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

by Thomas Larson

  (Margo) Nothing to report, it is quiet, did a run. Tay and Chelsea joined Code and Del and I on the run. Lucy tagged along too. We took the usual route.

  Sadly, we have not yet run out of deer, so it was deer stew again today, I need to get out and find some meat, any meat, I am actually thinking if I found a skunk or two it would work for me.

  E seems a little funny, deflated funny, like depressed kind of funny.

  April 10th

  (Lance) I told the Major what I had found on the radiation levels, they are a problem. We can stay here and try to wait it out but the numbers are climbing, last summer they were at a point where it was really not going to be real dangerous. But now, they are getting close to the levels where they could do some harm to us. We are still safe, but another few points and it could cause cancer, or make us sick.

  I think we should move, I think we should head west, or north, that might get us out of the wind that was blowing this stuff onto us. My best guess is that another nuke plant went up. As time goes on, that’s going to be a recurring theme here in the Northeast. We really should get out toward the other side of the Mississippi.

  Delaney and I are okay again, I think. I sometimes wonder how we hooked up, I mean, we are pretty different. I can’t even say that it is the “opposites attract” thing. We are not opposites, or similar, or anything, it just seems to work. I am not sure I would survive losing her.

  The Major wants to drag me in front of The Three on this radiation problem. I really don’t want to go. I just want to hide in my little room, kind of like I used to, before all this started. This is not fun anymore.

  (Margo) We ran this morning, the usual suspects, Del, Code and me. Tay and Chels started with us but turned back after a couple of miles. It was a nice morning; the temperatures were not too bad. When we got back to camp, it was warm shower time. I love being back on the odd day, even day schedule.

  There is really not much going on, just life as usual in the camp. We have reset most of the things that were messed up when we all scrambled out during the Hunter scare.

  Langley, LJ and the other survivors from Winter Love, Bernie and Rick have kind of fit in and are doing what they can to help. LJ tends to be a little bit of a dick, kind of bossy, but he means well. I think what happened to his people has messed him up just a little.

  The guys from Winter Love moved into the Boy’s Dorm, so Code tends to want to stay with me more. I kind of like it, but he still keeps most of his stuff in the dorm, we aren’t that good yet for 24/7. Guess what we had for dinner? …….. again.

  (Matt) The weather was in our favor again today, thank you Lord. We were able to get to Canajoharie today, and found that it seemed empty of life. Much of the city appears to have been burned, my guess is that there were fires set to cleanse the city, and the people that lived there had moved on. We were able to walk pretty much unbothered by the Changed, most were burned so badly that if they could move at all it was just a little of the upper torso and head. We found a few that were still moving. We sent them to rest.

  We were able to get across the Palatine Bridge and were going to start up NY Route 5, but then decided that the railroad tracks were a better and probably a safer way to go.

  We walked for about an hour and a half after crossing the bridge and found a rail siding that lead off to the right, we followed it a little ways and through the trees and bushes we saw a grocery store, a Price Chopper.

  It was getting late in the day so we figured that was as good a place to camp as any. I did not think we would find much in food, but we checked and found a few cans of Beef-a-Roni. It was not much, but it was something. We found some other useable items, candles, some water, and bug spray.

  After we settled down, we reconsidered, the place smelled bad, most of the meat and fish and perishables had decayed to mush or had been half eaten by wildlife, but there was still a lingering stink. We found a van in the parking lot and slept there for the night.

  There was no enlightenment today, just walking, just trudging along in the moment. Now that I think about it, focused on the moving along, I had not felt the heavy heart or twinge of pain.

  April 11th

  (Lance) I spent some time today trying to get the Wi-Fi working with the camera drones. The thing is good for about 200 yards, but that is it, it is not enough, it hardly gets out of the camp. I promised, I wanted to make this work, and I failed. I am a failure, I am going to bed.

