The Event Series (Book 2): The Gospel According to Matthew, Margo & Lance

by Thomas Larson

  April 7th

  (Matt) Cold beans for breakfast this morning and we were on the road by about 7. I still carry a wristwatch; it is a wind-up type, thank you Timex. As we walked, we kind of got silly, seems that magical fruit has caused us to toot and some being louder than others has resulted in a lot of laughs. It has always been curious that we get such a chuckle out of bodily functions.

  So we have decided or accepted that there is going to be suffering in our lives. And we also agreed that it is part of Your plan, and that You can take the edge off the suffering. But is there something that we can do on an individual level to help ease the pains.

  “I think to start, it is the show of compassion and empathy” began Tanya.

  “Yeah, but there is more I think, we all work well at the time of the suffering event, the loss of the loved one. But it lasts only so long and then it is back to the scramble of just trying to survive.” I added.

  “True, our group has been good at helping each other over the initial hurdles, but I think that there are things we could be better at.”

  “Like what?”

  “I am not quite sure how to phrase it, we are there for the suffering, but are we there all the time for each other, the day to day stuff?”

  “Hmmmmmm, Good point.”

  We didn’t speak again until lunch, and then only about the road. It is interesting how much thinking and sort of meditating that you can accomplish just walking along.

  We managed to get to Route 20 and started west on it. We got about 2 miles, and felt comfortable using the road itself to walk on rather than going parallel to it. We found a little house to stay in for the night.

  It had been interesting that since we began our journey we haven’t met anyone. We also haven’t run into any Changed. I am not complaining about that, just making a note.

  We were a little luckier tonight; there was some spaghetti and jars of sauce. We had dinner over candlelight and I kind of thought of the old movie “Lady and the Tramp”. I sometimes forget how beautiful Tanya is both on the inside and the outside. I am blessed that we are together.

  (Lance) I have figured out the controls of the drones. We can get them up and out away from the camp but I can’t get the things to link into the Wi-Fi. We need to have a stronger transmitter. I can use them to record video, but it has to be returned to the camp and played back rather than real time.

  Del was upset with me last night; I guess I kind of deserved it. I am so used to the comfortable life in camp I have lost touch with what is out there and the real risks. She reawakened that reality for me last night. I was doing this for her, to keep her safe, and like a dumbass I put her and the others at risk for a plan that may not even work out.

  I have to make it up to her.

  (Margo) Not much to report, Code and E played with the copter things all day. Del was kind of off by herself, I think the thing with E last night has her kind of worked up. I tried to talk with her, but she just wanted to be alone.

  I took a little run this morning, but I was more careful, and didn’t wander as far from camp as I might have. Lucy padded along with me, still not too close but it was good to have an extra set of eyes.

  The lake has pretty much become ice free, and that is good. We can start fishing again. I wish that Frank or Tom had taught me how to fly fish; I like trout better than the bass or perch in the lake.

  Wow, just wow. We sat down for dinner, Del, Code and me, and out of the kitchen pops E, dressed in a white shirt and tie with his hair greased back. Then he does a whole Italian high class waiter thing putting a napkin in Del’s lap and pouring her ice water.

  “Madam, welcome to Chef Neek’s Bistro. I am Loonce, your waiter and we have prepared a special meal just for you this evening, would you like to see the wine list?”

  Code and I are staring at him like he has two heads, and Del, well Del was like, blown away.

  “Ah, yes, I guess a glass of wine would be nice.” She mumbled.

  “Pardone, I will be right back”, as he heads to the kitchen.

  Code started, “What the …….”

  “I don’t know, has he lost his mind?” I said as I looked at Del

  She blushed a little, a tear, a sob, and then said, “Yeah, I kind of jumped ugly with him last night and I think he is trying to make up for his actions at Pittsfield.”

  E returned with a bottle of some kind of wine, it was red, and had a twist cap, he twisted off the cap and handed it to Del for her to sniff, then he poured a little glass and let her taste it. She played along perfectly. “Yes, that is very acceptable, you may pour, and for my friends also.”

  “But I am only 15,” I started.

  “Yeah, so what are they gonna do, take the liquor license?” Code said with a smile.

  We laugh and a bell rang and E announced, “Ah, dinner is served, I will be right back. Toot sweet”

  “Toot Sweet? What the….” I giggled.

  I do not know how he did it, or what he did to get them to do it but moments later he returned with a pizza, A FRIGGIN’ PIZZA!

  “Madam, I hope that you enjoy our special blend sausage and cheese pizza, Chef Neek has made it especially for you.”

  “Aw Lance, you didn’t have to, ….you’re an idiot” and she broke out in tears.

  “I know I am an idiot, and I had to do it, because, well because I am sorry, and well, you know.”

  Wow, I think that there will be no yelling at Captain E’s place tonight, and there was not at my cabin either, it was a snuggle kind of night.

  April 8th

  (Matt) We got an early start today after our breakfast; it was pretty much the standard, cold cereal and some tea that we found in the house we stayed in, thank you Lord for providing for us.

