The Emerald Virus (35 page)

    
Sam then told the group that she wanted to ask some questions and she wanted
them to be honest. The only restriction was they could not refer to past family
or friends in any way.

    
Sam was concerned that it might be too early for the question, but she hoped
most of the group would be able to participate. It had been two weeks since the
last death, and longer for many. She and others had spent at least some time
each day talking about loved ones and Sam had done all she could to help people
with the grieving process. She was now going to try to take another small step,
but this time as a group.

    
Her first question to the group was “What aren’t you going to miss from the old
world? Remember, you can’t mention anyone you knew.

    
“I’ll start and the rest of you add what you want. Personally, I’m not going to
miss TV commercials about four hour erections.”

    
The group laughed and one person stood up and said, “I don’t believe I’m going
to miss soap operas too much.”

    
Again the group laughed and another person added, “I don’t think we’ll have a
great need in the future for mowing lawns.”

    
This brought a round of applause from the men in the group and Sam added, “I
always knew if it was left up to men that front yards would be made of concrete.”

    
Everyone laughed, and the next comment was made by Billy Sidle, an eight year
old who had captured the group’s heart already. Billy said, “I’m not going to
miss school, especially on rainy days when I have to stand outside and wait for
the bus.”

    
After the laughter Sam said, “Billy, that reminds me, we’re going to have to
set up a school for you aren’t we?”

    
Billy looked at her with his big eyes and even bigger ears and very seriously said,
“No Miss Sam, you will not have to go to that trouble just for me.”

    
As everyone laughed Sam looked at the serious expression on Billy’s face, and
then saw the impish grin come and go as he looked around the room. She realized
that what she had heard was true. This one was going to be the rascal in the
group. He was going to help this group she thought, and they were doing all
they could to help him and the other children.

    
A young man said, “I probably won’t miss speed limits too much.” And the
laughter continued.

    
And now the comments were flowing readily, one after the other, and the group
was having fun trying to outdo each other. She had asked a couple of people to
help keep track of the better comments and she hoped they would be able to
capture them all.

    
As things started to quiet down she said, “Okay, this might be harder but let’s
give it a try. I’d like to hear what you will miss from the old world, but
again no comments about anyone you knew.”

    
Now there was silence and people looked around the room self-consciously.

    
Lily was the first to speak and she said, you know, I’ll miss listening to the
weather forecast each evening. They were never right so why I’m going to miss
it I don’t’ know.”

    
One of the men said, “I’m going to miss tinkering with my old truck on
weekends. I’ve been rebuilding this 1948 Dodge pickup truck for eight years
now. I don’t know if I would have ever finished it, but it must have been like
therapy or some such thing because I’ll miss it.”

    
A young man said, “I think I’m going to miss live concerts, although not all of
them.”

    
This got a laugh from the group and then a young lady said, “I’m going to miss
going to the mall on Saturdays and trying the latest in new makeup.”

    
Some of the men groaned and this got a laugh.

    
Sam said, “All is not lost. We might have to learn how to create makeup from
scratch and practice on each other.”

    
The horrified look on the young woman’s face started another round of laughter.

    
A middle aged woman said, “I think I’m going to miss having policemen and
firemen around. I always have been a worrier and knowing such people were
around to protect me always made me feel good.”

    
Sam said, “You’re absolutely right about that. That’s a topic we’ll discuss
during one of our meetings. It’ll be important to the whole group.”

    
A young man looked at Sam and said, “Sam, I’m not sure I agree with you about
the policemen. I like not having someone looking over my shoulder at everything
I do.” He then looked at Noah and said in a humorous way, “No disrespect
intended”, and everyone who had been at the first meeting laughed, even Noah.

    
Sam answered, “You have a right to feel that way, and when we discuss the
subject you can tell all of us why you feel we’re better off without constables
of some sort. Between now and then I want you to think your feelings through a
couple of times. While there are some advantages to no constables, there are
some important disadvantages as well.”

    
Sam had been smiling as she said this and the young man looked at her and said,
“Thank you Sam, I’ll do that.”

    
He reminded Sam of a person she had known from some of her college classes who
had to disagree with what was said, no matter what. Consequently, almost
everyone ignored him and no one gave anything he said any credibility at all.
She thought if she asked this young man to posit a positive reason for his
stated view it might help keep him quieter in the future, or perhaps more
valuable to the group. She knew she’d find out soon enough.

    
The answers continued and Sam felt she had done the right thing. The feeling in
the group was generally light, and there had even been some good natured
heckling during the session. More importantly she had a much better feel for
what the group as a whole felt strongly about. She wanted to be able to create
a list of issues she needed to work through with the group and she thought
tonight would lay the groundwork for doing so.

    
After ninety minutes Sam adjourned the meeting and went back to her R.V. She
knew that some of the group would stay and talk and that Noah would be there
until the end. She wondered where he had been all day.

Sunday:
Yellowstone National Park, Old Faithful Inn, Wyoming

    
     As Noah entered Sam’s RV on Sunday morning he said “Sorry for being late
last evening, and for not getting back to you during the day. As you know the
fuel group found a full tanker truck about fifteen miles from here and we brought
it to the park today. I didn’t know how difficult it would be, so we took two
snow plows and two snow cats along with a pair of men for each. It turned out
that wasn’t enough. We learned a good lesson today though.

    
“What happened?”

