It is not a day in which we really worried about invasion of the Zoms, or for that matter anyone.
I am bored, so while Asuna is doing a little reading I am going to do some writing beyond the normal daily entries. I should catch up on who is with whom and what the group dynamic is. I have actually noticed a little polarizing within it.
Obviously Asuna and I are a bonded pair, as are the newlyweds, Fred and Jan. Nick and Grace are also bonded, and on one hand it is amazing because they spend almost 24/7 together. Teckla and Frank are together, (this is almost sounding like the old Bible thing of So and So begat So, and they begat That and so on), as are Charlene and the Major / Doc. Mark and Michelle are together, and so are Tanya and Matt. Margo and Cody (should I call them Mardy or Cogo?) as well as Lance and Delany are bonded.
Then there is the ‘kinda sorta’ category which I will define as together a lot, but not living in the same cabin. Ethan and Chelsea, and also Stephen and Heather lead this group and really at this point I am surprised that formal bonds have not taken place, particularly with Heather and Stephen. Also in the group of ‘sortas’ is Taylor and Joseph.
That leaves Ron, Henry and Cyril as unattached. Cyril, well he is still bonded to Arcelia and they will reunite soon enough. And Henry he has his memories of “The Missus” and is good with that. Ron is the one I kind of feel bad for. He by luck of the draw is just screwed, or should I say not screwed.
Anyway, that is the romantic or hooked up dynamic of the group.
One of the things that I have noticed is that there is an undercurrent in the group that is pulling two ways. There is a religious side that moves toward the Matt and Tanya, and then there is a more militant fringe that wants a more structured existence and that seems to be led by Ron. The majority of our group seems to be in the middle, but there are those factions. It is not a conflict or problem, just something that I have observed.
Dec 8th
It is still cold, and we are still spending most of our time huddling together in the dining hall. It has gotten to the point where Nick and Grace just put out a big pot of soup or stew at about 10 in the morning and that is the meal du jour. It is actually pretty good doing this because it is saving on food in a number of ways and also effort on their part.
The Huntresses took a little time to go out and try to track some game for meals but it seems that the animals are of the same mind set as we are, hunker down and keep warm.
It clouded up in the afternoon and it looks like we may see another storm come in. If it is anything like the last one, we will have to get out and start clearing roofs.
It started to snow just before sunset.
Dec 9th
Yep, we got another foot of snow, which brings us up to about 2 ½ feet. We will be clearing roofs this afternoon. The skies have cleared
Cyril is at his usual spot in front of the woodstove.
Frank and Matt have gotten the walks and driveway areas cleared and the trucks and cars are all cleared and ready to go if we need them.
Cody and Margo took the snowmobiles out to see if they could find some game. Again, not much luck.
Dec 10th
Beautiful sunny morning and the temperatures are up from the “Real friggin’ cold” to the just plain old cold (20s - 30s).
Delaney and Margo brought back a couple of turkeys, so we may be seeing a real full meal in the next day or so.
“Hey, Asuna, when was the last time you built a snowman?” I asked.
“Ah, never!”
“Then come on, let’s make one.”
As we worked on rolling of the first big snowball, others began to come out and at first watch what we were doing, and then started on making Snowmen of their own. And of course that eventually led to the snowball fight. We were kids again, it felt good.
Lunch/Dinner pot was chili.
Dec 11th
In the middle of the night it seemed like there were lights, soft lights on outside. I looked out the window and it was a display of the Aurora (Northern Lights) that was the likes I had never seen. I woke Asuna and we actually got dressed warmly and sat outside and watched for a couple of hours.
Not only did we have the aurora going on but there were also a number of meteors that were seen. I think we were in one of the meteor shower times like the Leonid or one of them. It was just beautiful.
We saw that slow moving UFO off in the west again. I wish I knew what it was.
The day was pretty normal and it seemed to get a little warmer.
Lance discovered that there was a lot of “skip” or static on the radio. I think it was due to the solar events that were causing the Aurora. The background radiation is known to do that. It was mostly static, but every now and again we would get some signal, from somewhere. They were just snippets.
“ ….463 on a radio test, anyone out there?”, or something in French, or Spanish.
Asuna translated one that was in Japanese, it was a ‘mayday’ from a Japanese ship, the Kyoto Maru, but it seemed to be an automatic loop giving its position.
There was one that was creepy and Asuna kind of froze when she heard it.
“What is it?” I asked her.
“I don’t know, I have heard that before, but I don’t know where, or when.”
“Is it just noise or maybe some code?”
