fittest. The other was the idea of scavenging.  It was made clear that scavenging was not stealing or looting. It was a survival rule and such items were considered abandoned property.

Another interesting twist was brought up by Burt.  He pointed out, and rightly, that cash was no longer worth anything, but gold, silver and jewels would be.  It was something that should be open for ‘harvest’ as we came upon it.

Some felt that the idea of touching the dead to harvest was a sin, or just too gross.  But the majority of the group, although they did not like the idea nor would likely harvest, agreed that it was acceptable. Personally, I tended to think in terms of a superstitious nature of a dead man’s gold brings bad luck.  But I kept that to myself and would probably avoid collecting it.

The leadership issue was the one that took a little more discussion.  There were some who were quite happy with the way things had worked so far and were happy to continue as we currently operated. Some of us have stepped up to roles as needed with no prodding because it was what needed to be done.

I took the floor and said, “While it has been successful so far it does not prepare us for the future.  What happens if I go down?  I’m the de facto leader and it is a big burden for one person to carry.  A system of shared responsibility and easing of the burden by several people is going to be better in the long run.”

Teckla suggested to the group that there be three leaders at the top. There were those who were not in favor, but the consensus was that it made sense and we should move in that direction.

Charlene suggested, “This was not a thing that needed to be decided tonight, but should be thought out. We could have an election tomorrow night if that sounds good, it’ll give us a chance to see who was interested in the roles and who would be good in the roles.”

Nick and Mary-Lou rolled out a desert of some kind of fruit tart.  The final order of business was for Trooper James to reveal the results of the target day.  Many of us thought that Ron would be the King of the Snipers but it was Matt that was the top gun, then Ron and finally Mark.  The spotters got me into much trouble. Margo was the best of the spotters and as a result teamed with Matt.  Ron and Henry teamed up and finally it was Cody and Mark.  I was very proud of what Margo had accomplished.  But I could feel the lasers burning the side of my face from Anne’s and Arcelia’s glares.

After the meal was over and the cleanup was completed I had a chance to talk with Trooper James alone.  I asked, “Was Margo the best choice of the number one spotter job?”

He told me, “Her skills were twice that of the other two and she handled the rifle as well if not better than that Mark. She has the best mindset of any of the candidates for either position with the exception of Matt; she can kill if she needs to.”

We talked about just stuff, his family, life as cops, big cases that we had each investigated. I suggested that he stay with the group.  But I understood completely his need to find his family.  I left it that if he found them, or needed a place, a group, they had a home.

It was almost 11 PM when we finally decided that if he were leaving in the morning it would be wise to get some sleep.  I had the night off from the watch so it was going to be a good night.  I brushed my teeth and crawled into bed.  Both Anne and Margo were asleep.

March 10th

After breakfast Trooper James left.  We all wished him well and hoped that he would be successful in his search.  I found that he was like many cops I have known, a kind and caring person under a cool and hardened shell that society demanded we wear most of the time.

By 9 AM we were back to our usual routine.  Frank and the boys (Matt, Mark, and Henry) were working on getting the vehicles ready and more protected. Anne, Charlene, and Fred were going over some ideas about Zoms and trying to further expand our limited knowledge.  We had a couple of scavenger parties out.  Lance was doing the video surveillance and the older folks were drinking coffee and talking about who they thought should be the leaders.  Of course, in their case, the discussion deteriorated to one that was more based on some great and not so great leaders over the years.  Names like Ike, and FDR came up, as did Reagan, and Kennedy.

I was thinking that it might be a good idea to take a run back up toward Camp Danbee, I wanted to see what was happening with the Zoms that were up there, and what they might be doing now.

Ron was available and he was a good choice to go with me because of his familiarity with the camp, and what was going on there just a few days ago.  It dawned on me that even though it had only been a few days since the rescue that it seemed like weeks with everything that had been going on.

Ron and I drove the KIA, it was big enough and fast enough to get us there and back while not putting us at any great risk. Frank had completed some modifications on it so if we run into a large horde of the Zoms we would easily be able to bully our way out and be protected at the same time.

As we drove up we talked about the area.  Ron had grown up in town so he pretty much knew what the layout was.  He had also been there after the shit hit the fan so he knew or had an idea what we might expect.

On the drive up the roads were clear and there was no visible activity off to the woods that we saw.  It was still early March so nothing had started growing back yet.  It was a particularly warm day and we had the sunroof vent open and the breeze felt good but there was that stench of death in the air.

We arrived at Camp Danbee and to our surprise there were no undead there besides the burned bodies that had been taken down by the fires.  We both thought that it was odd.  We left the camp and drove around the lake area a little more.  As we got to the south side of the lake, we did start to see some Zoms. They seemed to be headed west around the south end of the lake.  Of course when they sensed the KIA they stopped and turned toward us.  But there had to be a reason why they were headed in that direction. Maybe there was another camp or group of survivors close by.  We decided that we would head a little further around the lake to see what we could find.

On the west side of the lake we found that the Zom population was increasing.  It seemed like that there was a food source attracting them.  But how were the Zoms able to determine or sense this?  We drove on a little further and got the answer.  Someone on the west side of the lake had set up a stereo system that was playing it loudly, that was the attraction.  I cannot say that I was crazy about the choice of music, I was never a big fan of country western.

As we got closer, we could see where the music was coming from, and the small generator that was supplying the electricity.  In a circle around the stereo were heaps of the Zoms.  In the center of the circle was a single blood splattered individual.  He was a big guy, a biker type with bandana and cut off denim jacket.  He had a machete in one hand and an ax in the other.  He was facing with three or four Zoms while another half dozen or so were closing in on him.  He had no chance and by the look of things he had reached the point where he knew his time was up and he was going out with a bang.

In a way you had to kind of admire him as you would a Viking Berserker in the throes of battle lust. Slashing and hacking he fought on, but the numbers and exhaustion were against him.  From where we were there was no way to get to him.  Ron was able to get a few shots off through the sunroof, but it was too little, too late.  As Ron took down the Zoms right in front and behind him the biker looked over at us, nodded and then smashed another skull.  As he swung the ax, it turned him to an angle where we were able to read the rockers on his motorcycle jacket.  He was a Devil Rider from CT.

The Zoms were aware of us now because we had been shooting.  The noise, our movements and our smell were attracting them. We had to go.  As I started to put the KIA in reverse to back out, the first Zom got his bite on the biker.  The ax fell from the Biker’s hand.  He finished the Zom with his machete, and rushed two more.  But they were starting to swarm him now.  A nip here, a bite on the leg, it was almost over.  The biker knew it.  He pulled out a small handgun, and finished himself.  He did not want to turn.

I muttered “God Speed Warrior”.

We drove ahead, and circled the lake rather than head back the way we came, it seemed wiser.  It would make the trek longer for the Zoms if they were to follow us.  I drove hard to reach Route 143 so that it would be a fifty-fifty chance they would turn the right way to find us.

Ron was doing some calculations in his head and figured that at the time of the event there were about 850 people in town.  Of the eight hundred fifty, he figured that maybe 100 tried to get away from town and go to places unknown.   He thought that there had been about ninety five at the camp where he and his group had been.  There were only eight of them left. From what we saw as we drove along and watched the Biker’s last stand there were another two hundred there.  That meant that there was still about four hundred bodies, dead and undead not accounted for and it could be just a matter of time before they might show up on our doorstep.

When we got back to our place around 11:30, things were pretty much as normal.  There was a buzz of activity, and there was a lot of banging and grinding going on in the area of the garage.  The doors were all open so that the noise was being funneled like a megaphone through the open doors. I walked in and talked with Frank.  I told him what we had seen and that we should try to dampen the noise.

It was about lunch time so it was a good time to take a break and as we all headed into the dining area where Nick had some soup and sandwiches for us.  Ron and I told the rest of the group what we had seen and that although it did not appear that we had been followed the idea that there were Zoms walking around, perhaps nearby should put us on a heightened awareness.

Margo piped in “Situational Awareness”.

I added “Be extra careful on your scavenging trips.  We should also try to keep noise to a minimum.”

Burt pointed out that right now the lack of vegetation made it easy to see into the wooded areas around the encampment.  But he added that as time went on it would become increasingly difficult to use the cameras at longer ranges.  He suggested that it might not be a bad idea to erect some form of warning system like a wire about fifty or one hundred yards out with some noise making devices. That was what they had done in Nam he said. This would allow for not only visual surveillance but also an auditory warning.  It was a good idea, and could pay dividends down the road.

With all the discussion lunch ran a little longer than it usually did.  As the conversations were winding down, I brought up the election issue.

I asked, “Do we want to wait for tonight for the election? While we are present why not get the nominating done now and then we can vote during the afternoon for who we want as the Triumvirate.”

All were in agreement so I opened the nominations by putting Teckla’s name up.  She accepted.  She in turn put up Charlene.  The two of them had become friends and often worked on projects together.  Fred put Henry up for a spot and he accepted.  Cyril, Anne’s dad offered my name.

I told them, “I was honored by the nomination but I am declining.  I will do operational and logistical things but I did not want to be on the board.”

Matt was also nominated but said, “I also decline, I have my responsibility as lead sniper.”

Ron nominated Fred, who accepted.  Burt was nominated by his wife, Mary-Lou. Those were all the nominations.

We placed a small pad of paper on the table, next to a cookie jar we had found.   The instructions for voting were simple.  Write the name of the three people you felt were the best for the job on a slip of paper fold it and drop it in the cookie jar.  Tonight at dinner the votes would be counted and the winners announced.  A paper list was placed on the table next to the jar with the names of the candidates in order of nomination to remind everyone who was running.  The names were Teckla, Charlene, Henry, Burt and Fred.

We all returned to our tasks of the day.  I had nothing particular planned but was thinking about the fence idea that Burt had suggested.  It made sense, and I wanted to see how much material we would need to get it done.

One of the unwritten rules, kind of a ‘be smart” thing, was that you never left the compound without a weapon and a wingman.  I had Henry with me and as we walked we talked about how it was not going to be an easy task.  For a single strand of wire around the complex we were looking at a little over two thousand feet.  We came up with that number based on one hundred feet off the inner fence and the inner fenced area was about three hundred feet on a side.

The first issue we would face was finding that much wire.  But that turned out to be not so much of an issue.  Henry’s neighbor had been planning to replace an area of fence in one of his fields.  He had recently received a shipment of ten thousand feet of barbed wire that should work just fine, Merle, Henry’s neighbor was not going to need the wire any longer.

He added that we could hook up the unit that was used to electrify his fences.  It might not stop a Zom, but if one hit it there would be a noise generated at the power supply that would let us know that there was something at the wire.

As we walked the terrain to determine the degree of difficulty involved in the fence installation, we talked about who would be the best for the group as leader.  Henry and I both agreed on Teckla and Charlene.  Each was a tireless worker with a clear sense of what needed to be done.  We also agreed that Burt would not be a good choice.  He had some ideas, but he was not a real productive member of the group.  That left Fred and Henry.  To his credit Henry did not try to sell himself to me.  In fact he said that each of them had good points and would likely be the minority voice on the board. But he was good with however it turned out.

We finished the walk around and the only problem that was left on the fence idea was the roadway. We would have to create some form of removable gate to allow our vehicles in or out of the compound.  This could be a weak link in the plan.  The other potential problem would be that we needed to run the generator to power the fence.

This was fine right now but in time the propane generator that we were running would need to be refueled.  By our best guess we had about 3 weeks of fuel left before we were powerless.  We needed to find more propane.  From our earlier trip to the camp and beyond I knew that there were many cottages and homes that used propane to heat and cook with.  We could raid them.  We could also get a little relief from the hardware store.  They had a number of small twenty five pound tanks that would cover us for a day or two. Ideally finding a truckload or a distribution point for the propane would be the best case.  It would mean that we would have to start venturing further and further from home.  That could be risky, but either way it was going to be something that we would have eventually had to do anyway.

Back in the compound it seemed that there was a reality show going on the way some were lobbying for votes.  It seemed pretty clear that two of the three slots were set, but that third spot was in question and Burt was certainly pitching his package.

I placed my ballot and then headed over to talk with Mark and Nick.  They were pretty much the experts on the “antique” weapons of sword and mace. After seeing the mayhem that the biker was able to create in his last stand I thought that it might not be a bad idea to have them put together some training or at least a demonstration of close combat.  We would not always have the luxury of firearms and there were some distinct disadvantages to using them, primarily the noise.  They agreed with me said that they would work on it and have something put together for the next day or so.

I checked in with Lance.  “How are things in the world of peeking and spying?” I asked.

“I have seen nothing unusual” he responded.  He was not big on chit-chat.

“Henry and I had come up an idea of a fence and checked to see if that would be workable.  We are looking to put it around the camp.  How will that work with the camera system?”

After a little thinking and looking at his monitors he said, “Overall it is workable but there will be a couple of blind spots when the foliage filled in.”

We talked a little more, but all I was getting mostly was grunts and “yups” and could tell that he was only half listening.

As I left Lance, I was beginning to feel lighter.  Not weight wise, we were all getting to be a little lighter as The Event rolled on. But it was starting to sink in that shortly I would no longer have to be running point.  These little tasks would fall to others and I was relieved.

As dinner rolled around, the activities of the day had bit by bit come to a halt.  There was the issue of the vote that was on everyone’s mind.  As we sat down, it was Cyril who asked “Well are we going to count the votes before or after dinner.”

The votes had all been cast so it did not really matter.  The consensus was that we get it done and then eat.  As non-candidates, Matt and I counted the votes.  There were a total of twenty votes cast which meant we had no abstentions.  The tally was Teckla and Charlene each getting nineteen votes. There were nine votes for Henry, eight votes for Fred and three votes for Burt.  I announced “Your Triumvirate is Teckla, Charlene and Henry.”

The inauguration dinner if you want to call it that was as All American as you could get. Nick had put together a pot of Beanie Weenie Casserole or if you prefer franks and beans.

After dinner the new leaders headed into the office area and had a little pow-wow to sort out some things.  They had to create some form of hierarchy and to do this they ranked it by number of votes received. Teckla and Charlene were tied so they broke the tie by a coin toss. Teckla won and was the President.  Charlene became the Vice President and Henry the Prime Minister.

That night as bed time approached Anne suggested that we take a walk out in the fenced in area of the compound.  The outside was moonlit, still quite dark. There was little light showing from inside the building.  As we walked, she took my hand.  I could sense something was wrong, but I let her run with this.

She opened up to me and said, “My dad is not doing well.  He’s 88 and is having difficulty getting around, and seeing. I am afraid we will lose him soon.”

“I know, but what can we do?” I asked.

We had been lucky so far in that we had not lost any members of the group to accident, illness or Zoms.  But I think that we all knew that the luck was only temporary.

“There is no answer to that, but I had to say it, to let it out. Tom, when the time comes, I need you to promise that you will make sure he doesn’t come back.”

In the back of my mind that had always been my thought.  But as she laid it on the table it hit me hard. I had known and loved this guy for thirty years.  Through tears I told her “I will do what is necessary for him and for each and every one of us if….

She squeezed my hand and we both sat on a little bench outside the building for a while.  We did not speak for a long time.  I thought back to the day when I asked him if I could marry his daughter.  Ironically after that day she and I fell apart a number of times.  But that is a story for another day that may not come. After a while we got up and quietly walked to our little room.  We crawled into bed and I just held her.

March 11th

There has been actually little to chronicle today. It was more or less a business as usual type of day. Nick and Mark began the training with the assorted hand weapons that they have developed.  They worked with groups of about six at a time and each group spent about an hour becoming comfortable and reasonably effective with the weapons.

We each developed a liking of one weapon type or another.  The men generally liked the weighted morning star types, while the larger women were happy with a more battle axe configuration.  The smaller folks leaned toward simple bats or bars.

We all more or less got the hang of it after a while although Cyril, Arcelia and Burt were pretty much useless should it come down to it.  They all lacked the stamina to last very long and I am certain that if push came to shove the stress and adrenalin rush would probably cause a heart attack in each of them.

Anne and Mary-Lou were good with the theory and the ability to move the blades, they chose small battle axes, but one could see that their hearts were not in it.  They were just not ready to break open the heads of the dead.  I figured when the time came one’s mindset would change.

Margo, Lance and Cody were all fine with the training and seemed ready to do what was necessary.  I will admit that in my observations I saw that both Lance and Cody seemed to think that maybe Margo was a dating possibility.  A little Dad stuff came to mind, protecting my little girl.  I was thinking that she is too young for dating.  But I also realized we’re in a different world. She and I would have to have a little chat about men and it would not be the one that Anne had already given her before this all happened.

Back to training stuff, the “menfolk” in a time of crisis I was not worried about.  I think that we all knew what we would have to do, and were quite capable.  We were in one form or another experienced and although may not have necessarily made a kill, if you call taking out a Zom a kill.  But we had been in high risk situations and were as ready as we ever would be. Teckla, and Charlene, they were ready also.

It is easy to take out a single Zom.  I am not talking about from a step-up and off with their head aspect of it.  You are just shutting down what is already dead.  You know it and you do not feel bad about it.  In fact over time you develop a feeling that you were being merciful in putting an end, a final end, to their misery.

What still has me concerned is that eventuality when we are confronted with a living individual who intends us harm.  I know that I can do it, I had to with Brandon.  I was not happy with it but you deal with it the best you can.  Taking the shot at another living human being up close and personal is a lot different.  This may be an issue for some down the road.

Henry and I had been in the second training group and finished up just before lunch.  After lunch Frank, Henry and I headed off to Merle’s farm where we loaded up ten rolls of barbed wire.  Each roll was good for about five hundred feet.  We also grabbed a bunch of metal fence posts and some fencing tools.

As we started back, we found that puppy.  The little guy, looked like a white shepherd or a shepherd lab cross was sitting in the middle of the road. He was blood free and appeared to be unbitten.  We stopped and got out of the truck.  Henry thought that it might have been one of the puppies that were from the Johnson Farm.  They were raising shepherds and occasionally had a white one.  We got out of the truck and waited.  The dog was leery of us.  Henry started to talk to it, and call it.  Slowly, timidly the dog came closer until finally it started to sniff Henry’s hand.  It was like the smell or the lack of smell was the clue.  Next thing it was licking Henry’s hand and a bond was formed.

The radio kicked in.  It was Lance.  He said “You should probably get back to base as quickly as possible.”

I asked, “What is happening?”

“Just hurry” he replied.

When we returned we were met by Charlene. “Burt had gotten himself drunk and locked himself in the locker room near the office. I think he is suicidal.”

She said, “He is yelling and threatening to shoot the first person who came through the door.”

“Is there anyone watching the door?” I asked

“Yes and we have it secured from the outside just in case.”

Mary-Lou, Burt’s wife was in the lunch room with Teckla and Anne. She was in tears, bruised and a wreck, blaming herself.  Henry was still with me, and was familiar with both of them.

It appeared that the issue was that Burt had been feeling old of late.  He was feeling like he was not really doing anything to help the group and had worked himself into a depression. He had these depression issues in the past.  It was compounded by Mary-Lou’s lack of affection and sexual desire.  She had just no longer had any interest in sex with him.

She told Henry that they had gotten to arguing earlier in the day and he got into the liquor cabinet and drank himself stupid.  He tried to have sex with her just after lunch and was rejected.  That set him off and he began to beat her and accuse her of having sex with others in the group instead of him.  As his rage grew, others became aware of the fight and finally Ron and Charlene stepped in.  Burt ran into the locker room and locked the door.

“Has anyone tried to talk with him?” I asked.

“I did” said Ron, “But he is really drunk and not co-operating. He just keeps going on about how his life and his marriage were over.  He wants to die.”

In the old days, before The Event this was one of the things that I did, being a hostage negotiator.  Normally I would have just stepped in and started talking to Burt.  But this was not quite that simple.  It turns out that I was seen as one of the issues supposedly to be involved with his wife.  Henry, who might have been a good second choice in negotiations, was out for the same reason.  It fell to Ron to be the guy to talk to him.   But before talking with him we needed to know what he had for a weapon and did he still have the booze. Both of these items could have impact in resolving this.

Mary-Lou told us, “He had a half gallon of vodka.  He had stolen it from the liquor cabinet a couple days ago. Up until this morning he would only have a little bit every once in a while.  But after the fight this morning he really got into it.”

“He had probably drank about half of it, I saw him grab the bottle when he ran to the locker room.”

As far as a weapon went, we all carried one.  Each of us had a pistol that we carried all the time, call it paranoia, since we had not yet seen a Zom in the area. Burt usually had a little 38 revolver that he carried.  It was one of those little snub nosed type.  The rest of us carried semi-automatics because of the need for firepower.  But he refused, he liked his wheel gun.

In a little planning session we figured that the best way to deal with this was to let time work for us.  The odds were that Burt would drink himself to sleep and sober up. Then he would be easier to deal with.  There was no reason to go in and get him nor was there any reason to talk him out.  At this point everyone was safe and there was no need to put anyone at risk.  We decided to just sit and wait.

There was one small fault in the plan.  Burt was a smoker and either by intention or accident he managed to get a fire going in the locker room.  We had all pretty much left him alone, he was ranting, and raving, but there was not much we could do for him.  After a while he did quiet down and we figured that he probably had passed out.

While all this drama had seemed to have calmed itself there was a great deal of interest in Henry’s new puppy.  The pup was all over everyone and seemed to be enjoying people, living people for a change.  He ran from person to person licking, and sniffing.  He would roll on his back to have his tummy rubbed.

Nick was the first to notice, his only comment was that he must have forgotten about something in the oven.  He headed off to the kitchen area, but returned shaking his head.  He said everything was fine in the kitchen.  We all started to smell the smoke now.  It was not the same smell as the wood stove that was in the corner.  So we started to look around to see what was going on.

Suddenly there were shouts from the locker room, it was Burt, he was screaming, “FIRE, I’m burning up”.

Matt raced over and unlashed the door to let him out.  But the inside lock was still on.  We could not open the door.   He yelled to Burt, “Unlock the door!”

Burt was not listening or responding, between the vodka and the fear he was in panic mode.

Mark grabbed a heavy hammer while Frank grabbed a water hose.  It took Mark three swings to break down the door and we were in.  There was a lot of thick smoke.  It made it hard to see.  And when we opened the door it caused the flames to really change from smoldering to a roaring fire. At first we could not find Burt.   Frank began to put water on a pile of burning blankets on the floor.

Fortunately there were not a lot of combustible materials in the locker room, it was cinder block walls and metal lockers.  But there were some clothes and sleeping materials because he and Mary-Lou made part of the room their sleeping quarters.

We found Burt in the shower area of the locker room.  He was semi-conscious, and burned.  He had been, or at least his clothes had been on fire.  He had gone into the shower room and was lying under a stream from one of the showers.  We dragged him out into the main room and Charlene went to work on him.

Mary-Lou was screaming, and crying, and had to be restrained to prevent her from getting in the way.  He was in a bad way.  He had a lot of nasty burns on his arms, legs and face. Charlene was muttering under her breath the whole time.  She said that she needed oxygen for him, but we had none.  It was not something that any of us thought to take from the police cruiser or even look for in our scavenging runs.

Matt ran and grabbed the acetylene torch and rolled it over.  He undid the green line from the torch portion and handed it to her.  She looked at him bewildered for a moment and then nodded her head.  She told him to set the regulator at about 10 PSI and turn it on.  She improvised a mask out of some rags that were close by.  It helped; he seemed to get a little color back although with the burns it was hard to tell.

Charlene told someone get a sheet and had Nick mix up about 10 gallons of salt water, not wicked strong, like a pound of salt to the ten gallons. But he needed to boil it, and quickly cool it so she would apply it to the burned areas.  That took about 30 minutes.

While the salt water was cooking Charlene took Teckla, Henry and I aside.  “He is most likely not going to make it.”

Burt had about 40 percent of his body with third degree burns and a very good likelihood that his lungs were badly burned.  This means that he was very susceptible to infection and an almost certain candidate for pneumonia.  Even in a special burn center there would be a fifty/fifty chance, but here in these primitive conditions it was maybe a five percent chance of survival.”

Henry asked, “What can we do?”

“We can try to make him as comfortable as we can but there may come a time when for mercy sake we should help him cross over.”

Teckla concurred with Charlene.  Although my vote did not count, I knew that it was the reality and the right thing to do.

“We need to keep an eye on him because we don’t know if just dying of natural causes would result in the change.” I added.

Nick   finished the salt water and Charlene put a clean sheet on top of Burt.  She poured the salt water on him.  He twitched a little and mumbled. Fortunately he was drifting in and out of consciousness.  It had to hurt like hell but we really had nothing for the pain that he was going through.

I recalled something I had learned while investigating a homicide. The victim had been shooting vodka into his arm with a hypodermic needle.  I had always thought that if you injected straight alcohol into your veins it would kill you.  But Doctor Thomas from the Medical Examiner’s Office told me that it was not fatal, although it would be painful at the point of injection.  But in fact, with coma patients they would run an alcohol drip for feeding purposes.

Perhaps if we kept him drunk it would help with the pain a little.  I ran this by Charlene, and she thought about it for a couple of minutes.  Finally she decided that lacking any other options it was worth the try and that it might help.  The only down side was that if we made the drip too rapid it could cause him to suffer alcohol poisoning.

Mary-Lou was still in shock, but we had let her back into the area where we were working on him.  She was given the run down on his condition and his likely chances of survival.  She actually held up pretty well considering.  But under the outside display there was a storm, a big storm of emotions, all she kept saying was, “It’s my fault, I caused this.”

Charlene explained to her the idea that we had to try to help him with the pain. There are times when even in the worse situations that things are said that are just bizarre and even funny.  With a straight face she looked at Charlene and simply said that she would go along with the idea but there was one caveat; we had to give him the “good” stuff.  What can you say at that point?

Charlene was able to improvise an IV using plastic fuel line, some duct tape and a hypodermic needle that had come from an insulin pen.  It was not perfect or fancy, but it seemed to work.  I think it was about here that someone had dubbed her Nurse MacGyver.  She had cut the oxygen regulator back to about two PSI and that did not seem to have a negative impact.  It was now just a case of watch, and wait.

Frank and Mark had put out the fire. Teckla, Henry and I examined the scene.  Our best guess was that he was lying on the bed, still drinking. The melted vodka bottle was still on the bed. You could see an outline of a body on the mattress.  We figured that he passed out with a cigarette going, spilled the vodka which ignited.  It was burning pretty well when he woke up on fire.  He was probably badly burned before he woke up.  It was a miracle that he had not asphyxiated right on the spot in the middle of the fire.

We cleaned the place up the best we could, but the smell of burnt flesh would not go away.

March 12th

I do not feel much like writing today. Most of the day was spent doing our standard chores but not much more. There was a somber mood over the group, it was pretty much accepted that we were about to lose our first member and it made many of us contemplate where things could go from here.  We had been lucky till now.

March 13th

Burt is doing worse.  His breathing is becoming more and more ragged. At night you can hear him.  He is slipping in and out of consciousness.  The vodka drip is helping a little with the pain but he is really in a bad way.  Some of the burns have begun to fester and infection is setting in.  It is a matter of time. Some of the women had been trying to keep Mary-Lou’s spirits up, but she knows, we all know.

March 14th

It was about four in the morning when we were awakened by Burt, screaming in pain.  The vodka no longer helped, or helped enough.  The infection had set in and he was delirious.  There was nothing we could do for him.  The Three (Teckla, Charlene and Henry) talked quietly in a corner and I guessed that they were determining that it was time to help him over the pain, for good.

They took Mary-Lou aside and told her what they thought.  She did not take it well.  She asked if she could spend some time with him before the deed, in essence his euthanasia was done.  She went into the room with him. Anne was going to go with her but Mary-Lou asked that they be alone.

I felt like a monster but I had to ask, “Who feels they can do this? Those who do, put your name in the hat.”

I really can only speak for myself, but when I put my name in it was not a thing I was happy, or proud in doing.  But I saw the intense suffering that Burt was experiencing and to free him of the agony and torment was the motivator, the only motivator.

As we were about to pull the name, a shot rang out from the locker room.  We rushed toward the door. About half way across the room there was a second shot.  I was first through the door.  Mary-Lou was lying on top of Burt.  Blood was oozing from her nose and the back of her head.  Burt also had a wound to the head.

“Shit, I should have known.” I shouted.

Neither of them was breathing. In the end she had chosen to take care of him.  And they are together now, in a better place.

We burned them just after lunch.  The bodies were not even cold.  Most of us really did not know them all that well so there was no fancy wake, or eulogy.  Matt was an ordained minister, from the back of a magazine or the internet or something, and that was all we had.  He spoke a few words and offered a couple of prayers.

I talked with Henry later in the day; I needed to let some of this out.  I was angry that it turned out as it did.  I had no reason to be in the sense that these were not my people, or friends, or family, but it just did not sit right with me that things ended as they did.

He told me that he had known them over the years.  They had had a tumultuous relationship in part due to Burt’s drinking and both their depression issues.  Mary-Lou had often said that without Burt she would probably kill herself.  Henry had thought over the years that it was more talk than a plan on her part.  But then considering everything that had gone on over the last month or so, suicide could seem a very inviting relief.

That night as Anne and I bedded down for the night, we talked about what Henry had told me and the events of the last couple of days.

Anne said “I can understand where Mary-Lou had come from.  If Margo and you were not around, I would probably chose it too.”

I thought about there being my anchor and wondered if I would continue on without them until I was bitten or killed.  I want to see where this story would end and if I had any influence in the ending I wanted to exert it.  Keeping Margo, Cody or any of the other young people alive is what I would strive to do.

March 15th

Just another quiet day here in the Land of Milk and Honey.  I noticed that I have been on a roll in keeping this journal up.  I sometimes wonder why I keep writing it.  The best answer that I can come up with is that sometime, or somewhere this journal may be our only legacy.  But it is also to keep my mind sharp and reflect on the events as they unfold.  A year from now it may be useful to the group.  It may give us something to look back at and realize what we had done well, or badly.  I don’t know.

Right now I am not much in the writing mood, and some days I have to force myself to put something down. Once the habit or routine is broken I’m afraid it will stop and in the loss of the documentation there will be the loss of the memories.

March 16th

Really, nothing much happened today.  It was a rainy day of humdrum.  We all just kind of did not much of anything.

March 17th (Saint Patrick’s Day)

The weather cleared so Henry, Mark and I started on the fence, Fred and a couple of the others helped also.  Most of the rest of the group has kept to small projects.  Matt and Frank are continuing to work on the vehicles.  Charlene and Anne are going through the e-mails from the CDC.  The scavenger crews are out and searching the downtown area.

March 18th

The fence is about a third complete.  It is not as easy as we first thought.  The ground is pretty rocky so the posts are hard to put in but it is coming along. It is all pretty quiet.  It is funny, all I can think of are those old movies…”Yes, it is quiet, too quiet”.

March 21st

I skipped a couple of days of entries because there was just nothing going on. There are no lessons or insights to be had but in thinking about it I have just realized I left something out that is very important.

In Peru, our water source is a well.  We did not have a water treatment plant and none of us are capable of determining if there was any type of contamination to the water supply.  We have two different types of water in the compound. The first is what we call “clear” water; I think it used to be called “potable” water.  We keep a large pot of water that we boiled the purposes of cooking, food related cleaning and drinking. This water is stored in clean containers.    Then we use the water right out of the tap as wash water which we use for showers, or other water needs.  It is likely that the water right out of the tap is ok, but there seems no reason to push the issue.

March 23rd

We have finished the fence.  It was a long task but one I think will add to the safety of the group.  It will at least prevent the Zoms from sneaking up on us.  I know it will do nothing against the living.

That makes me wonder, “How many other little communities are out there?”

In a way it is like the old notion of the earth being the only inhabited planet in the universe.  With all the towns, and people out there before The Event I find it difficult to believe that only Otis and Peru had survivors.  There must be more and over time what will happen when the groups expand, explore and come into contact.  I just hope these other groups developed a similar ethical plan to live and let live rather than survival of the fittest.

March 27th

Sorry, I have been remiss in my writings, with the fence done it has resulted in a lack of motivation. But also there has not been a lot to report either.  The snow is gone, it is getting warmer.

March 28th

Early this morning we had a little scare when the fence alarms went off.  Lance did a scan of the fence line using the cameras the best he could but found nothing.  Ron and Frank walked the line with flashlights but also found no indication of intrusion.  We checked it again during the daylight and found a little deer fur on the barbed wire.

The puppy, who we decided to call Biter after the name used in an old Zombie film has really adjusted to the group.  He is basically attached himself to Cyril, Anne’s dad. It is really a good thing for them both.  Biter keeps Cyril busy and active and Cyril keeps Biter out of the trouble.

We have also started taking Biter with us more and more when we are walking the fence, or if there is a scavenger run to be made.  He is very good at detecting the Zoms.

March 30th

Nick and Henry did a food inventory today.  We are good for about a month at current consumption.  We need to start making some farming plans to for the summer and hopefully be able to put some reserves away for the next winter.  Fuel supplies of gasoline and diesel are good, but then we have not been driving much.  Propane is still ok but we need to keep an eye on that.  I missed an entry yesterday, nothing happened.

March 31st

It is Easter Sunday.  I had almost forgotten about it. It was Anne’s Mom who made sure we remembered.  She must have cornered Matt and Nick a few days back and talked with them about it. Matt put together a nice little service and sermon. He talked about suffering, and acceptance and most of all faith.

Nick was able to put together a ham dinner with some canned hams that we had recovered.  It was not a huge spread, but enough.   When we sat down to eat Matt asked Arcelia to say grace.

She hesitated at first but then said, “Lord we thank you for what we have, and that we are together to enjoy the day, in your name, Amen.”

“Amen” from around the tables.

It was nice although there were no colored eggs or chocolate rabbits.

April 1st

April Fool’s Day but no one was thinking of a good one to play on the group.  It was a quiet day mostly due to the rainy rawness of the weather.

April 2nd

The weather broke and it was an unusually warm day.  We are in a comfortable place right now so it was a just an enjoy the kind of weather day.  No scavenging was done today.

April 3rd

A scary incident occurred.  Fred and Jan were out doing a scavenging run this morning.  The areas that have been untouched are getting to be very few. There are probably about 35 houses and buildings left to check.  While they checked a small diner on the north side of town they ran into a couple of active Zoms.  They were quickly dispatched but it was the first time in a while we had any contact with the undead.  The bad part was that the two of them had been complacent.  They had gotten so used to kind of an Easy Street approach and they were caught off guard.  On a separate note, I have noticed that the two of them spend an awful lot of time together.

April 4th

After yesterdays close call we took it easy on scouting and scavenging.  But we did take some time to do some close combat drills.

April 5th

We had another fence alarm overnight.  With the events of a couple of days ago everyone was a little more on edge.  Again it turned out to be a case of an animal setting it off but the more I think about it the more I have to wonder how soon before our complex is found.  I wonder how the Zoms detect their prey.  We know that movement and sound will attract their attention but what else do they get locked onto.  I asked Anne about this. She has become the resident research expert on the topic based upon her study of e-mails and journals taken from Doc Swenson’s office.

“It seems that smells are a way the Zoms track over longer distances.  But the smells can be masked, with Zom smell and maybe certain chemicals.”

“You mean I can pour kerosene on myself, or rub Zom guts all over me and I am safe?” I asked.

“Yeah, well, it has not been tested, but yeah.”

“Wonderful, just wonderful” I said.

April 6th

I talked to Charlene, Teckla and Henry this morning about the smell thing.  We had not yet had an issue with roaming Zoms but perhaps it was time to do something to try to mask our smells against the background.

Teckla suggested, “We could either put diesel fuel around the complex to try to hide the smell or perhaps a fire or two in the complex could also work.”

Henry nodded, “But what if there were other survivors, or bands of nomads out there.  The fires could draw them to us.”

We left that as a question to be considered for the time being.

April 7th

While scavenging today we hit a small jackpot.  Ron and Charlene came upon a house that had apparently belonged to a bow hunter.  They found a number of compound bows as well as three crossbows.  There were a fair number of arrows as well as Fletcher’s equipment.  This was a very good find.

April 9th

Another rainy day yesterday and not much happened.  Today the weather was much improved and spirits were better. A number of us spent the day learning and practicing with the bows and crossbows. This could help our efforts at food gathering.  We did not what to waste ammunition nor announce our presence with gunfire.

April 14th

I have been laid up with a stomach virus, or maybe a mild case of food poisoning.  A number of us have had that issue for the last few days.  We will be adding toilet paper to the list of things to scavenge in the near future.

April 15th (Tax Day…..)

Frank met with The Three, “The propane situation is starting to get serious.  We are running low and need to find some additional tanks in the next few days.”

“How low?” asked Henry

“At this point we have about a 4 day supply left.  The efforts at local scavenging had met our needs until now but we have pretty much used up all the propane resources in town.  We need to extend the area of our search.”

Charlene looked at the other leaders who nodded, “We will start looking tomorrow then”.

April 16th

We spent the day sending a couple of scout parties out along the roads to check their condition and whether there was Zom activity.  We found that it was pretty calm.  Henry and Fred talked about some towns in the area close to Peru.  The three that came up the most was Pittsfield, Dalton and Hinsdale. All three were on the North-South rail line.  We were able to get maps of three cities. It was times like this that having Google Earth or some other satellite resource would have been nice but that is no longer going to happen.

Pittsfield seemed to be the more promising in terms of what we might find.  It was the largest of the three and probably had the most available resources. It was also the furthest away.  It looked like it would take about forty-five minutes to travel to Pittsfield.  The plus to that was that it was less likely that the Zoms would follow us back. But it also held the larger population which meant that there were more Zoms in the area.  I remembered the information that had been relayed by Captain James. He said that if there were survivors it would be a good place for them to create a group like what we have.

Dalton was the next choice.  This was a town that was about half the size of Pittsfield.  It is a suburb of Pittsfield and twice the size of Hinsdale.  It is a little to the Northeast of Pittsfield.  But there seemed to be a housing corridor between the two cities that meant that there could be a path leading from one city to the other.  Henry said that the trip there would take us a little over a half an hour.

Hinsdale was the third choice.  It was about twice the size of Peru and had the rail line going through town which meant that it very likely was a freight stop.  With a little luck there may be some warehousing complexes or small distribution centers.

Based upon the locations and all of the factors as we knew them we decided that it made the most sense to visit Hinsdale.  It was closest and held the smallest population that could mean the least number of Zoms.  Besides, to get to Dalton or Pittsfield we would have to travel through Hinsdale anyway.

April 17th

We spent time putting together a plan for visiting Hinsdale.  A recon of the town would be a good idea if it was a good place to relocate to. We figured out who would go and what vehicles to take. I thought that a critical need list was a good idea. We had people of sorts to handle certain tasks like cooking, medical, auto works and so on.  Those individuals were asked to create their list.

Charlene, as medical person, requested that any and all locations where medical supplies be located and at least noted for later scavenging forays.   She also had an immediate needs list of antibiotics, insulin, heart meds and pain killers.

Nick had his list that included any foods that we could find.  He did not so much need to have them brought back but it would be good to know what was available and where.  The same idea went for Henry.  But Henry’s interest was in farming goods and seeds.

Frank would be looking for auto parts and fuel supplies.  Our immediate need was propane.  A delivery truck full would be ideal but if we could only get the large cylinders then that would work…..for now.

April 18th

We reviewed our lists of what we wanted to look for.  Now it was time to finalize who would go and how we would approach the city. This is going to be a big step.  It is the first time since we hunkered down that we really stepped out of our little secure circle.  Ron, Henry and I met with Teckla and Charlene and talked at length.  We wanted to take a good force of people but we did not want to leave Peru undefended.

I suggested, “We should take four trucks with two people per truck. It gives us lots of room to load up the things we find.”

Frank and Ron agreed. Frank adding, “Two people per truck gave us the chance to have some spare drivers if we find a propane truck or some other vehicle we could use.”

After a little give and take finalized plan was for three teams of two to take trucks to Hinsdale.  Each team would be made up of a member from each of the sub-groups.

Henry pointed out, “This is a good way we can blend the camp folks and Peru folks, kind of a little team bonding thing.”

We decided that CB Radio contact would be maintained between the convoy of vehicles heading out and Frank would keep in touch with our compound in Peru by use the town truck radio.

The vehicles that were chosen for the mission, “God, I am starting to sound way too military,” I thought to myself.

We picked the plow truck which gave us the most protection and could serve to clear the road if need be. It also had the most load space. We would also take the White Delight, which is Mark’s Chevy Avalanche and finally Ron’s Dodge Ram pick-up truck.  The teams would be Ron and me in Ron’s truck, Frank and Cody would be the team in the plow truck and finally Mark and Fred would be in the Delight.

To maximize the scavenger hunt we felt it was best if we left early the next morning.  This would give us the most daylight to work with.

I made one final suggestion, “Let’s use Sniper Team One (Matt and Margo) to act as spotters at the edge of town.  We don’t know what we might run up against.”

Of course, Anne and I had a rather heated discussion on this plan later that night.  In the end, she conceded “It is a not a bad idea, but she is just a little girl.”

“No Anne, she stopped being that when all this shit started.  We need to have her prepared for the future, when we are not around.  Besides, she is an observer, she is not going to be in harm’s way.”

“You’re right, but I am still her mother! And well you know.”

April 19th

It is raining today and cloudy.  We have scrubbed the mission due to the weather.  It would be too hard to hear anything in the pouring rain.

April 20th

We hit the road early.  It was a nice day and seemed like it would be a little on the warm side.  The drive out was pretty uneventful.

“Let’s hold up on the east side of downtown Hinsdale.” I radioed.

We spent about twenty minutes or so just looking for movement, human or Zoms. We had done some homework before we made the trip so we had an idea of what was in town, and where things might be.  Ron and Henry had been into town over the years so they had good information and knowledge of it.  It was the unexpected prize, pitfall or situation that was the concern.

In our map research we discovered that the railroad had a line that ran right through town and Henry knew that there was a regular stop at a freight terminal.  It was not a big terminal, but it could hold something.

After about 20 minutes of watching I radioed, “Let’s move in.”

The Zom population seemed small, no hordes roaming around or even standing.  The few that we saw seemed to be inactive which by our best guess showed that there was no “living” population. We did notice some fencing and barriers that blocked part of the road.  But with the plow truck those could easily be overcome.

Our plan was pretty simple; we sweep into town, grab what we needed or find and then meet up in the center of town.  From there we roll back to Peru, easy peasy.

Matt and Margo took up a high ground location to give us on-going reports of movement or potential dangers.  From what we had seen it did not seem likely that they would be needed.

It was about 10:00 AM when we started. Frank and Cody were off to the quarry and then the golf course to find what they could.  Mark and Fred went off to the downtown stores and the clinic for food and medical supplies. Henry did not recall a propane facility so Ron and I went to check the area of the rail yard. That seemed the most likely place where bulk propane would be.

When Ron and I rolled in to the yard there was nothing on the tracks themselves but there were some rail cars on sidings that needed to be checked out.  As we began to check them, the smell was terrible.

“Oh, that is dead smell” I said

It is not a smell one ever forgets, the stench of rotting flesh.  There were three boxcars in particular that were really bad.  Each of those cars had a religious cross painted on it.  And there was some graffiti that said “Brother Gabriel returns you to Hell”.

Curiosity was begging that we take a look.  But something nagging in the back of my mind said that it was a can of worms that we did not want to open.  We moved on.

We started to check the warehouse buildings that belonged to the railroad.  Most were pretty empty but inside one there was a flatbed car with a couple of HumVees on it.  Why they were there didn’t seem to really matter but they would be two big assets to our fleet.  It also looked like this warehouse had been fortified with military materials laying around.  It seemed as if the ‘fort’ had been overrun.

We checked interiors of the Hummers and found that there were half dozen boxes of belted 50 caliber rounds, but there was no machine gun to go with them.  The keys were in the ignition and the fuel tanks were full.  Why were they still on the freight car?

We unstrapped the Hummers and with some maneuvering Ron was able to get one off of the flatbed.

“We know it’s here, so there is no reason to off-load the second one right now” said Ron,

“Good point”, I agreed.

We picked though the remains of the ‘fort’ and found a number of other items like medical kits, MRE’s, contamination suits and tents. The military had definitely been here, and had set up some kind of camp and it had been fortified. The equipment and the markings on the HumVees indicated that this was part of a medical biohazard containment unit. It seemed to make sense that they would have arrived, and set up a perimeter. But why were there no bodies, no dead Zoms…this did not make sense.

We began loading up the first HumVee with what we felt would be good to take when the radio crackled.  It was Mark.  “We have a situation and we need you to come to the town hall.”

“What is going on?” I asked.

“Hurry, no questions.”

“On our way.”

Ron and I headed toward the town hall.  Frank and the plow truck pulled up just as Ron and I arrived.  Standing with Mark and Fred were about eight people.  One of them was dressed in a purple robe.  The rest were in white robes and all had AR 15s.  There were some survivors here, and they were hostile.

As Ron and I looked out of the HumVee, there was no question that a shootout was not an option. We were out gunned and Mark and Fred were in the crossfire.

I radioed Frank, “Get out of the truck, but no weapons.”  In the back of my mind I was hoping that Matt and Margo had eyes on this mess.

Ron and I got out of our truck, hands up. My transmission was heard by the people with the robes, Mark’s radio was right there.  I left my rifle in the Hummer.  I still had my 45, but that remained in the holster.

I walked toward the group to about 20 feet from them.

“Stop” said the purple robe.  His voice oozed of authority which did not seem to go with his diminutive stature and baby face that belied his age. He was older, like in his 40s.

He asked, “Who are you and are you their link to God.”

I did not get it at first and said, “I am the leader of our group.”

To which I got an irritated sarcastic “Yes, I know you are the leader of this group.  But are you the link to your God?”

“I don’t understand.”

“I am Brother Gabriel.  We, the Brethren are thirteen, after Christ and the Disciples and we have cleansed this place and defend it against all false believers and unclean.”

He went on, “The soldiers were not of our God, they had no link to Him. Do you have a link?”

Now I knew who or what was in those three rail cars.

As Brother Gabriel and I faced off, four additional white robed people came out.  They were half circled behind Brother Gabriel.  It was pretty clear that we were likely to be killed.

“Oh, I see, I am sorry, I misunderstood, we did not bring our Religious One, but I have a radio, I can talk to him.”

I was really hoping that Matt had been listening what was going on with the call to meet up in the center and the part about keeping the guns in the trucks.

What I did not know is that he and Margo had taken high ground in the Center Congregational Church about a half mile east of us.  That high ground gave him a clear vision of what was taking place.

“Father Matthew”, I radioed; I figured this would be the improvisation gig of a lifetime.

Matt answered.  “Yes Bother Thomas, what troubles you my son”.

I explained; “We have met some who are concerned about our faith; his name is Gabriel he is dressed in purple.  He has his 12 disciples with him in white.”

The radio spoke back “You need not fear, God has an angel watching over you and that any act against you will be met fifty-fold.”

“I will speak with your Religious One”, Commanded Gabriel

I handed over the radio.

Gabriel demanded, “What is the name of your God.”

Matt simply said, “God”.

This caused some concern for Gabriel, who seemed to believe that his God had another name.  Over the next five or so minutes there was a game of Trivial Pursuit, the religious version, with no clear winner.

Finally Matt said “God is known by many names.”

That was the push that made Gabriel step over the edge.  Brother Gabriel walked toward me stopping about 10 feet in front of me with his M-16, silly time to be mentioning this but these weapons the Brotherhood had were the ones they had taken from the soldiers. He pointed it at my head.

He said to the radio, “I and only I am the true prophet of the one true God, If your God is so mighty, then have Him smite me down where I stand.”

Matt simple said “Okay”.

What seemed like about five minutes but was actually about 30 seconds of nothing happening Brother Gabriel laughed, looked into my eyes and said “See, I tol…”

I heard a loud whizz by my right ear and then saw Brother Gabriel explode, his head was a bursting balloon and his body just flew apart.  Stunned silence followed.

Matt got on the radio and said “Thou shall have no false gods before me.”  The remaining twelve in white, some now with blood splatters, dropped their guns, and fell to their knees, two or three of them in a dead faint, the others wailing for mercy.

“Wow, that was ……”, but in my mind I could think of no way to describe what had just happened.

We snapped back to reality and checked the cult members for other weapons, even though there was no fight left in them.  I almost got the feeling that they were relieved at the demise of Brother Gabriel.

While Mark and Cody watched them the rest of us talked about what we should do with them.

“We should just kill them and be done with it.  They are murderers” said Ron with malice in his voice.

They are idiots, and yeah they killed, but they did so to survive.  If they did not play the game, well there was a gun to their head,” shot back Cody.

The rest of us were not so good with the killing idea either. I felt that they had been weak minded and fell under the sway of Brother Gabriel in the chaos that had followed The Event.  It would have been easy to sell the idea that the Rapture was upon them all and that they had been spared for a very specific task.

Fred agreed then suggested that a little “penance” might be good for them. It could give us a chance to see what they were really like. “They could finish the job of cleansing the town of the undead.”

Frank agreed with him and added, “Talk to them, they know what is available here in town, it could save us time in our searching.”

It wasn’t that he wanted to strip them of essentials for survival, but items that there might be good things for us to have that would go to waste. Besides, they had interrupted our hunt for fuels and such so this was a way we could make up some lost time.

Ron did raise the question, “What is going to happen when they finished the cleansing? Are they going to join up with us?  We did not know them, can we really trust them?”

Good questions, I think we just leave them be with the understanding that they can go on as they please but that we establish a line to the east of the town that they could not cross.” I offered.

We would have to have Matt sell that one to them.

After having all the other radios turned off I explained to Matt what we had thought and had come up with for ‘The Brotherhood’.  He understood and said that he would speak with them.  I signaled Mark and Cody to turn on their radios and Matt began.

“This is Father Matthew, do you hear me?”  Heads moved up and down.  “My God, Our God is not a God of vengeance to those who are of pure heart, or seeking forgiveness of their transgressions.  Do you seek forgiveness?”

Again heads moved up and down and there were a few “yeses” and “Amen’s” spoken.

“If you wish forgiveness, this is the path you must walk.”

Then he laid out the instructions to them.  Although Matt went off script just a little and tossed in a couple of other things.  Besides the handling the continuation of the cleansing and the line to the East, Matt asked that they find us a propane truck.

One of the white robes spoke up, “I know where there is one, a whole bunch of them!” He shouted.

Matt asked him his name.  He was called Ezekiel.  Matt asked if that was his cult name or his real name.  He said that his real name was William, Bill actually. Matt tasked him with taking Frank and Cody to the truck.

Matt added, “Our God is not unkind and although you will be on your own our group would help you”. He explained, “We will watch over the East and help you in times of dire need.”

“We will meet with you the first day every month to renew the pact and to make certain that you are still on the path.”

The white robes agreed to the pact and Matt turned the rest of the dealings with them back over to me.

First thing I did was order them out of the robes.  They were naked underneath and I suddenly realized that there were two women in the group, which was a little awkward.  I told them to go two at a time to find some clothing. I sent the women first.

Interestingly this was not so well received by a couple of the male members.  I do not believe that it was out of voyeurism but rather a sexist attitude that women, being lesser, were sent first.  I made a mental note on this.

When the women returned, two more were sent and so on until all were dressed.  While this clothing process was taking place I got on the radio; “I hope the little angel watching over us was not watching too closely.”

Margo got on the radio and said, “Oh Tom”.

I had to laugh, but at the same time there was a little twinge.  Back in the old days before all this started that was her response to most of my silly statements or bad jokes.  For the briefest of moments I was back there, in a kinder, gentler world.

Ron was pushing me to get back to the railroad warehouse.  There were more items in there that would be valuable to us.  I wanted to get back there also, but needed to talk with the members of the Brotherhood.  They must have some insights as to what was stashed away or what had been taken from the army.   The machine gun and the lack of some other weapons bothered me. They had to be somewhere.

We began to talk with the members of the Brotherhood to get an idea of who they were and how they had become part of the Brotherhood.  It seemed wise since we were going to be neighbors and in the future we might find that the groups or parts of the groups would unite.  It would also be good to know if any of the Brotherhood had unique skills that could be valuable to us.

We found a nice shade tree in the center and sat down. We had brought some sandwiches with us, and as usual Nick had overdone it with his preparations so we had plenty to share.  In the course of lunch we started to get an introduction of the members. It was a loose, casual, but definitely a guided chat.  I almost felt I was at an AA meeting.

Grace was the first to open up.  She said, “My name was Grace.”

“What is you real name?” I asked

She said “Grace”.

I had thought that she might have had that as a cult name.  But no, she was Grace.  Grace was a 36 year old slightly chubby woman. She was kind of a talker and well versed in who was doing what and who.  I guess that is a skill one learns when they are the local hairdresser. Her husband had left her years ago. They had no children, which was part of the reason that they broke up.

She smiled and looked at Armand, “He’s my man now!”

Armand, who had the cult name of Peter smiled back.

Armand was a plumber and in his 40s.  He looked the part.

“I think that much of this problem would have been solved if the states had not gone nuts trying to take our guns away from us.  The Libs really are to blame for a lot of this.  If we still had our guns when this started we could have solved the problem quickly.” He said. “I joined the Brotherhood to try and set things right.” (A note to self, this one might be someone to keep an eye on.)

Stephen, or should I say Saint Stephen and his sister Michelle were next to pipe up.  They were in their late twenties or early thirties.  He was a born again stoner and she had been a stripper, neither had any skills that seemed useful to us. But they were some of the more interesting members of the group in that they would probably have been considered ‘sinners’.

I took a little time to tell them who I was and what I had done before The Event. I always found that if you gave a little information you would get a lot of information in return.  It is a natural feeling of returning the favor or an attempt at one-upmanship. I went into a little detail about how we had gotten to where we were but did not get so detailed as to reveal our exact location.  In fact, I gave a little misdirection just in case.  I spoke about Otis, and the plane crash on the Mass Pike and finding the puppy.  I also brought up Captain James and how he had visited us and how he was looking for his family.

When I ended Pedro, picked it up speaking in broken English. “I a migrant worker who snowplow and landscape for company not far from Hinsdale.”

He was in his late fifties.  He would probably be the best prepared for this new world order because he still had connection with the old ways of living. He was a simple working soul who had joined the cult because it was a way for him to survive. I remembered reading the Don Juan series years ago and this was a man of honor.  I felt we could trust this one.

There was the truck driver, Larry.  He was actually a religious man.  I think that after 40 years of driving cross country runs in the truck listening to the Christian Radio it had gotten a good hold on him.

“I did not agree with killing the soldiers or for that matter anyone who did not follow the teachings of Brother Gabriel, God will settle the score on that one but I have no problem sending the undead to Hell.”

He did not have a great love of old school sinners, repentant or not, he just did not like them very much.

John was a science teacher and boy’s track coach at the regional high school.  There was something about him, it did not come out, but something was not right.  I wouldn’t want to dig up his backyard.  I felt like I was talking to a John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer.

There was an old research study done on serial killers and it was found that during times of war the numbers of serial killings would drop.  I think that it could also apply to the zombie apocalypse.  I wondered if such a person would change from cleaning up the dead to going for the living.

Alexander seemed to be a very unremarkable individual unless you consider a mouse with glasses remarkable.  He did accounting before The Event and saw the group as a way to survive it.

Anthony was in his 40’s.  “I am the sole survivor of the bio-contamination team.

I am, was a corporal, and all I did was to work at the setting up and tearing down of the equipment.  I heard things about the disease before the nuclear cleansing and also after it.”

It would be a good thing to have him sit down with Charlene and Anne to pick his brain about what he knew.  It would also be a good idea for him to take us through the warehouse and show us what items were there that we might have missed.

Ethan was a college student who was finishing up an independent studies program concentrating on the impact of global warming.  There was not much there on the surface.

I did not get to interview William or as we knew him earlier, Ezekiel until he returned with Frank and Cody.  His was a one on one interview. He is actually not a bad guy, his weakness was that he had always been a follower.  He fell into the group more because he could not cut it on his own.  He was brainwashed by Brother Gabriel.  William had flunked out of college, and basically lived hand to mouth for years as a homeless guy in tent cities here and there.  So for him this sudden stability of the Brotherhood was a step up.

Overall the entire group was a combination of weak willed individuals or people who saw the group as a way to survive.  Most of the Brotherhood seemed harmless unless under the direct guidance of a strong leader. But there were a couple I would not necessarily trust, particularly John or Armand.

I made a radio call into Peru and spoke with Charlene.  I gave her the rundown on what we had found with the Military Contamination Unit and asked if she and Anne could come up to Hinsdale to take a look and to also talk with Anthony.

“I can take one of the Hummers back to pick them up,” Ron suggested.

That seemed like a good idea, I did not want the two of them just driving up here by themselves.  I knew they could handle much of it but we were still in a position of figuring out what was going on.  We could have the HumVee escort the propane truck back.

I was digesting what some of the various Brotherhood members had said or for that matter not said.  Like I mentioned earlier I was not sure about John, the school teacher.  I was also pretty sure that Armand had tucked away the 50 Cal.  He had seemed to take particular interest in our mentioning that we had found the boxes of ammunition.

Then there was Anthony.  The more I thought about him, the less likely it seemed that he was a corporal.  He was too old to begin with, and seemed to be a little too smart.

Mark and I talked a little about the Brotherhood. He expressed some concerns of observations that he had made.  We both were concerned about John and decided that sharing those concerns quietly with the rest of our people was a good precaution.

He and I agreed that getting into one on one conversation with some of the folks would be a good idea.  There might be information that could be obtained in just a little friendly social contact. Each of these individuals was a potential iceberg.  After all it was the iceberg below the water that sank the Titanic. .

When Charlene and Anne got up to Hinsdale we hooked them up with Anthony.  I had them take Ron along as an extra set of hands but his real purpose was as a bodyguard.  While they were going through the warehouse I spent some time talking with Grace.

I figured that if Armand had the 50 Cal. she might know it and I considered her a weak link in the secrets of the Brotherhood. I learned a lot about the gossip of the town before The Event as well as some tidbits about the members of The Brotherhood but she didn’t know anything about the gun.

In our chat she expressed some strong opinions on John.  He had been the topic of a lot of talk and speculation for years.

“Rumor was that he had been involved in sexual misconduct with some of his students.  But that was never proven.  It was rumored that it was male students he had been playing with.”

I think with everything else that was happening in the world a little homophobia was misplaced.  The serial killer thing was what I worried about and although he creeped me out I had no evidence.

There were routine interactions and explorations going on throughout the remainder of the day with the Brotherhood members, there was little else discovered about them that seemed significant.

It was about five o’clock when Charlene and Anne returned with Anthony.  They had a load of materials that Anthony had shown them.  The supplies they had brought were based on dealing with a large living population so our taking a share had no impact on the living conditions that would face the Brotherhood.  We acquired things like contamination suits, MREs, medical supplies, some test equipment and a portable water purification unit.

Charlene took me aside, “There was a couple of things that Anthony told me that are concerning.”

“Like what?”

“Well, there was a very good chance that the illness that turned people is a blood borne.  If we get into it with hand to hand combat with the Zoms, we should make certain that we wash and decontaminate.  We should also keep a close eye on any open, non-combat wounds that could become contaminated.”

“Okay”

Then she handed me a military ID card for a Major Anthony Barkley MD.  It appears that our corporal had assumed false ID when or before he joined the Brotherhood.

I smiled thinking, “We have a wolf in the fold.”

“I haven’t confronted him on this yet; I think we should do that together.”

Charlene, Major Barkley and I found a little real estate office where we could sit down and chat.  Charlene began by filling me in on what they had found in terms of materials as well as information.  At first I just listened then slowly I slid into my best Colombo imitation with general questions like that was interesting, but what about this, or that.  I think that after a little bit of time the Major began to figure out that this Q&A was a much more serious game than he thought and that we were perhaps on to him.

I asked him, “We had heard that the President and government were gone and about the sinking of the armada of dignitaries”.

He confirmed that he had heard it.

“How did you know?”

He said, “It was shit rolling downhill from the chain of command.”

I pressed him on a lot of the information he had given regarding medical protocols.  Again he used the stuff rolling downhill excuse.  But he was getting edgy.

Finally he tried to bully me, “The country is under martial law and I am military. I don’t need to answer to you.”

It was time for “Bad Cop”. My answer was cold; I simply told him “With all due respect soldier, you are in a place with no government, with no laws, with people who are hanging on to life by a thread. Your group attempted a hostile act against us and I am in no mood to play.”

