He said, “They left Pittsfield just before the blasts and were headed north. I’m not sure where but I’m going to try and follow. I thought they might have come here, I told them you were here, that’s why I stopped, just in case”.
We had not seen the trooper’s family. Fred said that his group did not recall seeing any out of towners. But they were restricted to only a small part of the camp and there were other areas where people gathered. Fred offered to take the trooper up to the area and show him.
We went inside and sat down. There was much to talk about and I suggested doing it over a coffee. The trooper accepted the offer and we sat down. The Keurig was fired up and a nice cup of hazelnut was placed before the man. I apologized for not having cream.
Trooper laughed and said, “No problem, like my women I take my coffee hot, black and bitter.”
As we sat in our improvised dining area, I think we spent more time asking him questions than the other way around. The first and one on most of our minds was if it had been he who had been checking us out on the mountain to the east. He said that it was him and that was how he knew that we were there. He was not sure if it was us but he knew there was someone living in town. He had called on the radio in hopes of finding out who it was. The idea of just showing up was not one he felt good about. But he was going to have to stop because his fuel situation was not good. He knew where the municipal garages and fuel stations were so he figured he could probably get some gas.
Frank, more or less our de facto vehicle manager said, “I can hook you up”. He jokingly asked, “Do you want an oil change while I am at it?”
The idea was actually not a bad one. It was just a matter of time before such luxuries might be hard to come by.
Teckla asked, “What is happening out there?”
He sat and thought for a moment, “Mostly it is damage control, where damage control can be done. The highway bridge on I-90 had been blown up to prevent the infected from crossing it. You know about the cities.”
We had figured the government felt it was a good idea to compartmentalize the outbreak. Ironically they did not destroy the railroad bridge that ran parallel to it. But then when we thought about it the bridge would still afford passage for the living, and vehicles, but the nature of the structure with the gaps where the railroad ties were would make it difficult or impossible for the Zoms to cross without falling the several hundred feet to the ground.
He told us that some of the police and emergency radios had come back on line and there had been some chatter. But the cell towers and cellular phones were still off, and likely to continue to be off.
“Most of the information I have was by word of mouth as I travelled. I have found some other groups like yours. There is one big colony at Otis Reservoir and a couple of other smaller groups around”, he added.
We asked about the one at Otis.
“It was doing well, but there was some in fighting among the group and the leader. The boss is a guy named Nate. He seemed to be a megalomaniac.
“Was there a guy named Elgin still at Otis?” I asked.
“I met him briefly, and that he seemed to be doing well, but one of the leaders, Harry or Jerry was not real happy with him.”
James said that while he was there a retired Air Force guy had told him a story that he could not verify but the story was that when the order was given to set off the nukes, a satellite trigger was activated. Unfortunately that trigger detonated a W-54 suitcase nuke that had been forgotten about and left in a carrier based helicopter. That carrier, the Ronald Reagan was part of the armada that had left Baltimore with the President and most of the high ranking elected officials. So if that were true, we were leaderless on the large scale, unless you consider the military and even that seemed questionable.
At first there was quiet as this information settled it. As I thought about it, I come to the realization it really did not matter. The government had pretty much abandoned us from the get go so their demise had no impact on us. We were on our own.
We discussed potential threats to our community and I asked the trooper what he felt we could do to make our place more secure. He felt we had done pretty well against the Zoms. But he made a point that as this new world thing continued it would be the humans that were more dangerous than the undead. You could out run the zombies and for a zombie to kill you they had to be real close. The threat for roaming packs of human scavengers could be more dangerous. They could have weapons that had a long kill range.
Captain James, knowing that his family was not with us, wanted to get moving to continue his search, he wanted to try to follow them the best he could, believing that they were headed further north. But it was late in the day.
“Why don’t you stay with us for the night, night driving might be risky.” I suggested. “Stay and get a good night sleep and a decent hot meal before you continue.”
“Okay, you’re right and in trade I will show a couple of you how to use the sniper rifle for the long shot.”
Ron was our first choice to use the thing. I also suggested that Matt and Mark would be good candidates as back up. Besides the “shootists” we would want to have a couple or three people trained as spotters. I asked for volunteers and Cody, Henry and Margo volunteered. I was a little surprised by Margo volunteering. And I was not surprised by Anne who was very much against the idea.
I took Margo aside talked to her about the realities and responsibilities of what she would be taking on.
“You may find yourself in a situation where you are laying in the cold or wet for long periods. You may find that you have to pee, and would have to do it where you are, and lay in it.”
She said, “I need to do my part and really, do you think I will be in that pee situation?”
