Introduction:
Although this is a fictional story that I wrote while living off-grid the 'funny' thing is that the timeline of this story coincided with my own timeline of days and Daily Posts.
I made the first fictional post in my own 'future' and I find it humorous (and a bit spooky) that when the story begins that the date is 04-19-2020.
The similarities of the future I describe in the story and my current life as of now... well, the similarities are striking and all things considered I figured that the best that I can do is do an early pre-release of the draft ebook and let others perhaps share in the humor.
The following is the fictional story that I wrote during my journey off-grid at That Old Farm and often refer to as my 'future posts' in the Daily Posts of my book titled: 957 Days which I am still editing.
End Introduction
A Story. Part One.
Day 1192. The zombie apocalypse has come and passed (along with the end of the so-called world) and I am still out here in the woods doing just fine. Food was scarce for a while until I hiked over the mountain and found a derailed train that to my great surprise (and relief) was loaded with several box cars of assorted food items that (I am guessing) were heading south after the first Great Pandemic. Mostly it is non-nutritional junk food loaded with preservatives, MSGs and the dreaded gluten but hey it will definitely fill my belly. I have been hauling it over the mountain one wagon load at a time for the last two hundred and sixty five days and it is starting to wear me out but damn my leg muscles are getting strong from it.
It has been quiet around here and I am enjoying the solitude but I ran out of coffee five hundred and twelve days ago (not that I am counting) and once I got over the headaches caused by abruptly stopping my caffeine consumption things were not that bad. I sure do miss it though.
Anyway, I do not want to whine too much because at least I am 'alive and kicking' and things could always be worse than they are.
Day 1212. It has now been five hundred and thirty-two days without coffee (not that I am counting) and I just have to say that I really do miss it. I miss it so much in fact that as I was surveying a landfill and trying to figure out how to setup a mining operation (because there just has to be some useful stuff in that well-compacted refuse) and perhaps do some large scale methane harvesting along the way when my eyes fell upon an unopened single serve instant coffee packet. I was absolutely in awe of it glittering there in the sun with it's label all faded away except for the word 'coffee.' I think since this entire journey of mine began I have not had such a reverent nor awe inspiring moment as the moment my eyes singled out of all the trash and debris that single word. It was a powerful moment for me as I delicately lifted that faded single-serve packet up to the light of the sun for closer inspection and saw although faded that the packaging was actually intact. I cried just a little in that moment and resisted a very strong impulse to tear into the packet and pour it's contents down my throat. Instead I pulled a piece of string from my pocket and gently tied it to the packet and hung it around my neck. I even took care to make sure the word 'coffee' faced forward so that I can glance down and see that I do in fact have a little bit of coffee. I think I will hold onto it for a while just to see how long I can go without actually consuming it.
Anyway, things are rather quiet with all the humans gone and even the dreaded zombie stench has begun to fade. Every once in a while I still get a whiff of it when the wind blows hard out of the north but other than that there is still the heavy scent of things burnt or burning. That particular scent might take a bit longer to fade but I am sure it will eventually.
I have still been hauling food over the mountain from that derailed train and I have also spent a good bit of time re-purposing one of the derailed train cars into a storage unit for food that I have been consolidating from the other cars. I had noticed the animals getting into the food so I decided to take some steps to secure as much of it as possible and since hauling it over the mountain one wagon load at a time could realistically take years I settled on a simpler solution 'on site storage.' It has also become my satellite camp.
Well, I am still hanging in there and both me and the dogs are doing well.
Day 1349. My satellite camp at the derailed train is coming along rather nicely. I found a bulldozer near it a few miles away left beside a highway where some construction was being done before the 'world' collapsed. It amazingly had some good fuel in it so I drove it beside the tracks to where the derailed train is and used it to push twelve of the box cars into a somewhat circular formation with all their doors facing inward. While I was doing it I kept chuckling to myself that I was making a 'wagon circle.'
A few of the box cars did not deal with such rough treatment that well and their doors no longer slide open and closed that great but I think that I can fix them if I level the box cars with a jack and apply a liberal amount of grease to the door tracks. I had just enough fuel in the dozer to get the last one in place before it coughed and sputtered out a huge column of black smoke from the exhaust during which I thankfully held my breath and did not breathe that crap in. As for the dozer I am going to just leave it where it sits and use it to climb over so that I can actually get into the 'wagon circle' that I created with it.
Anyway, it has now been six hundred and sixty nine days without coffee (not that I am counting) and although I have yet to drink the single serve instant coffee that I found at the landfill I am definitely tempted to do so almost every morning. Somehow though, I have resisted the urge to consume it thus far.
Aside from the coffee the biggest thing that I miss is the robot voice that tells the weather on my little weather radio. I have tried everything I know to predict the weather but alas I am no great 'cloud watcher' and a few times now I have been caught out in some rather foul weather. One of my dogs is pretty good at sensing when a really bad storm is approaching though so I just keep a close eye on her behavior and take some precautions when she starts acting oddly. She can usually sense them about three days out which gives me plenty of time to get ready.
I am still enjoying the end of the 'world' and the quiet that has ensued. It is really nice just hearing the sounds of nature and that quiet being only occasionally broken by me working on my various projects. I have still yet to see any other humans (which is fine by me) but I have been seeing and hearing some really large dog packs roaming around. I have had a few close calls with them while out scouting and scavenging but I built a little device that emits a high pitched noise that anytime I see them I whip it out of my backpack and turn it on. It is a rather comical looking device that I call my 'ray gun' but it sure is quite effective at keeping them at bay. I also always carry a large can of bear mace but thankfully the wild dogs (or bears) have not gotten close enough to me that I felt the need to use it... yet.
Day 1402. I must say that all things considered it has been a rather mellow apocalypse. Really the biggest hardship has been going without coffee. It has now been seven hundred and twenty two days (not that I am counting) since I have tasted the delicious flavor of my most beloved beverage. I have been considering hauling the wagon into the closest town just to try to scavenge up some coffee. I am estimating that it will take three days total to get there, have a look around and then make it back to the homestead.