“We could easily and quite justifiably terminate the Brotherhood.” I continued and let that hang in the air for a minute.

Then I added, “That is not our intention or desire.  We want to peacefully co-exist with Hinsdale.  We might down the road find it necessary to band together to fight a common foe, or just to survive.  So spare the bullshit and let’s get to the meat of the issue.”

Charlene picked up on it and did a great job of joining into the conversation and doing the good cop to my bad cop.  She put me in my place, “Calm down Tom you may be the Head of Security but I’m still in charge.  I think Anthony sees the dire situation that is surrounding us all and wants to work with us.”

At this point she placed the military ID on the table.  For Anthony, Major Anthony Barkley, the game was really over at that point.

The Major did see the situation for what it was. The negotiations began. I must admit that Charlene was a very skillful negotiator. She bent in the wind, but always seemed to come back to the point and obtain what was best for our people yet at the same time taking care to give something in return. He started by giving up the location of the 50 Cal that they carried as well as the information on some of other special equipment that they had brought with them

During the breaks in negotiations I would caucus with her.  She was in contact with Teckla and Henry making plans and discussing our interests.  In the end they agreed that we should be neighbors sharing certain resources from the rail lines and in the individual towns.  Each camp would supply its own food, but there would be a barter system set up since we would have the farming abilities and they had access to the stores in Hinsdale.

Propane and fuels would be shared as would information and gained intelligence. But we would not join or band together for at least 4 months.  We needed to get to know each other first before that union.  And if one camp was going to “visit” the other, there would be permission granted.

During one of the breaks in negotiations I had the chance to talk with the Major.  He was not a bad guy and seemed reasonable.  He gave me an outline and of what had occurred during the early stages of their arrival in Hinsdale. The Lt. Colonel who was heading the unit was a good old soldier and played by the book.  He was going to run the show with the townspeople and that was the end of that.  The townspeople decided that this was basically a government takeover of their rights and freedoms and they were not buying it.

Initially there was a guerrilla war that took place that reduced the Army from a unit of twenty to a group of six.  The army was holed up in the rail warehouse.  The Lt. Colonel wanted to fight on but was out manned.  There had been many casualties on both sides, and in the early days of the conflict the townspeople believed those shot dead were dead. The army picked up on it and to their shame did nothing to correct that misconception.  This failure of information sharing helped bring the odds a little more even.   The problem with it was that it also set a new “army” against the townies.

The Major, being a doctor more than a soldier saw the insanity of it.  He had repeatedly objected to the course that the Lt Colonel had set and tried to get information to the townspeople to prevent further creation of the undead.  These efforts led to big arguments with the Lt Colonel with accusations to fly on both sides.  Finally, the Colonel had the Major arrested for treason, and insubordination.

One night a more reasonable soldier, Corporal Wilkes freed the Major.  The Major took the insignias from Wilkes and set out to talk with the leader of the townspeople.  He allowed himself to be captured and was brought before the leaders of the town.  He told them about the need to destroy the head of the undead.  The hawks on the council responded by locking him up, and trying to get him to give intelligence on the remaining military personnel in the rail warehouse.  They wanted to finish off the military once and for all.

The townie militia had been reduced in numbers to about twenty-five.  Among the twenty-five there was the Brotherhood.  It was still a quiet and almost secret society.  Brother Gabriel had been slow and methodical in his efforts of recruitment.

In his efforts Brother Gabriel saw an advantage to including the military guy who he believed was a lowly enlisted man into his group.  Gabriel figured that he could win the mind and heart of the prisoner.   I wonder which direction he would have gone if he had known that Anthony was actually an officer.

So as The Brotherhood spread it’s tentacles in the townies, Gabriel was able to access the soldier.  He spoke with him and planted the seed of escape and acceptance into his group.  The results were not stunning.  Of course ‘Anthony’ followed along.

This gave Brother Gabriel access to the military and logistical knowledge of what and who was in the warehouse under the control of the Lt. Colonel. But more important was that it tipped the balance for Gabriel to take control of the townspeople. He now had the larger number of people.

After Corporal Anthony was released Gabriel started by seizing control of the council that was ruling the townspeople.  In some cases there was resistance and that resistance was removed.  Gabriel took a couple of the senior council members for a walk to discuss the issues at hand.  Unfortunately they ran into a group of the undead and only Gabriel was able to escape, “praise be to God”.  This further strengthened Gabriel’s status and also gave him a strangle hold on the council.

Over time other members that did not fall into the ways of Gabriel’s thinking met unfortunate situations that cost them their lives.  Some of these events took place during attacks on the military.  Some were killed by enemy fire and some in a mistimed movement into the line of fire of certain members of the Brotherhood.

Corporal Anthony played his role very well.  He knew that if he didn’t he was dead, and that the death would be very unpleasant.  When the Brotherhood, with three or four of the townspeople finally defeated the military, the five remaining soldiers were paraded through town and taken to a rail car.  They were forced inside as a holding cell.  The remaining non-believing townspeople were also put inside.

To his credit Anthony said that he had tried to save Corporal Wilkes, the man who had helped him escape.  He pitched Wilkes as a good man, a brother in arms and someone who could be trusted.  But Gabriel did not go for it.

Major Barkley said that the townspeople and soldiers who were locked into the rail car were forced to clean the bodies in the area of the warehouse and load them into two other rail cars.  It took several days and each night they would be given a meal and then locked into their rail car.  Each morning the clean-up would start again.

This did not go badly at first by as the days wore on the stink of the bodies grew worse and more sickening.  Occasionally the prisoners would find a body that had re-animated.  Those were killed quickly to prevent contamination.  But somewhere along the line, one of the people, no one ever knew who had been infected.  In the middle of the night there were screams, and shouts from the rail car.  In the morning it was quiet until someone went to unlock the door.  Then it was just the noise of growls, moans and grunts.

After hearing the story I clearly saw the nature of this religious nutbag who called himself Brother Gabriel.

Major Barkley and Charlene resumed the discussion of how we could survive side by side in the future. I had a better understanding of the Major’s perspective on the entire negotiations.  In listening to him his main concern was to prevent a recurrence of the events with Brother Gabriel.  He needed to see that we, the Peru crowd, were good people and had no such foul plans for the remainder of the Brotherhood.  This was where Charlene shined as a negotiator.  She demonstrated a high level of empathy and compassion for their plight.  She left lots of wiggle room to give each side places to show their positive side, yet tempered it with firmness that keeps us apart and separate, for now.

When it was all said and done, the finalized pact had separation of the two groups yet a link of survival between them  There was a promise that somewhere down the road there could likely be a joining together of the two groups.  Some of the steps for that uniting were laid out.  For example there would in three months be some exchanges of members if there were volunteers to do so.

But there was still a small yet critical part of the negotiations.  We had to sell the idea of the man the brotherhood knew as Corporal Anthony was in actuality Major Anthony Barkley and that he was the best person for the role of leader among the Brotherhood.  I was not sure if this was really going to be an issue.  But we had put the cart in front of the horse, working the deal before we had Hinsdale on board.

We set up a meeting for that evening at about supper time.  As the members of the Brotherhood sat down to eat, the Major showed up and joined them.  But now instead of a somewhat “Sad Sack” looking person the Major was in his proper uniform, in fact it was a full dress uniform and walked with the air of command presence that he possessed.  The group was stunned.  The Major asked if we from the Peru Group could give them a few minutes alone.

I am not sure what happened while he was talking with them.  It was not a very long discussion.  In the end it seemed everyone was pleased with his stepping up and taking the leadership role.  They took the time to vote on the pact that we had negotiated with them.  It passed unanimously.

We were summoned back to the little dining hall where everyone was and the Major formally told Charlene that the group formerly known as the Brotherhood had accepted the agreement.  “We are now the Hinsdale Survivors.”

I do not think that any of us realistically believed that this agreement would not have a little hiccup or two along the way.  But it was a good and sane beginning.

April 21st

After we returned from Hinsdale the Peru Group had the chance to talk about our new neighbors.  Charlene had already briefed Henry and Teckla.  At the noon meal we filled in the rest of the group as to what we thought and felt about them.  The overall assessment was that the Hinsdale Survivors could be an asset to us as we could be for them.

After lunch I took Matt and Margo aside for a little while.  I wanted to sort of debrief them regarding the incident with Brother Gabriel.  I will honestly admit that although it was a necessary shot to take him out I was not really happy about the closeness to my ear that the 50 Cal projectile had passed.

I actually became a little animated in dressing down Matt for the shot.  He took it well and when I was all done ranting he smiled and said, “I will be more careful in the future if that situation arises, but remember, I was busy talking to Brother Gabriel on the radio and setting him up into position so that someone else could take the clear shot.”

I realized it had been Margo who had taken the shot.

I started to say something to her but she just stopped me, “You once told me that you would do anything to keep me safe and unharmed.  You would have done what I did if the situation was reversed.”

She was right.

After Matt left the room she said, “I was never so scared in my life. I was afraid I would mess it up, but I remembered everything that you and Captain James and my dreams taught me”.  She hugged me and said “I had to save you Dad”.

April 22nd

We are back to fully operational.  The propane truck is hooked up and we are good for power for what we believe will be about 3 months.  The food and farming supplies we brought back were all set and stored for the time being.  We got the water purifier on line so it was no more boiling water.  The idea that we actually had a doctor reasonably close and available was a great relief.  Charlene has done a great job.

I chuckled when I heard Arcelia grousing at Cyril that maybe he should make an appointment with the Doctor to get some minor ailment checked out and actually that might not be a bad idea.  When Teckla or Charlene head over to meet with the Hinsdale Survivors again, it might be a good idea to barter with them for some preventative medicine in exchange for something.

April 24th

It was a quiet day yesterday (missed a day in the journal).  Today has been about the same.  We caught Cyril trying to skip his shower.  We do not have adequate resources for us all to get a hot shower daily.  So what we came up with is that plan in which on the even days the men got showers, on the odd the women.  You can take a cold shower anytime you wanted but that doesn’t cut it for me except in the direst of circumstances.  So you learned to plan your schedule well.  If you are feeling social you might be careful in your activities on any given day.  A number of the group had taken to growing beards. Personally, I find that shaving, like working on this journal is a way I keep in touch with the old ways.

April 27th

It has been quiet.  There is really not a whole lot of things to do, or should I say that need to be done right now.  Henry is doing a little work to prepare for the farming season and Matt is helping him.  There have been a few radio contacts with Hinsdale.  But they have been minor in nature, mostly testing the equipment in various weather conditions. Anne has been talking about trying to get out there when we have our May 1st meeting with them so that she can talk with Major Barkley about the research she had completed to check it’s validity against what he had.

April 28th

There was dissension in the camp this morning.  It seems that Biter has really annoyed Rosie the cat to the point where she hauled off and whacked him in the nose. He has apparently decided that the cute kitty plaything was not so cute and has given her a wide berth since.

April 29th

People are starting to get excited about the pending meeting with the Hinsdale Survivors.  There is curiosity about who will come here to visit us, and also who from our camp will get to go to Hinsdale to meet with them.  Charlene is definitely going, she was the main contact person. Teckla is also going for her part in the negotiations via radio.  Of the original group that was at the first meeting Matt is going.  That leaves three slots.  Those slots will be filled with Nick, Anne and Lance. Anne is going to share her information on the Zom research. Nick is going to scout our food supplies and offer suggestions on mass meals and Lance is going to explore the possibility of some form of land line communications and camera surveillance systems.  We do not know who we will get to visit us.

April 30th

The apprehension and preparation continues for tomorrow’s visit.  It will be interesting to see the reactions on each side.  Based upon my observations from my trip to Hinsdale I think that they have a greater supply of untapped resources and infrastructure.  But I think that our people have been better at getting into an organized and livable system and it may be an unfair assessment because of the conflict that was taking place between The Brotherhood and the Military Containment Team.

May 1st

This is the big day.  We have our vehicles set and ready to go.  Everyone was loaded and it was off to Checkpoint Charlie, which was what I call it.  It was West meeting East and as such I made the reference to the old days of the Cold War with the Soviets.  Our Checkpoint Charlie was on the causeway bridge that ran across part of Lake Ashmere.

Our team moved out at about 9:45 to make the 10:00 meeting.  Charlene, Anne and Matt were in the first HumVee. Nick and Teckla were in the second HumVee and Lance was following behind in the Kia.  The plan was that they would meet on the bridge and then head to the respective town.  The reason that both HumVees were going was that although we had claimed them both initially we felt that in fairness we should return one of them to the Hinsdale Survivors.  It was an act to show good faith.

About forty-five minutes later the Hinsdale people arrived.  They had sent Ethan, the college kid, Alexander, the accountant, Larry, the truck driver, Pedro, Grace and Michelle.  We returned to our camp and we paired people up with our people.  In doing so we tried to make a match as much as we could so that they would be coming from a similar place.

Henry hooked up with Pedro.  It would give them both the opportunity to share notes on farming type stuff.  Ethan was teamed with Fred thinking that the college thing would be a bond.  Grace was assigned to Cyril and Arcelia since they were all talkers.  Mark took on the task of Alexander and Frank took Larry.  That left only Michelle, the stripper.  We hooked her up with Jan and Margo.  I figured a little girl time might be good.  I kept out of the mix and hid in the security monitor room while Lance was away.

The visit was basically a show and tell for the Hinsdale group.  We wanted them to understand what we had done and that they could do the same.  But more importantly it gave a little chance for everyone to get to know each other.  I think in the back of many of our minds was that eventually the two groups would join together.

I was more curious about how things were going on the other end of the exchange.  What was being found, bartered for and talked about.  But that is all information that would have to be shared later in the day or tomorrow.

I just re-read part of this and hope that the impression is not that the Hinsdale folks are lesser than we are, because they are not.  They were just not as far along in their planning and development of their community because of the battles with the military and the leadership and lack of foresight by Brother Gabriel.

At about five o’clock the Hinsdale folks packed up and it was back to Checkpoint Charlie.  By six everyone was back in their own community. Teckla and Charlene were talking about what they had discovered and their talks with Major Barkley.  They met with Henry to fill him in also.  At supper which was a little less fancy than usual because Nick had been away most of the day there was a lot of individual sharing of thoughts, feelings and impressions of the Hinsdale folks.

Before turning in for the night Anne and I talked about what she had found out about the disease that had caused The Event.

“Much of what we had from the e-mails and information that had been in Doc Swenson’s office was confirmed by the Major. But there were a few things that did not seem to fit and I want to digest them a little before making a determination.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“We were pretty certain that the illness could be passed on by blood borne contact, but that seems to not be exactly true because they have had cases where unbitten ended up coming back.  The big question was whether the disease could be transmitted by insects like mosquitoes or were we already infected.”

With that information in mind it was not so hot a sleeping night.

May 2nd

The compound was still pretty much buzzing over the visits and the general feeling was a positive one.  I am certain that the topic of conversation at the other camp was pretty much the same.

Lance talked with Teckla about making a few return trips up to Hinsdale, he felt that he would be able to work out something that would allow for mobile cameras for them.  But he could see no way without a sort of hardwire or radio system to get them to work between the camps.

The Hinsdale people did have working electric power.  The military had brought in a diesel generator to operate their equipment.  They had set it up in the railroad warehouse where they had been holed up. Ron and I had not seen it when we were there the first time. The town hall, police station and two firehouses had generator set ups also but because of the conflict going on the locals had never taken advantage of those.  The military generator had become a focus in the battle between the groups and ownership of it was seen as a major victory.

After seeing our set up the Hinsdale people decided that the central firehouse was a better place to live.  It had the sleeping barracks, cooking facilities and room to keep their vehicles in the bays where the fire engines had been housed.

Matt brought up an interesting point today that we had not considered.  With all the issue about the propane we had missed the idea that the HumVee was a diesel powered vehicle.  That in itself seemed not all that significant except that now we would have three different fuels that we had to look for.

“If we converted all our vehicles to diesel we would have an almost endless source of fuel.”  He explained. “Over time gasoline, particularly regular grade, would lose its potency and it probably was the fuel of choice for just about everyone.”

“Not the best long term solution.” he added, “But the diesel, basically kerosene, was less prone to degradation and also not just available in gas stations.”

Frank nodded and stepped in, “The majority of suburban and for that matter, urban homes are heated with oil which is basically kerosene.”

Their point was that it would be wise to start transitioning to big ass Ford and Dodge pickup trucks with diesel engines.  “Where are my cowboy hat and country music CDs,” I thought.

May 3rd

We had a Zom show up on the wire today.  It was quickly dispatched and burned.  It was Anne’s suggestion we did the burning.  She is concerned about the bugs becoming contaminated and spreading the illness.

May 4th

Matt, Mark and Margo headed up to the lake today to try their hand at fishing.  It is a potential food source.  They were able to bring back a few bass for the dinner pot.  I am not a big fan of bass, but I am more a fan of that than going hungry.

Just a side note here.  Even though we are in a rural, somewhat farming area we have seen no large domestic animals like cows, horses or sheep.  From our observations it seems that the infected, or Zoms have managed to kill off whatever was penned up or the animals were able to make an escape and have headed off to safer areas.

May 5th

It was a day of not doing much of anything.  One of the ironic parts about our new world order is that every day is Saturday.  There is not a work week, or school schedule.  The days of the week do not really matter; it is only the dates that are important.  And for that matter I may be off in my date reckoning by a day or two from the real calendar.

May 6th

It was unusually hot today which resulted in some thunderstorms late in the day.  The good news was that we did not need to worry about losing power but there seemed to be more lightening than I have seen in past storms.  It could be just my imagination.

May 9th

I missed a couple of days writing.  The only issue we have had was that Cyril is still fighting the idea of his showers.  We figured it out pretty quickly but his logic for not taking them is concerning.  He claims he does not need them, or that he already took one.

Henry has been out for the day working on plowing up the fields.  He is getting ready for the planting season.  His goal is to have corn, potatoes and barley as his main crops with a smaller area of tomatoes, squash and beans. The plan is to store the grains and potatoes for winter.

Biter has been going with him as a guardian to detect the Zoms and we have had Ron, or Mark hanging in the area of his work to also keep an eye out.

Peru has been pretty much scavenged or cataloged for what is available for supplies and materials.  The vehicles are all ready for future action or rapid escape if it is needed.

Our current food supplies are estimated at about five months based upon current stocks and consumption.  The farming, fishing and hunting efforts are all not included in that estimate, but any successes that we have there will extending that five month period.

We have also begun to look into the idea of foraging for food in the woods as the summer months roll around.  We have gotten some literature from the library about edible plants.  The local Native Americans survived well in this regard, and it should work of us also.  But then I remembered that years ago I had bought a native cookbook when I was into my attending pow-wows days.  I found that there were some things that although they would keep you alive were not high on my list of yummy.  Acorn soup was one of them, very bitter.

May 10th

We received a radio call from Hinsdale today, it was the Major.

“Have you detected any increase in radiation levels in your area?”

One of the items that had been given to us was a Geiger counter.  We had not been running it but Anne did some checking and called him back to report that the levels showed a slightly elevated reading over what was the green acceptable range.

Over the next few hours Major Barkley and Anne put their heads together and developed several possible theories.  The first was that it was merely residual radiation from the destruction of Albany that was being brought in by the wind.  They felt that over time this would dissipate and not be a long term threat.

A second theory was a little more menacing. It was thought that at the cleansing, when the cities were bombed, that all of the nuclear power plants had been ordered to be shut down and made safe. There was the possibility that one or more of those power plants were not shut down or had somehow been breached.  If that were the case, it would be possible that the core or cores would eventually run out of coolant. Once that happened there would be a melt down and containment would be lost.

Unfortunately we had no way of knowing where it would have or could have taken place.  The prevailing winds could be bringing the radiation from almost anywhere from the upper half of the eastern United States.

And finally there was a global theory.  That simply being that in the efforts to contain the contamination that worldwide nuclear detonations to control urban Zom populations were the cause.

In any cases the levels so far were low enough that they were not an immediate threat, but long term the radiation could have impact on genetics and who knows what else down the road.

We decided that we should take a couple of days to monitor the readings as well as try to research what limited information we had.  A meeting at Checkpoint Charlie was set up for May 15th to share data in person.

May 11th

Anne and the college student types have spent most of the day working on whatever research they could in the local library.  It is a small facility but they were able to at least develop some further information on potential causes and effects of the radiation.  Ironically our group had the better research staff but Hinsdale had the better resources for printed information.

At this point the issue does not seem to be a critical one but it is better to have some idea of what we might face.  It is certain that there is little we can do to contain the radiation, if we could even find the source.  But it may be that it is a localized source and we need to get out of the contamination zone.

May 12th

With the uncertainty of what is going on with the radiation readings it has put a damper on plans for just about everything.  Henry, although still working on getting the fields ready for planting has lost some of his zeal for the growing season.  The Three has not suggested that we are moving or even hinted at it, but there is a certain level of individual planning going on of what to take and what to leave.

May 13th

The winds have shifted a little and the radiation readings have dropped.  It was not that the levels were that high to start with, we were not in danger of a Chernobyl like poisoning.  But it is there in the background and until now we had not even thought to monitor it, even if we could.

I wonder, when you consider all the radiation  that cellphones, TV and radio signals, radar, microwave dishes, heck, microwaves in the kitchen emit, how much contamination of all sorts have we received over our lifetimes.

May 14th

The research has been as distilled as it can be.  At the evening meal Anne and the researchers shared what they had figured out. Although there was radiation present, it was within a tolerable level that we needn’t worry. The radiation had only a very small chance of resulting in some genetic issues down the road on any offspring in the group.

The fluctuations in the levels appear to be based on wind direction and weather pattern it was best guess that the source of the radiation was directly west of us.  But how close was not an answer that we had, nor could figure.

They had discounted the theories that the radiation was due to the nuclear cleansing of larger cities or on a global level. This was because there was no evidence of dust or debris in the air that would have been the beginning of a nuclear winter as had been so often discussed in the height of the Cold War era.

I had read, or saw somewhere that the detonation of one hundred nuclear weapons around the world would bring about the eventual nuclear winter, and the end of much of mankind.  If the stories were true, we had easily met that number with just the cleansings in the United States alone. But then, mankind as we know it is pretty much ended.

Everyone listened pretty intently to the presentation.  Toward the end of the presentation Anne asked, “Are there any questions?”

Cyril, her dad, raised his hand and said, “Back in my Navy days I was in the South Pacific in the area of the Bikini Atoll during testing of the early nuclear weapons.  One of the ways that we tracked the post blast radiation was with weather balloons.”

It did not seem to make a lot of sense where he was going with this, but then often his stories were just not going anywhere.  This one would have probably met the same fate but someone made a quantum leap.  It was Lance.

He asked Cyril, “When they used the balloons they were there support planes taking readings.”

It turns out there were.

Lance took over the floor, and in a sort or stream of consciousness that went from balloon tracking to airplane tracking to we could do this too.  There were more than a few puzzled looks.

“We could put up a plane, with detection equipment and head west to see what was out there.  If we flew to the other side of Albany and found no radiation, we would know that our source was likely the city.”

It did make sense.  But there were a couple small issues that needed addressing.  The first was that we did not have any aircraft locally available and, if we did, there was no one who was capable of piloting it.  A number of us had flown computer simulators over the years.  But did that qualify us to risk our lives on this type of a mission.  Maybe someone from Hinsdale was a pilot.  Tomorrow will tell that tale.

May 15th

Anne, Fred, Lance and I headed up to Check Point Charlie to meet with the folks from Hinsdale to talk about the radiation thing.  Major Barkley, John the science teacher, Ethan the college kid and Larry the truck driver were waiting there. After brief formalities we discussed the radiation issue.

Both Ethan and Anne had worked out projections as to what the impact would be in both long and short term.  The long term, and by long term we are talking years to decades was a little more disturbing.  But without a source or cause it would be difficult to project what the realistic long term would be.

Both teams had come up with the same ideas as for what the source could be thinking it was some form of nuclear reactor meltdown. In brainstorming the idea was suggested that we could send out teams overland to try to get some readings in various directions to the west and southwest to see if we could somehow narrow the field.  But that idea was dependent upon the ability to cross the Hudson River.

We knew the I-90 Bridge had been taken down but the rail bridge that ran parallel had been left intact.  It would be a difficult crossing in trucks and cars but could be done.

Lance pitched his idea of air reconnaissance.  Unfortunately, like our group, Hinsdale had no air experienced pilots and like our group there were a couple of people who had been quite qualified and practiced in computer simulations and video game flying.  It was the best that we were going to get.

So after a little discussion the consensus was that it might work, assuming that we would be able to find air worthy planes.  Lance had already covered part of that in his research by finding three different small airports within a 25 mile radius.

By the end of the meeting we had decided that the Peru Crew would check out the two fields (Dubois and Kendall) to the north.  Both were listed as landing strips or air strips but it seemed reasonable that we could find a plane or two available.  The Hinsdale Survivors would check out Blueberry Hill Airport to the south.

If planes were found, then there would be some pilot training.  Well, by training it would likely be a slow solo effort by those qualified based upon the computer simulator flying. Once we had at least one flight worthy crew we could start sending them out to scout the area.

May 16th

Mark and I made the run out to Kendall Airfield to see what is out there in the way of aircraft.  We found that although there were some spare parts and broken down pieces of planes there weren’t any that were in airworthy shape, only an old Cessna that was in the midst of maintenance with the engine laying in pieces on the hanger floor.

Matt and Ron made the run to Dubois.  They had a little more luck.  They found a couple of small planes that had battery power to the engine and they were able to fire up the engine.  It appeared that they could be a workable option.

On our way back Mark and I stopped at the local Ford dealership on the north end of Hinsdale.  We checked out their inventory of trucks.  I am thinking that there is a red F 350 diesel that has my name on it.  But in fairness we will have to talk that over with the Hinsdale folks.  There are more than enough vehicles in stock so that it would be unlikely that there would be resistance to our taking some.

When we got back to Peru, we found that there was already a computer flight simulator up and running.  Lance and Fred were all over that and were actually practicing with it.  Of course they were flying F-18s and doing dog-fighting.  We give our report of nothing found, that took the wind from under their wings.  But when Matt and Ron got back with their report things perked back up.

.

I spoke to the council about the diesel trucks we had found and tried to push them into getting on the horn with Hinsdale to clear the acquisition.  Charlene declined saying, “Let’s not get too grabby. We’ll wait until our next scheduled contact on the 20th and I’ll run it by Barkley.

May 17th

We have a couple of days before we hook up with Hinsdale regarding the airplane stuff.  We have a couple of small planes so we may have some options.  I am hoping that the Blueberry Hill Airport has some planes, and I am optimistic that it will because it is a larger facility.

In thinking about flying, assuming we can put all the pieces together, that is one concern I have.  If we go airborne we are sending up a beacon that says “Here we are”. It may not be a trail of bread crumbs to our door but if there are others out there, and I am certain that there are, at this point they must be as resourceful as we are. They will have maps, and supplies and they must be armed.  The important question is if they found us what their intentions would be.

We have discussed and developed a set of rules to guide us based in a sort of biblical altruism.  What if the next group we meet up with has a set of rules that is of a more natural order like survival of the fittest. I’m sorry, this is a recurring theme for me.  I may be just paranoid and there may just be this wonderful new enlightenment of humanity and everyone getting together.  But I am a cynic, and don’t really believe it.

May 18th

There was not much to report today.  It was quiet, and the weather has been good.  Henry has the fields ready for planting.

May 19th

It was another nice day today.  It was interesting last night, about midnight, we had a couple of coyotes close by.  It sounded like they were chasing something.  My guess was that it was a deer.

This morning a couple of Zoms hit the wire on the south side of the fence.  This was strange because there was nothing but woods for many miles in that direction.  They were dispatched and burned.

Ron, Mark and Lance have been doing more flight practice.  The good news is they are off the jets and playing back in the old WWI airplanes. It will give them a better feel for flight in the types of airplanes we are looking at.

It reminded me of many years ago when Nick and I were members of the Head Hunters Squadron from a computer game called Air War or Flight Warrior or something like that. Nick was always the patient pilot who waited and waited for the right moment to make his attack.  He flew the simulated Spitfire.  I was more reckless in a fighter, usually a Fokkewolf F-190.  But where I was more effective was on short range bombing missions in my trusty B25J named Thundercloud.  There are times when I consider putting my name into the hat for pilot training but there are more important things that I need to take care.

May 20th

Meeting day at Check Point Charlie is finally here and so it was off to the bridge.  I attended along with Teckla, Lance, and Ron.  They sent the Major, Joseph, Armand and John.  We started by telling what we had found for aircraft, parts and fuel, it wasn’t all that much.  They on the other hand had a much better report.

“At Blueberry Hill we found a number of planes ranging from a couple of small Cessna types to a twin engine plane that was used for skydiving,” said the Major.

Armand added that, “There was also a flight school that had operated out of one of the hangers. It had some instructional videos, literature and a fairly elaborate flight simulator.”

“Sounds like Blueberry Hill is the place to operate out of.” Said Teckla.

The field was about the same distance from both compounds. The only really downside to the location was that it was closer to Pittsfield than we would have liked.  Between the noise and activity we would have to keep a close eye out for Zoms wondering about.

We still had a few logistical things that needed to be addressed like who the pilots were going to be.  Each group would put up candidates for testing with the simulator to find out who actually had any level of aptitude for it.

We would also need to get a ground crew together to keep the planes flying.  This could be a little more difficult because with the adding of the new fleet of diesel trucks that we were talking about acquiring Frank, Matt and Mark would be pretty busy.  But once we got the planes up and running there is not all that much to do beyond routine maintenance and occasional repair.  It was not like we were preparing to keep fighter planes ready to respond at a moment’s notice.

The timetable that was established was to try to do the testing in a couple of days and that it was open to anyone who wished to try.  The plan was to train four people to be able to fly.  It could be an intense course of study, but we were really only looking for line of sight, daylight fair weather flyers.  Down the road that may change, but for now we needed to get some information on the radiation readings so it was ‘keep it simple’.

One of the points that were brought up was that we might be limited in range or in landing fields.  But this was quickly overcome when the Major produced some maps that had been taken from Blueberry Hill.  They showed all the airfields within a two hundred mile radius.

He went on to say “Keep in mind that the entire concept behind the Interstate Highway System was to leave areas in which jet aircraft could land and take off in the event of a Soviet invasion so we have lots of landing options.”

In looking at the map the Major gave us I found Rhinebeck Field in the Hudson Valley.  I didn’t say anything but I knew that they had some old WWI and WWII aircraft there.  In fact I found there were a number of older military bases in that Albany area. It might be something to look into later on. Sadly, we have no helicopter pilots, if only we could latch on to a Huey or Blackhawk, now that would be a huge asset.

One other issue was mentioned and this could be troublesome.  Hinsdale has been seeing an increase in the number of Zoms wandering up toward them.

Joseph told us “We had been seeing an average of maybe five a day coming from the direction of Pittsfield but over the last week or so we have had thirty to forty a day.”

“We also have been getting a smell of smoke when the wind comes out of the southwest.  We think that Pittsfield, or at least part of it, is on fire.” He added. “The how and why of the fire is concerning but it is not something that we can really do anything about.”

As we broke up the meeting, I asked the Major about taking some trucks from the dealerships in Hinsdale.

I explained. “We want to turn our fleet over to diesel.  It is readily available and a safer fuel source than gasoline or propane”

He said, “We had not thought of that. There is plenty of inventory available in the local dealerships so it is no problem.”

“Red F350, here I come.”  In the back of my mind I kept singing, “Red Ford pickup, I drive you up, let’s have a party...”

May 21st

I headed up to the Ford dealership with Frank today.  We were looking at trucks.  There was a good number that look like they would fit well into the program.  Of course there is the F350 which is a big ass industrial strength pick-up with an enclosed utility body. There were also a couple of F-150s.  I know that the nephews would not be crazy about me picking out Ford products but they were the best that was available in our little world.  I had heard bad things about the big Ram pick-ups having a tendency to snap axles in the four-wheel drive variety.

We should re-assess the entire fleet of vehicles we had and decide what we should do about the cars and trucks so while we were at the dealership we looked at what they had that might be of value.

When we got back at the compound, I transferred all the survival materials and equipment from the KIA into the new truck.  I kind of felt bad about giving up the KIA it had been a friend for about ten years we had a lot of adventures together. It had taken me to a lot of places including a drive cross country.  (If the Internet was still up and running, you could see it pictured out West in my “How to Plan a Drive Cross Country” article on WikiHow.)  But it was getting old, and had over 220,000 miles on it.  It would still serve the group.  In fact in the tradition of families, I would give it to Margo, her own car at age 14, kind of cool.

May 22nd

It is a cloudy day but we have not seen any rain, yet.  Henry started to plant the corn this morning.  He felt that if we could get that done before the rain came it would be a little extra help in getting a good jump start on the growing season.

It amazes me that Nick has still been able to put together some pretty good meals for us all even with the limited resources.  We are mostly doing canned goods at this point with a little supplementing from hunting efforts.  The upside is that that we are all a lot thinner than we were back when The Event first took place.  I know I am now at 180 pounds down from about 220.

Anne and I had a long talk about birds and bugs today.

“I have been reading up on insect life cycles and the impact of the rotting corpses that litter the countryside.” She began.

Her research which is limited due to the lack of resource materials at the small public library found that there have been cases in which crows for example which are big eaters of carrion caused the spread of Prion disease by eating infected cattle.  The disease was then spread to other large ungulates indirectly through the crow feces.

“But turkey vultures like we see here so often are unaffected by the carrion that they eat.  That appears to be based upon some evolutionary processes”.

“Okay,” I was over my head.

“Insects have been spreading disease all along. We pretty much know that based upon the idea of the deer tick spreading Lyme disease.  But there does not seem to be as much a correlation as in the case of crows.”  She added.

“Mice and rats, which are also carrion creatures taking advantage of the dead that they find along the path are pretty well known for spreading disease although it was more the fleas that were on the rodents that were truly responsible.”

“So what you are saying is that we are not in any position to do much beyond speculate and take action based upon our best guess”

“And lean toward the side of caution.” She added.

We have been burning the Zoms that we came upon as we first arrived as well as our kills when Zoms showed up on the door.  But one of the things that need to be considered is that in the case of populated areas such as Pittsfield there would be thousands of corpses.  And that means a lot of breeding opportunity for flies, beetles of various types and roaches.  Once again it raises the question of whether the toxin that has caused this die off in humanity could be spread by means other than direct contact with humans.  If that is the case, then the prospects for humanity are even further reduced.

I forget how difficult this must be on Anne, my little ‘Viking Worrier’.  We are all under a lot of stress in this new world order.  But she was always one who would be worrying about the worst case scenario and here she finds herself needing to dig and rummage about in those terrible ‘what ifs’.

May 23rd

Matt and I went out hunting this morning.  We managed to get a brace of rabbits.  So there will be fresh meat for dinner tonight.  The good news is we kill them, Nick skins them.  We had no contact with Zoms and were back home by 9 AM.

The corn is all planted and the beans were going in today.  Henry has been working hard at the planting.  After the beans he will lay down some squash and tomatoes.  The cabbage and lettuce are already in.  We have kept an armed guard with him just in case we got undead visitors.  I am always concerned about long or loud periods of noise.

There is still a flurry of flight simulator time being put in by Lance, Ron, Cody and Mark. They are all working hard at it.  I thought that Nick might have also been interested based upon the old Air Wars days.  I still toy with the idea but my plate has been pretty full and I think that it would not be in my, or the groups best interest for me to take a slot, assuming I qualified.

Anne’s dad is getting to be worrisome.  He is becoming less and less mobile and also anti-social.  Having Burt around had been a help as the two of them would talk up a storm about their old military days or how we youngsters were doing good or bad in keeping things going.

I can understand it to a degree, Cyril is almost 90 years old and his world has been turned on end. He is weary and depressed.  I doubt he will make the end of the summer.  Arcelia, Anne’s mom, is doing better; she keeps busy and active with little projects.

Beyond Cyril, everyone else seems to have adapted quite well to the new world order.  I have noticed that Fred and Jan seem to slip off to ‘scavenge’ together more and more.  I just hope they are being careful on more levels than one.

Cody is really funny.  In some ways he reminds me of me at that age.  He follows Margo around like a little puppy.  She seems to enjoy the attention but she is also not ready to get into a relationship.  She and I have had talks about such things.  I am glad she is comfortable coming to me to talk about those things.  I know that as a kid I could not do that with my parents.  I know that she does open up to Anne about a lot of it but sometimes “there are things that Mom just doesn’t get”.

Frank had started the defensive armor on the F-350.  He is putting removable metal mesh on the windows and a sort of heavy duty “cow catcher” bumper on the front.  We have also added some additional racks and hooks as well as a power winch to the front of the vehicle.

Teckla and Lauren have painted “Coyote” on the side of the truck with a picture of Wiley.  When we finish with this truck we will go get another and start the processes all over again.  The goal is to replace our entire fleet over the next month or so.  We are thinking a total of six vehicles as well as a trailer.

Charlene and Matt are heading up to Check Point Charlie to meet up with the Major.  Matt is more for security.  I am not certain why this meeting is taking place but I have seen that there is a growing bond between the two communities.

It was a little cloudy tonight and you would see a glow against them from what I am guessing is Pittsfield.  I really think that maybe a little scouting mission might be in order just to make certain that it is the city that is in flames and not the forest between here and there.

May 24th

Henry did some more bean planting today.  I took the first watch to make sure he was not visited.

It is always interesting to see where your mind takes you when you are just sitting trapped in a place and time.  As I sat there, I began to think about food sources.  It dawned on me that come winter time we did have or could have a source for fresh, sort of vegetable.  If we held some of the seeds from the beans, we might be able to create bean sprouts and from there my mind drifted to the big craze of eating chia seeds.  Yes, that was the stuff that you spread on the little clay sheep to make chia pets.  They are supposed to be very healthy, and nutritious.  Like I said, it is weird the way the mind wanders. Ron relieved me at about noon time.

After lunch Frank showed me the improvements he had made on the Coyote.  It was fully operational and ready to roll.  I suggested that we could take a test drive out to Hinsdale and pick up the next truck so we could get started on that upgrade.

The diesel engine roared to life as we set off.  It was noisy, and I am not sure I liked that but what alternative do we have. As we were heading up toward Check Point Charlie we come upon Matt and Charlene returning.  We stopped and talked for a few minutes.  There was not a lot to report from the meeting between Charlene and the Major.  It appears it was more a social than business visit.

While driving up Frank and I talked about the needs of the group as far as vehicles.  The Three had pretty much given us the carte blanche on what to take for that.  So besides the HumVee and the F-350, now dubbed the “Coyote” Frank and I had decided that we would add two F-250s with the club cab (four seater), and two Expedition like SUV’s if they had diesel engines and four wheel drive.

We also put together a wish list of other vehicles that we would like to have with us.  An enclosed trailer was one of the items and in that trailer we figured three ATVs, and a Ski-doo kind of thing would be perfect.  They would not be used that often so the gasoline issue was not as critical as it would be if we set off on a long run in the trucks.

We arrived at the dealership and looked around.  In the search we found an F-250 that had been outfitted for a construction company.  It was only a regular cab but the selling point was that it had a heavy duty trailer hitch and a 250 gallon fuel tank with a hand pump built into the bed.  That would be great if we had to hit the road.

I talk about the “if we had to hit the road” thing like it is a fall back plan.  But I really believe that it is just a matter of time before something (hordes of Zoms, radiation) or someone forces us onto the road.  I know it is the paranoia talking again but the little voice says that it is not the end all future home for us.

May 25th

This morning we selected our future pilots.  The Three (Teckla, Charlene and Henry) first interviewed the candidates and then watched them show their skills on the flight simulator.  The people who tried out from our group were Lance, Cody, Fred and Ron.  There were also a number of others that considered it but removed or never submitted their intent.  I know that Mark, Nick and Henry all had thought about it very seriously.  I had also considered it as had Frank.

I guess there is just this glamour thing about being a “Fly Boy”.  But in the end the idea of practicality came into play.  As much as I would have liked to be one of the pilots, I also knew that I was more valuable on the ground.  I think all of us “elders” had thought that way.

The rankings for the actual simulator came out Lance, Fred, Ron and Cody.  The final order of ranking was Ron, Fred, Cody and Lance. Apparently, and much to my relief, Lance had messed up the interview portion of the assessment and was not chosen.

I am sure his electronics and technical skills were considered in the equation.  He was just too valuable, like a number of us to put at such risk. So Fred and Ron were our two trainees.

We notified the Major in Hinsdale and set up to meeting out at Blueberry Hill the next morning to get started. Frank, Matt and Nick were going to accompany them to help out and work on getting the planes running.  I was going to say up and running but I am not so sure that will happen right away.

Ron was strutting around like a peacock for being chosen.  I can only imagine that he saw himself as some WWI fighter ace like Raoul Luftberry.  Fred on the other hand spent a great deal of time with Jan.   If there had been any doubt about their relationship, it was now quite evident.  I think that Jan was very concerned about what the consequences of Fred’s new job might be.  He was doing the best he could to try to allay those fears.

I think back to the old quote “There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are very few old bold pilots.”  Boy, does that match up with our pair of Fly Boys.

We had a couple more Zoms wander into the fence this morning early.  Mark and I took care of them.  But before we torched them I found that one of them had some bugs munching on the dead flesh.  I thought about what Anne had said and collected a few just in case they would be of value in some research. Although she agreed it was a good idea she was grossed out by the gift.

May 26th

There is an air of excitement in the compound.  Today the newly appointed pilot trainees are off to Blueberry Hill, dare I say it, yeah, to find their thrill (sorry). Nick put together a special breakfast of pancakes rather than the usual cereal with powdered milk.  It was a treat, but it is a kind of special day.

The ground crew and trainees were ready to go and on their way at 7:30.  There would be lots of preparation work just getting the machines serviced and checked.  I did not think we would see more than maybe a little taxi action.  A few of the others from the compound were also going to lend support, or out of curiosity.  There was nothing special going on so it gave a little break.

I stayed behind with Lance and Henry to keep an eye on Peru. Anne, Charlene and Teckla took the Kia to watch the festivities. Anne’s wanted to share some of her research data and bugs with the Hinsdale crew.  Charlene was going to see the Major.

I could tell that Lance is a little bummed out because he was not selected and I can empathize with him. I recalled my days in the PD and for that matter a lot of life events in which I did not get what I wanted, but I also found that I usually got something a little better in the exchange.

“Lance did you know I really, really wanted to be a SWAT Team member?”

“No, but what has that got to do with anything?”

“Well, for whatever reason I was not selected for the team, and I was really disappointed.  But in the end I was appointed to the negotiation team which is part of the SWAT team.”

“So?”

This was going well (sarcasm)…. “So, I didn’t get to play with big fancy guns or rush into dangerous buildings.  The upside was that I got to sit in a warm negotiator van, drinking coffee and talking on the phone. Eventually I became the team commander and then got to hang out with all the big bosses in the command post vehicle.”

“I remember being on call outs and incidents in which the weather was below zero or one in which one of the snipers who was hidden under a small building.  After the incident was over he was telling his tactical buddies how he had peed himself and then laid in it.”

I am not sure if Lance fully accepted my optimistic view of the world but he did get a laugh at some of the story and seemed to be doing better.

“I know you are right, and it is not that big a deal, but it would have been cool to be one of them” he said.

“I’m okay, it just stings a little” he added over a weak smile. “Thanks Dad, just don’t offer me a lifesaver, okay?”

We had three Zoms show up on the wire again today.  I am concerned with these incursions by the undead.  The thing that does not make sense about it is that the arrivals are not from one logical and consistent direction.  One would think that they would come from the west, which was where the majority of the populated areas were but they are coming from the south.

The flight folks returned around 7:00 pm.  It had been a full day of working on the planes.  They had not been used in a while and were in need of tune ups, and careful examination to insure that they were safe.  The checking took longer than expected simply because this was all new territory and it was done literally by the book, or in this case the manuals.

I told Anne and The Three about the seeming increase, although small, in Zoms on the fence.  Charlene told me that the Hinsdale crew had also mentioned an increase.  They were seeing most of their visits from the south which they believed were wanderers out of Pittsfield, and some lesser visits from the north which indicated that there was a horde likely in the area of Dalton.

May 27th

The general consensus by our new pilot wannabees was that this was going to be just a little more difficult than first thought.  The ground crews spent the day just trying to get the airplanes flight worthy.  By the end of the day they did have them all running, with the hydraulic systems functional and ready to roll out.  The boys spent most of their nights reading over the aircraft manuals and the educational material from the flight school.  They realized that it was going to be more difficult for them because there were no real instructors.  It was all learn by reading, computer simulation and finally trial and error.  And we all hoped the error part was a minimal occurrence.

The pilot choices from Hinsdale were Ethan, the college kid and Armand, the gung ho military wannabee.  It was actually kind of ironic that in both groups the people who pushed for the jobs were pretty similar in nature and background, two college kids and two military types.

On flight training day two; they did get the planes running early in the morning and then spent most of the day getting familiar with the controls and moving the aircraft around the airfield.  But it was still not time to take the plunge, oops, perhaps a bad choice of words.  The turnout to watch the training was not so great this morning. Jan and Grace went up to watch seeing as they each had a horse in the race but everyone else was less interested.

We had no Zoms show up in Peru today although Biter went out and was playing around and managed to come back with a bone.  That created a little stir because we could not tell if it was a human or animal bone.  But when in doubt, we treat them as human and a possible contaminant so the bone was burned in the garbage pit.

In the new world we have come to realize that burning waste was preferable to the flies and other scavengers hanging about and getting into it. With the damage that had already been committed against the planet a little trash fire was hardly going to bring about the global warming that was so concerning a year or even 6 months ago.  The spread of disease however was always very much in everyone’s mind.

I have not mentioned it lately but the situation with the radiation appears to have stabilized at the moment.  I am not sure if it is the shift in wind direction or due to the number of rain storms we have had but the levels are lower than they were several weeks ago.

Our fuel supplies are good.  We are currently set for gasoline, which we are getting away from.  The propane truck is still at about ninety percent full.  During the summer that supply can be stretched since we will not be using it for heating or the need to boil water 24/7 helps.

To further the heating supplies we are going to take down some trees to allow them to dry and season over the summer.  The plan is to add a larger wood stove to the garage area to cut back on propane usage.

Margo and Lauren have been working on an idea to try to create some hydroponic gardens.  The thought was that maybe during the cold months with limited fresh vegetables we could raise some forms of bean sprouts to act as a supplement.  They have put together a design for the tanks and then expanded the plans and are trying to also work out a greenhouse of sorts to maybe include some other vegetables.

“There’s a good sized greenhouse attached to the Johnson Farm nearby.” Henry told them. “Maybe you could use that.”

The downsides to the plan are the distance and the inability to easily heat and supply water. But there may be ways in which the existing greenhouse would be cannibalized to develop something smaller in the compound.

They have enlisted Matt and Henry to help them with the project.  Before The Event Matt had worked at Laurence Farms and was pretty well acquainted with greenhouse and farming procedures.  Henry was also a farmer and a great resource.

May 28th

There was not much going on today.  We have not had any visitors for the last couple of days so that was good.  The airfield people spent the day in simulators and rolling around the airstrip.  I was told that the planes all seem to be running fine but it will be another day or so before someone tries to take-off.

I almost wish that something would happen to shake up the place.  I should be careful because it gets down to ‘the careful what you wish for’ category.  But I am thinking that we are becoming a little too comfortable and with comfort comes complacency.  As a result, I have begun to restudy the maps that we have just to familiarize myself with the various escape routes should we need them.

We had a wicked thunderstorm late this afternoon. As I have noted before, it may be my imagination, or that we are in a different weather pattern zone, or maybe due to the events and nuclear detonations the climate has changed a little and the storms seem more potent.

May 29th

Well, today was the final day of pre-flight.  Ready or not tomorrow will be the first attempt at getting at least one of our flyers off the ground.  It has caused a great deal of buzz in both communities.  I understand that it will be a drawing in the morning to see who gets the first shot.  I am not sure about our wannabees, but I know if it was me, I would not be sleeping well tonight and I would not want to be the first one in the air tomorrow.

I had a nice chat with Cyril, Anne’s dad today.  We have known each other for a long time.  And we laughed and remembered some of the old days.  Once again I heard a number of his old navy stories that he has told us time and time again.  It is kind of sad though, this whole old age thing.  I hope it is still years away for him, but the reality of it is that any of us could die tomorrow, and the conditions that we are living in right now, although comfortable are not the most conducive to longevity.

May 30th

It is kind of ironic that on this day we would get our first air tests.  This is after all Memorial Day.  We had no parade, or any such celebration planned but over breakfast Nick announced that he had pulled a rabbit out of a hat and that when we returned from the airfield today he had a surprise for us.  He also told Teckla and Charlene to extend an invitation to the Hinsdale Survivors.

It was Ron who was our Wilbur, or was it Orville.  At about noon time he taxied to the end of the airfield and proceeded to power up the engine.  It was not the prettiest takeoff, but it was a take-off.  He circled the field a couple of times and maybe got to an altitude of about 500 feet.  Then he brought it in for his first landing.  It was not actually all that bad a landing.  As he rolled up to the hanger, there was applause and cheers, we had an air force.

Next up was Ethan then Armand and finally Fred.  They all managed to get up and down safely.  Some clearly had better control of the plane than others but they all made it.

We returned to our compound to the smell of charcoal.  I do not know how he did it but Nick had a cookout waiting for us.  It was a good old fashioned hamburgers, baked beans and macaroni friggin’ salad cookout.  We had to settle for kind of homemade rolls, and I have no idea what kind of meat was used, and was not going to ask.

He had even managed to find a few big bags of potato chips. Apparently when we first got here and it was still quite cold he was able to scavenge some items from the local supermarket and get them over to our place.

The Hinsdale folks left about 8:00 pm so they did not have to drive in the dark. It was a fine day.

May 31st.

We had a couple more Zoms show up on the wire this morning. Again they were from the south, I just cannot figure out why.  There is really nothing there that should explain them coming from that direction. Since the weather was good today I took Margo and Mark for a little hike to see if we can figure this out.  We covered about half the east and south east area but came up empty.  We will do it again tomorrow and cover the south and south west sector. It may be something that we can create a remedy for.

The reports from the “flight school” have been positive.  Everyone is getting up and down nicely and the altitude and durations of the flights are becoming longer and longer. Ron is very much getting into the program.  He has become “Sky Demon”.  Fred has not taken a flight name, which is good I guess. Jan seems to be getting a little more comfortable with his being a pilot.

Matt and Charlene took a run up to Hinsdale today.  The reason given was pretty flimsy because it is pretty obvious that it is so Charlene could spend time with Major Barkley. While they were there Matt was presented with another sniper rifle.  It had been there with the military but the Hinsdale folks were unable to master its use.

Based upon the job that Matt and Margo had done in dealing with Brother Gabriel and freeing them from the cult they felt it would be best used by one of them. It was an M-110.  One of the top five sniper weapons out there.  It is a little heavier than the Barrett M-82 that we already had.  The Barrett is a lot more manageable and as we have seen it was something that even Margo could shoot, and shoot well.  So they each have their own little toy now.

While in the city Matt found a Chevy dealership.  He did not like my Ford’s so he latched on to a black HD3500 diesel four wheel drive.  When they got back, he and Frank started to make the armor and other modifications on it.  It is a bad ass truck, but no F-350.   It is such a redneck truck and he designated it ‘The Raven’.

June 1st

A couple more Zoms hit the wire this morning; again it was the south sector. Mark, Anne and I were off on a little hike to cover the south / south west to see what we could find.  I was kind of surprised that Anne decided to go with us.  She tends to not like the idea of wandering far from home. It was the first time in a while she had her M-16 with her.  Over time she has changed a little.  I think that all her research has made the realization that we are not in “Kansas” anymore but then all of us have changed to some degree or another.

When we searched that area we found another small lake and camp ground area.  It is about 5 miles south of us and it seems to be the source of our visitors.  From where we were we could see about 100 undead wandering about. The map said it was called Garnet Lake and there was road leading from the lake to Lake Danbee.

Where things were going awry was that there was a little turn in the road and rather than staying on the road it appears that they would somehow miss the turn and walk off into the woods.  They would wander aimlessly until in some cases they would hit our fence.

Flight school is going well and everyone is getting better and better at handling the planes although Frank took me aside and said that Ron was getting a little daring in some of his efforts.  I can understand pushing the limits, but I am concerned that it is too early to get stupid crazy and reckless.

Margo and Matt spent the day learning the new rifle.  Matt assumed command of the sniper unit and they really did work together well.  They altered the structure to two teams with one rifle each rather than three teams rotating the original rifle.  The two teams made sense with Ron learning to fly and Henry had become a little too important as one of The Three. Cody became Matt’s spotter and Mark was Margo’s.

June 2nd

Henry, Nick and I headed out early this morning and set up some fences and barriers to stop the wandering dead from coming up from Lake Garnet.  It was not too bad a task. The weather was not too warm.  It was the first time in a long time that Nick actually got out of the compound.

Matt and Frank finished Matt’s the ‘Raven’ named after the Raven tattoo inspired by Matt’s trips to Alaska a few years back.  The Raven seems to be his totem/spirit animal just as the Coyote is mine.  The truck is definitely a mean looking piece of equipment with its removable mesh window covers, an external roll bar in the bed and a setup for him to use as a sniper station.  They added a couple of toolboxes that contain assorted weapons and tools.  Frank gets to go truck shopping next.

Everything else seems quiet.

June 3rd

We had an afternoon thunder shower yesterday which in itself is not so remarkable.  I checked in with Lance to see if the storm and rain have had any impact on the radiation issue. He said that the levels have remained low and suggested that the rain scrubbing the air, or the wind that has been coming from the southwest pushing the dust north of us. While we were talking about that I asked, “Do you feel we’re getting more rain and storms?”

“I don’t think so, but I really have not paid attention.”

I looked up Henry and asked him the same question.

“Well, it does seem a little wetter this year than in the past, but that we should be happy about it because it would help in our farming efforts.”

It really is not a big issue I guess, but something I observed and was curious about.  We have a great deal of time to contemplate such things if we want. I have no way of proving it but I have to think that there had to be changes.

Margo and Cody came up with a great idea of us. At dinner time Cody announced that, “We are going to start ‘Family Game Night’.”

There was no grumbling and Margo added, “We all just get together and play board games and or cards.”

They had made a scavenger run and the idea came to them when they found a trivia game and a few decks of playing cards.  It brought back some memories of Teckla, Matt, Mark and me playing DJ Trivia at the old Friends Café on Thursday night.

“I wonder if any of the other teams or players made it out alive.”  I thought to myself.

June 4th

We had a little Powwow this morning about the Lake Garnet issue.  We talked about the idea of burning the lake area and the buildings after we went in and purged the area of the undead.  That idea in some ways seemed a good one.

But as Teckla pointed out, “It would be costly in terms of equipment, and ammunition.”

“Keep in mind that in leaving the place alone it could be a laboratory from which we could get ideas of the decay rates of the undead.  We were coming up on summer and that should speed the process, we hope,” she added

“True but we would be creating a feeding ground for insects and other carrion creatures that could bring infection our way,” countered Anne. “My research and feeling is that although we don’t have to kill all the Zoms, razing the area would be a good idea.”

Henry and I were not crazy about having a population of Zoms that close to us.  But so far the incidents of contact and our ability to cope with them had been workings.

My two cents were that, “I am not sure that poking at the turd is a bad idea, I am with Anne on this one,”

Charlene wanted to talk with Major Barkley about the impact of this population and get his input on the situation.  Bottom line here was that it is really an issue that need not be decided today but something that should be taken care of soon so further discussion among the members for brainstorming or suggestion was left open and encouraged.

After the Powwow, Teckla asked me if I would take a ride up to Hinsdale to look into some additional vehicles that we could add to the group.  At first I thought it was odd because she really had not shown much interest in that particular area of our community.  But I agreed and we were off just after lunch.

As we drive, I sounded like a bad car salesman trying to talk her into a big 4x4 truck.  But she seemed distracted and only half attentive.  Finally I tossed out some ridiculous statement that she caught and just looked at me.

I asked, “What is this trip really all about?”

“Charlene”.

Teckla said, “I have developed some concerns with Charlene because of her relationship with Major Barkley.  The issues were not that the relationship was wrong but it might have an impact on her impartiality and her ability to lead.”

“What do you mean? Do you have some examples?”

“I really don’t have anything serious enough to support the concern,” She said.

“Well it could be a problem I guess, but then one could also make the same argument about you and Frank, or her and the boys, or Anne, Margo and I, or Nick, and Lauren . We are all compromised.”

“True,” she said thoughtfully.

“Until push comes to shove, that would be the test.  Until we saw some specific behavior we should be careful about such thoughts. But we should be vigilant” I added.

“I have always been worried that when the fat was in the fire I wondered how Anne would deal with the need to use weapons and if she could kill, even the undead.  I know Margo and I can, we have been battle tested.  A lot of us have not, includes you and Charlene.”

It was quiet for a little while and then finally Teckla said “So, which do you think a Ford or a Chevy?”

We talked about the vehicle issue for a while and finally decided that if we could find a 4x4 SUV of either make that would be the best vehicle for her.  But I must admit that a diesel SUV seemed unlikely. We checked a couple of places, but it was more just to be able to say we had looked.

We returned to the compound and as we did Teckla said “Thanks on the Charlene thing.”

We had a pretty good thunderstorm roll in around 9:00 PM.

June 5th

Anne surprised me when she asked if we would take a run out toward Lake Danbee or Garnet and actually take some photos of the Zoms for comparison purposes. It was not going to be anything close up but she felt that it might be helpful to see what the decay factors were on them.

We did head out to Lake Garnet and photographed six specific test subjects that were particularly identifiable based upon clothing.  We also considered the condition and size of the undead.  Age did not matter in the choice but we picked subjects that were an average sized adult male and female, an oversized male and female and then two children.  The children were kind of a hard call because there is a natural sympathy toward children, seeing them in this state hits hard.

The flights today were getting further and further out but still solo.  The idea behind that is it is better to lose one plane and one pilot. We can replace planes to a point.  Our pilot supply is limited. Ron actually made a hundred mile flight to the west.  While he was up there he reported that he had seen a couple of small columns of smoke.  The idea of the smoke is interesting.  It most likely means that there are other small camps out there, we were not alone.  But then we have already seen that with Hinsdale.

The concern that I have had about having the guys in the sky is that it sends up a signal that we are and that could invite trouble, like our first contact with Hinsdale there was the chance that it may not be as friendly or amicable as we might like.

June 6th

It is D-Day, the longest day, at least according to history.  It has been kind of different to look at what is now ancient history to us.  Since The Event it has almost been as if the calendar has reset, we still have history, and holidays and memories but we are in a new age.  I guess that in some ways it is like the change from BC to AD.

I think that it has a lot to do with perspective.  I am sure that the real hardcore Christians see this as the Book of Revelations coming to fruition.  It has in many ways been the apocalypse but I am not going to even try to draw the lines and fill in the blanks on it.  Unfortunately I have now set the contemplation wheels in motion and will dwell on those issues for the balance of the day and for some time to come.

There is not really much else to report for the day. All else seems to be running pretty much as usual although it seems that our hunting efforts have been meeting less and less success in terms of larger animals.  I think the deer population has diminished or moved.  We have occasionally found a pig running around but that hasn’t happened in a while.  We know there are farms that had livestock in the area but they have been overrun by the Zoms and we assume what they did not kill had escaped.

We have been seeing an increase in small animals such as rabbits, and squirrels which are reasonably easy to trap.  There are also a fair number of escaped chickens and wild turkeys.  This Zom thing has thrown the natural balance way off.   Henry and Nick have been talking about it and suggest that it might not be a bad idea to try to capture some of the assorted small creatures and begin a breeding program to help us through the winter.

June 7th

Another wicked thunderstorm came through last night and hit close to home.  We had a few trees come down in the area, but no damage to the compound.  We often see them pass a little south of us in Peru.  They seem to focus on the Great Barrington area more toward the border of Massachusetts and Connecticut, that area has been a little storm alley in the past.

Nick   and a few people have constructed some small animal pens and cages.  The plan is to capture some rabbits to serve as a protein food supply.  In conjunction with that the youngers, Lauren, Jan and Margo continue to work on the green house / hydroponic garden to keep us in veggies.  Overall we are looking more and more like we night be self-sustaining and not relying on scavenging as much. If we can survive the first winter, then we will be okay.  But there is much to be done.

