Dystopian Shuffle

Day 49

It has been raining ash for a few hours now. A thin layer is starting to cover the ground. Where is all it all coming from? The sky is still crimson even though it is noon .It’s eerie how quiet the world is outside. Only a few more hours until we can go back into the shelter where it is safe. Dad has been walking around the property setting up sensors to collect data. Lily went with him this time and I have door duty. Instead of the plasma gun we went out with the heavy firearms. Bullets take up a lot more space than las packs, but they pack a big punch. Dad set me up with the Barrett M95. It has a custom scope that can switch from day to night filters and even a powered heat sensor. The ammo for this thing was expensive; at least that is what Mom complained about. David, Lily and I were all a part of a local gun club for teenagers. Lily was voted the chapter head this year. David played it off like he wasn’t upset about not being picked. Anyone with a sister knows he was. To be fair Lily is amazing with both close and long range shooting. Courtney is part of the club to, but is not really interested in it .Dad has been checking in every couple of minutes to let me know where they are if I can’t see them. What was that noise………..

Day 48

Having a slate tablet is nice. Finally I don’t have to knitted, sew or crochet everyday. My sisters and I take turns with the slate which is fair. Dad has been looking over the results from his test a lot. The daily routine of packing and working out has not changed, so we are still leaving the shelter in a few weeks maybe? Mom got the new radio working and most of what they are saying is not good. They keep talking about a cascade failure and people disappearing. It got bad enough that Mom turned it off. Mr. Robinson called reporting in on what is going on around him. Dad didn’t put on the headphones anymore.  They talked for a long time about how they should be seeing more people and weren’t. The monsters we ran into where not the ones Mr.Robinson was talking about. Which is great because now I know there are more of them out there. Another reason not to leave the shelter. He finally closed with he got into contact with Fremont over at the cabin. Fremont is the tech guy I was talking about. I guess other families have been showing up talking about monsters to. I sure hope we don’t run into any if we do leave.

Courtney said I was shaking  in my sleep last night she laid down next to me. I know both Courtney and I are getting older, but she is my twin having her close  calms me down. Is it strange that my best friend is my twin sister? Dad said he has to take another round of readings to double check the first results. Depending on how the next set comes out we may be leaving a lot sooner than expected. Tomorrow I will be heading out of the shelter with Dad and Lily again. We went over the plans. This time we need to stay outside a lot longer to get better data. Mom was not happy at all about it. I am not looking forward to going out again. I gave Courtney my turn with the slate and worked on my knitting. I am starting to get used to not having a good night sleep.

Day 47 Part 2

After we got back into the shelter Dad, Lily and I started the decontaminate process. First dad put all the tech in a waterproof bag and it went through some weird looking machine. Then we started the decon shower. First with our Biohazard suits on then off to make sure nothing got past the suit. Those shower are like standing under a pressure washer. Then we dressed in the airlock and headed into the shelters living area. Mom was right there at the door waiting for us. She was not happy with Dad. I have seen that look before and if we were outside the shelter still I would be hiding in it from Mom. On a scale of 1-5 Mom was at a grounding level of not leaving your room till your married. Brooke broke the tension little kids are so good at making things worse or better. It must be a super power that we grow out of. Mom relaxed and wanted to know all the details.

Dad gathered the entire family and told them what was going on outside. The house was gone. That the beast was ready to go if and when we needed to. Then  talked about the monsters. Dad said we might be leaving the shelter sooner than we thought to get to the cabin. He has to look over the readings he got while outside. Also some of the tech he brought back will let us hear normal radio chatter. Dad and Mom went into the airlock to talk some more.

Courtney told me that the whole time we were out that they listened to our comms outside. She asked about the monsters more. Brooke wanted to play so we all colored with her while we chatted. Lily talked about all the animals she saw running out of the forest. She even saw the one antlered deer that had been eating our garden. Mom and Dad really disliked that Deer it ate all of Mom violas. It also ate all the roses, crab apples and Sunflowers. We talked until Mom and Dad came back into the Living area. Mom walked right to Lily and I and gave us a huge hug it looked she had been crying. Dad spent the rest of the day setting up the gear from the beast. I surprised my sisters with the slate tablet  from the beast it even had a data pack attached! I gave my sisters a turn with it as I snuck away to write what happened down. They looked so normal bunched together watching The Sound of Music while above ground the world was a different place.    

Day 47

There are monsters outside and we almost died today!  After what I saw today I am okay living in the shelter for the rest of my life.  I guess I should start from the beginning. Dad woke me up early to leave the shelter.  Mom made a light breakfast and afterwards we geared up. Mom helped Lily suit up and Dad helped me.  We then went over the plans again. Mom kept hugging Lily and I telling us everything will be okay and to stay safe.  I told her I would watch Dads back and will be home soon. Got an extra hug for that. I was nervous and I knew it showed. There was no way to know what laid in wait for us outside.

There are two room you have to go through before you leave the shelter. The first room was the airlock. The second is the anteroom where you decontaminate. Dad lead us into the airlock closed the door then we did a comms check in the anteroom. Each one of our suits has a radio to communicate with everyone. The comms don’t have a far range. After all our gear was check and plans double checked Dad opened up the door to the outside world.