I am hoping that the town does not smell horrendous but that is probably just wishful thinking on my part. Either way I am going prepared with a respirator and some essential oil to squirt in the respirator's cartridges just in case I find the odor in the town to be overpowering. Let's face it though towns tended to smell bad long before the 'world' ended and the probability that they will smell worse now is rather high so I am thinking it will be prudent to go prepared.
Anyway, I have been doing my best to chronicle the days and what I do with my time. I do not have much hope that anyone will ever read them but you never know because in the long history of the planet human civilization has rebounded from some pretty large setbacks and there is no real way for me to know what (if anything) is happening in other parts of the planet but my instincts tell me there is not much left of the 'world' as it was before things fell apart. At least I have survived somehow which was probably just dumb luck on my part and not from any special skills or effort on my part so perhaps there is a chance that others did as well.
On a different note. I have been seeing a lot of birds of various types lately all flying north. I do not know quite what it means but after climbing a nearby mountain that has a fire tower on it and climbing up the tower itself I could see a thick haze of smoke covering all the southern horizon so perhaps the birds are just fleeing the fires or perhaps it is something more ominous and I just cannot figure out what it is. The times being as strange as they are it is difficult to make heads or tails of what is going on but no matter what I hope that I can continue to persevere and live a long, happy and comfortable life in the woods.
Day 1410. Well the journey to the nearby town went rather well. It wound up only taking me two and a half days to get there and back again which could be partially because I was right about the stench of the place and I did not stay a moment longer than necessary and partially because well the place really creeped me out.
There was the usual signs of panic and 'end of the world' mumbo jumbo painted on pretty much every available surface but there was also an incredibly eerie sense that I was being watched the entire time I was there. Fires had burned through much of the downtown sector so I avoided it altogether because the last thing I wanted was to die (or worse be wounded) from some burned out shell of a building collapsing on me. So I stuck to the outskirts and was stoked to find a little cafe whose storeroom was absolutely full of not just coffee but fucking espresso beans! So I loaded down the wagon and stuffed what I could in my backpack and promptly headed back the way I had come.
When I was about halfway back and resting in a small park that had a rather quaint little picnic table and pavilion I found out why I had felt like I was being watched in the town. A rather hungry looking and what appeared to be half-starved hyena appeared from the way I had just come from and was obviously following me.
I am assuming that when the 'world fell apart' some compassionate soul released it from a nearby zoo. Other than that I cannot figure out how the hell a hyena came to be in these mountains. It was a pitiful looking thing and I left it some canned meat that I had brought along for a snack. I am thinking it was born and raised in captivity and only knows that humans give it food which is probably why it was following me.
I made good time heading away from the little park but not long afterwards it showed up behind me again and not wanting to lead it back to my homestead where my dogs might not be all that friendly towards it I pulled out my high pitch 'ray gun' and scared it off. I am not sure that it will not one day show up around the homestead but I did not see it again the rest of my trip home.
Anyway, I am glad that I now not only have coffee but a huge supply of it. The first thing I did when I got home though was yank the little packet of instant coffee from around my neck, boil some water and after emptying the contents of it into a cup, adding water and stirring it thoroughly I drank it down in one huge gulp.
Day 1437. All things considered not a whole lot has changed for me since the quote unquote world ended. I still wake up every day, let the dogs out, have a morning smoke and (now that I have coffee again) have some coffee as my half-awake brain takes in the world around me and contemplates whatever remnants of dreams are lingering in my mind. It is a fine way to start the day and as stated quite unperturbed or disrupted by the so called 'end of the world' which is fine by me because in those fleeting moments between awake and asleep I often find solutions to problems, new perspectives, neat inventions and some rather potent moments of self realization. Which all adds up to lending me a little inspiration to start my day off in a productive fashion.
Anyway, things have been rather quiet around here lately. The smoke from the fires down south have been making their way into this little cove more and more each day but at least the fires appear to be burning towards the east (and coastal areas) so hopefully they continue moving in that direction. I have been climbing that nearby fire tower every three days just to keep an eye on them and while the view is spectacular the hike up there has been wearing me out so much that I have been contemplating establishing another satellite camp at the base of the tower. The only drawback to having a camp there is hauling everything I need up to the place itself. I like my little wagon and all but dragging it up a nearly forty five degree gravel road for three hours loaded with gear does not seem all that appealing but I am tempted to do it anyway just so that I can wake up and fall asleep to the amazing view from atop the mountain the fire tower stands on.
On a different note. I have spotted that hyena a few more times. Always at a distance but it has been lingering around the outskirts of the homestead and just out of range of my dogs. Which is good. It being around has actually decreased the wild dog activity around here so that is a pleasant bonus. Yesterday I decided to try to track down exactly where that hyena was staying at night and found (after hours of searching and following it's many footprints) I found an old barn where it had made itself a pretty cozy den amidst a huge pile of hay. Just outside the barn I left it a big pile of canned meat and inside the barn in it's hay bed I left it an old tattered blanket that smelled like me, the dogs and too much sweat. While I was there I also drug a huge cattle trough into the barn and filled it with buckets of water from a nearby creek. If hyenas drink about the same amount of water as dogs then it should have enough water in that trough for several months. So as you can see I have grown a soft spot for the animal that (if it had a different disposition) could have eaten me alive back in that little town where I first encountered it but it did not.
Anyway, the homestead is coming along nicely, the dogs are happy and everything is going well.
Day 1452. Well I got really lucky and stumbled across a mule that was all hung up in a brier patch and after a lot of soothing and slowly cutting away at the thorny branches entangling the poor beast I got it set free of the mess, to which it's response was to loudly bray with pleasure and prance around. I have seen a lot of things but something about that braying and prancing mule caused me to erupt in fits of laughter and alternatively wheezing to catch my breath between fits of laughter. All of this the mule took as wholehearted encouragement and began to leap into the air and kick with it's hind legs when it was not braying and prancing.
