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

by Larson, Thomas

  The military had gone about cleansing the cities early on in the days after the infection started. They had detonated nuclear devices in many cities after they had given the warning of what was going to happen. But what I did not know, and found out in an ugly way, was that there were small communities that were wiped out with gunfire and air attacks.

  It was not in some cases a simple flash, boom and gone as in the cases of the nukes, but rather a protracted cleansing, in some cases, house to house extermination. I would like to think that the military on the top levels had not intentionally gone into exterminate mode, but then based upon the recent messages that Lance and Ethan picked up, and remembering the “roadblocks” on the highways I was not so sure.

  She told me about the operations that her unit had carried out in the Albany area. It was ugly, and really sickening. When we first met, she had only told me part of the story. The part about the going to the infirmary was true, and her commander being wounded, that was true also. But what she had not told me was that they, the unit that had been hunkered down in the bunker, had been tasked with cleansing the area around the Arsenal.

  What that meant that they were to neutralize the undead that were walking around the area. At first they had a pretty easy time just mowing them down. There were casualties on the part of the soldiers where a squad might get over run, or a couple of undead would get to do a bite or two.

  But there was another side of it. There were still living people in the city. Some were infected (bitten and slowing dying), and in some cases they were not. Initially, they saw the military as their savior, those living folks were brought to what they believed were refugee areas. They were checked for marks or bites to try to determine who was infected and who was “healthy”.

  The bitten or infected were cared for at first, but over time as medical supplies and personnel became more limited they were just taken out the back of the camps and terminated. As the time moved on, the civilians were not even brought to camp, or even checked to see if they were infected or not. It was just summary execution right on the street or in their homes or hidey-holes.

  Over time those who had not yet been “rescued” by the army realized what was going on and began to avoid and even battle with the army. There were snipers and small bands roaming the cities engaging the soldiers. The exchange was pretty even, one for one, a body for a body, pretty sad. The reason she did not want to go scouting the area around the Arsenal was she knew what was there, where the bodies were. She did not want to have us know the horrors that took place nor did she want to revisit the ghosts of those events.

  By the time I had arrived at the area, the “cleansing” was over. It had been the last stand by the army that I saw around the Arsenal. The commander of the base had been wounded and brought into the infirmary by Asuna and a few of her fellow soldiers. From there the rest of the story was true, he became infected and undead. Those who had retreated into the building were quickly overcome and she was the last one left.

  I dressed quickly, I had two things I had to do. The first was to find Asuna and then I needed to have a chat with the Major. I had a little change in the perspective of the events of Hinsdale, and suddenly I was less trusting of him.

  I found Asuna out by the Coyote, she was taking her items out of the truck and starting to load them into one of the extra vehicles that we had. She was still pretty upset, “Go away, and leave me alone!” Tears were streaming from her eyes.

  “No, I can’t do that”.

  The light went on, I had become attached, no, in love with this person, this hard on the outside very human on the inside person was connected to me and I could not let her walk out of my life or let her go out into where ever just to die.

  We sat in my truck and talked. She had a lot of guilt for what had happened back there in the Albany area. She really had no choice; it was either follow orders or be executed as a deserter/insubordinate. If she wanted to live, she had to play the game, but the cost of that game was heavy on her.

  I did my best to help, finally getting her to understand that what she had done was necessary for her survival, and was able to make her at least on the surface agree that her actions here, with us were part of her atonement for the events that had already taken place. I am not so naïve to believe that she just switched all the pain and guilt off and clear it from her mind but it was a start. She would stay, and we would work on it, together.

  My next stop was to see the Major. I could understand the façade that Asuna had put up, but I was having a big problem with the Major and what he had done. I know he was not in charge at Hinsdale, and as I walked toward his office I ran it through my mind.

  Really how different was his situation that what had been going on with Asuna, it was sort of go with the program or die. He had tried or at least told us he had tried to set things right as much as he could. I guess the part that I had the problem with was the parts of the story that had not been told to us.

  When we sat down I coldly said, “I am half tempted to shoot you for all the lies and all the deaths that have occurred.”

  He bowed his head, “I wouldn’t blame you.”

  But then in talking with him I had some other thoughts. Perhaps it was the forgiving side or perhaps it was just a good dose of reality. In my mind the question became what would I have done if I were in the same situation.

  The Major explained that things in Hinsdale were similar to the area around the Arsenal. But they had been moved in and were following their orders much earlier in The Event. They were truly acting as helpers and trying to rescue who they could. Unlike Arsenal they were able to let the infected live it out to their end. They had not run into the protracted frustration and shortage of supplies.

