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

by Thomas Larson

  “Yeah, while we were there these military guys, we couldn’t tell if they were like really soldiers or just renegade, but these guys dragged some poor guy out, and chained him to a post.” I started.

  “Kind of a tall guy? Red hair?” Asked Keith.

  “Yeah, you knew him?”

  “Marcus, his name was Marcus, he had helped us escape.” Keith said quietly, Pam’s eyes teared up.

  “I think you need to tell us a little more about it, and about Fort Stanwix. We knew it was not a good place when we saw them put Marcus out and they tried to feed him to the Changed, the Dead Folks as you called them.”

  Keith went on to tell us that originally Stanwix was run by a group of about 50 people, they were good people, helpful people that took in strangers and fed them. They had built a nice, safe place. Then, one day a group of National Guardsmen showed up.

  “We let them in, and at first things were cool, then their leader died, was murdered and this guy, a black guy, Womack, he took over. It turned; it became a different place, they…..we were expendable, if we didn’t have anything to offer, well, I was a dentist, I had a skill, not that I could do much, an extraction or some minor stuff. Pam, see, Womack liked big tits. Marcus, he was a weasel, he knew how to get things. We were all safe for a while.”

  “I see, it sounds bad” said Tanya.

  Pam quietly started, there was bitterness in her voice, “It was, and what happened was that as time went on Womack made us all do things, awful things. Before, I used to be a nurse, I had a skill, but he changed me, he made me a whore, his whore at first, then he started sharing me with his men. I wanted to die.”

  “That was when Marcus and I stepped in, we saw what was happening and we knew it was just a matter of time before we were not needed.”

  “But you got away.” I said.

  “Yeah, Pam and I did, Marcus was supposed to meet us a few days ago, but he never showed, I thought he might have gotten caught. You said the bastards turned him, left him tied up to be eaten and turned.”

  “No, Marcus is dead, but he is at peace dead, he will not come back” I said and explained the events that occurred when we were looking at the fort. “So we couldn’t save him, but we gave him a quick painless peace.”

  We were all quiet for a while.

  “We should probably turn in, it would be best if we were on the road early tomorrow, we have a lot of road to cover and the more distance we can put between us and Stanwix is probably good. You are welcome to come with us, to our camp, we have some good people there, and you will be safe.” I offered.

  We set up a watch for the night, but we did not put Pam in the rotation, three hours each would get us through the night, I took the middle watch. Nothing happened.

  May 3rd

  (Matt) We were up at the crack of dawn thanks to Pam, she was pacing like a dog that needed to go outside and pee. She was freaked out. We decided that it would be best if we ate on the road. To get a little more understanding of these two, I suggested that Keith ride with me and Tanya and Pam lead the way in the other car.

  As Keith and I drove on, we talked about Fort Stanwix.

  “At first, I was kind of pissed you killed Marcus, he was a good guy, but the more I thought about it, I realized, you did him a favor, as much as killing someone can be a favor.”

  “It wasn’t easy, I really did not want it to go down like that but with the soldiers on the wall, what else could we do, either let him get ripped to shreds and turned or make it quick and painless.” I responded.

  We drove on for a little bit.

  “Oh, that was one of the kinder things that Womack used to do.”

  Then, Keith began to tell me more about the Womack and his group. They arrived in the early part of December. Keith said that the group inside the fort had put up food, not a lot, but with careful planning and effort they figured they could get through the winter. The soldiers added 10 people to the fort population and it threw the rationing idea out the window. They kept promising to go out and scavenge and hunt for food, but they never did.

  He continued with the story. In the middle of January, Womack had muscled his way to the top of the food chain and the food situation was bad. It started out as all the people in the fort were equal, but over time; some became more equal than others.

  In late February we were getting desperate and Womack decided that it was time to make some people work a little harder for food, if they wanted to survive. He invented a game, a survival game. There would be a lottery in which all the males had their name in a hat and three names were picked. Then, they were turned loose on each other with rudimentary weapons, if you lived, you ate. It was bad, but then some of the men decided that they wouldn’t play. Womack bumped it up a notch; he added the families into it. If you won, your family ate, if you didn’t fight, your family didn’t eat.

  “Who would let their family starve!” Exclaimed Keith bitterly.

  “What he was doing it made us sick, and maybe we should have just killed him ourselves, one of his guys tried it, killing him, it didn’t work, and that was where Womack decided that he would make a show for the masses, to insure that they behaved. He lined everyone up on the fort wall and made them watch as the soldier was led out and tied to the stake. It did not take long before the Dead showed up.”

  I just listened in silence, in my heart I hoped that I had succeeded in killing this monster.

  “We, Pam, Marcus and I decided that we would try to get away, but it took time, we couldn’t get away until a couple of weeks ago. Marcus had put together some food for us, and had the car waiting in a part of town that was not usually visited. We snuck out at night, Pam was supposed to be my, ah, date for the night. Marcus was supposed to meet us outside of town the following morning. He never showed and we figured things turned to shit, so we hit the road and have been running ever since, figured that sooner or later Womack would be after us, wanting his prize fluff back, and me…….dead, slow, and painful.” There was bitterness in his voice.

