The Event Trilogy (Book 1): Life After the Meteor

by Larson, Thomas

  “Assholes, I knew they would get bit sooner or later, we kind of figured that was what happened.”

  There was not ranting or ravings of revenge, just a quiet somber acknowledgement. The question became what was going to happen next and that was one that neither Teckla nor Marisa felt was one that should be decided at this time. They idea of communicating in the next day or so when things had settled in was floated and agreed to.

  When she got off the radio, Teckla, Anne and Henry went into conference. Matt and I were soon called in and Charlene and the Major also joined when they had driven down from Hinsdale. It was a “what to do conference”. The idea was pretty simple.

  “We figure that they will send out scouts and try to determine what if, anything they could do to us,” offered Teckla. “If they felt they can attack, or just make our situation miserable that’s what they may try.”

  The consensus was that we should do the same and find out what we were facing. Once done we could gauge what our actions should or could be.

  July 23rd

  We had another severe thunderstorm last night. There was no real damage, but it was a bad one. This morning the humidity was way up there so you just dripped. We will probably see some more storms in the course of the day.

  We did not hear from Marisa or the Biker camp today. My feeling is that they are looking for us. If the pictures that we found were accurate then there are at most a dozen remaining members and the majority of them were women and with modern weapons and equipment that makes them just as deadly as any group of men.

  I have tried to consider what I would do in this case. Unfortunately I add a relationship factor or what the vengeance factor into my equation. If I were going to go after Hinsdale, I would look at options like starting a big fire or do something to the water supply. Both of these options would require a little recon work to determine where the damage would most impact the city. I would get a sniper into place to pretty much restrict any movements.

  Our best response is to make the move out of town as quickly and covertly as possible. We will end up a few miles south of the outskirts and that will make us safe for a little while.

  I met up with Ron, Matt and Margo about 10 AM and we discussed what we thought might be the course of action for the biker group, and also what steps we could offer in response. Ron pointed out that we had a general idea where they were and could literally rain fire down on them using the planes to fire bomb their camp.

  This could be risky on two levels, first was the obvious ground fire. It would be a step that would pretty much turn this into all-out war. I do not think we wanted to get to that point considering that humanity was hanging on by a thread but fire-bombing would certainly send a message.

  It also led to a discussion of the security of our aircraft. The biker camp had maps so they had to know where the local airfields were. It would just be a matter of time before they would or could get to our field and destroy or sabotage our planes. We decided that they would need to be moved and we would have to find another place close by the camp to keep them.

  One of the things about the area of Camp Romaca is that there is a park with athletic fields as well as a nice straight road on the other side of the reservoir. Air traffic could work out of either of those places, although we would have to trim a few trees on the roadway. The maintenance garage for the athletic field equipment (mowers, etc.) would have a decent shop to do routine maintenance on the planes.

  We had all agreed that moving the time table up for getting out of Hinsdale was a good idea. But we also want to make it look like we are still in Hinsdale by leaving lights on, and having a few generators running.

  We as a group went to The Three and explained our plan and thoughts behind it. It was met with a positive agreement and contact was made with Charlene and the Major. We met with them that afternoon and the plan was approved. Moving day begins tomorrow. Most of us spent the evening deciding what to take and leave. We wanted to be out of Peru by noon.

  July 24th

  I was packed and ready to go by 8:30 AM. It may be the last hot shower I get for a while and that prospect does not thrill me, but then it is the end of the world. Margo was also ready to go. Anne and the folks, it was just like the old days when we would go on vacation. I will concede on this one occasion that Anne had justification for taking a little longer than usual because she had a lot of her research data and equipment to take care of. Her folks, well, it has been like 60 years that they have been doing their “vacation” packing and at this point you are not going to change them.

  Anne realized that over the last couple of weeks we had been so busy with the events of the attack that we had not gotten out to Garnet Lake area to look at our test Zoms. After a look at the map we decided that it would only be a little detour for her and me to check them out and still make Camp Romaca by noon. Margo had taken over the KIA so they were going to follow us and bring Anne’s folks with them. We were on the road by 10 AM.

  When we got to the lake, we looked for the test subjects. Between decay and scavenging animals there was little left of the one female who had fallen and was on the ground. We saw the female and male who had remained active in our last visit. They still were moving around when stimulated, but were also very much decayed. Their arms were mostly bones and dangling sinew. They were very thin and dried.

  The children are still a puzzle; they seemed to be holding together very well. The rate of decay was much slower than the adults. As we would not be back to survey them again, we helped them escape the disease and rest. After we took the shots to put them down we got out of the area as quickly as possible to avoid any response from other Zoms close by. Anne wanted to burn the entire site but we figured that it was a bad idea to send smoke signals to the living.