  “Although I wished that I had the courage to release those suffering much earlier through humane means like an addition to their IVs, but we did not have that option and when the sick died they were quickly taken to the quarantine area and the bodies were burned.”

  He claimed that no healthy person was ever executed by them, or at least that he knew of. He was not so sure about what the Colonel was allowing.

  “It was part of the issue that had caused me to be imprisoned.”

  After he was imprisoned, and when he was able to escape and join the townies, was when he realized that the rules had changed as far as the means of dealing with the dead, almost dead and sadly the living.

  We talked a little longer and decided that it was probably something that we needed to bring up to the rest of the camp. We did not need to get too much into the details or the recent past, but we would need to make the rest of the clan see the military as it is now and very likely not to be trusted or on our side.

  Oct 24th

  After the morning run and the flag pole work out group, I hooked up with Lance and Ethan. I was thinking about something and was just curious if they had thought of it also. As I started to talk to them, I noticed that the Sat Comm was off, powered down off. I asked them about it.

  “We shut it down intentionally,” Lance told me.

  It was their thought that there was some form of tracking chip or link chip that connected with the other parts of the communications system. It would have allowed for a form of locator to show where the device was located and if it was active. In other words in this case a “Here we are, come get us or kill us all” signal. It was time for a pow-wow with The Three and we needed Asuna and the Major to be there.

  Overall the meeting went fairly well. Lance explained that the device could have and most likely did have a tracking unit. The Major was pretty much in agreement with this. He confirmed that his original unit had a lesser type device being sub-division of the Fort Drum / Arsenal Command. He knew that the Colonel had destroyed the Comm-link when it became apparent that Fort Drum had been over run and those who escaped might run his location.

  The reason that it was important to discuss this was the messages for cleansing that were coming out of Cheyenne Mountain.
It was possible that there would be military units, or aircraft or drones on their way to cleanse us.

  It seemed unlikely, even remote because Lance and Ethan had not heard any communications on the line from anywhere east of the Mississippi. The other thing about the message coming out of Cheyenne was that it was a repeating automated loop. For all we knew there was no-one left in command, or even alive in that facility.

  The Three asked for recommendations from us all and what was suggested was that we get rid of the device. We should probably move it back to Arsenal for the time being and let it sit there. It would be left off line. The thought was that if there was a tracking device inside it would still be active, like a “come find me” homing device. By moving it back to Arsenal it would be still available to us if we should choose to monitor it. But it would also be far enough away from our camp that it would make us less likely a target or accidental find.

  The idea was accepted and Stephen and I were going to fly in to return it. We were going to take a couple of volunteers to go with us and just set it back into place in the Comm-room. We did not even have to take it outside the room for volunteers, Lance and the Major both upped for the trip. It actually made sense because it would give each of them the chance to see what was in there that we might have missed as valuable.

  After a little more discussion, it was decided that instead of flying in we would take the Coyote. That would save fuel and give us additional room to remove items if we found some things that we needed or wanted. It would also save us fuel for the Helo and leave it available if we needed to get a rescue mission going. That meant that Steven was out and there was an open seat. I knew who I wanted in that seat, but was not certain she would want to come along. We set a time for the next morning and I went to find another “volunteer”. When I got to the “Girls Dorm”, I found that she was there. I did not have to twist her arm.

  Margo, Delaney and Cody came back with a big buck today. They had gone out a little further into the hills around the camp and had some success. It was cut up, and Nick and Grace went to work on it. They had venison sausage in the making, and a number of various cuts of meat made from it. The kill was placed into the smoker.

  Mark and Michelle had taken a ride to the east to just look around and see if they could find anything interesting. They stayed out until after dark with the idea that perhaps they could or would see some lights. They did not see anything. It is good that we get scouting parties out. Ron and Steven took a trek to the south down by Rhinebeck, they also said that they had seen nothing unusual.

  Oct 25th

  We had a couple of Zoms on the wire last night, it seems to be holding up well. If we were ever faced with a group of maybe 20, it would be a scramble because it is likely that they could break through before we were fully ready to deal with them. But so far the largest pod we have seen has been 9.

  The weather has definitely taken a move toward what one would expect for this time of year. It was in the 20s this morning. I hate the friggin’ cold, but once we got moving on the morning run it was not too bad. We killed sword drills this morning and were suited up and ready to roll by 9:30 to return the Sat-Comm. The plan was to drive out, about an hour, return the device and have the Major look around, and then drive back. We wanted to be back by two o’clock at the latest.

  We piled into the Coyote and off we went. I drove, and Asuna was shotgun. We had Lance and the Major in the backseat. On the trip out the Major and Asuna talked a little more about the way things went down in the real world after the events. A door had been opened and the chance to let some light and fresh air into the once dark rooms of their guilt. It was good for them.

