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

by Thomas Larson

  “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 go
ing 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.