Anne and I had a talk this evening.  It seems that Cyril and Arcelia are wondering why we are not continuing to head west to try to meet up with her brother Dwayne.  That was the original plan at the start of our escape but with the Hudson Bridge out, and all that has happened since it seems like a lot of risk for the group to make the trip.  Particularly because we have no idea if they have actually survived the initial onset and subsequent events.

Jan and Fred are pretty much attached at the hip these days.  The same could be said for Major Barkley and Charlene; they get together as much as they can.  I am kind of surprised that one of them has not switched camps.  I find that many of the pairs that had been in relationships were closer than they had ever been.  I think the idea of the crisis has resulted in a new bonding in the existing relationships.  I feel more attached to Anne than ever.

June 8th

Just another day in paradise, and another series of storms in the evening.  Nothing to report here.

June 9th

We had a close call with the flight crew today.  There was an engine failure in Armand’s plane as he was coming in for a landing.  He touched down a little earlier than he would have liked but there was no damage to him, or the plane.  When they went through the plane, they found that there was a little water in the bottom of the fuel tank.  It is unclear if it was the result of the weather we have been having, or if it might have come from a contaminated fuel can.  The rest of the planes are all being checked very closely.

This news did not go over well with Jan for obvious reasons.

Charlene and Mark were off to Hinsdale early this morning.  I know that Mark is looking for a new vehicle of the diesel variety.  I am not sure what he is looking to find but he said that something a little smaller than the Coyote or Raven would have some advantages in where it could go as well as in fuel efficiency.

June 10th

Lance and I took a drive out to Hinsdale today.  We had made a call to just let them know we were coming.  It has really gotten to the point where we are pretty much moving between camps on a regular basis.  Lance wanted to look to see what they had for computer parts and equipment at a couple of the small shops in town.  He had some ideas for expanding our surveillance network but needs some gizmos to make it work.  There were a couple of small independent shops that might have what he is looking for.

While we were there we found the perfect vehicle for Mark.  I say that in jest.  We found a red Prius.  I had Lance drive it back to Peru. When I arrived I was blowing the horn creating a commotion. (Yes, I know it was a stupid thing to do because could bring a few Zoms our way.)  As everyone rushed to the yard thinking there was a major calamity afoot, I hopped out of the Coyote, “I have found the perfect vehicle for Mark, it meets all his needs and is a perfect match.”

Then I turned to the road and got on the radio calling to Lance to bring it on in.  The onlookers had not noticed that Lance had actually slipped in earlier while I had created a distraction.  He drove the Prius behind the dumpster and just waited.  While everyone watched the road expecting some magnificent set of wheels Lance slipped from behind the dumpster and revved the engine.

He jumped out of the car and shouted, “Need a new car, why not Zoidberg?  Hurrah”.

Those who knew Futurama, Jeff Dunham and Mark were in stitches, the rest just looked at the Prius in shocked disbelief.

Realistically for the long term it was not a good choice of a vehicle for our needs.  Yet for the commute to and from Hinsdale it was not all that bad an idea. The biggest thing was that it gave us all a good laugh, and we had not had one of those in a while.  I mean we have had chuckles, and humor, but this was the first “foolie” on a grand scale in a long time.

June 11th

It was a quiet day, with little to report.  The weather has been good with a little rain that has helped the corn and other crops.  It is really a status quo kind of a day.

June 12th

Charlene was off to visit Hinsdale.  She took Mark as her wing man.  He planned to look for options for the “real” Zoidberg.  The Fly Boys reported another good day of flying and there was talk of it getting near time to do some pilot/copilot flying as well as starting to consider the mission for radiation pattern tracking, which was after all what this flying thing was all about.

June 13th

There are many days or periods of time in which the boredom is almost intolerable.  We all try to do things to keep ourselves busy but there are times when that is just not an option.  There is only so much reading, chatting, card / game playing and so on that can be done.  It makes me wonder what will happen come winter time and the weather really keeps us indoors.  It is another motivator for keeping this journal.  It has given me an activity to look forward to doing.

June 14th

Matt and I talked today about the prospect of starting to explore the area around our compound. And by explore I am talking about expending some fuel and driving out on the major roads for up to an hour to see what we find and what we might face if we needed to use them for escape routes or if we just simply needed to move on.  We presented the idea to The Three.  They considered it among themselves and after a brief discussion gave us the okay.

They decided on a four person exploration team.  Matt and I would go.  Anne decided that it would be a good idea to tag along. Jan also volunteered thinking that her basic engineering skills might be of value.

I am not sure if I had mentioned it before but Jan had been an engineering student at UMass in the old world.  She may have some insights that would be missed by the rest of us regarding the bridge, its design and its safety.

We loaded up the HumVee with food, water, and an assortment of equipment that could get us out of a lot of trouble if we needed it.  We also brought some science stuff to take samples of water, bugs, or to test for radiation.  The plan was for us to leave early morning to allow us plenty of daylight.

June 15th

We set off in the morning as headed west on 143 to I-90 and on to the Hudson River. When we reached the rail bridge, it was clear that it was un-damaged and would or could handle vehicle traffic but it would be a slow, rough and nerve wracking crossing.

As we were leaving the bridge Matt said, “There has to be other crossing points in the Albany areas”.

Matt had attended school in upstate NY and was familiar with some of the area around Albany.

“We are ahead of schedule; we could check some of that out I guess,” was my response.

We tried to use the GPS to show what routes might be available and discovered that there were a number of towns and cities that had bridges that would allow for crossing.  But and this is a big but, most of those cities were of a size that it was likely that we would experience radiation issues or like Pittsfield a potential for a colony of the undead.

We decided that it might be better to hold off on further exploration for the day and head back for some geography lessons about where safe crossings might be.  As we were driving back, we talked about the idea of giving a task to the air group and have them do some recon flying to see if they found a crossing.

When we returned, we went to work looking at what maps we had of the area.  We found that there are a number of highway bridges that cross into Albany, or even a little north of it coming out of Troy New York but they were all based in once heavily populated areas and reaching those crossings would be a potential dangerous effort.  We did not know what we would find on the roads that might block passage or even if the bridges were intact.

We found that there are some additional potential crossing points to the north in Schuylerville or southeast in the area of Kingston and Rhinecliff, just north of Poughkeepsie.

Rhinecliff is that it is not very far from Rhinebeck Airfield which is a place that we had wanted to check out earlier for potential aircraft.  In both cases we were looking at the minimum drive time of an hour each way to check these locations out based on best case scenario.

However, this would or could be an easy jaunt for the air corps and much less risky to us all.  If the bridges were found intact, then we could make the drive out there to explore them further.  So it was back into the office with The Three and we pitched the new idea.  They in turn contacted Hinsdale as well as Blueberry Hill to see if this was a viable option.

The option was viable and the plan was made for two planes to make the runs.  They would both fly west to the Hudson and the break off with one going north and one going south.  They would fly about 50 to 75 miles in each direction and then return.  It actually turned into a dual mission because they would also record radiation readings as they travelled.  This would help in setting some base line research into the radiation issues we had detected earlier.  The mission was planned for tomorrow morning and would be flown by Ron (north) and Armand (south).

June 16th

The boys lifted off this morning at about 9am.  The weather was good and by our best guess was going to stay that way.  But with the weather and the lack of forecasting equipment it was hard to tell.  We do have the basics, a barometer, and wind speed things but there is no longer any Doppler radar or the Internet that we had all become used to.  It makes one think about things like red sky at night sailor’s delight, wooly bear brown to black ratios and other weather related sayings and myths.

We maintained radio contact with the planes for most of their trip.  They would check in every 15 minutes to let us know all was well and where they were.  Ron seemed to get a little weak in his transmissions as he was closer to Albany but overall the flights were uneventful.  It might have been considered a milk run to use an old WWII bomber term.

They were back to base by 11am and had each found a viable option.  Ron discovered that there was a bridge in the area of Schuylerville which was about 45 minutes north of us.  It did have a small town attached on the west side of the river but it was not as big as Hinsdale.

Armand found a bridge about the same distance to the south in the area of Rhinecliff and Kingston.  It actually sounded a little better because it did not have a town on either bank of the river so we would be able to cross without the need to drive through any urban or semi-urban area.  Neither bridge was blocked with abandoned cars or trucks.

“I think we should make a trip down toward the south,” I suggested. “We would make the run to Rhinecliff in the morning to figure out if the bridge is really passable.”

“We could also make a swing to the Rhinebeck Aerodrome to see what they had for planes and equipment laying around,” added Armand. “I have done a fly over and saw a few old fighters and a couple of helicopters.

Much to my, and everyone’s surprise Steven, the stoner, piped in, “I think I would like to tag along on that trip”. It was the first time I had ever seen him take any interest in much of anything.

“I will pass on the trip, there shouldn’t be any blast damage like what might have occurred at the I-90 bridges so he can have my spot,” offered Jan.

June 17th

We picked up Steven early in the morning.  He is one of the members of the Hinsdale Survivors’ that we usually do not get much interaction with.  In part because he was generally off on his own, almost hiding but also because of what we felt was his drug activities.  We had been of the opinion that he had a stash and spent much of the time stoned on weed.  Yet when he got into the HumVee he did not smell of weed, in fact except for the hair (Rasta Do) he was quite clean and well groomed.  There was an air of enigma about him.

We headed on back roads west on the trip down to the bridge staying on Route 7 and then cut over on Route 44 to Route 199 which would bring us by Rhinebeck Field and on to the Rhinecliff side of the bridge.  We also figured that we would take Route 9 back home giving us the chance to cover as much area as we could for intelligences and potential scavenging targets.  We lost radio contact with Peru and Hinsdale about 20 miles south of Pittsfield so we were pretty much on our own.

The trip to Rhinebeck was pretty uneventful.  We found a couple of spots where we had to negotiate fallen trees.  It was evident that some of those trees had been taken down by a storm.  We were good with that but one of them appeared to have been intentionally cut.

That was a little troubling so we had Matt in the turret as we crossed that roadblock but met no issues with getting around the fallen tree. It did open the question as to who cut it, why and was ‘whoever’ still around.

When we arrived at Rhinebeck Field, there was not a lot to look at, it had been sacked.  One of the things that our group has done in its scavenging is that we take what we needed but we did not destroy what we couldn’t use or did not want.  Whoever had hit this place had vandalized the planes and the buildings.  Items were strewn all over the ground.

“That is just stupid”, I thought, “What if there had been someone who had been able to use this place or the equipment for survival.  Resources are so limited and in many cases irreplaceable. What a waste.”

Steven was standing by an old Dessert Storm vintage Huey Helicopter.  It had the windows smashed out and was pretty much wrecked on the inside.  As I walked up, he started to tell me all about it.

“The Bell UH-1 Iroquois, aka Huey, is powered by a single, turbo shaft engine, with a two-bladed main rotor and tail rotor. The helicopter was developed by Bell Helicopters to meet the Army’s requirement for medical and utility purposes, it was the first turbine-powered helicopter to enter production for military, and more than 16,000 have been produced worldwide.”

“How do you know so much about them?”  I asked”.

He stared blankly off into space, “It was in another life time.”

As I looked at him, I could sense an emotional storm in him that was of hurricane force he was not going to go into it right now, this was not the time or place for me to push it.

After a quick sweep of the grounds we determined there was little for us to forage.  So we continued on our way. We found that Rhinecliff was abandoned, and much of it was burned out.  We had to cover about a mile to get to the bridge.

The bridge was in once piece and it appeared to be usable.  There were a few vehicles that were abandoned on it but they did not block the road completely.  We went ahead and cleared them out of the major travel portion so that we did not have to zigzag to make it across.

While we were clearing the road Matt was vigilant in the turret.  He did not see anyone but there is creepiness about this place and I felt that perhaps we were being watched.

We finally finished and made it across to stand on the west side of the Hudson River for the first time and were within sight of Kingston.

“What do you think, should we scout the city?” Matt asked.

“No, let’s get close enough so we can make some visual assessment, but it is getting late and we really need to be careful.  We came down to see if we could get across the river and we can so it was time to go home.”  I answered.

Before starting back north we brought out the map and reset the GPS for the trip.  The satellites are still up there and the information is in the little devices themselves so they still work.  I noticed that Woodstock, the famous Woodstock was not that far way.  It made me think of Max Yazgur’s Farm in the summer of 1969, three days of peace and music.  Look at us now.

We set course to take Route 9 all the way up passing through a number of small towns along the way.  We would see an occasional Zom but did not have any contact with living humans.  About half way up we found a second way across the river.  It was the Rip Van Winkle Bridge and it led into the Catskills.

“Hey, let’s hit the resorts of the Borsch Belt for vacation, the time of our life, what do you think?” I suggested.

But that idea was met with silence or groans, too soon? Or maybe they just didn’t know of the place.

We check the bridge out and it was open and usable but this one led directly into town which could mean the prospect of populations, living or dead.  For now we would just make a note and we may revisit it later.

We finally reached Hudson and it is a fair sized city probably akin to a 40 or 50 thousand population.  It had not been razed and it looked like there was a lot of movement.  It wasn’t that important to determine if they were alive or undead so we worked our way around from south to east and finally back onto Route 44.  From there it was back to Route 7 and finally we made Hinsdale where we dropped Steven off.

As we drove from Hinsdale to Peru I asked, “What do you think of Steven?”

Matt and Anne looked at each other, and then at me. They were puzzled by my question

Anne offered, “Well, he seems ok, not as weird as I first though he was, does that help?”

Matt was quiet for a couple of minutes and finally said, “Well, you think there is something odd, want to share?”

I filled them in on what had happened with the Huey at Rhinebeck.  They both thought it was interesting, but had no further comment to add.

We were back to Peru just before it was time for dinner. While we were getting ready to sit down I was summoned into the Office of The Three.  Henry informed me that the plane that had made the run up north, Ron’s Plane, had been hit by a couple of rounds of small arms fire.  They were not sure where it had taken place but that before we made a run to the north we would have to talk some about the safety factors of doing so.

Over dinner we talked about what we had found and thought about the bridges.  We spoke about the airfield and how it was vandalized.  I tossed out the Catskill thing again to pretty much the same response as earlier.  But I think that everyone was pleased that we had a couple of options available if we decided to move to the other side of the river.

June 18th

Anne surprised me this morning when she announced, “I want to see how the zombies up at the camp are doing.”  It sounded kind of weird but when she explained, “I need to check the rate of decay and what impact that might have on their movement and initiative.”

I guess the idea of initiative is not exactly correct because that would imply that they are willfully and consciously attempting to consume a specific target.  In the case of our Zoms it seems more a case of latching onto random targets and then just relentlessly moving toward it until they take it down or the target can break the tracking lock.

One of the things that we brought with us this time was a remote controlled toy, the kind that at about a foot long and looks like a mini truck.  The idea is that we could us it to stimulate the Zoms without putting ourselves at risk.  Lance suggested that we attach one of the little spare walkie talkies to the truck so that if necessary we would be able to add additional sounds to our decoy in case the whir of the electric motor was not enough to attract attention.

We drove to the same parking spot that we had used the last time and walked the quarter mile or so to the little rise that gave us cover.  With the foliage in place it was a much more secure observation post but it also required that we be very aware of our surroundings to not walk into the tracking zone of a Zom.

Once we were in place we first watched to see if we could identify our previous test subjects.  We have been careful to not place any specific tags on our subjects.  I was not so worried about it for me but I did not want us to “name” them.  That could create a bond to the test subject and that bond could lead to a host of issues down the road.  It is difficult enough for both of us to deal with the idea that two of our subjects are children.  I have never been an official “parent” but over the last 14 years I have been a dad by proxy to Margo and that has changed my sensitivity toward children greatly.

Five of the six original subjects were still in the yard area.  Sadly, one of the females appears to have fallen and has been under attack by rodents.  Much of her face and the flesh on her appendages was ripped off.  There was one dead squirrel still in her hand so it looks like she did not go without a fight.  The missing Zom was one of the males.  The remaining two active adults had thinned and were looking pretty much the worse for wear.  But the two kids seemed to be holding up much better.  Their rate of decay seemed to be less than the adults. This was a surprise to both of us because we figured that the kids being smaller would waste away more quickly.  They had lost mass, but not to the seeming same pace as the active adults.

We introduced the R/C truck into the equation and almost immediately upon doing so the test subjects began to track it.  First with their heads and then they began to chase it.  Well, chase is not exactly right, more they moved toward the target.  It was a slow steady chase that would not result in a capture.

Interestingly when the R/C Truck stopped moving and there was not sound the Zoms also stopped tracking, or moving toward the target.  It raised the question of whether the tracking was being done by sound or by movement detection.  It appeared that if the target was not moving then the Zoms lost interest.  A potential last ditch idea if you were overrun, ‘play dead’, but I am not thinking that anyone would like to test that theory.

To explore this a little more what we did was to start clicking the walkie talkie and making some noise. This seemed to attract the attention of the undead and they began to shuffle toward the little truck again.  We stopped the noise and they continued to move, but walked right by the target.

Unfortunately we were doing this research in the day time because I was wondering what the result of a laser dot might be.  Would they track it like a cat or dog?  That was information that would be very big in further determination of whether they track by audio, vision or both.

We recalled the R/C Truck and beat feet back to the Coyote.  As we were leaving the little parking spot, we found our sixth subject.  He had wandered away from the camp and had started down the road.  He was actually heading toward Peru, although I was not sure he would stumble upon or into it.  We decided that it was time for this one to go home and we ran him down.  While he was pinned under the wheel we did some initial study of his actions and reactions to visual stimulus. We were also able to look closely at his flesh and decay, the smell was horrible, and it made Anne sick.  I had been to enough dead body calls in my career to be able to withstand the stench.

One of the things that I found odd was that there were no flies.  I recalled working on a case in which we excavated a body from underground and within thirty seconds of it’s being out in the air the flies were there.  Why was this not the case, the smell was certainly there.  The season was right.  This did not add up.  In the past where we came upon fresh bodies the flies were present.  What made this different?  How did the reanimated not have the same attraction of insects?

In the end we freed the subject from whatever Hell he was in using one of the impact tools that Nick had created.

We had a lot to consider and discuss on the short ride back to Peru. We did mess up on one aspect of this trip; we did not consider the idea of tracking by smell although I am not sure how we could have gone about it.  As we talked about this on the way back to Peru, we decided that it the human smells would linger in the clothing of the undead and yet they were not attacking or tracking each other.  So it seemed unlikely that smell was a means of tracking.  We had also seen no behavior that seemed to indicate sniffing the air.

Anne spent the afternoon writing up the observations of what she had seen so that she could share them with Major Barkley out in Hinsdale.  I took a nap, but the mind was working on some of the strange and illogical results we had discovered.

June 19th

It was a quiet day.  Much of it was rainy, but it was very hot and unpleasant.  One of the things that we had decided not to use very often was the air conditioner.  It was only a small unit and could not keep up with the large room anyway.  We had a couple of good sized fans that did a good job keeping the air moving but that did not help that much with the humidity.

June 20th

Today is Henry’s Birthday.  He has reached the ripe old age of 67.  We had a small treat for him at the evening meal. Teckla put together some cupcakes and was able to do a fancy frosting job on them.

This morning Anne finished up her report on our test subjects.  We made the run up to Hinsdale for the Major to look at.  It was also an excuse to get into the air conditioned truck for a while.  The Major seemed a little disappointed that only the two of us showed up for the meeting.  I sat in on the meeting between the two of them and just listened.

“Based upon our observations the feeling is that the average adult would remain active and moving for about six months until the decay rendered them pretty much inert.  But that is based upon a temperature range above 60 degrees,” explained Anne.

“As it cooled, that time frame could be extended.  So what that meant for us was that as we move into autumn there should be less and less active Zoms.”

The Major thought for a minute, then said, “But that still only reduces the numbers.  Part of the undead population has been generated after the initial out break and even now there are still some that have been recently infected.”

“True, and the other aspect of this is the children, we had no idea why they seem to deteriorate at a slower pace than the adults.  That does not seem to make any sense, it would seem logical that because they are smaller than they would have a quicker rate of decay. “

Now when we talk about inactive Zoms what that means is that they are no longer fully mobile.  The legs and arms have reached a point where they are no longer capable of supporting or providing movement for the head and body so the undead just hit the ground and become non-movers.  But that does not necessarily mean that they are not still capable of biting or gnawing if a target of opportunity presents itself.

June 21st

I think it is the longest day, the solstice; but I rather doubt that we would or will be dancing naked around a bonfire and chanting in ancient Druid.  It does not seem to hold any significance for us other than it means the days will start getting shorter again and winter will be coming.

June 22nd

It was trivia night tonight and the last question was one on world flags.  There are very few of us who remember what the flag of Belarus actually looks like.  And it kind makes you wonder how many of those small nations still have any living population.  We still have an American Stars and Stripes on the flag pole in front of the Peru Town Hall.  Until tonight I had not thought much about that but America is still alive.

June 23rd

It was a kind of nothing day, there were no significant events that took place.  Everyone just did their usual things.  I did not previously mention that over the last week Mark and Lauren went out and found a fair sized above ground swimming pool.  It is now up and running and although the water is not super warm yet even I have climbed in.  I hate cold water.

June 24th

It was a rainy day today and that is good for the crops.  I ended up taking the day to just look around at everyone and everything.  I just observed.  We have all lost weight, and that has been for all of us I think a good thing.  I notice that even though Anne’s folks are in their 80s that this weight loss has seemed to do a lot of good for both of them.  They seem to get around a lot better.  It is even to the point where Cyril, Anne’s dad, is taking Biter out for walks almost every day.  Our diet may not be exactly based upon the old FDA food pyramid but we stay kind of close.  We certainly have much less in the way of breads and processed flour.

I thought about what we have and what we had built over the last 4 months.  It has not been easy, but we have been resourceful and fortunate.  One of the things that is important in our efforts is that we try to waste nothing.  We are all becoming more and more attuned to that.  We recycle as much as we can, and are always on the lookout for something that might be usable down the road.  In the old days that would have been called junk collecting or even hoarding.  Here in the new world it is trying to survive.

June 25th

I liked the rain more than today; it is very hot and humid.  A few of us took the ride out to Kendall Field to watch the air jockeys practice.  They seem to actually be getting kind of good at it.  Apparently some of the Hinsdale crowd was as bored as we were and there were a few of them hanging around and watching also.

In the “Sorry, I am a guy department”.  Michelle, the ex-stripper was there, and thinking about my comment a couple days ago about weight loss, she has lost weight.  But it would seem that there may have been some enhancement work done because her “puppies” are not getting any smaller.

She had been accompanied by Grace and Steven to watch the flying.  I saw Grace but Steven was among the missing.  Not that it mattered but he was last seen walking toward one of the hangers.

June 26th

It was a standard morning with each of us working on our own little tasks, or pet projects.  But just after lunch we got a call from Kendall.  Ron was coming back to the field from a little flight practice.  It may have been that he went a little too far north but we are not sure.  But he had taken small arms fire.  The plane had been hit and he had also suffered a bullet wound.  He was coming in toward Kendall but the plane was not running well.  He radioed that the oil pressure was dropping and that he must have taken a hit to one of the fuel tanks.  He was losing gas.  He estimated that he was about 35 miles northwest of the field and was on a heading of 140 degrees.

We started a group out toward the field.  But Matt and I decided that it might be better if we headed a little more northerly and held position.  Hinsdale had also received the report and the Major had gotten a crew ready to head west if needed.  We were hoping the “if needed” was not the case because that meant that the plane went down.  It was all just a matter of waiting to see if he could bring the wounded plane home.

While we were in standby mode Fred took off in one of the other planes.  He went out to find Ron, and to try to help him back as he could even if it was nothing more than to offer moral support.

“I have a visual on Ron, I am closing with him now,” radioed Fred.

“Hey Buddy, what you doing up here, Jan’s gonna be pissed,” answered Ron

“Yeah, I know, got to get you down safe, figured I could help.”

“Well, I have little fuel left, and the stick is sluggish so I figure my hydraulics are going away.”

“Can you make it back?”

Ron was quiet for a minute then said, “ah, no, I am gonna have to set down.”

There was a silence over those of us back at the field, this was what I had been concerned about.

“Ron, Look, I think we can put down on a little section of the Mass Pike about a mile from here, can you make it there, and get lined up?”

“Yeah, Fred, I have that much left.”

“Ok, let’s do this!”

We waited.

“Ok Ron I am following you in, you look good……..easy……..nose up a little……good, slow, ………..almost……….down………..just a little…..you’re down…….”

“Yes!” I shouted.

Ron got on the radio and simply said, “Houston, the Eagle has landed.”

Fred radioed and told us he was getting Ron loaded into his plane and they would be back shortly.  He described Ron’s gunshot wound as minor, or at least not life threatening.  Charlene and Major Barkley were waiting when they landed and went to work on it immediately.

After things had settled down I met with the Council of Three and the counter part from Hinsdale.  This attack on the plane was bad, we had a group that was within about 50 miles radius of us that was hostile, or at least defensive of their turf.  And now they know that they have a group within that radius that is flight capable and conceivably better equipped than they were.

We need to think about this and about defensive precautions.

June 28th

Lance is working on a system by which we can receive a radio notification as soon as someone crosses Check Point Charlie.  It is not all that elaborate, but it should give us a beep tone when that happens. This will allow us about 5 minutes to prepare for “raiders’.

The weather is getting hotter and we are in the high 90s right now.  We are seeing a lot of Thunderstorm activity in the afternoon and evening. Unfortunately it is not really cooling it down and it seems to make the humidity even worse.

It makes me wonder if this is just my age making me more attuned to the weather, or if we are really seeing climate change.  The interesting part is that with the almost complete shutdown of traffic and manufacturing it would seem logical that there would be a reduction in the warming and the greenhouse gases, but then it has only been about three months.

Charlene and Mark are off to Hinsdale today.  Mark came back with a new truck.  It is a red diesel Ram four seat cab.  The boys will start prepping it tomorrow.  He has decided that despite the gag with the Prius he will call it the “Zoidberg”.

Ron is getting around pretty well, but he is sore from the wound.  But he is already looking to get back in the air as soon as possible.  The flight crew will be heading out to Kendall tomorrow to work on getting another plane operational.  It will leave us one spare left.

June 29th

Lance finished up the surveillance warning alarm today and it seems to work fine.  Frank and Matt took the day to get the plane ready and that was much easier than we though.

Henry says that we should begin to see the corn crop ready to start eating and storing in about two weeks.  Some of the other veggies are already starting to show up in meals.

Nick’s rabbit breeding program is showing some success.  We are up to eight bunnies at this point, and the alpha mom is pregnant again.  He also had recently captured a couple of chickens, but sadly no roosters.

We had a scary moment today with Anne’s dad.  Although he is getting around better than he was he does not see so well, particularly in dark or low light situations.  He ended up taking a tumble today when he tripped over a hose of the floor. Fortunately it was just some bruises and a couple of cuts.  It could have been a broken hip or fractured bone.  While he had been laid up letting the bruising go down Biter has been there with him the whole time.  It is almost as if he knows that Cyril is hurt and is doing what he can to comfort him.

June 30th

This may sound a little late in coming but Anne and the Major figure that it must be through certain contacts (bites or tears) from the undead started an infection that killed you.  They had also realized that a zombie attack was going to be them tearing you apart.

Fortunately we have had only a few single zombie attacks which we ended with our impact type weapons.  But we never really considered what would happen if blood, or other juices from them got onto the skin.

The opinion is that the skin acts as a barrier and prevents the fluids from entry into the inner body.  But what we had not considered was the impact of fluids that were able to get into the body. Open wounds as well as natural openings are all places that this could happen.  The eyes, for example would be one of those areas.

So, as a result of this, the scavenging crews went out and found rain suits, gloves, goggles and paper breathing masks.  The rain suits were not so much for day to day wear, but in the event that we knew we were going to get it some type of battle. In the cooler times of the year these suits would be fine, but during the summer they would be unbearable. The goggles and paper breathing masks are something that should be always with you when you were outside.

I know that it does really sound like one we missed the boat on but there have been so many things going on in trying to build a safe haven and prepare for the future that some things were put to the back burner or forgotten.  This one was not pursued that aggressively because we just have not had all that much combat contact with the Z’s.

June 31st / oops July 1st

The calendar is getting tricky I had us down for the wrong day to start.  Thirty days hath September, April, May and November was what I recalled but in reality it is April, June, September and November.  I guess it is another reason to make certain that I stay on top of this journal.

Lance spent most of the day out with the Hinsdale Survivors.  He is working to set up a warning system for them.  Charlene tagged along, not that is was a big surprise.  Mark and Henry went.  Mark drove, he wanted to show off the Zoidberg and play guard.  Henry went to take a look at a potential site for an indoor gardening operation like the one that Margo, Cody and he had put together. But unlike ours it appears that Hinsdale actually had a real greenhouse that had been built in the city.

When they got back we were all told that we had been invited to a picnic and evening fireworks display in Hinsdale for the Fourth of July.  I think that it hit all of us Frederick folks pretty much the same.  Uncle Elgin, our last direct relative had invited us up to his place on Otis Reservoir each year for a similar event.  I can’t speak for the others but I wondered how he was doing.  We have had no real contact with the outside world, or what was left of it.  I can only pray that he was hanging on and that things are not too difficult on that community.

July 2nd

Another series of wicked thunderstorms last night kept us all awake until about 3 a.m.  The wind was pretty strong and we lost a little bit of the fence line due to a tree coming down.  Matt, Frank and I spend much of the morning clearing a gap and repairing the fence.

Right now we are in pretty good shape with our must do projects.  We have a good defensive perimeter established thanks to the efforts of the fence crew and Lance and Ethan had created the surveillance and warning systems. Our weapons and ammunition situation is good. We can always use more ammunition, but we really rely on the impact weapons much more and not waste bullets.

The food situation is manageable and we are looking at additional stores and crops as the growing season continues.  The water situation is good with the filtration system that has been supplied by the Hinsdale folks.

We have turned over half the fleet to diesel vehicles to reduce our need for gasoline.  We have not seen anything in the way of a zombie in our sector in about three weeks.  The air group is coming along with currently three operational pilots and are back up to four operational aircraft.  Ron is getting around pretty well and should be back ready to go in another week or so.

Our health situation is for the most part good. Anne’s folks are really the biggest issue and they are doing remarkably well considering the age and the frailties that go with it.  I can only hope that as I approach that age I am doing as well.  But then with the potential harshness of the new living style and the lack of medications I rather doubt that I will need to worry about it.

July 3rd

For a change Nick and Lauren have headed up to Hinsdale.  “Chez Neeck” has offered his aid and assistance to them for the preparations for the first annual 4th of July Bash.  Charlene has also gone along and so has Mark.

About a quarter mile down the road from where we are is a stream.  I took a walk down there with Henry and we found that there are what looked like trout in the stream.  It ran into a small pond.  I have always wanted to learn how to fly fish, and this was finally an opportunity to be able to do it.  There is a little tackle shop inside the general store so we did a little shopping and spent the afternoon preparing for a new adventure.

Frank is an accomplished fisherman, with a passion for it.  But he is not a fly fisherman, so he was not really all that able to help us with the casting and techniques fooling the fish into thinking that there was a tasty treat landing and floating on the surface.  But we actually were getting the casting and routine down by dinner time.

After dinner Henry and I headed down to the stream and tried our luck for the first time.  The thought being that in the evening the fish would be rising, and feeding at the end of the day.  It was fun, and relaxing, but today the fish won.

July 4th

The morning things were done and there was a fair amount of excitement about getting out of Peru for the day. As we drove up toward Hinsdale, we talked about the old days and shared stories of the Fourth of July’s we had all had over the years.  I was not overly happy with the idea of leaving Peru unguarded.  But then I had no great desire to spend the day watching grass grow.  It had been quiet for a while and it seemed a few hours away would be fine.

If one did not know better, it was almost like a real family picnic.  Hinsdale and Nick did a great job in getting everything set up.  But what was the big surprise was the pig. Larry and Armand had gone out to get some rabbits for the cookout and had come upon a young pig.

The gathering itself was held at a park in the town.  It had a ball field, and basketball, and a pool although I am not sure I would want to be swimming in that scum and algae filled thing.  In the course of the day there was games and just living like normal people in the old days before The Event.   It was shorts, and tank tops and t-shirts, no heavy clothing, or guns at our side.  There were a few people who wandered off together for a while.    Biter was chasing Frisbees.  It was as it once was.  It was just awesome.

The food was beyond expectation. Nick and Grace, his Hinsdale counterpart did a fantastic job.  Besides the pig there were burgers, although rolls were lacking, potato salad, macaroni salad and even a Jell-O mold with fruit in it. A keg of beer and some wine was rolled out but there were not too many takers on that.

It got dark around 9:30 which was when Lance and Ethan started setting off the first fireworks.  They had found a supply that had been stored away in one of the warehouses.   We had a display that lasted for about an hour.

I never thought that I would say this but it got to the point where I was thinking “another one?  Geez, can we stop now?”

But it really meant a lot to the people of both towns as the flaming flowers lit the sky.  I may have been a little tainted from back in my cop days where I had to work the firework celebrations and was unable to enjoy the display because of it.

It was kind of interesting to see who was sitting with who, and the bonding that was or had taken place. Anne’s folks, of course, and Anne and I, Frank and Teckla, Nick and Lauren, but we were all more or less together before The Event.  And there was Grace and Armand, Jan and Fred and we all knew about Major Barkley and Charlene.  But there were a couple of surprises.  Mark it would appear had become friendly with Michelle and Margo spent most of the day hanging with Cody.

It was a quiet ride back, each of us appeared to be either tired or in thought about the day.  I know I was wondering about who would be with us next year at this time.  I am sorry that I tend to get caught up in this.  I am what I have always considered a cynical optimist.  It appears an oxymoron but it is just I plan for and expect the worst and hope for the best.

The Peru facility was clear when we got back, no stray Zoms found their way in and we were not burglarized by some band of marauding nomads.

July 5th

About 10 am this morning Matt and I was summoned to the Group of Three’s office.  Lance was already there.  They all had a look of concern on their faces. Lance explained that he had been monitoring a number of different police radio frequencies.

“I have picked up some transmissions this morning.  I think it is the frequency that belongs to NY State Police.” He said.

Because of the group that had shot at Ron’s plane he felt that we should know about it.

“Was anything said that made him believe that there was a particular danger to us?” asked Charlene.

“I did not know. The transmissions were weak, and muffled.  But it seems that whoever was talking was in search mode.  But I don’t know what they were looking for.”

I remembered that during my days as a cop we would often get transmissions from fifty or more miles away on the police radio.  It was usually in the summer and it was a result of some atmospheric condition that causes what was called “Skip”.  I explained this to the group, but I could not guarantee that this was what was happening.

We decided that it was best to continue to monitor the channel to see if anything else could be gotten in the way of information. We also passed the word up to Hinsdale.  Just to let them know.  As the word was passed, we discussed and determined that radio silence except in emergencies was the way to go.

As Matt and I left the meeting, we talked a little and decided that it was time to stay close to home and to have a sniper armed and ready at all times.  As the day progressed and people were filled in on what was going on, there was nervousness to the compound.  It could be nothing, but we just did not know.

July 6th

Another storm last night, not super bad, but lots of lightening.  Today was kind of quiet.  I headed out to the stream and tried a little more fly fishing.  The fish are still winning.  I see them in the water, but they are uninterested in my efforts.  Maybe I should try some different types of fishing flies.

I checked in with Lance and he reports that there were no additional radio transmissions.  I am hoping that it was from a “skip” situation and that the source was on the other side of the Hudson Valley.

Finished up our taken homes / leftovers from the pork roast picnic at dinner tonight.  A few of us got together and had a poker game.  That was fun.

July 7th

We received a frantic call from Grace, it was short.

All we really got was; “ motorcycle gang …..10 people ….. started looting ….. shooting.”

Teckla tried to talk to her, calm her down.

She shouted, “I, the Major took a lot of fire, not sure.  Our tank (HumVee with the 50 Cal machine gun) is gone.  They took Michelle!”

Charlene was shaken, we all were.  A quick plan was put together and we were off to Check Point Charlie.  It was the most defensible point.  I had the Coyote, Frank brought the plow truck and Matt had the Raven.  Our plan was to block the road and play it from there.  We got there first and had a chance to set the trucks up to block the road.  The Sniper teams were deployed with the instructions that they were to follow our lead, but when it turned to shit they MUST neutralize the 50 Cal on the HumVee at all costs.

We just had gotten everyone in place when the bikers came onto the bridge.  I had expected the Harley crowd, but it was a bunch of rice rockets which actually was to our advantage.  I think that the rice rocket is a much less stable platform for playing rough.

Charlene and I were standing in front of the maze of trucks that we created.  We wanted to make it look like we were not all that well prepared and could be gotten around. We showed no weapons. As the lead two bikers pulled up to about 15 feet from us they stopped, and turned off their bikes.  The rest of the gang pulled up behind them with the HumVee at the back.  I was not happy to see they had the 50 manned, but we had expected it.

God Bless Sexism, the leader of the bikers started by addressing me.  He said “Me and my boyz are just moving through and wanted no trouble.  We’re just simple guys trying to get by.”

“I am cool with that, but could you have your guy on the Hummer stand down with the 50, we are unarmed.”

He gave the guy a little wave and although he did not take his hands off the gun at least he was pointing it over our heads.

That is a pretty nice set up with the tank, you find some military nearby?  I asked.

He kind of laughed and said, “Yeah it was something that we had recently picked up.  Me and the boyz found a little town and the people there were kind of uncooperative.”

“We knew they had some airplanes so we were looking for it and shit, we got lucky the other night they had a fireworks show, made it pretty easy to find them.  We eyeballed them for a while and decided there weren’t so many people there so they rode into town.  There was a little dust up and well, things got out of hand.”

“I see, well, we are cool with that, we don’t want any of the same.” I said, trying to sound anxious.

“Oh, we don’t want trouble either, so just let us slide on through, perhaps donate some food and fuel and that would be the end of it.”

I could feel the heat of anger in Charlene who was standing next to me.  The threat, and the knowledge of what had happened at Hinsdale had been brought to a boil and she spoke as she walked toward the bikers.

“What happened at the town with the dust-up? Did anyone get hurt”.

The biker smirked, “yeah, unfortunately it got ugly, and well we popped a cap into a few, wounded a few and took a hot chick to play with and if you do not want to play nice we could do the same to you, you’re kind of hot for an old bitch, you a cougar?”

I could not see the look on Charlene’s face.  I am guessing there was a look of rage unimaginable to most of us.  All I heard was “No, no you won’t” then a flash of movement and two shots.

The first two bikers were dropped by head shots from Charlene’s 45.  There was a flurry of activity on the biker side as they tried to draw weapons, but too late.  I opened up on the group with the AK-47 I had tucked behind my back as the gunner on the top of the Hummer exploded from the sniper hit. Frank and Mark opened fire from their hidden spots on the side of the road.

I am not sure which of the snipers took out the gunner on the Hummer, but it was a bloody mess.  The HumVee tried to start backing up when the second sniper put a round through the driver’s side windshield. It rolled against the guard rail and stopped.  We saw no movement inside at first, but then one of the rear doors opened up and out fell Michelle.  She had only a pair of panties on and was covered with blood, bits of flesh and brains.  She was screaming and crying.

I can only imagine the horror she had just experienced.  Mark’s focus was on her now and he raced to her.  He just held her close as she sobbed.  He gave her his shirt after taking her down by the water and helping her clean up.

All told there were three initial survivors from the biker gang.  One was badly shot up and bled out right there.  The other two were “walking” wounded.  As they lay on the ground, I went to each and spoke with them.  The first guy was trying to be a badass even at this point.  The other was a little more sedate but there was the look of a trapped animal in his eye.

“We will be taking you back to Hinsdale to meet with the survivors and see what they want to do with you.”

The ballsy one said, “What, are you going to put handcuffs on us? Don’t fuck with us farm boy.”

As I removed his right hand I explained, “Sorry, I don’t have any handcuffs.”

As I cut off his left, I told him “You’re not in Kansas anymore and the world is a different place.”

The other guy had shit himself and begged that we just tie him up.  God, I love duct tape.

We contacted Peru after the Battle at Check Point Charlie and had them make contact with Hinsdale and let them know what had happened.  We also let them know that we were on our way with help.  Before we left the bridge we unloaded the 50 and the ammunition from the HumVee and then loaded the dead bikers into it.  We set it on fire.  The burned out hulk would serve as a warning and a monument.

When we arrived at Hinsdale, it was chaos.  Alexander and William were dead.  Pedro and Steven were wounded.  Steven was not too badly hurt but Pedro had taken a couple of gut shots and was not doing well.  Major Barkley had survived and was doing all he could for Pedro. Charlene cleaned and dressed to help him out, although her hands were still pretty shaky.

It was about five in the afternoon when Anthony and Charlene emerged from the makeshift OR.  They had done what they could for Pedro.  It was just a matter of what time and prayer would do.  Michelle was reunited with Stephen, but she was still in shock over what had happened.  This mess was going to take time to heal.

The two surviving bikers were introduced to the Hinsdale Survivors.  ‘No Hands’ was actually named Anton, he was the clubs Sergeant at Arms; that made me laugh, a kind of ironic twist.  Shitter was named Miguel.

They did not get a lot of sympathy for their plight, but then they did not ask for much.  They understood the law of the jungle and asked only that the end come quickly.  Major Barkley granted their request.  Rather than torturous deaths at the hands of the Hinsdale Survivors they would be caged in railroad cars with the people that they had killed.  The dead had not turned yet, but that was expected at any time.

I was told that the following morning the railcar was set on fire, so even if the late residence had failed in their efforts, the still living ones finished the job.

July 8th

After yesterday there is just so much to write, and so much to consider.  I think the best thing to say as a starting point is that humanity has taken a turn for the worst.  I am not sure where to put the blame.

The obvious starting point is the attack on Hinsdale and the actions that were taken by both sides.  As I think we all had feared, it has become a dog eat dog world.  What makes this a little worse is that the bikers had taken the initiative to hunt us down and made a planned attack, first on Hinsdale, and then were heading to commit acts against Peru.  It was so unnecessary; we could have made peaceful contact and could have grown as was the case with the Hinsdale / Peru union.

Personally I was a little troubled by my actions.  The shooting and response in the combat phase was fine, it was what was needed to happen.  But I was a little ashamed by the behavior of removing the biker’s hands.  I think in retrospect that it was overdone.  I do not doubt he deserved it, and that for the safety of all involved it was probably the best course to take or am I trying to justify a terrible action of revenge on my part.

I understood Charlene’s actions, but was surprised at the swift and decisive nature of it.  I have no doubt that some of us would react in a similar fashion if we felt our loved one was murdered or we were threatened as we were.

The Hinsdale part, well…I would have seen to a quick and reasonably merciful execution but I was not the victim of the violence as they were.  I did not see my group members attacked and gunned down nor did I see my sister stripped and kidnapped, so I cannot, will not fairly judge their mindset.

I do not think any of us were against the idea of capital punishment, but I thought about the years and years of avoiding “cruel and unusual” punishment that were hammered into us.  For another day I have to consider what is the cruel part, the execution or the means.  Personally I have always been pretty much in favor of the execution being done in the same manner that the crime was committed.  But then I was never the executioner, and until just recently have never had to live with myself in the aftermath.

Matt and Mark stopped up at Check Point Charlie to clean up the mess, remove the bikes and in general make the road more passable again. While they were there they also collected weapons and that would be no longer any use to the bikers.  It was the usual collection of handguns and hunting rifles.  The bikers had also acquired an M16 or two in the dealings with the Hinsdale folks.

Mark found some maps and a couple of digital cameras.  They did not burn the bikes, just moved them aside, one simply does not destroy things that might be of use.  The Hummer that we had burned had taken a 50 cal round through the engine so it was pretty much toast, and it was why we torched it with the bodies.

When the boys got back, we studied the maps and Lance recharged the batteries of the digital camera.  Bad guys seem to have a bad habit of photographing themselves in the middle of their misdeeds.  So we will see if this was the case.

In looking at the maps we discovered that the bikers had a small camp just to the west of the state line.  It appears that they had taken over a small town (Valatie, NY) and were holed up there.  But there were arrows that pointed to other towns in the area as well as one that pointed in the general direction of Hinsdale.

Most of the arrows had been marked with an “X” and a number.  But Hinsdale, Ghent and East Greenbush were pointed at but not marked.  This could mean any number of things.  It could be as simple as they had explored those towns marked and scavenged what they could or that they had determined that there were survivors in the towns and were raiding them.

This second choice to me seemed more likely as it would have seemed likely that if it was simply scavenging that places like Pittsfield and Dalton would also have been marked.  It would have been nice to have the chance to talk with “Shitter”.  He might have given us some insights into the maps.  I am sure that the tough guy would have given up nothing.

Lance finished charging the batteries and we uploaded the images onto his computer. They had on one of the cameras taken images of their group and in Valatie.  The pictures included a “class picture” showing 21 total people. The picture was taken about a month ago, so we have no idea if the numbers had changed. There were 12 men, 7 women and 2 teens in the shot.

It was clear that the individuals that we had engaged and terminated were the muscle of the gang.  Don’t get me wrong, it is very likely that some of the remaining gang members could be ferocious adversaries.  It is also likely that the remainder know where their ‘muscle’ went raiding.  So we are faced with that as a possible problem down the road.

If it were me I would say “Hey we sent our best and they did not come back, best not to fuck with these folks.”  But there is also the idea of payback, the mentality of “They showed us disrespect, so let us get them back” could also exist.

The second camera was the trophy camera.  It showed the images of their deeds and conquests.  It quickly became pretty obvious what the numbers next to the towns with the “X” meant.  It showed the body of victims and they were not just a simple kill, it was humiliation, torture and slow death in most cases.  These bikers were brutal animals.  I suddenly did not feel so bad for the way in which the Hinsdale folks had handled the last two.  They deserved what they got.

There were a couple of photos and a little movie clip that hit me particularly hard.  It was a thirtyish black female and her two children.  They had apparently been waylaid on the road.  It did not dawn on me at first but then I saw the van that looked like the one that Captain James had told us his wife and kids were driving.  They killed the kids while making her watch, then raped and tortured her.  Finally, they cut her throat.  I was sick.

This theme was repeated over and over with a number of people in a number of locations.  I am not sure if I became quickly desensitized to it or if it was because it had been James’ family but that one was the most upsetting to me.  I walked out and could not watch any more when I saw them ambush the Mass Police Cruiser.

Part of me wanted to just head to Valatie and kill them all.  I want to have the Air Boys fly over and drop the heads, burned skulls and colors of these pieces of shit into their little camp.  I think I have never been so angry or hateful in my life.

In this time since The Event we have all changed and until now I think most of the changes have been for the better.  But this, I know it changed me and it was not a good change.  There was little compassion or love for those I did not know.

July 9th

Last night was a difficult one for sleep. I spent a lot of time thinking about the events of the other day. Even before trying to sleep, Anne, Margo and I all talked at length about the events with the biker gang and what had happened to Hinsdale. Margo seemed to be dealing with it very well.  But then one of the things that I had heard in some A&E series on survival that said that children and younger people would be better suited to living in the new environment.

I am not sure what the logic was, perhaps it was the idea that they did not have the filters that society had placed upon us older folks from our years of living.  She seemed to be of the mindset that this was the way the world was now, and it was an almost Darwinian existence of survival of the fittest. The idea that adapting to the environment was necessary to survive and thrive.  In many ways I am pleased that she has this philosophy.  But part of me would love to see her in a different world where the biggest issue was an acne breakout or who was going to take her to the movies this weekend.

Anne was not doing as well with all of this.  She had filters, lots of them and she also had what we used to joke about as the “worrier” gene.  Her take on the events was that there were big scary people out there and that they would eventually get to us.  She had learned to more or less deal with the idea of the Zoms, although it was more from a clinical point of view.  She had not had that much true contact with them in attack mode.  And I am thankful for that but the idea of people actually doing the things like what the bikers had done was well beyond her idea of man’s inhumanity to man.  Fortunately she had not seen the full scope of our response to the events.

I am basically good with what happened.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized that our actions were violent, and brutal.  But I have come to accept that if we as individuals and a community are to survive there will be instances of extreme violence and that compassion is not something that holds the same value for everyone.  There is really not so big a jump from a Zom to a brutal killer who derives pleasure from killing.    Good and evil are terms and perspectives that are a societal creation.  From what I have seen of late, survival and the idea of good versus evil are sometimes at odds with each other. What helps me here is the teachings of the Buddha that pointed to the motivation of the actor in determining if an act is good, or evil.

The group is way out of whack in many ways.  The events have messed with everyone and I think that we all have taken some time to weigh the events and try to cope as best we can.

Charlene and Mark spent most of the day in Hinsdale.  We all have kept busy the best we could.  Those with sig-oths (significant others) were never far from each other.

Matt surprised us at lunch time and offered prayers and went into a spontaneous sermon about what had happened and in Biblical terms justified what we as survivors had done.  I think it helped a lot of people.

We never got into a regular church thing but after the lunch Arcelia and a few others asked Matt if he would / could do some type of Sunday morning service for us.  He agreed.

July 10th

Word came down from Hinsdale today; Pedro is starting to show signs of infection.  While The Major and Charlene did the best they could, the conditions were such that it had not been possible to keep the environment sterile during the surgery.  They are trying to give him IV antibiotics, but they are not hopeful.  Charlene decided to stay up there for a couple days, until the crisis passes, one way or the other.

Have you ever noticed the difference between regular and reduced salt Spam.  At lunch today I did, the real deal is so much better, I am not sure if the is the salt, or the fat, or whatever, but the taste is different.

July 11th

It was a nothing day.  Our thoughts and prayers are with Pedro.  So far they have managed to slow the infection and that is a good sign.  But it is still not contained and we are starting to run low on the meds he needs.  We may have to make a raid to Pittsfield Hospital and that would be very tricky.

Ron made his first preflight test today of his new plane, he did fine.  Tomorrow he is planning to take the first flight since his forced landing.

Mark told me that he and Steven were going to take a trek down to Rhinebeck. Apparently Steven had seen something that he thought we might be able to use.  I wanted to send more than just those two, but they refused to go for it citing the risks.

July 12th

Early this morning we got a radio call from Charlene.  She asked if Matt could make the trip up. Pedro was losing and it was just a matter of time for him.  He knew it and was asking for the Padre to come and give his last rites.  Matt obliged the best he could.

Pedro died about 4:30 that afternoon, “Via con Dios mi amigo”.  We built a funeral pyre for him and burned his body.  None of us could bear putting the bullet in his head to make sure he did not come back.  The fire was better.

July 13th

It has been very quiet today.  We are still all pretty much dealing with the events of the last week with the ups and downs of the holiday and then the sudden attack, mayhem and death that had followed.

Margo and I tried our hand at fishing again.  We had not done so in years.  It was nice to go back to a time when life was much different.  It was a kinder and gentler world back then or at least for us it was and once again we caught nothing except a few weeds and sticks.

July 14th

Anne and I were called into the Office of The Three.  When we arrived, Nick, Lauren and Matt were also there.  They wanted our opinions on a merger with Hinsdale.  It was just a general question that was tossed out.  But it was actually something that had been on more than a few of our minds of late.

We all knew that it was going to eventually happen the first week that we were associated with them.  In the original discussions between the Major and Charlene that door had been opened. Now we were standing at the doorway and trying to decide if it was time to cross the threshold.

I felt, and in fact I think everyone in the room felt that it was time to set a date for the move.  But there were some issues that would need to be sorted out.  The biggest question was which way the move was going to go, to Hinsdale or to Peru.

Charlene assured us that the Major and the Hinsdale folks were on board with a move.  But like us realized that there were the logistical issues. For one thing I think that there would have to be a meeting in which the leaders of both sides would need to set some guidelines.  We realistically should have everyone attend the meeting and make it a town hall type discussion to cover all the bases.  It was decided that the next step was to present it to all of our people at dinner.

To the credit of The Three it was Henry who opened the discussion.  Early on Charlene admitted that she had a vested interest in the union and that she was for the sake of the effort stepping down from her position until things settled out and then she would consider re-election.  This opened another issue, replacing her.

In the course of everything else to discuss we added a special election to the agenda.  There would be an election run-off between Anne and Lauren for the opening in “The Three”, a referendum of yea or nay to unite with Hinsdale and finally a non-binding opinion poll to see where everyone felt we should set up the new united group, in Peru, Hinsdale or as a third option, build or seek a new location.

July 15th

In the early morning Anne and I talked about why she had accepted the nomination for becoming a member of “The Three”.  She explained that she felt that Teckla, Charlene and Henry have been all doing a great job.  She knew that it was a good course they had taken.  She felt that as the resident “expert” in the research of the undead she could bring some interesting insights to the table.  We have all changed.

It was our typical Election Day activities.  There was a lot of talk about the vote, but on who to elect to The Three, that remained quiet and close to the individual.  I think that the consensus was that either of the candidates would be good in the role, so no one was really worried about who was getting in.  It was also pretty much a done deal as to our joining with Hinsdale but the real issue was the where, there are the three options.

The first option was that we all stay in Peru.  In my mind the pros to that are that we were more isolated and thus less likely to be found by wandering bands of the living, like the biker group.  Also we had no true issue with the Zoms other than an occasional visit but nothing significant and all had been quickly handled.  Our base is a safe and secure compound although it would get more crowded with the addition of a dozen new people. Our food situation was good, we have already begun to bring in crops.

But there were also cons.  The town itself was on the small side and we have pretty much scavenged what we could from the shops and homes.  Our canned food supplies were somewhat limited which meant that we would need to make foraging trips into Hinsdale or Dalton to stock up.  In itself that has some risk.

Moving to Hinsdale has the advantage of being still reasonably well stocked with supplies and goods which include vehicles, fuels and warehouses.  There are many buildings and locations that could and would make for a safe and secure compound for our combined group.

A downside is that with winter coming we would need to really focus on getting the housing issue taken care of quickly.  We also need to consider the fresh crops.  We would have to make almost daily trips to Peru for the balance of the growing season to harvest those crops.  One other concern would be the frequency of the visits by the undead.  Hinsdale has about five Zoms wander into town each day.  And although they are quickly dispatched it has to do with the proximity to Pittsfield.

I think that the number of visitors is something that we can work with based on the current numbers but I do have concerns that the increase in human activity in the area could result in an increase in wandering Zoms.

Of course, there is one big issue that we need to consider, and that is the reason for the third option.  That issue is the radiation readings that we have been concerned about over time.  We have in our tracking of the levels found that there are occasionally days when the numbers are near the danger zone and others where nothing is detected at all.  We have pretty much concluded that the levels are related to wind direction but we have yet to determine where the point of origin is.  Once we determine where the radiation is coming from it will make it necessary to move somewhere.  But until we figure that out, option one and two seem most logical.

If or should I say when we are going to make a long distance move, it would be best done in the early spring with preparations being made from midwinter on.  It is going to be a major effort and depending where we decide to go it will require time to get settled and properly build a new complex.

I have learned to like where were we are right now.  But I think that the fruits of the tree called Peru are pretty much picked clean and it is time to move.  Hinsdale is the better choice simply because we would not be completely starting from scratch.

At the evening meal the vote was taken. Anne easily was elected to the vacant post on “The Three”, and the idea of uniting with Hinsdale was approved unanimously.  The non-binding referendum was split 60-40 in favor of moving to Hinsdale.

July 16th

I guess there was still a little love of drama and ceremonial in us all.  It was decided that rather than just announce the results by radio of the votes at Hinsdale and Peru we would have the leaders meet at Check Point Charlie today at 10:00 am.  I know it sounds kind of goofy, but this was, or would be a very big event, one way or the other.

The actual event was much less dramatic than expected.  We all showed up, The Major and The Three shook hands and the results were announced.  It was decided that we would unite.  The motion had carried in both camps with no-one voting against.  As I mentioned, yesterday our results were 60-40 for us to go to Hinsdale.  Hinsdale was 80-20 to stay in Hinsdale.  So it was pretty much a done deal that we will be living in Hinsdale.  Now it was just a case of working out the details and as they say the devil is in the details.  We will see how that all goes.

July 17th

There was still a lot of buzz this morning about the uniting of the two towns.  Charlene and Mark were off early to visit Hinsdale.  They have their reasons and actually it is probably a good thing because it has created a line of informal communications between the communities.

The Three have spent the day getting ideas and input from many of us to help them understand and plan what logistical issues will need to be addressed.  They would need to resolve issues of who would be in charge which would be akin to the forms of government (I hate that term but it is the most fitting one I can use).  We will need some code to live by, although both communities were pretty much on the same page with that one.

There will need to be planning for housing, supply distribution and other responsibilities.  One of the questions that would come up is on the eating and dorm like living.  Do we continue to do the community meals and living or is it time for the bonded and non-bonded to separate out.  There will be many of these niggling little details that arise but for right now it’s deciding on when the actual move will take place.

July 18th

The first day of negotiations of the union actually went pretty well.  The group (Teckla, The Major, Henry and Anne) set a time table for the move.  The goal was to begin the formal move on August 1st and be completely switched over by September 1st.  Charlene and Mark would be allowed to move up a little earlier.

They decided that it would be best to continue the community living arrangement that was going on in both towns.  But there was the realization that a larger facility would need to be developed.  There were a couple of suggested locations that included a local nursing home, an office building and a motel.  Further evaluation on each would be completed.

Back in Peru we were evaluating what we would need to transfer to Hinsdale.  There would really not be all that much stuff to move.  Most of it would be the computer/surveillance equipment and the set up that Lance had created.  Anything else could be replaced or was already in place at Hinsdale.  (Note: as I re-read this, boy was I wrong)

We have not heard anything on the radio that would indicate that the remainder of that biker community was doing much.  It may be that they did not expect the raiding party to be back quite yet.  Or it would be that they figured out that we could hear them if they used the radio and were working on other means of communications.  Either way, we are still “on guard” for some form of retaliation.  We disposed of the bulk of their fighting force, or so we believe, but that really does not guarantee our safety.

July 19th

In the course of trying to find an area or building that would house us we realized that while we were in the city itself we were open to some potential risks of visitors.  So we looked around a little for potential sites close to the city.  There was a place called Camp Romaca to the south of the city that looks like it will be perfect for what we need. A scouting party went down and checked it out. It has about a dozen little cabins and some larger buildings for dining and activities.  It had a restaurant style kitchen and dining room large enough for us all to gather for meetings. There is also a laundry set up that was primarily for the bedding and towels; we can expand it to cover our regular laundry.  There was an exercise room, and an actual game room with video machines.

The cabins would need to have the windows reinforced, and some work will need be done of the external doors to strengthen them.  About a third of the camp is surrounded by Plunkett Reservoir so we have a natural barrier there.  The rest of the camp could be fenced as we had done with Peru.  With a little work it would be easy to make it a Zom resistant fortress.  The living would be another story.

Right on the edge of Hinsdale there is the Ford dealership where I had acquired the Coyote.  This works out well because it is close enough that we can easily get to it and it also offers a location to repair and update our vehicle fleet.

In the case of a fire, we are about five miles from the fire station in which the Hinsdale folks are currently living and with the reservoir right in our backyard we are good with water to get that issue solved quickly.

July 20th

Someday I will learn that I should just keep my mouth shut, although in this case it was more a case of thoughts. I had just thought to myself, “Gee, we have not heard anything from the rest of the biker gang.”

When we got back to Peru, Lance took me aside and said that he had been monitoring the biker’s radio and heard was female and they were general messages like “where are you”, “when are you coming back”, “can you hear us”.

“Lance, I think we need to listen to this and stay on top of what they were doing.  I do not believe that the remainder of the group will just go away.”

“For sure,” said Lance, “They have to know where we are and will figure out what happened, if they have not already.”

We brought the information to The Three, as well as with the folks up at Hinsdale.  What to do was the question.

July 21st

A timetable of August 1st had originally been set for the move but with the radio transmissions it was now sooner than later. The goal is to get started on the camp and make it safe as quickly as possible to be completely moved in just a few days.  Some (Mark and Charlene) are already moved up to Hinsdale.  The living quarters in the cabins were assigned even before the final plan was put into place.  It is the defenses and other issues that need work.

More radio traffic today, and the biker group seems to be getting a little more concerned and desperate in there transmissions.  Toward the end of the day it has changed from trying to talk to the bikers to trying to talk to anyone.

They know something is wrong, but they do not know how wrong.  Something will need to be done and that something is the hard question.  We must assume that the group is hostile, and that they will become more so when they finally know for certain that their scavenging force is dead.  So the question becomes do we make contact, do we invite them in, do we wait for their move or do we wipe them out without warning.