I had not laughed that hard since well before the 'world' ended but I found myself laying there among all the briers I had just cleared away from the mule holding my sides and tears running down my face for what seemed like hours but was probably just minutes. When I finally gained some control over myself and not only got off the ground but also pulled the clinging briers off of my clothes I felt incredibly lighthearted and for lack of a more fitting word... I felt mirthful.
The day this happened was a day that I was bringing some supplies up to the fire tower because in the end I decided that any arduous journey of hauling stuff up to it would be well worth the view and it is strategically an awesome spot for a satellite camp. Well the little mule was insistent upon following me so I used my backpack, a blanket and some straps I had (to secure stuff in the wagon with) and fastened a small load of stuff onto the animal's back. During the entire rigging process the mule stood very still and seemed to understand what was going on and even had an air of 'eagerness' about it as if to say 'Hurry up daylight is wasting!' Anyway, the mule is now part of my little post-apocalyptic family and as long as I can keep the hyena living on the outskirts away from it we will all hopefully have a long life together hauling stuff hither and yon, checking out the scenery and scavenging from what is left of the 'world' that used to be.
Lately I have been out hunting for batteries and solar panels along the highways and although it is slow going (even with the mule) because batteries are heavy, solar panels are a bit fragile and then there is the weight of the various tools that I have to lug around so I can take things apart, which all adds up to a rather heavy load. So I take it slow and gather what I can but so far I have enough batteries to store roughly six months worth of my power needs which is pretty awesome as long as the solar panels can keep the batteries topped off but there have been some rather dark days and often the sky just somehow does not look 'right' to me.
In the back of my mind I worry that it is the beginning of an ice age or something similar where the sun is partially or mostly blocked from reaching the surface of the planet. With this in mind I have also been trying to work out a 'plan b' for my electrical needs and also if the planet is about to gradually get really damn cold I need to find somewhere deep down in the ground where it will stay consistently warm and get it setup to hunker the fuck down.
Well, I have rambled on here a good bit and need to get some much needed rest.
Day 1471. Recently I have spent a few days and nights up at the fire tower. Mostly I have been watching the smoke filled horizon with a sort of hollow dread by day and by night scanning the countryside to see if I could spot any nearby fires or moving lights that might indicate whether there were other people in my general vicinity. I am not quite sure just how many miles I can see from atop the tower but it is pretty damn far.
I was not just up there on some weird fluke or strange paranoid idea that there might be other people around... I was up there because there were definitely people (or at least a person) in the area. I knew this because recently when I went to the camp at the derailed train I found that someone(s) had been there and although they took great pains to cover their presence, they could not hide the fact that an entire box of canned mixed vegetables was missing.
After going over my inventory list twice and recounting everything in the box cars twice I decided it was definitely more than my imagination and that something was actually missing. Right then and there in that moment of realization that there had been someone else there I wished that I had brought at least one of the dogs along with me. Before the 'world' ended finding that someone had been snooping around (and stealing) would not have been all that shocking to me. Especially since before the 'world' ended it seemed like more people than not were enduring hard times, trying to 'stay afloat' and were by and large strung out on something whether it was drugs, drinking, bad ideas, low-grade entertainment, or a combination of the four. So back then it would not have surprised me at all but now after nearly three years of not seeing 'hide nor hair' of other people... It gave me not just goosebumps but gooseflesh all over my upper body.
What really frightened me was that I had not bothered to cover my trail between the derailed train camp and the homestead. I had in fact created quite a clear and direct path leading straight from one place to the other with all my hauling of food in the wagon. I do not have much in the way of defenses around the homestead other than some brush walls that I has constructed rapidly in the early days when the zombies were around. I actually abandoned the entire 'defenses' project when I figured out that the zombies were incredibly slow moving, prone to stay where they had once been human and ultimately died off rather quickly. Who would have thunk that zombies would have such a short 'lifespan' and be complete homebodies.
Even during the thick of things I do not think that one came within more than a mile of the homestead. So finding my defenses woefully lacking I decided it would probably be best to not change my routines because the one advantage that I might have is that the person(s) have no clue that I knew of their existence. So the rest of that day and night I stayed on rather high alert but did all the stuff I usually do and kept secretly hoping that somehow my inventory at the derailed train camp was wrong and that I was letting my imagination get the best of me. I found this to be a very comforting thought and it actually helped me fall asleep that first night.
The next morning I went out to the spring to fill my kettle with water. This has become my morning habit of late mainly because I enjoy standing in the dewy grass while I am half-awake watching the water swirl into the kettle as the song birds sing their morning song. Anyway, upon reaching the spring I found a torn piece of brown paper bag sitting atop the spring's enclosure with a fair sized piece of quartz resting upon it. Upon first seeing it I froze and after slowly looking around for anyone watching I cautiously walked the last few steps to the spring and looking down upon the note (for surely I was meant to find it here) I saw that there were two words written upon it with red crayon in bold and all capital letters... 'GOT COFFEE?' Upon reading those words something sort of snapped inside of me and I broke into hysterical laughter for several minutes.
The laughter actually came and went in fits for the rest of the day and all the strange things that had occurred were nowhere near as peculiar as finding that note that morning. That night I left a large can of pre-ground coffee at the spring along with a note of my own (oddly also written in red crayon) which said:
Meet me at the fire tower five days from now at dawn. I debated a lot over whether to make my note a statement or a question but in the end I figured a statement would be best.
The next morning both the note and the coffee were gone and left in their place was a very small piece of paper from what I suspect to be the same brown bag that the first note was written upon and it bore a single word in that same bold all capital red crayon script that said: YES.
So here it is just before dawn on the fifth day and I am at the top of the tower with a thermos of hot coffee, an immense amount of curiosity and a little voice in the back of my mind telling me that everything is going to be okay.
Day 1472. There was a hardness to her eyes as she regarded me over the steaming cup of coffee that she was raising to her lips to take a sip from. She arched a single eyebrow at me, cocked her head slightly and after several moments of our eyes being locked she shrugged and sipped at her coffee. When she was finished sipping she gently set her cup down on the table between us and looked away out over the landscape stretching off for miles around us from the top of the fire tower.