  We had gone about 3 miles down the road when we came to a road that split off the state highway; it was Sprakers Road, part of Route 162. It hit me that I was to take that road. I had to, there was something in the past that was up that road that I had to visit, revisit.

  “Tanya, there is a place, part of my past that is on this road; it is somewhere that I have to go, somewhere that I have to visit. I think there is a clue, a message that is to be learned.”

  “How so? I thought you were from down south, Connecticut.”

  “I am, I mean I was, but I went to school in this area, and, and well, my Grandfather had a place, a farm up that road. I think I need to see it. The area where we would be going was a center for a lot of Amish farmers, they would have probably dealt well with the Changed, and well they are a community that could very well teach us some things about surviving, and about God.” I explained.

  We spent the rest of the day walking and we were actually making time getting toward Canajoharie. I think that in part, because it was a nice walking day, and as we walked, I told her about the days when Grandpa had the place, the campouts, and the adventures we had when I was in my early teens.

  “We would sit out on a summer night and just watch the stars, Mark, Teckla, Nick and sometime Uncle Tom. It was so beautiful, and peaceful, and the sky. We would tell stories, ghost stories or oh, we had this kind of round robin thing we would do where everyone would work on a story together. Someone would start at the campfire and give like a sentence to the story, then the next person would add to it.”

  “Sorry Matt, we didn’t have campfires where I was from, but that actually sounds kind of fun.”

  “Yeah, we would go along, Nick was usually really good about his part of the story. He would bring something interesting in. Oh, and I remember one time he was sitting there and it was kind of cold, so we were a little closer to the fire than usual and one of his shoelaces caught fire, it was like a fuse burning to his shoe, we laughed.”

  “Wow, I wish I had memories like that, we, were in the city we never had that kind of a chance. How did the stories end?”

  “Well, we would go along and usually on the second time around the group it would come to me and I would say ‘and a meteor fell
and we all…..blew…..up.”

  It was quiet for a while, I, it hit me, we walked on.

  About 4:30 we came to a little farmhouse. It had some canned goods, homemade canned fruit in mason jars. There were also a couple of chickens running around, but the place was abandoned. It still surprised me that we had not run into anyone so far, alive, or dead.

  “It wasn’t your fault Matt.” Said Tanya.

  “I know, I guess I am just caught up in the irony of it, a meteor fell and……”

  We made some small talk for the rest of the evening, but in the back of my mind I could feel that I was experiencing a pain, a twinge, suffering, but it was not because I was injured or had done anything bad. It was from my thoughts, from events of the past. I stared at our little fire, and remembered.

  (Lance) I think I have made some amends for my behavior in Pittsfield. I talked, well actually, did a little wheeling and dealing with Nick and Grace to get them to make me a pizza. It was not a perfect pizza, I mean it used some real flour, and they had to make a sauce out of some of the canned stewed tomatoes that had been put up. It really was not that big a deal, I mean I have to set up a place on the computer for them so they can record some recipes, and then take the ones that they have written down and do the entry on them.

  In this whole adventure of the last few days I think that we need to start looking for new ways of doing things. I mean we have been lucky so far in being able to find fuels, and batteries and pre-meteor bits of equipment. But as time goes on, that is all going to get harder and harder to find. But before that happens I think we need to try to hoard as much tech as we can grab. I need to talk with The Three.

  (Margo) I was kind of surprised this morning, as I was getting ready for the run this morning, Tay and Chelsea came over and asked if they could run with me. They had never really shown much interest in it. They slowed me down but I think it was good for them. I kind of enjoyed it too, it was girl time. As we ran, they talked about wanting to learn to hunt and fish, and in general be more, what would be the term, survival oriented. I think that is a good thing.

  Heather is really starting to get big with the baby, and Stephen follows her around, watching out for her. The idea of the baby is still one that scares me. I know that eventually it will be my turn, a year or it will be years, but right now I just hope that their baby is normal. The Major says it should be, he hasn’t found anything to show otherwise. But we don’t have ultrasound or things so we don’t know.

  Code and E spent another day playing with the drone things. I think that it was not working out as well as they had hoped. I asked Code when he came home last night and he said that there was still a problem with trying to transmit live signals.

  Quiet night at home, alone tonight. I wonder how Tom and Azz are doing. I hadn’t thought of them in a while. I wonder what they are seeing, and doing. I wish they would send a message.

  I tried to do a picture of him…..

  April 9th

  (Lance) The Wi-Fi is not going to work, I mean it will work for about 100 feet from my lab, but that is it. I can’t figure how to extend the range. All the work and thinking, but it is a failure, I have a couple of toys, shit.

  I have been so focused on the drones that I have missed some stuff, in particular I have not been watching the radiation levels, they are up in the camp and we have no way of hunting down the source. The airplane fuel is questionable, Ron says that they might be able to fly, but the fuel is iffy and could fail while flying. Stephen said he could get up and try to do some scouting around and get some readings but his fuel situation was not good either, but for him it is just quantity, we are low on kerosene.

  I need to talk to the Major and The Three about this. It may be time to think about moving.