I am glad I am not making the choices.  Personally, I would like to think that we can work out the issues as was done with the remains of the brotherhood but realistically I think that is a naïve approach.  What would I, or Charlene or Teckla do if the roles were reversed?  I know that I would not want to join up with the group that killed my “clan” and I would like to extract a little payback.

July 22nd

Teckla got on the radio with the remainder of the biker group today.  She talked with a woman named Marisa.  It was a short conversation in which the attack on us was explained and the results were revealed.

“Assholes, I knew they would get bit sooner or later, we kind of figured that was what happened.”

There was not ranting or ravings of revenge, just a quiet somber acknowledgement.  The question became what was going to happen next and that was one that neither Teckla nor Marisa felt was one that should be decided at this time.  They idea of communicating in the next day or so when things had settled in was floated and agreed to.

When she got off the radio, Teckla, Anne and Henry went into conference.  Matt and I were soon called in and Charlene and the Major also joined when they had driven down from Hinsdale.  It was a “what to do conference”.  The idea was pretty simple.

“We figure that they will send out scouts and try to determine what if, anything they could do to us,” offered Teckla.  “If they felt they can attack, or just make our situation miserable that’s what they may try.”

The consensus was that we should do the same and find out what we were facing.  Once done we could gauge what our actions should or could be.

July 23rd

We had another severe thunderstorm last night.  There was no real damage, but it was a bad one.  This morning the humidity was way up there so you just dripped.  We will probably see some more storms in the course of the day.

We did not hear from Marisa or the Biker camp today.  My feeling is that they are looking for us.  If the pictures that we found were accurate then there are at most a dozen remaining members and the majority of them were women and with modern weapons and equipment that makes them just as deadly as any group of men.

I have tried to consider what I would do in this case.  Unfortunately I add a relationship factor or what the vengeance factor into my equation. If I were going to go after Hinsdale, I would look at options like starting a big fire or do something to the water supply.  Both of these options would require a little recon work to determine where the damage would most impact the city. I would get a sniper into place to pretty much restrict any movements.

Our best response is to make the move out of town as quickly and covertly as possible. We will end up a few miles south of the outskirts and that will make us safe for a little while.

I met up with Ron, Matt and Margo about 10 AM and we discussed what we thought might be the course of action for the biker group, and also what steps we could offer in response.  Ron pointed out that we had a general idea where they were and could literally rain fire down on them using the planes to fire bomb their camp.

This could be risky on two levels, first was the obvious ground fire. It would be a step that would pretty much turn this into all-out war.  I do not think we wanted to get to that point considering that humanity was hanging on by a thread but fire-bombing would certainly send a message.

It also led to a discussion of the security of our aircraft.  The biker camp had maps so they had to know where the local airfields were.  It would just be a matter of time before they would or could get to our field and destroy or sabotage our planes.  We decided that they would need to be moved and we would have to find another place close by the camp to keep them.

One of the things about the area of Camp Romaca is that there is a park with athletic fields as well as a nice straight road on the other side of the reservoir.  Air traffic could work out of either of those places, although we would have to trim a few trees on the roadway.  The maintenance garage for the athletic field equipment (mowers, etc.) would have a decent shop to do routine maintenance on the planes.

We had all agreed that moving the time table up for getting out of Hinsdale was a good idea.   But we also want to make it look like we are still in Hinsdale by leaving lights on, and having a few generators running.

We as a group went to The Three and explained our plan and thoughts behind it.  It was met with a positive agreement and contact was made with Charlene and the Major.  We met with them that afternoon and the plan was approved. Moving day begins tomorrow. Most of us spent the evening deciding what to take and leave.  We wanted to be out of Peru by noon.

July 24th

I was packed and ready to go by 8:30 AM.  It may be the last hot shower I get for a while and that prospect does not thrill me, but then it is the end of the world. Margo was also ready to go. Anne and the folks, it was just like the old days when we would go on vacation.  I will concede on this one occasion that Anne had justification for taking a little longer than usual because she had a lot of her research data and equipment to take care of.  Her folks, well, it has been like 60 years that they have been doing their “vacation” packing and at this point you are not going to change them.

Anne realized that over the last couple of weeks we had been so busy with the events of the attack that we had not gotten out to Garnet Lake area to look at our test Zoms.  After a look at the map we decided that it would only be a little detour for her and me to check them out and still make Camp Romaca by noon.  Margo had taken over the KIA so they were going to follow us and bring Anne’s folks with them.  We were on the road by 10 AM.

When we got to the lake, we looked for the test subjects.  Between decay and scavenging animals there was little left of the one female who had fallen and was on the ground.  We saw the female and male who had remained active in our last visit.  They still were moving around when stimulated, but were also very much decayed.  Their arms were mostly bones and dangling sinew.  They were very thin and dried.

The children are still a puzzle; they seemed to be holding together very well.  The rate of decay was much slower than the adults.  As we would not be back to survey them again, we helped them escape the disease and rest. After we took the shots to put them down we got out of the area as quickly as possible to avoid any response from other Zoms close by. Anne wanted to burn the entire site but we figured that it was a bad idea to send smoke signals to the living.

We pulled into the camp around noon time.  We had been assigned to cabin #2, a two bedroom cabin and that is a good thing. Although I am sure that sooner or later Margo will want to get a cabin of her own, or share one with someone.  But at 14 years old I think we are going to dodge that bullet for a little while.

We unpacked and got our stuff in order. That took most of the day. Anne also got a little office area in one of the main buildings for her research materials. Ethan gave her a hand, he had been the environmental science major and had more or less become her assistant in her research. It is next to an office that Lance will use to set up his surveillance and computer operations.

By the time we were done getting squared away it was about dinner time and although we all were on the hungry side the best Chez Nick could come up with was corn on the cob and grilled spam. It will take time.

Frank and Matt focused on getting the power going with the generators while Joseph and Armand got the water pumps on line.  Everyone else was either working on security measures or unloading the foods and miscellaneous equipment that we had brought along.  And although miscellaneous sounds like it was just a few items, it was a lot of stuff that included tools, weapons, fencing gear, fuels, medical supplies, and so on.

By 9 PM it was getting too dark to work so we all sat down and talked about the plans for tomorrow.  We needed to really focus on a couple of things.  The first was the installation of a secure fence around the open perimeter.  The other thing was that we would need to clear out that roadway area and get the landing area secure so that we can move our airplanes close by.  We wanted to have that done by tomorrow evening.

Let me just say, as I crawled in my bunk, real sheets, a real mattress, a little lumpy, but this was nice.

July 25th

We jumped on getting those tasks we talked about yesterday taken care of. It was a lot more work than we had initially considered.  Half of the group went to the road to clear for the aircraft so we could get them moved.  They got the trees cut and moved.  The wood was stacked for burning in the cold time.  Yes, it could be a problem burning wood because it will send up a smoke signal but it will be better than freezing.  In thinking about it we should actually start harvesting some trees just for that reason.  Anyway, by the time they got it all done it was too late in the day to move the planes in, so that was now a first thing in the morning task.

Henry and a bunch of us went to take care of the fencing around the compound.  That was a little more challenging.  We only completed about fifty percent of the task.  It was hard work considering we really did not have to clear much.  The ground is very rocky so getting the fence posts in is a challenge but we should be done with it all by tomorrow evening.

July 26th

The planes are here, and camouflaged.  We also have moved a tanker of aviation fuel up but it is not too close to the planes for fire reasons.  The fence is done.  We are all pretty beat.

July 27th

Lance and Cody have gotten the computers and surveillance gear back up.  Frank and Matt have the generators working.  Henry and the Major have the water filtration system working.  The perishables are all in refrigeration now.  We had left them for a day or so in Peru and Hinsdale until we could get power and freezers going.  The rabbit pens have been relocated to our location.  Overall we are in good shape.  Peru compound has been powered down and made to look abandoned should the bikers find it.

Cyril had a really good idea.  He suggested that we put some graffiti on the walls in Peru saying that the area was hostile and that we had moved west.  This could get our friends from the biker gang to go that way, or at least believe we are out of the area.  It may not work forever, but it is a thought.

One other thing we instituted was the idea of black out time.  From dark to dawn we needed to be very careful about lights.  A flashlight while walking about in the dark was one thing but we would not or should not light the place up.  Kind of like in WWII we set up blackout curtains on the buildings as well as did not use the overhead flood lighting unless the shit hit the fan.

I guess there has been a little turmoil in the Nick/Lauren/Jan cabin.  It seems that Jan and Fred are thinking that they should get their own cabin.  Lauren is not doing well with that on a couple of different levels.  I wonder how long before we are faced with the same issues with Margo.

July 28th

We have not heard from the remains of the Biker group yet and it may have to do with the location change that we made, or it could be that they have gone into radio silence mode.  In either case we decided that a small group of us would run up toward Hinsdale and locate on a hill to the east of town.  We would then try to make contact with Marisa.  Our group included Teckla, Matt, Ethan, Fred and Jan.   I am not sure that Jan is combat ready, but she was not getting very far away from Fred.  It is probably a good idea for her to get a little front line experience.

They left for Hinsdale about 9:30 and were on site by 10:00. We monitored the radios from the camp to hear if they made contact as well as if the thing went south.  We had a reserve/rescue force in place ready to go. Teckla sent the first message to the bikers shortly after 10:00.   Contact was made and Teckla and Marisa began to talk.

First there were questions from Marisa about the events of the attack.  Teckla did not go into much detail other than the biker group rolled into town and began to pillage and shoot the place up.  The Hinsdale folks responded the best they could but were pretty much beaten down.  The biker group figured out that there was another colony to the Northeast and decided that they would raid that one too.

Nice job on Teckla’s part, Peru is actually southeast of Hinsdale it is Dalton that is to the Northeast.  She told Marisa that Hinsdale was able to get a brief warning to us and some defense was quickly assembled.  The bikers arrived and the townies (our group) tried to reason with them, but it turned to shit and that was that.

Marisa listened, and asked a few questions.  Were there survivors?  What happened to the bodies, were they taken care of?  It was clear she knew the score and the events were pretty much what they had expected.  Then she posed the surprise question; “What shall we do now?”

This was not as much a surprise to Teckla as we thought. She had considered this and had some clear ideas as to what to say to it. Teckla replied that the question was really more up to Marisa and the remaining members of her group.  They had options and it depended on what course they chose.

If the bikers wanted to stay where they were and we leave each other alone, that was good and workable. If they wanted to settle a score, they could try it but remember if we were able to destroy their fighting/foraging force of tough guys, the eradication of the remainder of the bikers would not be that difficult.  Or, and this kind of shocked a number of us, they could consider an integration into our colony as we had integrated with the Hinsdale survivors.  That last idea was one that had been discussed by The Three with input from Charlene and the Major.

On the surface it seemed insane, but as one thought it through it did seem to actually be a reasonable idea as long as the remaining bikers were good about not making this a ploy for vengeance.  It made sense that a larger group would be more likely to survive.  Our numbers are currently at twenty seven, another ten or twelve is not going to tax our resources greatly.   But they all realized that it would be a delicate dance to integrate.  There was bad blood and issues that existed on both sides.

The options and the offer were out on the table a little sooner than was expected and Teckla and Marisa both realized that this was not a simple answer, it would have to be considered by both sides.  Teckla suggested that we let it all sink in and that perhaps make another contact in a day or so would be best.  She suggested that doing these talks on the radios was risky and perhaps it would be wiser to meet face to face the next time if the options for joining were seriously considered.

There was a shit storm brewing at home.  Ron, and Michelle were furious over the proposal to let them join us, and I can understand their point.  They each had suffered severely at the hands of the biker gang.  A few of the others who had been shot in the attack also did not like the idea. It would be a hard sell on our side of the agreement.

Surprisingly it was Matt, not the leaders that seemed to have the most calming impact on the group.  He pointed out that we were in a different world now.  And that the needs for survival had changed the way that we live.  We could just kill them all and be done with it but then were we any better than they were?

“We are the remaining remnant of the human race and we could start down the slippery slope and become just like the undead with a focus only on killing and destroying the non-us or we could try to hang on to what is noble and good about humanity.”

His talk seemed to work, because the rage eased turning to grumbling and by the following morning it had turned to grudging acceptance of the idea.

I am thinking that on a logical level it is a good but potentially dangerous move.  We do not yet know their mindset and I cannot see them simply saying “Yup you killed my honey/people/leaders but that is cool, they deserved it.  Let’s be friends.”   But that is me, and we really do not know the circumstances of their confederation or the relationships that might have existed.  Whatever the result, I will be on my toes on this one.

July 29th

Nick’s birthday and for six days each year he and I are the same age.  We did our usual teasing on this issue

We got a radio call from Marisa, she has asked if we can have a face to face meeting between her with a few of her people and Teckla and a few of ours. Teckla agreed and the plan is to meet on the northwest side of Hinsdale tomorrow at 10 AM.

I do not like it.  I just have a bad feeling about it. It is nothing that I can explain but just a bad feeling.  The Three had already discussed this possibility and felt that the only way to test the minds and hearts of the bikers was to give them this opportunity.  They had decided that they would use Teckla, Henry, Lauren and Joseph as their team to do the face to face.

After the announcement Teckla and I had a long talk about this.  I expressed my concerns and that I felt it was not a good thing to meet like this.  It left our people too exposed and it also gave the bikers the advantage of being able to set up and ambush on the north side of town.  She agreed that there were risks but that it was really the best way to expedite a resolution to the issue.

But she said with a smile “I am sure some paranoid type will have contingencies in place to reduce the risks.”

I met with Matt, the Major and Margo that afternoon.  We decided that we would get the sniper teams in place late tonight to get eyes on the area and in locations that would give a good field of fire if needed.  We would also have a couple of scout teams on that northwest side of town. We did have the advantage of being on our home turf, but we had the disadvantage of a lot of area to cover.  The rules of engagement were simple.  Do what you have to do to protect our people.

July 30th

Our defense team and scouts were in place with radio silence in play unless the shit hit the fan.   We wanted this to look and sound like we were lambs rather than wolves in their pelts. If we could get away without them knowing we were watching, it would help in the trust factor.

Teckla and the group drove up to the agreed location to meet with Marisa.  Marisa had three of her people with her. There was on old biker guy, a black woman in her early 30s and another woman in her 20’s.  They did the meet and greet thing and then headed into the firehouse that had been the home of the Hinsdale people.  It had been left in a state that gave the appearance of still being occupied.  I was not privy to the events inside of the building and much of what I relay here is from the accounts of those inside.

The meeting began with introductions.  Marisa was the leader, or at least that was what appeared to be the case.  She had been the “woman” of the gang leader (who had been shot by Charlene) and had taken it upon herself to keep the colony under control after the revelations of what had happened at Check Point Charlie.

The Old Biker was named Billy Parkins and he was not entirely with the program that this union would be a good idea. It was interesting that he was with the group because he was a Harley guy, and the rest of the gang was rice rocket based.

We later found out that he was the brother of Albert Parkins, the guy in the cell in Peru.  He had been on his way to join a group of rider’s who had lived or camped up in the west side of Lake Danbee but he was waylaid by the Biker Gang and for survival purposes joined with them.

The black female (Tanya) and her sister along with their kids had tried to make the run north from Pittsfield.  The van had run out of fuel along the way and she had gone back to a gas station that had been passed along the way.  When she got back to the van the bikers had already fell upon it, killed the kids, and her sister.  This was the video that we had seen.  The woman, Tanya, had been taken as a “slave” and over time, at least on the surface, accepted her fate or seemed to. She was a very strong religious woman. For her it had been survival for the Lord first and then vengeance.

The last member of their party was Taylor.  Taylor was another member of the flotsam and jetsam that had floated onto the shore of the biker gang’s compound.  She just wandered in one day and after a difficult initiation, fell into line.  She “belonged” to one of the members we killed (Shitter).  But it was not an ownership she liked and her willingness to live by it was solely based upon survival issues.

Marisa and Teckla got down to the business of talking about what options were available.  Marisa said that most of her group was in favor of a union of some sort.  She and many of the folks that remained alive in the biker camp had been conscripts rather than willing joiners.  But there were a few that were old school but she felt that they also wanted to survive and would go with the flow.  There would be issues but it sounded encouraging.

After about an hour the group decided that a break for fresh air was a good call.  As they went out the door, the first shot rang out.  It hit Marisa in the neck and took her down.  The second shot was the one that got Lauren.  My guess was that the shooters felt she was Teckla who was tackled by the Old Biker at the sound of the first shot. He used his body to protect her.  The others raced back into the building.

Matt took a shooter down after the second shot was fired.  The other shooter tried to break from cover when the scout team that the Major lead captured him. He was wounded in the capture but that could wait.  Matt and Cody went to the building to aid and cover. Margo and Mark held position to keep cover fire positions.

The relief team was on the way and hit town about fine minutes after the first shot was fired.  But there was not much we could do. Lauren had been killed instantly. Marisa was bleeding out.  They did what they could for her but the carotid was pretty torn up. As she was dying she asked, “Don’t let me come back.”

The chaos that followed that first shot had been unbelievable. We brought Taylor, Tanya and Billy back to Romanica with us, it just seemed to happen.  I am sure that they believed that we would kill them.

Billy had done an act that probably saved them all from vengeance and death when he protected Teckla. In retrospect the actions of Tanya and Taylor were also brave and good in dragging the injured back into the building for cover.  These demonstrations showed a lot about their character.

We brought the bodies of Lauren and Marisa back with us.  The prisoner was killed before we left Hinsdale.  I had wanted to get the information of who was in the conspiracy with the shooters but that was not going to happen now. We really did not have any reason to keep him alive beyond a few questions. We could not waste the resources on locking him up, nor could we just let him walk away.

When we got back, sitting down with Nick and Jan was one of the hardest things that Teckla and I ever had to do.  I had flash backs of calling Nick when Mom had her stroke, or being there when Dad was told she was still breathing but was not going to wake up, or survive.  It was horrible.  I could only imagine how I would feel if it had been Anne or Margo.  I could not imagine how deep that ocean of sorrow would be.

July 31st

We said good bye to Lauren today. It was hard.  I think that most of us were still in shock at the suddenness and brutality that life had dealt us. Nick was lost, he was very much in denial of the circumstances. Jan seemed to be doing better with it, but what is “better with it”.

The biker group wanted to say good bye to Marisa.  They were not without feelings and this was a difficult day for both sides.  Billy, the old biker had asked if we could have some of the other members of the gang come down to attend the services.  It was kind of a shock to have that request. It was kind of unexpected.

There were three people who stepped up and really pushed this forward.  The first was Tanya; she made the point every well.  The next was Matt, and that was a surprise as he had been the one who had taken out one of the snipers who had done this.  But it was also not a surprise since he has become the sort of religious leader for the group.  I recall the sniper character in a WWII movie  who would pray as he would target his subject.

Teckla also kind of surprised us when she also spoke in favor of the visit.  She had been saved by Billy and had faith in the way that the negotiations had been headed when the shit hit the fan.  She saw it from a larger picture and put it very simply, “If the roles were reversed and I was laying there, I would want you all to have the chance to say good bye”.

Some were not so willing to go along and I could not blame them.  The pain was great and this was in some aspects way too soon.  There was a lot of anger and mistrust. My feelings were we should let them visit.  But, and with me there will always be a “but”, we need some things to happen.

The biggest thing is that we need to know if there are any more renegades out with the bikers and we need to be certain that when they enter our camp they are weapons free.  They can be armed to get from Point A to Point B, but the guns stay in their vehicles.  I offered my ideas with The Three and to Billy and Tanya who have become the de facto leaders of the bikers.  They understood and although not happy with the restrictions, agreed.

Anne pointed out that we needed to hurry with this process because leaving the bodies out and exposed seemed to be a bad idea.  It was unlikely that they would turn or reanimate, but the bugs, which was still something that we were unsure of.

The bikers arrived about 45 minutes later.  All but a couple of the remaining members came and paid their respects.  What was also nice was that they also paid respects to Lauren.  I think it helped Jan and Fred; Nick, I just don’t know.

After the service the bikers all packed up to go back to their camp. Tanya and Billy spoke with The Three and they set a time for a meeting in a few days.  It would be increasingly difficult now to work out the future; it was heartening that both sides were still interested in trying.

As the bikers were getting ready to leave Billy asked, “Hey, has anyone seen Alyssa”.

She was a high schooler, kind of a cute kid in the Kelly Clarkson mold.  She had come over with the biker group and had been with them for a while.  She was a lamb who had been taken by the bikers to serve in certain roles.  I am trying to be kind here, but they beat, raped and made her life hell.  At first Billy and Chelsea, another of the biker women who was actually a member of the gang and not the victim of it, thought that she may have tried to run away and hide with us.

It was Ron who found her.  She was in a little storage shed on the back of the property.  She was dead. Her throat had been cut so deeply that it was almost completely severed.

It was a “where do we go from here moment”.  We all knew that there was a chance that we would be attacked and killed by Zoms.  We had also gotten used to the idea that another band of survivors might come into conflict with us.  In both cases we knew that people were going to die.

But this, this was beyond that; one of our own, killing in such a brutal manner.  And yet we did not even know for sure it was one of our own.  It could have been a member from the other camp, the bikers.

I am back in cop mode, but this case is going to be a bitch because I did not have the support of the modern police equipment or fellow detectives.  I had no fingerprinting equipment, or standard crime scene materials and tools.  I tasked with doing what I could to figure this out.

Problem one is that we really could not allow the body to sit for too long.  I photographed the body and scene the best I could with the little point and shoot camera that I had in my glove box of my truck and hoped that Lance could up-load the images.  When we removed the body, Major Barkley did the best he could with an exam but it was really clear that the cause of death was the slashed throat. About all we could tell for certain is that it was a big cutting blade, and a lot of force was used.

Both sides, the bikers and we were pretty much freaked out and each side was looking at the other side as the evil people who had done this.  I am sure that rumors and speculation were buzzing around as much as the flies that had settled in on the body.  Sorry, sometimes I get a little carried away with the metaphors.

The Three went into council along with Billy and Tanya.  They needed to figure out what to do.  I needed to sit down and think this through.  The big issue was that there were a lot of suspects and a lot of motives for the murder.  I only knew that one person was innocent for sure, and that was me. It was not going to be an easy nut to crack.

When I returned for a second look at the shed, it was really too dark to make out much in the way of drag marks and things.  That would have to wait until morning.  When I returned to the main building where everyone was, the Biker folks were gone.  They had left to go back to their camp.  I wish I had known I could have at least checked knives and clothing for blood or something. But that horse is out of the barn.  Just as well, it is now about 2:00 AM and I am exhausted.

August 1st

I did not sleep well last night; I awoke with that fuzzy feeling I used to get when we would get the late night call out for a major incident.  I grabbed a coffee and headed toward the corner of the dining room.  I think those in the room realized I was not in a cheery or happy mode and perhaps it was best to leave me alone.  It was Anne and Margo who finally came over.  At first I was not even aware they were there.  Finally Anne asked me if I needed my “Grumpy Hat”.  It snapped me out of the fog and I smiled.

The “Grumpy Hat” was one that they had gotten for me years ago when we would vacation together.  I was usually a little terse in the morning until I had my coffee.  Back then those two were up early and talking away.  It reminded me of a flock of chickens, which is what I used to call them.

We talked a little bit.  I asked them what they had heard around the camp.  I knew that there was a lot of chatter going on about the death of Alyssa.  Everyone had a theory as to who did it and why and I knew that sooner or later I would hear almost all of them.

But for right now I needed to look at the scene and confirm it was the prime location.  I also needed to look around the area for who knows what but I would need some help.  If nothing else, I needed someone to watch my back as I dug into things and focused on the crime.   I had two very good candidates right in front of me so I asked them to join me in the walk to the storage shed.

While we walked I told them what I had figured so for.  The killer was probably known to Alyssa or at least someone who she felt comfortable enough with to follow them to the kill site, but where we found the body might not have been the original kill site. I figured that whoever did this was angry, very angry but was that anger aimed at Alyssa or was it anger over the death of Marisa/Lauren.  If the anger was specific to Alyssa then the killer could be from either camp but if it was over the death of Marisa/Lauren was more likely from our camp.

The weapon used would help, but that appears to have walked away with the killer.  So that is not a lot of help in figuring out who did it.  We all carry a K-bar or hunting knife so there are lots of weapons that could have been used.  I should have probably check everyone’s knives for blood, but even that may not help much because many of us hunt and fish regularly using the weapons as tools to gut our kills.  I could have also checked the clothing but it would be just a cursory exam and at this point even if I did find blood it would be dried and could be from anywhere. But these are all thoughts for the future as we missed the chances this time.

Before we got too far Anne suggested that we stop at her lab and pick up some protective gear, gloves and masks and such.  Really that was a good idea since she shared the building with Lance we could stop and have him download my pictures from yesterday.

While we were uploading and printing I asked if he had his camera system up and running.  He did have parts of it for the compound but not the area where Alyssa was found.

We got to the tool shed about 9:30.  We had pretty much trampled down the ground in front of the shed yesterday after we found her.  But I backed up a little and looked around the site a little more.  I really did not see anything like a blood trail or scuff marks to show that the body had been dragged from another site.  Off to the right and behind the shed was a little path that leads into the woods.  I remembered it from when we were doing the fencing.  We took a walk down that path a little bit.

About 25 feet into the woods we saw a pile of clothes; actually it was worker’s coveralls.  I had never seen anyone wearing anything like them before but that really does not mean much. When we looked at them more closely it was clear that they had been worn during the homicide.  They were covered with blood. I started to reach for them and got an “Ahem” from Anne, she was right; I had not put on gloves. I was thinking that I could not contaminate the evidence because we had no DNA testing or anything like that but I didn’t consider that the coveralls could contaminate me.

A cursory look showed that there were nothing in the pockets and there was an embroidered logo on the left chest pocket that said “Camp Romaca Maintainer” so that means that they were already here and that the killer did not bring them.  If there was an upside, it was that the coveralls were a size Large.  That eliminated big people as the murderer which removed a number of people from the suspect list.  Matt, Mark, Billy, Nick, Ron, Henry, Teckla, The Major, Joseph and Armand could be taken off the list.

One might argue that the small people like Jan, Margo, Anne and others could be taken off the list also, but I am not inclined at this point to do that.  A small person could wear an oversized garment but the reverse is not likely to happen, kind of along the lines of not being able to put ten pounds of poop in a five pound bag.

I took my K-Bar out of my belt and tossed it as hard as I could.  It covered about forty feet in the air; that was our search radius.  Actually I added another 20 or so feet to the radius.  My thought was that when the murderer ditched the clothing he might have also gotten rid of the knife or tool that was used.  So starting where the coveralls were found we held hands and began to spiral out from there walking side by side looking for the weapon.

We would have to break contact on occasion for a tree or bush but would keep within a couple of feet of each other.  We found old cans, bottles, broken glass and some other items that showed human activities of various natures, but no knife.  That did not mean that the murderer had not tossed the weapon, it just seemed to show that it was not dropped or tossed here.

I received a walkie call from Lance who said that my pictures were ready and that he had noticed a couple of things that might be important. We decided that we had pretty much covered this area of the coverall and were comfortable with the shed being the scene so we bagged up the coverall and headed back.

Lunch was pretty good. Anne’s Mom and Grace had picked up the slack while Nick works on dealing with Lauren’s death.  It was boiled corn and grilled bunny although the rabbit was on the bland side, it lacked the spices and flavors that Nick was able to find and add to the meals.

We met with Lance just after lunch.  He had the photos printed.  But he also had some photos set up on the computer.  He started to click thought them.  The first photo was one that showed Alyssa’s position on the floor.  She was fully clothed so it was likely that we could remove sexual assault from the equation.

She was not just killed and left there.  She had been posed.  Her position was that of a crucified individual.  Her arms were extended and one foot was placed on top on the other.  This would have been done in the old Roman days to save on the nails as well as add to the discomfort of the victim.

There seemed to be no indication of other wounds beyond the gaping wound to her throat.  There were no defensive wounds on her hands so that would seem to show that the attack took place from behind and was a surprise. It may have in fact been a case where she did not know her attacker but then why would she have gone to this bizarre location just on her own.

We came away from the photo evaluation with more questions than answers and a lot of things that needed to be thought about.  I wish the body was still available there were a couple of things I would have liked to look at more closely.  For example, why were the hands clear of blood?  They had to be wiped clean?  If I just had my throat cut, the first thing I would do is bring my hands to the wound.  She very likely did not die instantly despite the savageness of the wound.

My next stop was to visit Major Barkley.  I simply wanted to confirm that the wound would not have caused instant death; the hand thing bothered me.  I also want some form of confirmation of the murder weapon.  We did not have it, but I needed to make certain that I was thinking this in the right direction, basically big knife.  He agreed that although she would have bled out losing consciousness within less than a minute she would not have died instantly from the wound.

He also felt that my assessment of the weapon was valid.  A weapon that was swung, like an ax or shovel could inflict a similar type of injury, but there was a lack of room to make the swing and also it would have given Alyssa the chance to make some type of defensive move.

“Some type of a saw could have done that type of damage, but again, it would have been cumbersome as well as leaving a much more jagged wound.”

“Makes sense,” I thought aloud.

“I am thinking that the cutting instrument would have to have been at least 5 inches long to have inflicted that kind of cut.  A smaller blade would have required multiple slashes.” As he picked up a scalpel and swung it around in a slashing motion.

Over dinner I was in the corner again, and this time I was left alone.  I was thinking, what I have so far.  A young and reasonably small but fit woman attacked from behind by someone with a knife.  The attack was unexpected, and quick. Where her hands bound before the attack?

The slasher had to be reasonably powerful but limited to a men’s large jumpsuit.  The killer posed the victim in a biblical pose at the scene of the murder.  He (or she) then left the scene and went west on a path dumped the jumpsuit.  But what then, cleaned up, rejoined the group they were associated with and walked around like nothing has happened.

Ok, I lack a motive, and there are some obvious ones that would work.  The most obvious is retaliation for the deaths of Lauren or Marisa but that does not really help narrow much down.  What else could it be?  Maybe someone felt that the murder would keep the two groups from joining up, and if so they may have hit a homer here.  Or maybe she knew something that someone wanted to remain a secret?  But what secret?

I was reasonably certain it was not part of our original Connecticut part of the group.  But I could not speak for the members of the Hinsdale group nor the Bikers.  I was reasonably comfortable with the people who had been rescued from Camp Danbee.

Aug 2nd

Here we go again.  I got called into the office of The Three.  Understandably, they wanted an update as to what I have found or figured so far.  I told them what I had, although Anne had pretty much already filled them in on it.

Much too all our surprise Billy arrived at the gate at about 10 AM.  He was on his Harley.  He asked if he could talk with me.  He knew that I was one of the last living people to see his brother alive and also that I knew where his fellow Rider had made his last stand.  He wanted to pay his respects.  I could understand that, although I am certain that he was also thinking about the murder and wanted to give or take away some information.  This was an opportunity to talk with him about the events.

I have not been out on a motorcycle in almost a year and it felt good to have the chance to ride.  I had forgotten about how relaxing it was to just have the countryside slip on by.  One of the interesting things that I always remembered about riding was the way you would travel though smell zones.  A dead animal, or a fresh cut field of grass would stimulate the mind, sometimes to thoughts of days gone by, sometimes the idea of our own mortality.  By this point the dead smell zones were few and far between, despite the massive die off of humanity, you did not often catch the whiff of decay.

As we neared the west side of the lake, I stopped and we talked briefly about what I had seen in those final minutes.

“We got as close as we could but that there had been a large number of Zoms that surrounded him making his escape impossible. We had done what we could to help him out but that in the end he was overrun and as the horde fell upon him he ended his current and future suffering.”

Can we get to him now?” asked Billy, staring off into space.

“Maybe, there may not be a lot of Zoms standing that did not mean that they could not cause problems as ankle biters, we just need to be careful.”

We slowly drove in the last half mile or so to where the bodies were piled up.  Near the top of the heap was the body of the biker I had seen.  At this point due to decay he was unrecognizable except by his colors.  Billy looked around and saw the other Riders as well as a couple of Outlanders in the pile.  He commented that it was a strange alliance but under the circumstances there was probably more commonality between the two clubs than with the rest of the world as it stood.

He wanted to remove the denim vests from his fallen comrades but I told him that it was not a good idea because of bugs and contamination.  I suggested that we burn the bodies with the Zoms they had defeated.  I asked if wearing their colors like the armor of Vikings of old would meet the needs of a proper farewell.  (Yeah, I am doing it again, over dramatic writing, cut me some slack okay, we are at the end of the world).

“Yeah, that will work I guess,” said Billy

We threw gasoline on the pile the best we could being careful not to expose ourselves to ankle biters.  Billy tossed the cigarette that lit the mass of twisted bodies.  We watched it burn for a while.  Billy was quiet, head bowed.

We stopped on the ride back to rest for a while.  We talked about the bikers that had been killed at the lake.  The discussion drifted over to the bikers who had attacked Hinsdale.  He did not seem too disturbed by their deaths.  He had very little to say good about the lot of them.  They were men with no honor; to him they were petty thieves and thugs.

As the conversation moved along, we got to the current members of the group he was with. Overall his take on them was that they were mostly good people.  Marisa had done a good job of holding them together after the fighters had left to raid the surrounding towns.  She was a strong woman that had good sense.  She was attached to the leader of the fighters, and he thought that she did love him, but she also knew what he was and almost seemed to know how their relationship would end.

“Tanya, now she is a saint considering what the fighters had put her through.”

He had talked with her a few times and she believed that God would strike down those who killed her sister and her children.  She also believed that she would someday see her husband again.

I stopped him, “Do you know her last name or any information about her husband?”

“I think it is Lewis, but was not sure, she had told him that her husband was a cop, maybe the one that the fighters had ambushed and killed.”

In the back of my mind I thought that perhaps Captain Lewis had survived. He was not the one in the gang’s videos.

Billy said that Heather was a biker girl through and through.  She was with the group when he arrived and appeared to have been hooked up with them long before the world fell apart.  She was actually not a bad person, perhaps a few bad choices when she was younger.  Her guy had been killed back about three months ago. He was out riding when a deer ran into his path.  There was a crash and he was most likely killed when he slammed against a tree.  When he did not return that afternoon, a search party went out.  They found him, most of him and killed the feasting eaters that were working on him. She was doing okay with the grieving, and kind of hung out with him (Billy) much of the time.  There was a bond between the two but it was not really a romantic relationship.

I asked him about the two who we had killed doing the sniper attack.  He said that the woman was Maggie.  She was an ex-military type who had a thing for other women.  She had hit on Taylor and Marisa but they both had rejected her.

“I think she kind of carried a grudge over it.  She never really fit in and grew to hate Marisa in particular.  They were oil and water.”

The other guy was Paul, he was kind of a chicken shit and like a little rat.  He was usually sneaking around and although never caught, we figured him to be the one that was stealing food and other peoples stuff.  He did not like the idea of the groups joining up.  Billy figured that while the groups were separated Paul had a chance to be the stud, kind of the last man on earth type thing.  Paul was toughest on Alyssa.  He got a sick pleasure out of dominating her.  He made her his slave on a lot of levels.

Taylor and Chelsea were two women with the group.  They had been found, or kidnapped by the bikers.  Billy said that they were there when he joined the group.  Taylor must have been some kind of a manager or director or something because she had established herself by taking charge of supplies and rationing them.  She was good at it.  She was also a really nice person.  She did not fit the mold of the group at all.  But it was a symbiotic relationship she gave them stability of resources and they protected her.

Chelsea was another that had been “drafted”.  She and Taylor were both in their mid-twenties and “cleaned up good”.  Chelsea was cheery and upbeat even though she was treated like a sex object of the gang. She held tough and did not let that get her down, at least on the outside.

“There was a deeper and darker side to her, there had to be, how else could she be so upbeat when at the end of the world?

I asked him if he had any idea who had killed Alyssa.

“If they had not been killed, either Maggie or Paul would have been good choices.”

But really, he did not think it could have been any of the remaining members of the gang.  Alyssa had been a good kid, never bothered anyone, did what she was told and no one had any reason to hurt her except Paul, he was an asshole.

We rode back toward the camp.  My mind was racing as we rode.  The fresh air the smells and a buzz in my mind from the information that Billy had given me.  When I got back, it was dinner time. There was a lot of buzz going on that usually got quiet when I was close by.  I am sure that people were wondering what was going on with the murder.

Both Cyril and Fred came over to talk to me during dinner and all I could do was shrug my shoulders when they asked what I thought.  I would like to tell them, but there was not much other than a lot of loose thoughts going through my head and I really did not want to get into it with anyone until I had a little more of an idea where I was going.

After talking with Billy, I did not think that anyone in the biker group would have done it.  But at the same time I had been with the people from my own group for a long time and I had not seen anything that seemed to make any one of them a likely candidate.  I needed that one little thing, that one thread and this mystery all could unravel.  Well, I will let the stew cook for a little longer.

August 3rd

I sat down with Henry and Teckla this morning and told them what I had so far.  It was kind of disappointing to report so little. Anne and Margo were also aware of what was going on.  I could not really keep the information from them.

I started having chats, I like that better than interviews, with everyone.  Some folks I was a little more intense with.  Family, true family members I tended to go light on.  Perhaps it was unfair, but they were family.  Of the family members I could only think of two that had even a remote motive which was Nick or Jan doing payback for Lauren’s death.  But that seemed unlikely, certainly on Nick’s part.

One of the questions that I always asked, so if you had to pick someone to be the killer, who would it be?”

The answers that I got most often were “I don’t know or I don’t want to say.”

August 4th

Happy Birthday to me.  Today I focused on the Hinsdale Survivors. I really was not so sure that I had a feeling that any of them were responsible for Alyssa’s death, but I did need to ask the questions.  I started with the Major.  This was to show proper respect as well as give the rest of the survivors the idea that no stone would be left unturned.  We had a nice chat, but he did not have much in the way of insights for me.  He could give me the best guess and limited forensic analysis but he did not know the townies as they might know themselves, he had been a late joiner to the group.

Grace on the other hand was filled with speculation not only of who it might have been, but why. She had it narrowed down to four people.  The first two were based upon a revenge model in which Jan and/or Nick were the killer(s).  One of the bikers had killed Lauren and one or both were extracting their revenge.

The other thought was John, the teacher with his rumored past.  She had mentioned the rumors before but never went to great detail on it.  So I asked her about this.

“John” she said, “Was an unmarried science teacher who taught in the Hinsdale school system where he also did some coaching. There were allegations that he had been a sort of pervert who had cameras set up in the showers and locker room and also had been involved with a couple of his students.”

She went on that none of it had ever been proven. It seems that in the two cases that were almost put together the girls ran away to parts unknown. So without the witnesses or victims the police were never able to charge him.  And without the truth or conviction the town was unable to terminate him on mere suspicion of being whatever he was supposed to be.

Her final suggestion was that it was Steven.  She said that he had been in the army, and had served in Iraq or Afghanistan and was not right. She figured that he was a nut and a rapist being military and all.  She figured that when Alyssa refused his advances that he overpowered her and cut her throat.

As you can guess the visit with Grace ate up the most of the morning.  But when all was said and done she did give me someone to look at a little more.  I still did not buy the revenge thing with Jan and Nick.  That was just so not them.

Steven, he was a weirdo, and he did disappear a lot but I am not sure that I find the rape/murder because of PTSD very valid.

Now John, now he was something else.  Perhaps I am letting my mind chase something that was not there, but since I first met him there was something strange about it.  He just did not strike me as right.  I had to find out more about these rumored incidents with the girls.  But that would not be easy.

After lunch I went through some of the others.  Armand, Ethan and Larry all had little to offer that had not already been tainted by Grace and her gossip.  It was almost dinner when I finished with them so I decided that I would do the other three in the morning.  Michelle would be first and perhaps she would share something about her brother that might help me.  But the biggies would be Steven and then John.  I had to prepare for those two.  They were right now my two best suspects of those in the compound.

August 5th

I started the morning with Michelle. I had already spoke to Mark about her and although his view was rather slanted he was emphatic that she had nothing to do with the murder and that they were together that afternoon, doing ‘things’.

I never really did not see her as a suspect but figured that she might have some useful information about Steven and she did.  I did not realize where he had been or what he had done in his life.  And in the end I realized that like many vets who had comeback from “Hell” he had brought some demons with him.  In his case he did not create the demons.

Steven was next and he was different.  He had been different for a while.  The “stoner” that I had first met in Hinsdale had really changed, a lot.  It was almost as if he was back among the living normal people.  His hair was cut, he was focused and he had a mission in life again.

As I said, this change had taken place well before the murder so I did not think that they were connected.  But I was curious as to why the change. Thanks to Michelle I had a little bit of an idea of what had turned him from a respected helicopter pilot in the Iraq war to the mess that he had become but I think I needed to get the real story from the horse’s mouth.  So I asked.

Steven looked at me for a few moments and then looked down.  He was still tormented by what had happened, but was learning to deal with it.  He told me “I did three tours in Iraq as a Black Hawk Pilot. I primarily did troop delivery and retrieval.”

He had a couple of missions toward the end of his tour that had gone very wrong and because of lack of support higher up the food chain, a number of people he felt he could have saved by flying in were killed.

“I became disenchanted with the way the folks higher up were running the show. And I did not up for a fourth tour but rather came home and just did the best I could to self-medicate the nightmares away.”

He told me that in some ways he had wished he had flown the missions to rescue the troops against orders even if it meant that he could have been killed but he had still been a good little soldier to that point.

I asked him about the change we had seen in him.  He had a simple explanation and it shocked me.

“I am ready to fly again.”

He explained that he had been shaken by what had happened to Ron when the biker gang or whoever had fired at Ron’s plane and it had to make a forced landing.  He realized that had he not fallen apart he could have, would have been called upon to make a rescue, and he was not ready to do that.

“I looked up from the bottom of the hole I had dug for myself and realized it was time to climb out.”

He said that he had first started to feel a stir to get back in the air when we had visited Rhinebeck Field.  He had seen that old Blackhawk and it was calling to him.  When we began the flight schools at Kendall he found a helicopter that could be used, but it needed to have some work.  He was almost finished getting it flyable.

“I have been making regular trips down there to get it up and running.  I wanted to surprise everyone and just fly in one afternoon.”

So that was where he had been when we just thought he was off on a cloud.  It was also why he could not prove where he was when Alyssa was killed.

I took a break after the interview and had lunch.  I think that many of the clan saw the stress that this chase was having on me and most left me alone but Margo and Anne stuck with me.  They were there, having lunch with me, keeping my mind from diving too deep into the case to the exclusion of all other things. I appreciated that effort.

It kind of reminded me that sometimes when we get too focused on something that we actually miss things and right now I was focused on who killed Alyssa and more importantly I was seeing everything pointing to John.  I had taken all the rumors, my inner voice, and his behavior on certain things as saying that he was the killer.  But it just did not make sense why now, if he had been a serial killer why did he not strike before.  And why didn’t anyone mention similar deaths at Hinsdale before we joined up.  Maybe I am looking too hard.

After lunch it was time to sit down with John. I knew he was the guy, the killer and I was going to get him to admit it.  I have all the questions and the ideas scripted out in my mind and I was ready to go.  We sat down and I started with the first question which I asked of all the people I had interviewed.

“Who do you think killed Alyssa?”

I hoped that he would be overcome by guilt and simply say that he had done it.  But that was not the way it went.

“I have no idea.”

He couldn’t think a reason that any of us to have done it.  She was a stranger and had no connections or reasons to have any of us kill her. He had a point.   I continued that there were those who had suggested that he was the killer.

He said, “Yeah, I expected that, Grace probably, for years there were those who had been making his life miserable with rumors and innuendos about me and my alleged relationships with my students.”

He pointed out that there was never any proof found and that the files had been closed.  At that particular point I really would have liked to have had the chance to see those files, but that was not going to happen.

I tried every trick I could think of to get him to give it up.  I tried to minimize the crime painting Alyssa as an evil character who had brought this onto herself, and that even though this had been a murder it was probably justified. The sad reality was what would the punishment be, banishment from the group?

But he would not crack.  He defended Alyssa as an innocent young girl. As we talked further, he tried to point the blame at one of the biker group suggesting that this was a very good opportunity for one of them to settle some unknown issue that had been going on with them.

He offered the idea that she might have known who the original conspirators in the assassinations of Marisa and Lauren were and that there had been one more member that had not been killed or revealed.  That person may have been under the idea that she was going to dime them out to us.  That was a possible motive for the death, he had a point.

We ended the interview and I was frustrated.  I had failed.  I was sure that he was the killer; actually I still think that he very likely was the killer.  But I had nothing, nothing to tie him to it.  For that matter I had nothing to tie anyone to it.  I definitely had my Grumpy hat on for dinner and it was a quiet one.  Even Anne and Margo decided that perhaps it was a good night to have dinner with Cyril and Arcelia.

August 6th

It’s a new morning and I’m tired, and edgy for a lack of sleep.  I spent a good deal of time going over the interviews in my mind, still nothing.  As I was sitting and having my coffee Lance came over.  I was not really listening to what he was saying until the words ‘cameras moved’ registered in my mind.

I perked up. “Repeat that, about the cameras.”

“Some time overnight two of the cameras on the west side of the compound were moved, realigned from their original angle.  It makes a blind spot in our surveillance coverage.”

“Let’s take a walk,” as I got up pushing back my chair.

We started by reviewing the videos to see if we could see anything to show the when or who had moved the cameras. We didn’t rush out to the cameras to avoid giving away the idea that we knew they had been played with.

“What were they trying to hide?” I thought out loud.

After about an hour of watching the playbacks we had discovered the moves took place about 2 AM and that they were done by a human, but he could not tell much more than that.  It was someone that was all in dark clothing, almost ninja like in their movements and approach.

We took a walk out to where the camera coverage was supposed to be and you could see an indication that there was someone who had used the point to visit or leave our camp.  This was not a regular path and the fencing that we had put up seemed to be intact.

We headed back and had a talk with The Three and told them what we had found.  Our thought was to leave the cameras alone to see if we get another visit. But we also would add a camera to allow us to watch the area the moved cameras had been watching. I thought about what Billy had said about “The Ghost”.

I wondered if it was possible that a solo operator could survive in the woods without anyone knowing.  I remembered all the little campsites and tent cities that existed within the city limits of say Manchester back in the day, it seems possible.  Many of those sites were undetected.

After the meeting with The Three we decided that it was best to keep the discovery of the moved cameras quiet.  If the movement had been caused by someone inside the camp, we did not want to let them know that we had discovered it.  And if it was from outside, well we did not want to get our people alarmed.  They were still skittish enough with the murder, to think that it could be someone from outside would only make everyone more jumpy.

That afternoon I visited Nick.  He is still pretty much in a state of shock from the loss of Lauren and had been keeping to himself pretty much.  A little check up from the neck up seemed in order.  We talked about things, life in general, I think it helped.

August 7th

I have been very focused on this killing thing and have not been seeing as much of what has been happening around the complex as I perhaps should have.  In many ways things are normal and everyone is adjusting to the new digs.  There are a few things that are rather inconvenient as result of the move.

For example, Henry has to spend about a half hour each way driving out to Peru to work on harvesting the crops.  He has to take a couple people with him as a protective guard.  But the crops are coming in and that is good.  The protection crew has found that there are some Zoms that show up during the harvesting but they are usually only a couple or three and are quickly dispatched.

We have also had “patrols” out in the area around the compound keeping an eye on Zoms who are out wandering about. They have been taking down a few, but so far we have not seen many.  The patrols have also been learning the territory.  It has been a chance for our group to learn the animal trails, and intricacies of the area while foraging for food.

One of the things that had been happening since the murder is that we never walk alone.   I think that it has a lot to do with the murder, but it also has to do with the Zoms.  A person can easily get lost in thought or become inattentive which could result in walking into a situation that could be fatal.

Anne’s folks are slowing down.  It is almost painful to watch because there is nothing we can do about it. Arcelia is now using a cane regularly and has a lot of knee pain.  Cyril, well, he is really getting up there in age and at almost ninety cannot really be expected to get around that well.  But he still always has a story for us.

Unfortunately the stories are generally re-runs.  Although he actually had one that after hearing it I was interested in.  Biter has been hanging around with him.  They are almost inseparable except when Biter is on a mission with a scout party.  The dog usually sleeps at the end of the bed. Cyril was telling me that a couple of days ago the dog was awake and whiny during the night but when pressed for details he could not tell me the time or specifically which day it was.  He said that he did not let the dog out because he was concerned that there might be a Zom wandering the camp.

I think that if he had we probably would have at least chased off the individual who had moved the camera.  But then again, it is possible that whomever it was may have killed the dog, especially if it was the same person who had killed Alyssa.

August 8th

Teckla and Charlene have been in contact with Tanya and the biker group.  Both sides realize that for survival purposes it is still in the bikers’ best interest to join us.  I think we have been sold on that idea also but there is still that level of mistrust because of the murder.

Steven asked me for a ride down Blueberry Hill. He had finished the work on the helicopter and was going to try to fire it up and maybe try a little test flight today.  I went along thinking that the diversion would be a good idea.  Mark and Michelle followed us down as an added support crew.

He has done a great job of getting the little chopper up and ready.   It is not a big bird, big enough for a crew of four if necessary.  The rest of flights of late have been pretty much suspended but as we are getting back to some level of normalcy hopefully that will change.

Steven was able to fire up the little helo, but in doing some testing he had a hydraulic line spring a leak.  When we looked at it more closely, we discovered that a number of the lines were dry rotted and had to be replaced.  Mark and Michelle are going to stay there with him while he tries to scavenge or rebuild.

On my drive back I was really just letting my mind drift with the facts and information that had come up in the course of my investigation.  Nothing came floating to the surface. But it was there, I know the answer is right in front of me.

When I got back, Nick was just coming out a meeting with The Three.  He had done a recent inventory of some of the food supplies and it appears that some of the canned goods were missing.  It was not a lot of food, but still, it appears that we may have a barracks thief as one of my old bosses used to call them.

I checked with Lance to see if there had been any activity on the new hidden camera that he had set up.  There was not.   While I was at it I checked with Cyril to see if Biter had been acting up at night and all was quiet there.

Beyond that there is not much else to write about today.  Everyone is going about their usual business.  The mundane daily chores of laundry, harvesting and preparing for winter are all going on.

August 9th

Henry brought in another load of corn today.  We are getting to be in fairly good shape for eating over the winter.  I wonder how the winter will be.  I know that the past few have been varied and we have a couple of new factors in the equation. The first might be the nuclear blasts.  How have they impacted the weather?

But then what is the counter balance of that with regards to the lack of automobiles and carbon emissions but realistically it may be too soon to have an impact. If nothing else it would have been a great experiment for the climate change models on the computer.

Ron has recovered from his gunshot wounds and made his first flight today.  The planes are all up and running and the new landing strip on the other side of the lake is working out well.  The only down side there is that we have to work on fuel transport and will eventually have to find more fuel.

Frank and I took the motorcycles out to the biker’s camp today.  We have found that overall things are pretty cool with them.  They are still a little untrusting after the murder of Alyssa but I am thinking that they are also a little shaken by the actions of Maggie and Paul in killing Marissa and Lauren.

This was my first visit to their camp and a camp was the best way to describe it.  It was a bunch of tents and very primitive compared to what we have.  I can easily see that their chances for surviving the winter are bleak if they stay where they were.  I think that they realize that fact and as a result were pushing to join up with us.  The other option would be for them to take up digs at the Hinsdale or even our old Peru location but uniting the two groups seems to be the best idea.

I had made the run because I wanted to see if there was anything else I could get on Alyssa that might help me understand her better.  I was also curious about the “ghost” that Billy had told me about.  They had also believed that they had a barracks thief and that Paul was the leading suspect.  I was curious if the thefts had continued after Paul was killed.

I talked to Billy and Tanya about how they were holding up and although things were going okay one could sense the concern for the future.  They had been increasingly visited by undead to the tune of about five per day.  They were low on ammunition so they relied on impact weapons to deal with them. Tanya said that they were okay for now in the food and fuel department and were trying to build up supplies for the winter, but it would be hard to do.

We talked about Alyssa but there was not a lot that was known about her.  She had been a “find” by the group and although her life was not ideal she seemed to be hanging in with the group.  Billy mentioned that she would often go on walks out into the forest for hours, it was her escape. At one point he thought that she might be sneaking out there to meet up with one of the group members and that there was some sort of relationship going on.  But no one else from the group seemed to be missing.  Billy would have made a good cop, he saw things, made note of things and was in touch with what was going on.

As it got to be later in the afternoon, it looked like a storm might be rolling in so Frank and I started back.  I always enjoyed riding the motorcycle because I was like a dog with my noise out the window catching the smells of the trees or flowers or an occasional road kill along the way.  I was kind of lost in those smells and thinking about what I had just learned.  It was not much, but I also thought about the desperate nature of the biker’s situation.  I had to talk to The Three and we had to get them into our camp or somewhere better very soon.  They would not survive the winter and I would, we would really be at fault for that.

We got back just before the storm broke, and it was a bad one.  I would not have been surprised to see a tornado.

August 10th

I talked with The Three this morning and made a pitch for the bikers joining us.  They agree that it should be done and that it would be.  But they kind of dumped it back on me that there is still a lot of fear that one of them is the killer and our group is concerned that we might be bringing the wolf into the fold.  Unfortunately I had nothing to come back with.  I am no closer to solving the situation than I was three days ago.  I have no forensic capabilities, no real evidence and really, only one suspect who was in that role only based upon rumor.  I am frustrated.

It was fortunate that we moved the aircraft when we moved in to Camp Romaca.  There was a tornado or microburst or something that went through our old airport.  It destroyed most of the buildings and remaining aircraft that was at the field.

Steven had headed down there this morning with Mark and Michelle and discovered the wreckage.  The helicopter that he was working on had suffered some damage, but he said it was more cosmetic than structural.  Still, it was a big blow to him.

August 11th

Henry discovered that Peru had also taken a hit by the storm.  It blew through some of the fields and destroyed part of our corn crop.  He also found, and this may sound funny, that it rained Zoms.  Apparently the tornado had picked up a bunch of the undead and deposited them along its path.   The upside is that they were so torn up they did not offer a threat of moving, or biting.  The downside is that we have to be very careful and check our water sources.  It is possible that the falling dead could contaminate them.

The Three have decided that killer or not, we need to get the bikers in with us and we need to do it sooner than later.  The plan is to open up about 5 of the empty cabins to them so they can start moving stuff over.  They could start the move the day after tomorrow.

Lance still has nothing on video and Biter has been very quiet at night.  It appears we have no one sneaking into or around the compound.  On a side note; perhaps because of the storm we have seen a drop off in our usual five or so Zom visits.

August 12th

The boys (Matt, Ron and Cody) went out on a hunting party today to see if maybe a little deer might not be on the menu for tonight or the next few days.  Frank and I headed over to the river to see if maybe we could get some trout to add to the food options.  But I think the fishing thing was more to give me a little grounding and a chance to let the murder stuff just float around in my head.  There is something I am missing.

It seems that the fish are more than happy to rub in my lack of fishing skills, I caught nothing.

I received some interesting information from the boys when I got back.  Matt could not swear to it, but he felt that they had been watched while they were out hunting. He also said that he found some trails out there that we maybe want to explore.  We have not really done a lot of looking around outside the camp in the way of scouting.

There was an unusual event today with about a dozen Zoms hitting the fence line.  It was odd because we do not usually see groups or packs of them traveling together.  John, Margo and a couple of others took care of the problem.  I saw them dragging the bodies to the pit for burning.  It is just a sick observation but after the kerosene smell burns off the roasting remains do have a kind of BBQ smell to them.  I know it is messed up and we are not the Donner Party.

August 13th

Cyril caught up with me this morning; “Biter was acting up again last night.”

“Really?  What time?”

“Late, but I can’t read my watch anymore at night so I am not exactly sure.”

I had Lance check the videos but we had nothing.

I guess that I should explain our camera system a little.  What we were able to do is find a low-light surveillance system with eight cameras at the local Best Buy.  We actually grabbed two of them and were able to set them up at various locations around the camp.  The coverage included the main gate and a number of directions from the big main building.  We also had a few aimed at sensitive areas such as the food locker and some of the interior areas where important things were stored like extra guns and ammunition. The system is based upon Wi-Fi technology so we do not have to hard wire any of it.

Steven is still pretty bummed out about the helicopter and is now thinking that he needs to run down to Rhinebeck to look at the equipment down there to see if there were parts that he could salvage.  There was a military chopper down there, but I don’t know how much of it was still usable.  I thought that it had been stripped of running parts and was just a shell.  But maybe he can get something from it.

Our issues with the radiation seem to have remained stable for the last month.  I am not sure why, but it is good because maybe it was just a temporary issue and now we are clear of the heavier dosages.

Another day was spent gathering food down in Peru.  Although there was damage done to the crops we still have much available for harvesting.  The trees that we had cut down in the spring are reaching a point where it has dried enough to start bringing in and setting up for our needs through the winter.

Camp Romaca was a summer camp, and throughout the time since we moved in much of our focus was to prepare it for the winter.  We have been insulating as much as we could to make the places more survivable.  But there are going to be issues.  We do have the electric sources from the two wind turbines as well as from the solar panels that were at the camp when we got here.  And we have also the two military generators from Major Barkley’s unit here to keep things going.  It is still likely that we will transition from what we have now to more Spartan conditions come December.  There is a sense of urgency for winter preparation.

August 14th

Another group of about six Zoms showed up overnight.  This is really odd because it has never been as consistent with groups or multiples.  We have gotten one or two coming together but this is really the first time that they have showed up repeatedly in larger groups.  It almost makes me think that there is intelligence behind it.  We responded as we typically do and ended the threat quickly.

Margo gave me an interesting observation this morning, it was about John.

“He has a rather weird way of killing the Zoms, he attacks from behind and pokes a hole in the back of the skull at the base and then he slashes their throats.”

I know why she told me that and I would be watching for it from now on.

The rest of the day was spent doing busy work like harvesting, loading wood and a host of other menial tasks.  In the afternoon we had another thunderstorm.  It seems that we get one almost every afternoon.  I do not remember that happening before The Event.

August 15th

Last night was quiet, no Biter barking, and no Zoms on the wire.  It was nice to get a quiet night.  This morning over breakfast I talked to Anne about her research.  She said that there really was not a lot going on at this point.  We had nothing new to go on and although she and Major Barkley had periodic talks they were pretty much just a rehash of the same old stuff.  But I did get the scoop on Charlene and the Major, they are hot and heavy.

After Breakfast I stopped by to see Lance.  I wanted to see if we had any photos of the back of Alyssa’s head.  I remember that we took some photos but I did not remember doing a lot of close up stuff.  There really seemed to be no need as the cause of death was pretty apparent.  Unfortunately I could not see anything that would show a wound or blow to the back of the head.

At the lunch meal Teckla announced that the biker group would be joining, there was a little grumbling by a few at first.  But when Teckla laid out the situation and that the bikers could not survive even a mild winter as they were now there was less grumbling.

Another aspect of this which I feel bad in bringing up is the fact that most of the people joining us were women.  And they were of child bearing age. I know it sounds shitty but if we are going to survive, if humanity is going to survive, well, you understand.

August 16th

Again a pretty much typical day, we spent time doing winter preparations like insulation and such.  I cannot believe that it is six months since this mess all started.  We have done well in getting this far.  The harvest, despite the tornado has been pretty successful thanks to Henry and Matt.  We will probably be able to eat through the winter. Nick and Grace, with the help of Arcelia, have been canning things like beans and tomatoes.

Anne and the Major really have nothing new in the research department of what we can do to avoid the disease, other than not die.  Armand and Cody have been working on the electrical systems to keep power up and running should we see severe weather that blocks the solar cells or wind turbines.

I am not sure if I ever discussed that aspect of Camp Romaca.  One of the many reasons that we chose this place had to do with the two wind turbines that existed on a nearby hill.  It has, by our best reckoning, the ability to supply the camp with enough electric power to pretty much run everything, lights, pumps, refrigeration and so on.  The camp also had solar panels on the roofs of many of the cabins that could supply some of the hot water for showers, and washing.

The one problem that I see with the solar cells is that if we have a severe winter, which based on the past few years it’s a real possibility we could see them snow-covered and not working well, or at all.

