The Emerald Virus (61 page)

    
The following morning they released the prisoners, and all but a small squad of
militia returned to the lodge.

Thursday
July 1
^st
: Genesee Park, Colorado

    
Jack drove east on I-70 from central Utah towards Genesee Park, Colorado. He
was on the phone talking to Charlotte and had just asked her what she was
doing.

    
She replied, “As the hosts of the gathering my team has brought some heavy
equipment into the park and we’re digging the last of the fire pits right now.
Nice sized ones for each group, with smaller ones surrounding the group ones
for the clans, and one huge one where the festivities will start. We’ll have
the calling of the clans at the big one of course.

    
We’ve gathered enough wood to burn these fires steadily for about four years,
my folks got a little enthusiastic with that project, but everything is moving
along well.

    
“Has anyone arrived yet?”

    
“The early arrivals were here Tuesday with the bulk arriving yesterday. I think
you’re going to be the last ones here.”

    
“When did Christian and the Northwest group arrive?”

    
“Almost all of them came yesterday but a couple arrived earlier today.
Christian is really jazzed about this. His clan wears the traditional
Lederhosen and Dirndls of the Bavarian Alps and carries the blue and white
colors of Bavaria.”

    
“How about Noah?”

    
“His clan dresses in American Indian traditional dress, and he originally
wanted to use the colors of the Lakota tribe, but he decided to be inclusive of
all Native Americans and his clan uses the colors of the rainbow.

    
“All of the American clans have also decided to wear red, white and blue. Some
will use armbands, some will make it part of their clothing, but Noah and his
clan will use face paint and have one stripe of red, of white, and of blue on
both cheeks. I love the idea.” The Canadian and Mexican clans will also wear
their national colors.

    
“This is going to be a colorful festival isn’t it? What a great idea you and
Jane came up with.”

    
 “I agree. We just wanted to find a way to keep people from feeling so lost and
so forlorn that we thought doing anything to create families would help. The
idea pretty well took on a life of its own after we had our small calling of
the clans’ ceremony in January. Obviously the word spread quickly and within
weeks all of the groups chimed in and wanted to participate, but they couldn’t
all travel in the winter.”

   
“Will Danny be at the festival?”

    
“I don’t know. Everyone is hoping he comes but with Danny you just can’t
predict anything. When last I spoke with him he was in the northeast trying to
rig a small ocean going vessel that would allow him access to Europe. We’ll
just have to wait and see if he joins us.”

    
“How did you decide on Genesee Park for the festival?”

    
“We wanted a place that was kind of central, and in the mountains to avoid the
summer heat. There isn’t much air conditioning still working. So we looked at
the map and found this huge park.

    
“We also looked at Rocky Mountain National Park, but I-70 goes right through
Genesee Park and some folks still aren’t used to driving the RVs.

    
“As we all settle into our permanent homes, stability will only increase. I
think the only use most of us will have for the RVs in the future is for this
gathering, which we plan on doing every summer, or at least as long as the fuel
is useable.”

    
“My research shows we can get about five years use from existing fuel as long
as we use available additives after the second year.

    
“But we have a petroleum engineer working with a team of other engineers in
south Texas trying to get one refinery back on line. There are two super
tankers in the harbor so we’ll have crude oil for a century; we just need to
figure out how to refine it into fuel. The nice part is that with so few people
it won’t take much to keep us supplied.

    
Jack asked “Have all of the groups settled on permanent locations now?”

    
“Almost. We now have two groups in California, one in Texas, the Delaware group
has moved to Florida. The Tennessee River Valley group is going to stay put.
The Phoenix group has pretty much disintegrated, although a small group has
stayed. As you know the Northwest group moved to the Columbia River Gorge.
That’s a group that doesn’t like hot weather and they think the wind farms
there, coupled with the hydroelectric dams on the Columbia, will keep them in
power for a long time. A number of groups who spent the winter in the Northeast
are moving south now, and those who moved south originally are staying put. I
think by the fall the northern U.S. will be pretty empty.

    
“The big exception is the group in Alaska. They want to winter there one more
year. They’re very self-sufficient but they aren’t sure the growing season is
long enough to stay there permanently. While they love that environment, most
aren’t ready to live like Inuit’s yet.”

    
“We’ve stayed in touch with many groups around the world and a couple of
Canadian groups and Mexican groups have arrived here already. We might still
get one or two more.

    
“None of the other nationalities have committed for this year but some have
told us by next year they’ll be on sailing ships, and will join us for the
festival if we can provide land transportation from whatever harbor they can
get to. I’ve agreed in principle. 