  (Matt) It was cold cereal this morning, cold dry cereal, and a little water. We could have had the canned fruit but are going to save it for a day or two. We were on the road by about 7:30. I don’t know why but we were in good spirits today, and the weather was good for walking; I was thinking that we had a good shot at getting to Fort Plain today. I was excited about the prospect of visiting my Gramp’s old farm. I could see the place, where we had the campfires, and thought about the old stories. I have been able to put the “and a meteor fell and everyone got blown up” behind me. I was a kid and it was not like I made it happen. Step one in the new order, live in the present, you can remember the past a little, but don’t let it eat you up.

  About 4 miles up the road we came to a motorcycle shop, Christian’s Cycles, irony?, a sign from you, Lord, don’t know but we found a Gold Wing three wheeler that actually started and looked like it had some gas. It took some persuading but I got Tanya to jump on the back of the bike. She had never ridden before and was sure we would be killed. But after a few slow spins around the parking lot she was good with the idea. This pretty much insured that we would make Fort Plain and the old homestead by the end of the day.

  As we rode along, it was an interesting perspective. As the scenery zipped by, I noticed how much the weeds and grass had begun to move into the areas that had once been highways, or parking lots. The houses that we passed that may have once had manicured lawns were overgrown and the corn and hay fields were now just weed patches.

  One of the things that I like about riding, have always liked about it is the wind in the face and the smells. Although I must say that the smells that are out there now are not that great. There is still the smell of decay. We don’t have the flowers, or trees or things in bloom that really catch your attention. An interesting point is that we are so used to the bodies that are occasionally on the side of the road we almost don’t smell them anymore.

  We covered a lot of ground quickly and reached Oldick Road in the early afternoon. As we rolled up on the farm it was changed, the old farmhouse had been taken down and a beautiful contemporary log house was in its place. But the more interesting thing was the barn, it had been burnt to the ground, must have been lightening.

  We hung around the place for the rest of the afternoon because we were well ahead of where we figured we would be and I wanted to give Tanya a chance to have a campfire and stare at the stars. I thought it would be safe because we had not seen any Changed in the course of our ride.

  In fact, we had seen no signs of life period. It was odd though, as we drove up Oldick, and even before, there were scooters, not moped type scooters but real kid type foot on the pavement scooters. The Amish use them for travelling; I remember my mom telling me about how the couple that had bought the farm in NY had actually taken a vacation and went down to visit family in Lancaster, PA on the things. So why were they abandoned along the road, I have some ideas but they are not good.

  We checked out the farmhouse and found that there were a few jars of fruits and vegetables in the cupboard, but for the most part the place was empty of food. The inside of the house was actually very clean and orderly, the beds were made, and the trash had been taken out. But there was dust; clearly no one had been in the place in months.

  We found the root cellar out behind the house, but that was not much help, there were still some veggies down there, but after the year or so they had been down there they were pretty dried out or mushy.

  We had our campfire and talked about things, about how we could help with our own
suffering, and also to help with others pain and issues. I understand Lord why you sent us on this trip, and see that although you were always there, and help us, that we need to do it ourselves, based on our faith in You. We are Your tools to bring about Your will.

  “Can we do a story?” asked Tanya.

  “Sure, what kind?”

  “One like you and your family used to do, the round-robin thing, you start.”

  I thought for a moment and began, “Once a meteor fell…..”

  “And some of us survived.” She added.

  “Yes, yes we did, thank you Lord.” And we became silent, huddled together, smiling, and at peace.

  Kind of a nothing day, run, eat, weather was nice. I am not into writing today but I promised myself and Tom that I would try to put something down each day.

  A couple of the sheep are very close to having little sheep, that is kind of exciting, I guess. I wonder what it will be like to watch it happen. I was talking to Code about it and we got silly talking about mutated sheep with big pointy teeth and purple wool.

  E has been kind of quiet lately; he is back to his black eye shadow and fingernails. He still joins us for meals, with Del, but there is something going on there. Del seems a little off too. I wonder if they are like, breaking up.