Taylor and Chelsea arrived today and began to set up their new home.  There was a little interest by some of the single guys, Lance, Ron, and Ethan.  Ah, to be young and have raging hormones.

August 17th

The rest of the biker crowd moved in today. We have to open up a couple of cabins and move some folks around to get enough space for the new additions. Nick moved in with Jan and Fred.  Billy moved in with John, now that is an odd couple for sure.

Anne’s folks talked about moving in with us but five people in one of those cabins was a little tight and we had to have a little chat early on to discuss that.  I love her folks dearly, but they can be a little over the top some times in their need to talk.

We also created Girl’s and Boy’s dorms.  There were a couple of larger cabins that had been for kitchen and specialty staff.  This allowed for Heather, Taylor and Chelsea to create a girl’s cabin and Lance, Cody and Ethan to have a boy’s cabin.  As it turned out, we had enough room with a little bit to spare.

August 18th

Everyone has pretty much moved in and it is clear that there is some polarization of the two factions by some, but for the most part everyone is being cordial and getting along.  One of the things that I noticed very quickly was that Tanya, Anne and Charlene have been spending some time together in some kind of pow-wow.  I am not sure what the nature of it is but a gathering of she-lions cannot be good.  I am sure there will be some tasks for us to come out of it.

It is very difficult to describe the curious interactions by the members of the group.  Some are very clear and obvious.  There are the romantic connections, those are easy to determine.  Many like Frank and Teckla, Anne and I, Nick and, sorry….were established since day one.  Some have been going on for months as in the case of Charlene and the Major, Jan and Fred, or Grace and Armand.  We will start to see some new bonds being made.  It is kind of fun to speculate who will hook up with who, and as long as it works, then good for them.

August 19th

I think the “Air Force’ just got a little wake up call.  Steven arrived this morning at about 10 AM in the helicopter he had been working on.  Scared the be-Jesus out of a few folks who did not know he was working on it.  One of the advantages with the helicopter is that it uses Kerosene for fuel.  This is a much more abundant resource to us than aviation fuel.  In the long term it puts it in a fuel share with most of the cars and trucks that we have gathered over time. It was a morning of chopper rides for those interested.  He did a great job getting it up and running.

Our little community is growing, and we are now up to thirty one.  We have lost a few along the way, but overall our efforts at survival have been pretty successful.  We have withstood attacks from rival groups, small hordes of Zoms, and some weather issues.  But we are yet to face what I am thinking is going to be our greatest challenge and that will be the winter.  A lot of it is going to depend upon what happens with the weather.  A mild winter would be very good but if we get something on the heavy snow or cold side things will be hard.  We are still preparing, and I think that we are moving in the right direction, but staying warm and fed will be a challenge.  We have been kind of spoiled in our abundance so far.

August 20th

Everyone is still settling in and getting used to each other.  I have seen some interactions between a number of the two sides (us and the bikers) and I really should not be saying the two sides, we are all one side now.  We all need to have the same goal of survival of the community.

I stopped by to visit Nick this morning.  He is doing pretty well, not great.  It has not been that long since the loss of Lauren and how does one put the recovery and grieving process in a time line.  I recall the way he dealt with Mom and Dad’s passing and he seems to be handling this better.

Margo has been doing some scouting out on her own. I know that Anne would not be happy about it but she is well suited for the task.  She usually brings back a rabbit or two.  Sometimes Cody goes out with her and it is funny to watch him.  He is really just like a little puppy following her around and at times, I think she kind of likes the attention.

Jan and Fred are doing well.  They have become kind of inseparable. With the reduction in flights Jan has been a little more comfortable with the pilot role that Fred has.  He has been really good to her from what I can see.

I have also noticed that there is already some interaction between the ‘Girls’ and ‘Boys’ Dorms.  Note to self:  next time anyone goes into town, perhaps a little ‘drugstore’ visit would be in order.  Not yet, but soon.

August 21st.

I still have nothing on the murder.  I have nothing to go on, and no way can I really prove anything.  I can only hope for an eventual slip up.  Undead visits have been sparse over the last few days so I have been unable to check out the information that Margo told me about John and his kill methods.

August 22nd

Another storm last night, not terrible, there were no tornados, but it was quite the light show.  We had five Zoms show up on the wire this morning but nothing that we could not easily handle.

Anne, Charlene and Tanya have been talking, and that always scares me (humor).  Tanya had been doing a lot of natural medicine stuff with the other group when they were on their own.  Her thought is that as medications become increasingly difficult to find and with winter coming in it might be a good idea to stock up on herbs and natural remedies. It actually is a good idea.  Not only does it help us out in the short term but also is really something to think about in the long haul.  There will come a time when the old meds that we have acquired run out or just plain expire.  And (I will be positive here) the future generations will need these means of medicating to help them survive.  They have enlisted the aid of the Major who can help them equate certain medical things.  It gives Anne a new research focus for her working with the library.

I should talk about the overall health of the group.  We have all lost weight, and really the fat to weight ratio (BMI?) is excellent.  I know that I was a type two diabetic at the beginning of this mess and now, well, on the last A1C blood check I was normal.  We had acquired a lot of medical materials from small walk-in clinics and hospitals and have been able to do some testing and checking on certain things.  We do not have X-ray or such, but we can check blood sugars, cholesterol, and blood pressures.  It is kind of interesting that the Major has been more “Doc”, a good old fashion country doctor.  Which ironically, it was what he had always wanted to be.

August 23rd

With the new people coming on board, and things kind of settling down there is actually a lot more activity of late.  Or maybe it was there all along and I was just in a haze thinking about the killing of Alyssa.

Henry and Matt have still been bringing in the crops, and Nick has still been putting together miracle meals from ingredients that I would never have considered as workable together.  He probably would have done well in an old world TV series that we knew as ‘Chopped’.

In that series the contestants, all of whom were chefs from small to medium sized venues would compete in making three course meals under a time limit.  They would be supplied with a basket containing four different ingredients that may not have seemed to fit together, like duck, leeks, brown mustard and Reece’s pieces.  Then they were expected to make a dish out of it.  The weakest dish was ‘Chopped’ and that chef sent home.

Mark and Steven have been doing some more work on the helicopter while the rest of the Fly-Boys, as they like to call themselves, have been going throught the fixed wing air craft to make certain they are ready to go.  It seems a friendly little rivalry had begun to develop between the two types of flyers.

Margo has been doing a lot of scouting around the camp. She has turned from nerdling into huntress and often on her trips into the woods came back with some meat.  Her new choice of weapon for these treks is a crossbow.  Cody often accompanies her, and from what I have seen he is not bad in the wild either, but I think sometimes she gets annoyed with him being along.  They seem to have a relationship, but there is something about a little free space and time that she enjoys and is her escape.

I find that this journal is kind of my escape.  It gives me a chance to stretch and exercise my mind a little bit.  But it also allows me to reflect on events, relive or remember things from the past and how it was in the days before The Event. It also sometimes makes me wonder who will ever read this, if anyone.  I like to think that “The Chronicles of Tom” would have been a best seller, but more realistically I just hope that if anyone does ever read it that they understand who we were and how we got as far as we did before…..

August 24th

Word has gotten out about the homeopathic medicine ideas and it has created a little stir,  not because of the idea that we will eventually run out of medications, and for that matter many other “old world things”.  But in some of the ideas and methods that people have thought up for conservation and replacements.

One of the big surprises was Michelle.  She was a stripper in the old world, and has as a result been stereotyped as a few things; not being very bright was one of them.  The others include some questions of her morality, but she seems to have been hooked up with Mark for a while now and she has never been anything but his partner/soul mate.

Anyway, one of the things that we discovered about her is that she was in her college years a botany student with a keen interest in medicinal/herbal agriculture.  She had studied the very complex roles that plants and herbs can play in healing.  As soon as she heard about the project and Anne’s new research pursuit she injected herself in to the group and supplied a list of books that would be very helpful to the work. Be it stereotyping, or whatever else you might consider a number of the women have taken an interest in the project and volunteered to go out and be gatherers.

August 25th

Biter was acting up a little last night around 3 AM.  Lance checked the cameras and the footage and found that there was someone out there; it was clearly not a Zom.  It was moving very smoothly and with purpose.  It just stayed along the fence line near that trail we found behind the shed where Alyssa had been killed.

Lance and I took a walk out there and found a little floral wreath on the door of the shed. When we told everyone about it in the morning it has created quite a stir in the camp.  Interesting the one who seemed most disturbed by it was John.  As a result of the visit, we have re-instituted a wingman policy for anyone leaving the camp, and even recommended that in camp one did not wander around much alone after dark.

Michelle and Anne are going to head up to Hinsdale today to look for some books and information on holistic medicine in the libraries and bookstores.  I am not too happy with that but it does need to be done.  Mark and Steven are going to also go along to play security detail.  The risks are minimal, it does ease the mind a little.

Margo and Cody are going to take a little jaunt in the woods in the area of the shed trail to see if they can find the “ghost”.  From the tapes it definitely appears that the person who put the wreath on the shed was not from the camp.  After talking to Tanya it was clear that all of the old biker gang was accounted for.  This is getting weird, and a little scary.

A storm blew in this afternoon and as a result it was ‘come back home early’ for all the out crews.  Anne and Michelle did find some good stuff but had not reached the library and a couple of books stores.  They are going back tomorrow.

Margo and Cody found some things that are of interest including a few tracks, but those were washed away in the down pour.  Could there finally be a break in the murder case.  Overall it was not a bad day.

August 26th

The book crew headed back out this morning, this time Mark and Billy went with Anne and Michelle.  I spent the morning looking around the area of the shed path that we had seen the…

Sept 9th

It has been a while; I am starting to see the sunlight again.  It has been hard.  I never realized how much our lives had actually been intertwined for these last thirty years.  But now she is gone and I have a lot of good memories and a lot of guilt.  I should have gone with them that day.  I could have, maybe made a difference, and if not, I would still be with her. I have to stop now.

Sept 10th

I am sorry, I am having difficulty with this, but it is baby steps forward.  Anne is gone.  On the second day that they went into Hinsdale to look for books they got separated and Billy and Anne were cornered and overrun by Zoms.  We lost them both.  Mark and Michelle tried, I know they tried, but there were too many.  We all knew in the back of our minds that days like that could happen but we push it down and hope that it isn’t your day.

We have been lucky, but why did it have to be her.  When it happened, I kind of went black.  But I knew I could not leave her out there, in that condition.  They tried to stop me, but I had to go, to make sure that she was at rest, and if possible bring her home to be free.  Margo and Matt forced me to take them with me.

The rescue itself was pretty cut and dry, I, we, brought them both back. It was kind of ironic that the Zoms that had pinned them down were military, we had not seen soldiers, even dead ones in a long time.

This writing helps; I spent a lot of days alone, thinking, grieving, crying.  I’m broken.  But I have a job to do; I have to make certain that Margo and the rest of the group survive.  I have to regain my strength and move forward.

I was not the only one devastated by the events.  Cyril and Arcelia lost their daughter.  It wore heavy on both of them, Margo also suffers, it was her mom.  As the days go by, I see the light going out of Cyril’s eyes.  He is lost, Arcelia seems to be doing better with time, but it is hard on her.  Cody has helped Margo a lot, just being there.  We will get through this, just take those baby steps.  It is getting lighter.

Sept 11th

About a week after we brought Anne back Margo and I sat down at a little campfire and talked.  We talked about her (Anne) and how we met.  It is funny I don’t think that we ever really told her before.  How I had put an ad in the newspaper personals and she answered.  Then we set up a date and she blew me off.  But we tried it again and for as different as we were in almost everything we seemed to have some connections and that connection held for thirty years.  We had our good times and bad times, and times away, but it would always snap back and we would be together again.  We also talked Brandon, and the events that took place with him over the years.  It was a long night and a tear-filled one, but it helped so much.

Today is the 14th year since the World Trade Center attack.  Who knew that we would be where we are right now. Back then we almost and briefly thought it was the beginning of the end of the world.  Little did we know.

For the most part the crops are all in and Nick and Grace are canning and storing the food for the winter.  We are building up the firewood supplies and bringing that in.  There has been a serious effort to winterize …… I’m sorry, I am just filling space with old news...

I have started to clear out the cabin.  It means that I have to remove or just move a lot of the items in the cabin.  That is hard to do because there are some many things that belonged to Anne. Some of those items are treasures that I did not know she had taken with her.  She haunts me, and yet she is a warm spirit.

The Canada Geese have been arriving over the last few days.  I think that it is there time of migration.  God those things are noisy, and there is goose shit all along the edge of the water.  But we have had the chance to have some fresh meat.  I cannot speak for everyone but rabbit and squirrel are getting a little old.  It is a nice change.

It was Matt who came up with the idea of an icehouse for the camp. It is something that will not be all that important this winter except for the harvesting of the ice.  But come spring and summer, it could have a huge impact of preparing for next winter.

Sept 12th

We found John this morning, he was dead.  Mark had run out to that little shed where Alyssa had been killed to get a couple of tools and found him.  He was in the same position as she had been found.  His throat had also been slashed.  Everything, or almost everything, was identical to how we found her.  But there was a note pinned to his chest.  It simply said “That is payback, bitch, Peace.”

Lance ran the videos and we did see John heading toward the shed at about midnight.  It seemed he was nervous because he kept looking around.  He also had his gun with him.  It seemed he had heard something, or he was going there to meet someone.  But there was no one else seen wandering the camp.  It was odd.

Maybe I had been correct and he had killed Alyssa but I had never been able to prove it.  But it was good, I was back in “cop” mode, it was the kick in the ass I needed to start taking big boy steps again.  I knew that there would be times when the sorrow would creep back in, but right now, I was focused.

Lance watched the videos for the entire camp, it was a long and tedious process and he almost came up empty.

Lance came and got me and as we walked back to the surveillance room he said, “I forgot about the camera we repositioned back a month or so ago. Look at this.”

There was one little part in which a shadowy figure was briefly seen moving back into the woods from the shed after John had gone in there.  It was a few minutes after he entered so we could only conclude that it was the killer.  The person moved quickly, and took that same path that the killer of Alyssa had taken.  But looking further he saw no one come back into the camp, or any activity.

That left the note, “This is payback, bitch, Peace”.

What did it mean?  Was this a payback for Alyssa?  It would seem that had to be it.  The note, the position of the body, this was planned, well planned.  The scene said, “This was the person who killed that girl, and now it is his turn.”

I mean it could be that it was a payback for our killing the two snipers that killed Lauren and Marisa, but that made no sense.  And what about the “Peace” part, did that mean not to worry we were at peace, or was it the name of the “Ghost”.  I guess Billy was right about the “ghost”.  There was one, but it was very much alive.

We are now in full wingman mode, no one walks alone.  Well, there are a few of us that tend to go solo, but very few.

Margo came to me and said, “I want to go out and track the Ghost, I am the best person for it, and you know it.”

“Wait” I said. “At this point we needed some time to figure a few things out.  I know that the trail may grow cold, but it just does not seem wise to just run out there willy-nilly.”

In the back of my mind it was if we are really at peace with whomever killed John there is no need other than curiosity of who it might be and the details of the story.  But that is not so much the feelings of the rest of the group and The Three, they want answers.

While I was in the fog, Charlene had stepped back up and replaced Anne in The Three.  It was a logical choice.  There were not many who really wanted it and I was in no condition to even consider it.

I was able to persuade them to take a little time to allow everything to calm a bit, and at least develop some plan to go looking around.  It also gave me a chance to see what, if anything, Steven could do from the air.  If we could find some infra-red stuff, the search could be pretty easy, this is a thinking game rather than rush out and hunt game.

Sept 13th

So much for the thinking game, I do not know if it was a death wish or just old age that came into play but Cyril decided that he and Biter would go out and find the Ghost.  He sneaked off early this morning.  He can hardly see, he is 90 years old and he gets winded easily.  We did not realize what he had done until late in the afternoon.

No one ever expected him to do such a thing, and it was not unusual for him to miss the lunch meal because he was napping.  But when we figured it out we had Lance run the videos to see if we could see which way he went.  When we saw that he had taken the same path behind the shed where Alyssa had been killed, we started to get search teams together.  He could not have gone that far.

As we walked toward the path, there he was.  He was just standing there.  When asked he simply said, “I met the Ghost and she brought me back to the camp.”

Cyril and the Ghost had talked a little and she said that she had been watching the biker group for a while and Alyssa was a friend.  When the bikers joined us she started watching us. She told him that she thought basically we were okay, and would like to meet with us.  But that the first meeting would be just her and Margo, actually she said “The Hunter Girl”.

So now there was a great deal of talk aboutthe Ghost and the idea of the meeting.  Cyril got a good ass chewing from Arcelia, then me, then Margo and probably a couple of others.  But ironically in his stumbling about he had succeeded in his goal.

Sept 14th

Margo left this morning to find the Ghost, or just as likely for the Ghost to find her.  It was about noon time when they walked into camp, laughing and chatting like a couple of long time school friends.  They made an interesting pair, Margo in her brown leather flight jacket, army boots and black jeans while the Ghost looking like a soiled display mannequin from L.L. Bean or Bass Pro in camouflage.

The Ghost, her real name was Delaney, was a little older than Margo, about 17 I would guess.  She was kind of tall and slender, but then at this point slender was the trend for all of us.  Margo made introductions to the group that gathered near the flag pole. It was kind of the central outdoor meeting place with benches and a fire pit.

Delaney began to tell the tale of how she got to where she was.  “Alyssa and I were BFFs at Hinsdale High.”

“We played soccer together.  The team had been coached by him, your John.  He raped and fucked with a number of the other girls. He was a good coach so the school let him get away with it and made us be quiet. Alyssa and I got sent to private schools.   Alyssa was still ‘in love’ with him, was sure that he was going to take her away.”

“I knew it, the rumors were true” whispered Grace, a little louder than she planned.

“When the world turned around, Alyssa ran away toward Hinsdale so that she and John could be together.  When Alyssa was grabbed by the biker gang, I had stayed close.  I saw how they treated her. Sometimes she could sneak away into the woods and we would meet up.  I tried to talk her into running away but she was scared.”

“When the two groups joined Alyssa was very happy to find John and she was going to make it known that they were in love and going to be together forever.  But there was one small problem; John was never interested in that, she was just a booty girl to him. He lured her to the shed and killed her.”

“I saw the two of them go into the shed, I heard her talking to him, telling him her plans and then John came out, in the jumpsuit and that he dumped it in the woods.  At first I thought that they had just met up but Alyssa did not come out of the shed so I checked on her. When I saw, I wanted to hunt him down and kill him right then and there but the discovery of the body and the subsequent frenzy prevented that.  But I made a vow, to Alyssa.”

There was a silence over the group; I am not sure what everyone was thinking.  I had a lot of questions, but what she said all seemed to fit.  She was definitely a survivor and someone who could help us to get through this and the winter.  But the question was what she wanted to do.  She had been on her own for a while.  Did she even consider settling down?  That was a question that would have to be posed.

“I want to head back to my camp.  Margo knows where it was so we can keep in touch.”  And then, she just got up and left.  But before she did she hugged Margo.  They were friends now.

After she left there was a lot of talk among everyone, “What do you think?”, “She is a killer?”, “She is just a kid?”, but in the end it was Cyril who really put it into perspective.  “She saved my life, and what she did for her closest friend was a very honorable thing.  She is a good person who circumstances made do some not so nice things”

Sept 15th

Over breakfast the overwhelming attitude was that Delaney should join us, if she wanted to.  Margo asked “Can I go out to her camp and ask her?”

The idea was agreed to by The Three.

Margo packed up to go after breakfast.  Cody wanted to go too and that seemed a good idea.  But what surprised me was that Lance, Emo, Tech Geek Lance wanted to go too.  He has never been big on playing outdoors.  I think we know what that is all about.

A mundane day at the camp, I did not have much to do so I started going through some of Anne’s stuff.  The clothing was pretty easy I just boxed it up and we put it into a storage cabin.  One never knew what we might need in the future.  There were a couple of her T-Shirts that brought back some fond memories of trips we had taken back before the end of the world.

Years ago, B.M. (Before Margo) Anne and I would head out West and spend a week or so just driving around sightseeing.  We would mostly have a good time but it was like the week was divided into two separate trips.  One half would be just perfect, we would get along and have great times and really seemed like there was that special relationship.  But then the other half it would be a little uncomfortable to not good at all.  The weird part was we never knew which part would come first.  And when we got back home, well that was something else.  We never lived together.  In fact, for the most part, we never even spent all that many nights together yet we hung on for thirty years.

The depression and sadness hit hard when I found the papers that she had brought along.  Years ago I had written a playful little series of children’s stories called “The Unshiny Knight”.  They were sort of a biographical piece about our relationship.  I knew she had kept a copy, but I did not think she had taken it along when we packed to run from South Windsor.

THE FLUFFY MUFFINS

Once upon a time there was an Unshiny Knight.  He had just finished a hard night of keeping the kingdom safe from evildoers and ne'er do wells.  He was very tired. But he had one more mission before he could return to his castle and bond with his two fearsome little lions.

You see he wanted to bring a special treat to his fairy princess.  He thought and thought as he rode along on his proud steed.  At first he thought that a bouquet of flowers would be a pleasant surprise for the princess.  She could awaken to the beautiful fragrance and it would start her day in a very special way.  But look as he could, he was not able to find a flower in the land.  This made the Unshiny Knight very unhappy because he wanted something special for the princess.

As luck would have it however, he happened to ride over a crest in the hill and saw a solution to his problem.  It was the Olde Donut and Bake Shoppe.  An inspiration came over him.

"I will bring my princess a jelly filled donut," he said aloud.

The Unshiny Knight walked into the Shoppe and looked in awe at the many different types of pastries and goodies that were there.  He was all ready to order a jelly filled donut when he remembered that his beloved princess was far too delicate to eat such a greasy thing.  He was crestfallen for a minute until he saw racks and racks of big fluffy muffins.  There was flavor after flavor.

"May I help you?" The cute little bakery maid asked.

"Yes, I would like a muffin please," said the knight.

"Any particular kind?" She asked.

Well this caused the knight to stop and think.  There were so many flavors.  He looked and the first kind he saw was a corn muffin.  But that wasn't a good idea.  Corn would remind her of his sometimes goofy sense of humor.  Then, there was the orange-cranberry.  But that wouldn't do either.  It was much too sour a taste for so sweet a mouth.

There were many other types of muffins.  But one by one the knight decided against them.  Some were too strange flavored.  Some were unpleasant to the eye.  And some were simply awful sounding.

Finally there were only two types of fluffy muffins that the knight had not discounted. The first was a blueberry muffin.  The knight had fond memories of the times that he and the princess had gone to pick fresh blueberries.  He thought that this was the perfect muffin for his beloved.  He was about to order one from the bakery maid.  But then he saw the tag on the last muffin tray.  He knew at once that this was the type of muffin he would bring his princess.

The Unshiny Knight bought the muffin and rode on toward the princess's castle.  He smiled and sang to himself as he rode.  He made up the song as he went along.

I found the perfect pastry,

For my love, it's tasterly. (It is not a great song)

Honey, just as sweet as she is,

I know it because of her kisses.

There are raisins mixed in for fruit,

And bran to keep her healthy to boot.

As the knight arrived at his princess's castle she was at first surprised by the muffin.  She hadn't expected it.  She was even more surprised by the flavor.  But after she heard why he had picked that flavor she knew that he truly did love her.

The knight had picked that particular flavor because it was the healthiest kind in the Shoppe.  And he wanted to keep his fairy princess as healthy and beautiful for as long as he could.

But just in case she didn't buy that particular story he also had bought a blueberry muffin, a chocolate chip muffin and a maple walnut muffin.  The knight remembered an old family saying "when a scheme is half baked, don't let the muffins fall as they may."

There were also a number of old letters that I had sent her, and some photographs of the two of us, and the three of us.  I moved the box under my bed.  It was in some ways like she, and our love was still there.

It was mid-afternoon when I finally was in any shape to walk back into the sunlight.  I was just in time for the return of Margo and friends.

Lance said “Delaney wants to visit us a little more, but is not quite ready to join our little community.”

I was so busy with things of my own I paid no attention to what everyone else did or was doing during the day.

Sept 16th

We had about six Zoms show up this morning; they hit the wire from the north east, it was a quick kill and burn.  As I have stated, the last few weeks have been kind of a loss to me because of losing Anne. I don’t think I ever really showed in this journal how much I loved her or how important her presence was to me.  I should have gone with her on that trip to Hinsdale; I might have made the difference.

Margo and I spent most of the day just working on the cottage, getting it winterized and ready.  I have already noticed that the nights are getting to be a little on the cool side.  I worked on getting sheets of clear plastic over the window and on insulating the walls.  Many of us have put an artificial ceiling in with insulation on top.  That should also help.  We are about 90% done with the cabin.  While Margo and I worked on the cabin we talked about all kinds of things.

I asked her, “What do you think about Delaney killing John.”

“I’m good with it, it was a necessary thing,” she said rather matter of fact.

It was not the answer I expected.  “In what way?”

“He was evil.  He had done evil things and had to pay for it, same as my father, he was going to do something terrible and you stopped him. ”

I had to think about that one a little.  She was right in that Brandon was an imminent threat and had to be stopped.  But I could not make the connection that John’s behavior toward Alyssa was any longer an immediate threat.  But then as I thought about it, we were in a different world, and what would we have done if we actually could prove he did kill her.  Would we just say, “Okay John, just don’t do it again?”

No, we would either have to terminate him or exile him, which would be pretty much the same thing.  So in a lot of ways Delaney made the choice and did the deed for us.

We finished the cabin winterizing in time for dinner.  I was thinking that we need to get a few people to give us a hand and we could get Cyril and Arcelia’s unit ready.  A work party of four or five of us could knock in off in about a day.  But there was going to be a problem, not so much the setting the building up but more the keeping them warm.

Cyril has been anemic for a while and is very susceptible to cold.  So even when we got it all done and if we can keep the unit at like 80 degrees he is probably going to still be complaining that it is freezing.  There is not much else we can do.  The other aspect is that as he is so cold, well, his hygiene could go out the window.  This is not going to be good.

I talked to Matt about the cabin re-fit at dinner and he said that he would have some help and we could take care of it tomorrow.

Sept 17th

It was a mystical morning; there was a fog on the lake and with the trees turning. It was just beautiful.  There was a little nip in the air.  I thought back to one of the trips that Anne and I took so many years ago.  We were in the mountains of Montana (Glacier National Park) and there was a similar pond.  I remember that the glacier run off made the water was so clear and a beautiful shade of blue.  Miss you girl.

We got going on Cyril and Arcelia’s cottage and had it pretty much finished by the late afternoon.  There are still a few things that need to be looked into.  In thinking about it there was an idea of putting a hot tub in there for Cyril so that he could keep warm but I was not so sure that was a great idea because knowing him he would be in there for hours at a time and with his heart issues and blood pressure, it is likely we could find him floating like a boiled sausage.  “Doc” Barkley (aka the Major) pretty much confirmed this not to be a good idea.

I have not mentioned it much but Nick is back into full cooking mode and he is really doing a great job.  Between the crops we have put away, a little of the old world foods (canned and otherwise) and the fresh meat that the huntresses are bringing in we are good.

He and I talk a lot about the loss of loved ones. We have helped each other over this hurdle, or perhaps a better way of saying it is that we are helping each other over it.  Talking about it is sometimes very painful, but it is like cleaning a serious wound.  You have to scrape away the scab and dead flesh to get the new skin to grow.  The chats do that scrapping and allow for the healing to take place.

Sept 18th

Delaney showed up this morning with a small pig that she had killed and turned it over to Nick.  He would have to the gutting, but it was going to be worth it.  The first thought was that we should have a pig roast.  But then we started thinking long term and wondered if we could smoke it and cure it, or would it be cure it and smoke it.  We could make some bacon and ham out of it but the pig roast won out in the end.

There was a moment of awkward when someone suggested that we have Anne research how we would go about it.

It was Matt and Henry who actually already had the answer of the how to do it, it was just something, one of many things that we had not made the time to put together.  So while Nick and Grace butchered up the pig, Henry and Matt made a little smoke house to cure the parts we wanted to prepare.

Lance spent every moment he could hanging out with Margo and Delaney, but it was not so much to be with Margo.  When Delaney was asked if she wanted to take a hot shower, I can imagine what was running though his mind.

It was the first hot shower or bath that she had taken in about 8 months.  And Jan and Margo made certain that she had all the soap, shampoo, and girlie things that she needed. It was almost like it was a spa day for her.  The three of them laughed and giggled.  Grace also stuck her nose in and ended up doing her hair. By the end of the “girl’s time” you could hardly tell that this girl had spent the last 8 months in the woods, camping and surviving alone.

She walked over to Lance who was waiting near the flagpole and asked him what he thought. The only thing he could get out through the stuttering was “Awesome”.  The fact that she did that seems to show that she might be interested; talk about apples and oranges though.

I include here a little information on butchering a pig and also how to cure/smoke the parts.  Some of the extra parts that are not listed are simply used to make sausage or a sort scrapple.

Wet curing involves the immersion of the meat in salty water brine. Meat is submerged in the brine for around 3-14 days, during which time the meat needs to be kept submerged, and the brine mixture agitated periodically to prevent separation of the ingredients.

Ham can also be preserved through the smoking method, where it is placed in a smokehouse (or equivalent) to be cured by the action of smoke.  This one is a little trickier because we are working from best guess on time in the smoker and the temperature.  Henry seems to think it is just a couple of days; Matt seems to think a little longer.

Sept 19th

As the hams began to cure, a thought came up about the prospect of an issues that I had certainly never considered.  During the winter we will be really limited in fruits and vegetables.  That does not sound like much but that could mean is that there could be nutritional issues.   The question is about things like Vitamins C and D.  We no longer can just run down to the Piggly Wiggly or Stop and Shop to pick up a gallon of OJ, or milk.  And then without fresh fruits and vegetables we could be looking at fiber issues.

I know I sound like an 8 year old, but we could be faced with poop issues.  It is actually kind of funny when you think about it.  But it should be considered. The plan was that we should head to one of those Vitamin Centers or General Health Shops and load up on whatever we can in vitamin and nutritional supplements

I hate this idea, I really do, I am really worried that if we send a team into a local mall or a shopping center it will not end well.  We could lose people, more people.  And yet in my heart I know that it is something that needs to be done.  We just need to be careful.

They did not invite me to go on this trip.  They told me I have already done so much over time, but I can see another reason why, I am not happy about it, their reason that is.  I think they feel I have lost my edge, that if it got to be a hot zone I would not be able to act or react to the situation.  I think they are wrong, I am fine, but I will not push this for now.

The team is actually going to be made up from the Hinsdale folks.  They had a better idea of what was where and will be able to get in and out quickly.  It does make sense, and they have been through as much as the rest of us.  Armand, Joseph, Michelle and Ethan made up the team and they will head on out early tomorrow morning.  They will take the Hummer and one other truck and grab all that they could.

The Doc, Major Barkley really wanted to go, but he was talked down from it.  He is too valuable. It is kind of funny that some folks have just by their nature become too valuable to send out on these missions.  Charlene (nurse, medic), Lance (tech), the Doc (duh), and Nick (nutrition, feeding the masses), each have become so specialized and such a key player that they’re pretty much irreplaceable.  That is not to say that there are others who are just as specialized, but those specialties include certain risks.  The flyboys and Steven are going to have their own dangerous things to face.   Henry and Matt with their farming skills are also very valuable.  We all have our spots.

I am going fishing.

Sept 20

The scavenger crew was off early to raid the health food stores and pharmacies.  The drug stores have pretty much been stripped of their medical items long ago but no one ever considered the nutritional items until now.

The weather today was just one of those beautiful early fall mornings with the crisp air, the haze rising off of the lake and the leaves are really colorful this year.  It may be just that we have been so busy in our hurried little lives and failed to notice how beautiful nature was, or it could be just the location and the amount of rain we have received this year.

The Three has said that we will have a group meeting at the end of the month to talk about the winter preparations and what we need to get done in final tweaks before the snow flies.  I think we are in good shape overall but the announcement has put all of us in to thinking mode of what else will be needed or what we did not plan for.

Delaney came into camp about noon time and brought some of her stuff to start getting set up to live.  No sooner did she set foot in the camp and Lance was out of his tech cave and following her around.  We have assigned her to move into the “girls” dorm.  I am not sure how well that is going to work, the girl of the wilds moving in to the hen house but we shall see.  After dropping her stuff off she and Margo went out to do some hunting.  Although I think it was more a little bonding of the huntresses.   By mid-afternoon they were back with a few rabbits and a woodchuck.

Later in the afternoon the scavenging crew was back with a truck load of items from vitamin A to Zinc and lots of stuff in between.  Apparently there was also a bookstore next to the vitamin store so they checked that out.  They brought back a number of books on survival, and holistic medicines.  They also brought back a number of books for reading pleasure.  They added Game of Thrones, Asimov’s Foundation Series, Lord of the Rings and a number of other assorted classics as well as some not so classics to the small collection of reading material that we had in our “library”.  Actually it was a good idea because it could get very boring come January.

Delaney left about 7 PM.  She is going to move the rest of her stuff in tomorrow and will be officially one of us.

Sept 21st

It was another beautiful and crisp morning here in “Camp Happy”.  We have not been seeing the number of storms and rainy days that we saw back in August and July but it also seems to me to be a little cooler for September.  I don’t know, without any statistical data it is difficult to tell where we are weather wise.

I am still not certain that with all the activities of the spring with the burning of the cities and subsequent fires that we have not truly made a climate change.  I am not talking about the man-made one that used questionable and tweaked data to create a money making redistribution of wealth, but a true environmental change.  Perhaps this entire event has been the Earth / Gaia trying to heal itself by cleansing itself of the human virus that has for so many years been making her ill.

I know it sounds far-fetched but it is a thought that has been in my head for a long time.  Perhaps come winter while we are trapped inside I will put together the entire idea in the way of an organized theory.  Of course when I do that it will be more a subjective opinion because we no longer had the ability to gather broad based data.

At lunch I noticed that there were some quiet discussions taking place between The Three, Lance and Doc.  I have no idea what it is about.  I have been kind of kept out of the loop after Anne left us. No wait, after she was killed. I need to face that reality head on and not keep candy coating it, not that you can really candy coat such a thing.  But I have been less relied on for a while now and I am not sure if it is because of her death and a fear that I am no longer playing at full capabilities. It may be just my imagination, I will have to do a little discreet inquiry.

Later on in the day I was able to find out that the radiation levels in the area were up.  Most of the camp is blissfully ignorant about it but the levels have been up for a week or so and there are the beginnings of a concern about it.  The idea of getting area readings again has been floated and the flyboys are starting to prep their planes.  Tomorrow the planes will fly out toward the west in several different directions and try to get some readings.

Had a nice talk with Anne tonight, she still listens well.

Sept 22nd

The radiation levels are still on the high side but it is not a real danger unless it becomes a long term issue and then we will need to move.  But before anything like that we need to find the source.  My gut feeling is that somewhere in New York or Pennsylvania there is a nuclear reactor that has melted down and that is the source.  That would be a bad thing and means it is time for us to either move west, beyond the facility, or maybe try to move further north.  I think we would have to get west of the Mississippi to truly be out of harm’s way and that could be a big challenge.

We had a couple of Zoms on the fence line today; it has been a while since that has happened.  But they were quickly dispatched. Overall it was pretty boring.

Sept 23rd

I think we are officially into autumn now, it was either yesterday or today.  I can keep track of the date, and pretty much the day of the week but some of the holidays and special days, not so much.

I have noticed that I am becoming more and more isolated from the group as time goes on.  Part of it is certainly me; I do not want to push myself onto folks.  The youngers are all kind of hanging out together, and we all have our stuff to do.  Unfortunately, I do not have a specialty like some of the others, nor do I have a project.  Henry and Matt are making the smoker / curing station and shed. Nick has the food stuff, Teckla and crew are The Three, Frank seems to find building projects and there is the Fly Boys and Stephen.  But me, well there is nothing.  I need a task.  I am sure that not having Anne around is not helping my mindset, and Margo is off with Cody and Delaney.

I think I will go fishing……again…… maybe this time I will catch one.

Sept 24th

I packed up the truck this morning, I just wanted to get away for a little bit.  We have not really done much scouting around the area for some time and I figured that the ride might do me some good mentally. I am missing something, a detail, there is something going on and my little voice is giving me a warning but I am just not seeing it.

I took a radio, one of the police type, thinking that there may still be some repeater devices available and I would still be able to call in to the camp if I was so inclined.  I loaded a 55 gallon drum of diesel, just in case.  I am going to drive west to the Hudson, get some feel for the river and what bridges might be open to the north.  While I am at it will be a scavenger run.

I left about 8 am after breakfast and just headed west on the Mass Pike.  I wanted to recheck what the I-90 Bridge and the rail bridge looked like.  When I got there, I did some measuring and found that it could be crossed but it would be kind of tricky and you really needed a large wide vehicle (like my F-350) to do it but I figured today was not the day to try to make that crossing, especially alone.

When the Fly Boys were up a couple of months ago they had given some reports of some other bridges up in the Albany area so I headed a little further north and found that there were a couple that were intact.

The bridge from Rensselaer to Albany was still standing but completely blocked and not passable.  It looks like they tried to open all lanes coming out of the city for evacuation purposes.  The cars and trucks on that bridge were burned out so it had to be near to the blast site.

I continued further north and found a second bridge, the Patroon Bridge that goes from Troy into northern Albany.  Like the first bridge it also had been opened up to traffic only aimed at allowing escape from the city.  I was going to turn around and start back south but I saw a sign that caught my interest.  It was for the Waterlveit Arsenal; I decided to go just a little further north and see if there might be one more bridge that I could get across.

I came to the Menard Bridge which is about 20 miles to the north of Albany. The outbound lanes were completely blocked.  But the inbound were not so bad and with a little weaving I was able to get through.  The idea of a potential arsenal had really made me curious.  It might be a memorial, or an old Revolutionary War site, but I had to see.  Even if it is a museum a big ass old claymore sword would be a cool thing to have.

I twisted my way back toward Albany and was able to find the main gate.  It was partially blocked by various light armored vehicles.  It appears that a stand was made here.  There were a lot of bodies, military and civilian.  Most had been burned but the burning looked more like it was done recently, long after the nuclear detonation.  My guess was that the military held this facility for a long time.  Perhaps there had been underground bunkers where they were protected.  Maybe they figured it was safe or they ran out of supplies and had to come out.  I had better step up my game because this could be a risky place to be.  The dead seemed to be, well dead, quiet and still.

I found a bronze plaque near the gate and was able to get some historical information on the place.  The Arsenal was founded during The War of 1812. It turns out it is about 8 miles north of Albany and is very near the Hudson River. On the grounds are offices, storage areas, and a museum tracing weapon types from the 17th century through modern times. It also contains the Army’s Benet Lab which did product development, improvement, research, and testing. It was still used to aid in the development of high powered weaponry for tanks and mortar systems.

I doubt that I could or for that matter would want to take one of the armored vehicles at the gate.  But I did take some time to scavenge through the Humvees and other vehicles.  I had to be careful with that because a number of them were still ‘occupied’.  I was able to come up with about 500 rounds of 50 cal belted ammunition, a bunch of 223 rounds for M-16s, a half dozen hand held rocket launchers and about 20 claymore mines.  They could be very useful at the camp if we found we were being overrun by a large horde.

I had all of that equipment loaded up by about 2 pm and figured I still had an hour to look around.  I thought it might be good if I could find the infirmary and maybe the commissary/PX.  The infirmary was going to be a no go for today, there was a large group of Zoms surrounding it.  So I tried to find the PX, I did and it was looted already.  It amazes me that in the end of the world some people were worried about the next pack of smokes.

That infirmary thing bothered me, why would there be so many Zoms around that building unless there was someone in there.  But how could I find out without alerting the surrounding Zoms I was there.

I drove back toward the front gate and found a HumVee with a radio in it.  The hummer had enough battery life to get the radio working.  I tried transmitting on the original frequency that the radio was on.  Just a simple “Hello, can you hear me.”

At first nothing, then suddenly there was a desperate female voice on the radio.  “Yes, yes, I am here, I am alive.  But my situation is not good, almost a Broken Arrow. They are close.” I could hear the fear in her voice.

“I am guessing you’re in the infirmary”

“Yes, and I am the last one.”

She told me that her squad had managed to get back there and secure themselves but that one of her squad had taken a bite and had turned.  He had infected the rest of the squad and they were all dead.

“As they turned, I had to kill them, one, by one.” I could tell from her voice that she was in tears.

“Have you been bitten or scratched?”

“No,” She whispered.

I asked about the doors and exits from the infirmary.  She said that there were three.  One was the main door, which I had seen and it was zombies four deep, not an option.

The second entrance was on the west side and there also was a garage door to the rear for deliveries.  I looked at the side door, it was two deep, not a good option.  I could see also that the one story building had movement on the roof.  There had been a squad on the roof trying to hold that and use it as a defensive position but that had failed.

The only option was the garage door and that would be tricky, there were a half dozen Zoms back there, and I could eliminate them quickly, but in doing so it would be sending a lunch bell to the Zoms nearby.

“Ok, I have a plan”

She started to tell me who she was but I cut her off, “Not until you are safe,” I told her.

“The cavalry is going to roll up in a big red truck,  I am going to take out the Zoms by the door, as soon as you hear the first shot, open the garage door and make for the truck, passenger side, jump in and we roll on out, Got it?”

“Yep, I scared!”

“Piece of cake,” I was scared too, just had to be strong.

As I am writing, this I obviously was successful in not getting myself killed, the pick-up actually went pretty smoothly and we were on our way out of the facility.  She was a petite thing, about five foot tall, but in the uniform it was hard to tell much else about her.  She was well, cute I guess, as many Asian women are.

It was then that I finally asked her who she was.  Corporal Asuna Yagami, she had been part of the MP team that was assigned to guard the main gate.  Her CO had taken a bullet to the arm, or so he claimed.  She and a few others had brought him to the infirmary and that was when they discovered he had actually been bitten.  It was too late.

We made our way across the Menard Bridge and I stopped the truck in a nice open area on the highway.  It gave us a view of the river, but more importantly plenty of open space to see Zoms if they started coming for us.  I was not sure if she was going to come with me back to the camp.  I needed to get to know her a little more.  So I brought out a couple of sandwiches and we ate. We talked a little about what she had seen, what had happened in the area.

“I am here from the Japanese Defense Forces, I was in training at the Arsenal when the shit hit the fan. Our people were assigned to help with holding the Arsenal.”

She went on; “We had moved into the underground bunker complex on the day of the detonations.  The army had deemed that they would be safe there and protected from the blast that was scheduled.”

It had in fact worked and the troops survived.  They had plenty of supplies and were able to do quite nicely for months, although it got pretty boring and close in the bunker. Over time the brigade begin to break down and split into different groups.  The regular army and my unit were not too bad, they held together the longest, but the reservist and the Guard (National) guys begin to separate themselves and eventually they decided to leave the bunker.

“We had been in regular contact with West Point, not so much the military academy but the part where the silver reserves were stored.  They had also been tucked away in a bunker.”

She said that the communications were regular between the two bases as well as some others that were tucked away in secure facilities in the Northeast.  Fort Drum was far enough away from any atomic explosions that they had not sought to go underground feeling that they could hold their own.  They were the first to go silent. That was back in May or June.

Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania was the next of their contacts to blink out.  They had been in a mountain area about 25 miles from Harrisburg.  I remember going to a couple of law enforcement training classes there back in the 90s. That base was used as a helicopter training facility.

It was a nice facility, but really not much of a fort.  It was more an airfield. The aircraft there were mostly helos so they could have escaped to other locations.  But there were a couple of brief messages about high radiation problems.

“I think that they left or were overrun, that was in July.”

By mid-August the reservists made a break and left the bunker at Waterlveit.  The CO, Colonel Johnson had let them go.  He saw the writing on the wall and supplies were starting to get a little thin.  The original plan was that the army (and her unit) would remain in the bunker to the beginning of September.  The army figured that 6 months was long enough for things to settle out and then they could begin the clean-up process.  The clean-up did not go as well as planned, and well, it was the Army that got cleaned up.

We had finished eating and it was time to go.  “Do you want to continue back to my camp, or is there somewhere else you want to go?”

It was kind of a dumb question but it needed to be asked.  So we piled back into the truck and started back toward camp.  We talked on the drive and she gave me some biographical information on herself.  She was a mortar systems specialist. She had been up in the area for the year.

“I have been divorced about five years ago and am 32 years old.”

“Do you like red wine and walks on the beach?” I asked.

I got this incredulous look, and then she laughed, hard, and broke down.  I pulled over and while she cried I just held her.  The pressure valve just popped.  I held her as she sobbed uncontrollably but just holding on and letting this person touch me made me feel guilty, I missed Anne and felt I was kind of being unfaithful just being close to this woman.

After a while she regained some control, then there was quiet.  I started the truck and we continued on back toward camp.  We arrived at about 7:30 and it was getting dark.  I introduced Asuna to The Three and then to the other “campers”.  I could see from Arcelia’s face that she was a little unsettled by my showing up at camp with a woman. Margo seemed okay with it, I think she saw it for what it really was; I had found a stray in danger and took her in.  When we got to Major Barkley, Asuna snapped to attention and gave him a crisp salute.  It kind of surprised him and he told her to relax, his command had ended and he was just “Doc” now.  How or why she recognized him I am not sure, but that would come out soon enough.

We unloaded the truck with the items that we brought back.  The munitions and supplies were put in their proper place.  I talked Nick into warming up some leftovers.   We set up a little sleeping space for Asuna in the “Girls Dorm”.  I headed off to my cabin about 9:30.  It had been a long day.  But that only left me victim of 20 questions by Margo.  The first was why I had taken the ride in the first place.

Sept 25th

After breakfast I was dragged before The Three and although I was praised for the munitions and things that I had brought back to camp I was also given a “stern” talking to about my going out scavenging on my own.  They did not like my “well, everyone was busy and I was bored” excuse.  But like what were they going to do, take my keys away and ground me.

I have decided that I am okay with the cabin but I want to experiment a little and design a place of my own.  I asked if there was a little spot I could use and was granted permission.  I had a couple of ideas in mind.  The first was to try to create a yurt. I had years ago, actually not that many, had considered buying a little piece of property in the Southwestern US and living in one.

At first I was not certain that the idea of a tent type structure was all that practical in the Northeast but then the design was from the steppes region of Mongolia.  So I guess that is really not that insane an idea.  I spent the morning kind of drawing out what I was thinking for a plan, and trying to put together ideas for materials.  I remembered that in the original design layers of felt were used for the walls over a wooden frame.  I am certain that felt in that quality would be a problem to find.  But I was also thinking that a raid on the local Home Depot or Lowes would provide some viable alternatives like fiberglass insulation as well as other traditional building materials.

I was sitting over in the corner of the lunch room playing architect when I noticed or sensed someone looking over my shoulder.  It was Asuna. She bowed slightly.  I saw that she had a couple of cups of coffee and asked if she could sit down.  I asked her how she slept and how she was doing.  She smiled and said it was the best night sleep that she had experienced in about a month, and commented that Chelsea snores like a chainsaw.

She asked what I was doing and I explained that I was designing a kind of tent thing that would be good in winter but also fairly easy to move.  She listened and smiled.  She hung out with me for a while and then said that she had to report to the Major to see if there was any Army stuff she was needed for.  I chuckled because at this point the Army stuff was done.

The Major, acting as the Major asked her a bunch of questions about what was or had happened in the bunker.  The question of how they might have communicated with other such units came up.  It was via a satellite link that had been set up in an array at the base. Asuna could not tell him a lot about the workings or if there was a lot of air traffic, but she did know that the CO was becoming increasingly concerned over time because one by one the other bunkers were becoming quiet.

In the beginning there was chatter from about 20 locations in the Northeast.  But as time went on there was only one left, that was in the Pittsburgh area where the Iron Mountain underground storage facility was. Fort Knox was or seemed to be in the mix somehow also, but she was not sure how.

I finished the yurt design by about two in the afternoon and looked around the camp for the proper site to build it.  There are a couple of design issues that I am not sure make this workable. The first is that if a horde showed up it is not likely that it would offer much resistance or security.  The design would be able to resist a few Zoms pushing at it, but there would be limits.

It would also have the issue of only one escape route.  I think that it would be cool looking, and it would have some real advantages in terms of heating and in ease of relocation.  But I need to think more about it.

Sept 26th

We lost Arcelia last night.  She just went to sleep and did not wake up.  It was our first “natural causes” death. Cyril is lost and I fear that he will not be far behind her.  It seems that in nature that when one of a bonded pair dies, the other loses their will to live.  We are all sad, and quiet.  Biter is staying very close to Cyril.  Even Skittle and Rosy, the cats, seem to know.  Matt did a really nice ceremony for her at sunset.

Margo and I are doing ok with it, or as much as can be expected. Arcelia had always been there for Margo and this loss on top on the recent loss of Anne has to be harder on her that she is showing.  Delaney, Jan and a couple of the others are circling the wagons around her and it seems to be helping.

Sept 27th

It is still quiet in camp.  There was not much to report, it was a rainy day and not much work of any kind got done.  I am still thinking about the tent (yurt) idea and wonder if instead of the wooden lattice a chain-link fence type structure would work.  The other option is to make change from a tent to a sort of Navajo Hogan, but that would be permanent and as a result there would be no mobility advantage.

I checked in with Margo and she is doing ok.  We talked about Meme (Arcelia) a little, her love of the Red Sox, the casino and some of the vacations that we had all taken.  I was reminded of the many times that we managed to get ourselves in hot water over things.  We laughed over the time we were in Arizona and Margo and her grandfather were fighting over a squirt bottle.  In an effort to gain control I pulled over to the side and did a theatrical exit from the car faking that I was angry over the situation.   I took heat for that one for a few days.

In the end Margo told me that she understood that it was her time, and that we all face death sooner or later.  “It was good that she died the way she did, so peacefully, not like Mom.”

But that did not make it a lot easier, she was gone and it hurt.  Oh, how I know the feeling.

At dinner Asuna sat down next to me.  I realized that for whatever reason I have of late been a kind of hermit to everyone.  I sat in my corner, alone, and ate.  I wandered the camp alone.

She asked, “Are you okay?”

It was kind of weird.  We talked for a little while about nothing in particular.  It was just nice just to talk.

Sept 28th

I think last night taught me something, so as I had breakfast, actually after my first coffee, tried to get involved in chatting and being a little sociable again.  I talked with Teckla and Frank, complemented Nick and Grace on their breakfast efforts and I sat down and ate with Margo and Cody.  When Asuna came in, I invited her to sit down with us.  I am trying and although at times the conversations and efforts felt forced it was good.

In sitting with the group I was picking my head up out of the misery that I had been allowing myself to experience over the loss of Anne. I thought about the lost that Cyril was suffering over Arcelia’s death.  I knew what that was about.

I noticed that there were other pair bonds that existed like Frank and Teckla, they had existed long before the end of the world and continued even now.  And I saw from the early days of the post escape from Camp Danahee there were bonds that had grown out of that, like Fred and Jan.   There were connections made with the union of the groups from Hinsdale and Peru with Mark and Michelle or Doc and Charlene, Margo and Cody as well. It appeared Lance and Delaney seemed to be heading toward that type of a relationship.

I even think that the working in close proximity had created a bond between Nick and Grace, which could be a problem down the road with Armand.  It came to me that there is a basic human need to be in some form of a bonded relationship.  Although we like to think that we might be able to survive effectively alone there has to be something, someone.  What was the old Simon and Garfunkel line about “I am a rock, I am an island, and a rock feels no pain, and an island never cries”.  I tried that and it still hurt, and there were tears, sharing those pains and tears made it easier to live with.

After breakfast I started to consider where I was going to put my tent.  Then I realized that the effort that would go into it was really more of a waste of time than anything else so I stopped.  I rolled the plans up and put them away.  I would spend this winter in the cottage that I had.

It was wonderful day weather wise and I tracked down Asuna and asked her to join me at my fishing spot.  I wanted to see if I could finally out think the trout that were taunting me.  And it would be a good chance just to spend time with someone, well actually I could talk Frank or Ron into going but, well we were both kind of alone.

She accepted even though she quickly said that she had no idea about fly fishing.  As it turned out, we never even really got into the stream but rather we spent the day just talking, walking and remembering.  It was a good remembering about days before The Event and happy times when we were growing up.

Sept 29th

We had some Zoms hit the wire last night, and that was quickly resolved.  Overall the camp is secure and we have not had much in the way of trouble at all.  And now I am wishing I had not said that.  There is a tendency for Easy Street turning to shit very quickly.  So hopefully I am just being superstitious on this and nothing bad is going to come out of it.

One of the things that have come out of The Event is that we all seem to be a lot healthier.  I am unable to produce specific statistical data on this, but it just seems that we have fewer colds, flu bugs and those common aches and pains that we had in the past.  We all get more exercise and eat much more moderately.  We do not have many of the same sugary, floury based foods available to us.  I think that is huge.  Salt is also an item that is used much more sparingly than it had been in the days of a Big Mac and fries.

We are still prone to injuries like cuts and bruises and need to be mindful of infections as a result.  But with the limited supplies of antibiotic medications they are used much less frequently.  I remembered reading about various virus and bacteria developing resistance to the antibiotics that were so easily and often over-prescribed before The Event.

Even so, I have to check with Doc Barkley and see if he wants us to make a scavenger run on the infirmary at Waterlveit.  It would be a little hot getting in and out, but it may be worth it. The Doc thought it was worth the trip, but he also felt that it was important that we also try to salvage the communications equipment that was there.  If there were other bunkers or command centers that had been established, there had to be some that were still up and running.  We could have a means of talking with them, and we could join in the rebuilding of civilization.

The weather was good today and the Fly-Boys took off to get some readings on the radiation.  Today they are going to head to the west and northwest to get base readings.  This is to start developing some basics of the radiation readings.  The plan is for them to each head out for one hundred miles in a straight line from due west to due north with 30 degree spokes on the wheels.  Then tomorrow they will do the same thing from due west to due south.  Every five minutes they will take a reading from the GPS and also from their radiation counters.  When they get back the plan is to plot the data and see what, if any differences it indicates.  The maps will be updated each week for the next month noting weather and wind conditions.  I am not sure what it will all tell us when we are done.  But it is something.

A little spat today at cabin # 8, the cabin that Grace and Armand live in.  It did not seem like much more than a shouting match and I have no real interest in what it was all about.  When you have people living in such close proximity, there are bound to be some issues.  It could be something as simple as leaving the toilet seat up or as complicated as “I hate you and get your hands off me”, as long as no one gets hurt.

Sept 30

Asuna and I had breakfast this morning and in the course of it I mentioned the idea of going to the infirmary at Waterlveit.  It was initially not received well, and after being the sole survivor I could understand her not wanting to go back.  I tried to explain what I was thinking and why.  She said that there was a pretty good supply of medical goods there.

“I had not expected you to go after what you went through.  Besides, before anything we needed to talk it over with The Three and with Doc Barkley.”

Based on the look I got I think I may have said something wrong in there and I am guessing that it had to do with her not going.

We approached The Three later that morning and told them what we had come up with. They seemed to think it was a good idea from the standpoint of the medical supplies and perhaps a few other things that we could obtain but the risk factors were not something that they were happy about.  The book run that killed Anne and Billy was brought up and I had to admit that I saw where they were coming from.  But those supplies could do so much good and were really needed.

“Well here is my plan.  We will have Steven fly a team of four into the base and we would enter the building.  While we were in there he would hover the chopper in the front of the building and make a distraction.”

I figured that should take care of the Zoms on the outside.  Once inside, we grab what we need and then radio Steven to come get us.

Asuna said, “There was a hatchway to the roof and we could get in and out from there.”

We would be in the building for at most 30 minutes.  It was left that The Three would consider the plan and get back to us on it.  It was not something that needed to be done immediately so there was no rush.  Right now everyone was focused on the radiation issue.

The Fly Boys were grounded today, the weather was not great and it seemed that there might be rain coming in so it was a plane maintenance day.  It also gave Lance and Ethan time to make a grid map to add data to trace the direction of the radiation.  Margo, Delaney and Cody went out hunting.  They were looking for another pig to butcher and brine/smoke.  Taylor is doing an inventory of supplies and trying to project out what we need as a bare minimum for food, power and water. Nick and Grace were helping them.  Fred and Jan were working on the planes, as was Ron, Frank Armand and Ethan.  Steven was also helping out with that.

I spent the afternoon talking to Asuna about the layout inside the infirmary and what we were looking at for a Zom sweep before we could start digging around.  We worked out a little map to show the inside of the building.  Stephen and Doc joined us because I knew that Doc wanted to see if we could somehow get the satellite link.  But that part might be just to photo the area and then once we knew what we were looking at it could be a second trip.

Later in the day I looked at my watch and well it was still 2:37.  I guess that the battery had finally given up the ghost.  I had not thought about it rather just taking the whole watch thing for granted.  I am regretting having left my Rolex in the drawer when we packed up from down in Connecticut.  But then having been retired and no set places I had to be I really did not need a watch.  It was something that I had forced myself to carry after The Event.  I guess I will have to find a new one.

There was not much else of significance that took place.

Oct 1st

The weather was good today and the Fly Boys did the second part of the trip, this time the spokes of the wheel went West to South.  It seemed that it was going to be a milk run after the first trip, but something happened.  About an hour into the flight, which would have been the turnaround point we got a Mayday from Armand.

“I am losing hydraulic pressure, his plane was becoming unstable.” He radioed in.

“Can you make it back?” Frank responded.

No, I don’t think so, I am losing altitude, looking for a place to set down.”

Steven began to warm up the chopper for a rescue mission.  Charlene and Matt were going to go with him.  That would give fire support as well as medical skills if needed.

The last message that we got from him was his location and a request to tell Grace “I’m sorry, I really do love you.”

He was trying to make an emergency landing at Vans Airport, just south of Moravia NY.

Steven was up and on his way within 5 minutes of that last transmission, but it was already too late.  Vans Airport was actually a field as in a farm field.  The “airstrip” was grass.  By the time the rescue team arrived there was little left of the plane, it had burned badly, with pieces scattered about the field.  It appeared from a couple of snapped trees that Armand had come in low, and just clipped the tops of them.

One can only guess what happened from there.  The rescue team could not even get close enough to the plane’s main frame because of the fire.  As much as they wanted to recover our friend they could not remain on the ground long.  The crash had awakened or alerted the Zoms in the area and there were about 25 or so converging on the plane.  The first few got close enough that they burst into flames.  When that first bunch stopped the others seemed to take that cue and also just stood.

Nick and Tanya were the ones who told Grace what had been happened.  I had expected Tanya to be there and with her faith in God to help her through the notification.  But Nick kind of was a surprise.  I think that the loss of Lauren had made some changes in him. But then he and Grace had also been very close of late and it did seem he would be a good choice.

It was a quiet night for all at dinner.  We have lost a few people of late and that took some getting adjusted to.  We had a spaghetti dinner. It was easy to make.

Oct 2nd

Steven and I flew out to the crash site this morning to see if we could recover the body. Asuna came with us as did Matt.  There was not enough left of the plane, or Armand to recover.  I doubt we will ever know why the failure took place.  Of all the planes, Armand’s was the newest, and in the best shape. Matt did a few words over the site and what was left of Armand, a few bones, that was it.  We took the bones and would place them in our special place with the remains of Lauren, and Anne and some others.

We all were shaken by the loss and the dread of the losses yet to come.  We are giving or trying to draw strength from each other; all of us have experienced losses and with each added grave we become more aware of the world as it has come to exist.

I was reading when I heard a gentle knock on my door.  It was Asuna.  All she said was that she needed a hug.  I think we both did.

Oct 3rd

I awoke this morning and Asuna was still here.  We had slept together, but had not “slept” together.  We headed over for breakfast and as we were having coffee Margo and Cody come over and joined us.  Smiling, Margo told me that in the future I should put a “Do not disturb” sign on the door.  I tried to explain but all I got was an “Oh Tom”.

I am worried about Cyril.  I mean more worried.  He has not showered in a week or so and has been skipping meals.  I think he has given up.  The loss of Arcelia has been hardest on him.  He had been with her for 60 something years.  He is lost.  I do not know what to do. Margo and I have talked about it but we have no answers other than try to give him what attention we can.