The sky was red and the air thick with ash.  It looked like it was raining outside. There was no noise outside except for the buzz of the comms.  No birds, no cars, nothing. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stick up. Lily took position near the shelter door and waved us goodbye.  At least I would have Dad on this trip out. Lily will be all alone. It did not take us long to get to what was left of our house. All that was left was a pile of smoking debris.  Dad and I carried on to the barn. The barn was dug into ground and was mostly intact when we got there. Dad had me watch the tree line as he tried to open the door leading down. I thought I saw something in the forest and turned to tell Dad, but just then he also  got the barn door open. We both hurried inside and closed the door. It was dark inside until Dad turned on his flashlight and lead us to the beast. Dad pulled out some strange tools I have never seen before and started taking readings of the area. Lily checked in on the comms and made me jump.  She told us that animals were coming out of forest quickly and that we should probably make our way back to the shelter. Dad said we will be heading back soon. Dad opened the door to the Rv and we headed in. Again he took more readings inside the beast then started it up. I looked around for something that I could use for entertainment and found Davids old slate tablet, even a charger!  Dad also took some tech we kept inside. Once Dad was done with his work he headed back to the shelter. We were having trouble with the barn doors again it seemed to take forever to get them closed. The whole time Lily was telling us to move because she saw something. She kept saying we should be heading back. I have never seen so many animals on our land all running out of the forest. It was so quiet not to long ago.  Now it was almost deafening. Dad had me unholster my firearm and let Lily know we were heading back. That is when I saw what the animals where running from. Out of the tree line came three very large looking things. They stood taller than a man. Their skin was cracked and burned with angry red lines. On their hand where claws larger than my head. The eyes glowed a sickly green and their mouth frothed like a rabid bear.  Dad told me over the comms to take position and walk slowly back to the shelter. One of the monsters eyed Dad and I then charged us. I didn’t think, I just reacted. I shot it.. All the blast from my gun did was make it charge faster. The closer they got the more I could see just how nasty they where. There was no chance dad and I could out run them, so we fired until the guns charged drained. We downed two of the three but the third was on us.  Dad dove and pulled us both out of the way. The monster stopped. It started moving in a wide circle around us. It stood again and I saw just how large it was. It looked like it was going to charge us again. Before it got the chance its head twisted sharply spraying green blood out and it dropped to the ground dead. I realized Lily had shot it. Any other day she would have gotten a talking to from Dad about gun safety for firing too close to us, but not today. Not waiting to see if more of them showed up we all ran back to the shelter.

46

I am so sore from yesterday! You forget what working out feels like after being stuck in a tube for over a month. Mom ran us through the packing and unpacking drills again. Then more Pt with Dad.  He had us do squats, planks and lunges. It was a pretty boring day after that until after bed. During the night Mom and Dad woke Lily and I up. They took us to the dining room and told us Tomorrow morning Dad, Lily and I will be leaving the shelter to get the beast ready. The beast is a old RV Mom and Dad rebuilt. It has a lot of cool features in case we have to be on the move for a long time. There is even a hidden gun turret on top. Though I have only ever seen Mom work on it. Mostly she uses colorful words when she does, so I don’t know if it even works.. The plan is to put on our biohazard suits and get to the barn where the beast is. I am to be Dad’s backup in case something happens. Lily will cover us and open the door  if we need to get back into the shelter quickly. David was Dad’s back up and I had the honor of door duty, but he is not here anymore. It will be a short trip out. The barn is in back of the house. On the opposite side of the shelter near the forest line. Once we are back in the shelter we will decontaminate in the anteroom for an hour. After planning we set out all the gear we would be using. Dad got out the two plasma guns that he and I would be using from the shelters safe and a long rifle for Lily. Dad, Lily and I cleaned the guns then he put them back in the safe. Only 6 hours till I get to see the outside world again. Maybe I can convince Dad to take a detour into the house to get my slate before going back to the shelter.

Day 45

Mom and Dad had us start packing for the trip to the cabin. Each of us had to pack then repack our bags. I must have packed it 80 times before Mom said it was good. Then she made me repack it again to make sure I could do it in a hurry. After that Dad made us to do some PT. there was not a lot of room, so it was two at a time. Lily and Mom went first then Courtney and I. Dad said that this will be the routine until it is time to leave. That night Mom went all out at dinner, she even made sugar cookies! After all that we had a family game night. Dad even joined in. Brooke fell asleep in the middle of it and my parents put her bed.  Then gave us the talk. Not that talk, but what we might see while traveling to the cabin. We talked for a time about how to cope with what we might see. Courtney started tearing up just thinking about it. I sure hope I can sleep tonight.

Day 41

Tonight at dinner Mom and Dad said we are going to start preparing to leave the shelter! Dad said in 19 days we will be leaving and heading to the cabin. It is the best I can’t wait to be out in the open again! I wonder what sunlight feels like and TV oh how I missed that so much. Our cabin is connected to a little community of families like ours. We meet up every couple of months to talk peppering and learn about survival. The guy who lives in the area fully time  is loaded he was some extech company person. I hope there will be other kids there. The Robinson’s should be there with Will and Beth. I can’t wait to meet them finally. I should make them something. I will ask Lily to help me in the morning.

Day 38

Dad has been on the radio all day today talking to other families in their shelters. Whatever Mr.Robinson told him yesterday with the headsets on must have been bad. I wish Dad would talk to me more I can only stand talking to my sisters for so long. Today they started a knitting circle with Mom and talked reality tv all day. I ended up joining them I mean you can only cheat at solitaire so many times!