“I DON’T KNOW! But it is….there’s something, I…..”
It was just a series of clicks and kind of clucks. It kind of reminded me of some African language that I had heard from the TV.
I let it drop, but clearly she was freaked out by whatever it was.
After lunch everything was mostly back to normal with her but I could tell that there was something, something that was haunting her.
Not much else happened today
Dec 12th
Another night of the Aurora and shooting stars, no UFO’s.
This winter thing is going to be more difficult than I thought. We will be able to eat, and keep warm, but the boredom holds some very interesting prospects. I am thinking that the first chance we get, assuming the weather allows it, is to make a scavenging run for more books, games and puzzles.
It was clear again today and about 30 degrees I am guessing.
Ethan and Chelsea had a little fight last night, I am not sure what the shouting was about, but it calmed down and all seems back to normal.
Dec 13th
It is cloudy today, and feels like it is in the 40s. We still have a fair amount of snow, but it seems to be receding just a little. A few days of this and I think we can run into town and raid the bookstores.
Asuna and I checked in with Lance to see if he has been getting anymore weird signals or for that matter any signals on the radio. He is still getting the skip which has become his new keep busy project. He is taking what transmissions he is receiving and trying to pinpoint their place of origin.
What he’s doing is to record the messages and then play them back and can analyze it for content, such as accent or language, the message wording itself, or any other bit of information. One of the big things he listens for is if it is a repeating loop or a live single transmission. Most of what he has found has been loops.
“Listen to this one!” he said with a level of excitement.
“This is Las Cruces base, we see you, we see you, if you can hear us, please respond, Light in sky, please respond.”
“That is it?” I asked.
“Yeah, and it is a lot. We know it is not a loop, and we know there are at least some people living in the Las Cruces area of I am guessing New Mexico.”
“OK”, it was clear I was not getting the full impact of this. We knew that there were other colonies out there.
“The Light in the Sky, it has to be some form of aircraft. They are trying to contact an aircraft. They have to be seeing the same thing we have been, that light is the sky on the low horizon,” explained Lance.
“But you haven’t heard a response?”
“Nope.”
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Asuna piped in, “What about the clicks, have you heard any more of them?”
“No, not since that one we all heard the other day.”
As we walked back toward our cabin, I asked Asuna about the clicks again.
“I don’t know, I just think I heard them before, it was bad. It is like something is in my mind, but I can’t reach it.”
She seemed to be doing better with it and not as freaked out as the other day, but you could tell she was running it through her mind.
Chili, deer chili is in the cook pot today, with some of the cheese we brought back from our trip up north.
Dec 14th
It was another fairly warm day and the snow has melted a little. Asuna and I have decided that taking the snowmobiles into town to collect some books and items to keep us busy on the days we would be stuck inside was a good idea.
We have been remiss in running or sword work or for that matter just about any outdoor exercise.
The trip to Hinsdale was pretty quiet going out and we loaded up about 100 or so assorted paperbacks ranging from romance novels to science books. On our way back we took a little different route and found that there was a set of cross country ski tracks. The tracks were very close to the city and seemed like they were making their way around rather than through. It looked like they were headed west based on the way the pole marks were but I was not able to determine the number of skiers, but it looked like there was more than one. We are not alone.
I am not really too concerned about a few cross country skiers in itself, but again, there could be another ‘Tribe’ nearby. We could have just a few like with Ken and his group, or they could be scouts from a larger band. We will let The Three know and see what they want to do. I am not much in favor of going looking for them.
When we got back, we filled Henry and Teckla in on what we found. They saw no need to panic about it, but it would be discussed at the morning briefing tomorrow.
The Three meet every other day to keep a handle on what is going on and what problems the community might be facing. Usually it is simply a hash and dash discussion because at this point there are no major crises that need attention. It is typically how is our fuel / food / radiation levels / anyone sick / any other problem? Good, see you day after tomorrow.
Dec 15th
After they did the Sunday Service, Matt and Tanya started building a Nativity out by the flag pole; I think that it kind of kicked everyone because it brought back memories of life before The Event. For me the burning Christmas presents and the tales of the Tumpta-guber came to mind.
“Good ole Tumpta” I said aloud.
“What? Tumpta? What is that?” asked Asuna.
“Well it is bit of the family lore. Each Christmas Eve Santa Claus would make his appearance at the family gathering to distribute gifts. Tumpta (actually Tomte in Swedish lore) was gnome like entity that was related to Christmas. The real Tomte had a dark side in which he was easily offended and would do mischievous pranks on the villagers.”
“Ok….?”
