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

by Thomas Larson

  (Margo) Not a happy camper today, part of it is that Auntie Flo showed up today, but that has not been as bad as it used to. I think in this case it is just because it is so hot and miserable out. But the other thing is that it was a Bo-Peep day for me. It would be nice to sit in the lake, or be able to hide in front of the fan. But no, I will be out with the sheep.

  Did not want to move out there, found a shady spot and that was where I stayed. The sheep, even they kept their movements to a minimum and stayed as cool as they could. We should probably think about haircuts for them, it has to be warm under all that fur.

  I got back at the usual time and walked into the cabin, then walked back out, it was too friggin’ hot in there, and the fan was not helping. I headed over to the dining hall and found that I was not the only one who felt that way. Pretty much everyone else was there, God bless Lance for those few air conditioners.

  Code and I hit Fire Pit tonight; it was just cool enough to make it livable. It was more a social night, no lessons, no singing, just casual chatter.

  After Fire Pit a lot of us headed down to the lake. I did not go in all the way, you know, but I got in up to a little over my knees. It helped.

  (Lance) It is good to be the computer geek, with the office that is air conditioned, especially today. I stayed inside and really just kind of chilled….that was bad, I know.

  Del spent the day with me, we talked about things, the biggest topic was Heather, and the baby.

  “It has to be getting close to her time. I think we are looking at just a couple of weeks to go.” I said.

  “Yeah, I am worried about it, what if…..” started Del then dropped off.

  “I know, I hope the baby is good, Doc Barkley thinks it is okay, but yeah, what if.”

  We had all had that concern in the back of our minds, with the disease and the events, would the child be normal?

  “I think if it is normal Fred and Jan will go for it, having a baby.” I added.

  “Yeah, and same with Mark and Michelle, and maybe Matt and Tanya.” She added.

  It was quiet for a few minutes, then she said, “Lance, what do you think, not now, but do you think, that we, maybe, someday…..”

  “Yep, I hope so, I think it is….important.” I replied.

  She smiled, “Me too, …….should we practice? It is nice and cool in here?”

  But before we could start there was a knock on the door, it was Stephen.

  “I am thinking that we should head out tomorrow if the weather is clear and get one more of those tanker trucks.” He said. “Hey, it is nice and cool in here, you dog.”

  “Yeah, it’s important to keep the computers cool, they run better,” I answered.

  “Makes sense, it is good to be the king geek.” He snapped back. “Anyway, what do you think? I want to get this done before, well, Heather is getting close and once our baby is born I am gonna be busy.”

  “Sounds good, tomorrow morning? Clear it with The Three and we are good to go. Get Matt or Mark lined up to drive and Del and I will head out with you.”

  “Okay, I will go see them now.” He said and headed out.

  “Talk about a moment killer” I mumbled.

  “Well, let’s step back into the moment, Oh King of the Geeks, your Queen demands homage.”

  We felt guilty about having the AC so we made sure that we hung out with the clan at the Fire Pit tonight, we would have been cooler in my computer lab, but well, in fairness. The pit was really just social tonight. Stephen told me we were approved for tomorrow and Fred would be coming with us.

  Good sleeping night, it was cool, and nice. I almost feel guilty about the AC.

  July 1st

  (Lance) This morning was a little busy, one of the things that The Three had set up with the people at Stanwix was that on the first day of each month we would have a conference call via radio. It was just to keep in touch and make certain that all was going well. We are holding it in the dining room so anyone who wants to attend can. It will be sort of a, what did they call them, a town hall meeting.

  I had the radio set up and had a couple of microphones in place at the main table. At that table I had chairs for The Three, Matt, Nick, Tay and me. Anyone else would be in a sort of audience gallery.

  At 10:00 I began the transmission. “Romanica to Stanwix, Romanica to Stanwix, do you read.”

  “Loud and clear Romanica,” it was Ron on the other end. “Good morning Lance.”

