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

by Thomas Larson

  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.
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  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 w
as 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.