We had been talking for most of the morning and well aside from being around another human being again (how many years had it really been) and the comfort in that... things had been tense. Apparently (according to her) there were other people in the world, not a lot of them and nowhere near as many as there was before the 'world' ended but there were absolutely a good many of them and they were rebuilding.
Apparently my new 'friend' was on what she called a 'scouting mission' meaning that she was out looking for not just other people but people that (in her words) 'knew stuff' and 'knows how stuff works and how to make stuff work' which had lead her to keenly observing me and my little homestead for nearly an entire month. Learning this I had blurted 'So you stole from me and you stalked me... a great start that is!' I had meant it as humor but I guess in the last few years humor had been ground out of the person before me.
She had given me a one pound bag of tobacco as payment for the canned goods she had pilfered from the box car at the derailed train camp. She also said she had been following the train tracks and found my 'wagon circle' of box cars, and ultimately assumed it was abandoned. She had found it at night and did not find the trail leading from it to my homestead until the following morning.
At first she had been extremely cautious but after watching me with the dogs and with rescuing the mule she had decided I was probably okay to approach. She said that after watching me rescue the mule she had smiled and something about the way she said it leads me to think that not many things have made her smile in quite a long time and maybe even before the 'world' went to shit.
Looking back at me over the table she asked me if I had already been living as I do now since before everything changed. So I told her some of my story and how I had come to be where I was and doing what I was doing long before 'everything changed.' To which she had nodded again and again to herself as if my admission of things were merely confirming what she had already deduced.
When I was finished with my story she gave me a level and nearly unnerving look and asked if I would consider coming east with her and teach the things that I know at an academy that had been recently founded and comically named 'Reboot The World' or as she said 'RTW' for short. At this I laughed heartily and nearly spilled both of our coffee cups as I bumped the little table with my knee while slapping my thigh. T
he look on her face could have chilled an iceberg and it stifled my laugh so abruptly that it died in a minor coughing fit that subsided into me emphatically shaking my head no. The silence between us stretched until she pulled out her tobacco and papers and began rolling a smoke and following her example I did the same.
We sat in further silence just smoking and staring at each other then finally in a rather level tone she said 'Well if you will not leave how about accepting an apprentice or apprentices that will take what they learn back to RTW?' This twist of things caught me by surprise and I found myself saying 'I will consider it' before realizing that I was going to say anything at all.
We spent the rest of the day swapping stories (mostly from the world before things changed) and decided to camp together for the night. Now that the sun is setting we have built a fire on the ground near the tower and are cooking a modest dinner, drinking some vodka she had stashed away on her person and simply enjoying each others companionship. A single thought keeps repeating itself in my mind... 'The world might have broke but not everyone broke with it' so I tell her this and all her stony exterior melts away and she laughs and I laugh with her.
Day 1484. As odd as it is I have been contemplating having some extra helping hands around here ever since being asked to consider it by the scout from the Reboot The World academy. Although I have quite enjoyed my many years of relative solitude, the time that I spent at the fire tower with Cara (that is the only name she gave) reminded me just how pleasant and downright comforting that interacting with other people can be. Of course there was the curious awkwardness 'girl and guy at the end of the world thing' but I think that we both dealt with that well enough and spent much of our time discussing how to not just rebuild the 'world' but also help build it in such a way that things like equality, sustainability, compassion and consideration for other people (and the planet) are at the forefront of things. Such easy things to pontificate about while sitting around the fire passing Cara's vodka around and much more of a difficult thing to actually implement those ideas.
All in all it was nice to meet someone else that still harbors some hope for not just the planet's but humanity's future. I had long ago buried such notions but never let them actually die and I was pleasantly surprised that they were coaxed to the surface again and albeit had some new life breathed into them. So now I find myself not completely disappointed that there are actually other humans in the world and the notion that those left are actually working together harmoniously towards creating a better future absolutely astounds me.
In all my considerations of how people would behave in a post apocalyptic world I had never considered that they would actually work together for not just the common good but also to leave a better future for those that come after. Sure in my heart of hearts I had secretly hoped for such but I never ever considered it an actual possibility and now here it is not just a possibility but an actuality and I am sort of stunned by it.
Anyway, things around the homestead are coming along nicely and I have been scouting for a place to build a bunk house (and eventual homestead) for my potential visitors from RTW. There is a nice spot in an adjacent cove that might work really well for a second homestead and it would guarantee that I still have my solitude. I think that my best approach to teaching folks is going to be immersion. So having them setup their own place, gather their own materials and do everything it takes to simply 'live' would (in my perspective) be a great way for folks to begin learning.
Day 1527. Well it has been an odd string of events recently and I will try to recap a few of them before the details begin to blur and while the memories are fresh. Five of the RTW folks came out roughly two weeks ago and two of them have stayed on as apprentices. Which is sort of where this portion of the tale begins.
Clair and Rusty Brunz (those are the two folks that stayed) said they had met and married 'after the apocalypse' (as they put it) and that they really just want to 'get back to the land' and 'be one with nature' to which I merely chuckled and told them squarely that I probably could not help them with those two things but I would show them how to properly bury their shit and how to purify water for drinking if they were inclined to learning such pragmatic things like the aforementioned ones and plenty of others.
Even though I was sort of teasing them they seemed to relax a bit and both chuckled when I said 'Look I do not want to call you my apprentices because I think the word (along with the people that tend to misuse it) is both tasteless and rather tacky.' All of which lead the three of us to trying to come up with a better word to use but nothing seemed to fit. So after a bit more discussion we realized we needed a good thesaurus to consult (my own thesaurus being a pocket thesaurus and rather useless) we surmised to venture into the nearest town and find the local library. Needless to say that first night we all hit it off rather well and before long we were cracking jokes around the fire and telling stories as if we had all known each other forever.
