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

by Thomas Larson

  The idea of kind speaking, that is a tricky one, it is so easy for things to slip out, things said in anger. In the Dhammapada it talks about dealing with people. I guess it is easy to speak right to a friend, or an acquaintance. But as you find the individual more and more difficult to deal with, the idea becomes more difficult.

  The control of angry speech becomes the difficulty. Gentle speech is right speech most of the time. I always thought about gentle speech as what one would do to avoid gossip, be kind, not lie or tell stories about people’s actions or weaknesses. As I think of it, dragging someone down by spreading stuff about them is really also hurting yourself. I hear much of these thoughts echoed in the Bible, and remember them from sermons so many years ago at Sunday School.

  We continued on our pilgrimage to Rome. Today, we were able to get through Herkimer, home of the Herkimer Diamonds, big pieces of quartz that formed, and were pretty clear crystals. It was not easy getting through town, there were areas where there had been fires and buildings had collapsed into the street. We had to make detours as a result. We also found that there was still a pretty good population of Changed in the area so we had to stay sharp and in some cases free them of their suffering.

  Once we got to the west side of town, we pretty much had cleared the Changed and also decided that it was late enough to start looking for somewhere to spend the night. We found a little AM radio station just off Route 5. We saw there were lights on in the building so we were really careful about our approach.

  Thank you Mr. Honda for making a motorcycle with AM/FM radio built in. I fiddled with the dial and was able to find the station’s signal. It was not a live broadcast but rather a loop that repeated about every 2 minutes.

  “Come to Rome, all roads lead to Rome. We are a safe zone with no unclean walking in our home. All are welcome, if you are not infected, come to us. We offer safety, food, shelter.”

  We stared at each other for a minute.

  “What do you think?” I asked Tanya.

  “It would be nice, but it sounds too good.”

  “Yeah, but it is possible. I mean we survived, lived pretty well in the Camp and in Peru, why couldn’t a larger group?”

  “I hope you are right, I so hope you’re right.” I said, but there was doubt in my voice.

  “But then the fact that this place is still working means something, someone had to set it up, and the biggest issue in its favor was the generator. It is running, it would not do that forever, someone had to refuel it.”

  “True, but let’s be careful on this one, I just….there is something.” She added.

  We found the station unlocked and went in. It was dusty, and we saw no tracks in the dirt, it made no sense.

  We bedded down for the night, but were able to explore a little before turning in. It was quiet, no misadventures this evening.

  Thank You Lord for another day of enlightenment and learning. We are blessed by Your presence. Amen.

  April 17th

  (Lance) Hurting, I think I have new muscles I never felt before. Del made me hobble out with the group this morning for a run; once we started I did loosen up a little, but was way behind the rest of the runners.

  The weather today was awesome; it was in the 60s, sunny, and just beautiful. There are buds on the trees and I think we shall have leaves in another week or so.

  I have come to the conclusion that although it was a good plan, the idea of the live transmission drone was doomed, not because of me, or anything that I have done. With all the equipment and power from before the meteor I probably could have worked it out, but now, nope.

  Over lunch we laughed, and for a while we were just a bunch of high school kids. I wonder what it would have been like if all this didn’t happen. I wonder if I would have ever met my “Delaney”. Don’t know, don’t care, we are here now and that is cool.

  (Margo) Just for something a little different Code and I ran around the lake, it is a couple miles, and it was kind of different in that there was on a trail or in some case just running in the woods. We were about halfway when we found the Hunter. It was a G type. It was inert and seemed harmless. It had fallen over and was face down in a bit of swamp near the lake.

  When we got back, it caused a good stir with the camp. Ron and LJ wanted to just blow the shit out of it. The Major was not so sure that was a good idea remembering how the one blew up killing Frank, Joseph and Ethan. But the concern then was would it draw other Hunters to it.

  Lance tried repeatedly to reach one of the other Sat-Comm stations or the Pittsburgh but was unable to make any contact. He is beginning to think that there may be something wrong with our link. In the end, we figured that the best thing to do was to try to detonate the Hunter from a distance. If we could at least blow up the magazine, it would be pretty much safe, not that we planned to play with it.

  The plan was to build a little sandbag bunker about a hundred yards away from the thing and then just hammer the shit out of it with the 50 cal. until it when boom. I actually kind of liked the idea, it has been a while since I got to fire the Barrett.

  We had everything in place by about 4 and I started plinking, ok, kabooming away at it. One to the head (sensory), nothing, one in, one in the neck, took the head clean off, no boom, then one in the ass (magazine area), yeah, that was the ticket, it blew up big time. It was good that we had the sandbags; the explosion covered a lot of ground with marbles. I actually had a few fall on me that had been blown up into the air. They hurt a little, like hail stones, but not bad, and with the padding and helmet I was fine. We will let it sit, and rot now.

  We found the little signal sensor that called to its friends and destroyed it, then dropped it into the lake.

  The camp was actually in kind of high spirits tonight with the sort of settling the score with a Hunter. It didn’t bring anyone back, but, it kinda made some of us feel better.

