M Day

Chincoteague Island, VA

14 February 2320

I am totally alone, in the shattered remains of my broken home. I’m the last of my family (as far as I know) to be alive. I only have electricity because of the geothermal pipes that have been dug 2 miles from my neighborhood. They were dug 6 months after “M Day.”

It has been a year since the day that wiped out most of humanity. That was the day the meteor fell. Didn’t even show up on NASA’s radar, just came out of nowhere. Honestly, I had expected humanity’s downfall to come in the form of a plague or one of the famines that had swept the planet in the 22nd Century, not a meteor strike.

The rock had almost been a global killer, and scientists said that it would have been if it had hit somewhere closer to the mainland, instead of the middle of the Pacific. There was a tiny island called Pitcairn (incidentally, that’s where the sailors stayed after the Mutiny on the Bounty.) God, that was so long ago.

I’m recording this video in the vain hope that there will be future generations that will want to know of the meteor, beyond what some geologist can tell them. That is, if there ARE future generations.

The meteor that wiped out most of humanity had split the tiny island of Pitcairn in half and had thrown rock and dust into the atmosphere. It was probably 30 miles high, from the spotty reports that I got. That’s all communication is now…spotty. There are a few of us that communicate by Ham radio. It’s good to hear other voices besides my own.

Before the big space rock hit us, I had a wife and two daughters. I was blissfully ignorant, or ignorantly blissful. Take your pick. After the nuclear winter that followed, crops around the world failed. That led to mass starvation around the world. The industrialized countries were the hardest hit; not that anybody had it easy.

First, the skies went dark. Then, when they couldn’t get any sun, the crops failed. Since the crops all failed, and there was nothing for the animals to eat, they died off. All those doomsday preppers that they used to make shows about? Yeah, they had it easiest for about 3 months, then they started dying off.

Anyway, back to my wife and daughters. It still hurts to talk about it, but I’ll give it a try. Hey, that’s what video editing is for, right?

My wife had breast cancer. She was dealing pretty well with it, until M Day. Cathy responded well to treatments, and her tumor had shrunk to the point the doctors were about ready to take it out. Then M Day came, and suddenly, no operation, no hospital, no gas for the car, nothing.

Cancer took over her body, and she died about 3 months ago. My twin girls, just 8, well, they had it as bad as she did. They were heartbroken at the loss of their mother, and there wasn’t so much food to eat.

They stopped eating because they were so depressed, and somewhere Carmen picked up Ebola. She gave it to her sister. I wanted to help, but I didn’t want to get Ebola from them, either. Looking back, I wish I had.

I buried them next to their mother in the backyard. Now, all I have are memories, pictures, and the odd video of them in happier times. That, and I kept the silver locket that Consuela used to wear all the time. Her mother had given it to her when she was 7. It opened to reveal pictures of her mother and me. She said it was her favorite present that she ever got.

Toward the end, she knew that she was dying. She made me promise that I would take the locket so I would have something to remember her by. She was so mature for her age. Not that her sister wasn’t, she was just…. different.

I’ve got a call coming in just a few minutes from another radio operator friend of mine in Australia. His name is George. He seems nice. I would like to have met him under better circumstances. Anyway, I’ll sign off for now.”

16 February 2320

“Hello, again. I talked to George the day before yesterday, and another friend of mine in Rwanda this morning. They said that the sky is getting lighter where they are. There may be hope for us yet.

The lack of sunlight has killed off almost all of the plant life, but a comparatively few trees are hanging around. I’ve even heard over the radio that there are a few rodents left, and a ton of bugs. Why are there always bugs? They say roaches can survive a nuclear war, but they’re not very tasty, so what’s the point?

Thankfully, I’m not on the west coast, which I’m sure was devastated by multiple tsunamis. Since I’m on the east coast, there was less damage to the piers and such. Even some boats are going out. That’s kept me from starving to death. I’m one of the lucky ones.

The people in the Midwest are the ones that are well and truly screwed. They can’t grow food, and all their livestock is dead, so they have nothing to eat but bugs and rodents. At least I have fish.

The powers that be don’t ship very far now. Only as far as a bicycle cart will take them in a day or two. There’s no refrigeration, since that would take fuel, and since the pumps stopped working, there isn’t fuel to go around. It’s really a stone-age existence for most of the people left. There doesn’t seem to be much point in going on anymore.

