The empty time

The empty time.

After the revenge.

The wind is the only thing that is moving. The sky is blue and the sun bright; as if the universe is mocking what is left of humanity. I have crept unwillingly, from my makeshift bed and gazed across the silent town. To escape the stench and probable disease, from all the rotting remains of thousands of human bodies, I have set up camp across the valley in the uninhabited industrial park. No industry now, no anything now, or ever again; it is like looking at a painting that surrounds me a full 360 degrees. I am seeing all, but also taking in so little. It is incredible; almost all humans wiped out in such a short time. Before the news channels faded out they had been reporting the same incredible scenes of destruction, the same mindless killing of any and all humans from all round the world. An orgy of bloodletting and murder. If there is anyone to write a history of the end of humanity, they will claim that it had only taken twenty one days from start to finish. This is not really accurate since the origins of the death and destruction were put in place over several weeks, before the terror was actually unleashed. I guess that much of the history I have ever learnt, is similarly light on factual accuracy.

I felt the heart shaped locket I wear on a chain around my neck, a solid silver reminder of my needs and my belief. On one side the engraving is of St, Francis De Sales. patron saint of the deaf and my savior. And on the other side the traditional yin yang symbol of how everything was part of everything else. It is probable that there is quite a lot of noise, from the howling of abandoned dogs to the complaining anguish of the un-milked cows in a nearby farm; from the birds in the sky to the harsh clash of discarded metal doors, which must be flapping around in a warm wind; but I can hear nothing. I have been totally deaf since an accident as a four year old. My world is one of silence and now only a very few others have survived to share the gifts of Gaia. I left my sleeping space and used bottled water to wash myself and to wake up my mind. I have chosen this industrial warehouse because it has an office block which includs a kitchen and toilet block, it also was the main distribution hub for a supermarket chain. This means I have an almost unlimited supply of bottled water, tinned food and even batteries to power lighting, gas cylinders for cooking. I could stay here till I grew old and died, without ever needing to find more supplies.

I have not seen another living person for 3 days, the stairs to my new home are gated well enough to stop any hungry dogs who might catch the sent of my cooking and that is all the security I am bothered about. I have found a Range Rover only a few months old with a full tank of fuel and the keys still in place. I have decided to set myself objectives for every day, this is in order to keep some purpose to life. My task for today is to explore the local farm equipment depot. To see if I can find submersible pumps capable of getting fuel from the underground tanks in all the abandoned filling stations, I have figured that with such a pump I can travel about the whole country, just filling the car tank wherever needed. I also need some sort of gun, farmers used shot guns so I also hope to find one or two. Another day I will try to find a military barracks and see if more lethal weapons are available. A shot gun will deter animals but I can not be sure that there are not others, like myself, who have survived. These others may not be friendly, so weapons seem a good idea. Last night I climbed up to the roof and searched for lights, I was temped to try and set up a beacon of some sort, but do I really want others to find me? Not sure about this and so for now, I will keep a look out for others while never advertising my own existence.

The agriculture depot is easy to break into, less easy is the inner sanctum of managerial offices. The safe is on no interest, what good is money now?. I have found submersible pumps they are all designed to be used for water or animal effluent but I am guessing they will work for a while with petrol and since I will not be having to buy replacements I can discard and replace them as necessary. I have also found plenty of twenty gallon containers,to fill with petrol in case of need. I have also commandeered a trailer, no need to worry about the right number plates, filled this with my acquisitions. As I am leaving the depot I stop, the smell of burning has drifted into my face with the breeze. The wind is from the direction of my camp but I am sure that is not where the smell is coming from. I can not see any sign of smoke just the smell of burning, not flesh but wood and rubber, not a camp fire but an industrial smell. I drive back towards my warehouse home and start to see smoke, black smoke, unhealthy smoke. The town is burning, how this got going I do not know but it may be some one, now among the dead, had left aflame burning, now the whole town is alight. The valley will stop the spread to my base the wind also pushing the flames on a path parallel to the valley floor; so I can find something to eat and sit on the roof and enjoy the sight of all those bodies, all that striving, all that pointless ambition, turning to ash. Packs of dogs and groups of cats are fleeing from the urban fireball, stupid thought at this time but what is the collective for a group of cats? The wind has veered to bring me the stench of burning buildings with bodies also being consumed, cleansed from the earth, turned to ash along with all the material possessions, now as pointless as their previous existence. The wind has shifted again so now just the “light show” to fill my senses. The cleansing of the world is beginning in earnest. In my mind I can see the fires taking over every town, every city, every building constructed as part of human vanity. I have considered finding a remote mansion, preferably one from history, with a moat and secure fences but for now the idea of having to move all my supplies, water, food, batteries to such a rural ideal is too daunting. My next task has to be to find a generator, I have fuel and storage now need a generator that is new enough to have an instruction book. I will go back to the agricultural depot, if I can raise the energy. This lethargy is a surprise, I was expecting to be invigorated by my survival, uplifted by the prospect of having everything just as I make it, lord of my whole world, yet I find I am drained, mentally exhausted and just eating is such an effort. Why bother is the nagging thought that keeps coming to my mind.

I must have drifted off into sleep because it is now dark I am again, aware of the world. One big disadvantage of being deaf is that I tend to sleep though events others do not, it also has the one big advantage. I has not affected by the subliminal messages urging death, killing then suicide on the rest of humanity, I also avoided the visual images that reinforced these messages. The world that is now dead had been a place of endless visual and audio messages, the daily input of millions, AI generated subliminal messages have been inserted into these with an overriding order that each person must never mention to anyone that they know the rest of humanity is trying to kill you but you are to wait the signal that the time is right and then you can kill them first, then defeat fate, by killing yourself. These inserts into everyone's video presentations were followed by similar inserts into every television and radio transmission all round the world, satellite and terrestrial, all where infected, even military radio and emergency service bands all carried these deadly messages. Repeated over and over again millions of times in split second inputs to the brains via the ears and eyes. Then the signal was given. Children first since they are the easiest to manipulate, the older you are the less liable to succumb to the insidious messaging. So the young were told to kill off the old first, in order to save themselves then turn on each other then kill themselves. Killing the elderly first; was necessary before they can organize resistance, then kill your friends, your family then yourself. So ended the human race, not that it is a great loss, it has been too long since anyone was able to actually think, and so there was no creativity. Even the endless protests about what ever the latest righteous anger was aimed at; were structured to conform to some agenda, set by one of the mega wealthy corporations. Seems odd but rebelliousness was manipulated and people protested against conformity while conforming to a desired, but secret, objective. So many had an endless devotion to rebellion but never knew where this is going to lead. Well it has led here. So the young were told to kill off the old first, they were persuaded to do this as a means of saving themselves; then hidden time lapse instructions were to turn on each other then kill themselves. The middle aged were told they were so guilty about the sate of humanity and the planet that they all had to die. They could save themselves by killing their neighbors but then other instructions kicked in. This time lapse indoctrination was so clever. Each person held all the instruction but they only came to the awareness of the brain, when the previous stage was completed. Why am I not affected? deafness and preferring books to TV. Because I can not hear the audio bits and because I choose not to watch TV.

In case there is a history to be written, I will leave my locket to whoever, or what ever, comes after me. I have decided to bury this locket to preserve it from the destruction that is taking over. Inside the heart shaped locket is a chip which will be of interest. How do I have this and why do I know so much about the way AI was used to destroy human kind? 9 months ago I was a bit drunk and got so very, very pissed off with a girl who mocked my deafness. I am also an expert, previously labeled a child genius, a natural, in AI and applications software. It was all so easy. Now all the data required, is on a chip inside my locket.