Although I definitely enjoy my solitude the joys of good company are not lost upon me and I must say I thoroughly enjoy their company. So anyway we trek into town with the wagon, two hand carts that we fashioned from old bicycle parts and us three singing quirky old pop songs together. Eventually we found the library (it was not very far from that cafe I found on my previous visit) and in that library is where things got weird.
First off when we entered the library around noon the front reception area was immaculately clean. There was not a speck of dust, dirt, cobwebs nor any other sign that the apocalypse had occurred just beyond it's flawlessly clean double glass doors. Which was spooky in and of itself but there was a very slight man just beyond the reception area in what I guess would be called the 'library proper.' He was dressed in the age old attire of a janitor's gray jumpsuit and leaning on a large push broom completely at his ease and obviously in his element. I am still not sure if the name he gave was Earl, Hurl or Daryl because he spoke rather quickly and with the accent of someone with deep roots in these old mountains.
Anyway, he was a nice enough fellow and knew exactly where the thesauruses were kept and although he said it was not available for checkout because it was in the 'Reference' section we were more than welcome to sit at a table with it and take as much time as we wanted to because in his words 'This here library is always open now ya see? Did not used to be that way but it is the way it is now. A lot of things are different now but I think that this here library always being open is the most important thing that is different. Uh huh I do indeed think that it is indeed.' After making this statement he bowed to us then muttered something about 'the dust is collecting' and ambled away pushing his broom ahead of him.
We found several words in the thesaurus but the one that had the best ring to it for all our ears was 'helper.' Before leaving the library we attempted to locate our host to no avail so I left him a note on the checkout desk saying thanks for his hospitality and that we would hopefully meet again.
We did a bit more scavenging around town before heading back and other than finding three rather decent deep cycle batteries we cleared out the entire cache of coffee from the cafe. Just as the cafe began to dwindle from sight behind us and I was really starting to feel the weight of the wagon I was pulling behind me, all the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
Everything happened quickly after that as movement to my left catches my eye and several dark masses appeared from the thick brush beside the road. My mind was frantically trying to put a word to what I was seeing and opening my mouth to yell all that comes out was 'Big fucking cats!' The absurdity of my statement gets me and I bark a laugh just as a fourth shape emerges from the brush. This one is easily twice the size of the other animals and it is one I actually recognize. The hyena! My brain shouted and I barked yet another laugh which even to my ears sounded a bit crazed.
As if the laugh were a cue the hyena pounced in among the cats and even though the cats had the numbers they quickly fled as the hyena let out a litany of some of the strangest and perhaps most frightening sounds that I have ever heard from any animal. It did not even pursue them it merely looked from me to them with those bizarre and intelligent eyes as they fled further and further away. Then the hyena gave itself a good shake, looked at me one last time, seemed to shrug, then slowly turned and walked back into the brush where it rapidly disappeared from both sight and sound.
A bit stunned by the entire affair my compadres were standing there slack-jawed and Clair eventually cleared her throat and said in a somewhat quivering voice 'Was that a friend of yours?' and after considering this for a moment I said 'Yeah I think it is.'
Day 1563. The Brunzes have settled in well and have proven to be both remarkably apt at learning new things, skills and ideas as well as being extremely thorough in following instructions and 'sticking to the plan.' The last of which I probably cherish the most because any plan worth developing is generally worth following through on and folks deviating from the plan tends to perturb me to no end.
We have mostly been working on building their (and any future helpers) homestead in that area I previously mentioned. They both really liked the spot but nonetheless they wanted to scout for another site so we spent a few days hiking around with me pointing out the pros and cons of each area that we looked at and ultimately they saw the logic that I had applied to weed out all the other sites and settle on the one the I did.
Initially I was a little irritated over their insistence to at least look at all the options until I realized that this was a great opportunity to begin teaching about all the things that go into selecting a viable site for long-term habitation and cultivation. I must say that I have stepped into my role as an instructional teacher quite well and have actually taken great pleasure in meticulously explaining the details that I know, being straight forward about what I do not know, and above all learning each day and not being some arrogant 'know it all.'
Anyway, aside from the new folks being around and all the progress that them being here has facilitated (because I actually have help with larger projects) things have gone on much as they were before which is to say not too shabby for the 'end of the world.'
Day 1586. I finally got the time a few days ago to give my new neighbors the grand tour. First we hiked up to the derailed train camp where they heartily laughed as I mimed out driving the bulldozer and using it to push the boxcars into their current 'wagon circle' formation. I think mostly they were laughing at the bulldozer noises that I was making which to my own ears sounds like a good mimic of a diesel engine but I am biased so who knows what it really sounded like to them.
We did not spend much time there but I did take the time to show them what goods were stored there, how to access them and where the inventory manuscript is that needs to be updated if anything is added or removed from the inventory. They seemed slightly surprised by this last bit and all I can think is that I guess they just had not considered that I had perhaps made it this far by being at least somewhat organized.
All of that aside, they both agreed that climbing over the bulldozer to get inside the 'wagon circle' is a brilliant temporary solution but not one that seems very practical for the long-term. They also pointed out that given a little fuel we could put the bulldozer to good work doing what it was built for as opposed to operating as a set of stairs. I readily agreed with them on both accounts and made a mental note to myself to spend some time in the next few days to think over some solutions and plan a trip into town with the mule, the wagon and some fuel cans and see what I could do in the way of finding some diesel fuel.
From the 'Train Depot' (as I sometimes think of the place) we set out for the fire tower and after reaching there we camped out at it for a few days. My new compatriots spent a great deal of our time there cloistered away in the room at the top of the tower. At first I thought they were up there doing some romantic frolicking but I was soon disillusioned of that when Rusty presented me with the map they had sketched out from the view at the top of the fire tower.
I say 'sketched out' but that really does not do either of their talents any real justice. It was absolutely a work of art and although I could clearly tell that two different hands had been to work on the same page, their styles complimented each other well and the intricate details of their workmanship was truly astounding. The more I told them how amazing it looked the more they both shook their heads and assured me that this 'preliminary work' (their words not mine) was nothing compared to how the finished product would be. They then explained to me that they had brought both canvas and paints along with them for the sole purpose of map making. From what I can gather Rusty had made quite a few maps since the 'world ended' and that while working on one such map was how he and Clair had first met not long after the initial upheaval and madness that accompanies any apocalyptic event.