  (Matt) “Tanya, I‘m seeing some things here in the Dhammapada that will be good for the camp. Although it’s funny, much of it is already things that we do, already taught to us by our Lord.” I said as we had breakfast, it was home canned fruit from a mason jar this morning.

  “You’re right, it is. I think that we have been on the right road for a while, and this just reinforces it. But where it will come to be important is where we start meeting other groups and expanding.” She replied.

  So today we were planning to get to the outskirts of Rome, and see what the activity level is in the area before we just wander in. I know that the radio says it is a sanctuary, but I just don’t know.

  The Lord told us to come here, but he did not tell us exactly why, or what to expect and over time it has become clear that the obvious lesson was not necessarily the one that was to be taught or learned. Tanya and I talked about this and she is of like mind. Lord, what do you have in store for us, I trust in you, but my curious side is over- active.

  We ended up stopping at another little AM radio station and like the last one it was up and running also. This time we were able to see that the power for the station’s transmitter and lights were being supplied by a series of solar panels in the open area behind the station. That would explain it, and it was a kind of game changer. We had assumed that there was human activity regularly visiting the place to keep the stations up and running. But now it may not be that, these transmitters have been on autopilot for a while.

  It was warm, and we could secure ourselves in the building so it was a good place to stay for the night. Tomorrow we will start exploring the area and see why we are in Rome.

  Thank you Lord for blessing us with another day’s safe passage and wisdom, Amen.

  April 18th

  (Matt) We were on the road early this morning; we are within reach of Rome. I am excited to finally see what You had sent us down this path for. I know that I was hoping for a great enlightenment and maybe, just maybe a community that would be based on all the goodness that You have to offer.

  We were outside of town by 9:00 a
nd took up a spot where we would be able to see the main road into town. But just for safety sake we stayed on the north side of the Erie Canal and worked our way toward the downtown area. We moved slowly, cautiously up East Dominik Street. There were no signs of living or dead as we moved along. We reached a place where a bridge spanned a creek that fed into the canal. But a road block had been set up that would stop cars, and also would make it very difficult for the Changed to move across.

  We couldn’t take the Goldwing any further and set out on foot. Along the way, we stayed in the front yards that lined the street; it did not seem wise to just stroll down the middle of the road.

  As we turned a slight corner, we could see an old fortress up ahead of us. It looked like something that you would see from the Revolutionary War. A street sign pointed to it and identified it as Fort Stanwix National Monument. The park (?) surrounding it had a stone wall about 4 feet high and had been supplemented with barbed wire. We could see smoke coming from inside. Clearly this was a colony.

  We worked our way closer, and then sat and watched. At first there was no activity. Then the main gate opened and a group of about 5 people, dressed in army fatigues marched out leading a single individual. The person had some kind of sign around his neck, but I could not see what it said.

  That solo person tried to make a run for it but wasn’t able to get far; he had a rope or chain that was held by the leader of the soldiers. I will call them soldiers only because they were in uniform, I have no idea if they were truly military, but then based on some of the stories and information that Asuna and Major Barkley shared with us, it seemed likely that they were.

  The person, in regular clothes, was brought to a pole near a small stone building and the chain was attached to it. Then, as the rest of the troop moved away, the leader went to the stone building, opened the door. He ran to the troops he had been with and they all quickly re-entered the fort.

  Three Changed shuffled out of the building and just wandered around aimlessly at first. The chained person stayed as motionless as he could, and they, the Changed didn’t seem to notice him at first. But then someone on the parapet of the fort fired a shot at him. It must have been a small caliber, like a 22. It hit him in the leg, and as much as he tried not to, he screamed. The Changed locked on. They moved toward him.

  We could see the people on the parapet pointing, and it looked like they were laughing. They knew what was going to happen next, and they were enjoying it.

  What to do, what would Jesus do? What would you wish us to do oh Lord. This was the test? Was this the lesson, or part of it? We couldn’t save this soul, or, no wait, we could at least ease his suffering.

  He had not quite been bitten yet when I took the shot. I was able to get the head shot even at that distance. The murderers on the parapet froze; it took them a moment to realize what had happened. I was able to get a second shot off and hit the officer or guy in charge, the one who tied this guy up. He was a big black guy. I don’t know if I killed him, but it was a good chest shot.

  “Time to go” I said to Tanya.

  “Amen to that!”

  We raced back to the bike and got out of the area as quickly as possible. We found a route 365 and figured that heading North East at this time was a really good idea. Sooner or later we could find a north-south and try to get back toward either I-90 or Route 5. But right now it was distance that we needed.

  We covered about 30 miles and decided to hole up in a little farmhouse. We hid the trike in the barn behind the house. It was cold, with no fire, but we were not sure if we were followed, or if there were hunting parties out looking for us.

  “What was the lesson, why did this happen?” asked Tanya.

  “I’m not sure, that was messed up.”

  “Why would you tie someone out to get eaten, mauled like that?”

  “No one deserves that, no one, a quick kill for the most evil of acts, but to torture? That is not right.” I said, shaking my head.

  “Was God trying to show us that there was still evil in the world? We knew that, what was the meaning?”