  Much of the information was a re-hash, but it was interesting to hear about the differences between the two operations (Hinsdale and Arsenal) as well as the events of each time line. It did not leave me with a real good taste or trust of the military and for that matter humanity outside of our little group.

  In the case of the Hinsdale Command it sounded like it really did start out as a humane effort to save as many people as they could and that may have been a result of being a medical unit but somewhere along the lines things began to break down. I think that much of that was the result of the manner in which the Colonel and the Town Fathers got or should I say did not get along. I am also certain that in his way Brother Gabriel had a great influence on the outcome.

  The Arsenal command was regular army / National Guard composite that had been assembled for who they could find. It was not a cohesive unit like the Major’s unit and was not prepared for what followed. They had spent time underground and were out of touch with what was really happening on the surface so when they did come out they were totally lost.

  Over time the infighting of the various units, and the poor leadership just turned the area into a blood bath with little or no consideration for those who were healthy, and could have survived. The military at the Arsenal for the most part just turned into an ugly murdering mob with a lot of firepower.

  Initially even with the issues Asuna’s unit seemed to follow the original program and maintained the true mission as well as order among themselves, but as time went on and the impossibility of the situation became more and more apparent they also began to fall apart. They were sucked into the maelstrom that had been created by other units.

  Lance and I just listened, but in the final analysis we both determined and were convinced that no matter how much it might sound like the military had to offer, if we ran across them it was not in our best interest to play with them.

  We arrived and returned the device. The Major looked around and had us grab a few things; we were out of the complex and on our way back to the camp. While driving back, we did get into a little thinking session as to the up-coming winter, and what to expect. We also talked about the radiation issues. The Major told us that one of the things that he had taken in the scavenging at the Arsenal was potassium iodide pills. They would help with the radiation issue, but it was a limited supply and had to be rationed out very carefully.

  When we got back, the camp was pretty much business as normal but I noticed that there were some markers around the flagpole area. I was not sure what it meant, but figured I would find out soon enough.

  Dinner tonight was fresh deer steaks with corn on the cob. The corn was a little on the dry side, but it worked.

  After dinner Asuna came over for a while. We talked and then just sat by the wood stove.

  Oct 26th

  It was a crisp, no make that a cold morning for the run. But we got it done, and then off to a little sword practice at the flag pole. When we got there, Matt and Tanya were already there and they were marking the ground. It appears that they have a construction project in mind.

  I interrupted their efforts and asked. “What ya making?”

  They had sold the idea to The Three that a kind of hall would be a good idea for the group. It would allow for a place we could all hang out, and it would serve as a base for Sunday services.

  I thought it a kind of waste of time because we already had the recreation hall as well as the dining hall that would or could serve both functions. Besides we also were probably going to move come springtime, it seemed to be a lot of work for not much return, but I kept that to myself.

  A concern that comes to my mind is that we originally had two very effective snipers who were very good with the 50 Cal sniper rifles. I still had a lot of confidence in Margo but I am not so sure about Matt with his moving more and more toward a religious angle. I think that The Three needs to look into this and insure that he is still on board with that mission. Actually, we should probably get a few more people trained with those weapons systems just in case.

  I met up with the Major, Asuna and the Geek Boys (Lance and Ethan) to talk about the military. Specifically we were trying to make a threat assessment regarding them. In the course of the discussion we were able to determine that there were not any bases left in the northeast that were still
operational. The only chatter on the Sat–Comm had come from Cheyenne Mountain and that seemed to be a recorded loop. But that did not mean there were not small units still out an about. That aspect was probably even more frightening because those groups would be well armed and probably poorly controlled.

  The afternoon was pretty decent but as the day was ending it was getting cloudy, and cold. I smell snow. I know it may sound silly but there is just something in the air that tells you it is coming, a smell, a feel, I cannot exactly explain it, but you just know.

  Oct 27th

  Yup, I was right; we got the first snow of the season last night. It was only a couple of inches and really has little impact on the way we do business. But it was the kind of wet sticky snow that sticks to the branches. It made the landscape beautiful. I remembered when I was a kid my Granma Ve would get these “Ideal Magazine” picture books. The snow reminded me of them, and her.

  The Three has come to the conclusion that it would be wise to make certain that we all had levels of weapon proficiency. This was more in the line of firearms training for those who do not regularly use them. Asuna and I have been blessed with this task to make certain that everyone was familiar with the M-16s and basic handgun skills. Nick and Mark will be giving instruction on edged and impact weapons. I think that for the most part everyone has the basics down so this would just be a little confidence builder.