Aftermath of the Apocalypse: A Journal

Day 81

I decided to stay in my Aunt and Uncle’s house another couple days. It is out of the way and all the locks still work. It doesn’t even look like it was looted so that might mean the area is not too dangerous. I slept well last night due to pure exhaustion. I’ve been so hyped up on finding my Aunt and Uncle and going back to Maine. But now that they aren’t here, I just feel so worn out.

I have to find out what happened to them though. Which means I must risk D.C. again. Hopefully whoever is in charge there runs a benevolent dictatorship. I’m cynical though. None of the few travelers that had passed through Maine had described anything resembling order around any major cities. Instead, they were all run by violent gangs who strove to take everything they could from anyone not part of ‘their people.’

Tomorrow I am going to start scavenging around in earnest. Any supplies I can find here or in the other houses on this street will enable me to travel faster and stop to hunt/fish/gather less often.

Day 82

Success! As I sit down to write this, I am enjoying the best meal I have had since I stayed with that farmer’s family in like week two. It looks like my Aunt and Uncle were somewhat knowledgeable because they left all the food supplies they could not transport easily. Some of the containers were still sealed so I was able to whip up a couple different things. I am curious if my Aunt and Uncle were too ‘upright’ to scavenge through their neighbors things? I guess it would be very disconcerting if you knew the owners of the house before they died, but still. I found quite a bit of survival food in a neighboring basement and am well stocked up for the trip to D.C.

Also in that basement were several firearms and a lot of ammo. I was able to replace the ammo I used hunting. I brought another rifle and two pistols back with me, along with some ammo for all three. I’m considering taking them with me, but it’s added weight. I don’t need them for myself, but firearms are excellent items to barter with. The pistols would be easier to carry but are useless for hunting so they have less value. The rifle is heavier but could be used to hunt or defend. I didn’t try and trade anything on my way here to Richmond. However, having a few things to trade could be very useful if the people in D.C. are friendly.

On a more sentimental note, I found a photo album among my Aunt and Uncle’s things. I ripped a couple pages out and will be bringing them back. One set of photos really sent me back. It was of a New Year’s celebration a few years before everything went to hell. My Aunt and Uncle, along with their son and his fiancé, were visiting us in Maine. One of the photos shows me trying to teach my cousin and his fiancé how to skate on a frozen pond behind our house. His fiancé caught on quickly, but my cousin really struggled. He was an officer in the Army and very proud of his service. I have no idea what happened to him. Last I knew, he was deployed to Afghanistan. I think he had just graduated from some Army school in the photos though. It was really funny because here he was, a great athlete who worked out every day they were up there, but who could not skate worth anything. His fiancé would not stop teasing him about it. Those were good times, even though I was just becoming a teenager and was obnoxious.

Tomorrow is probably the day I’ll set out. It will probably depend on the weather. I plotted a straight line out of the city so at least leaving will be faster than when I was searching for this house.

Day 85

My schedule has been off for the last couple days. Every afternoon a rainstorm rolls in so I’ve taken to pushing hard till it hits, then resting for an hour or two. The sun is out long enough that I get a good bit of progress in after the storm. I’m in enough of a hurry that I haven’t made any fires and instead push till its almost dark and find a good spot to bed down. I’m still a bit scared that one night I’ll wake up to find a bear sniffing at me wondering if I’m edible, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Day 91

Today I slowed down and focused on gathering supplies. My pack was starting to get lighter, which felt good. Course I ended up bringing one of the extra pistols and the rifle, so it was really heavy when I started. Every time I saw a house, I checked to see if it was inhabited, and if not I searched it. I did have a close call though. I saw a ramshackle old shack and was about to exit the tree line when an old lady walked out the door. She didn’t look very scary, but she had a double barrel shotgun slung. I wasn’t about to risk my life on the hope she asked questions first and shot later.

Day 92

Found a pond about midday. I was able to catch several fish and only traveled a little after I finished cooking them.

Day 95

I’m taking it a bit slower this time around. Last time it took only like 12 days to get from D.C. to Richmond. It looks like this time will be sixteen or seventeen. I should probably be in more of a hustle, but I have no idea what I’m walking into. I’ve been thinking it over. Either it will be a good place for my Aunt and Uncle and they want to stay. In that case I only need to stay long enough to refit and then head back to my family before the weather turns cold. Or maybe it’s good enough that I stay over the winter. Overall, I find that unlikely but it’s a possibility. It would be nice to not live out of a backpack for a bit. The more concerning course is that it’s a bad situation and I need to grab them and book it out of there. I’m worried about that because they are quite a bit older than me. Being forced to go slower and either provide or trade for three people will be hard. Of course, the worst possible situation is that they aren’t there. I try to think about that as little as possible. I know they survived the diseases, the riots, the looting, the natural disasters. I tried to be optimistic on my journey even though I knew the odds were slim. But they beat those odds! It would be a travesty if I didn’t find them now.

Day 99

I shot a deer today. That was this morning, and since then I’ve been working on preserving the meat. I still have a small fire going to smoke the last batch I’m saving. It’s going to be a late night. It was a bit of a godsend though. I’m on the outskirts of D.C. now, so having deer meat to trade is a perfect reason to be going there.

Day 100

I’m so confused. I think I have mental whiplash or something. This morning I found a road headed towards D.C. and followed it. I figured eventually I would run into some of the security guys I saw last time or hit the city proper. I was right. I ran into the security guys and holy shit they were trigger happy. I yelled hello really loudly from a distance so they wouldn’t be startled, but still. The moment I was in view, they both had their rifles trained on me. I had to explain that I was there to trade, and they asked me for some sort of badge? They couldn’t believe I had no clue what I was talking about. Apparently, every local knows of their system. Also, I guess I was coming from bandit country, so they were more on edge on that road than elsewhere. I wonder when they last went out there, because I saw not a single living soul in that area. Although maybe that was due to the bandits.

But this place is crazy. The guards called up someone on a radio! And they picked me up to give me an orientation. It was nice to get off my feet but I haven’t seen a working vehicle in like two years--I saw like a dozen today. Plus radios?! And so many people. It’s the closest I have seen any place to pre-apocalypse life. I’m half surprised I haven’t seen someone talking on a cell phone yet. Right now, I’m writing this under an electric light. Our electric lights work in Maine, but we have to use a generator which requires gas. Gas is hard to find up there, but I guess there is plenty here? They took me to a marketplace where I could set up to sell the deer meat and there is a hotel right next to it. I paid for my room by bartering some of the meat and was able to barter for a couple other things. However, I don’t want to go too crazy. My cover is that I’m here as a trader, but the sooner I find my Aunt and Uncle the better. Also, they gave me one of those tokens today. It’s like a pin you put on your clothing. It is white letters on a red background. The pin says, “The Free State of Columbia.”

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