“See, in our family the grandparents or elderly aunts and uncles would refer to Santa as Tumpta Guber. It was one of them who would dress up as Santa/Tomte and actually arrive at the door to give out the gifts on Christmas Eve. Tumpta would force songs or poems from the younger children if they wanted their gifts, which was often uncomfortable or embarrassing. And as he was getting ready to leave at the end of the gifting he would terrorize the smaller children by trying to get them to go with him to the North Pole. “
“Sounds kind of mean,” said Asuna.
“Well, as we grew older we realized who the Santa/Tumpta was and it was no longer scary but became a game to figure out who was playing the role. The best explanation I ever got as to why the Tumpta acted as he was in our world was that it helped to keep the identity of whomever was playing the part more secret because we (the youngsters) were all too terrified to get so close to try to figure it out. Of course once Tomte left, and the opening of gifts began, well, all was forgotten until the next year.”
“Did you have any memories like that as a little girl?” I asked Asuna.
“No, not really, I lived with my Grandmother, my folks were dead, and she was not a Christian, so we did not really have a Christmas.”
“Oh,” I said quietly.
“It is okay, I am good with the Holiday, and can we have a tree in our cabin?” She said cheerfully.
“Of Course!” I smiled.
I cannot speak for any of the others as to what they thought of about the holiday but in our cabin it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
Dec 16th
Asuna had a very restless night and was going to sleep in a little bit so I headed over for breakfast. After eating, Frank and I were off to a tree farm that we had passed on one of our many trips into Hinsdale. We took the plow truck because of the large dump truck bed.
Before we left we took orders for Christmas trees from the rest of the group. We had orders to pick up nine trees. Unfortunately we do not have much in the way of lights or decorations, so it will be interesting to see what decorating is actually accomplished.
We were back by about 10:30 and spread the trees around. I dragged the one I picked back to the cabin and after a little trimming and adjusting got it set in the corner. If nothing else, the pine smell was a nice change.
Asuna had just gotten up and seemed to be okay, but she was clearly troubled by something.
“Tough night sleeping last night, feeling better?” I asked.
“Yes, I’m okay, it was just weird dreams, nightmares actually, monsters, little monsters chasing me.”
“Hmmm,” but in the back of my mind it seemed odd that this all started with the clicks and radio noises. “I’m glad, anything I can do?”
“No, not really, just be you.”
I still sometimes feel guilty that Asuna and I are together, and that we have what we have. I feel sometimes that I have let Anne down but I think that may be normal for any widower who finds themselves in a new relationship.
In the afternoon we took a walk out around the lake to see if we could find pinecones or things we could use to decorate out tree. It looked like we were not the only ones who tried that because we found tracks out there.
Nick and Grace decided that for a little break they would get away from the community cookpot / big pot of soup meal plan and put together a nice real dinner. They boiled up some corn on the cob, and used some of the smoked deer and turkey meat. It was a welcome change.
After dinner most of us hung out in the dining hall and did games and things. We also talked about Christmases past. We told stories about things like Pet Rocks, Nine Flags Cologne, and other memorable gifts we had received in the years gone by.
The gathering broke up around 11:00 pm and we headed to our cabins. I held Asuna close for a little while hoping I would give her protection from the dreams.
Dec 17th
Big news this morning over breakfast, it appears that Heather and Steven are going to have a baby. This is both wonderful and frightening news. It is wonderful because we are moving forward; it is the start of returning to normal. But the question is what we are going to get. How has the illness or the radiation impacted the genetics?
That news has started a lot of buzz in the group. I am certain that it is something that was talked about by many of the bonded pairs that are of child bearing age.
“Let’s see how the first one comes out” was what Asuna said, I hadn’t even raised the question.
Dec 18th
Another night of bad dreams and restless sleep for Asuna, she mumbled, almost childlike “No, No,”, “Leave me alone”, “Grammie, Help!”.
She did not recall any of it in the morning.
It was nice enough so we could do a walk in the morning and figured a few more pinecone decorations for the Christmas tree would be nice, it gave us a destination. As we walked, we found that there was a gut pile (looked like deer) about a mi
le or so from the camp but the tracks lead away from our camp, and there were ski marks. The other group was in the area, and had not just continued west.
“What do you think we should do?” asked Henry when we brought back the information to The Three.
“Well, I think they have to have figured out that we or someone is in the area. But we have not found tracks that come close to the camp, so they mightn’t really know the exact location or the logistics of our camp.” offered Asuna.
The Event Trilogy (Book 1): Life After the Meteor Page 42