Zomblog 04: Snoe (4 page)

I waited for her to clear inspection. Since she is immune, she doesn’t have to wait for blood tests before being released. As soon as she came out, I had questions. Where did she hear all of the stuff that she knew about the military was the biggest.

She told me that about two years ago, her son Kyle was selected. That was the last time she ever saw him. She has never heard one single word. When she asked the president at the time, Paul Kulgowski, about her son, he said that it was the only way to keep the national militia out of our business.

Apparently Phaedra thought that was as big of a load of garbage then as I do now. Ever since, she switched jobs from the farms and joined the EEF. She says that running into military detachments is rare, but more common than if she was staying inside the walls. She always asks every time she runs into soldiers in hopes that just one of them will know who her son is and if he is still alive.

I asked her if she ever considered leaving Corridor 26 to search for him. She said that, as much as she loves her son, she still has a desire to live, and if he is alive…then this is where he would come back.

When I got home, Mama Lindsay wasn’t here. She left a note saying that she was taking a group of our people that want to be a part of the Corridor 205 reclamation team out to their camp. She won’t be back for at least a week.

Also, an envelope was waiting. My next assignment is in; I will be escorting a party of diplomats all the way out to Timberline City! I will be travelling to Mount Hood along most of the same trail that Meredith took when she and Eric Grayfeather crossed over and went south.

For some reason, I’m more excited than I thought I would be. It isn’t so much about Meredith as it as about the mountain. After seeing it from across the valley, I guess I really want to see it up close.

Wednesday, June 20
^th

So, a couple of the five people we are escorting are some familiar names for people who know my father: Tom Langston (everybody calls him The Mountain and he totally blames my birth father for it!) and Monica Campinelli (formerly Sister Monica).

They are going to meet with the Confederated Tribes. I guess the president is taking the situation with the military seriously. She wants to reach out to the tribes and see if they will allow her to travel to meet their chief.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that we might be going to war. It sure seems like there is suddenly a lot going on.

As for my trip, today was nothing special. We are taking the same route that leads past Willamette Refuge. I didn’t feel like as much of a tourist this time. I actually took out a few walkers on my own with my crossbow.

Oh yeah…it is really sunny out. Not cold, not hot. It is perfect weather for hiking.

I was tempted to talk to Mister Langston or Miss Campinelli at different points today, but I chickened out. For one, Tom is BIG! I know my Sam described him as a big man—a mountain—but until you are up close, you really don’t realize just how huge he is. When he shook my hand, I think my arm disappeared up to the elbow.

As for Miss Campinelli, she is just way too sour looking. Her lips are pressed so tight that you might think she doesn’t have any. Her eyes are blue, but not a pretty blue. They almost look black they are so dark. The other EEFers are calling her “Crabinelli” behind her back. I think that is a bit mean, but it is kinda right.

As I get ready to go to sleep, I just realized that I didn’t even take a look around the old apartment building that we are camping in for the night. It isn’t that there wouldn’t probably be a lot of cool stuff to play with and try to figure out, but I felt a teensy bit more experienced this time. Also, the old timers that we are escorting all seemed to get really sad when we were setting up camp. I guess they miss their former lives.

I refuse to feel guilty when it comes to being excited about my new one!

Friday, June 22
^nd

We are on the unpatrolled section of what was once Highway 26. (One of the older EEFers told me.) This is where Meredith and Eric began their journey through what is now considered the Wild West. (Again, that is what one of my companions told me.)

This evening, we are actually encamped inside the log walls of a big fort. I’ve seen photos, and it really looks like something out of a picture book. Everybody is dressed in animal skins with an assortment of weapons dangling off their belts and from their backs.

I saw some females walking around practically naked! Trust me when I say that a few of them shouldn’t do such things. The whole feel of this place was weird. Also, it smelled really dirty.

There is a river just outside the walls and when we arrived, I bet I saw fifty to sixty kids playing in the water. All of them had knives hanging off their waists…even the really little ones. A tiny girl with hair so blonde that it was almost white in the sun ran up to me as I arrived and asked me if I was the new teacher. She was so cute that I hated telling her that I wasn’t.

Once we were logged in, a couple of men came up to our captain and they went off for about an hour. When she came back, she briefed us. It seems that military convoys have been spotted in the area. The big thing about that sentence was the plural form of the word “convoy.”

Like I said, we might see the military roll in on trains once every nine months to a year. The fact that they have convoys roaming the area is a real cause for concern. The biggest concern is that nobody seems to know what they are doing. One of the recent sightings supposedly involved what looked like a long line of people in chains.

Saturday June 23
^rd

We are officially inside Confederated Tribe lands. While the tribes claim the lands a bit further out (that fort would fall inside their borders according to their claim), they are not that zealous about “trespassers” until you reach the fence.

To think of what it took to build the fence that surrounds their territory is mind-boggling. It is ten feet high and VERY sturdy. The rumor is that one of the larger herds came up against the first fence and flattened it. The casualty rate was high.

Now, you might think that they would decide to shrink their holdings to something more manageable. Nope. They sent delegates to the Seven Tribes. (If you can believe this…the entire state of Oklahoma is walled off and Native Americans from around the continent, as far away as the deep reaches of Canada, now call it home.) The story is that they built the wall around the Confederated Lands in less than a year from the day they broke ground.