Well anyway, I have rambled on here a bit but suffice it to say that everything is moving along so well that it makes me a bit nervous that something pretty wacky could happen at any minute and although my mind tells me that 'everything is going awesome' my instincts are telling me that I need to stay alert, be ready and to start making some contingency plans for scenarios that could unfold because hell it is after all the 'end of the world' and if one thing is for sure... shit is going to happen.
Day 1597. I have had the place to myself the last few days. The Brunzes (as I often affectionately think of them) are off filling in some details on the map they started at the fire tower. There are several coves (hollers in mountain-speak) where the topography is hidden by the lay of the land. So they cheerfully told me that they were going on a walkabout and would return with a 'very complete' map of the surrounding area.
In truth they had worked out several maps between them, some detailing waterways and watersheds, others detailing farmlands and pastures, others detailing trees and timber types and yet even others detailing wildlife. When Rusty began showing me all the maps I made a joke asking if somewhere among all those beautifully detailed maps if he had a map of all the maps. He told me that was a brilliant idea, looked around with that dazed look that I have often before seen on the face of an artist caught firmly in the grip of their passion and he then physically shook himself, looked at me, looked at the maps in his hands then hurriedly put them back in the leather satchel he always kept them in and ran off through the woods calling for Clair and laughing. He kept saying 'A map of the maps' in between fits of laughter and as I watched him fade down the trail he began skipping along and laughing louder.
The next day they approached me about the walkabout and we settled on a maximum of five days before I would come looking for them if they had not returned which we all also agreed would probably be unnecessary and that if they really set a good hiking pace then they could be back in roughly three and a half days. I told them what I already knew of the areas which really was not much since I had mostly stayed in my own little holler and when venturing out I generally stay to the river and main roads.
Anyway, since they have been gone I have been building them a little one room shack near their homestead area. They have been staying in a tent this whole time and although it is a pretty nice tent it is still just a tent. So I used the mule (which I gave the name Curly sometime back but never mentioned it) to drag over some black locusts posts and poplar rafters on a sled I built recently just for that purpose and set to work putting them a simple shelter together.
The little shack came out pretty good for what it is made with (other than the locust and poplar) which is just a bunch of old plywood that I had, some tar paper and lots of old roofing metal which once painted will look just fine. I left the doorway open and figured that when the time comes for a door I will teach them how to build one and they can only blame themselves if it does not function as intended or is just a pain in the ass to use. For now I hung a piece of heavily sealed canvas over the doorway and called it good enough.
It was really an enjoyable project and will hopefully inspire them to start working on building their own place. Honestly though I just could not stand to see them staying in the tent anymore and decided to do something about it. I thought about waiting but doing it myself took a third of the time it would have taken to do it and teach them along the way... so maybe I shirked my duties (as a teacher) but damn will they be happy to come back to having a roof over their heads especially since it has been looking like a storm is brewing.
Day 1599. It is looking like that storm is finally about to let lose it's fury upon the mountains which is good because we need the rain after the rather dry winter and spring we just had but I also find it worrisome since my helpers have yet to return from their walkabout.
The last three days I have spent mostly just cleaning, inspecting, sharpening and generally maintenancing my tools. Often during that time of dutifully 'tending my tools' (as I like to think of it) I kept staring at the horizon and the seething mass of clouds building there and as the clouds grew fatter, heavier, darker and more numerous a niggling sense that my helpers weren't going to be back in the time-frame we had allotted began to grow inside of me. Call it intuition or just a 'feeling' it steadily grew stronger until the sun rose on the fifth day (today) and it became a 'near certainty' that I would be heading out into the approaching storm front to try and locate them or at least figure out what had delayed them.
Before they left we had worked out a rather rough route that they were going to take so that if I did have to come looking for them then I would not be left to blindly sweeping the countryside and could (hopefully) find the trail markers they were going to make along the way. The markings were to be drawn (with a red construction crayon) at the base of the tallest tree on the tallest hill in every holler (cove) that they visited. They would mark a line upon the tree when first entering an area and then draw a circle below it when leaving an area. We had worked this system out between us and decided that if there was no such tree then they would mark the tallest object they could find and if they were outside of a holler (cove) then they would leave markings at roughly one mile intervals.
It may sound sort of paranoid to have them leave such a 'breadcrumb' trail but the other purpose for doing it is that we want to potentially create a trail system that connects all the various hollers (coves) together and the markings (and exploration) are the first steps to doing that. Apparently Rusty had spent a few years doing property surveys before the 'world ended' and he was adamant about finding the shortest and safest routes through the countryside and connecting them together. All of which he enthusiastically explained to me with this sort of sparkle in his eyes and a sort of 'merry excitement' that I have come to enjoy about him.
Anyway, I am procrastinating and the storm is steadily building and now that I have 'buttoned up' the homestead, left enough food out for the dogs, got my hiking gear packed and written this entry... I am going to head out and attempt to find my wayward friends.
Day 1603. The rain finally let up yesterday and I was able to get back on the trail of Rusty and Clair. Thankfully they were rather easy to find and what had happened to delay them was quite obvious. They had crossed the river at some point and before they could recross it, somewhere upstream something broke (I am guessing a dam (or even a series of similar water controlling devices) and the river had not just flooded beyond it's banks but was full of fast moving debris.
Just in the few hours that I have been here beside it (with Clair and Rusty stuck on the other side of it) I have seen dozens of trees, lawn furniture, toys and several cars swept along by the murky torrent of water before me. Since my arrival here at midday we have tried several times to shout back and forth to each other over the sounds of the churning water but other than a few garbled words like 'you' and 'flood' none of us have been successful at shouting (and being heard) over the din. I want to tell them that there is/was a bridge several miles upstream and perhaps they could safely cross there. So I did my best to pantomime that we would all stay where we are for now and in the morning we would begin hiking upriver. From the way they bobbed their heads and waved their arms I am feeling confident that they understood at least some of my pantomimed intent. For now though I am going to make myself comfortable and take a long nap and see what tomorrow brings.