  “I took a shot at Womack”.

  Keith looked at me.

  “I hit him in the chest, but I don’t know if I killed him. I figured it might help a little, they knew we were out there when we took the shot at Marcus. I was so angry at what they had done. No matter what a person might have been or done, there is no reason to stake him out for the Changed to get.”

  “I just wish I had a bigger gun, the 223 probably messed him up, but if I had my sniper rifle, he would have been pink mist.” I said, with a degree of regret.

  “Whoa, you’re the preacher man; you can’t be saying you are good with trying to kill him.”

  “I am a preacher man, and I have killed evil before. There was a need for justice, and a need to protect the innocent. I see things a little different now, and I need to answer to those I save, not some concocted godhead. God is still alive, but the Pope is dead.”

  It got quiet for a while and I thought about what I had just said, and felt. It was right, it was the ways of nature, and the earth, and I am very good with this.

  We reached Albany late in the afternoon and I knew a safe place for us to stay for the night. We have long ago cleaned out and secured the arsenal. We had left it set up that as long as we could get to the roof we could get in and there was no fear of the Changed. It would also give us a secure place if any of Womack’s people were hunting us. Getting in was easy and we were good for the night.

  Tanya and I talked a little, I told her about the information that Keith had shared and it was pretty close to what Pam had told her. They had not had an easy time of it in Stanwix, and not a lot better when they were on the road after the escape. I can’t imagine the degree of fear that they, especially her, had experienced. If they were caught, Keith was meat, but her…

  “She said that she kept a pistol with her all the time, if it looked like they were going to get caught she was going to do herself in before they could catch her.” Tanya told me.

  “
Based on what Keith told me, it was the smart thing to do. Womack’s crew made the biker band we dealt with look like a Boy Scout Troop. I think Keith probably had the same plan.”

  “Yeah, good thing we didn’t wander into town. I think that we have gotten away from them, and we are good, but what if we ever run into them, or they find us.”

  “I don’t know; guess it depends on the nature of the meeting.” I offered. I was trying to candy coat what I knew was the reality of it.

  “If we….just kill me, that is the only way, just kill me.” She said quietly.

  We didn’t talk much after that.

  (Lance) I found this stupid hat; it is kind of a tiger thing, with eyes, and a nose. I am wearing it for now, sooner or later everyone will know, but for now it is my secret, I think Del kind of knows, but she has not said anything about it.

  One of the things that is become increasingly apparent to me is that we are moving away from the realm of gadgets and back to an older, simpler time. We still have our laptops, but they are really limited in stored data and programs. We need to get back to books, and maps, and the tech from the old days. It is sad that in this day and age so many people can’t read a map, or write cursive or do more than simple addition or subtraction. But then who knew, who expected this would be our world today.

  I am actually kind of excited about this. It is a problem solver’s paradise, nothing easy, and lots of challenge. We need to figure out how to take what we have and make it work, and keep us going. I am excited.

  Del and I talked a little about it as we ran. She looked at me and smiled, “That is going to be your challenge brain boy, mine is to keep your skinned ass safe.”

  (Margo) Code and I stayed outside last night for most of the night, we were sky watching. We hadn’t noticed any of the moving lights in the sky lately and wanted to see if we saw any overnight. It could be that the Hunter A’s are all dead or maybe not working anymore. We didn’t see anything that looked moving, other than a couple of meteors.

  The sky at night, without the ambient light of the city is so awesome, you can see the stars, more stars than you could imagine.

  “Code, I wonder how Tom and Azz are doing?”

  “Or better, where are Tom and Azz, you miss them don’t you.” He answered.

  “Yeah, I do, his stupid ass jokes, and puns, and sometimes his just being there.”

  “Well, they will be back soon enough, Oh, a falling star, quick, a wish.” He exclaimed.

  After a minute he asked, “What did you wish for?”

  “Can’t tell, it would ruin it.” I smiled.

  Lucy perked her head up for a minute, sniffed and then when back to sleep. Having her around is really a nice thing, I always wanted a dog, and I have the best one ever now. Of course, Mark would probably argue that Biter was better.

  May 4th

  (Matt) We took one last look around the inside of the Arsenal today just to make certain that we had not left anything behind that might be useful. Keith found something, a small electronic device marked HD-141.

  “I have seen one of these before, Womack had one, and he claimed the thing made it safe for us to be out and about in the camp. It put some kind of umbrella over us that prevented the Hunters; he called them Hunters, from attacking us.” He said.

  Tanya and I looked at each other, “Really!” I said. “Did you ever see any Hunters?”

  “No,” he kind of laughed, “They were mythical things as far as we knew. We thought Womack just made then up to scare us, keep us in line.”

  “Oh, they are not mythical; they are deadly, very deadly.” Tanya said and went on to explain what they were, and how they worked.

  We took the device with us along with a few other odds and ends that we found. Keith grabbed some dental stuff from the infirmary. We were out of the building by 8:30 and on the road. We would be back to Romanica later today. We tried to give them a radio call once we hit Pittsfield to let them know we are on our way in but no-one was listening apparently, hopefully.