  We pulled into the camp around noon time. We had been assigned to cabin #2, a two bedroom cabin and that is a good thing. Although I am sure that sooner or later Margo will want to get a cabin of her own, or share one with someone. But at 14 years old I think we are going to dodge that bullet for a little while.

  We unpacked and got our stuff in order. That took most of the day. Anne also got a little office area in one of the main buildings for her research materials. Ethan gave her a hand, he had been the environmental science major and had more or less become her assistant in her research. It is next to an office that Lance will use to set up his surveillance and computer operations.

  By the time we were done getting squared away it was about dinner time and although we all were on the hungry side the best Chez Nick could come up with was corn on the cob and grilled spam. It will take time.

  Frank and Matt focused on getting the power going with the generators while Joseph and Armand got the water pumps on line. Everyone else was either working on security measures or unloading the foods and miscellaneous equipment that we had brought along. And although miscellaneous sounds like it was just a few items, it was a lot of stuff that included tools, weapons, fencing gear, fuels, medical supplies, and so on.

  By 9 PM it was getting too dark to work so we all sat down and talked about the plans for tomorrow. We needed to really focus on a couple of things. The first was the installation of a secure fence around the open perimeter. The other thing was that we would need to clear out that roadway area and get the landing area secure so that we can move our airplanes close by. We wanted to have that done by tomorrow evening.

  Let me just say, as I crawled in my bunk, real sheets, a real mattress, a little lumpy, but this was nice.

  July 25th

  We jumped on getting those tasks we talked about yesterday taken care of. It was a lot more work than we had initially considered. Half of the group went to the road to clear for the aircraft so we could get them moved. They got the trees cut and moved. The wood was stacked for burning in the cold time. Yes, it could be a problem burning wood because it will send up a smoke signal but it will be better than freezing. In thinking about it we should actually start harvestin
g some trees just for that reason. Anyway, by the time they got it all done it was too late in the day to move the planes in, so that was now a first thing in the morning task.

  Henry and a bunch of us went to take care of the fencing around the compound. That was a little more challenging. We only completed about fifty percent of the task. It was hard work considering we really did not have to clear much. The ground is very rocky so getting the fence posts in is a challenge but we should be done with it all by tomorrow evening.

  July 26th

  The planes are here, and camouflaged. We also have moved a tanker of aviation fuel up but it is not too close to the planes for fire reasons. The fence is done. We are all pretty beat.

  July 27th

  Lance and Cody have gotten the computers and surveillance gear back up. Frank and Matt have the generators working. Henry and the Major have the water filtration system working. The perishables are all in refrigeration now. We had left them for a day or so in Peru and Hinsdale until we could get power and freezers going. The rabbit pens have been relocated to our location. Overall we are in good shape. Peru compound has been powered down and made to look abandoned should the bikers find it.

  Cyril had a really good idea. He suggested that we put some graffiti on the walls in Peru saying that the area was hostile and that we had moved west. This could get our friends from the biker gang to go that way, or at least believe we are out of the area. It may not work forever, but it is a thought.

  One other thing we instituted was the idea of black out time. From dark to dawn we needed to be very careful about lights. A flashlight while walking about in the dark was one thing but we would not or should not light the place up. Kind of like in WWII we set up blackout curtains on the buildings as well as did not use the overhead flood lighting unless the shit hit the fan.

  I guess there has been a little turmoil in the Nick/Lauren/Jan cabin. It seems that Jan and Fred are thinking that they should get their own cabin. Lauren is not doing well with that on a couple of different levels. I wonder how long before we are faced with the same issues with Margo.

  July 28th

  We have not heard from the remains of the Biker group yet and it may have to do with the location change that we made, or it could be that they have gone into radio silence mode. In either case we decided that a small group of us would run up toward Hinsdale and locate on a hill to the east of town. We would then try to make contact with Marisa. Our group included Teckla, Matt, Ethan, Fred and Jan. I am not sure that Jan is combat ready, but she was not getting very far away from Fred. It is probably a good idea for her to get a little front line experience.

  They left for Hinsdale about 9:30 and were on site by 10:00. We monitored the radios from the camp to hear if they made contact as well as if the thing went south. We had a reserve/rescue force in place ready to go. Teckla sent the first message to the bikers shortly after 10:00. Contact was made and Teckla and Marisa began to talk.

  First there were questions from Marisa about the events of the attack. Teckla did not go into much detail other than the biker group rolled into town and began to pillage and shoot the place up. The Hinsdale folks responded the best they could but were pretty much beaten down. The biker group figured out that there was another colony to the Northeast and decided that they would raid that one too.

  Nice job on Teckla’s part, Peru is actually southeast of Hinsdale it is Dalton that is to the Northeast. She told Marisa that Hinsdale was able to get a brief warning to us and some defense was quickly assembled. The bikers arrived and the townies (our group) tried to reason with them, but it turned to shit and that was that.