  There were the typical greetings that followed and statements of how things were going. For the most part there were no issues or problems going on.

  The entire meeting took about an hour, and although there was some information exchanged about how crops were doing, fuel status reports and engineering issues, Ron had a question on the solar panels. I explained what he needed to do.

  After the communication everyone was in a pretty good mood, life for both communities was good.

  I broke the radio system down and returned it to my office. After I set it back up in my office I tried to reach the Pittsburgh. There was no luck. I also tried to send a message out to the QUalz, the little lizard guys, just for the heck of it. But I know it could be hours, maybe days before they got it. I am thinking that they are at about the apex of their orbit, based upon the idea of Tom and Asuna being gone for a year. Nothing important message wise, just a “hey, we are still okay.”

  (Margo) Because of the radio communication with Stanwix today I volunteered to play Bo-Peep. I figured that I really had nothing to add to the meeting, so why not.

  I spent the day in the meadow, did a little sketching, and in general enjoyed the day. I was warm, but not brutal hot. I did not fall asleep although Lucy snoozed next to me, and there was nothing happening, no nervous sheep, no feeling like I was being watched, it was all cool.

  When I got back everyone was in a kind of good mood, the contact with the other people seemed to have a good effect on everyone. Code and I did Vespers tonight and there was lots of talk about how good it was going for both us, and Stanwix. There was even some who were planning to make a trip out there. I think that mainly had to do with a couple of people need to have some dental stuff done and Keith was a dentist. Maybe we should go to see the little rapper kid, Dead Bane.

  Full moon tonight and Code and I found a little piece of lake to hang out in. We were not the only ones to do that, and I am thinking that we were not the only skinny dippers tonight.

  (Matt) I pretty much sat back and listened to the conference call with the Stanwixians, I just made that name up. Tanya covered the crops issues and farming things from our end. They are doing well in that area but are not as far along in big crops like corn.

  Mom filled them in about the horses and how we had a small herd of them for riding. Nick suggested a couple of recipes that they might consider; they appear to have a good fish stock in the creek that runs near the fort.

  We did not mention or talk about the fuel source at Schenectady, which apparently was determined to be a resource better kept to ourselves.

  Ron said that he was doing well with getting the people there, the Stanwixians, to be more attuned to the land and the Earth.

  Mark and Charlene actually made dentist appointments to see Keith: now that was very interesting, I am not sure what he can really do, but still, a dentist. Apparently Pam is doing very well in her recovery from the horrors of Womack and is back to nursing. And Karen has been doing well with her recovery with the medical people that are available at Stanwix.

  As we began our good-byes, I did speak up.

  “Ron, just curious, what ever happened to all of Womack’s men?” I asked.

  A brief silence, then “Of the five that remained three of them have rejoined the community as useful members. They were kind of stuck in a bad spot and begged forgiveness.”

  “And the other two?” I continued.

  It was Keith that answered, “Yeah, they decided that they did not want to stay, well actually, we decided that they
should not stay and we exiled them. It was kind of ugly, but in the end they left. A lot of folks wanted them dead for what they had done, and well, exile might be eventual death, it was better than execution, at least they have a chance.”

  That stuck in the back of my mind. Which was better, the quick death, or the struggle to survive. I was quiet at Fire Pit tonight, that thought troubled me.

  July 2nd

  (Margo) We had a wicked storm last night about 3 AM or so but it has cooled things down a little so it was really nice. I should get a thermometer for outside the window. I think it was in the 60s this morning.

  Code and I are going to head on out to the horse farm after breakfast. Over breakfast there was some talk about the storm, and a couple of people even said that they had gotten dressed and ready to run in case there was a tornado. I didn’t think it was that bad.

  Code and I cycled out to the horse farm, I guess we could have driven now that we have more fuel, but the biking will replace the morning run.

  Code has gotten much better at riding and really is pretty comfortable on Chuckles. Lemon Drop is just a peach, so easy to ride. Teckla, Tay and the two of us took a ride to the east this morning, kind of doing a scavenging type of run, or as it turned out more a mock scavenging run because we really found nothing of value.

