A good day.

[darkness0within]

A good day.

Today is a good day. I found some tinned food in one of the corner shops a few miles away. Don’t know what’s in them though. Could be anything as the labels have long gone and they’re a bit rusty, but beggars can’t be choosers so I took as many tins as I could carry in my rucksack. I’ll make sure to go back there to collect the others soon.

I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve seen anyone, seems like forever. Just after the event there were a few people drifting through the city, though most I wanted to avoid as they were just looting the stores, and worse. For a few months the sounds of screaming and gun shots echoed around the place. But eventually there was just silence.

Years come and go and flow together. The last printed calendars were for 2029, I saw them in a department store a while ago when I was looking for clothes. They looked quite faded so it must be quite a few years ago.

I was thinking how much I miss the sounds you used to hear. Cars and Lorries trundling over highways. The hum of people going about their daily lives. Dogs barking. Birds singing. Now all is silent, just the sound of the wind remains. And the occasional collapse of buildings.

 
Well I’ve written enough for today. Looking forward to tucking into whatever is in those tins I found today. Probably dog food, but I’ve got used to that.

Darkness.

[heartfelt7]

Scary, Darkness. It's a great read and movie material.

[darkness0within]

Hello Heatfelt7.

Glad you like my little doodle. I'm about to add another part to this apocalyptic piece.

Thank you for reading my friend.

[darkness0within]

It’s been a few days since I wrote anything. I write the same old things really, and I’m beginning to wonder why I’m bothering even doing it. I mean, who the hell is going to read these scratchings anyway? Maybe some alien in a future time perhaps?

On one of my excursions out in dead land I found a building whose basement was stacked with military grade weapons and ammunition. Not that I need them as I’ve already scavenged a few firearms over the years. But I never can resist a few rounds of ammunition. I think the army probably set up here near the end. Quite a few skeletons dotted around the place in tattered army uniforms. And lots of spent shell casings, probably trying to deal with the looters.

Anyway here I am back in my den. I found some batteries for my radio in one of the shops that still had a little life in them. Scanning the airwaves I found nothing but static. The emergency broadcast channel has been silent for a long time. I remember the voice on the radio kept saying “This is a state wide emergency, stay in your homes” and “help is on the way”, but no details as to what the emergency was, which I thought was strange at the time.

Cut my leg today while out and about. Not good. Had to put three stiches in the wound to close it. After dowsing it in disinfectant. That made me scream I can tell you. But I can’t afford to get an infection. My brother Jake got an infection from a cut, and he almost died at the time. He spent a week in hospital. Hopefully I’ve stopped any problems, but the wound is still throbbing.

Well I’m going to hanker down for the night.

[darkness0within]

Today I went to investigate a residential building quite near to me that partially collapsed the other day. The noise was deafening at the time, and the dust enveloped the whole area for a while. The building was close enough to make this building shudder a little, which was quite scary thinking I might be buried alive at any moment. But it held up. But I’m seriously thinking it might be time to move somewhere else soon. A few more cracks in the walls and ceilings have appeared since then.

I carefully negotiated the rubble of the newly collapsed building to see if I could find anything of use, keeping an eye what was still standing. One thing I did notice was the putrid smell of decay. I’ve not smelt that for quite a while. I imaging there was something sealed up somewhere in the building and the collapse had let the air to it. I’m not going to dwell too much on what it could have been.

In the end I abandoned my search as it was getting quite warm out there. So I went to the watering hole to top up my water supplies. Actually a basement in the city that for some reason collects ground water. Though in recent times there seems to be less water collecting in there.

The sun is particularly hot today. The thermometer reads 47 C and it’s only early morning, I recon it will touch 60 C by the afternoon at this rate. So I’ll wait till evening till I venture out again.

I’ll write more later.

[darkness0within]

I was reflecting today on how I’ve got to where I am.

Wind back a few years, (I don’t know how many) to when the world I knew fell apart.

There really was no warning when it finally happened. Though the seeds of doom were evident all around when I think about it. I’ve written about this so many times so I’m not going into detail again, it gets boring writing about global warming and disease. And the effect it had on the people around me. I sometimes wonder if there are any other survivors out there somewhere. Perhaps I should take the chance and move out of the city to search for them.
There is no one here in the city. No people. No dogs. No cats. No birds. No Rats. No Insects. Nothing.

If someone does find my dairies someday you could read all about it in my earlier writings, and even videos if they survives the ravages of time.
In the past, just after the event I made video dairies for a while, till the tech gave up on me. I acquired and used multiple video recorders and smart phones over time, but in the end something just fried all the chips in them. Might have been something to do with the sun, as over the years it has been getting brighter and warmer. So now I just write it all down on notepads and any scrap of paper I can find.

It was really hard at first to adapt to this new reality. Surviving the apocalypse is not all is cracked up to be I can tell you. It was scary.
There were times when my life was in danger on a daily basis. From marauding gangs to finding enough food and water to survive. But by a miracle I made it.

Going to eat now, I’m hungry.

[darkness0within]

I’ve made the decision to move my camp to another place in the city. It’s going to take time as I have loads of stuff to move. This building is no longer safe long term so there is some urgency.

I’ve been scoping the area for somewhere suitable and I think I’ve found somewhere that will meet my needs on the outskirts of the city. There are some dwellings there I can take my pick of that look in reasonable order that will do for a while, and there is a deep well nearby that still seems to have water, I drank a little to test and the water seems ok. As there is no chance of being attacked now I don’t need to defend it like this place before.

The only problem is it’s a good hour, maybe two hours away from here. If it wasn’t for the rubble everywhere to negotiate it would probably be only three quarters of an hour. And I’ll have to move in stages in early mornings and late evenings while there’s still some light, but not too much light.