    
“There are still a lot of singles or doubles out there on their own, but some
of them are coming to the festival, so we’ll see.  

    
“Charlotte, I’ve been out of touch for the last three weeks so tell me what the
schedule for the festival looks like.”

    
“This place is chaos right now with people meeting other people, many of whom
have spoken on the phone or radio, but not met person to person. And of course
a big part of this festival will be people going through the mating rituals,
especially the younger people who didn’t lose spouses last year.

    
“We formally start the festival with the torchlight parade Friday night. We’ll
pipe in the clan leaders with bagpipes and they’ll announce their clans, the
dress and the colors.

    
“After the clans have been introduced we’ll have a short memorial service for
those we’ve lost in the last year. This includes those you lost in the battle,
two accidental deaths, five natural deaths, plus the loss of the newborns.

   
“We then move to a celebration of the newborns that did not die at birth from
the virus. We have only a couple of those, but it will be a worthy celebration.

    
“As you know the big question on everyone’s mind is if babies born of two
parents that are immune to the virus will live, or if only a percentage of them
will live.”

    
“I wish I knew the answer to that Charlotte, but only time will tell. Do we
have any newly pregnant women?”

    
“We have four that I know of that will deliver later this year.”

    
“What are they doing for husbands?”

    
“Jack, I thought you knew this, but we decided collectively that with the lack
of religious leaders in our groups that we would revert to the method of
marriage that the pioneers used when they settled the west. Our folks will
announce at a public meeting that they have decided to live as man and wife,
and they are then free to do so legally, by our own rules. Then once a year at
this gathering, we’ll have formal ceremonies for everyone who was married in
the past year. The date of the marriage will be the date they publicly used. We
only have two preachers in all of our groups, and both of them will be busy on
Saturday at noon when the marriage ceremonies will be performed.”

    
“You must have given some thought to this, but who will be first?”

    
Charlotte laughed and said, “You’re going to love this. It’s Heather and Ben.
We did not allow them to announce and consummate the wedding. Instead we’ve
made them wait for this ceremony and the two of them are so excited they have
everyone else feeling really good. We named this the Festival of Families for a
good reason.”

     
“Anyone else we know getting hitched?”

    
“I was hoping that Noah and Shelly would make an announcement and take the
plunge but they haven’t said a word yet. They spend a lot of time with each
other and I hope one day they decide to get married, but it doesn’t look like
it will be this year.

    
“Jack, how about you and Sam, do you have any forthcoming announcements?”

    
“Not yet Charlotte, I have some things I’m still checking out and until I get
through them I can’t commit.

    
“Once the festival is over I’m going to Canada to track down some strange
messages. I have to get that done before winter returns.”

    
“Okay Jack, but I expect you to commit to that lady one of these days, and
you’ll do that if you expect to stay my friend. She’s much too good to spend
her time sitting around waiting on you.”

    
Jack laughed and said, “I know that Charlotte, and you’ll be the first to know
when we’re ready. And by the way, if might not be me that’s holding this up, it
could be Sam you know.”

    
“Don’t start talking nonsense to me now. I know both of you and I know what
both of you want. And I know a beauty like Sam is going to be a big hit at this
festival and everyone after this, so don’t wait too long.”

    
Jack laughed again and said goodbye.

    
As Sam walked back to the front she handed Jack a cup of coffee, took a seat
and said “How’s Charlotte?”

    
Jack reached out for her hand and said, “Sam, she’s fine and is looking forward
to seeing you. But she thinks you and I have something to talk about before we
get to Genesee Park.

    
Jack looked at Sam and as usual all he could do was smile.  

Acknowledgements

I
don’t know about other authors, but I needed a lot of help to complete this
book. I would like to thank all of those who read the various drafts and gave
me great feedback. At the top of that list is my wife Uschi, and my sisters
Colleen Booth, Kathy Shea, Mary Heiman, Peggy Colombo and Monica Hofstetter. My
sister Colleen also served as my editor and spent countless hours trying to
stay ahead of my mistakes.

Thanks
also to our friend and author Joelle Osias, who wrote “How to Prepare for Life”
and also provided great insight for me.

I
would also like to thank everyone who has contributed to the World Wide Web,
where most of my research took place.

And
of great importance I would like to thank two groups. The first are the people
of the Inland Northwest, where I now live, and the second are the people of
Okawville, my hometown, a small rural farming community in Southern Illinois.
Both groups have taught me everything I know about strength, being independent,
and thinking independently. Both crucial aspects of my book.

And
my needed disclaimer: While I had much help with this book, and have tried to
make the facts as accurate as possible, any mistakes in this book belong solely
to me.