  April 12th

  (Margo) “Come on, we’re going hunting” announced Del over breakfast.

  “Okay, that sounds like a plan” I said.

  “Count me in too” replied Code.

  “Yeah, ah, no, this is a huntress trip, sorry, no boys allowed.”

  Oh, this was going to be a girl talk trip, and killing things is on the menu, run little animals. Del is on the warpath I thought to myself.

  After breakfast we were on the road. It was a good day, the sun was out, and the air was in the 50s. We trudged about a mile with not much talking other than an occasional warning about a slippery spot or a “let’s go that way”. Finally, we came to a larger fallen tree and Del sat down, and looked at me.

  “What the fuck is the matter with him?”

  Ah, and now I know why it was girl time. “You mean E?”

  “Yeah, he is going back to being an emo kid, listening to shitty despair music, spending most of the day laying in his bed, and being a shit.”

  “I don’t know, he has been different” I said, kind of confused. I did not know what to think or how to answer.

  “You see it, right?” She asked

  “Yeah, he was kind of cool for a long time but he has kind of freaked out after we went to Pittsfield and you chewed his ass.”

  “I know” she began to cry, “I know, and I think it is my fault.”

  Listen, just listen, I thought to myself, let her vent. That would be what I would want to do.

  “Was I too mean to him? Was I wrong, he could have gotten himself, or one of us killed.”

  “No, I think you did the right thing, I would have jumped ugly with Code if he did something like that. But I am not sure that is the problem. It may be something else.”

  “Like what?” she said with a bewildered look.

  “I don’t know, but well, I don’t think a little ass chewing would have done it. There has to be something else.” I suggested.

  “Maybe, but what?”

  “I really am not sure, but maybe we can find out, I have a spy.” I said with a little grin. “I think I can get Code to help us out here.”

  “Would he? Could he? I have to know!”

  “I think we can work that out. It is a guy thing, they will talk, I will get on it when we get back.”

  “But what if Lance finds out we are spying on him?”

  “He won’t, He will never know, I promise. I will make it all about me.”

  “Promise? Pinky swear?”

  “Double pinky swear!”

  We sat for a little longer and then she perked up and smiling she said, “Hey, we better go kill something, or else we will look like we were goofing off or losing our edge.”

  We got back to camp about 2 o’clock in the afternoon with about 4 rabbits and a couple of squirrels. I am hoping that Nick will use those for dinner tonight.

  Code and I talked tonight; I explained to him the weirdness of what was going on with E.

  “Yeah, I kinda noticed it too. But it wasn’t that Del ragged on him. It is the failure of the drones. He had this big plan to protect her, and all of us, but it has failed and he feels like shit about it, like it was his fault and he’s a loser.”

  I was shocked, “You knew this and you didn’t tell us?”

  “Mar, it’s a guy thing, we talk, but we don’t dwell or tell, I figured I would give him a couple of days of pity party and then I was going to get him back to normal, well as normal as he gets.”

  “You really think you can do that? Really make him get back from being Captain E?”

  “Piece of pie, we are guys, we do stuff like this all the time.” He said with a confident smile.

  I doubt I will ever understand boys, guys. At that moment, he reminded me of Tom, working his magic when Mom used to get wound up. He would do something, talk to her, make a joke, do something goofy, and she would be fine.

  “Hey, feel like a sleep over?” I asked.

  “Duh!”

  (Matt) We slept on the second floor of the farmhouse after setting up a little alarm system on the stairs, a couple of strings with cans that would clatter if someone, or something tried to come up for a visit. It was a real bed, with real sheets, and a comforter. It is still cold at night, but well, it was not cold this night.

  When I woke, I looked over at Tanya and for a moment, forget the badness the world had turned to and thought just about her, and the moment. There was no pain or suffering, only peace, and her. I just stared at her.