  “I am not sure, maybe he showed us that killing the victim was an act of compassion, I don’t know.”

  Neither of us slept for long that night, we took turns doing a watch, but really for the most part we just stayed awake and huddled together. I think our faith was shaken a little.

  (Lance) Running was a little better this morning, and I was able to last a little longer with the group. But I have a long way to go. I asked Del if we could try some sword stuff after the run. I think that I need to know how to do that, hiding or counting on others for my safety is something I won’t do anymore. I am part of something, something good, and I need to carry my weight, I mean I kind of did before, but this is different. This is important.

  (Margo) Sunny and warm, it is an awesome day, the run was good. Code and I took to the trails again; hopefully we will not run into anything like yesterday. But it is funny, as we walked out to the flag pole to start; each of us had a rifle with us. We don’t usually carry them on the runs, but, it seemed like a good idea. Besides, the extra weight will add to the workout.

  Overall the day was uneventful, which was good. We watched Zombie Land last night. Wow, if only it was so easy.

  Nick is trying to use up some of the frozen stuff from the ice house before it spoils. It was BBQ deer ribs, actually not too bad, with some frozen corn on the cob. The corn was a little mushy, but still, it wasn’t deer stew.

  April 19th

  (Lance) Wow, I knew I did not exercise much, but damn, Del killed me yesterday. Part of that was my own fault, the male ego made me try to keep up and I overdid it. But I did the run again today and we did a little more defensive tactics, stuff with the sword.

  I am thinking about the drones still and I think that we can still find uses for them but not as I originally planned. The other thing is that as we move further and further down the timeline we will find that we need to create our own new and simpler technology to survive. Eventually, we run out of fuels and batteries and where are we then?

  I checked on the radiation thing again today and although it is still “safe” it is not safe by much and we need to think about this. Do we go or do we stay. We need to think about that because we need to plan on whether we are planting crops or moving on.

  (Matt) It appears that we have escaped the wrath of those at Fort Stanwix. I am thinking that we have put enough ground between us that we are safe.

  We were on the road early this morning, and managed to find a North/South route (12/28) and started down toward I-90, but the road split and we decided that maybe I-90 might be less safe than continuing east on Route 28. Looking at the map we chose to head to Fairfield, off Route 29. It is farm country up here and as such we were not doing well in finding gas for the trike. But on the way we were able to find a couple of old abandoned farms and were able to find some fuel there. What we had to do was to mix gas and diesel to run, and it did not make the Goldwing happy, but what else could we do. We made it to Fairfield and were able to get some real gas. We sucked some hi-test out of an abandoned Corvette.

  We settled in to a small home in Fairfield. There were a couple of Changed roaming around, and we sent them to rest. But beyond that we had no human contact.

  During the night we talked about a new aspect of the Buddhism, the idea of doing the right thing. This one was particularly interesting after what we had to do a day ago at the fort. Was it the right thing to do in killing the subject that was staked out to be eaten by the Changed? I think it was, and although sad, it was the best we could do for him. I am not sure that the shot I took at the captain, or leader of the group that staked him out was the right thing to do.

  So in looking at the Dhammapada, and the Bible they both have lists of precepts, they include not killing, (well, we messed up that one), not stealing, not lying, not abusing sex or drugs (and rock and roll? Sorry) both are so similar.

  As we work with these ide
as, we learn to live harmoniously and compassionately. So in that regard, our actions toward the guy who was really soon to be dead was one of compassion, a quick, painless death rather than being torn to pieces was an act of kindness and compassion.

  When I think about this, I have to add the idea of WWJD, and really, short of His pulling a miracle, there was nothing that He could have done differently in our situation.

  The longer we move on this journey the more we see that the philosophic similarities between religions, be it Buddhist, Judeo-Christian and many others that we have heard of or see information on are all very close, the dance was really the same, the difference is often just in the way the format of the steps taken.

  (Margo) It was kind of funny watching Lance, he does not want to be called Captain E anymore, hobble in to the dining room. You could see the stiffness and soreness in his walk. But he was trying, and that is good.

  As we had breakfast, he talked to us about the radiation thing. He said he was finding that the levels are okay, but that they are higher than they should be. I didn’t like it when he said that we may have to move. I didn’t like it because I am comfortable here, we have a nice set up and I’m not sure that I want to be out on the road, camping, struggling to find food, water or a safe place to stay.

  And if we move, what happens when Tom and Azz get back, how will they find us? Code and I talked about this after breakfast, and I told him that if we all had to move, I won’t go, I would stay around camp. He promised to come back and I was gonna wait for him. But for now it is not something I need to get all worked up over, but it is sitting there in the pit of my stomach.

  It was a nice day outside and it was in the low 60s I think, Code and I just sat out in the sun, enjoying the day, talking, sketching, and thinking. I guess you could actually say it was kind of boring.

  April 20th

  (Matt) It is Easter morning and maybe I should have planned a little better so that Tanya and I could have done a special service this morning, and yet, I felt that it was not Your will. We were up early, and greeted the day. I do miss the warm mush cereal that Nick put out for us each morning.