  We pulled into camp about 2:30, the drive had been easy. Mom was glad to see me, us. And the Major was pleased at the prospect of having a medical man in camp. Our little group was growing, and from where Tanya and I were standing there is a great potential for the future, it is kind of go backwards, to get to the future. But that we shall see about.

  Matt and Tanya are back, and they brought a couple of people with them. The guy is an old dentist, not bad, he could help. The woman, she is a little weird, kind of really like defensive, stand-offish, I can’t put my finger on it.

  We all sat around the dining room tonight listening to the adventures that Matt and Tanya had experienced. It sounded very cool, maybe Code and I should try that someday. I wonder what we would find.

  When Matt started to talk about the peyote ceremony and what they saw I was interested, but also kind of shocked. I had never considered that he would even consider such a…ah…trip?

  There could be a lot of new thinking going on here and I am sure that he and Lance will get into it. Science versus hocus pocus, whoa, this could be interesting.

  I am also interested to see the take by The Three, Charlene, well, I can kind of see it working, Ron, No way, and Grace, wow, she is the wild card in this.

  (Lance) The Matt thing, now that is something new, okay, something old, and yet it kind of goes along the way I have been thinking of late. It sounds like a very interesting trek he has been on and I really want to talk with him more about it, in private, I am tending to think he has a good handle on the future, our future.

  That device that they came back with, the HD-141 as they call it, that could be huge, a protective element around the camp. Tomorrow I have to try to contact the Pittsburgh again; they must know about the device and can maybe give me some spec info on it. If I can’t raise them maybe another station can help out. We have been really not been reaching out to see what is going on or who is out there of late.

  May 5th

  (Matt) I spent the day or a good part of it with The Three, the Major and Lance. We talked about what we would need to do as far as farming for this coming year. I suggested that we add Taylor and Nick to the discussion so that we could get a feel for how we had done this past winter in the food department.

  We found that we were good as far as corn and goods like beets and beans that we were able to can. What we need to do is to start looking around the area to see if we can find some orchards, or if not, try to find some small fruit trees that we can import into the camp. And finally, we need to develop a food supply that is going to work out better for the sheep we have. It is likely that we will have a few more in the flock very shortly.

  I brought up the issue of the herb garden that Tanya and I had talked about. It was one that at first was looked at skeptically by Ron, but Nick, Charlene, and the Major jumped on board with the idea. So we will cut out a little area for that.

  By the end of the day we had pretty much laid down a framework of when we would begin getting the fields’ ready, which will basically start tomorrow. Beyond that we would be sending out scout teams to look for orchards, nearby farms that could be worked and additional fields that we could use as pasture land for the sheep. We are good for basics but it would be nice if we could get some lettuce, or tomatoes or cabbage going. All the more reason to search the area farms, perhaps some of the plants have self-seeded. The Earth Mother will provide.

  (Lance) It is good to have Matt back, I was worried about the farming aspect. I can see a couple of things that I can do to help make this all work for us. I told them about the ideas I had for the solar panels and also the wind turbine. It was more to get Matt up to date because some of us in the meeting were already aware of the plan.

  Nick had some interesting input also. He said that we need to start looking around the camp and in the woods; there are a lot of potential food sources out there. We have been enjoying the acorns for example, which until I tried it; I always believed we couldn’t eat.
He pointed out that along the streams we would find raspberries, and in the woods, choke cherries, strawberries, mushrooms and other such things. He suggested that he and Grace could give a little class to teach us what we should bring back for eating, or if on the road what we could eat.

  In the afternoon it was off to the kitchen for a little ninja work with Master Nick. We worked on room movements, and unarmed to armed in tight spaces.

  (Margo) Guess what day it is…. Yep, Auntie is here, and actually a little late, but she’s here. I had that talk with Charlene and she suggested a couple of things that seem to be helping. I had picked up some valerian root tablets on a scavenging run back a few weeks ago, and also some chamomile tea. The other thing that I am trying is dandelion tea. I was kind of grossed out with that last one, but the three things seem to help. I am happy, and Code is happy.

  Big pow-wow today with The Three and some special guests, they are talking about our future, and where we are going. I figure what we don’t get over dinner in the form of a general announcement I can get from Del, Lance will tell her and then I get to hear.

  So it is hurry up and wait.

  May 6th

  (Lance) Ron, Mark, Fred and I headed out this morning to start gathering solar panels that we can add to the top of a few of the cabins. It should have been a pretty straight forward task, but it was a little more complex and friggin’ Ron, or should I say Wreck’em Ron seems to be more of the mindset that slow disassembly is not the way to go, cut and hack, cut and hack. He ruined two panels with his goon methods. In the end we were able to get 6 panels (instead of 8) which was still a good start. The re-wiring and placement will take time, but it is workable.

  I am thinking that we can also set up a kind of array configuration in the area near the flagpole, it would have to be something that we can twist to follow the sun a little but again it is a reasonably simple project.

  (Margo) Code, Del and I are on scout/scavenger duty today. Tay and Chels have asked to come along. We are assigned to check out farms in the area and see what we can find for seeds, and other farm stuff.