I talked to Nick about Grace.  She seems to be doing okay but he said that she is really feeling guilty about Armand’s death.  That the spat we had heard the other day was her telling him that she was moving out.  Their relationship had hit bottom and she needed to move on.  He did not take it well and Grace thought that maybe the plane had not malfunctioned but rather Armand had crashed it to kill himself.

Margo, Delaney and Cody are off hunting today.  Matt, Frank and the Fly Boys are going through the rest of the plane to make certain that there is nothing wrong with them and they are all airworthy.

The Three is still a little hesitant about the mission to Waterlveit after Armand’s crash.  But Doc and I pitched the need of those drugs and medical supplies again. Doc Barkley was able to prevail over The Three and we were given the green light to make the flight to the Arsenal.  If the weather is good, we will make the run tomorrow.

It will be Steven flying us in.  I will lead the ground mission with Charlene (medical), Asuna because she knows the place and Mark for fire support.  While we are there we will also check out and photograph the communications room and equipment for Lance.  He can hopefully figure out what we need to grab for that Satellite Comm thing.  We can make a second run to get that and see if we can make any contact with any other camps or outposts.

Oct 4th

The weather was good and the mission actually went pretty well.  We changed up the plan a little and had Steven set us down on the back side of the building where Asuna had made her escape.  The doors were still open, which was both a blessing and a curse.  It meant that we would likely engage Zoms on the inside; but we were ready for that.  Once we got in we could lock the place down and even if we start shooting, we would only have to deal with the “guests” already inside.

The flight out to the Arsenal was really kind of quiet.  I cannot speak for Mark or Charlene; they both seemed pretty cool about what was going on.  Both were battle tested and there was no doubt or fear about them cracking under the pressure.  I know that Asuna was nervous because what happened at the place and the fact that she had almost died in there. I had a little concern about her.

I had my edge back.  I was nervous like I used to get before a go-kart race or giving a lecture but that was just natural for me, as soon as the flag dropped, or the class started, I was into it and firing on all cylinders.

The plan was to hit the door, get in and grab what we needed and then get out.  We were looking for antibiotics, just about any drugs or medications we could find, oxygen bottles if we saw them and anything else that looked important or useful.  We each had duffle bags, those big military types to fill up.  We also would make mental notes of anything that might be useful when we needed to make another trip.

Once we were in Charlene headed straight toward the dispensary while Asuna and I headed to the Comm Center.  We took a bunch of pictures and while there found some sort of device that looked like a funky little hand held satellite dish.  We grabbed it along with the laptop that it was connected to and we headed toward the dispensary.

We only encountered a couple of Zoms on the way.  The rest was easy.  Mark and Charlene were already loaded and helped us fill our bags then it was off to the roof.  Steven swept in and as he did I could not help but break out laughing.  He had hooked a PA system up to the chopper and as he came in to pick us up he had Flight of the Valkyrie playing loudly.  It was from a scene from an old Vietnam movie, how fitting.  Before coming to get us he had used it to draw the attention of the Zoms that were wandering the base.

We returned safely and unloaded.  Lance was all over the new toy we brought him back. He was like a kid at Christmas. Delaney was looking over his shoulder.  The Doc and Charlene began sorting through the medical stuff that we had brought back.  Taylor was giving them a hand by doing a sort of inventory of the new supplies that we brought in and consolidating it with the supplies that we already had.

Steven was just sitting with the chopper.  It was kind of weird.  As people saw him there, they walked over and thanked him for what he had done and how much they appreciated his efforts.

We are a family, or a community, we have suffered, but we have risen up, faced each sorrow and just kept on going.  Dinner this evening was a kind of happy one. Nick, with the help of Grace had cooked up a winner. It was good therapy for her.

After dinner Asuna and I took a walk out by the lake.

Oct 5th

Henry and I walked the fence line today to see that it was all up and secure.  It all was intact so we should be good for a while there.  It has been dry and warm for the last week or so.  I remember that we used to call it Indian Summer.  I remember that we had them for many years in a row back in the days of “Global Warming”.

All the crops are in and we are just about finished with the canning, or should I say putting up the mason jars.  Matt and Henry have finished building the ice house.  So come winter time we should be able to harvest some of that. As time goes on, we will revert more and more toward the pre-electric days.

From what Lance and Doc Barkley have been able to figure out we have all the pieces that we need from the Sat Comm (Satellite Communications) Unit.  So now we need to figure out where to point it and on what frequency.  Lance is searching the laptop that came with it to see about the actual operating instructions and coordinates. Asuna and the Doc are trying to help because of their military background.  So is Steven, he actually has the best handle on a lot of it being a military pilot and all.

The computer that was attached to the Stat Comm had the command codes to reach the various bases that were located throughout the US and I am guessing much of the world.  What we were able to figure out is that many of the military bases that had been fall back points or last stand point; some were command and control centers that are no longer operational.

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 and 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.

I actually got out of the cabin early this morning and headed to the flag pole area.  I had this insane idea that I should do some working out, well, kind of stretching and Tai Chi sort of stuff.  To my surprise I found that there was a group already there. Nick and Grace were doing yoga, Margo, Cody, Delaney, Charlene, the Major, Asuna and a couple of others were all getting ready for a little jogging.  I knew I would probably regret it but I joined in the little run.

I was surprised that I was able to do as well as I did.  I had not run for years, and knew I would suffer stiff muscles for a couple of days, but the idea of running was actually a good one.  The events of Otis had opened some eyes that we had become complacent and could find ourselves in the shit very easily.

Over breakfast the Flyboys were planning their day. It has been a week or so since the last radiation check and they need to go out and do it all again.  They seem to be doing okay with the loss of Armand.  In their mind the crash was really more a case of pilot planning or error.  They thought that he took himself out of the game because of his impending break with Grace but then it could be just an attempt to push the fear out of sight.

One of the things that I have noticed with myself is that now that we are in this more chaotic existence that we are much quicker about some things, quicker and to a very big degree living much closer to the edge of the cliff.  In the old world we could take the time to absorb and deal with events.  The options were much more open.  Using our relationship status as an example there was always that idea that men/women were like trains or buses.  If you missed one, or if it was not the right one, there would be another coming along shortly.  Now, the buses were pretty limited and usually very much in demand.  If something happened to the one you were riding, (yeah a bad pun) then you may be walking alone.

For some people this is not so big a deal.  Many of us have reached a point through life and loss that we can cope with it.  But there are those who must be in a relationship.  It is part of their definition of themselves, so losing that, that part makes them feel incomplete and can lead to a downward spiral.  In thinking about it, Armand was someone who needed someone in their life.  But to think that after all that he had seen and experienced, why he would take himself out, I just don’t know.

The Fly Boys are going up later this morning and when they do they will re-create last week’s radiation test paths.  They drew straws for who had to fly the path that Armand did.  Ron drew it.  The run was complete by midafternoon; they had cut the straight west part of the flight out.  When they returned, the data was given to Lance and Cody and they plotted the numbers.  There was no significant change in the north sectors.  It was hot radiation wise, but not that bad to warrant immediate evacuation.  Tomorrow they would do the southern side of the run.

I spoke with Frank about bolstering the fence line and brought him with me when I talked with The Three about the potential of adding trailers on the inside of the fence line of the camp.  It was not the best received idea that I presented but they conceded the need.  As an alternative, I suggested that we might just get the trailers on-site for placement if we needed to.  The only issue there was that we would need to keep recon on the area.

This meant putting up a plane each day and doing a circle around the camp at a distance of about 30 or 40 miles.  The distance figure was more a guess but it was based on the idea that a walker could cover about 2 miles an hour on flat clear terrain.  Our surroundings were not flat or clean so we figured that maybe half that would be more likely.  As a result, if we did the noon fly over, we would have enough warning to prepare for our visitors well in advance.

The down side of the plan was that we would use our aviation fuel up by mid-November.  In the end they decided that it was best to leave things as they are for now.  But find the needed trailers and at least until we get close to snow we would keep them out of camp.

Cyril is a mess, he has not showered in a week and smells pretty ripe.  He is hardly eating.  We are doing everything we can to bring him back to normal, but like I said earlier about the incomplete person, he had been with Arcelia for so long that he is lost without her.

Oct 13th

On a side note, I am feeling the impact of the little jogging, but I joined the group again this morning.  It was a pretty morning to run.  I was a little slower than the rest this morning so Asuna hung back with me.

Autumn is upon us.  Except for that motorcycle ride with Asuna I have not really had time, or taken time to see the changes in the season.  The leaves have really changed, and to look out on the lake in the morning with the steamy haze coming off of it with the leaves in the background, it makes me think that such a beautiful place has such a brutal side hidden just below the surface.  We had nine Zoms hit the fence last night, not a record but a few more than usual.

In the back of my mind I am thinking more and more about the living alone thing that I have been accustomed too.  When I was living in Manchester back before The Event, I had become pretty used to it then suddenly with the changes I got very used to living with people right there 24/7. Now with Anne gone, and Margo pretty much moved in with Cyril to try to keep him going I find I have this open space again.  I know I could get reasonably comfortable in that. But maybe I am changed and do need that little bit of noise and contact with another person.

Cyril was actually showered and shaved this morning.  At breakfast he seemed to be his old self again.  I looked at Margo and she just shrugged.  It didn’t make a lot of sense, but it seemed good.

The results of the radiation testing came back today.  Lance and Ethan had plotted the numbers.  It looks like we are still within a tolerable number.  But Ethan thinks that even at this low level it will eventually have an impact on our health.  The upside is that we can survive the levels through the winter and then if the levels are still where they are come springtime it may be necessary for us to move on.  There is no guarantee that we will find a safer location but it may be something we need to consider.

It is a kind of quiet day for tasks for me so I think I will take a little time to clean up some details on what has been going on over the last month or so.  So often there are no significant events that take place to make me write about them.

We have all in one form or another been preparing for winter.  There have been a number of hunting and trapping trips that have taken place.  It has been Delaney and Margo who have done a vast majority of the hunting.  They have become accomplished little trackers.  Unfortunately the game has become less prevalent in the area and they have had to venture further out.  That makes me nervous, but they are quite capable and careful.

Matt, Joseph and Henry with enlisted aid from other camp members have been busy shoring up the fencing.  Frank and Teckla have been busy making certain that the vehicles are ready to move if we need them. Nick, Grace Taylor and Heather have been working on long term food storage, canning and drying.  The smokehouse that has been created by Matt and Henry has seen lots of action.

Steven, Mark, and the Flyboys have been onto the project of keeping what flying machines we have ready to go.  The Doc and Charlene have been on top of getting whatever medical materials they can. They regularly ask Asuna and I to make runs to health / vitamin stores or scavenge medical facilities to look for things.  Michelle and Tanya are storing up herbal cures and use Margo, Delaney and Cody for finding those items while on their hunting trips.

Asuna and I have become the city scavengers of the group.  Two or three days a week we head on out to try to find things.  It varies from building materials to medications to food.  We are given a shopping list by one group or another and off we go.

Of course along the way we may find some other items of interest.  The idea there is that somewhere down the road we may find ourselves in a trading situation. This would be particularly significant come spring if we decide or need to move.  Food and fuel is an obvious item as is guns and ammunition.  But I think that in some regards any other tribe or clan that has gotten this far along would have supplies of that nature.  So we also tend to look for items that would be of a more luxury nature.  Those items would include jewelry, alcohol and power generating equipment.

So as I said, we all keep pretty active in our survival efforts.  It is now just a case of hoping that we have prepared in the right way, and enough.

Oct 14th

Asuna has been pretty much my new wingman and it is working well.  Up early, off for the morning run, yes, I am actually running now rather than a little penguin shuffle like in my old running days in the 1990s.  But then I am weighing in at about 170 rather than a fluffy 240.  Then it is breakfast, a shower, and she and I have taken up the task of teaching some of the youngers military and police tactics for room entry and building searches.   She and I click and have each other’s moves down.

It has been about a week since the Otis rescue.  I spoke with The Three about a return trip to check and see if they are okay.  Mission is approved for tomorrow.  Steven has agreed to fly us in to the area with maybe a touchdown depending on the situation.  Matt and Larry have also volunteered to go. We loaded up some petrol bombs just in case and also talked with the flyboys about a support mission if we needed it.

I found Cyril sitting at Arcelia’s gravesite.  I watched him for a little bit and he seemed to be having a conversation with her.  I know what it is like; I have had many with Anne after her death.  I left him alone.

As I walked back toward the cabin I just asked, “Anne, are we still good?”  We were.

Oct 15th

Good news, the run went well, breakfast was good, and we are ready to go see how our “friends” at Otis are doing.  We were airborne by 10.  As we cleared the mountains, I began to try reaching them by radio.  I received no answer.  I kept trying as we got closer and closer, but still nothing.

We did a fly over of the island, at first there was nothing.  Then on the south side of the island we were able to make out the remains of a battle, there were bodies strewn about, and in one area a circle of the dead on a small hill.  There was a little break in the mountain and the remains of what seemed to be an outpost.

I had seen this before with the biker on the west side of Lake Danahee.  A group became surrounded and cut off with the Zoms just coming and coming, there was no escape, no means for rescue and finally the tide just overran them.

Steven set us down in the middle at the top of the hill and we looked around.  The smell was beyond what one could imagine. It was the smell you never get used to, never forget, the decaying of human flesh.  In the center of the mass were four remaining bodies that had been the final remnant.  It appeared that when it got to that point they had taken their own lives.  The save one bullet for yourself scenario.  I only recognized one of the people.  It was Elgin.  I wondered if we could have done more for them, but really, no there was not.  I felt bad, but it is the new way.

We decided that we would use the kerosene we had brought just case, to burn the mounds of rotting flesh.  Steven, who had stayed in the chopper told us to get moving because we had company coming.  The helicopter had created some interest and the Zoms were heading back our way.  So as Asuna, Larry and I poured the fuel and started the fires, Matt said a few words over Elgin and the others; then we were airborne again.

As we were heading back, it was a quiet trip.  But as we flew along Matt handed me a Katana, he said that he had found it under Elgin.  Matt knew that I had always talked about the Japanese Officer’s sword that I had once seen at my grandparent’s house and that was supposed to have been lost.  I guess it is the last part of the family legacy or link to Flanders Road (Southington), our old homestead and where I grew up.

Our report when we returned was hardest on Teckla.  She was the closest to Elgin of any of us.  I know that she probably felt a lot of the same guilt I did for not doing more, even though there was no more that we could have done without putting ourselves in harm’s way.  He had the chance to join us a couple of times and chose not to.  What could we do?

Oct 16th

This morning’s run was a little faster, and more dedicated.  I am not going out that way, like Elgin, or the Biker or … Anne, I am going to not get trapped, and I am going to do what I must to keep as many of us alive as I can.  I know we will lose some, but it is not going to be because of weakness from me.

There was a big meeting this morning with The Three, Doc, Lance, and Ethan.  I was invited as was and Tanya, Matt and Asuna.  Lance and Ethan had created a couple of maps showing where many of the East Coast nuclear power plants were.  They had also found a map that had been made years ago showing the fallout patterns in the event of nuclear attack.  Those maps combined are not a happy picture.

The map shows were we originally considered that the sources of radiation might have come from.  The Blue circles show where larger airburst nuclear missiles had been set off.  The green dots showed where we figured the suitcase nukes were used.  There were many more green dot sites, but to try to figure them all was too much work, and Lance and Ethan considered them to be not really a likely cause of the problem.

It was the red dots that were what they considered the main concern.  Those are the location of the nuclear power plants that exist in the northeast.  We had always considered that it would have been the NY power stations that were giving us the issue particularly those out by the Great Lakes but we were wrong.  The map below is one that Ethan was able to find.  It is an older map from the heyday of the fears of nuclear war.  It shows the jet stream wind patterns and how that would impact the flow of fallout from west to east.

Red, real bad

Orange, kind of bad

Brown, a little bad

Now granted this shows the impact based upon the attacks on our ballistic missile silos in the west, as well and some command and control facilities in the area.  But it is the wind patterns that are important.  Looking at the map it would seem that we are actually close to a safe zone.  But we were very wrong as to the origins of our radiation.  It is coming from the plants that are much more to our south.  We are taking the heat from New Jersey, lower Pennsylvania and Virginia.  The plants we first suspected are spewing further to the north of us.

Now this is a little premature thinking in some regards because as Lance explained, “We are not certain that all plants have had a meltdown, or at least not yet and we don’t know what impact the loss of power has had on the plants.”

“What do you mean?” asked Teckla.

“We are not certain if any of the plants were shut down safely before they became un-manned.”

Ethan pointed out, “One of the other factors in the estimation is that we are working off of a wind flow radiation map from the 60s.  How much the Jet Stream has changed over the years is an unknown.”

So far the readings that we have obtained have pretty much concurred with the map.  That would mean that perhaps the winds have not changed that much.  In looking at the locations of nuke plants it appears that if we could get across the Mississippi River we would or could be out of harm’s way radiation wise.  But in looking at the map it is pretty clear that we would have to cross through the hot zones.  The easy fix would be to find a plane, or number of planes that would get us quickly through the zones because the drive would probably contaminate us all.

The other option seems that it might be workable for us to move a little to the northeast up into the Adirondack Mountain area or up into central Vermont.  But at this point the move is really out of the question, we are coming into the winter season and we could not realistically get ready to survive the winter with such short preparation in a new location.

Besides, as Lance pointed out, we are on the cusp of a “little bad” zone so the radiation was not that bad.  Doc Barkley concurred that we were getting little more radiation than if we were living under a high tension power line.  If we stay here for a few years it could be an issue, but six months it should have minimal impact. We just have to keep an eye on the readings and maybe it would be wise to create some form of shelter that would keep us safer in the event of a sudden raise in the radiation levels.

In the discussion of shelters, Asuna looked at me, and then suggested, “We might have an idea on that.”

She told them that I had been working on a couple of things that might do the trick if modified slightly.  I was confused at first thinking of the Yurt but it was a variation on the Hogan that she was actually thinking about.

In essence building a Hogan, but heavily covering it with dirt, or just build most of it underground.  The Three thought there might be some merit to the idea and asked if we could come up with plans.  We had to get this done soon but it could be done.  We would meet again tomorrow to further brainstorm on this.

After the meeting, Asuna and I headed back to look at my notes.  It could work for the short term but we really need to think about moving if we are going to survive in the long term.

Oct 17th

Asuna and I spent a good part of last night talking about the ideas that could be used for a radiation shelter to protect us in the event of a spike in the wind.  One of the ideas that we came up with, and realistically it was the easiest and most effective was that in the event of a dangerous rise in the levels we simply make a temporary move to Waterlveit.  We have Steven ferry a small group in, get the place open and cleared on the inside and then have the rest of the group drive in through that back garage door.  Steven could set the chopper down on the roof and we would be set.  The lower levels of the Arsenal infirmary were also the command and control center and we would be as protected in there as we would be if we built our own underground dirt bunker and it would be a lot more comfortable.

After breakfast The Three reconvened the meeting from the day before.   We presented our idea to the group and it seemed that all agreed with our idea.  The addition to the plan was that a mission was made soon to have the building secured and ready to go.  That way we would be able to just waltz in rather than have to rush to secure it at the time we most needed to get in there quickly.  Matt, Ron, Asuna and I all volunteered to go do the house cleaning.

Heather, who has been mostly quiet about doing such things also volunteered.  I was kind of surprised by her stepping up but as time has gone by even the most timid and quiet have come to the realization that our situation can turn to crap quickly and that a little personal combat skill and experience could be a lifesaver.  In most regards this should be a cake run, when we had last been at the Arsenal we had pretty much cleaned out the Zoms that had gotten in so the odds were very much in our favor.

Our daily run was a little later than usual today, but it was a good day, it was not too warm, and it was cloudy.  After the run I spent about a half an hour swinging the katana.  I hardly qualify as ninja material, but it is a good anti-zombie weapon.

Oct 18th

It is a clear day, a little crisp in the morning but it warmed up.  After breakfast it was time to head to the Arsenal.  I think we are all ready. Asuna and I talked a little about what we planned for once we hit the ground.  Our goal was simple, clear the building of walkers, get the bodies out of the place and burn them.  After we secure the building we do an assessment of the food, water and other survival needs such as power, heat and so on.  Overall it was going to be a long day.

We loaded up the chopper and were off at 9:00 am.  Heather was kind of funny, she showed up at the chopper wearing a red shirt.  I did not think anything of it until she walked up to me and saluted saying “Ensign Heather reporting for the away mission”.

I got it and laughed.  “Ensign, we will get you back safely I promise” was my response. Asuna gave me a look but it was not jealousy but more a be careful of making those kinds of promises and make sure you get your own ass back safely.

We hit the roof at about 9:30.  We were down the hatch and into the building quite quickly.  It was a “slow and go” room search and termination mission.  We took turns being first through the door.

I always remembered from my time with the SWAT team that the first through the door usually did ok, but being the second was not the best thing.  We were against Zoms here so it was really the first person that faced the most risk.

As the day proceeded, it was getting boring, but in a good way.  We had no contacts and found that overall the place was empty.  Heather finally got her wish of going through a door first, and damn if she didn’t find the first of three Zoms still moving.  But she did well; with only an “Oh shit”, she dropped him with a single head shot.

The gunshot alerted the other two Zoms in the room that we were there and they started coming toward us. Asuna and I each took one down.  It was the christening of my katana.  The Sword of Larson rang true.  (Sorry, a little D & D thing going here.)

By the end of the day we had a total of 6 bodies to burn, the three that we sent to rest and three that had been terminated on our last trip.  We quickly dragged them out the garage door and torched them then back in and sealed the door.  Stephen picked us up on the roof at about 4:30 and it was back toward the camp.

Dinner was as usually very good.  I saw that Jan seemed to be beaming, and Fred had a silly look on his face.  In the midst of dinner we had the announcement, they were engaged. Asuna poked me in the ribs and quietly asked, “You think she is pregnant?”

“Oh wow, I did not think of that.”

Oct 19th

After Asuna’s question about Jan, I did not fall asleep right away.  I thought about the idea of being pregnant in the world as we know it.  It would probably be okay the way we are right now, and even with the moving to another location it would be workable but the other aspect of it is the concept of bringing a child into the world.  Part of me thinks that it is a wonderful and necessary thing.  Humanity has to survive, but damn, what kind of life is that kid going to have.  What is it going to be like over time with Margo, and Delaney and all of the youngers?  It is a hard row to hoe now, what does the future hold.

The morning run was not a lot of fun this morning.  It was a cold blustery day of running but it must be done, Zoms don’t know rain.  We did cut the morning sword training a little short today.  It was just a good day to be inside.

Frank had the idea that seeing as the weather was crap anyway that it would be a good day to do truck and vehicle inspections.  He had us each bring our trucks into the little garage area where he gave them a general inspection and going over.  While the Coyote was in the garage, I went through the vehicle from the standpoint of checking the survival and fighting equipment that we carried.

When I originally set the truck up, it was based on the idea of being a one person vehicle in the sense that I had one sleeping bag and my stuff in there.  But now that Asuna was my wingman we went through it together and added to our food / water stash, and other equipment that would make it possible for the two of us to survive for a fair period should the need arise.

Being stuck inside also gave some time to notice things about the group that would not have really been so obvious under our normal routine.  I noticed that Matt has moved away from his usual jeans and flannel shirt and to all black.  I am not sure why but he did seem to becoming more and more religious.  Tanya, who had always been a very religious person, seems to be spending a lot of time with him. They both seem to have this very peaceful aura about them.

Relationships and pairing up had become quite common and obvious, although in some cases I had never noticed it.  Steven and Heather are an example.  I had originally thought that her desire for joining our scavenger mission was to get some experience, and actually it was, to a degree, but it was also to be Steven’s ‘doorman’, a part of the helicopter crew.   I also had not noticed that Taylor and Larry spent a lot of time together.

That did leave Chelsea as a very popular girl, She was the last available and certainly sought after by the remaining suitors.  Ethan and Ron were the most active in their efforts.  Henry really did not seem all that interested, Henry, being older I could understand to a great degree.

Another thing that I have noticed at the end of the world is that people have lost or suppressed most if not all the biases that they held back in the old days.  Perhaps it is the effort to survive that made it clear that such things did not matter.  We all had a common goal, and had to work as one clan or tribe to make it happen.

Oh, I finally found out that the ‘Beaming” on Jan’s part was that she and Fred had decided that getting married was a good idea and he proposed.

Oct 20th

To continue with the thoughts of yesterday I have kept my eyes open, or should I say, I opened my eyes to a lot of what has been going on in the camp.  Although I should have expected much of it, there were some things that do surprise me, and some other things that don’t.

One of the things that I had certainly missed out on was the development of a sort of church or congregation.  I have been more or less in the corner of Buddha from well before The Event.  I had picked it up a few years before and as such spent most of my spiritual time on self-meditation.  I had not really thought about the others from that regard other than to offer the insights I have learned and hold sacred.

There was also the original cult of Brother Gabriel and the old religions that some still followed.  I remember Arcelia asking Matt, who had become the Internet Ordained Ministe,r to do a service on Sundays.  He was the go to guy when there was a religious need.  He officiated at services for those we lost and had been doing a sort of Sunday morning thing for those who were interested.  I never really paid attention.

As I said yesterday Matt began to wear black but I had not noticed initially that he was no longer carrying his firearm, or at least not openly.  Tanya and he had become pretty much attached at the hip, if you saw one of them’ the other was not far away.

Cyril has been keeping himself up, showering and acting pretty normally.  He does not seem to be as lost as he once was.  I see him going out each morning with a folding chair and spending about an hour at Arcelia’s gravesite.  He appears to have accepted her death, but still keeps in touch with her.

That sometimes makes me feel a little uncomfortable. But then Anne and I had done the same thing and we talked about things like the future, taking care of Margo, and even taking care of me.  She had told me that Asuna was a good thing for me and that I should be with her.  I resist, there still is a little room in my head and my heart that only Anne can hold.

We had four Zoms hit the wire today about noon time.  That was kind of unusual as they show up at dusk or dawn most of the time.  It worked out well because it gave Asuna and I a little sword practice on the real thing.

I have come to the conclusion that Asuna and I must have been connected in a past life.  While I was thinking about it, I thought of the past life regenerations that I have done.  I still have the podcast on my phone, which is now more an iPod rather than an iPhone.  I need to do that again.

I think tomorrow will be a scavenger run to Hinsdale.

Oct 21st

Asuna and I made a run to Hinsdale today and visited a number of shops.  On this trip our particular “target” was warm clothing and blankets.  We had a fair supply already at the camp, but we really need to add some.  We do not have the luxury of the heating sources that we once did and should we have a cold snap of any substantial degree, cold weather supplies will be in heavy demand.  It is better to do it now than when the need is upon us.

There are also certain supplies that are a must grab.  Whenever we find the chance of batteries, bottled water, and packaged foods that are not outside of it’s shelf life, well very much outside it’s shelf life, we try to add them to the inventory.  Taylor had done a great job of keeping track of what is good until when, so we waste little. Nick and Grace do nicely at creating meals from those soon to expire items.  The meals at the R&G Diner as we call it are really good for the end of the world.

Although sometimes I joke about or comment on it being the end of the world, it is not.  We are alive, and from my perspective in a pretty good place right now.  I think we can survive this if we can get through the winter.

While we were ‘cruising’ the mall we found a Victoria Secrets.

“I have to go in there” squealed Asuna, “It has been forever since I have had girlie stuff, Please?”

“Ok, we can check it out, but let’s be careful.”

It was just us so I got a little fashion show and was questioned about this ah…., outfit or that.  In her baggy uniform I forget that she really is a very beautiful woman.

Asuna came out in a little white outfit with angel wings and high heels just as we were visited by three Zoms.  It was kind of very stimulating seeing battling the undead in that outfit. I wonder how the religious folks (Matt and Tanya) would feel about that image.

Be it the moment, or the events or just time, but yes, we did, it was the stuff of dreams.

One of the things that I have perhaps down played over time is the actual amount of contact we do have with Zoms.  In looking over this journal I mention that we occasionally have a few show up on the wire at camp.  Or I talk a little about it when we make significant actions such as our setting up the Arsenal.  But whenever we make a scavenger run, or a fuel run, or the hunting crew goes out we often run into a straggler or two and dispose of them.  It is so “normal” that it is like going to the bathroom, or tying ones shoes, you just kind of forget about it.

Even in our flights and scavenging runs to larger cities we have not really seen or run into any significant hordes of Zoms moving around.  Yes, in the Albany city area and near the Arsenal there are many, but we haven’t seen a migrating horde.  I think that the Hudson River is a big ally.  But then we have not done a lot of looking around to see if we might be in a path from the east.  We probably should keep an eye out that way after the events of Otis.  I think I will mention it to The Three as well as the Fly Boys.

Oct 22nd

Asuna and I talked about another trip into the area around the Arsenal.  I thought that it would be a really good idea to get a feel for what is in the area should we need to make the move.  It would be helpful to see what was available for scavenging resources.  It would be a pretty straight forward walk in or maybe to start just a mapping from the air.  I was shocked at the level of resistance that I received from her on this.  She said it would be too dangerous; there were things there that were not good, and a lot of vague arguments for not going.  I could tell there was something behind it, I just did not know what, nor was I going to get an answer. I let the issue drop.

The run this morning was miserable, it was wet and cold, in fact it was raining so hard that the usual morning stretching by the flagpole was moved into the dining area.  There was no sword practice or workout today.

We held a little group gathering this afternoon to discuss our overall status.  The Three ran the show, and we got reports from the various specialists.  In the course of it we had Taylor and Nick recap our food and water inventories.  We were good easily into April.  As far as medical supplies, things were good, we did not have the capabilities for major surgeries or serious issues such as cancers and such.  But we could handle the day to day stuff without a problem.  Our scavenging had left us with good clothing and miscellaneous items, supplies like batteries, books and luxury items.

The Fly Boys said that their season might be coming to a close because the fuel supplies that they had were on the low side.  They figure that they had about three more radiation flights each worth of high octane gasoline.  This could be a problem because at this time there are not known places that we can find fuel, and as time goes on the fuel may lose potency.

Steven is a little better off, but he needed to keep his flights on the light side.  Our supplies of kerosene or diesel fuel are not as excessive as they could be.  But here at least we have some latitude as we know that there are some heating oil supplies around that we can use.

This fuel issue would also impact the assorted trucks and SUVs that we have available but here the priority had been set that they were to be kept filled and ready to roll in the case where we had to bug out.  At this point only the Coyote was really used on a regular basis.

A medical report from Doc and Charlene showed that there were no unusual medical issues facing us at this time.  Everyone seemed healthy, or as healthy as could be.

Lance and Ethan talked about the radiation issues which seemed currently to be only a minor problem.

“One of the things that Ethan and I have been monitoring is the Sat-Comm and we do not like what we are hearing.”

“What do you mean?” asked the Major.

“The few remaining bases were becoming increasingly active and orders from Cheyenne Mountain recommended they go into a kind of cleansing mode again.”

I noticed that Asuna closed her eyes when that happened and there was a battle to hold back tears.

“Lance, Major, let’s talk about this a little more after the meeting.” Teckla suggested, but I knew this was just to calm potential concerns among the larger group.

Henry and Joseph said that between firewood and the two propane trucks we had that our heating situation should be pretty stable.  We can’t keep our individual cabins walking around nekkid warm (Henry said that) but we should not have to worry about freezing.

Margo and Delaney talked about our hunting situation and said that we still were in good shape with birds, particularly Canada Geese as well as rabbits.  But we were increasingly seeing that the larger animals, pigs, and deer were learning that this was a not good area and were moving farther away.  Fresh meat should still be available during the winter.  This, combined with the smoke house, should keep us in good shape.

The Three were about to close the meeting when Matt spoke up. “Overall the morale of the group is good as are the spiritual aspects from what we (I am guessing this is he and Tanya) have observed.”

Matt did a little plug for his Sunday vespers and asked if we could end the meeting with a prayer.

There was a lot of information to absorb from the meeting; it was all pretty much old news.  But for me the biggie was the “cleansing the infected” and Asuna’s reaction.  I had a bad feeling about the first, and confusion on the second.  When we got back to our cabin, I asked Asuna about the cleansing.  I had a feeling that it meant that anyone who had been bitten or was a likely carrier was killed before they turned.

She was quiet and just said, “close enough, let it go.”

In the old days before the Event, I would have, but the world had changed, and I thought this was too serious to not understand a little better.  I pushed a few more questions and finally she blew up.

Oct 23rd

I awoke this morning alone.  It did not hit me at first what was going on.  The night before Asuna and I had a discussion , actually a screaming match about what had really happened at the Arsenal and why she had been so against our doing some mapping of that area.  Finally she gave in and told me.

The military had gone about cleansing the cities early on in the days after the infection started.  They had detonated nuclear devices in many cities after they had given the warning of what was going to happen.  But what I did not know, and found out in an ugly way, was that there were small communities that were wiped out with gunfire and air attacks.

It was not in some cases a simple flash, boom and gone as in the cases of the nukes, but rather a protracted cleansing, in some cases, house to house extermination.  I would like to think that the military on the top levels had not intentionally gone into exterminate mode, but then based upon the recent messages that Lance and Ethan picked up, and remembering the “roadblocks” on the highways I was not so sure.

She told me about the operations that her unit had carried out in the Albany area.  It was ugly, and really sickening.  When we first met, she had only told me part of the story.  The part about the going to the infirmary was true, and her commander being wounded, that was true also.  But what she had not told me was that they, the unit that had been hunkered down in the bunker, had been tasked with cleansing the area around the Arsenal.

What that meant that they were to neutralize the undead that were walking around the area.  At first they had a pretty easy time just mowing them down.  There were casualties on the part of the soldiers where a squad might get over run, or a couple of undead would get to do a bite or two.

But there was another side of it.  There were still living people in the city. Some were infected (bitten and slowing dying), and in some cases they were not.  Initially, they saw the military as their savior, those living folks were brought to what they believed were refugee areas.  They were checked for marks or bites to try to determine who was infected and who was “healthy”.

The bitten or infected were cared for at first, but over time as medical supplies and personnel became more limited they were just taken out the back of the camps and terminated.   As the time moved on, the civilians were not even brought to camp, or even checked to see if they were infected or not.  It was just summary execution right on the street or in their homes or hidey-holes.

Over time those who had not yet been “rescued” by the army realized what was going on and began to avoid and even battle with the army.  There were snipers and small bands roaming the cities engaging the soldiers.  The exchange was pretty even, one for one, a body for a body, pretty sad.  The reason she did not want to go scouting the area around the Arsenal was she knew what was there, where the bodies were.  She did not want to have us know the horrors that took place nor did she want to revisit the ghosts of those events.

By the time I had arrived at the area, the “cleansing” was over.  It had been the last stand by the army that I saw around the Arsenal. The commander of the base had been wounded and brought into the infirmary by Asuna and a few of her fellow soldiers.  From there the rest of the story was true, he became infected and undead.  Those who had retreated into the building were quickly overcome and she was the last one left.

I dressed quickly, I had two things I had to do.  The first was to find Asuna and then I needed to have a chat with the Major.  I had a little change in the perspective of the events of Hinsdale, and suddenly I was less trusting of him.

I found Asuna out by the Coyote, she was taking her items out of the truck and starting to load them into one of the extra vehicles that we had.  She was still pretty upset, “Go away, and leave me alone!” Tears were streaming from her eyes.

“No, I can’t do that”.

The light went on, I had become attached, no, in love with this person, this hard on the outside very human on the inside person was connected to me and I could not let her walk out of my life or let her go out into where ever just to die.

We sat in my truck and talked.  She had a lot of guilt for what had happened back there in the Albany area.  She really had no choice; it was either follow orders or be executed as a deserter/insubordinate. If she wanted to live, she had to play the game, but the cost of that game was heavy on her.

I did my best to help, finally getting her to understand that what she had done was necessary for her survival, and was able to make her at least on the surface agree that her actions here, with us were part of her atonement for the events that had already taken place.  I am not so naïve to believe that she just switched all the pain and guilt off and clear it from her mind but it was a start.  She would stay, and we would work on it, together.

My next stop was to see the Major.  I could understand the façade that Asuna had put up, but I was having a big problem with the Major and what he had done.  I know he was not in charge at Hinsdale, and as I walked toward his office I ran it through my mind.

Really how different was his situation that what had been going on with Asuna, it was sort of go with the program or die.  He had tried or at least told us he had tried to set things right as much as he could.  I guess the part that I had the problem with was the parts of the story that had not been told to us.

When we sat down I coldly said, “I am half tempted to shoot you for all the lies and all the deaths that have occurred.”

He bowed his head, “I wouldn’t blame you.”

But then in talking with him I had some other thoughts.  Perhaps it was the forgiving side or perhaps it was just a good dose of reality.  In my mind the question became what would I have done if I were in the same situation.

The Major explained that things in Hinsdale were similar to the area around the Arsenal.  But they had been moved in and were following their orders much earlier in The Event.  They were truly acting as helpers and trying to rescue who they could. Unlike Arsenal they were able to let the infected live it out to their end. They had not run into the protracted frustration and shortage of supplies.

“Although I wished that I had the courage to release those suffering much earlier through humane means like an addition to their IVs, but we did not have that option and when the sick died they were quickly taken to the quarantine area and the bodies were burned.”

He claimed that no healthy person was ever executed by them, or at least that he knew of.  He was not so sure about what the Colonel was allowing.

“It was part of the issue that had caused me to be imprisoned.”

After he was imprisoned, and when he was able to escape and join the townies, was when he realized that the rules had changed as far as the means of dealing with the dead, almost dead and sadly the living.

We talked a little longer and decided that it was probably something that we needed to bring up to the rest of the camp.  We did not need to get too much into the details or the recent past, but we would need to make the rest of the clan see the military as it is now and very likely not to be trusted or on our side.

Oct 24th

After the morning run and the flag pole work out group, I hooked up with Lance and Ethan.  I was thinking about something and was just curious if they had thought of it also.  As I started to talk to them, I noticed that the Sat Comm was off, powered down off.  I asked them about it.

“We shut it down intentionally,” Lance told me.

It was their thought that there was some form of tracking chip or link chip that connected with the other parts of the communications system.  It would have allowed for a form of locator to show where the device was located and if it was active.  In other words in this case a “Here we are, come get us or kill us all” signal. It was time for a pow-wow with The Three and we needed Asuna and the Major to be there.

Overall the meeting went fairly well.  Lance explained that the device could have and most likely did have a tracking unit.  The Major was pretty much in agreement with this.  He confirmed that his original unit had a lesser type device being sub-division of the Fort Drum / Arsenal Command.  He knew that the Colonel had destroyed the Comm-link when it became apparent that Fort Drum had been over run and those who escaped might run his location.

The reason that it was important to discuss this was the messages for cleansing that were coming out of Cheyenne Mountain.  It was possible that there would be military units, or aircraft or drones on their way to cleanse us.

It seemed unlikely, even remote because Lance and Ethan had not heard any communications on the line from anywhere east of the Mississippi.   The other thing about the message coming out of Cheyenne was that it was a repeating automated loop.  For all we knew there was no-one left in command, or even alive in that facility.

The Three asked for recommendations from us all and what was suggested was that we get rid of the device.  We should probably move it back to Arsenal for the time being and let it sit there.  It would be left off line.  The thought was that if there was a tracking device inside it would still be active, like a “come find me” homing device.  By moving it back to Arsenal it would be still available to us if we should choose to monitor it. But it would also be far enough away from our camp that it would make us less likely a target or accidental find.

The idea was accepted and Stephen and I were going to fly in to return it.  We were going to take a couple of volunteers to go with us and just set it back into place in the Comm-room.  We did not even have to take it outside the room for volunteers, Lance and the Major both upped for the trip.  It actually made sense because it would give each of them the chance to see what was in there that we might have missed as valuable.

After a little more discussion, it was decided that instead of flying in we would take the Coyote.  That would save fuel and give us additional room to remove items if we found some things that we needed or wanted.   It would also save us fuel for the Helo and leave it available if we needed to get a rescue mission going.  That meant that Steven was out and there was an open seat.  I knew who I wanted in that seat, but was not certain she would want to come along.  We set a time for the next morning and I went to find another “volunteer”.  When I got to the “Girls Dorm”, I found that she was there.  I did not have to twist her arm.

Margo, Delaney and Cody came back with a big buck today.  They had gone out a little further into the hills around the camp and had some success.  It was cut up, and Nick and Grace went to work on it.  They had venison sausage in the making, and a number of various cuts of meat made from it.  The kill was placed into the smoker.

Mark and Michelle had taken a ride to the east to just look around and see if they could find anything interesting.  They stayed out until after dark with the idea that perhaps they could or would see some lights.  They did not see anything. It is good that we get scouting parties out.  Ron and Steven took a trek to the south down by Rhinebeck, they also said that they had seen nothing unusual.

Oct 25th

We had a couple of Zoms on the wire last night, it seems to be holding up well. If we were ever faced with a group of maybe 20, it would be a scramble because it is likely that they could break through before we were fully ready to deal with them.  But so far the largest pod we have seen has been 9.

The weather has definitely taken a move toward what one would expect for this time of year.  It was in the 20s this morning.  I hate the friggin’ cold, but once we got moving on the morning run it was not too bad.  We killed sword drills this morning and were suited up and ready to roll by 9:30 to return the Sat-Comm.  The plan was to drive out, about an hour, return the device and have the Major look around, and then drive back.  We wanted to be back by two o’clock at the latest.

We piled into the Coyote and off we went.  I drove, and Asuna was shotgun.  We had Lance and the Major in the backseat.  On the trip out the Major and Asuna talked a little more about the way things went down in the real world after the events.  A door had been opened and the chance to let some light and fresh air into the once dark rooms of their guilt.  It was good for them.

Much of the information was a re-hash, but it was interesting to hear about the differences between the two operations (Hinsdale and Arsenal) as well as the events of each time line.  It did not leave me with a real good taste or trust of the military and for that matter humanity outside of our little group.

In the case of the Hinsdale Command it sounded like it really did start out as a humane effort to save as many people as they could and that may have been a result of being a medical unit but somewhere along the lines things began to break down.  I think that much of that was the result of the manner in which the Colonel and the Town Fathers got or should I say did not get along.  I am also certain that in his way Brother Gabriel had a great influence on the outcome.

The Arsenal command was regular army / National Guard composite that had been assembled for who they could find.  It was not a cohesive unit like the Major’s unit and was not prepared for what followed.  They had spent time underground and were out of touch with what was really happening on the surface so when they did come out they were totally lost.

Over time the infighting of the various units, and the poor leadership just turned the area into a blood bath with little or no consideration for those who were healthy, and could have survived.  The military at the Arsenal for the most part just turned into an ugly murdering mob with a lot of firepower.

Initially even with the issues Asuna’s unit seemed to follow the original program and maintained the true mission as well as order among themselves, but as time went on and the impossibility of the situation became more and more apparent they also began to fall apart.  They were sucked into the maelstrom that had been created by other units.

Lance and I just listened, but in the final analysis we both determined and were convinced that no matter how much it might sound like the military had to offer, if we ran across them it was not in our best interest to play with them.

We arrived and returned the device.  The Major looked around and had us grab a few things; we were out of the complex and on our way back to the camp.  While driving back, we did get into a little thinking session as to the up-coming winter, and what to expect.  We also talked about the radiation issues.  The Major told us that one of the things that he had taken in the scavenging at the Arsenal was potassium iodide pills.  They would help with the radiation issue, but it was a limited supply and had to be rationed out very carefully.

When we got back, the camp was pretty much business as normal but I noticed that there were some markers around the flagpole area.  I was not sure what it meant, but figured I would find out soon enough.

Dinner tonight was fresh deer steaks with corn on the cob.  The corn was a little on the dry side, but it worked.

After dinner Asuna came over for a while.  We talked and then just sat by the wood stove.

Oct 26th

It was a crisp, no make that a cold morning for the run.  But we got it done, and then off to a little sword practice at the flag pole.  When we got there, Matt and Tanya were already there and they were marking the ground.  It appears that they have a construction project in mind.

I interrupted their efforts and asked. “What ya making?”

They had sold the idea to The Three that a kind of hall would be a good idea for the group.  It would allow for a place we could all hang out, and it would serve as a base for Sunday services.

I thought it a kind of waste of time because we already had the recreation hall as well as the dining hall that would or could serve both functions.  Besides we also were probably going to move come springtime, it seemed to be a lot of work for not much return, but I kept that to myself.

A concern that comes to my mind is that we originally had two very effective snipers who were very good with the 50 Cal sniper rifles.  I still had a lot of confidence in Margo but I am not so sure about Matt with his moving more and more toward a religious angle.  I think that The Three needs to look into this and insure that he is still on board with that mission.  Actually, we should probably get a few more people trained with those weapons systems just in case.

I met up with the Major, Asuna and the Geek Boys (Lance and Ethan) to talk about the military.  Specifically we were trying to make a threat assessment regarding them.  In the course of the discussion we were able to determine that there were not any bases left in the northeast that were still operational.  The only chatter on the Sat–Comm had come from Cheyenne Mountain and that seemed to be a recorded loop.  But that did not mean there were not small units still out an about.  That aspect was probably even more frightening because those groups would be well armed and probably poorly controlled.

The afternoon was pretty decent but as the day was ending it was getting cloudy, and cold.  I smell snow.  I know it may sound silly but there is just something in the air that tells you it is coming, a smell, a feel, I cannot exactly explain it, but you just know.

Oct 27th

Yup, I was right; we got the first snow of the season last night.  It was only a couple of inches and really has little impact on the way we do business. But it was the kind of wet sticky snow that sticks to the branches.  It made the landscape beautiful.  I remembered when I was a kid my Granma Ve would get these “Ideal Magazine” picture books. The snow reminded me of them, and her.

The Three has come to the conclusion that it would be wise to make certain that we all had levels of weapon proficiency.  This was more in the line of firearms training for those who do not regularly use them. Asuna and I have been blessed with this task to make certain that everyone was familiar with the M-16s and basic handgun skills. Nick and Mark will be giving instruction on edged and impact weapons.  I think that for the most part everyone has the basics down so this would just be a little confidence builder.

The concerns I had expressed to the Major had filtered to the rest of The Three and they had approached Matt on the issue of the sniper rifle. He cornered me and put it quite simply; “I am the hand of God and live by his word and will.  The Zoms are freed of their earthly responsibilities and sins but have just not lain down with the Lambs of God. I will help them find rest.”

He added; “That does not mean that in times of need I will not raise the hand of the Lord to someone trying to harm the congregation.”

I was good with that, sort of, but there was almost the sound of Brother Gabriel coming through.

Oct 28th

The usual morning run and sword work.  The Fly Boys are going to do a run to the south today to see what the radiation situation is like.  It may be one of the last runs of the year, their fuel supplies are getting low and with the weather was getting quick to change.

The afternoon was firearms training.  Most of the biker chicks did well with the exception of Taylor; she managed to shoot herself in the foot, literally.  The good news was that it was with a 22 caliber hand gun.  The bullet just grazed her shoe, but it scared the stuffing out of her and she dropped the gun.

I jumped all over her screaming at her.

“I can’t do this,” she sobbed.

But Asuna did a nice job of ‘good cop’, calming her down and before long Taylor was back up on the firing line with a look of determination and actually improved shooting skills.  Heather, Tanya and Chelsea all did fine.  Margo, Jan and Delaney joined our group to help us and as a result there was really a lot of personalized training for each of the girls.

I was fired as an instructor, the lionesses would train their own and I was in the way.

I hung out for the rest of the afternoon with Frank and Henry.  I really do not do that often simply because we all have our little tasks and pet projects which in the case of the three of us do not overlap all that often.

In the course of it we talked about the changes in the weather.  Henry being perhaps the closest to the Earth in many ways seemed to echo my feeling that the weather patterns were changed.  Frank also agreed.

The question is what impact will that have come mid-winter.  It could be a very mild winter or it could be a really severe one.  I think we are all hoping for the former. Henry said that The Three were very attuned to that issue.

With the snow and the dropping temperature I have noticed that Cyril has kind of gone into hibernation. Margo and Delaney have been keeping on him to get out at least joining us all at meal time.  But he is usually cold.

Oct 29th

The morning run was a little slick, but worked out okay.  We took it easy at sword practice because the ground was a little icy, but it was good because we did get the chance to get the feel for fighting in that environment.  It is hard on the knees though, the turning and slipping adds a little stress and, as a result, requires a slight alteration in the mode of the swing and other movements.

Asuna, Mark, Michelle and I took a ride out to the area of Pittsfield this afternoon.  It had cleared off and was not terrible weather wise.  We wanted to get into a Cabalas Store to see what they had.  The ammunition and many of the guns had long been removed but that was not our target.  We were looking for warm stuff and camping gear.  The store had been pretty well picked over but we were able to find a fair amount of long underwear and some hunting suits that would fit the bill for keeping Cyril and for that matter many of us warm.

As we started back, we found some tire tracks in the snow. It only looked like one set, which meant that there were people around.  This could be bad. We decided that it would be best to not go scouting around to follow them because trying to do so could give plenty of warning before we found them and allow for ambush.

The down side was now we had left our own tire impressions and they would lead right back to the camp. On the way back we switched on the CB radio (using scan mode) to see if there was any radio traffic.  There was none.

We had a pow-wow with The Three about this.  We came to the conclusion that it was a threat, but we were not certain what the response should be.  For now, extra vigilance was the word of the day.  When the snow melted, which would be in a day or so we could go out and do some scouting, but for now it was best to stay close to home and keep our observable profile as small as possible.

I really do not think that we messed up in this.  We have been so secure for some time now with the only threat that has had any impact was the Zoms.  I don’t think we were cocky in believing that we were alone or at least out of harm’s way.  Who are these people, and what threat do they pose?

Oct 30th

I have noticed that we have gotten back into the carrying guns mode.  For the last three months or so we had pretty much restricted ourselves to knives and small impact weapons but with the idea of a human threat the game has changed.

We have had no CB hits on the radio scans.  Lance has also set up a system to monitor police and fire frequencies that had been commonly used in the area.  There are a number of state wide and mutual aid frequencies and he felt that they were the best chance for us to hear something, if they were being used.

He had long ago set up a regular AM/FM radio with the scan mode to see if there were any hits on any of the stations.  We actually had a few hits.  But the hits were from far away and most had been automated signals.

I remember early in my police career we had AM radios in the police cruisers.  Often on the midnight shift or ‘dog watch’ I would sit on a high hill and go one station at a time through the radio band to see where I could get radio stations from.  I used to pick up like Louisville, KY, Washington DC, and occasionally somewhere as far away as Chicago or Toronto.  But that really depended on the weather.

There was one station that was usually easy to get and that was WOWO from Fort Wayne, Indiana.  I chuckled about it because back in my late teens when I had a curfew, so I would listen to that station on ‘date night’ so that when I got home late I could say, “well the radio said it was 11:50 when I was driving up the road to the house”, but really it was 12:50 thanks to the time zone difference.  It was silly, the folks knew, I knew they knew but it was a little game that had to be played out.

The snow is mostly gone and the weather is back into the low forties.  So there is a little more confidence about not being found by the unknown group, but there is still a little paranoia around the camp.

Matt’s meeting house had been put on hold after a lot of talking between The Three about the likelihood of our moving come spring. The efforts were seen as being more just a make work project and was abandoned.

The Huntresses (Delaney, Margo and now Heather) have been out but their efforts are now more aimed at just scouting and looking for human activities in the area of the camp.  We are good for food for the moment.  They feel that their efforts and skills should be used to watch for unwanted visitors.

At lunch today Cyril said something that was interesting.  His sight is not good but he said; “Early this morning, before dawn I had taken Biter out for a walk, and while I was out there I saw a UFO in the western sky.”

“Oh? What do you mean a UFO?” Lance asked, I knew what he was thinking.

“Well, it was not so much a flying saucer as a light that moved quickly through the sky a little above the horizon.”

It could have been a meteor, or a satellite, we had not heard or seen any aircraft in a long time, other than our own.  One would think that if there was still an Air Force or planes up we would have had at least some sightings.

Oct 31st

We had a good day today; it was warm, about 50ish which for this time of the year is quite acceptable.  It was not a run day and Asuna and I decided that with the weather being what it was we would take a motorcycle ride.  As we talked about it at breakfast, Frank, Teckla, Matt, Tanya and several others decided that they would join us.  We had the bikes, and the gasoline supplies were available so it was head out on the highway.  We were all well-armed, because we are still in the ‘just don’t know mode’ for what or who we might run into.

We headed toward the northeast for a change.  Most of our scouting and travel had been in other directions.  This trip would bring us back to the north of Peru.  We would stop there on our way through just to see how the place was but then it would be toward Sherburne Falls, a cross between an old mill town and a tourist area.  It should be a quiet ride, and that was what we were looking for.

Peru was pretty much the same as it was when we left it.  But then Henry and the farm crew have been back into the area during the harvest and had kept an eye on the place.

We found that the roads going out toward Sherburne were pretty open and we did not run into many abandoned cars or road blockages nor did we find any Zoms wandering on the road.  Let me correct that and say we did not find any moving Zoms, there were some who were so decayed that they could not move. We also saw that there were some that had been released and burned.  The burned did not look like recent history so we were not so concerned.

As we rode along and got through Hawley, Massachusetts, we saw that there were barns and billboards that announced that the road ahead had been cleared.  But what that meant was unclear.  Had the road been cleared of obstacles, or were the undead cleared.

We also began to notice markers on the side of the road.  It was like the ones that you would see when there was a fatal car crash and the loved ones would set up crosses, and flowers and stuffed animals.  It was kind of sobering and I thought back to Anne, and Lauren and all the others that we have lost along the way.  I miss her, I miss all of them.

As we reached the outskirts of Shelburne, we came to a barrier.  It was stretched across the road and on it was a sign that said “Private, Keep Out”.  It was not a new sign, nor was there any indication of living beings in the area.  The question was whether to just turn around or should we explore a little.  The vote was to explore. Once we got into town I wish we had not.  That smell, it was one that you never forget.

Like Otis or the north side of Lake Danahee or near the Arsenal it had been a last stand point.  The remains of the undead were strewn about in heaps and it all led to the Bridge of Flowers.  It appears that there were about a half dozen who made that place their final battle.  It kind of made sense to a degree, the bridge would have offered some protection on all but two sides.  To get to them the dead had only two paths; but the numbers; the sheer numbers of the dead overwhelmed those on the bridge.  We could see it, the pile of bodies, and some of the dead that were still able to writhe and move.  In the center of the bridge were the remains of those who had battled.  It looks like they each saved one bullet for themselves when it came time.

The site took the fun out of the ride.  Matt did a little service for the group on the bridge and we torched it and then we got out of the area.  We could have left the bodies to rot but it just did not seem the right thing to do.  We realized that the smoke could attract attention so we did not take too much time to allow our being cornered or tracked.

Dinner was a little quiet when we got back.  We all thought about those we have lost, and the souls of humanity in general.  It seemed kind of fitting for Halloween/All Souls Eve.

Nov 1st

A rainy day, but still got the run in this morning.  One of the things that we talked about while out on the run was the weather.  It sounds stupid but really, when you are jogging along in the cold rain it would have a tendency to come up.  We had some rainy periods, and that warm humid tropic kind of weather back in September but not the windborne downpours that we had experienced in Connecticut over the last few years.  Storms like Sandy or going back further to Gloria in which trees were uprooted and the power would be out for days.

Of course we were further north and a little bit west so we may not necessarily be in the same weather pattern line.  And even if we did get that type of storm we were not subject to the same power problems, we had our own.  We might lose a couple of trees, and maybe a little flooding but really, it was not a big deal.

It is times like this that we (the collective WE) would get into discussion about the good old days.  It was more discussions of the things we once had or the idea of what was happening globally.  Back then we had the media, and the Internet, we could see the weather, hear what was happening in various parts of the country, and see live footage of disasters or pending perils.  It was a little different now.

For example, the scientist has always spoken of the super volcano under Yellowstone Park erupting.  If it did, we might get a little earthquake, and then in time the ash would kick in.  But we could only speculate on what had happened, how long it would last, and ultimately if it is going to kill us.  You could do a ditto for the nuclear power plants.  We were pretty certain that there had been meltdowns, and radiation releases but we had only best guess as to which one(s) or whether more would follow.

At the end of the world we were flying blind. In some ways we’re like the native tribes or early man in our own little corner of the earth with not much to go on outside of what we were able to actually observe.  Granted we had some advantages because of the knowledge that we had from our time before The Event.  But how much does that help us now.  Actually a lot I guess because as a bunch of city slickers we have survived, or at least most of us have.

Nov 2nd

There was a hard frost this morning, it was not the first, but it was a good reminder that we have been lucky with the cold so far.  I was a little hesitant to get out of bed for an assortment of reasons.  But we did and it was a good run this morning.  After the run it was a treat for breakfast, oatmeal with maple syrup, well, not the real maple syrup, more the pancake syrup, but yummy just the same.  Perhaps come spring time we can do the whole harvesting the maple sap thing.

I must give Nick and Grace a lot of credit for doing the job that they do in keeping us fed.  It is an endless job but really they seem to relish it (sorry about the relish reference, I mustard slipped in my joking, but I am sure it dill catsup to me….)

Overall it was a quiet day with not much in the way of planned projects or activities.  As we get nearer to winter, and with the sun going down earlier and earlier that is becoming much more the case.  I think that Asuna and I need to run into town and see what we can find for books and games to give us something do over the winter.  And we probably better do it soon because once the snow flies we do not want to be driving around leaving tire tracks back to camp.

Nov 3rd

Damn, it was even colder this morning.  The snow is not flying, but I feel like winter is knocking on the door.  I could really go for a nice hot cup of coffee this morning, but that is pretty much no longer a very frequent event.  We do every once and again scavenge some real tea or coffee, but for the most part it is no longer on the “training table”.  We do have sassafras tea pretty regularly, and some other native and natural hot beverages from roots, bark or leaves but it is just not the same.

The run waited until after lunch today, really for no other reason than we just did not get going soon enough.

One of the things that the Huntresses have taken to is hunting with bows and crossbows.  They have done so to keep our noise profile down.  We are not certain of who left the tire tracks in the snow up in Pittsfield, or how close their camp was to where we are but we figured that rifle shots could be a marker.  Rifle fire also attracts Zoms.

The advantage is that we are not expending ammunition, a limited commodity that will only become more valuable over time.  But it does require more skill in getting close to the target.  The long bow is a little better for distance and rapid reloading (or would it be re-notching?).  The crossbow was a little more accurate but it lacked the power for longer flights.

Nick and Frank had the final game of the billiards championship tonight.   We have been having an assortment of games competitions over the last couple of months.  Most of them are just a kind of extended family game night.  But we do also have a dart league and championship, billiards, poker and sometimes get a rollicking game of Bingo going.

Nov 4th

What a cold, crappy raw day, rainy and just not one to be out and about.  But then what else does one do.  A good day for curling up with a good book but that was not the option for the day.  I had drawn one of the watch cards for the day.

I didn’t explain this earlier but since we had found the tire tracks in the snow up toward Pittsfield we decided that it would be a good idea for us to monitor the cameras that Lance had set up around our camp to see if we detected any movements that might be someone scouting us.  In fairness to Ethan and Lance we each took a 12 hour shift in the monitor room.

There were a few people who were exempted from the task, like Nick and Grace or Cyril.  The Huntresses were also excused simply because they were out scouting for people on their own.  But the rest of us took our turn in the two week cycle. There were some of us, like me who took a shift every week.  I was the Monday day guy.  I probably could have argued that Asuna and I should be exempt also because of the scavenging missions, but that would not really be fair.

It is generally boring as hell, and I cannot imagine how bad it is doing the overnight shift.  But then yes, I can from my days of doing the overnight shift on a Sunday/Monday night shift in the wintertime.  The schedule for the monitor room was:

Sunday Day:                              Steven                                            Night:                            Heather

Monday Day:                            Me                                          Night:                            Joseph

Tuesday Day:                            Stephen                                          Night:                            Michelle

Wednesday Day:                            Ron                                          Night:                            Fred

Thursday Day:                            Mark                                          Night:                            Ethan

Friday Day:                            Asuna                                          Night:                            Henry

Saturday Day:                            Jan                                          Night:                            Frank

Sunday Day:                            Lance                                          Night:                            Taylor

Monday Day:                            Me                                          Night:                            Joseph

Tuesday Day                            Steven                                          Night:                            Matt

Wednesday Day:                            Doc Barkley                            Night:                            Charlen

Thursday Day:                            Lance                                          Night:                            Ethan

Friday Day:                            Tanya                                          Night:                            Larry

Saturday Day:                            Teckla                                          Night:                            Chelsea

The shift was quiet and I saw not much of anything happening out there. Oh look, a squirrel….. Asuna stopped in around noon time with lunch.  We sometimes visited each other halfway through the shift to share a meal and break the boredom.    We tried to keep certain people in the dayshift mode because of their other tasks.  The Three were pretty much kept in the light, although Henry volunteered for night shift.  Steven, Ron, Asuna and I were also kept in the light because of our outside activities and need for readiness.  One advantage with dayshift over the night shift was that we would have Lance or Ethan in the area.  They kept quite busy with maintenance projects on the equipment.