  We were back to camp about 4 pm, and it was still a decent day, temperature wise, Dinner was salad and teriyaki bunny with a sort of rabbit miso soup.

  Vespers tonight was a sort of story night, not that we have many stories that we have not heard before. Tonight Nick told the about the Green Lady Cemetery.

  “Where I grew up” he began, “I was told that there was a haunted cemetery right down the road, about a mile from here, near Peru; it was supposed to have a ghost, the ghost of a woman. She wore a tattered dirty old white wedding gown.”

  Someone asked, “Why white, I thought you said it was the green lady.”

  With a faked sour look Nick said, “I’ll get to that. See, she wore white because she died on the day of her wedding. She saw that her future husband was fooling around with the maid of honor, and she became very angry, and ended up running off. They found her broken body at the bottom of a little cliff near where the ceremony was supposed to have been held, she had jumped to her death.”

  “Yeah, but that doesn’t explain the green part” said Mark.

  “I’m getting to that,” Nick glared at him. “See, when she died it was anger, but also jealousy, and see jealousy is all about envy, green with envy.”

  “Ah”

  “May I continue?”

  “Yeah, sorry” said Mark.

  “So after she was buried it was said that she would appear in ghostly form at the cemetery.” Nick continued.

  Mark made a ghostly moaning sound, “Ooooooooooooo” that resulted in some laughing.

  “Ahem,…… so as word got out about the Green Lady, it became common for young parkers or adventurers to go to the cemetery and hang out after dark to see the Green Lady.”

  Fred jumped in, “I can understand the adventurers, but a parkour? Why would you run around a graveyard jumping over graves?”

  “NO!” Nick said, a little frustrated, “Parkers, people going parking, making out in cars!”

  That brought a lot of laughing from many of the older members of the group who actually had gone parking, I guess. To us youngers, well we never did that, parking….hmmm….(note to self, Code and I have to try parking.)

  “So anyway, there were some sightings and as a rule when someone saw the Green Lady they would get out of the cemetery very quickly.” Nick continued. “But on one night there was a couple who were very, ah, very involved in their ‘making out’ and not paying attention. Suddenly, there were noises at the car door, fortunately they were locked but it scared them so, he started the car up and raced out of there.”

  A couple of chuckles, a couple of wows and one “Then what happened”

  “So when the kids got home he jumped out of the car to open the door for his date, he was a gentleman, a horny one, but a gentleman just the same. As he came to her side of the car he saw it, a hand stuck on the door handle. He and then she freaked, and called the cops. And no, he did not use his cell phone, we didn’t have them back then.”

  “Come on, how would a ghost hand hold the door handle, or get torn off?” Asked Jan.

  “Ah, see it wasn’t a ghost hand, it was a real hand, and it was from a real person. See what had happened was that there was a mental hospital about a mile from the cemetery and one of the inmates had gotten loose. He was trying to get into the car to escape. He was a kind of serial killer mental case, so he probably would have killed the kids. When he grabbed the door handle the wrist restraints he wore got caught and his hand was torn off.”

  More wows and chuckles, although some sounded a little nervous.

  “They never found the inmate, he is still out there somewhere, maybe” Nick added.

  A brief silence, and then some clapping. “Good story!” Said Mark.

  “Yeah, better than “a meteor fell and the world blew up!” added Matt.

  (Lance) Everyone was talking about the storm from last night, with the AC, I just never heard it, or if I did it was so soft that I fell back to sleep and don’t remember.

  Del and I did the sheep herding thing today. It was a nice weather day and really boring. I played with the little drone quadcopter, just for something to do. I tried the camera function and took some pictures of some of the trees; I looked at the results tonight when I hooked it into the computer. There was something in the tree, a raccoon, or animal of some kind, but it is too fuzzy to say for sure what.