I’ve noticed my eyesight is not as good as it was, everything looks a little bit misty these days, which is a bummer. I hope it does not get any worse, I’d be in real trouble. Not that I’m not in trouble already. A lone survivor in a desert world with no one to talk too. No backup if things go wrong. I try not to think about it too much. I sometimes do wonder about my sanity. Is this all real?

This really is not a good point to stop writing. But I’m tired.

[darkness0within]

It’s been quite a while since I put pen to paper. I can’t find any working pens anymore, and most paper I find these days just disintegrates on touch. But eventually I found a derelict store where there were some writing pads locked away that seemed ok, and I’m using pencils to write these days.

I was worried that everything I had written was going to be in the same state, but living in a deep basement until recently has protected them so far it seems. I made the decision to move them to my new location, but I’ve sealed them in metal ammunition boxes and buried them as deep as I can to try and save them. I even made a crude headstone type marker out of a small boulder.

The move to my new location did not go as well as I hoped. Took far longer than I thought it would, but I’m settled in now and the blisters from hauling stuff to this new location have almost healed.

Finding food is getting more of an issue. More often than not the tinned stuff is bad when you open them these days. Only one in twenty cans have food that is still just about edible. I need to find another source of food soon or I could starve to death here.

 
I remembered there was an army base some twenty miles away and thought I might try my luck to find food there. But on hindsight I decided it was too dangerous. If I got caught in the open during the day I would certainly die quite quickly in the heat of the sun.

Then I remembered the cache of weapons in the city I found a while ago. There may have been some ration packs there, so I went back to see. After sifting through the debris I managed to find some boxes of rations. Mostly sachets, but a lot of tins too. All pristine with expiry dates ranging from 2037 to 2050. I opened one of the tins with some excitement… Peaches. They looked and smelt perfect! Well perfect for someone that hasn’t seen a peach for many years. They tasted ok too. But once I got back with a few sachets and tins my guts took a turn for the worse. Probably because I haven’t had peaches for so many years. I’ll take it a bit slower next time.

I’m going to try to get to the army base sometime in the future. I’ve just got to work out a plan on how to do it without dying.

[darkness0within]

Today I have moved the last of the ration packs and tins to this location. It’s taken quite a few days but I’ve done it!

Looking at what I’ve got I have about four months of food by my reckoning. Five or six if I’m careful, maybe more if I can find more stores with tin or dried food. Though most will be bad now there maybe be some still edible. But I will have to go further out now to find it. Which means I’ll have to find somewhere to hanker down during the worst of the daylight hours, so it’s risky, but I’ll have no choice.

Something strange happened today. As I was hauling the last of the army rations I could have sworn I saw something in the sky in the distance just for a moment. Could not tell what it was as my eyesight isn’t so good these days, but there was something there. A dark blob, then it was gone. Was it just my imagination? It made my pulse race at the time that’s for sure. Certainly would be the first thing I’ve seen in the sky in years apart from wispy high cloud if I could believe it. If there was something there it was a long way away.

I wish I kept my diary going every day so I knew how long I’ve been on my own. I might be way out but I think its twenty five, maybe thirty years. I have no way of knowing for sure, but that would make me about forty five, maybe fifty years old. It doesn’t really matter that much to me, but I just find it interesting that I survived this long. God knows how.

[darkness0within]

I was very lucky today. While searching around for provisions I almost fell down a large hole. The ground just gave way on me and almost swallowed me up. I was left dangling holding on to a sharp piece of metal. Wrenched my shoulder and my hand was badly cut in the process but I survived. I could see the bones of my fingers, and it bled heavily till I staunched the flow with some old bandages I had in my bag. Though it seeped through those and I left a small trail of blood on my way back to my base. I was feeling quite faint by the time I made it back.

I’ve cleaned and stitched the wounds as best I can with one hand, but that’s put me out of action for a while. Lucky I’ve a good supply of food, though only a couple of days’ worth of water. The hand hurts like hell, as does the shoulder. Long gone is any idea of taking pain relief, I’ll just have to suck it up.
Getting water out of the well is really going to be a challenge. I’ll work it out somehow. A case of having to.

 
I could swear it’s getting hotter. My thermometer reads 42 degrees in the shade at the moment. Normally it’s about 35 degrees. Hopefully it will cool down a bit by dusk. Though I think I’ll sleep anyway, I feel exhausted right now.

[darkness0within]

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything. I’ve not been feeling too good these past few weeks. Shoulder seems ok now but my hand took ages to heal. I kept braking the stiches, and two of my fingers don’t move as well as they did. But I’m still alive.

I’ve managed to get water from the well a few times now. I cursed the previous owner of the damned thing though as there is no hand pump. It was not a problem before as I just threw a bucket down on a rope and hauled the water up. Trying that with one hand is almost impossible, but I worked out a technique to do it, though I’ve had the odd rope burn on my good hand which is not pleasant.

I’ve decided to try and get to the army base when I’m properly healed. There will be supplies there that will keep me going for years. I hope.

It will be a huge risk. But it’s clear to me I will not be able to stay here much longer. And I will have to travel light to have any chance of making it. Just a lot of water and a little food. My rifle and a little ammo just in case. But who am I kidding? My enemy will be the heat. I’ll have to travel at night and hope I make the twenty three mile distance before the sun gets too high in the sky. Or find somewhere to hold up during the day. But it’s pretty bleak that way. It’s so long ago I can’t remember if there was anything between the city and the base. Maybe a Dinner, if it’s still there. Anyway I’ll find out when I make the journey. It may be my last chance to make the trip. I’m certainly slowing down now as I age. Whatever age I am now.