I was both afraid for her, and proud of her. And in the long term, it would be a good thing for her to know. I felt that she would likely be the last called upon of the three spotters. After talking to Margo, I took Anne aside and explained it to her. She was still not happy about the prospect, but agreed to allow it. Arcelia, Margo’s grandmother was furious with me.
The six of them headed off to a field that Henry knew of to get some practice in. It was different than the one that Margo and I had used earlier. It was further away from our base although in the same direction. We figured it might get any straggler Zoms moving away from us.
The Captain had them take one of the 308 scoped rifle and a 223 scoped rifle to use for that training and initial practice. When proficient with the smaller weapons, each would get a round with the 50 to just get the feel for what it was like to fire the beast. That would leave us with 44 rounds should we need them. What we planned to do was to make three sniper teams. Team One would be the top “shootist” and spotter. Then Team two and Team Three would be made up of the second best, and finally the third best.
The remaining group continued preparation of the garage as living quarters. Frank worked on the trooper’s vehicle making certain that it was ready to run. We put together a couple of teams to scavenge in the houses and stores in the area, I teamed with Teckla and Charlene.
As we were checking out the downtown area, we began to talk about how we were living and what to expect. I tossed out the ideas I had about who was going to be in charge. I explained, “I felt we needed a few basic rules to live by and a formal structure of who runs what.”
I was kind of surprised when they said that they had been having the same thoughts and agreed with the idea. What we came away with was that it would be brought up at the nightly meal to see where it went with the rest of the group.
In our scavenging we recovered three backpacks of canned goods, five boxes of 12 gauge 00 Buckshot shells, a Remington 870 pump action shotgun, an assortment of prescription and non-prescription meds, and some flashlight batteries. We also created an inventory notebook with where we could find some other items that were too bulky to carry or in the “nice to have” category.
As we were picking up t
he canned goods, I saw that on the bottom of a can of Spam the expiration date of Jan 17, 2017. I hoped that we would still have it or be around to enjoy it on that date.
Dinner that night was probably the last time any of us would ever have shrimp. Nick had to use up the five bags of once frozen shrimp before they went bad. He cooked it in a buttery scampi sauce, with no capers, and then poured it over elbow macaroni, one cannot have everything, but it was very tasty. As dinner wound down, Teckla started the discussion that she, Charlene and I had talked about while scavenging. The group was for the most part in favor of the idea. The rules were going to be simple; basically the biblical Ten Commandment model.
There were a couple of twists added that were logical, yet surprising. The first was that the Golden Rule would be applied to non-group members. But if and or when the outsiders defied the ethical code the Golden Rule it changed to the Rule of Survival of the Fittest. The other was the idea of scavenging. It was made clear that scavenging was not stealing or looting. It was a survival rule and such items were considered abandoned property.
Another interesting twist was brought up by Burt. He pointed out, and rightly, that cash was no longer worth anything, but gold, silver and jewels would be. It was something that should be open for ‘harvest’ as we came upon it.
Some felt that the idea of touching the dead to harvest was a sin, or just too gross. But the majority of the group, although they did not like the idea nor would likely harvest, agreed that it was acceptable. Personally, I tended to think in terms of a superstitious nature of a dead man’s gold brings bad luck. But I kept that to myself and would probably avoid collecting it.
The leadership issue was the one that took a little more discussion. There were some who were quite happy with the way things had worked so far and were happy to continue as we currently operated. Some of us have stepped up to roles as needed with no prodding because it was what needed to be done.
I took the floor and said, “While it has been successful so far it does not prepare us for the future. What happens if I go down? I’m the de facto leader and it is a big burden for one person to carry. A system of shared responsibility and easing of the burden by several people is going to be better in the long run.”
Teckla suggested to the group that there be three leaders at the top. There were those who were not in favor, but the consensus was that it made sense and we should move in that direction.
Charlene suggested, “This was not a thing that needed to be decided tonight, but should be thought out. We could have an election tomorrow night if that sounds good, it’ll give us a chance to see who was interested in the roles and who would be good in the roles.”
Nick and Mary-Lou rolled out a desert of some kind of fruit tart. The final order of business was for Trooper James to reveal the results of the target day. Many of us thought that Ron would be the King of the Snipers but it was Matt that was the top gun, then Ron and finally Mark. The spotters got me into much trouble. Margo was the best of the spotters and as a result teamed with Matt. Ron and Henry teamed up and finally it was Cody and Mark. I was very proud of what Margo had accomplished. But I could feel the lasers burning the side of my face from Anne’s and Arcelia’s glares.
After the meal was over and the cleanup was completed I had a chance to talk with Trooper James alone. I asked, “Was Margo the best choice of the number one spotter job?”
He told me, “Her skills were twice that of the other two and she handled the rifle as well if not better than that Mark. She has the best mindset of any of the candidates for either position with the exception of Matt; she can kill if she needs to.”