  Del gave me a haircut today, I was getting a little shaggy and it was a pain in the neck to keep out of my eyes. Not into that emo kid hair in front of the face thing anymore.

  Nick told a story at Fire Pit tonight, a kind of ghosty type story. Mark kept interrupting, it was funny. Not much else happening. Good night.

  (Matt) Odd, when we went to the veggie garden this morning one of the traps was tripped, but it was empty. Something either got it open, so either the bunny got free or something got in and got the bunny, something to keep an eye on.

  Tanya and I took a trip out to the horse farm late this morning and Mom and Tay were already out for a ride. I saw a couple of bicycles so I am guessing that maybe Margo and Cody had also been there.

  Tanya and I saddled up Strawberry and Black Olive and did a little trail ride, going north from the barn. We had nowhere in particular we wanted to go, but more just to get better at riding.

  We were back after about an hour or so, watered the horses and headed back to camp.

  Fire Pit was fun tonight, enjoyed the story Nick told. I had heard a variation of it at Boy Scout Camp. He actually put two stories together, I am not sure if by design or by accident.

  I wonder if we might not have a coyote or badger that was able to get into the rabbit trap.

  July 3nd

  (Margo) Code and I tried to do some scavenging today. I wanted to try to find some fireworks if I could, for the Fourth of July. I knew it will be difficult, but maybe. We tried Pittsfield but based on the idea that there would probably not be a fireworks store we tried checking some warehouses, maybe they had some stored away. No luck there, although we did find a stash of canned goods that were by the expiration date still good, or close to good. Real store bought baked beans and Beef-a-Roni, along with veggies and canned meats, like Spam. I put a few cans of each into my backpack for a private supply, a finder’s fee, and we loaded up the rest of the clan.

  We tried to check the PD; odd idea maybe, but perhaps there was some illegal stuff they seized and put into evidence.

  When we searched the PD, we found that there were still some Zoms in lock-up, poor people, what a terrible way to end up, trapped in a cell, and then turned, with no escape. We freed them, killed them, again, not let them go.

  In the evidence room, which we had to break in
to, it appeared that there were two cops left down there at the end, one had killed himself, and the female officer was still moving, but she was not herself any more. We gave her rest.

  It appears these two had quite the party before the end. The drug cabinet was opened, and emptied. They must have tried a little of everything, marijuana, heroin, coke, all of it. Sad, but at the time they were the only ones left, I could understand the reason they might do that.

  We found some good stuff in the room, more than a few guns, some ammunition, and some fireworks. It looked like they had raided a small fireworks dealer. We took the fireworks, and what ammo would work with our guns. As far as the guns themselves, it was mostly junk, Saturday night specials, or cheap ass stuff like Tec 9s or Mac 10s. We did find an AK, or a knock off of one, and we took that. Oh and there was this nice little revolver, it had a stubby barrel, light, kind of nice for hiding. It would be great when I was running.

  As we started out the door of the evidence room, one thing caught my eye. It was a pair of Samurai swords. We took them for Nick and Lance.

  We were back at camp around dinner time. At Fire Pit I gave the swords to Nick and Lance. Nick looked at his closely, and smiled.

  “This is a good quality blade, thank you, I will use it well.” He said.

  We hadn’t seen much action so about the only ‘using well’ I thought he might do was to chop vegetables.

  (Lance) Mark and I had Stephen fly us back up to Schenectady this morning to get another fuel truck. We could have driven up, but this was quicker. The drive back started out pretty quiet, and boring.

  I never had that much chance to talk with Mark, I knew him, but I really did not know him, if you follow. When you are on a four hour drive, with no radio, well, you talk. I told him about some of my past, my dad, and his being away on business all the time, and how I became an Emo Kid.

  He told me about how his dad had died when he was 14, and that he had a struggle with that. But with time he did get over it, or as he said, as much as you can get over it. It leaves a hole in your life. His Mom (Teckla) was great, and Frank had been there for him, but still, it was hard.