Day 1604. I was awoken some time just before dawn by something licking my hand and a girl's voice saying 'Please wake up Mister.' At first I thought I was dreaming but after blinking my eyes several times in the weak morning light and yawning deeply I realized I was not dreaming at all. I sat up and came face to face with the hyena that had been licking my hand and it immediately sat down on it's haunches and gave me what looked like a toothy grin.
Just behind it stood a girl that looked to be soaking wet, shivering and biting her lip as if in concentration. Before I could say anything she pointed across the river and following her gesture with my eyes I could see a large fire burning on the other bank and in it's glow I could see Rusty, Clair and a third figure that looked very similar to the girl standing near me still pointing across the river.
I just sat there a moment wondering if I was dreaming after all but the wet shivering girl before me snapped me out of it and I draped my blanket around her and busied myself making a fire to get her warmed up. As the fire slowly began to illuminate the gloom around us I looked around for the hyena and of course it had already faded away but from what I initially saw it was looking rather healthy which was nice to see considering how scrawny it had once been. I also got a good look at the girl's face. She has I guess what people call 'delicate' features with and exotic shape to her eyes and the eyes themselves (one blue and one gray in color) held what I can only describe as a striking mixture of depth, humor and shrewd intellect.
I brewed coffee and asked her what her name was and she said 'Eva' which came out as 'Evaaaaa' from between her chattering teeth. I decided to wait on asking her anymore questions and handed her a cup of hot coffee which she took with a smile, wrapped both hands around the ceramic mug and after taking a few small sips she turned the mug up and downed the entire contents, belched loudly and still gripping the mug with both hands held it out for more. It was quite the sight to see and after barking a quick laugh I gladly filled her cup again and was un-surprised to see that her shivering was beginning to subside. I have a feeling we are going to get along just fine.
One thing is for sure shit just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
Day 1605. So much happens in a day that it is always a challenge to pick and choose what makes it into theses entries and also not get lost in the details along the way. From Eva I learned that the hyena lead her downstream (after pulling her from the water) directly to where I slept and in her words 'Sat there licking ya hand like it was honey.'
She explained that her and her sister got washed out of a bus when a bridge further upriver buckled beneath them as they were attempting to cross over it. The bus was being driven by a lady she calls Gram and she feels certain that Gram is alive. She also illuminated me to there being two hyenas. As she put it 'The big one got me and the little one grabbed Evy by the hair but the currents took them and that evil dark water sucked them away.' Kind of grim for a twelve year old but hell almost half her life had been lived after the 'world' ended and there was no telling what kind of stories she could tell.
Anyway, after some shouting and arm waving to the Brunzes (and Evy waving to her sister and blowing her a kiss) we put out our respective fires and hiked upstream the few miles to the bridge. There was just enough of it left to walk across and the other three joined us on our side rather quickly. There was sadly no sign of the bus but this did not seem to distress the two sisters who both seemed in very high spirits to be reunited.
When I asked if they wanted to look for the bus they shrugged in unison and said in unison 'Gram is fine. She's driving the bus.' I gotta say something about it chilled me or maybe 'spooked' me is a better way to say it because goosebumps rose all over me as I looked at the twins before me seemingly identical in every way except where one's eye was blue the other's was gray (and vise versa) which at least will save me the embarrassment of not being able to tell them apart.
Clair had told Evy about RTW and was surprised she already knew about it and that they were actually heading there before getting 'sidetracked.' Neither of them would elaborate further about the nature of the 'sidetracking' so I let it go. Rusty seemed unfazed about anything and enthusiastically showed me the maps he and Clair had drawn on their 'walkabout.' He kept saying the word over and over and I wondered if he had been saying it over and over since the last time I saw them. Knowing him probably and knowing Clair she had just laughed and good-naturedly egged him on to by all means have his walkabout!
So now we are camped not all that far from the homestead and should finish the rest of the hike home by late evening which will be wonderful because the Brunzes will not see the new abode I built them until they actually arrive at their place. I am looking forward to their surprise.
The twins have proven to be avid hikers and pretty good on the trail. They can also talk for hours about science, technology, the best things to salvage, electricity generation, and a variety of other related subjects. The RTW folks are going to love having these two sisters on board. Hell I have even learned a few things just idly listening as we hiked along one paved road after another.
Well, I am going to turn in for the night. I am looking forward to getting back to the homestead, the dogs, the mule and my rocking chair on the front porch.
Day 1607. So we got rained on pretty hard yesterday which made the last leg of the journey home a relatively soggy climb up many miles of steadily rising terrain as we wove our way out of the foot hills and into the mountains. That part of any journey leading here is a laborious affair. Which has probably helped keep most folks (and albeit predators) at bay because there is more water and easier hunting down in the low country.
As far as folks go I figure they would think to themselves something like 'Well, up in the mountains where the terrain is rugged and the game scarce there just ain't no telling what is up there and furthermore whatever is up there can see me coming from far away... so I will just stick to the easy way.'
At least that line of reasoning worked well until Cara came along. Everything had changed with her comradery and me agreeing to consider taking on helpers 'apprentices' from the Academy (as I often think of RTW) and then the Brunzes had come and we met the Librarian as I think of him and although we have visited the library twice more I still cannot make out his name through his accent.
Then there are the twins (whom the Brunzes gave the use of their new cabin to and yes they loved it but that is a different story) the twins are odd to say the least, then there is also their Gram somewhere in the region driving (what I learned from them) is a wood gas powered, all wheel drive, treaded (with those amazing triangle shaped independent treads), dual winches on the front and back, and to top it off a snow plow on the front and both a scissor lift and crane on the roof. My jaw dropped as they fantastically described this vehicle in great detail and how it all works to pretty much 'go anywhere and do anything' as Evy put it.