One of the things that they are working on is a motion detection system that would put a warning that there was movement on specific cameras.  It was a great idea, particularly at night.  During the day it could be a little annoying because you would get a bird, or squirrel moving around and it would set the thing off.  At night you did not have as much an issue with that type of movement.  It was also advantageous in case the person on watch was to nod off.

Nov 5th

Another rainy, miserable day and we are stuck playing indoors again, or at least most of us are. Nothing happened.

Nov 6th

The bad news is it is another rainy friggin’ day and the mood in the camp matches the grayness of the sky.  The good news is that we have been able to collect a lot of rain water.  It has all tested okay for radiation and it is something that we can use for drinking so we have filled every bottle, can, and container we can find.  The stuff from the military purification unit is safe, but not so tasty.

The ground is pretty soggy and soft so we are trying to avoid any driving other than on the roadways but then we have no real driving that we need to do. It kind of reminds me of some of those old westerns with the dirt streets. We have also started to lay down wood to create walk ways over the soggier spots.  The other thing I have noticed is that with the dampness you just cannot shake the cold.  The fireplaces and woodstoves are getting a workout.

Nov 7th

The sun was out this morning, it was still cold, but the blue sky seemed to raise the spirits.  We did the run this morning, and then a little sword work.  It is amazing how much one’s mobility is hampered by heavy clothing.  It is something to remember when you find yourself in a prolonged battle.  But the other side of that coin is in the post battle situation how badly would you suffer from the cold if suddenly you were left exposed to the elements.

There was some time spent shoring up and adding to the “boardwalk” system that we have lain down due to the rain and flooding.  We have also taken some time to mark out the walkways so that when it snows we are able to stay on them, and even shovel them.

With the weather being what it is Asuna and I headed out to a high point to the west of the camp to see if we could find or see any indication of smoke.  It might be a good way to determine if there is another settlement close by. We found nothing but they could also try to maintain a low profile.  The smoke from our camp has been kept to a minimum, using dry hardwoods like oak and maple.

There had been a plan to put the aircraft up one more time before fuel ran out but after the issues we had with the biker group back in the day The Three figured it was not so hot an idea.  Besides, we knew pretty much what the deal with the radiation was, and where it was coming from so the fuel would be saved for some other necessity.

Fred and Jan have actually set a date for their wedding.  It will be November 30th.

Nov 8th

Another cold morning, and I am not going to even try the “and crisp”, it was just plain bone chilling cold.  The run was completed but we decided that sword play was off the table for the day.   It was a soup kind of day, and we pretty much had it for lunch and dinner.

Interesting issue arose today that we had not seen before, Joseph had a tooth ache, a filling fell out.  Over the last 9 or so months we have really not had to worry about the whole dental thing.  Most of us have kept up with brushing and flossing but unlike the old days we had not option for cleanings and such.

The end result was that the tooth had to be removed.  But this does make one think about what holistic remedies could be used in cases like this.  I remembered a movie where clove oil was used when the bad guy was drilling into hero’s front tooth and asking if it was “safe”.  Using cloves actually did help for a little while but over time his tooth got worse.  We tried to replace the filling with an assortment of glues and fillers but it did not help.  It was particularly sensitive to temperature issues and this cold air was just killing him.

Nov 9th

Again with the cold, this is not good, but at least we did not have to deal with snow.  The huntresses were out again today, game is sparse and the best they could come up with was a couple of fat little squirrels.

It was just a kind of read or keep busy day.  The radio monitoring has turned up nothing.  We have not picked up any CB signals.  The AM/FM bands have been quiet except for a couple of loops signals either inviting everyone to the Michigan Peninsula or telling travelers to avoid particular areas.  We did get one station from the Pennsylvania area that warned of a meltdown at a nuclear power plant in the Allentown area.  That could explain the radiation readings that we are experiencing.

We have not seen any Zoms or had any hit the fences in the last couple of days.  It is likely that they are impacted by the weather and cold.

Nov 10th

It was a little warmer today, but it was cloudy and toward the end of the day it was feeling like we were going to see some snow.  We had no real reason to do so but Asuna, Mark, Stephanie and I took a ride into Pittsfield.  Since the weather has turned colder it has been less a problem with the Zoms. We would see piles of bones along the way that had once been undead, but now were just remains, unmoving, or very limited in their movements, like the jaws would open and close, but that is about it.

An interesting aspect of the remains was that those we saw seemed to be older, like in their 50s and older.  I know that sounds strange in that there would be no way to really tell other than by the clothing that the subjects were wearing.  You did not see a lot of jeans, or fashions that would be considered trendy.  It was more plaid pants and house dress types of clothing.  I thought back to what Anne had concluded back some time ago that for whatever reason the younger the subject the more durable the remaining body was and the longer it was active.

We had nowhere in specific that we wanted to check out but thought a general scavenging party was a good idea.  But one of the things on our list was liquids like sodas, waters, and those things that will freeze if this weather continues.  In most cases the items would not be necessarily spoiled by freezing but rather they would destroy the containers and render them unusable.  The other thing that we would or should consider is auto batteries and the acid that goes in them.  Those items have a shelf life and having a few extras would be good in the long run.

Normally we would have taken the Coyote for this trip, but for the reason of the tire tracks we had discovered last time we visited we took the Hummers, with the 50 Cal mounted.  Just a gut feeling which fortunately turned out to be wrong.  We had no contact with anyone.

We did find that there were some signs that there may have been recent visits to the city.  It was little things like opened cans of food littering the street, and windows that had been smashed out.  In one of the stores we saw that the aluminum gate had been cut and that the cut still was very shiny showing it was recently done.

This unknown group seemed to have little concern that there might be other groups in the area and was reckless in that regard.  I also found it troubling the excessively destructive manner of doing business. They wrecked a lot of stuff needlessly and were very wasteful as a result. It seemed to indicate to us that they were either not planning on staying in the area long or they were very stupid.  I am hoping that it is the former and that we might not have the occasion to meet them.

Nov 11th

Veteran’s Day, it is easier to remember than Guy Fawkes Day which was about a week ago.  There are none of those people left from World War One for whom the holiday was established for.  For that matter, we have very few left that were in World War Two, Cyril may be the last for all we know.  We do still have Viet Nam Vets, and those who have served in the Middle East Wars and Afghanistan. I guess in a way each and every one of us could be, should be a vet having survived as long as we have in this war against the virus, or whatever has turned the world on its ear.

Matt and Tanya had put together a little ceremony out by the flag pole for all those who we have lost.  It was sad, and for some of us, very hard.  At 11:00 they read the names of those who had been with us and were no longer.

Captain Lewis

Bert and Mary-Lou

Pedro

Alexander

Lauren

Marisa

Alyssa

John

Billy

Anne

Arcelia

Armand

Uncle Elgin

All have gone to a better place, because this one certainly is not ideal. Anne was for me the hardest name to hear.  I still miss her and still think about her, and seek advice from her.

There have been others who have died that we do not even know.  Our list was just of those who had been part of our group.  I hope there will be no additions to the list when we read it next year but I know it will not be so.  There are also those who we could term the others, be it the Biker Group, or the Soldiers from the Arsenal, the masses from Otis, Brother Gabriel, The Military Unit in Hinsdale, so much death, so much waste.

After the service we walked back toward the monitor cabin.  It was my Monday to watch the little screens.

As we walked, Asuna asked, “Are you okay?”

“I guess I am, but I was thinking about Anne”.

“You and Anne were together for a long time, she is an important part of who you are.”

I felt guilty about that, and then as if she could read my mind.

“You don’t need to feel guilty, and I hope when it is my turn that you think of and talk to me the way you do with Anne.”

A weak smile, a tear, a hug and an “I promise”.  The thought of losing her too was not one I wanted to dwell on or even consider.

I do not talk much about my relationship with Asuna in this journal but I maybe should.  She came into my life at a time when things were not good for me or for her.  I was devastated by the loss of Anne, and at times wanted to join her.  But I had a mission to keep Margo safe.

Then Asuna showed up when there were still shadows in my life. I do not know why, but there was some connection, we just sort of fit together.  She could do much better than me.  I just do not know why it works but I am not going to complain or second guess.  She helped remove some of those shadows and over time saved me.  In the course of the walk the light finally got real bright.

“Asuna, would you like to share my cabin with me, I mean, I have some extra room and all?”

“Duh!”

We moved her things in this afternoon.

At dinner Margo joined us. It was kind of funny,

“Well, it is about time you two!”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Oh Tom, you two have been supposed to do this for a while, move in, God, sometimes you are kind of dense!”

“Yeah well, I, uh, I mean.”

“Yeah, you felt guilty about Mom, I know, and you miss her, so do I.  But she is gone.  You and Asuna are peas and carrots.”

Asuna, who had said nothing piped in, “We have your blessing?”

“Of course, even a blind squirrel could see what you two think of each other.”

I felt much better after that, it was a concern, Margo’s approval.  I guess I am kind of traditional in some ways.

Nov 12th

It was strange, but very nice waking up with someone in the bed this morning, we did not make it to breakfast as early as we usually do.  When we did, there were congratulations and hugs.

Cyril came over and I was nervous at first but then he said, “I hope for your happiness, I know Anne and Arcelia would both approve.  Take care of each other for as long as you can.”

It is a little warmer today, and the sun is out.  The run was good and we actually were able to swing the swords around a bit.  The huntresses went out to do a little hunting today and I considered some fishing but the lake has a glaze of ice and the trout stream is a little frozen on the edges.  Note to self: next time we do a scavenging run we have to look for ice fishing gear.

One of the things that have worked to our advantage is that between the cats and Biter we have had very little issue with rodents and squirrels getting into the food storage areas. The squirrels have been either scared away or the population has been decimated.  Mice, well that is another issue.  We have found some places where they have gotten into some of the food containers.  The issue becomes what to do about the flour, or corn and such that they have been able to “contaminate”.  In the land before the end we would have just tossed it out with no concerns because we could go and purchase some more.  But now it is different.  In some cases if the contamination is really bad like there is mouse crap in the flour, it is tossed or poisoned to reduce future generations.  But it is saved if it is relatively clean figuring that cooking or baking will kill anything that could hurt us.

When one thinks about the plants and mills before the fall, and what the Feds would allow, we were not really all that much at risk.  And in a time of hunger, as disgusting as it might seem, bread with a few mouse hairs or poops were preferable to starvation. Taylor took on the task of keeping an eye on the food inventory and storage conditions.

A check on the propane truck has determined that although we are good for right now it would be a good idea if we took some time and obtained at least one more truck load or found another truck that was loaded.

I have always been a little nervous around that particular gas.  I recalled the old cop days when we had actual leaks of the stuff.  It is heavier than air so as a result it would pool or form up in low areas or in potholes.  That stuff really makes a mess when it is ignited and explodes.  But it is our only option really at the moment. Asuna, Frank and I will head out tomorrow and see what we can find.

Movie night tonight, we had acquired one of those TV projection type devices like you would use for a PowerPoint Presentation.  By hooking it to a laptop computer we run movie DVD’s and project them on a white wall.  It was a classic tonight, Young Frankenstein.  Our supply of movies is limited and this one was added in a recent scavenging foray. Having seen some of these movies so many times it has reached a point where there are wise cracks and comments from the audience that make the movie a little more fun.

Nov 13th

Cold again today, but at least it is sunny.  Frank, Asuna and I headed into the Pittsfield area in search of propane.  We were able to find a couple more of the small propane trucks and brought them back to the camp but that is the last of them. From here on out we will need to either find alternative sources to power things or we are going to have to figure out the means to refill them.   We keep them parked over by the landing field until we need them, just in case.

There is not much else to report on.

Nov 14th

Snow day and we received about 6 inches.  We skipped the run today.  The snow is that heavy wet snow, and we had some tree limbs come down, but nothing serious. We will have to keep an eye on the roofs of the cabins.  If we see a large build up over the winter, we should get up there and shovel them.

In the “for what it is worth department” we had created a hydroponic garden back in Peru.  We were not successful in moving it to Romaca.  It was too small and too difficult to try to keep heated and lit.  Fresh lettuce would have been good going through the winter but it was just not something that Henry and Matt felt we could keep up.  I mention this here because with the snow fall it would have been very difficult and dangerous to try to clean the glass that would have been covering the greenhouse.

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 from 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.

Now do not get the wrong idea about these two.  They may be the religious leaders of the group but that does not mean that they will not take up arms against those who would harm us.  They understand our situation as well as anyone and know that to survive sometimes things, unkind things must be done to preserve us.  The wolf in the fold must be dealt with.  After Margo and Delaney, Matt is still the best with a rifle and has on more than one occasion used it.

Got to go, we have a couple Zombies on the wire.

Nov 19th

I have to admit on one hand it is nice having a roommate again.  It does offer some great opportunities for discussions, and expands upon things that can be done.  But it is also a little weird, I have for much of my life lived alone.  Asuna is a great roomie in the sense that she seems to know when to be close and when to give a little space.  I hope that I am seen in the same light.

We are both kind of neat freaks and as a result the place is generally pretty much squared away as far as not being a mess.  I think that Margo was right in describing us as peas and carrots.

We did the run this morning but we had to be careful because of the snow, it was a little on the slick side.  We skipped sword drills for that very reason.

I am wondering how Ken and crew are making out.  I figure with the new truck and all they are probably on their way south.  I would still like to know if I was right in my gut feelings about Mike, but will probably never know.

Not much else to say.

Nov 20th

It was cold and crisp this morning, some extra cuddly time before we did our run this morning.  Breakfast was a little on the sparse side with mostly cold cereal and some left over baked goods. Nick has a cold or bug of some kind and it was thought best to keep him out of the kitchen to avoid spreading it.  But then Grace is still doing some stuff there, and well, they are roomies, so I think we are still going to see a round of the bug.

While Asuna and I had breakfast we talked about Ken and his crew.  “I think we should take a run out that way and see what is going on with them.” I suggested.

“Do you think they are still there?”

“I am not sure, but it would be good to check it out, good to know if they were still around I think.”

“We can take a drive out that way later this morning if you like,” she suggested.

It was not what we expected.  I feel bad, but I am glad we made the run.  I just don’t know why it ended as it did.

When we got there the camp was intact, no movement, but everything was as it had been the day we left.  The truck was still there, and loaded to go.  But we were not greeted, which struck me as odd.  While I looked around Asuna checked the yurt that Ken and his son had set up.

“Tom, better come here.”

“What?”

Asuna was standing in the doorway, I looked in.  Ken and his son were both in their cots; there was a pool of blood underneath them.  Both had been shot in the head.  We exchanged glances and out came our sidearms.

“We better check the other tent.”

I nodded, and we moved toward it with heightened awareness.

Asuna pulled the flap back and I was first through the door.  It was too late, they were dead too.  Susan and Avalon were in their cots, Mike on the floor, he still had the gun in his hand.

We will never really know what the cause, or reason for it was.  We found no note, Mike just snapped.

We burned the bodies; no sense in leaving them to rot, it was a somber task.

As we drove back we were mostly quiet, I think both of us were wondering “why”.  I was just thinking of the waste.  It was just a case of the limited resource that humanity could use to recover had just gotten a little more limited.

I did not even notice it but as we drove I had reached over and held Asuna’s hand.

We filled The Three in on what we found at the camp.  For the most part we left it intact taking only the guns and bullets.  The food and other supplies would be there if we needed them but there was something about taking dead man’s food, boots or money that had always seemed wrong to me.

Nov 21st

During the run this morning Asuna and I speculated about the murder-suicide.  Delany and Margo were running with us for a bit.

“Ken was pretty much clueless as to what was in Mike’s head,” said Margo.

“Yeah, in talking to the girl’s while you were off getting a truck with the guys; Susan said that Mike was a little scary, he was jealous, he thought that Ken was trying to take Susan away from him,” added Delany.

“Really? Was his concern realistic?” asked Asuna.

“Not according to Susan, she had stuck with him for years, and Ken was nice and all but she was not giving up Mike I think she was afraid of him.”

Margo went on to say that Avalon told her that her dad was kind of a control freak, and since he ran out of his meds he had gotten worse of the last few weeks.

“Hmmm, I wonder what made him snap.”  That was my question

We ran on a little further then the fleet footed huntresses picked up the pace and left us easily behind.

“Asuna, what do you think?”

“Don’t know, my best guess is that he felt he had lost control, and that Susan was going to dump him so he did what he could to regain control.”

“I guess, it is just a shame, another waste of lives.  You ready to start back?”

We took some time after breakfast to check with the various sections (food, vehicle, medical, and The Three) to see if they need us to make a scavenging run.  They were all pretty well set of the moment but would have a run list ready for us tomorrow.

After we prepped the truck and equipment for the run into town the balance of the day was spent reading and relaxing.

Nov 22nd

There was something significant about this day from the past.  It was important then, now, not so much.  I was in seventh grade, in Mr. Fagola’s English class.  It was about 1 pm and we had just gotten back from lunch when the announcement came down that we were being dismissed from school due to the assassination of President Kennedy.

It makes one think about how things would have been had he survived, had this point in time not happened.  I have considered this over the years and depending upon what was going on at the time, and what new information came forward, it is just unknowable.  It has always been easy to consider or believe that “Camelot” existed and that the world would have been a better place but the details that have emerged over the years seem to take some of the shine off.  In some ways it was really the beginning of the decline of America, we lost sight of the moon, and the stars and decided that it would be better to give away the fish instead of teaching people how to fish.

After the morning run, Asuna and I took a walk around to collect our “shopping” lists. It was kind of a short list for specifics, cranberry sauce, and candles.  There was also the standard list which we would always look for, canned goods, water, medicine, weapons, books, and warm clothing.

It was a pretty un-eventful run.  We added some items to the larder. I am guessing that Nick and Grace are working on a Thanksgiving meal which was why we needed the cranberry sauce.  We were able to get both the kind of jellied type and the kind with the actual berries in it.  The expiration dates were within the safe zone.

Expiration dates, now that is a topic for the end of the world.  All foods that we find scavenging are canned or packaged.  The canned stuff is generally considered to be safe for consumption even if the expiration day is well passed.  The only time we dump or avoid the canned is if the ends are bulging or when we open it and the aroma is such that it screams “I will kill you”.

Boxed goods like cereal, pastas, packaged meals/snacks and such are also pretty much okay.  A check for mold, holes in the boxes or bugs is the determiner there.  The cereal might be a little chewy, but then it is the end of the world.

It was clouding up by the end of the day and there was the smell/feel of snow in the air.

Nov 23rd

Well, it is a week to the wedding and plans are coming along. It is a big deal. This is one of those rites that will work to bring back normalcy to our little group and it will be a case of “official” pair bonding.

We do have strong bonds that have been in place for a while, like the Major and Charlene, and Frank and Teckla.  We have some that have been in place for just a little while like Nick and Grace or Asuna and I.  Then we have the new relationships, although in some cases not that new.  Lance and Delaney, or Margo and Cody come to mind.

But then there are the broken bonds, and those are tough.  The ones in which a half of the bond has gone on.  Anne, Lauren, Arcelia, they were all part of bonds that because of the harshness of the new world been ended.  I know that in Arcelia and Cyril’s case there is not much that could be done in finding someone to fill that void. Nick and I were lucky in that we had people come into our lives to fill that void that was left.

I have come to love Asuna very much and she is now the most important person in the world to me.  But that does not mean that I have forgotten about Anne.  That type of a bond does not just go away.  The past was, and it is okay to reflect on it, but it should not trap you.

The weather today was nice, there is a little snow on the ground. It is a nice play outside day.  Asuna and I did a little sword work, just to stay sharp….groan…..but while we did it we talked about how we were bored.

“I am tired of just the routine scavenging runs into town, I think we need an adventure,” I stammered between huffing and puffing from the drills.

“Like what did you have in mind?” asked Asuna, barely breathing hard.

“I think we need a road trip, I mean a real road trip, like a couple days, camping, something where we cover some distance.”

“And you thought of this now that there is snow on the ground, and it is getting cold?”

“Yeah, well, like I said, I am bored.”

“And where were you thinking of going?”

“Well, I had talked to a few of my cop buddies in the early days of all of this, and a number of them were heading up to the Burlington area.  We could head that way and see what is shaking up there.  Besides, we could take some equipment and get some radiation readings.”

“I like it, just the two of us?”

“Yep, and it will only be for about two or three days, so we will be back in time for the wedding.”

“When do we leave?”

Well, leaving was not as easy as I had thought it would be.  We took a fair amount of heat from The Three who thought it was a risky thing to do but in the end, what could they say?  By the end of the afternoon the Coyote was packed and we were ready to roll.  We had talked about taking one of the Hummers, but felt the Coyote was a better fit.

Nov 24th

Up with the crack of ass this morning and after coffee and a little light breakfast we were on the road.  We decided that we would circle around Pittsfield to the east and then head up toward North Adams.  We had made a run up this way months ago and at the time it was a little on the hot side as far as Zoms went.  It would be interesting to see what the place looked like now, particularly with the colder weather.

North Adams is now a ghost town.  We found no one living, and very few of the dead standing about.  While we were there we topped off the tanks with diesel fuel and kept our eyes open for the standard items that we always looked for on scavenger runs, meds, canned goods, and weapons/ammunition.  There was not a lot that we found and we figured that if we found items we could pick them up on the way back.

From North Adams we turned west and headed to the airport just outside of town.  It was more a case here where we were checking it out for possible landing zones and spares for the chance that we decided to move north.  The landing strip was clear and could be used and there were a number of aircraft that appeared to be flight worthy.  The fuel storage tanks were or appeared to be about half full, or would that be half empty….guess it depends on the day.

Right around lunch time we came upon the Big Cheshire Cheese Factory.  It is a gold mine in a lot of ways.  It was well stocked and the cheddar was aged nicely.  We will be stopping here on the way back for sure.  I would guess that there is several thousand pounds of edibles here in the form of assorted cheeses and hard sausages.

After lunch we continued up Vermont Route 7.  We were picking up nothing on the am/fm radio scans nor did we hear any radio traffic on the CB or police/fire scanner.  It was quiet.

We reached Bennington at about 2:30.  Like North Adams and a number of the other towns and villages we passed through it was pretty much picked over for materials and scavangables (is that a word?).  Again it was devoid of people and we only saw the occasional identifiable remains of a Zom.

As we left Bennington, we continued north but it was getting late and we had only about 45 minutes of daylight left.  The plan was to find a place to hole up for the night.

“Hey, look at that?” exclaimed Asuna.

“What?” I said ready to slam on the brakes

“That sign, I know where we have to stay tonight!”

I looked at the sign, then looked at her, “Sodom?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“Ah, well?”

“Losing your sense of adventure Old Man?”

“Sodom….Really”

“Well?”

“Okay, it will be a campfire story for when we get back”

Sodom is actually a little village that has also been known as Adamant.  For a 6th grade boy this could be a field day for toilet humor.  It is an old granite quarry town that has been around for a long time.  But there is not much there, a little store, an inn, and a post office.  It appeared to be abandoned, which would make sense.  It actually met the needs for our sleep over quite nicely.

We got a nice fire going in the main room of the inn and decided that it would be best to sleep there rather than try some of the rooms upstairs.  After having a little dinner, which we heated over the fire and had by candle light in the dining room we returned to the main room.  It was all of 7 PM and neither of us was ready for sleep.

We talked for a little bit and then I began to tell the story of Frieda Engleblocher, the murdering widow of Adamant, a tragic tale of the young woman who had lost her husband in a quarry accident which she blamed on the company.

“Why was it the companies fault?” asked Asuna.

“Work with me here.”

“No, I need to know why she felt it was their fault!”

“Okay. Well, ah, he had been driving a cart with a 10 ton block of stone on it and the axle snapped causing the block to shift and crush Shamus, her husband was Shamus, against the side of the cliff.”

“And the snapped axle was the companies fault how?”

“Damn it, okay, the cart had a load limit of 5 tons, but the company never told anyone that.”

“Better”

“My I continue?”

“Yes, please”

“So when Frieda, poor Frieda got the news she just lost it and kind of went into hiding in her house, devastated by the loss.  She dressed in a black dress, long black dress with lots of ruffles.”

“Good, I see it”

“And then she would sneak out of the house at night, and one by one the company big wigs were killed, each with their heads smashed by a chunk of granite.  Just like poor Shamus.”

“Nice twist, but I suspect Frieda!”

“A poor frail widow?”

“Yeah, good point”

“Well finally someone saw the shadow of the woman in the black ruffled dress slipping away from the house of one of the owners.  The next morning when the found the owner dead they figured out it was Frieda.  A mob headed to her home, which was here, at the inn to confront her.  But when they broke into the house to get her they found her dead, she had hanged herself.”

“And?”

“And?  Okay, ever since the ghost of Frieda is said to have haunted the inn and on a full moon she comes out to drop rocks on the heads of unwary travelers, like us…….”

“Not bad, actually a pretty good story, now I will have to work on one, but not tonight, I am scared.” she said with a smile.

“I think you will have to hold me tight tonight so I feel safe.” She giggled.

“I can do that.”

We drifted off to sleep eventually. Over the last year we have both become light sleepers, fortunately tonight, there were no ghosts, no noises and best of all, no Zoms waking us up.

Nov 25th

It is mornings like this that a nice hot coffee and eggs over easy would be mighty tasty, but today it will be cold cereal and a juice box.  Oh well, we were up early and were on the road by 8.  Our goal was to make Burlington area by noon, with maybe a few short stops along the way.

The weather was not bad, it was sunny, but cold, what I would guess to be seasonably cold.  The snow cover was really just enough to show tracks from anyone or thing walking in the area.  We saw no tracks.

We headed back toward Bennington and then followed Vermont Route 7 north heading toward Rutland.  Shortly before we got to Rutland we found another airfield.  It was not in bad shape and again could be a drop in point if we needed to use it.  The field was clear and the fuel situation seemed to be good.  I am not sure what the shelf life is on airplane fuel, but again there was a pretty good amount.  There was also some jet fuel available and that meant we would top off the Coyote.

As we crested the hill going into Rutland, we were shocked at the devastation.  It had burned.  It looked like the entire downtown area had been firebombed.  The only buildings that were standing, and even then were only partially standing were some granite churches or municipal type designs.

We were able to make our way to the edge of the burn, and we looked at it.  The fire had been a while ago and snow covered the ground and remains of the buildings.  It looked like it burned for a long time and just spread from building to building, block to block.  It would make sense; there was no fire department left.  The only real question was how it started, and we would probably never know.

We worked our way around the town and then continued north.  The stop and detour cost us about an hour or so then continued north for another couple of hours and got as far as Middlebury and decided to stop for lunch and then check things out in the town.  I will say that Nick and Grace did a nice job of getting us set up for food with some pasta salad.  While we were driving we had passed some apple orchards and grabbed apples that had remained on the trees but the cold weather had ruined them and we had to throw them away.  I hate seeing food wasted, but in this case, we had no choice.

After Lunch and exploring, in which we found that the area had already been pretty well picked clean, we continued.  We headed west and then followed the edge of Lake Champlain north toward Burlington.

The scanners were all still on but we have yet to hear any chatter, or repeating loop or for that matter anything.  Perhaps it is just location; perhaps it is there is no one out there.  I think there are people in the area. I am still hoping that some of my old cop buddies are around, but really what are the odds.

It was getting dark, about 4:00 PM when we were nearing Burlington.  But like before we decided that it would be wiser to hole up outside of town.  We have still found no signs of recent activity by the living or the dead but we did not want to drive in the dark because that would require headlights and that would be a signal flare to who knows who.

We found another little B&B Inn type place and settled in.  We opted to build a small fire in the hearth, and had a hot meal.  By the time we were all finished eating and getting set up it was a little after 7.  We settle in to just watch the flames.

“I was abducted by aliens at a very early age,” in a matter of fact tone said Asuna.

“Huh?”

“Yea, when I was about 4 years old, I was in the back yard of my grandparents’ house in Okinawa.”

“Really?  What happened?”

“Well, I was playing in the backyard, it was just about dark.  I saw a light off in the distance.  It was so pretty, it sparkled all different colors. At first it did not seem to move, and then it came closer, and closer.  I could tell because it got bigger and bigger.”

At first I was confused, I did not know if she was telling me the truth, and she had really been taken, or if this was a story to occupy time, like my tale of Frieda.  She had said that she would tell the next story.

“I ran in the house and hid in my bed.  I had the covers over my head, I was so scared I was crying.”

I just listened; it sounded too vivid a memory for a four year old.

“Then it got cold in the room, and I tried to call to my Grandmother, but as hard as I tried to scream, or talk, nothing would come out of my mouth. I was so scared”

As I watched her there was really a strange look in her eye, part of me felt that she was actually reliving an event or maybe she was just really getting into the story.

“Then the covers pulled back, and I was staring at a lizard, a four foot high lizard, kind of a gecko looking thing with the big eyes.  He spoke to me in Japanese, and said that he would not hurt me.  But he needed me for a little while, he touched me with a little piece of metal and …..”

She was actually in tears at this point.

“I, I, don’t remember any more!” she sobbed, “then I woke up in my bed.”

I stared at her for a minute, and when I reached over to console her she laughed and shouted, “Gotcha!”

We laughed, yeah, she did get me.

Nov 27th

Yum, cold cereal and juice box again…..yeah….

We continued to the edge of Burlington this morning and that was about as far as we got.  The main road was blocked by tractor trailers that had been dumped on their side to prevent passage.

Another clue that we were not passing was the spray painted sign on the side of one the trailers that said, “Use Intel, Dead inside!” Now did that mean there were dead in the trailer, or dead in the city itself?  Either way I did not get a warm fuzzy feel for the situation.

“What do you think Asuna, should we explore?”

“Well we did come all this way, a little peek over the top can’t do much harm I don’t think.”

“Yeah, I agree.”

There was not much snow so we could see the area and the ground on the other side of the trailer.  Burlington, or at least this part was a dead zone.  You could see the decayed bodies on the ground.  There were a few Zoms that were still standing, but they were “turned off” thanks to the cold.

“I guess that answers that question, I wonder if your MPD friends were here.”

“I hope not, or if they were I hope they got the heck out before they were over run.  I’m going to run the radio a little to see if maybe someone is listening.”

I tried the CB radio first, working my way through the 40 channels but there was nothing.  Then I tried the police radio that we had, again there was nothing.  It was a dead zone.  I had hoped that maybe, just maybe I would see some of the old crew again, L.J., his wife Terri, Martin, Langley, Johnson and the rest who had said they were coming this way.

I could not, did not believe that they were dead, at least not all of them.  They were prepared, and had a plan, a good plan.  I think that they may have had to change the where they ended up, but that group was too good to just be wiped out.

We left our mark or a message on the truck, “100 miles south, Mass SP Radio 1, monitored, call us.”  If someone came through, they may find it and head our way.  There were other notes already left on the trailer.  There was things like “Barry, we left the city” and “Gonna Love Winter”.  Some of it was weather worn, some looked fairly new.  But overall, it was of little meaning.  Who was Barry? And no we are not gonna love winter.

We started back, in a way, it was good to know that Burlington was not an option, but I was bummed that we did not make contact with anyone.  I had thought that this was a good place.  As we drive south, we really did not talk much.  Asuna could tell I was not happy.

We drove straight through with only a brief stop at the cheese place.  We loaded up with some wheels of Swiss, and assorted goodies.  I grabbed a number of Gouda balls for Nick; he had always been a fan.

We arrived back at Camp Romaca around dinner time.

Nov 28th

Thanksgiving, I had almost forgotten. After a typical breakfast we had the first (of hopefully many) Thanksgiving annual touch football game.  Oh there will be some sore folks tomorrow, because even though we are all in much better shape that we were a year ago, running around like a bunch of kids is still going to take a toll.

The teams were divided along the lines of the Hinsdale Survivors and the Peru Patriots.  Of course, there were some “traitors” among the groups, Charlene and Mark shifted their allegiance to Hinsdale.

The game itself was a muddy, dirty mess, but it was fun, it was a brief point in time when we forgot about where we have come from and what had happened to the world.

In the end, the score did not matter, although Peru crushed Hinsdale 38 to 7.

After the game it was time to clean up and we had the chance to get a hot shower, it was a holiday after all.

Nick and Grace, wow, they did a fantastic job.  We had turkey (with stuffing and gravy) thanks to The Hunt Clan (Margo, Cody and Delaney), mashed potatoes and squash (Henry and the Farm Clan), fresh rolls, sorry, no butter.  Asuna and I will take credit for the wine and the cranberry sauce…both kinds.

As we sat in the dining hall savoring the aromas, Matt and Tanya stood up.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, let us have a word of prayer,” Matt said bowing his head. “Lord, you have placed a heavy burden on us this last year, many of us are no longer here to enjoy this meal.  But they sit at your table on this day, Your spirit and theirs are still here with us.  Thank you for this bounty that you have placed before us and the skills of those who were able to collect and create this meal.  In your Holy Name……..Amen”

“AMEN”

At the end of the meal or should I say the main course there was a smell, one that was rare in the dining hall.  It was coffee, real friggin’ post meal coffee.  I had forgotten about the Starbucks run that Asuna and I had made months ago.   And then there were the pies, apple, pumpkin, and some mixed berry delight.

We ate to the point of discomfort and then for most of us it was nap time.  Asuna and I took a walk down by the creek.  It was a day to remember, and at the same time a day to forget the shit that we had been through.

Nov 29th

It is pretty much a standard day for all of us, well, some of us.  The camp is buzzing with preparation for Jan and Fred’s wedding tomorrow.  Ron is going to be the best man and Taylor, the Maid of Honor.  It is not going to be a fancy, well real fancy wedding, but it should be nice.

We found out that there were talents out there that had not been used since The Event.  Ethan, for example, was a music DJ who used to do social events so he would be supplying the dance music for tomorrow.  Teckla baked the cake.  Back in the days before all of this she would do cakes for weddings.

Heather and Chelsea put together little floral arrangements from tissue paper and did a wide range of decorations for the hall, although they would not be installed until tomorrow morning.

After dinner we had some very mild last night of freedom parties for both of them, A hen party for the girls and a stag party for the guys. I chuckled to myself thinking that if we had a stag party we could have had Michelle, well….But I am thinking that Mark might not find that so good and idea either.  It was as I said very relaxed and we were all home by 10.

Nov 30th

Everyone was up early and the camp was a buzz of the events that would follow throughout the day, a wedding, a real live wedding.  It may not sound like much but it is a big deal to a lot of us.  It is reaching back to the old world and bringing it forward into the world as we know it.

The ceremony was at 10 and we were all in the meeting hall by that time.  It was kind of funny because the idea of “friend of the Bride or friend of the Groom” was rather moot.  Anyway, at the appointed hour the march began, I don’t know where he found it but Ethan was able to play the traditional “Here comes the Bride”.

Nick marched Jan down the aisle, it was touching, I do not think I have ever seen him as proud, or wearing a grin as wide as on that day. Jan had done a nice job on picking out a wedding dress.

Fred was waiting with Ron down at the altar.  Matt was presiding.

It began, “In the beginning was the light, and in that light God created man and woman.  They were created to bring life and love to each other, and to this world.  This love and light has been passed down for millennia and despite the events of the world today it is still shining and is renewed today with Fred and Jan.”

I squeezed Asuna’s hand, in a way it was like we were at the altar also.  Although we were not going through the vows, we were a pair, united in something very special.

“This morning Fred and Jan are here before us to make vows to each other, and yet we know that they have been as one for some time.  This morning we formalize that bond before God.  They have asked us all here to help with that rite, and have created their own words to make that bond meaningful not only for them, but also to all who are here.”

Almost without a gap Tanya began to sing, and did a beautiful rendition of “How great thou art.”  As she sang, many of us just joined in.

At the end of the hymn Matt stepped up again and turned to Fred first, and then Jan, “You have created your vows, would you share them with us?”

In unison they answered “Yes”

Then taking each other’s hands Fred stared into Jan’s eyes and said. “Almost a year ago the world changed and it became dark, dark for us all.  And then I saw a light that glowed at first and then burned brightly and lifted my world and my spirit to new heights. Jan that was you, and the love that we have come to know and share, you are the sun around which I orbit, and wish to orbit until I am no more.  I love you.”

Then Jan looked into Fred’s eyes, “Fred, It was cold and dark, and then I saw a light, that glowed at first and then burned brightly and lifted my world and my spirit to new heights.  Fred, that was you, and the love that we have come to know and share.  You are the sun around which I orbit, and wish to orbit until I am no more.  I love you.”

I thought that it was a wonderful expression of their love.

Matt again stepped in, “We have heard the vows and promises of these two, and may no one cause them to be broken.  It is my joyous duty to unite this pair in the bond of Holy Matrimony, may joy and peace surround them.  Amen”

“Amen”

We did not leave the hall, but did spend some time having a few cocktails and socializing before the meal.  It was a little buffet that really Grace and Teckla put together, Nick had some other issues on his mind.

In the afternoon after the meal there was dancing, and Asuna and I proved that white men and Asians are not the best dancers in the world.

Despite all the joy of the day one could not help but wish that Lauren could have been at the wedding.  If there was a shadow over wedding, it was that.

That night at our cabin Asuna and I talked for a while before going to sleep.

“Should we?”  I asked?

“What?”

“Get Married.”

“Well, aren’t you the romantic, ‘Should we?’ Can’t you do better than that?”

“Yeah, that was pretty bad.”

“And the answer is no, we are together, it works for us, and I love you that is enough for now.”

“True, I…”

“Shut up and kiss me!”

Dec 1st

It has been a week or so since we did a scavenger run, and it was time to get back to it.  It felt good to be back at it.

Overall there was not a lot of suffering on anyone’s part this morning from the wedding. Although there was an open bar we have as a group really become non-drinkers for the most part.

After the run and breakfast Asuna and I with the help of a number of the others cleaned up the dining room from the festivities of the day before.  Henry was with us as was Taylor and Chelsea.  As we swept or mopped or cleaned tables, we talked about our trip to Burlington.  I told them about the MPD friends that had planned to head up that way, and how I felt they were still alive, but had settled close by there.

“Where else would they have gone?” asked Taylor.

“I really do not know, I would like to, but I just don’t,” I answered

Henry looked thoughtful for a minute then added, “I think it is too late in the season to do a massive search, but I think you have time for one more run up that way.  Maybe you could take a group with you and cover a larger area.”

“He’s right, it is getting late but we could do one more run,” offered Taylor.

“It’s a crap shoot to find them, but I would feel better if we took one more shot at it.” I mumbled.

Heather surprised us all, “Can I go?”

“Me too,” said Henry, “But we have to hit the cheese factory on the way, and no visits to Sodom.” He added with a smile.

“Thank you all, I am not sure the rest of The Three will agree this time but let’s plan on the day after tomorrow if the weather cooperates?”

“One for all……” grinned Asuna.

The Three, or should I say Teckla and Charlene did not exactly like the idea of a group of us wandering to parts unknown, but they had no real way to stop us.  So it was agreed that we could take a small group.  Surprisingly there was a lot of interest in going but we decided that we would limit the trip to three vehicles, the Coyote, the HumVee and one other 4 wheel drive pick-up.

Asuna and I would be in the Coyote and we would also have Henry and Heather with us.  Ron and Taylor would be in the Hummer. Joseph and Chelsea were going to also tag along in the pick-up.

The balance of the day was spent getting our lists together of things to bring.  It was not much of an issue with the Coyote, which was always packed and ready to roll.  But we needed to make certain that the other two vehicles were set.

Dec 2nd

The morning routine, the run, the sword work, the cold show….damn I hate them still.

While everyone was getting there trucks loaded, Asuna and I looked at the maps to try to consider where we might look for our friends.  We tried to think of it from the viewpoint of “if I were running, where would I go.”

“We would want something kind of close to a city, but not that close, so scavenging would be good” said Asuna.

“And water, need a water source, a lake or large pond.”

“Road access, but I would probably stay away from Interstates,” suggested Asuna.

“Farm land and …….wow!”

“What is it Tom?”

“I, wow, LJ, you’re brilliant!”

“WHAT!”

“OK, Asuna, work with me here, remember that truck and the spray painted messages?”

‘Yeah”

“What did they say?”

“Well, there was the one about the Dead inside, something about Barry we moved and something about winter.”

“BINGO! That is where they are.”

“What are you talking about/”

“Look Asuna, it was not ‘gonna love winter’, it was ‘gone love winter’, now look at the map, right here, the little village on the side of the lake, it is Winter Love! They went to Winter Love!”

“You think?”

“Yes, yes, YES!” I felt like I was going to burst.  “We have a location!”

We walked over to the garage where the trucks and the team was working and filled them in on what we had discovered, or figured.

“You think that is the place?” asked Henry.

Ron questioned, “Are they there?”

“Yep, or if they are not, they left us another clue as to their new location.”

A buzz built through the camp as word got out about what Asuna and I discovered, or figured.  I was hoping to be right.  We shall see.

Dec 3rd

We were on the road by 8 am, and heading up toward Vermont Route 7.  The plan was to take 7 north to Route 9.  Then we were going to cut across on 9 east to route 100 north.  That would bring us right up to the area of Winter Love.  It would also allow us to avoid places like the burnt out remains of Rutland as well as the larger cities like Bennington.

The part of this trip that may be risky is that Route 9 runs through the middle of the Green Mountains.  It would depend on early snows at that elevation as to how easy the trip might end up being.  But whatever the case we were heading into ski and snow country.

As it turned out the trip was much less eventful that we had anticipated.  There was a little snow at the top of the mountains that had to be dealt with, but the trucks that we had made it all pretty easy and once we cleared the mountains the run up Route 100 was a piece of cake.

On the way we found a number of small towns and villages.  Thy had been cleaned out of goods that we might scavenge, which I guess is actually a good sign, it meant that there were people here at one time or another.  But other than a bit of graffiti offering unrecognized names or locations along the way there was not much else to help us out.

We reached Waterbury at about noon time and like many of the places that we found it was empty.  We found no Zoms, or humans but again the roads were blocked with tractor trailers.  One had to wonder why this was done.  It was like they built a fortress with doors on the paths, but never built the walls.  Anyone or anything could just go around the trailers on foot.

We worked our way around a couple of the trailers thanks to the capabilities of our trucks as well as the modifications that Frank and Matt had made.  Once in the city it was much of the same.  The Zoms, the few we found were decayed to the point that movement beyond a slow crawl by the upper body was all that was possible.  There were also dead piles, heaps of burned bodies or should I say bones.  Someone had tried to clean up the city, but then, they left, why?

As we left the city, we started to pick up clicks on the CB scanner.  It could be skip or it could be that we were getting into range of someone, some group.

“I think we should just listen for now, let’s not try to make contact,” Said Henry.

We all agreed, and I stopped the Coyote.  We held a little pow-wow with the rest of the party.

“We are starting to get some clicks and things on the radios.  Henry thinks it is best that we keep quiet for now until we have a better idea who or what we are hearing,” I told the group

“Radio silence it is!” said Ron.

As we continued north, the clicks became more frequent and finally a word or two would pop up.  It was not anything to give us real information about who, or where, but we were getting closer.  We were also getting close to Winter Love.

Finally a message came through, “LJ, we are on our way back, we should be there in about a half an hour”

“Rick, Langley, we are on our way in too”

“Holy Shit, We found them! We friggin’ found them.” I shouted, startling everyone in the Coyote.

“What? Who? Are those your cop friends?” asked Henry.

“Yep, and I am gonna have some fun now.”  I said with a grin about a mile wide.

I picked up the CB and hit the mike button.  “I hear that Manchester Cops are a bunch of whiny assholes who sleep on midnight shift and wet their beds.”

Silence, nothing, no answer.

“Yeah, just what I expected, first sign of trouble and you all hide under a rock and get real quiet.”

“Tom?  Tom Larson?” said a female voice on the radio.

“Yeah, it is me Langley, how the Hell are you?”

With a little work we figured out a meeting spot and we hooked up with the MPD crew about 20 minutes later at a bed and breakfast called “Winter Love”.  As we drove up, I saw some familiar faces, Langley, one of my old negotiators, LJ, a serious SWAT guy and about a half dozen others I recognized.  There were a lot of new faces and I was not sure if they were strays they picked up or part of the department hired after I left.

As we got out of the trucks, it was a hug fest, we knew this was a group of people who would not hurt us, or mess with us.  There were introductions all around and questions.

“Come on, let’s have some coffee and talk, there is a lot to tell, and I am sure your have some stories too,” Said LJ.

“Sounds good,” I said.

LJ was an old SWAT guy, a little on the beefy side, but had always been an ‘eye on the goal’ and we are coming out of this alive kind of guy.  He seemed to be the leader of the group.  His wife Lisa with also in the group, she had been a sergeant at the department and was a sharp woman.  Langley was one of my female negotiators.  Back in the day she had been one of the go to people when the fat was in the fire.  Andre was a tall, lanky SWAT guy who at first could come across as a little bit of an egotist but was actually good at his role on the team.  Gary was one of the old SWAT team where he was also the medic.  The last of the group I recognized was actually one of the last people I expected to see. Phil had always been kind of a loner who had buried himself on midnight shift.  He was like a shadow, was in and out the door with little contact with the rest of the shift, did his job and then disappeared.

In addition to the six I know there were 12 other people with the group. Some were from the department who were hired well after I retired, and there were 5 that were strays that were rescued along the way.

“It is not good coffee, but it is coffee, and it is hot.  How did you find us?” asked Langley after we settled into the B&B / Farm that they had set up as their base of operations.

“Well, we were checking out Burlington. You told us that was where some of you were headed.  Asuna and I found a message on the side of a tractor trailer, at first we did not get the full message, but I believed that you, or some of you were still alive and we wanted to make one more try before winter fell to find you.”

“We left Burlington in August, it was just not working out, and the Eaters were still coming into the area.  We killed what we could, but there were just too many of them so we decided to move on.” explained LJ.

“How are you set for the winter?”  I asked.

“We are fine, we have stock piled and should be fine, we have wood, food and water all set. But well we can’t really absorb you,” He said.

Sensing his discomfort about that I added, “No, that is not a problem; we are good at our base.  We are set too, we have a little camp down south, and there are about 30 of us. It has not been an easy time but we are pretty good right now.”

I told them the Reader’s Digest version of how we got to where we are now, and what we had done.  I left out some parts though.  I never mentioned the flight capabilities that we had, or anything about Waterlveit Arsenal.  I just covered the basics.

As LJ and Langley relayed their path it was kind of similar in some ways to our own.  They have suffered the loss of loved ones, attacks from hostile nomadic groups (like our biker friends) and an endless struggle just to survive.

It was getting close to dinner time and my stomach was rumbling just a little so I suggested that we take a break for dinner.

“Dinner is on us, our kitchen crew put together a pretty good collection of stuff for us, it is mostly leftovers from a wedding we had, but still pretty tasty.” I announced.

There were some shocked looks, and whispers “Wedding? Leftovers, WTF?”

Langley asked, “Are you sure?  I mean we have food here.”

Asuna jumped in, “We know, but Nick and Grace always overload us and then when we get back bitch us out for not eating it all.”

“Besides,” Henry added, “We are only here for a contact visit; we need to get back to our camp in the next day or so.”

“Sounds good to us!”  Exclaimed LJ.

Nick and Grace had overdone it, although in fairness I think they figured we would be on the road for a few more days than originally thought.

We had leftover turkey, with gravy and stuffing, mashed potatoes, cornbread, and some green beans that had been canned from the summer crop, and there was a lot of it so we all ate well.

After dinner Henry, Asuna and I met with LJ, Langley and Gary.  We filled them in on a little more detail of our camp and situation.

We told them about the radiation issues that we have found in our area and that we had been thinking that come spring time we were planning to head up this way.  I also said that although we were in pretty good shape food wise for the winter the addition of 15 or so people would stress that supply.

Phil seemed interested when we talked about the information about the military Sat-Comm and our distrust of what they might do if they found us.  I asked whether they had seen anything in the way of “UFO’s”, or possible drone activity.  They did tell of one sighting that they had with a bright sparkling kind of star that just sat, and changed colors.

Dec 4th

Up early and we found that the Winter Love folks were returning the favor of last night’s meal.  Fresh eggs, homemade bread, and some kind of sausage were laid out for us.  It was a nice meal.

After breakfast Asuna and Langley shared information that would be useful if either group found themselves in a bind and needed help.  We gave them a way to contact us when they got close.

We started back toward home about 11 am after goodbyes and hugs. Henry and Heather had decided that they would ride back in the Hummer.

“Asuna, do you think they will survive the winter?” I asked as we drove along.

“They are as well off as we are I think, they have a good chance.  But there is always that unknown, raiders or illness would be my biggest concern, I think the Zom issue is really becoming a very minor one.” She replied.

“Yeah, I think you are right.  I think they are far enough out of the way to be safe.”

“I think there has to be many more groups like this one out here, small self-contained, that have survived the initial onslaught and have gone on to build a camp, or a home.”

“Yup, and if they get through this winter, most will be able to continue.  The other thing is those that do survive winter, should be able to build and get a handle on the future.  But I still worry about the marauders and the military. Remember that UFO thing, I have to think it is the military, maybe drones or something.”

“Tom, I really don’t….look out!”

I just missed the moose that ran into our path.

“Whoa, that was close, I’m glad you saw it.”

The radio crackled and Henry asked if we were okay.

“Yeah, we’re fine, scared the shit out of me though.” I answered.

I focused on the driving a little more and we did not talk much for the next half hour while we continued over the Green Mountains.

Once we cleared the mountains it was a pretty easy ride back down to home.  It was getting dark as we pulled in.  Things were pretty much as normal when we got there.  Henry filled in Charlene and Teckla about what we had found.

Over dinner there was much talk in the dining hall about our trip.  There was some concern, but for the most part the idea of a friendly group kind of close was a comfort.

Dec 5th

We did our run this morning, and a little time with the swords.  The weather was cloudy and there was the smell of snow in the air.  As the day went along, it got darker, colder and the wind began to pick up.  I had a feeling that it would be the first good (or bad) storm of the season.

Before the snow started Asuna and I restocked the Coyote, and got it into a position where we could easily reach it and get moving if it was necessary, one never knows.  At this point the Zom activity had all but stopped, but that did not mean that we might not get a visit from marauders.

The snow began about noon, and it was really coming down.  Most of us headed over to the dining hall for something to do.  It was a games or reading kind of afternoon.  The good thing about heading to the dining hall was that it helped save wood that would have been used to keep the individual cabins warm.

About 2 pm Lance came in, he had given up on any hopes of watching the surveillance cameras, it was all snow, and really, at this point the odds of visitors were about nil.  He hung out with Delaney, Margo and Cody.

Asuna and I were in a game of trivial pursuit with Teckla, Frank and some of the other “adults”.  We made it a little more interesting and opened it up a little by making it a team effort with teams of Asuna and I, Teckla and Frank, Nick and Grace, Doc and Charlene, Mark and Michelle and Henry and Heather.

Matt and Tanya were in a corner reading while Cyril and Biter just sat in front of the wood stove, with a cup of coffee in hand.  Others were in assorted card games.  Taylor and Joseph were working on a jigsaw puzzle that had been put together so many times that it was a little frayed at the edges.  To add a challenge to it they now did it face down so they had to deal with the back of the puzzle, no pictures.

By about 4 pm the storm was really raging, and we were up to about 8 inches of snow with no sign of it letting up.

After dinner I headed back to our cabin and got the wood stove going, I figured there was no need to freeze when we got back there.  It would be a three blanket night anyway even with Asuna next to me.  On the way back I got the stove in Cyril’s cabin going too.

About 9 pm we got Cyril back to the cabin and tucked in.  He really has a hard time with the cold.  I worry about it, but there is not much else we can do.

Asuna and I were in bed by 10 and that was about that.

Dec 6th

More snow, or should I say, still snowing……

We cleared walkways, and basically did yesterday all over again.

Dec 7th

It has cleared off, but the wind is still whipping and drifting the snow, and it is cold, I think actually on the scale it is ‘Real Friggin Cold’. It is an indoor kind of day with only occasional trips outside to clear the paths. Cyril has taken up residence by the woodstove in the dining hall, and most of the rest of us wander in and out playing games or just talking about, well almost anything.

It is not a day in which we really worried about invasion of the Zoms, or for that matter anyone.

I am bored, so while Asuna is doing a little reading I am going to do some writing beyond the normal daily entries.  I should catch up on who is with whom and what the group dynamic is.  I have actually noticed a little polarizing within it.

Obviously Asuna and I are a bonded pair, as are the newlyweds, Fred and Jan. Nick and Grace are also bonded, and on one hand it is amazing because they spend almost 24/7 together.  Teckla and Frank are together, (this is almost sounding like the old Bible thing of So and So begat So, and they begat That and so on), as are Charlene and the Major / Doc.  Mark and Michelle are together, and so are Tanya and Matt.  Margo and Cody (should I call them Mardy or Cogo?) as well as Lance and Delany are bonded.

Then there is the ‘kinda sorta’ category which I will define as together a lot, but not living in the same cabin.  Ethan and Chelsea, and also Stephen and Heather lead this group and really at this point I am surprised that formal bonds have not taken place, particularly with Heather and Stephen.  Also in the group of ‘sortas’ is Taylor and Joseph.

That leaves Ron, Henry and Cyril as unattached.  Cyril, well he is still bonded to Arcelia and they will reunite soon enough.  And Henry he has his memories of “The Missus” and is good with that.  Ron is the one I kind of feel bad for.  He by luck of the draw is just screwed, or should I say not screwed.

Anyway, that is the romantic or hooked up dynamic of the group.

One of the things that I have noticed is that there is an undercurrent in the group that is pulling two ways.  There is a religious side that moves toward the Matt and Tanya, and then there is a more militant fringe that wants a more structured existence and that seems to be led by Ron.  The majority of our group seems to be in the middle, but there are those factions.  It is not a conflict or problem, just something that I have observed.

Dec 8th

It is still cold, and we are still spending most of our time huddling together in the dining hall.  It has gotten to the point where Nick and Grace just put out a big pot of soup or stew at about 10 in the morning and that is the meal du jour.  It is actually pretty good doing this because it is saving on food in a number of ways and also effort on their part.

The Huntresses took a little time to go out and try to track some game for meals but it seems that the animals are of the same mind set as we are, hunker down and keep warm.

It clouded up in the afternoon and it looks like we may see another storm come in.  If it is anything like the last one, we will have to get out and start clearing roofs.

It started to snow just before sunset.

Dec 9th

Yep, we got another foot of snow, which brings us up to about 2 ½ feet.  We will be clearing roofs this afternoon. The skies have cleared

Cyril is at his usual spot in front of the woodstove.

Frank and Matt have gotten the walks and driveway areas cleared and the trucks and cars are all cleared and ready to go if we need them.

Cody and Margo took the snowmobiles out to see if they could find some game.  Again, not much luck.

Dec 10th

Beautiful sunny morning and the temperatures are up from the “Real friggin’ cold” to the just plain old cold (20s - 30s).

Delaney and Margo brought back a couple of turkeys, so we may be seeing a real full meal in the next day or so.

“Hey, Asuna, when was the last time you built a snowman?” I asked.

“Ah, never!”

“Then come on, let’s make one.”

As we worked on rolling of the first big snowball, others began to come out and at first watch what we were doing, and then started on making Snowmen of their own.  And of course that eventually led to the snowball fight.  We were kids again, it felt good.

Lunch/Dinner pot was chili.

Dec 11th

In the middle of the night it seemed like there were lights, soft lights on outside.  I looked out the window and it was a display of the Aurora (Northern Lights) that was the likes I had never seen. I woke Asuna and we actually got dressed warmly and sat outside and watched for a couple of hours.

Not only did we have the aurora going on but there were also a number of meteors that were seen.  I think we were in one of the meteor shower times like the Leonid or one of them. It was just beautiful.

We saw that slow moving UFO off in the west again.  I wish I knew what it was.

The day was pretty normal and it seemed to get a little warmer.

Lance discovered that there was a lot of “skip” or static on the radio.  I think it was due to the solar events that were causing the Aurora.  The background radiation is known to do that.  It was mostly static, but every now and again we would get some signal, from somewhere.  They were just snippets.

“ ….463 on a radio test, anyone out there?”, or something in French, or Spanish.

Asuna translated one that was in Japanese, it was a ‘mayday’ from a Japanese ship, the Kyoto Maru, but it seemed to be an automatic loop giving its position.

There was one that was creepy and Asuna kind of froze when she heard it.

“What is it?” I asked her.

“I don’t know, I have heard that before, but I don’t know where, or when.”

“Is it just noise or maybe some code?”

“I DON’T KNOW! But it is….there’s something, I…..”

It was just a series of clicks and kind of clucks.  It kind of reminded me of some African language that I had heard from the TV.

I let it drop, but clearly she was freaked out by whatever it was.

After lunch everything was mostly back to normal with her but I could tell that there was something, something that was haunting her.

Not much else happened today

Dec 12th

Another night of the Aurora and shooting stars, no UFO’s.

This winter thing is going to be more difficult than I thought.  We will be able to eat, and keep warm, but the boredom holds some very interesting prospects.  I am thinking that the first chance we get, assuming the weather allows it, is to make a scavenging run for more books, games and puzzles.

It was clear again today and about 30 degrees I am guessing.

Ethan and Chelsea had a little fight last night, I am not sure what the shouting was about, but it calmed down and all seems back to normal.

Dec 13th

It is cloudy today, and feels like it is in the 40s.  We still have a fair amount of snow, but it seems to be receding just a little.  A few days of this and I think we can run into town and raid the bookstores.

Asuna and I checked in with Lance to see if he has been getting anymore weird signals or for that matter any signals on the radio.  He is still getting the skip which has become his new keep busy project.  He is taking what transmissions he is receiving and trying to pinpoint their place of origin.

What he’s doing is to record the messages and then play them back and can analyze it for content, such as accent or language, the message wording itself, or any other bit of information.  One of the big things he listens for is if it is a repeating loop or a live single transmission.  Most of what he has found has been loops.

“Listen to this one!” he said with a level of excitement.

“This is Las Cruces base, we see you, we see you, if you can hear us, please respond, Light in sky, please respond.”

“That is it?”  I asked.

“Yeah, and it is a lot.  We know it is not a loop, and we know there are at least some people living in the Las Cruces area of I am guessing New Mexico.”

“OK”, it was clear I was not getting the full impact of this.  We knew that there were other colonies out there.

“The Light in the Sky, it has to be some form of aircraft.  They are trying to contact an aircraft.  They have to be seeing the same thing we have been, that light is the sky on the low horizon,” explained Lance.

“But you haven’t heard a response?”

“Nope.”

Asuna piped in, “What about the clicks, have you heard any more of them?”

“No, not since that one we all heard the other day.”

As we walked back toward our cabin, I asked Asuna about the clicks again.

“I don’t know, I just think I heard them before, it was bad.  It is like something is in my mind, but I can’t reach it.”

She seemed to be doing better with it and not as freaked out as the other day, but you could tell she was running it through her mind.

Chili, deer chili is in the cook pot today, with some of the cheese we brought back from our trip up north.

Dec 14th

It was another fairly warm day and the snow has melted a little.  Asuna and I have decided that taking the snowmobiles into town to collect some books and items to keep us busy on the days we would be stuck inside was a good idea.

We have been remiss in running or sword work or for that matter just about any outdoor exercise.

The trip to Hinsdale was pretty quiet going out and we loaded up about 100 or so assorted paperbacks ranging from romance novels to science books.  On our way back we took a little different route and found that there was a set of cross country ski tracks.  The tracks were very close to the city and seemed like they were making their way around rather than through.  It looked like they were headed west based on the way the pole marks were but I was not able to determine the number of skiers, but it looked like there was more than one.  We are not alone.

I am not really too concerned about a few cross country skiers in itself, but again, there could be another ‘Tribe’ nearby.  We could have just a few like with Ken and his group, or they could be scouts from a larger band.  We will let The Three know and see what they want to do.  I am not much in favor of going looking for them.