  (Margo) It was a new day Lord, and I thank you for it. As I sat and stared at the fire last night, I realized that things that have occurred in the past can’t be changed. You can atone for them and the best way to atone is to make sure that they don’t happen again. From the suffering standpoint you really do no good in beating yourself up over things from the past. You simply can’t change what happened years ago, let it go. I know it sounds like a flawed logic, and as Tanya and I talked about it, she added that there were times that you could repair the damage, but that act is in the present, and the past is behind you. The past can be a cancer that eats at you. She is right.

  We covered a lot of ground today; it was sunny, and almost warm. We were able to get to the Rural Grove and found a little farmhouse that was off the road a little bit. As we approached the house, we were confronted by the homeowner. He was a withered old man, bent with age. His farmer jeans were dirty and worn and the flannel shirt had seen better days. But most noticeable was the shotgun he had pointed at us.

  “Hold it right there”, he said.

  We raised our hands, “Peace be with you my friend, we are just pilgrims looking for a place to rest.” I said.

  “Is it jest you two?”

  “Yes, just us, and well, the Lord God watching over us.”

  “I know you ain’t Amish, they don’t let her kind join them.”

  “No, we are just humans, learning, God has tasked us to search for something that will help our group”

  The farmer looked around nervously, “Your group, how many, where are they?”

  “Oh, they are back on the other side of Albany in our camp. It is just the two of us on the road.”

  “Huh, part of me says I should shoot you, part says I should send you away, and part of me says I haven’t talked to anyone in, ah, months”

  “We will go along with whatever you wish, except for the shootin’ part.” Said Tanya, “We mean no harm or imposition”

  He looked at us queer for a minute then lowered the gun. “The Missus would have my head if I chased you away. Come on.”

  We walked, followed him into the house, it was a small place, and smelled kind of bad, it was an ‘old people’ smell. I remembered it from my grandpa’s farm just before he died.

  “Come on out back, let me introduce you to the Missus, Emma, her name is Emma.”

  As we walked out the back door, we saw the little grave site and saw the sadness in his eyes. Introductions were made.

  “I think she would have wanted us to sit down and we all would have had coffee. I have some, would you like a cup?”

  “Yes, that would be wonderful,” said Tanya.

  After the coffee was perked and poured, we sat around the kitchen table.

  “This was how it used to be, how we would be with the neighbors, visiting each other on Sundays, ah, what day is it? I don’t keep track anymore, every day is the same, Monday, Friday, and it doesn’t really matter.” He spoke looking sadly off into space.

  “Emma used to make little cakes for our church group, and she sang in the choir, she would be glad you are here.” He said, as he teared up. “I’m sorry, it is just…”

  “No, I understand, how long have you been alone?”

  “They came in the fall, the leaves hadn’t fallen yet, there were about 10 of them, the Reverend Mueller was leading them, he was out front. At first we thought it was okay, and then we saw, we ran, got our things to stop them. Emma, she got bit, it was slow, the sickness, I wanted to join her, to kill us both, give us peace but she told me that I couldn’t, shouldn’t die, she made me promise to hang on, and to live as long as I could.”

  “I have suffered for that ever since, I have so often thought about it, a few times I had the gun in my mouth, and then she would tell me that I had to stay alive, to not die alone. At times, I hated her, it has been Hell here, alone.”

  We listened to him, in silence.

  “You are a kind man, and a good one.” I tried to give some consolation.

  The rest of the evening he told us what it was like living as he had, watching his neighbors disappear, or turn and come to his door. He talked about how Emma had been a kindly spirit before she died, helping neighbors and friends as t
hey bit by bit blinked out.

  He talked about the loneliness that he had since she passed, leaving just him. It was heartbreaking.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, you must be hungry, let me cook us up some dinner.” He offered.

  Tanya suggested that she do the cooking as a small repayment for his kindness.

  “That would be good, I think Emma would like that, a woman in the kitchen, it has been so long. Let me show you what I have that you could make.”

  He had a healthy store of home-canned goods that included beans, tomatoes and other veggies that she (Emma) probably put up last September.

  We had a wonderful meal, and after dinner sat in the living room and enjoyed a fire in the hearth. About 9 pm, the stranger, he never actually told us his name, said he had a little headache, probably from all the excitement of actually having guests. He said he was going to retire, but before he did he showed us a guest room.

  “Emma kept this room ready for guests; we did a little bed and breakfast thing sometimes.”

  We woke next morning, it was cold and quiet. When we headed down stairs we found him, he must have awakened in the middle of the night and went back to sit by the fire. He was sitting in the big wing chair, he was smiling. There was a note on the table; it just said “Thank You”

  I guess not dying alone was what kept him going, and now, he was with Emma. His name was Bob and he will not reawaken. We reunited him with Emma; they sleep side by side, again.

  We continued on that day, it was quiet between us, each lost in thought. We took a few mason jars of the canned goods, but left most for other travelers that might wander by.

  We reached Sprakers, it was a small town, and we could see from the hill overlooking the town that there was a barricaded area. But there didn’t seem to be anyone moving about behind it. We decided that perhaps a night outside the town was the best idea.