So, while our delegation is meeting with tribal leaders, we are allowed to mingle as long as we have an escort. The cool thing about that is that they also give you a history lesson while they walk around with you. I learned all sorts of things about the meanings of Totem Poles scattered around the village. Also, my guide showed me how to make an arrowhead from basalt. I made five and then realized how clever the guide was to have the silly white girl doing manual labor for free. To make it even better, had we simply been tourists instead of part of a diplomatic party, we would have PAID to be taught. Then, you get to keep one as a souvenir. The rest are property of the Peoples of the Confederated Tribe.

In the morning, my “guide” has offered to take me to their burial grounds. He made it seem like a really big deal. When I asked what the big deal was about a cemetery, he laughed.

Right now, I am trying to find a way to lie down that is comfortable. I ate so much that I feel like I might just split open right down the middle. I’ve never had fry bread before. Plus, they made this stuff with strawberries to scoop up with the fry bread…

Oh. My. God.

Sunday June, 24
^th

Death.

I guess the Natives have it all figured out. They don’t fear it. They seem to embrace it in a way that I don’t think I will ever understand.

So, when one of them reaches an age and feels that it is time, they make sure that they go around the village and pass out their things to friends and family. Then, they walk out into the woods. There is a trail that leads into the tall pines of the forest, here at the base of Mount Hood. At the end of the trail is a big clearing. The closer you get…the quieter the world seems to become. It is like not even the wild animals want to disturb it out there.

When I saw it, I had to look for a while to figure out exactly what I was seeing. The best I can describe it…they have a tree adorned with deer antlers—really big, pointy sets of antlers.

I guess they come here and duck inside this little hide-covered hut. Inside, they stoke a hot fire. Brian (not a very Native American sounding name) told me that they make a final commune with the spirits, and then they come out to the tree with the antlers and impale themselves through the eye; straight into the brain to ensure that they never foul their bodies with the “evil spirits” that fill the shell of their former selves—in other words, no Native American zombies. After two days, the family comes out and removes the body from the tree of antlers and there is this huge black stain where the bonfire is built and the body is burned.

When I asked him if he understood that you needed to be bitten to turn, he didn’t seem to care. I asked him if he would do the same thing when he became an old man. He said that he would embrace it.

Oh. Kay.

Monday, June 25
^th

Back out into the wilderness. We are not in the fort tonight. Instead, we are on a hill looking down into the fort…and the hundred wagon convoy emblazoned with the NAA (New America Army) logo that is encamped all around its walls.

Wednesday, June 27
^th

I think I am starting to understand how this journaling thing got so engrained in my birth parents. I was a bit too busy yesterday to write, but it nagged at me all day today. Besides, there is something to be said about having some sort of record of things.

It seems that there has been a faction of military that has broken off from the actual New America Army. When we reach Corridor 26, things are probably going to get a bit frantic.

Yesterday we were involved in a skirmish with a scouting element from the renegade faction. (Can I still call them the NAA? They may still have the equipment, but these people aren’t operating under the official banner anymore.)

So, if this goes bad, I guess you need to have a little history lesson. Yes, I am writing this with the thought that I may have information that will help others. But I also believe that things in the world I grew up in are about to change.)

In the Old World, there was a place called NORAD. It seems that a few members of the old government did manage to get to Colorado and the Cheyenne Mountain installation. They couldn’t do much to help, but they brought in as many people as they were able. Also, they did manage to attract a pretty decent amount of military personnel. It seems that any who survived and still felt some sort of obligation to their duty fought their way to that big hole in the mountain.

It has been from there that this small group of Old World government types tried to rebuild. They knew that there would not or could not be a United States of America anymore. However, they did feel that it was important to try and bring as many of the places like Corridor 26 into some sort of loose fold. To that extent, they sent out expeditionary forces to find those sorts of communities.

It was in their best interest to help those communities grow. If you can’t say anything else, you have to say that these people had that so-called American Spirit. The stuff that won World Wars and sent people to space is part of who we all are, I guess.

I never gave it any thought to what those who first set up Corridor 26 must have gone through. Places like Sunset Fortress and Warehouse City have always existed in my life. The community that I live in and grew up in was created by people who lost everything and started from scratch.

How have I lived my life and not realized this?

So we were moving off the ridge and plotting a new course. The Native American ambassadors we had with us had already departed, informing us that they needed to tell the tribes what they had seen. They promised to send people to meet with our president as soon as it was reasonable. However, I doubt we will be seeing any of the Native Americans anymore. They have stayed mostly to themselves and refused to get involved in much of anything outside the confines of their great wall.

As we moved off the ridge, we heard screaming. Of course, out here, when you hear screaming, you expect to find people being torn apart by zombies. I was with the detachment sent to investigate.

The man was in a stream with two arrows sticking out of him—one from a leg and the other in his back. Three other men were doing a terrible job of trying to kill him. Unsure of what we were walking into, the decision was made to
try
and take them alive.

As soon as the three got wind of us, that idea went out the door. There were some nasty words and a few threats. Then the man in the stream called out.

“They are coming to conquer every community they find! Run! Warn everybody!”

Those were his words as I recall them.

Less than five minutes later, we were helping Danny O’ Conner out of the stream and tying the one good hand of the only member who survived the skirmish behind his back. I personally put the gag in his mouth. Sheesh! I wonder if all soldiers curse like that.

So, the word we got from Mister O’Conner is that there was a coup from a faction of the NAA that believed it was time to “subjugate the wildly out-of-control communities being allowed to draw on the finite resources of the NAA and the government it represents.” It seems that there is a president and a vice-president sequestered in NORAD.