When we got back, we filled Henry and Teckla in on what we found.  They saw no need to panic about it, but it would be discussed at the morning briefing tomorrow.

The Three meet every other day to keep a handle on what is going on and what problems the community might be facing.  Usually it is simply a hash and dash discussion because at this point there are no major crises that need attention. It is typically how is our fuel / food / radiation levels / anyone sick / any other problem?  Good, see you day after tomorrow.

Dec 15th

After they did the Sunday Service, Matt and Tanya started building a Nativity out by the flag pole; I think that it kind of kicked everyone because it brought back memories of life before The Event.  For me the burning Christmas presents and the tales of the Tumpta-guber came to mind.

“Good ole Tumpta” I said aloud.

“What?  Tumpta?  What is that?” asked Asuna.

“Well it is bit of the family lore.  Each Christmas Eve Santa Claus would make his appearance at the family gathering to distribute gifts.  Tumpta (actually Tomte in Swedish lore) was gnome like entity that was related to Christmas.  The real Tomte had a dark side in which he was easily offended and would do mischievous pranks on the villagers.”

“Ok….?”

“See, in our family the grandparents or elderly aunts and uncles would refer to Santa as Tumpta Guber.  It was one of them who would dress up as Santa/Tomte and actually arrive at the door to give out the gifts on Christmas Eve.  Tumpta would force songs or poems from the younger children if they wanted their gifts, which was often uncomfortable or embarrassing.  And as he was getting ready to leave at the end of the gifting he would terrorize the smaller children by trying to get them to go with him to the North Pole. “

“Sounds kind of mean,” said Asuna.

“Well, as we grew older we realized who the Santa/Tumpta was and it was no longer scary but became a game to figure out who was playing the role. The best explanation I ever got as to why the Tumpta acted as he was in our world was that it helped to keep the identity of whomever was playing the part more secret because we (the youngsters) were all too terrified to get so close to try to figure it out.  Of course once Tomte left, and the opening of gifts began, well, all was forgotten until the next year.”

“Did you have any memories like that as a little girl?” I asked Asuna.

“No, not really, I lived with my Grandmother, my folks were dead, and she was not a Christian, so we did not really have a Christmas.”

“Oh,” I said quietly.

“It is okay, I am good with the Holiday, and can we have a tree in our cabin?” She said cheerfully.

“Of Course!” I smiled.

I cannot speak for any of the others as to what they thought of about the holiday but in our cabin it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Dec 16th

Asuna had a very restless night and was going to sleep in a little bit so I headed over for breakfast.  After eating, Frank and I were off to a tree farm that we had passed on one of our many trips into Hinsdale.  We took the plow truck because of the large dump truck bed.

Before we left we took orders for Christmas trees from the rest of the group.  We had orders to pick up nine trees. Unfortunately we do not have much in the way of lights or decorations, so it will be interesting to see what decorating is actually accomplished.

We were back by about 10:30 and spread the trees around.  I dragged the one I picked back to the cabin and after a little trimming and adjusting got it set in the corner.  If nothing else, the pine smell was a nice change.

Asuna had just gotten up and seemed to be okay, but she was clearly troubled by something.

“Tough night sleeping last night, feeling better?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m okay, it was just weird dreams, nightmares actually, monsters, little monsters chasing me.”

“Hmmm,” but in the back of my mind it seemed odd that this all started with the clicks and radio noises.  “I’m glad, anything I can do?”

“No, not really, just be you.”

I still sometimes feel guilty that Asuna and I are together, and that we have what we have.  I feel sometimes that I have let Anne down but I think that may be normal for any widower who finds themselves in a new relationship.

In the afternoon we took a walk out around the lake to see if we could find pinecones or things we could use to decorate out tree.  It looked like we were not the only ones who tried that because we found tracks out there.

Nick and Grace decided that for a little break they would get away from the community cookpot / big pot of soup meal plan and put together a nice real dinner.  They boiled up some corn on the cob, and used some of the smoked deer and turkey meat.  It was a welcome change.

After dinner most of us hung out in the dining hall and did games and things.  We also talked about Christmases past.  We told stories about things like Pet Rocks, Nine Flags Cologne, and other memorable gifts we had received in the years gone by.

The gathering broke up around 11:00 pm and we headed to our cabins.  I held Asuna close for a little while hoping I would give her protection from the dreams.

Dec 17th

Big news this morning over breakfast, it appears that Heather and Steven are going to have a baby.  This is both wonderful and frightening news.  It is wonderful because we are moving forward; it is the start of returning to normal.  But the question is what we are going to get.  How has the illness or the radiation impacted the genetics?

That news has started a lot of buzz in the group.  I am certain that it is something that was talked about by many of the bonded pairs that are of child bearing age.

“Let’s see how the first one comes out” was what Asuna said, I hadn’t even raised the question.

Dec 18th

Another night of bad dreams and restless sleep for Asuna, she mumbled, almost childlike “No, No,”,  “Leave me alone”, “Grammie, Help!”.

She did not recall any of it in the morning.

It was nice enough so we could do a walk in the morning and figured a few more pinecone decorations for the Christmas tree would be nice, it gave us a destination. As we walked, we found that there was a gut pile (looked like deer) about a mile or so from the camp but the tracks lead away from our camp, and there were ski marks.  The other group was in the area, and had not just continued west.

“What do you think we should do?” asked Henry when we brought back the information to The Three.

“Well, I think they have to have figured out that we or someone is in the area.  But we have not found tracks that come close to the camp, so they mightn’t really know the exact location or the logistics of our camp.” offered Asuna.

“For now I think we are still safe, but the problem is sooner or later they are gonna cross our tracks and follow them.” I added.

Charlene thought for a moment and said, “Should we find them first?”

Teckla turned to her, “And what do we do when we find them?”

“Good point, I think that is dependent on the numbers” injected Henry.

“If I may,” piped up the Major, “I am not part of the council, but I think we should do nothing beyond being aware that they, whoever they are, exist and are out there.”

“I agree, and I hold no vote either, but we are still not discovered yet and I think trying to find them with the snow on the ground would be like leaving bread crumbs, they will find us for sure. I suggest we just be very vigilant and for a while stay close to home.”  I said.

Ron, always the hawk, “We could track them down using the Helo and if they start shooting, clean house on them.”

Charlene looked at him with a little distain, “No, that is not what we are, and I think that the passive approach of vigilance is best in this case. But I think that The Three needs to talk about this and make the decision.”

We were all dismissed and The Three closed the doors to talk.  Ultimately the idea of passive surveillance and vigilance won out.  Ron mumbled and rumbled a little but I think that the overall consensus was that it was the right thing to do.

Another storm is rolling in I think, it is getting very grey and the feel of snow is in the air.

Dec 18th

It was another rough night for Asuna, with the dreams, and restlessness.  I wish I could help.

We found another 6 inches of snow this morning, so it brought the total up to about 29 inches by the flagpole.  That is where we decided that it would be good to do the measuring.

We are back to the all-day soup pot.  I do think it is a great idea.

I had a talk with Margo today.

“Ah, Margo, how do you feel about Heather and Stephen, you know, the baby?” I was clearly out of my element.

“I think it is great for them, but Dad, I am not thinking about that right now, I am almost 15 years old, and although I could, I have plenty of time, and besides we don’t know how this will all work out.”

As I walked back to my cabin I thought, “Wow, she has grown so over the last year, I didn’t even think about how old she really is. Anne would be so proud of her.”

A voice in my heart said, “Yes Tom, I am, proud of you both.”

I stopped, and teared up.

The fire started about an hour before dinner time.  It was going pretty well by the time we discovered it.  We were kind of used to the smell of smoke from the wood stoves.  Cyril’s cabin was burning, and he was still in it.  It was Biter that alerted us, he was running around the cabin barking.

We could not get to him, the Major tried.  But Cyril was laying by the stove and there was just no way……

It was a struggle to contain the fire, we knew quickly we could not save him, or the cabin, but we had to prevent the fire from spreading.  We were able to get a pump working and took water from a hole we chain sawed into the lake ice.  We could only wet down the cabins nearest to his.

We really could not save the cabin, or its contents.  It looked like what had happened was that Cyril had been putting logs into the woodstove and collapsed, maybe a heart attack, and fell into the stove.  He started to burn and well…..we will never know……he is with Arcelia now.  Fuck!

No one slept; we just kind of hung together and mourned the loss of another family member.

Margo was devastated.  It was her last true family member, and she felt some guilt because she and Delaney had moved out to be with their guys.  She and I have had that talk too many times about losing people, and pain.

Cyril was the father-in-law I never really had.  I am gonna miss him.

Dec 19th

Quiet day as we cleaned up and put Cyril to rest, Matt did a great job with the service.  I hope he does not have to do another anytime soon.

In the for what it is worth department, I had the Major do a little post mortem on Cyril, we found no soot in his nose or lungs so he was not breathing during the fire which means he was dead before it started.  It helps a little.

Dec 20th

The pall still hangs over the camp.

“Asuna, grab your coat, we’re taking a ride.”  I said. I had to get out of the camp for a while.

“Where to?”

“Anywhere, Hinsdale, Dalton, Peru, I don’t know, I just need to get out of camp for a little bit.”

“The skiers?  The Three may not like that idea.”

“Probably won’t, but I need to do something other than sit around and mope. What are they going to do, ground me?”

“Ah, good point.” She smiled.

We were gone and after we were about five miles out I got a call on the radio asking where we were going.

“Ah, just a little recon?” was my response.

To my surprise all I got was a “Well, be careful and watch yourselves.”

Asuna looked at me for a minute and then said, “Actually Tom, some Christmas shopping is not a bad idea, and it could lift some spirits.”

I thought about it, it was a good idea.

We decided to head into Pittsfield, better selection and less picked over.  We have really been pretty much clear of Zoms for a while due to the cold and snow.

We spent hours going through the mall and shopping plazas in the area.  We found some really fitting gifts. But I will hold off on that until Christmas as to who got what.  In a back store room of a Macy’s I did find a Santa Suit, the Tumpta Guber would rise again.

We made no contact with anyone living, nor did we see any tracks that showed signs that there were others in the city.

We were back just at sundown, and we joined the rest of the group in the dining room.  Our trip did generate some interest and there was at least a little buzz that night.  Some were glad that we found no tracks, some were a little concerned that we may have advertised our presence.

Dec 21st

We waited until early morning, like 3:00 a.m. to quietly unload the truck of the treasures we had found.  While we were doing so the Aurora was in full bloom and just beautiful, I can only imagine what it must be like further north.

I am not sure if it was that we were awake early, or if it was something else but Asuna slept well last night.  It was so good to see that.

The weather today was good, it was sunny and in the 30’s.  The radiation numbers were in the safe zone, they have been for a while so that is a good thing.  I can only guess that the snow has scrubbed the air a little bit.

Lance has been keeping an eye on the surveillance equipment and we have had no issues of anyone or anything setting off the motion detectors.

Margo, Cody and Delaney have found no further tracks in the area.

As it is Saturday night we have the game night agenda going.  There are the Trivia games going and a Texas Hold’em tournament.  I took a bad beat in that one.  My full house (999QQ) was beaten by a better one (QQQ99). Matt’s only comment as he raked in the chips was “God works in mysterious ways”.

Dec 22nd

Church Services for some this morning, I could hear the singing from our cabin.  I did my meditation and listened to an old podcast that I had stored on the computer.  It was on the topic of “Right Speech”, part of the eight fold path.

Asuna and I spent the day wrapping gifts for each of the members of our group.  They were all addressed as having been from “Santa” with a personalized note of thanks for all that each individual had done to help us survive.

Sundays are a real cooked meal day, so the evening meal is Deer ribs and brisket, corn and baked beans. Nick and Grace do such a great job.

Dec 23rd

Frank, Henry and Mark have talked to The Three, they are going to raid the Firehouse in Hinsdale and get a pumper truck and some other equipment to make it easier and more effective if we have another incident of fire.  With all that we had experienced the fire in Cyril’s cabin was one that wasn’t really thought of. In retrospect, we have been very lucky.  The vast majority of us are still alive and living fairly comfortable considering the things that have happened.

A stir this afternoon when Margo and Delaney came back from a hunting trip, they found more ski tracks, and another gut pile.  They are getting a little closer and the hunting grounds are being shared.  I think it is only a matter of time before our paths cross. I wonder who they are and what they are like.

“Tom, you remember that story I told you?” began Asuna.

“Which one?”

“The one about the aliens taking me away?”

“Yeah, you had me there, it was a good story.”

“I think it really happened?”

“What?”

“The dreams, they keep coming back to that story, I know it sounds bizarre, but…”

“But that was a long time ago”

“I know, but there is something, I just don’t know.”

She said she really had not put it all together yet, and didn’t want to talk about it anymore; she needed to let some of it out, to see if it would help.

Dec 24th

It must have helped, letting it out that is, and she slept well last night.

Christmas Eve day, After Breakfast we were told that we would get some soup for lunch but that after about 3 PM the dining hall was going to be closed until 7, to prepare for Christmas Eve Dinner.

After lunch everyone was kind of off to themselves.  Asuna and I were putting final preparation on the gifts.  I was kind of watching her, wondering about that dream stuff.  I guess I must have been obvious, or too obvious…

“What!” she glared at me.

“Ah, I, I am just worried about you.”

She softened, “Thanks, I am worried about me too, this dream thing is freaking me out.”

“You seemed to be sleeping okay the last few nights.”

“I know, that is weird too, I have the dream, but it is not so disturbing.”

I told her about my dreams and Brandon, about how it finally led me to deal with a problem that was sitting in the back of my mind.  I think it helped her a little.

We shuffled into the Dining hall a little after 7:00.  Chelsea, Teckla and Taylor had transformed it into a winter wonderland with streamers, snowflakes and snow-covered fake trees.  Ethan had worked out a means by which Christmas music was playing in the background.

Chef Nick and Grace did a meal like you would not believe, considering.  We had turkey and ham, real smoked ham from our own smokehouse.  There were root vegetables, and corn pudding and some kind of apple dessert.  There were cheese platters with some kind of smoked sausage.  Wow, all I could think was “WOW!”

Henry and Frank added to the festivities by creating a spiced wine and some hard cider.  It was not a drunk fest, but there were those who had a few, and in some cases a few too many.

After we ate and sat around chatting. Asuna and I excused ourselves to go and check on Biter, he had taken up living with us, and although he was certainly invited to the dinner we used him as the reason we had to leave for a few minutes.

Shortly after we left there was a tap, tap, tap on the window, and it moved to the door.  Teckla joked that it was the Tumpta Guber.  Frank opened the door and.....

“HO, HO, HO”

Everyone figured out what was going on quite quickly, Santa, an Asian Elf and a white German Shepard with antlers and red nose dragging a bag full of wrapped packages.

I sat by the fire and did my best to be what Santa had been all those years ago.  I joked and had fun with it using my best fake Santa voice.

“So, I have my list of who has been naughty and who has been nice, so who wants their just rewards?”

Laughter and “I do’s” filled the room.

“Asuna, I mean, ah, Elf, hand me the first reward please.”

I looked at it, and then asked, “Is there a Nick here?”

“Yes Santa.”

“Well, I have seen that you have been a very good boy this year.  You have cooked for all these people and they have not gotten sick once. I will overlook that incident in the kitchen with Grace.”

That brought roars of laughter and a lot of red to the faces of them both.

“Seriously, Nick, thanks. Now open it up.” I said

“Should I be afraid?” he asked as he unwrapped the gift.

We had found a cooking store and collected a bunch of spices, and cooking tools along with a chef’s hat and a “Kiss the Cook” apron.

A smile and a “Thanks Santa”.

I continued, “How about Grace?”

“Here Santa!”

“I see you were good also….but did you two…..ah really? I just made that up about the kitchen!”

She turned beet red…..”No comment”

“Grace, I name you Queen of the Kitchen, rule well!”

We had found a bunch of hairstyling items that seemed she would use and like.

“Thank you Santa”

“Who is next Elf Commander?”

And so it went through the rest of the group.  Asuna and I had tried to find items that fit each of the group.  Steven for example was given a remote control Helicopter to play with.  Ron was giving a Colt 6 shooter (Pearl Handle) and cowboy type holster.  Heather received some baby stuff.

“Margo, you’re up, and you have been a good girl, you made your mother and me, I mean Tom very proud.”

She opened her gift; it was a heart locket with a picture of the three of us in it.

The room was very quiet; it was one of those moments that is what life and children are all about.

“Thank you Dad, love you,” she said quietly

“Love you too kid and so did Mom.”

We emptied the sack and Biter got the last gift in it, it was a bone and a new collar.

“Well, my work here is done”, I said as I stood up.  “Oh wait, I have one more, as I reached into my pocket and brought out a small box and dropped to one knee.

“Asuna, will you.” but before I could finish

“You sir are an idiot and I have changed my mind, yes, yes I will!”

Wild applause followed.

As we were all walking back toward our cabins it was Henry how pointed out the bright star in the eastern sky. In a lot of ways it reminded many of us of the story of the Nativity. It was kind of cool that one of the planets would align like that just on this very evening.

Dec 25th

It is Christmas.  I am sure that many “gifts” were exchanged among the campers last night and this morning.

At about noon time the emergency bell rang.  As we raced out of the cabins, we saw them.  At our front gate were four people.  They were dressed in white, with their skis already stuck in the snow at the side of the road.  It appeared they were unarmed.

Teckla walked forward, “Hi”

The tallest one, a scruffy looking guy about 40 smiled and said, “Merry Christmas, We were in the area and figured this was a good day to stop by and introduce ourselves.  I am Terry.”

“I’m Teckla, come on in, would you and your friends like some coffee?”

“Real coffee?”

“Fresh from the pot!” smiled Teckla.

“YES!”

Introductions were made and we moved to the dining room and sat down.  The entire camp did not join in, but overall about half of us were there with the outsiders.

“How long have you known we were here?” I asked.

“We figured it out the night of the fire.  We did not know exactly where you were but had a direction and a rough estimate of distance.”  Said Terry.

Andrea, a short kind of stocky women in her 40s spoke up, “I hope you did not lose anyone in the fire.”

Teckla looked down, “Yes, we lost one, he apparently had a heart attack and fell starting the fire.”

“I’m sorry” she replied.

We chatted for a while and found that the group (Terry, Andrea, Jill and Karen) had been in the area since early December. Jill and Karen were both women around 30.  They group had been on a bus that tried to escape from Brattleboro going west. Their bus died a little east of Bennington and they had continued on foot.  Their plan had been to cross over into Albany and then head south west through Pennsylvania but the snows came and the found travel more difficult.

They had found Ken’s camp and had taken it over.  They did not know about the tragedy that had occurred there.  I filled them in on what happened and Andrea said that she had wondered but she thought that it might have been marauders.  They had two others with their group and had left the group. Josh and Ashley had remained behind to guard their camp.

They had planned to stay in the area until the first of the year at the latest and then head on their way.  They were going to take the rail bridge across the Hudson and then head south west.  They figured that the ski thing was their best means of travel.  It was slower than car or truck, but easier because they didn’t have to deal with hunting for fuel and passable roads.

By the end of the day as they headed back toward their camp it was clear that they were not a threat to us, and we had made it clear we were not a threat to them.

Dec 26th

It was a sunny morning, and Asuna and I were up early, Biter, our new roommate decided he needed to go outside for a while.  It was kind of sad, he would walk to where the door of Cyril’s cabin was and just sit there.  It was as if the building was still there and he was waiting for Cyril to come out and take him for his usual walk.  After a few minutes he took his leash in his mouth, and then walked the usual path.

We headed to breakfast, and while sitting there noticed that Ron and Fred were huddled in a corner talking about something, and it was kind of heated.  It struck me as odd as the two really did not usually argue with each other.

It looked like they finally agreed on something and they left.  I found out later that Ron had spoken with The Three. He had gotten the idea that maybe he should try to hook up with Terry and his group and do the trek west.

What we had not known was that while we were talking to Terry and Andrea, Jill and Karen were talking to Ron and Ron saw opportunity.  I cannot say that I blamed him.  He was the odd man out and saw opportunity.

The word was out by noon that he was planning to leave.  I think most of us understood what was going on and why, but there were still those who tried to talk him out of going.  It would be a tough row to how, living in the wild in the dead of winter but I figured Ron could do it.

Ron drove over to Terry’s camp and talked with them.  They were good with the extra person and told him that they had planned to leave in two days to cross the bridge and the Hudson.  That gave Ron time to get his gear together and make a run into Hinsdale for skis and some heavy duty camp gear.

The mood in our camp was kind of quiet and weird.  It was the first time we were going to lose one of us to something other than death.  Ron and Fred had been friends since day one and that weighted heavy on each of them but they were each in a different place now, Fred being married and all.

Dinner that night was kind of somber.

“Do you think they will do okay?” asked Asuna when we settled in for the night.

“Yeah, I think that he will make out alright, hey, he has survived so far, and I think that it is good that he has the chance to have companions.”

“They have companions now, oh, companions…….”

“Yeah, those kind of companions,” I smiled as I blew out the candle.

Dec 27th

Ron was gone before any of us got up this morning; I can understand that, the whole goodbye thing would have been tough.

Throughout the day the question or concern of his quest kept bubbling up.

Dec 28th

It was another sunny and reasonably warm day for this time of year.

As we close the month, it was time to do the standard inventory of food, fuel, and equipment.  Taylor has done a good job of tracking all of it.  As far as ammunition and weapons we are in good shape. We really do most of our hunting with bows now so our use of bullets is minimal.

The food situation is also pretty good.  We have lost some of the flour and grains that we had scavenged to bugs and mice, but the corn supply and meats are holding up well.  We are good for canned goods (commercial as well as the stuff we canned).

Medical supplies are also in decent shape.  We have been lucky in that regard.  There have not been too many injuries and due to the change in eating habits, foods and weight loss on all our parts we are a healthier lot for sure.

Fuel, well, that for now is okay, we are using wood to heat the individual cabins and the propane is restricted to the generator and the hot water.  (I am still not happy about only one hot shower a week.)  Our best guess is that we have enough propane to get us through until the end of March.

Our one concern is kerosene/diesel and gasoline.  We are still okay on diesel, which works for the Helo and for most of our trucks, but the gasoline is running a little low.  We use that more for the snowmobiles.  The planes use a high octane blend and that is pretty much irreplaceable so flights are very limited.  The regular octane is replaceable but it has a tendency to go stale over time and we are reaching that time.

Our thought was that we might be able to change some of the gasoline powered vehicles to alcohol based fuel systems but we seem to not quite have the hang of distilling process.  We have been able to make some kick ass moonshine, but the ethanol is still out of reach.

Asuna and I have not been sent on any scavenging missions recently simple because there has been no real need to find stuff that would be necessary for our survival.  We are in pretty good shape.

Dec 29th

It is clouding up and there is the smell of snow in the air.  It’s interesting that as time goes on we have become more and more attuned to nature.  I think that as the air has become cleaner we have a better sense of it.

A moose wandered into camp today, it checked the place out and then left.

The snow started at about 3pm.

Fancy dinner night, it was spaghetti with a kind of pesto sauce.

Dec 30th

Snowing this morning, we have picked up about another 10 inches so it will be back up on the roofs to make sure they are not overloaded, other than that is was a games / reading day.

The snow stopped a little after 2 this afternoon, time to clean the walks and such.

Dec 31st

The last day of 2013, the year that civilization as we knew it ended.  I have lost a lot of friends and people that I knew and loved, and I have also found a lot of people that I have come to know and love.  Overall we have all done well to get this far and lived through some shit to get here.

I miss Anne, and her folks, and Lauren.  I am thankful to still have Margo, and Nick and Teckla in my life.  I am thankful for Asuna, she has been so special to me, and has helped me weather this storm.  Matt and Mark, Frank, the entire community have gelled, it is amazing to think back to where we were at the start of this, struggling, running, and sleeping with one eye-open.

Ah, I am getting sentimental and wishy-washy, let’s leave it at one of the Four Noble Truths, “There will be suffering” and trump it with “Best Day Ever”.   Despite all the shit and sorrow, life is good.

We had a little gathering in the dining hall and we all managed to stay up until midnight, it is New Year’s Eve after all.  But this year the ball will not fall in Time Square and really I wonder if it would not be more appropriate to wait until February 19th to hold New Year, calling it Year 1.

As we were walking back toward out cabin Asuna stopped, she was looking to the East, that planet was still there, and it seemed to be just a little brighter than a week ago.

Jan 1st

It has been a lot of years since I awakened on New Year’s morning feeling the anguish of embarrassment or a hangover from the previous night’s over-indulgences.  I have gotten to like that.  An occasional food hangover is acceptable.

As we worked our way through the breakfast line for a sort of pancake type thing, Nick was in his standard New Year’s Day mode.

“So what is your New Year’s Resolution?” he asked.

It is an annoying question that I had answered the same way for years.  Typically, it is I have no resolution.  But this year I did, I caught him off guard with “Well yah know Nick I’m thinking that I want to stay alive for the year.”

The weather was not great, although not terrible, a little cloudy and on the cold side but no snow.  I think for many it was a reflection day.

Jan 2nd

Ice storm and some trees came down but no real damage to the camp.

Jan 3rd

It was a beautiful sunrise, so good that as I was letting Biter out I woke Asuna up to see it.  The ice, and the reds and oranges from the sun creeping over the horizon was just too good to not enjoy.

The morning was spent cleaning up the fallen trees and branches.  It was warm enough that the ice melted from the trees by noon.

The afternoon was spent reading, and in games with the rest of the tribe.  This winter thing is really getting old fast.

Steven and Heather had a little spat last night at dinner.   I could not tell what it was about but someone stormed out and someone followed tail between his legs.

Jan 4th

I noticed in the western sky that the planet was there this morning, I had not thought about it, but it seemed to be following a straight path across the sky.  It also seemed just a little brighter.

Steven and Heather seem to have settled their issues, and are smiling this morning.

Asuna and I took a little run this morning; it was good to get out and push the body a little.  We have not had the chance, or made the chance.  We had a few of the other campers join us for the run.

“I wonder if Terry and his group have left for the west yet?” asked Matt when he and Tanya joined us at breakfast.

“I don’t know, the weather has been okay so they may have hit the road.” I replied.

“Maybe we should go check on them, it would be something to do,” suggested Asuna.

“Yeah, a little road trip would be a good thing, care to join us Matt, Tanya?”

“Normally I would say yes, but it is Saturday and that means it is time to put our service together for tomorrow.  I have noticed you too have been missing the last few weeks, you two going to join us tomorrow?” Replied Matt

“Yeah, well, ah, I.”

Asuna to the rescue’ “I doubt it, we have been doing yoga and meditations on our own.”

“Ah…..yoga, well, remember you two are always welcome,”  said Tanya.

“Thanks,” I replied with a sheepish smile.

After they left, Asuna gave me a little lecture about just saying no.

We took a ride out to the camp that Terry and group had occupied.  It was empty; it looked like they had left a few days ago.  The fire pit was free of snow so it had been used after the last storm.

We were back in time for game night.  Asuna killed them in the darts game, crushing Mark in the final round.  I restored my reputation in the Texas Hold’em taking down the Major (Doc) with an all in bet while holding three 8s.  It was a dangerous move but paid off against his pair of aces.

As we walked back to the cabin I looked at the planet.  It was as it has been for the last couple of weeks, which is odd.

Jan 5th

Sunday services in the morning.  Asuna and I opted for our personal meditations and a little of a sort of Tai-Chi.  The balance of the day was spent reading.

The meal of the day was a turkey dish over homemade pasta.  It has been determined that the flour is most open for “attack” from vermin so we would use it up before it became contaminated.

Jan 6th

It is just another day of boredom here in the land of milk and honey.  Actually there are some things going on, but for the most part they are the mundane daily chores that we all have to do.  Things like restocking our wood supplies in the cabins, helping with assorted chores.

The only ones who are really exempt from those tasks are Nick and Grace. They take care of their wood, but with their cooking efforts it would not be fair.

The weather was not terrible today.  It was actually kind of on the warm side.  It was our turn so Cabin #2 (Asuna and I) had the clean the pooper (outhouse) for the week.  I think I can skip the details of that operation.

Today’s cook pot was a soup made with the leftovers from yesterday.

Jan 7th

Asuna had a restless night last night; again she was plagued with the nightmares.  At about 3:00 a.m. she sat straight up and was soaked with sweat.  It even creeped out Biter who went to high alert when she did that.

“Hey, you okay?”  I asked.

“Yeah, I, that dream, it was back.”

“I kind of figured.”

“You told me about the dreams you had with Brandon, how long did that last before you finally figured it out?”

“Well, it was a while, and for much of it I could only sense that there was something, I could see a short of shadow, but that was it.”

“Hmmmm, it sounds similar, it sounds like what I am having, there is someone calling to me, looking for me, and I hear those clicks in the background.”

“It will come to you, I know it will.”

“I hope it is soon, I want to be done with it.”

“Come here, let me hold you for a bit, you’re soaked!”

“Well, I guess I will just have to get out of these wet things.”  I could not see her face, but I was sure there was a wicked little grin…..

The rest of the day was pretty much business as usual.  We stopped by Lance’s “office” just to see if he had any new stuff on the radio.  He was still trying to trace the point of origin of some old signals that he had received but he has not added any new signals.  After the Aurora calmed down the signals did also.

It appears that I am not the only one who has noticed that the “planet” was still around.  It would be nice to have some astronomer who could tell us about what was going on.  I recall some things from an on-line course I had taken, but I am at a loss when it comes to Kepler’s Laws which he used to determine orbit.

Jan 7th

Asuna slept well, or at least did not wake me up and for a change Biter woke her for his early morning trip outside.  I think that when it gets warmer we will build him a little dog house and he can sleep out there.  It could make life much easier.

The Huntresses struck gold today.  While they were out hunting, they came upon a herd of five sheep, 4 females (ewes?) and one ram.  They were able to “persuade” the herd, okay, they managed to rope the ram and dragged him bleating and screaming back to camp, the ewes just followed along.  It could be a meat source yes, but more importantly, a milk source.

Henry, Frank and Mark were able to build a temporary shelter for them while Asuna and I took the dump truck back to our old corn field and loaded up with a bunch of the old corn stalks that had been left from out plantings.

It was a good day.

Jan 8th

Snow, indoor day, sucked.

Jan 9th

One of the things that we had not considered when we brought the sheep into the fold was the baggage that would follow.  We now have a couple of coyotes that are hanging in the area.  It makes sense, for them it is easy prey, or so they thought.  Biter seems to have a little different idea on that issue. One of the Coyotes was making a try at getting into the pen, and well, let us leave it at 10 points for Biter.   The coyotes are still around, but the male is pretty chewed up and he is thinking twice about getting at our sheep.

Lance has worked out an alarm system for the pen, which is now decorated with a little barbed wire.  I think that the chances of some predator getting at the sheep are pretty much done.

The coyotes have taken to raiding our refuse pile.  Each week we dump out leftover/spoiled food in a pile just over the wall of the camp then once a week we burn it, actually a little more often in the warmer weather.  We have had the raccoons and some other small scavengers raiding it for months.   No one really seemed to mind, and even with the coyotes, it is no big deal for most of us.  We really are not so much bothered by our furry neighbors, as long as they show us some respect.

Jan 10th

Biter had decided that sleeping near the sheep was his job and after the first night of him sleeping on the ground by the pen gate we built him a little shelter.  He is happy and as we do not have to let him out each morning at about 3:00 a.m., Asuna and I are happy.

Henry and Chelsea have pretty much taken over the tasks of animal husbandry.  Henry has had some experience with sheep and a number of larger farm animals so he was a natural.  Chelsea, a city girl, really is just learning, but has the interest to watch.

Nick is anxious to start seeing some milk from the sheep; he seems to think that this will open up an entirely new line of cooking and foods for the crew.  I am a little squeamish about the idea of sheep milk, and the unpasteurized aspect of it.

Asuna has been good the last few days, and sleeping well.

Jan 11th

Snow day, but just a light one.  We have been maintaining about a 36 inch ground cover for the last couple of weeks.

As we were walking to the dining hall this morning, I saw the coyote, the female I think as she seemed smaller than the one Biter had gotten into with.  She was just standing there, staring at Biter.  I wondered where the male was.  He had been pretty chewed up, so I am not sure.  She wasn’t doing anything, she just stared.

After breakfast she was gone, or should I say moved to our refuse pile.  She was eating.  Biter seemed not to pay her any mind, he was good with her being where she was.

The balance of the day was spent being bored.

Jan 12th

Church morning and it was a brisk and quick walk to services by many.  The temperature has dropped into the ‘real friggin’ cold range.  The upside is that it is a real dinner type of day so the deer pot roast and gravy was well appreciated.

Most of the day was spent in the dining hall with games and chatter.  We actually did a movie this afternoon, it was an old John Hughes film, “Breakfast Club” and by halfway through it we were all adding comments and snippets which turned out to be more entertaining than the film itself.  We tend to watch these types of films more than apocalyptic pieces like The Postman, or the Resident Evil series.

I noticed it is starting to stay light a little later as Asuna and I returned to our cabin and even though it was colder than a witch’s tit in a brass bra, Asuna stopped halfway back and just stared at the twinkling planet.  She just stared, then seemed to snap out of a trance and we continued on.  I was curious, what did she see or think, but I did not ask.

Jan 13th

The mood in the camp seems a little down, it is a nasty blustery cold day, this just sucks, no one is moving much, cabin to dining hall and it is being done in quick steps.  I think that we have not considered the boredom factor into this surviving winter thing.  I recall that some people, my MPD friend Langley for one had real issues this time of year because of the lack of sunlight.  It causes a kind of depression thing.

Joseph flipped out a little about the lunch pot, and began complaining loudly about how tired he was of the same old slop.  Personally, I kind of liked the slop, especially today, it was a kind of curry based mystery meat meal.

Jan 14th

Asuna and I grabbed a table at lunch time and while we were sitting there Lance and Delany come over.  Ethan also joined us.  This was odd.

“Have you noticed that planet for the last week or so?” asked Lance

“Yeah, it has been kind of neat I think.” I answered.

Ethan snapped back just a little too loud, “It is not right!”

Asuna looked at him and then said; “What do you mean?”

He kind of sank down and quietly said, “It is still where it was, same time, same pass, night after night, that does not make sense, I don’t think it is a planet.”

“Okay, then a comet?” I asked.

“No tail, a comet would have a tail, I think that big meteor is on its way back in for another shot at us.”

“It is possible, it would make sense to a certain degree, and really there is not much we can do about it.” Said Lance.

“So it would be like the dinosaur die-off?”

“Yes Asuna, it could be like that, or it could be worse.” Lance exclaimed.

How can it be worse?” she responded.

“Well, if it is big enough, it could shatter the mantle and the earth could just explode.”

“Great, how long?” I asked.

“I am thinking that it might be a couple of weeks.” Said Ethan.

“Have you given the information to The Three?”

“Yes, and they said, ‘well, what can we do?’”  Ethan was glaring at me.

I kind of shrugged, “Well that is a good question, what can we do?

“I, I, well, we can prepare!”

Asuna looked at him and simply said, “How”

“We need to hide, find a bunker, and move to the Arsenal!”

“Whoa, slow down, first this is all guessing, and secondly, we have time to see if it gets closer.”  I tried to calm him down.

Lance jumped in, “Ethan has a point in being ready, but he may be out in front of this a little further than he should be.  But realistically, how long would it take to move us all?”

I looked at Asuna, “What do you figure, 3 hours from bug out to burrow?”

“I think that would be a conservative guess, if everyone was ready, we could be buttoned down in about an hour or so.”  She replied

“See Ethan, we are not all that bad off, assuming that the strike is not right on top of us.  I mean then we are screwed, bunker or not.” I was still trying to calm him down.

“Ethan, Tom and Asuna are right, you need to chill a little, this will all be okay, and what we don’t want to do is get everyone worked up over what might be.” Said Delaney.

“Well I…” started Ethan

“Need to shut up and calm down” said the Major, who having overheard part of the conversation, had walked over.  “The last thing we need is a Chicken Little running around.”

At that Ethan stormed out of the dining hall.

“Lance, see if you and Delaney can calm him down and try to keep him from ranting about this too much, we will just have to deal with this if and when the time comes.  Better to do it without everyone in panic mode,” said Charlene, who had also walked over and joined us.

“I will do what I can” said Lance as they got up and left.

After they left, the four of us had a talk about the “planet” and what it might mean.  We were all pretty much convinced that we really were going to be okay but we would need to watch, and if it looked like it may be a problem we would be packed and ready.  Of course what exactly we would be looking for was another issue.

After lunch, Asuna and I talked a little bit but really as far as the supposed pending catastrophe, there was not much to discuss.

Ethan did not make dinner so we dodged a bullet there.

That evening, after dark, Asuna and I sat outside our cabin and just watched the small sparkle in the sky.  It was pretty, and it twinkled and well that was about it.

Jan 15th

Up early this morning, I just could not sleep after about 5:00 a.m. or so.  Asuna slept well and did not have any night terrors.  I just sat for a little while and stared at her sleeping peacefully.  I remembered that I would do that with Anne sometimes.  I would just soak up the beauty and the happiness that was given to me.

I poked my nose outside and checked the “planet”.  It was in its usual position and doing what it always does.  It did not seem to be any closer or different.

Ethan and Chelsea were at breakfast this morning.  He came over to where Asuna and I were sitting.

“Tom, Asuna, I am sorry about the other day, I was a little over the top, and I know there is not much we can do about that, that thing out there.”  He offered.

“No sweat Ethan, I can understand, it has been a bitch of a year, and well, with all that has happened, well, let’s just say I understand.”  I answered.

Head down in almost a whisper Asuna said, “It is okay, we don’t have to worry about it, it will pass us by.”

We all kind of looked at her.

“How do you know?” asked Chelsea.

“I just know, I feel it.  It is the big meteor from last year, the one that passed by.  I know it, but I don’t know why or how I know it.”

Ethan looked at her hard, “How do you know?”

Asuna, quietly, “I just know, my dreams I guess, I just know, I cannot say any more.”

It got real quiet at the table for what seemed an hour, then “So how about those Cowboys?” I said in an effort to bring things back to center.  It worked.

After breakfast, yummy oatmeal, with sheep milk and sugar, ok, mine just had sugar, Asuna and I started back to the cabin.  I know I was loaded with questions and hoped to ask them.

On the way we saw the female coyote was still hanging in the area and was staring at Biter.  Biter seemed relaxed and not on “guard” duty but rather was just looking back.

“Did you mean what you said about it being safe, with the meteor that is?” I asked when we got into the cabin.

“Yes, it is what the dreams have been telling me.  But there is more, it is not just a meteor, there is more.  But I haven’t gotten all of that part yet. Something on the meteor is reaching out to me.”

“You mean there is some alien or something?”

“I am not sure, yes, I mean, there is something, it is touchingt he edges of my mind, but is just keeps telling me we are okay, don’t worry.”

“I…”

“Stop, I have told you all I know and…. I’m sorry, it is just a creepy load to bear, and right now it is all mine.”

“I’m sorry babe, I…. I’m sorry, no more twenty questions.”

It was a quiet rest of the day, not a bad quiet, just a quiet.

Jan 16th

Looks like love is in the air, got up this morning and Biter and the female coyote are chasing each other around and playing.

It was quiet at breakfast and Asuna and I were left alone.  But we could see the furtive looks and the whispering among the various tablemates. They knew something, word was out.  We just did not know what the word was.

“Asuna, maybe we should go to The Three, tell them what we, you know and maybe we can put an end to this speculation and buzz-buzz.”

“No, I have a better idea,” she said as she stood up and cleared her throat loudly.

“Folks, look, here is what I know. Almost a year ago we had a big meteor make a close pass by the Earth.  Well it is back, it is on some kind of orbit.  In my dreams there is something, some intelligence that is telling me that we are safe, the meteor is not going to hit the Earth.  I have no reason to know it is true but I believe that little voice.  I don’t know the meaning of it all but I believe.  If I knew more I would share it.  And I will if I have more.  But please, PLEASE, don’t get all freaky on me.  I am one of you….don’t treat me like a leper.”

Then she sat down.

Over the next little bit a number of people, Teckla, Charlene, Nick and others came over and apologized for the buzz-buzz and the looks.  It was a relief to us all that the information was out, and so was the reaction of the group.

The last one to come over was Heather, she seemed very nervous.  “Can we sit down a little later and talk Asuna?”

“Sure, what is up?”

“No, not here, but it is important!” she said and after a moment of awkward silence left us.

“That was odd.” I said.

“I think she is concerned about the baby, maybe.” answered Asuna.

As we walked back toward out cabin after breakfast, we saw Biter and the coyote play fighting near the pen.  Yep, love is in the air.

Heather knocked on the door at about 11:00. I decided to take a walk and visit Lance.

As I entered the surveillance room, Lance and Ethan were in a serious discussion about the meteor.  They seemed to be of like mind that the whole meteor thing made sense and that the close pass last year did not mean it would crash into the Earth this year.

Lance looked at me and said, “Tom, in your scavenging runs have you ever come upon any telescopes?”

I was taken off guard and had to think for a minute, “Ah, no, but then we were never really looking for any.  I think there were some hobby shops in the Pittsfield Mall, they might have some.”

“Can you and Asuna go up there and find us a couple?  It could help us look at the meteor.  Maybe we can see something interesting on it.” asked Ethan.  He was clearly excited about the prospect of looking at this rock in space.

“We can do that, I am guessing the most powerful we can find is what we are hunting for.”

“Size does matter,” tossed out Delany with a funny smile at Lance.

“Okay, we will make the run this afternoon.  Anything else you can think of to look for.”

“No, not really.” said Lance.

I headed over to the dining hall and hung out drinking coffee as lunch approached.  Shortly before noon Asuna and Heather came in.  They were laughing and clearly Heather was relieved.  Heather found Steven and they were talking, while Asuna sat down with me.

“Well?” I asked.

“I will give you the full details later when we are alone, but it appears that I am not the only one who has had some dreams.”

“Ah”

As we started back after lunch, I grabbed a few little pieces of stew meat.  As we walked we took a detour toward the sheep pen.  Biter and the coyote were both there, she became nervous as we approached but held her ground.  I tossed each of them a couple of the chunks of stew meat then turned and walked away.

“What was that about?” asked Asuna.

“Well, think of it as either the beginnings of taming the coyote or ‘Daddy’ giving approval to Biter’s girlfriend.”

We laughed and headed to the cabin.  I told Asuna about the request from the Science Boys for a telescope.  She was good with the trip and told me that she could fill me in on the chat with Heather on the way.

We left camp about 2:00 p.m.  That would give us an hour and a half to scope out the hobby stores and then head back before dark.

After a few minutes on the road Asuna began.  It appears that Heather has also been troubled, or visited with dreams.  They were almost identical to those that Asuna has been having, the voice coming from the misty background telling her that everything would be fine.  But where it got weird was that the voice knew about the baby, although the voice referred to it as an ‘Eggling’.

“Interesting, but why just you two?” I asked, “You’re not….”

“No, I’m not, and that is the question that I keep asking, I just don’t know.”

I dodged the bullet by not making a stupid comment about the pregnancy issue, “Well, remember you said that you felt that story about the alien abduction was true, could they have some link that way?”

“Well,” she said; “That makes sense for me, but what is the link to Heather?”

“Yea, that is a question.”

We got to Pittsfield by about 2:45 and found a couple of pretty good sized reflector telescopes.  We grabbed them, and while we were at it we also grabbed a microscope, why not.

In the mall we were surprised to have an encounter with two Zoms, they were actually fairly mobile.  They looked to be about 12 years old, so that was consistent with Anne’s research.  But I would have figured they should have frozen or fallen apart by now.

Back at camp for 4:00 p.m. and the science boys were very happy with our selection.  I have a feeling that they will be up all night just watching.

After dinner there was another knock on the door.  It was Jan.

“Asuna, can we talk about the dreams?”

“Sure, come in”

I looked at the two of them as they stared at me.  “Ah yea, I will be going to get a cup of coffee and hang out with the telescope crowd.”

Jan 17

When Asuna filled me in on the particulars of the visit by Jan, it was not what I had expected.  I had figured that she (Jan) was also having dreams and that she and Fred were going to have a baby.  But it was not that. Jan was curious about the dreams and what Asuna had seen in her dreams.  It was merely an “I am curious” visit.

Lance and Ethan have been staring at the fly rock for a couple of nights now and they have determined that “Yep, it is a meteor”…..great.

There is still some question about whether there will be a meteor strike or not.  I think everyone wants to believe Asuna but there is still some with a nagging doubt.  And on a side note, this whole mess was related to a different meteor crashing into the atmosphere.  We could see that again.

Beyond the chatter about the thing up there in space life is still pretty much as it has been for a while, cold, boring and mundane.

Jan 18th

Over the summer, and even now, we have often watched the sky.  We have learned, as I have mentioned before that cloud patterns could give us weather predictions.  We have stared at the raw beauty of the universe and the Milky Way at night.  We have watched the meteor showers that fall periodically during the year.  The brighter geostationary satellites that circle the earth are all known to us.

It was kind of a surprise when we found a new one last night; actually it was Lance who found something new and different in the sky.  We had been used to the idea of the meteor circling the planet, but this was different, this was smaller, and it was just hanging in the same spot in the sky.  One of the communications satellites moved maybe.  Maybe the International Space Station had repositioned but by the time they were able to get the telescopes on it the high clouds had rolled in and although we could see the glow, it was just a little too fuzzy to make anything out.

I had not thought about the International Space Station at all until now.  What a terrible place to be.  I mean it is good, they were not infected and with their recycling systems for air and water they were ok there but food, they were trapped there with only a limited amount of food. What do you do?

This is getting weird.  Ethan says that there are signals coming in on almost all the frequencies.  Those signals are back to the clicks and sounds that had freaked Asuna out the first time she heard them.

There was a pow-wow this afternoon with The Three, the Major, the Science kids, Heather, Asuna, Steven and me.  Matt and Tanya were also there.  We talked about what was going on, the meteor, the dreams, the new satellite and the clicks.  A lot of the eyes and ears were turned to Lance, Ethan and Asuna.

In the end it was Asuna who really kind of ended the discussion.

“I think, I am supposed to get on the radio, I think they are looking for me, and Heather.” She said.

“But you don’t click, or whatever it is.” Said the Major.

“I know, but I think they will know it is me.”

There was a buzz and talking / whispering and finally Henry said, “I think she is right. They are looking for something, or someone, maybe anyone, but they are ringing the phone, I think someone should pick it up and say ‘hello’.”

A look at the rest of the council and there was nods of agreement.  I think we all agreed but that did not preclude a certain level of fear.  What did they, or it, want?

Half an hour later we were all crammed into Lance’s little electronics rooms.  Asuna sat at the console, I was right behind her.

“Hello, Hello, can you hear me.” She transmitted, her hand was shaking as she held the microphone button.

We waited.

A series of clicks.

She tried again, “Hello” and then she made a little click sound, the best she could at imitating what she had heard.

The radio sputtered to life.  “Greeting Terrains, Greeting, harm to you we no intend.”

“You understand me?”

“Return to you Asuna we have,” crackled the radio.

There were a couple of “Holy Shits” and at least one “Fuck” in the background, our background.

Asuna sat for a few seconds and then under her breath muttered, “It was real” and began to cry.

“Found your location, track on you, we will be there soon.” The radio crackled.

“Wait, What, No!” shouted Asuna.

“Asuna, this is Krezz, you knew of me, and I promised.”

“Krezz? I ….. from my nightmare?” Her hand was shaking badly, tears were flowing freely.

“Yes, from your past, we will be with you soon.”

Lance whispered to me, “Do you notice that the more he talks with her, the more normal his speech?”

I nodded my head.

“I must prepare my entry vehicle, I can see where you are found.” crackled the radio. “Tomorrow we will re-meet little one, I must go now.”

Everyone was staring at Asuna; she was just staring at the radio.

“I need to go to my cabin, I need to think and maybe puke.” She said as she quietly rose and walked toward the door.  A path was made for her as she moved.

I followed, quietly.

When we got to the cabin, I just sat and watched her.  She stared at the fire in the wood stove and tears ran down her checks.

I brought her some water.

“Is there anything I can do?”  I asked.

She stood up and said “Just hold me.”

I did and she cried, and cried.

Finally she said softly, “I always thought it was a nightmare, a dream, it wasn’t.  What the fuck am I supposed to do?”

I could feel her anguish, and confusion, but had nothing to offer to help except my being there and my love.

Jan 19th

I did not sleep at all watching over her, she did sleep, fitfully at times, but she did get some sleep.  At times she twitched and mumbled at others she just was out like a light.

When she awakened she looked at me, smiled and said, “I love you Tom, we are going to be okay.”

She told me about Krezz, he was the chief scientist on the QUalz ship.  He was, is a kindly creature that stood about 4 feet tall.  He was a reptilian based and looked very much like a giant gecko.

“Did he have an Australian accent” I asked.

At first I got a blank stare and then she laughed, “No, and he didn’t try to save me any money.”

“I was not there for long, on the QUalz ship, I don’t think.  It was a long time ago, and I was very young.  But they did some testing on me and inspected me.  And no they did not do an anal probe” she added with a smile.

“Nice,” I laughed.

I know it seems that the conversation was very light, Asuna seemed to have been freed from some suppressed mental block and understood that Krezz meant her or any of us any ill will or harm.  He had been kindly and truly concerned with humans and their future.

We dressed and headed over to breakfast.  The dining room was packed and the noise was considerable as we walked through the door, then it became quiet, all eyes on us.  Some were relieved that Asuna was smiling, and looked happy, others were curious.

“It is a long story,” she said loudly, “and by the end of the day we will have this all sorted out.  Till then trust that you are safe, safer than we have been in months.”

You could see the questions on the lips of everyone.

As we sat down with coffee Teckla came over, she sat down with us.

“We have told everyone one that weapons are unacceptable today.” She said.

“Good, there is no need to fear.” Asuna told her.

“I would have thought he would have been here by now.”

Asuna responded, “No, it does not surprise me, Krezz was kind of shaky on time issues.”

Right about then Biter began to bark like crazy, and Lance raced into the dining hall with Ethan and Delaney on his heels, “Show time, we have company coming and it will be here in a couple minutes.”

“Well, here goes,” I muttered under my breath.

Matt stood at the back of the hall and loudly said “Quick Prayer everyone?”

We turned toward him, why not?

“Merciful God, this is a moment that we never believed would come, or happen, yet you have seen fit to bless us with this contact.  May it be a peaceful one, in your heavenly name, Amen.”

“Amen,” we echoed and started to file out of the dining all.

For a spaceship it was rather unremarkable.  It looked very much like a small, very small space shuttle, about the size of a cargo van.  It lightly touched down on the ground and after a minute the door opened on the side and a 4 foot gecko stepped out.  He was dressed in a reflective suit with heavy boots and wore gloves.  He was followed by 3 similarly dressed geckos, although each wore a different color.

We had kind of circled around and just watched as they unloaded.

The first gecko said “I am Krezz; I am asking your patience as I am still assimilating the subtleties of you language.  But we are here to help, and come in tranquility.”

Asuna stepped forward, “I know you Krezz.”

“Asuna, I know you too, you have grown since then, long ago.” He replied, it all sounded very formal.

“I have.”

Introductions were done, and we found that besides Krezz the other three QUalz were Ferk, a researcher in a blue suit, Slar, the pilot in a gold suit, and Hreet, a security guard in a red suit.

At the description of Hreet’s job as a security guard Mark and a couple of others quietly laughed.  I did not catch it at first, but then the red shirt reference came to me.

Frek, Slar and Hreet stayed with the ship and Krezz met with The Three and a number of us from the camp.  Asuna and I were there of course, as was the Major.  Early on in the meeting Krezz asked if Heather would also be joining us. And that raised a few eyebrows.  But as he was asking there was a knock on the door and Heather with Steven poked their heads in and asked, “You sent for us?”

“Yes, I did” replied Krezz.

Ok that was weird, a telepathic thing going on here I thought to myself.

“I will get to the issue quickly because time is a concern,” Began Krezz.  “Almost a year ago a meteor crashed into your planet’s atmosphere.  When it did it let loose a virus.  We, the QUalz had tried to get to the deadly rock before it reached you, but failed.  It was too fast a runner for our ship.”

“Whoa, let’s back up a little,” said Henry. “Why were you even aware of Earth, and worried about its inhabitants?”

“Yes, asking, well we have been watching your planet for many years, what do you call them, centuries?  I have been interested since I was just an Eggling in my early years.  Each cycle our ship, I think you perceive it as a space rock, circles your planet for a brief chance we actually can see close up what was happening.  As you became more aware and advanced, you created signals, ‘click’, electronic signals, wave signals so we were able to further study you and your Earth.”

“So that is how you know our language,” said the Major.

“Yes, or Si, or Oui, we learned many of them and in that time of my studies I became more and more interested.  It fascinated me that with all that you had on your Earth you were so intent on destroying it with your wars, your pollution and your over population.  But even with that, I wanted to see no harm come to it, or your masses.   Is masses the right term?”

“Yes, Krezz, that will work,” said Asuna.

“So when we found that the space stone that was heading toward your Earth was contaminated with ‘click’ what is the term, illness, dying…..”

“Virus?” said the Major.

“Yes, that is it, we tried to stop it. We chased and chased but as it got closer and closer it went faster and faster and we could not catch it.”

“But how did you know about the virus, or that it would hurt us?” questioned the Major.

“We look at things, study them. Many space rocks have some form of life on them.  Many are not kill things. But we have tested, with probes. We saw it was a danger and tried to stop it.”

“Okay, but how did you know it was a danger, what did you test it on?” pressed the Major.

“This is a troubling question for me, but I will answer it.  Over the centuries we have circled and come near your world and in doing so.”

Looking down, Asuna said, “Have taken biological samples for testing.  I was one of those who were sampled.”

“Yes, little one, and it was wrong that we did so without your consent or without request.”

“And that is why you are here now, you need samples?” asked Henry.

“Yes that is part of it. But there is more, we are sorry that we have done this in the past, in spying, and wish to ask for help with the samples.  But we also failed in preventing the space rock illness to your masses. We wish to make amendments.”

“That is amends Krezz,” said Asuna.

“Amends,” he weighted the word, “yes, and make an offer to you, and your masses, a trade.”

“Go on,” said Henry, a serious stern look on his face, the Yankee horse trader was coming out.

It was at that point that I realized that other than an occasional blink or a licking of the air this creature had no facial expression, there was no read.

“I would like to propose a trade.  Give us Asuna and the Heather Mother for a cycle to allow us to sample and create a means to end the space rock illness.  In exchange we will give you a means by which to cure the illness in those of you who have it.”

I looked at Asuna, then Heather, I expected each to jump up and tell the little lizard that it was not going to happen, but they didn’t.

“So all we need to do is to go give you two of our people for a year and you will get a cure for the virus?  Are you out of your little Lizard Fu…..” started Teckla.

“No, wait, listen to him, I want to go.  I need to go, I have questions and things from my past I need to settle, I will … volunteer, for me, and for those of you, actually all of you, we all have it.” said Asuna. “But there is one stipulation Krezz, that if he wishes to go with me, Tom, my mate must also come.”

She looked at me with those eyes that I could never say no to.

I shrugged, “Let me think, a year in space, seeing things that I could never see, ah…ok, I am in.”

Krezz looked at us both, “Interesting, this could be a bonus in learning, we would agree.”

The council and the rest of the group was staring at us both, I could not read minds, or faces at this point.

“Would you hurt my baby if I go?” asked Heather.

“No, it would be a learning chance for us.”

“And I can come too?” asked Steven.

“Yes, you can come too.” Said Krezz

Teckla, still steaming a little finally said, “Okay, we can’t stop them if they want to go, but how soon, can you give us all a little time to think this through?”

“Yes, we must depart the orbital within three of your cycles.”

“We will return then” said Krezz.

“Krezz, do you have religion?” asked Matt.

“Religion, click, yes, there is the Great Egg.”

“Do you have Priests or Holy Men to the Great Egg?” continued Matt.

“There are the Learned.”

“Could I talk with one of your Learned?”

“I can have one come during tomorrow light cycle if you wish.” offered Krezz.

“Yes, that would be good, thank you,” said Matt.

The meeting broke up and we walked Krezz back to the ship.  As Asuna said goodbye to him you could see a link, a bond had existed between them.  As they climbed back into the ship Krezz turned to Hreet, “See I told you the Red Suit does not cease to exist in these on planet excursions.”

After the ship left there was a lot of talk, Asuna and I pretty much hid out in our cabin.  We talked, and we both were good with what we were going to do.  I did not look forward to telling Margo.

Jan 20th

Margo and I took a walk this morning.  It was not easy.  We sat in the snow for a while as I stammered through the why I needed to go, and that it was only for a year.  On paper it was easy, in my mind the logic made sense but my heart was not letting me off easy.  It was going to be the hardest thing I have ever done.  No, the second hardest after what I had to do to Anne.

“I understand Dad, I know that you have to go with Asuna, I wish you didn’t, but it is what is right.  That vaccine is important, and there will come a time when I will want my children to be free of the fear that we all live with now, turning, hurting the others, being denied rest after we die.”

“I know but that does not make it any easier, I am going to miss you most of all, we have a lot of history and I promised Cyril I would take care of you, and your mom, I failed in that.”

“No, you didn’t, what happened to Mom was not your fault, and we can’t change that.  You have taken good care of me, and now, we need to look down the road.  We have a chance to make things right, we always have, but now, if we can stop the changing, it will be a real new start.  You both have to go.”

“I know, but…..”

“You will only be gone a year, we can do without you for a year.”

“I know it is a short time, but I will worry, and stuff.”

That was the meat of it, we remembered, we laughed, we cried, it was both heart-wrenching and joyous at the same time.  I knew I would be back, and I knew everything would be okay, but still.

When I got back to the cabin, Asuna asked, “So how did it go?”

“As well as can be expected, it was hard on us both and we both did our best at the stiff upper lip, but it was hard.”

She hugged me, “I know.”

“Asuna, I have just one question, and it is silly, but important.  Do you trust him?”

“Krezz, yes, I remember a little of what happened all those years ago, and Krezz was always kind, and honest with me.  I believe him, and I believe in him, does that help.”

“Yeah, yeah it does.”

I spent the next day and a half visiting, talking, trying to be upbeat about leaving, and having a gnawing in the pit of my stomach.  I did not eat much.

In talking to Lance, and Ethan, it was clear they saw the idea of going into space a great adventure, one they would gladly jump on if given the chance.  Others were less excited.

Jan 21st

This afternoon will be show time. Asuna and I wanted to finish this up as much as possible before it is time to go.  I have so much I want to say about the future, and about the past, but there is no time.   It is a frenzy of getting ready and butterflies the size of an airliner.

Krezz and his ship arrived at about 3:00 p.m.  We were all packed, as much packing as we had to do, a couple of changes of clothes, some hygiene items, some books, some photos.  Everything else was left behind, in our cabin; it would only be a cycle.

It is time, and we will walk the gauntlet of the camp, hugging, and saying goodbye.  At the end of the line will be Nick, Teckla and Margo.  They will be the toughest.  I am shutting down the computer now.

I guess I am taking over the journal for a while.

Heather and Stephen decided not to go.  They told Krezz, and I am sure he was unhappy about the loss of knowledge, but understood, or at least said he did.  The lizard men show not emotion.

I was the one that was nearest the door of the scout ship.  Dad talked to Nick, they hugged, and Nick did not say much, he had always been kind of quiet in those types of situations.

“Keep cooking brother, and remember that for six days in the summer you and me are the same age” Tom said.  It was a standing gag that they did each year.

“Yeah, and when you get back I will make you a cake, be safe Tom.”

Then it was on to Teckla, “I, I don’t…”

“Then don’t, just be smart and we will see you in about a year” she said smiling weakly.

And finally, this was me,   “Margo”, there was a long pause as he choked back the tears.  “I love you.”

“I love you too Dad, and in a year we will both have great stories around the campfire.”

I knew this was hard on him and I had to be strong.

“Oh, OH!  Here, I want you to take this, it is my journal.  It has the whole deal from day one of what happened. If you can… add to it.” He said as he handed me his laptop.

“I will write in it and I will see you soon.” we hugged, I think that neither of us wanted to let go.  But it was time.  We watched them go.

Jan 22nd

So that was about the first eleven months from the start of The Event to the next chapter.  It will be my chapter, the Margo Chronicles.  I miss him already.