  She awakened and looked at me. “What?”

  “Nothing, just enjoying a moment, and was thinking how blessed I am.”

  “Come here.”

  We cleaned up ourselves and then the farmhouse. The motorcycle had put us a little ahead of schedule, not that we really had a fixed schedule, but we could be in Fort Plain in less than a half hour. I wondered who or what we would find.

  We left the farm about 9:30 and as we rode toward town, it was strange, more foot powered scooters on the side of the road, and more burned barns. I had first thought that only the one at Gramp’s farm had burned, lightening or spontaneous combustion, but it was farm after farm. These barns were torched, on purpose, but why, by whom?

  As we rolled into Fort Plain I expected to see the same little farm town that I remembered as a kid, there were still the same old brick buildings, and shops. There was still the “Fort Plain Diner” at the corner of Main Street and Flower, I remembered having breakfast there with Gramp and Mark. They had the best hash browns I had ever tasted, but there would be no breakfast stop today,

  But the town it was a mess, well part of it was, broken store fronts, and trash strewn about. As we turned onto the main drag there was a stretch of about 100 feet that was clean and clear of the debris. In the middle of the sidewalks was a sign board “Real Estate Office Open”, in front of a store front.

  We pulled up in front and stopped. As we did, a short fiftyish woman, kind of chubby, walked out of the office. She was neatly dressed in a black skirt and green blazer with a kind of badge on the breast pocket and a hair style from the 60s that matched the outfit. She had a yellow scarf around her neck and a cup of coffee in her hand.

  “Hi! Welcome to Fort Plain”, she said in a kind of whiny high pitched voice.

  We walked toward her, kind of shocked that she was there, this was just weird.

  “Hi” answered Tanya, “we were just passing through and we have not met many people in our travels.”

  “Yeah, yeah, been kind of slow at the office for a while.”

  “Would you like a coffee? I can’t offer any milk, but I have some powdered creamer if you like.”

  We looked at each other, then at her, “Sure. That
would be nice.”

  We walked into the office with her, it was meticulous. She poured us each of coffee in Linda Harris Real Estate mugs that matched the blazer color and logo. It was actually not bad coffee.

  “Here, here, sit down, what brings you to town? Are you looking for somewhere to move to? It’s quiet here” said Linda.

  “Well, no we are not looking, although the place looks interesting. We are pilgrims on a trip to Rome, which is what the Lord has directed us to do.”

  “Ah, I see, yeah, the Amish, the ones that survived all made a beeline for Lancaster area in Pennsylvania, a long trip in horse buggies and scooters.”

  “We saw a few of the scooters dumped on the side of the road, did some of the locals not get away?

  She looked down and shook her head, “No, a lot of them didn’t make it, when it all started they believed, well, the bishop wouldn’t allow them to hurt the re-awakened, he felt it was God giving the sick ones a second chance. But then, they realized it was the Devil’s work and they did better about it. But by then, so many, so many had died, and come back.”

  “Did they burn their barns? Why would they do that?” Tanya asked.

  “Oh, no, that was me, and my son, we did that.”

  “Why?”

  “Oh, well, see, we found that the best way to stop the groups of re-awakened was to lead them into the barns, lock them in and then set fire to the barns. It worked well; the hay burned, and cleaned up the mess nicely.”

  “Where is your son? Is he at home?”

  “No, no, he was in the last barn that I burned.” It was so matter of fact and cold, it sent a chill down my spine.

  “I’m sorry, it must of have been terrible.” Tanya said slowly.

  “Well, yes, but it was okay, I did not want him to turn, to re-awaken.”

  “He was bitten then?”

  “Oh no, he was fine, but it was just a matter of time before the re-awakened would get us, and I did not want to see him suffer.” She said with a motherly smile. “He was a good boy, kind of slow, you know, so well, it was better that way. I just locked him in the barn with the re-awakened before I set it on fire.”