    
“Well, first of all we didn’t have any tire chains for the tanker, but we thought
with all of the other equipment we had with us we could still move it okay.
That turned out to be true except for the going downhill part. The back wheels
simply locked up at the lightest touch of the brakes and twice they slid into
the ditch. We were darned lucky that the tanker didn’t overturn.”

    
“It took forever to figure out how to get the back end out of the ditch and
back on the road. After the first time we sent one of the snow cats to find
some tire chains, but by the time he got back we had just finished with the
second recovery. We kept it on the road after that, but we put towing chains
around the back of the tanker and the front of the trailing snow plow so we
could use the snow plow to keep the tanker slow and straight.“

    
“Well, I’m glad it turned out to have worked for you. Did you eat last night?”
Sam was surprised she had asked the question but it was too late to take it
back. She didn’t want to start sounding personal to Noah, even though she was
concerned for him.

    
“No, I didn’t get a chance to eat. By the time we shut down the lobby and I got
out of those wet clothes and through a hot shower I couldn’t seem to keep my
eyes open. I’m hoping you made a big breakfast for us.”

    
Sam laughed and said, “You might be in luck, I have a normal sized breakfast
bur Lily just called and said she is sending the first loaf of bread out to me,
and the second to you. I told her about our eating arrangements and asked her
to have both of them sent here. You’ll be able to eat all of the fresh bread
you want.”

    
A moment later the knock on the door announced the delivery of the bread by one
of the young helpers. Sam thanked him and set the bread on the table, next to
the stick of real butter.

    
Sam looked at Noah and started laughing. His eyes looked like they were
starting to water and his nose was working like a rabbit’s. He looked like he
had just arrived at the pearly gates.

    
Noah looked up and said, “It ain’t polite to laugh at a starving man.”

    
Sam laughed again and said, “Unlike you, I know the difference between a hungry
man and a starving man, and you’re a long way from starving.”

    
Noah didn’t say a word until he had sliced a couple of pieces of bread and
covered them with butter. After a couple of bites he said, “I think I’m going
to ask Lily to marry me.”

    
Sam said, “I think she might have enough offers from some of the men closer to
her age, but you’re welcome to try.”

    
Noah smiled and said, “Well, maybe we should talk about what to do with
slackers before we head to the meeting.”

     
Ben had just entered and asked, “I’m not sure what the choices are. I think
they either work or they leave.”

    
Sam said, “Well there are always more options, the question is always about how
many are actually viable. For example, one option is simply to let them be.
That’s what I would consider less than viable. Being with the group has
distinct advantages over being alone somewhere, or being with a group where no
one does anything for the collective good.”

    
“The other extreme would be to force them to leave because they didn’t
volunteer to work when they had the opportunity. But again, I don’t think this
is viable. We don’t know why they didn’t volunteer. Heck, as far as I know
maybe one of these people is a double amputee and isn’t able to do physical
things.”

    
Noah added, “But even so that person should have let it be known what the problem
is and ask to be assigned to non-physical tasks.”

    
“I know Noah, I’m just saying we don’t know the reasons and we should at least
find them out before we make a decision.”

    
“I agree. So the first thing we need to do is ask them what the problem is. So
now let’s talk about what to do. We’ll need to be prepared for any eventuality
so you can make a good decision. I think we give them one chance to volunteer
for something they are capable of doing and if they don’t agree we ask them to
leave.”

    
Sam said, “That’s harsh. Are there any other options?”

    
Noah responded, “Sam, I don’t think so. We would risk upsetting some really
good people in the group if we don’t act; Maybe all of them. It simply isn’t
fair to the group to carry the weight of some people who just don’t feel like
contributing.”

    
“I know your right, but I was hoping for another option I haven’t thought of. I
don’t think there is really anything else to talk about, but expulsion in the
middle of winter might not sit well with some either.”

    
“That’s true. Maybe I’d better at least get a feel from the group. I sure don’t
want to give the impression I’m willing to give up leadership though, because
I’m not. I may not be the best leader, but for me to step down voluntarily I
need to know a lot about my successor.”

    
Ben said, “Sam, I just don’t think that will be a problem. No one wants to face
Noah, and even the new people have heard that story by now. My guess is that
the welcoming committee let’s all of the newcomers know that we aren’t looking
for a leader.”

    
Sam smiled and said, “Yeah, you’re probably right. One way or another I’m not
going to worry about it until I know I need to.”

    
Sam asked, “Noah, what will happen to anyone we ask to leave because they won’t
work? We have enough people to take care of everything we need to do.”

    
“Sam, it’s not that we have to need everyone so much, as they need us as a
group. But as a group we work because we have to in order to survive now, and
create a better life in the future.

    
“I’m sure some groups out there will be willing to sit around and let everyone
fend for themselves, and if that’s how they want to live that’s fine with me.
But our group wants to do things better than that.

    
“We want to have fresh baked bread, and real eggs, and our own horses, and a
place to congregate and all of the other things we’ve started here.

    
“While I’m not excited about tossing people out of the group, it’s just
remarkably unfair to the group to allow people to stay who aren’t willing to
help.

    
“To answer your question I don’t know where they will go, but I know from
reading the web page each evening that there are choices they can make. And as
long as the big snow hasn’t hit us they can still leave in safety. If they go
east and then south they can get almost anywhere, so now is the time for them
to leave.”