We talked about just stuff, his family, life as cops, big cases that we had each investigated. I suggested that he stay with the group. But I understood completely his need to find his family. I left it that if he found them, or needed a place, a group, they had a home.
It was almost 11 PM when we finally decided that if he were leaving in the morning it would be wise to get some sleep. I had the night off from the watch so it was going to be a good night. I brushed my teeth and crawled into bed. Both Anne and Margo were asleep.
March 10th
After breakfast Trooper James left. We all wished him well and hoped that he would be successful in his search. I found that he was like many cops I have known, a kind and caring person under a cool and hardened shell that society demanded we wear most of the time.
By 9 AM we were back to our usual routine. Frank and the boys (Matt, Mark, and Henry) were working on getting the vehicles ready and more protected. Anne, Charlene, and Fred were going over some ideas about Zoms and trying to further expand our limited knowledge. We had a couple of scavenger parties out. Lance was doing the video surveillance and the older folks were drinking coffee and talking about who they thought should be the leaders. Of course, in their case, the discussion deteriorated to one that was more based on some great and not so great leaders over the years. Names like Ike, and FDR came up, as did Reagan, and Kennedy.
I was thinking that it might be a good idea to take a run back up toward Camp Danbee, I wanted to see what was happening with the Zoms that were up there, and what they might be doing now.
Ron was available and he was a good choice to go with me because of his familiarity with the camp, and what was going on there just a few days ago. It dawned on me that even though it had only been a few days since the rescue that it seemed like weeks with everything that had been going on.
Ron and I drove the KIA, it was big enough and fast enough to get us there and back while not putting us at any great risk. Frank had completed some modifications on it so if we run into a large horde of the Zoms we would easily be able to bully our way out and be protected at the same time.
As we drove up we talked about the area. Ron had grown up in town so he pretty much knew what the layout was. He had also been there after the shit hit the fan so he knew or had an idea what we might expect.
On the drive up the roads were clear and there was no visible activity off to the woods that we saw. It was still early March so nothing had started growing back yet. It was a particularly warm day and we had the sunroof vent open and the breeze felt good but there was that stench of death in the air.
We arrived at Camp Danbee and to our surprise there were no undead there besides the burned bodies that had been taken down by the fires. We both thought that it was odd. We left the camp and drove around the lake area a little more. As we got to the south side of the lake, we did start to see some Zoms. They seemed to be headed west around the south end of the lake. Of course when they sensed the KIA they stopped and turned toward us. But there had to be a reason why they were headed in that direction. Maybe there was another camp or group of survivors close by. We decided that we would head a little further around the lake to see what we could find.
On the west side of the lake we found that the Zom population was increasing. It seemed like that there was a food source attracting them. But how were the Zoms able to determine or sense this? We drove on a little further and got the answer. Someone on the west side of the lake had set up a stereo system that was playing it loudly, that was the attraction. I cannot say that I was crazy about the choice of music, I was never a big fan of country western.
As we got closer, we could see where the music was coming from, and the small generator that was supplying the electricity. In a circle around the stereo were heaps of the Zoms. In the center of the circle was a single blood splattered individual. He was a big guy, a biker type with bandana and cut off denim jacket. He had a machete in one hand and an ax in the other. He was facing with three or four Zoms while another half dozen or so were closing in on him. He had no chance and by the look of things he had reached the point where he knew his time was up and he was going out with a bang.
In a way you had to kind of admire him as you would a Viking Berserker in the throes of battle lust. Slashing and hacking he fought on, but the numbers and exhaustion were against him. From
where we were there was no way to get to him. Ron was able to get a few shots off through the sunroof, but it was too little, too late. As Ron took down the Zoms right in front and behind him the biker looked over at us, nodded and then smashed another skull. As he swung the ax, it turned him to an angle where we were able to read the rockers on his motorcycle jacket. He was a Devil Rider from CT.
The Zoms were aware of us now because we had been shooting. The noise, our movements and our smell were attracting them. We had to go. As I started to put the KIA in reverse to back out, the first Zom got his bite on the biker. The ax fell from the Biker’s hand. He finished the Zom with his machete, and rushed two more. But they were starting to swarm him now. A nip here, a bite on the leg, it was almost over. The biker knew it. He pulled out a small handgun, and finished himself. He did not want to turn.
I muttered “God Speed Warrior”.
We drove ahead, and circled the lake rather than head back the way we came, it seemed wiser. It would make the trek longer for the Zoms if they were to follow us. I drove hard to reach Route 143 so that it would be a fifty-fifty chance they would turn the right way to find us.
The Event Trilogy (Book 1): Life After the Meteor Page 9