Apparently they had actually built most of it themselves with their parents before they passed away and Gram came which to them was a windfall because Gram was tall enough to 'really drive the bus' (their words) and although they had worked out driving it together they could not drive and also feed the firebox... so Gram changed everything for them and they 'hit the road' (my words) which from their best estimate was about thirteen months ago.
Their father was a retired aircraft and automotive racing mechanic and their mother was an electrical engineer that designed hardware and software for deep space exploration probes and apparently the twins had learned their parents crafts inside and out along with dozens of other skills they had taught themselves over the last many years since 'the world ended.'
Anyway, I have prattled on here but it is good to be back home and see that all is well after my brief stint away. I have been considering planting some hay this year and although I was thinking about plowing by hand or by mule after talking with the twins I think I might use the mule to drag an old tractor up here and have them set to work on converting it to run on wood gas. I figure it will not hurt to ask even though they are raring to head off to the Academy after a visit to the fire tower and the Train Depot.
I am not sure how it came up but they learned there was a cellular tower near it and whoa did they get excited over that little tidbit. They got rather animated in explaining their idea to make cellphones potentially work again (at least those near a functioning tower) and although they got pretty technical in their description (and although I can usually keep up... they completely lost me) but basically the way phone service providers used to work was that they were all 'carrier dependent' (meaning no service providers equals no service) except for 911 calls which worked anywhere from any phone that could connect to the tower regardless of whether there was a 'service provider' so knowing this plus their mother's help (with dismantling a cellular tower near where they lived) the twins had worked out how to hack the system and potentially make any and all phones to work through applying it. They said the biggest hurdle would be that everyone would have only that one phone number to call and that all the phones would ring at once when it is called but that they could eventually figure out how to assign individual numbers. Like I said I could only follow so much of their 'geek speak' but it seems like an idea worth investigating further so we are going to head up to the tower some time later this week after the rain clears up and things dry out a bit.
Day 1616. [REDACTED] Time Corps. Year Of The Earth 2052 Agent Lopez Quantum Signature 'Infinite Love' DNA Type: Human. Designation 'Realtime.' Express Permit Status: Allowed!
Day 1632. Well things are not going all that bad other than some critter getting into my wax worm colony and eating almost all my worms. I never got out of the habit of calling them that even after knowing for all these years that they are actually caterpillars. Fortunately there is a bunch of unhatched ones in the colony and now that I have built a real lid (that actually not only latches but is on hinges) and not just relying on the makeshift cover I had made for it with an old screen door back when the 'world' was first falling apart and I was thinking about having a long-term food supply on hand for ducks and perhaps chickens.
Little did I know that the wild dog packs would wipe out my ducks (oh how I miss their eggs) and that the 'worms' would keep me and the dogs from starving those first few years. I originally learned of them from something someone had 'posted' (when there was an internet) and from that I learned about wax worms in general and how they eat plastic. I will admit at first I was only really interested in using them to help get rid of my plastic garbage but the more I thought about it the more I realized that there was plastic litter everywhere (that was back then and now the litter is literally everywhere) and that how easy it would be to keep the wax worms fed year round and furthermore plastic has an extremely long shelf life so storing their food would be no problem.
As flawed as my thinking was it had it's merits because I started my first colony not long after that. I will not bore you with the details of my early learning curve with them but suffice it to say they need a little bit more than just plastic in their diet but albeit not much. My own personal observation is that they are absolutely delicious when fried with wild onions and raspberries. The dogs like them in any form but I mainly just dehydrate the worms in the summer and store them in used dog food bags (along with a few other ingredients) that I keep in a pantry. I am not even sure the dogs noticed the transition in diet.
Well, I have rambled on about the worms but suffice it to say the critters will not be getting into the colony again and I am going to take the time over the next few weeks to build two backup colonies. The Brunzes actually have their own colony going now and they even have a little dog they found (or it found them) while they were out hiking. It is a little purple tongued chow mix that does not remove itself from always being Clair's shadow which she (it is a girl dog) absolutely adores.
Anyway, the twins on the other hand have taken over the Train Depot and although they have yet to master getting any cellphones to work they have converted the bulldozer to run on wood gas and used it to not only 'right' the derailed train engine but also place it back on the railroad tracks. The last I saw them I asked if they had the train running and they just rolled their eyes at each other and shook their heads in disgust. I think I told them 'You will' or something similarly encouraging which was met with more eye rolling and some skeptical head shaking.
The Train Depot itself has taken on a life of it's own being almost completely transformed by the girls presence and hard work there. All I can say is that it is damn impressive what they can do left to their own devices. I am glad they decided to delay heading off to the Academy for a few months and stuck around. Although I still feel like there is something odd about them I have firmly decided that I like and enjoy that oddness whatever the heck it is. They also got a small tractor converted to wood gas for me (it took them three days!) and for the first time in a very long time I find myself wanting to 'drive' as many places as I can and just enjoy not having to walk everywhere I want to go.
I did get that field plowed along with a bunch of other tasks that just would not have been easily possible without machinery but I will spare you the details and just say things are not going all that bad at all.
End: A Story. Book One. Part One.
A Story: Book One Cover
Thanks for reading!
This portion and all subsequent portions of this story can be found on the Hive blockchain here:
A Story. Book One. Part One. Can be found here: https://peakd.com/homesteading/@jacobpeacock/a-story-book-one-part-one
A Story. Book One. Part Two. Can be found here: https://peakd.com/homesteading/@jacobpeacock/a-story-book-one-part-two
A Story. Book One. Part Three. Can be found here:https://peakd.com/writing/@jacobpeacock/a-story-book-one-part-three
A Story. Book One. Part Four. Can be found here:https://peakd.com/writing/@jacobpeacock/a-story-book-one-part-four
A Story. Book One. Part Five. Can be found here: https://peakd.com/writing/@jacobpeacock/a-story-book-one-part-five
A Story. Book One. Part Six. Can be found here: https://peakd.com/writing/@jacobpeacock/a-story-book-one-part-six