It’s a good thing we have worms left. That’s what I fish on. There aren’t as many fish in the ocean, anymore. That’s because the lack of sunlight killed the vegetation, and that killed all the fish that depended on it. The bigger fish started dying off when their food supply was gone. Now, we’re reduced to scavengers and bottom feeders. Wait a minute, those are the same thing. I’ll have to edit that part out.

God, I’m so hungry. I’ll have to go see if I can find some dinner. There’s got to be rats or gators or something left.

18 February 2320

While I was out setting traps the other day, I met one of the other survivors. Her name is Katya. She’s from Russia, but her English is pretty good. She was in the States for vacation a year ago when the meteor hit. Planes couldn’t fly because of all the dust in the air, so she’s been stuck here away from her friends and family.

I hate to tell her that odds are that they’re most likely dead, anyway. Whether she wants to admit it or not, I think she knows that already.

Anyway, Katya knows how to fish and trap pretty well. She shared her dinner with me last night, and I think we’re hitting it off. I don’t want to say I’m in love or anything, but hers is the first real face I’ve seen in a long time. And it really is a good face.

Since my house was burned by the fires that raged around the planet in the aftermath of M Day, I built a little bunker for myself. It’s made of cinderblocks, which thankfully don’t burn. I managed to save a few articles from the house before it burned. I had a fireproof box for important documents that don’t seem so important anymore. I have a few pictures, a generator that does me no good without fuel, and, of course, my daughter’s silver locket. I have that hanging on a nail in my bedroom.

Katya told me that there is a trading post that meets once a week, on Saturdays. She said they go from sunup until about noon. I don’t have much to trade with, but I’ll gather what little I have and go. It is a long way out of town. I didn’t used to think of 15 miles as a long way, but when you have to hoof it the whole way, your perspective changes.

21 February 2320

I’m recording this on Friday because I’m leaving after dinner to go to the trading post. I want to get a start tonight, because I want to be there first thing in the morning to see what they have. It will be good to see other people, too. I mean, Katya has been great, we’ve gotten pretty close the last few days, but other survivors and news will do me good.

23 February 2320

I hit the jackpot! I had a good time at the trading post. Of course, most of it was done by twilight, since that’s all the light we get, but I could see well enough that I got some stuff.

I checked my traps Friday night before I left, and I had 6 rats. Katya and I split a rat, so we only had 5 to trade, but we got some good deals. I traded the five rats for a bicycle. It’s a nice one… a 21-speed mountain bike. It made coming back a colder trip because of the wind, but I’ll take it. It was so much easier than walking.

Next week, I’m going back, and I’ll be a little more prepared. My shed didn’t burn down in the great fires, so I’ve got a heavy steel tow-behind trailer that I can load up with things to trade. I’m sure I can rig up something to tow it with my bike.

Katya had 3 rats that she trapped. She got an electric light. Since we’re one of the few communities with electricity, thanks to the geothermal station, it’s going to do her some good. She got a bike, too. Not as nice as mine, but it will get her from A to B. Now we can take bike rides together.

At the post, there was a woman who had a hydroponic grow light. Since she didn’t have electricity, it was doing her no good. If she’s there next week, I’m going to try to get it off her.

2 March 2320

It’s getting lighter all the time now. Partially, I think that’s because spring is coming, but I really think things are looking up because the dust and rock is falling out of the atmosphere. There may be hope for us, yet. I said that already, but it’s still true.

I had met some people at the trading post last week. They were pretty tight-lipped about news of the world, I guess because they didn’t know me, and they were trying to be careful with what they told a stranger. They could use it against you.

This week, I went back and saw many of those same people. They were a little warmer and more receptive this time. They told me that some of the survivors had banded together and were working on getting solar panels up and going for when the dust falls out of the sky.

9 March 2320

Another successful trip to the trading post. I have a smoker that I built, so I smoked some of the fish that I’d caught this week, a few animal pelts, and a carving that I did. I taught myself to carve a little, just to alleviate the boredom.

I got those hydroponic grow lights and some seeds. Now, I’ll have to build a greenhouse so I can have some vegetables.

Good news from one of my Ham radio buddies…he said that the skies of Australia are clearing, which means they’ll be clearing everywhere soon. I’m so tired of being cold and having no food. Maybe the sun will come out and warm things up. We’re gonna make it.