  Marisa listened, and asked a few questions. Were there survivors? What happened to the bodies, were they taken care of? It was clear she knew the score and the events were pretty much what they had expected. Then she posed the surprise question; “What shall we do now?”

  This was not as much a surprise to Teckla as we thought. She had considered this and had some clear ideas as to what to say to it. Teckla replied that the question was really more up to Marisa and the remaining members of her group. They had options and it depended on what course they chose.

  If the bikers wanted to stay where they were and we leave each other alone, that was good and workable. If they wanted to settle a score, they could try it but remember if we were able to destroy their fighting/foraging force of tough guys, the eradication of the remainder of the bikers would not be that difficult. Or, and this kind of shocked a number of us, they could consider an integration into our colony as we had integrated with the Hinsdale survivors. That last idea was one that had been discussed by The Three with input from Charlene and the Major.

  On the surface it seemed insane, but as one thought it through it did seem to actually be a reasonable idea as long as the remaining bikers were good about not making this a ploy for vengeance. It made sense that a larger group would be more likely to survive. Our numbers are currently at twenty seven, another ten or twelve is not going to tax our resources greatly. But they all realized that it would be a delicate dance to integrate. There was bad blood and issues that existed on both sides.

  The options and the offer were out on the table a little sooner than was expected and Teckla and Marisa both realized that this was not a simple answer, it would have to be considered by both sides. Teckla suggested that we let it all sink in and that perhaps make another contact in a day or so would be best. She suggested that doing these talks on the radios was risky and perhaps it would be wiser to meet face to face the next time if the options for joining were seriously considered.

  There was a shit storm brewing at home. Ron, and Michelle were furious over the proposal to let them join us, and I can understand their point. They each had suffered severely at the hands of the biker gang. A few of the others who had been shot in the attack also did not like the idea. It would be a hard sell on our side of the agreement.

  Surprisingly it was Matt, not the leaders that seemed to have the most calming impact on the group. He pointed out that we were in a different world now. And that the needs for survival had changed the way that we live. We could just kill them all and be done with it but then were we any better than they were?

  “We are the remaining remnant of the human race and we could start down the slippery slope and become just like the undead with a focus only on killing and destroying the non-us or we could try to hang on to what is noble and good about humanity.”

  His talk seemed to work, because the rage eased turning to grumbling and by the following morning it had turned to grudging acceptance of the idea.

  I am thinking that on a logical level it is a good but potentially dangerous move. We do not yet know their mindset and I cannot see them simply saying “Yup you killed my honey/people/leaders but that is cool, they deserved it. Let’s be friends.” But that is me, and we really do not know the circumstances of their confederation or the relationships that might have existed. Whatever the result, I will be on my toes on this one.

  July 29th

  Nick’s birthday and for six days each year he and I are the same age. We did our usual teasing on this issue

  We got a radio call from Marisa, she has asked if we can have a face to face meeting between her with a few of her people and Teckla and a few of ours. Teckla agreed and the plan is to meet on the northwest side of Hinsdale tomorrow at 10 AM.

  I do not like it. I just have a bad feeling about it. It is nothing that I can explain but just a bad feeling. The Three had already discussed this possibility and felt that the only way to test the minds and hearts of the bikers was to give them this opportunity. They had decided that they would use Teckla, Henry, Lauren and Joseph as their team to do the face to face.

  After the announcement Teckla and I had a long talk about this. I expressed my concerns and that I felt it was not a good thing to meet like this. It left our people too exposed and it also gave the bikers the advantage of being able to set up and ambush on the north side of
town. She agreed that there were risks but that it was really the best way to expedite a resolution to the issue.

  But she said with a smile “I am sure some paranoid type will have contingencies in place to reduce the risks.”

  I met with Matt, the Major and Margo that afternoon. We decided that we would get the sniper teams in place late tonight to get eyes on the area and in locations that would give a good field of fire if needed. We would also have a couple of scout teams on that northwest side of town. We did have the advantage of being on our home turf, but we had the disadvantage of a lot of area to cover. The rules of engagement were simple. Do what you have to do to protect our people.

  July 30th

  Our defense team and scouts were in place with radio silence in play unless the shit hit the fan. We wanted this to look and sound like we were lambs rather than wolves in their pelts. If we could get away without them knowing we were watching, it would help in the trust factor.

  Teckla and the group drove up to the agreed location to meet with Marisa. Marisa had three of her people with her. There was on old biker guy, a black woman in her early 30s and another woman in her 20’s. They did the meet and greet thing and then headed into the firehouse that had been the home of the Hinsdale people. It had been left in a state that gave the appearance of still being occupied. I was not privy to the events inside of the building and much of what I relay here is from the accounts of those inside.