Our asteroid survival: A fictitional history of the ten year survival of a large ELE asteroid impact by a small, pre advised, group

by Lionel Woodhead

  The next major task was the setting up of our permanent domestic facilities. The fish tanks had originally been only partly filled with water as we considered the initial level of ground-shake would be less likely to damage a partly filled tank. These tanks were, after the pressure wave and the terrestrial aftershocks had reduced to our satisfaction, filled as rapidly as possible from the external well.

  This filling of the tanks had initially been planned for after the preliminary ground shaking had passed but was delayed till the shaking had reduced significantly. It was important to fill these tanks before the uplifted salinated water arrival and we did not expect that for at least another forty eight hours. If salinated water had arrived too early it would have made the procedure inadvisable and might have put our survival at risk due to lack of drinking water. We would then have been in the position of being unable to obtain more of this material until the well water had sufficiently recovered.

  When the additional clean water had been put into one of the fish tanks a small portion of our young fish were slowly immersed into their new environment. The reactions of these fish were closely watched for several days. They were seen to be swimming with apparent contentment providing us with an additional uplift to our morale. On this successful immersion of part of our stock we felt we had probably passed another milestone.

  The release of our baby fish into their new environment and the sight of them swimming now proved an attraction for the children. Their interest in this new element of their environment had the useful effect of further distracting them and thereby calming their anxiety. This recovery from their initial extreme level of anxiety was, unfortunately, not helped by the occasional, though still very noticeable, ground vibrations and noise. The returning material that occasionally landed in our vicinity and some ground shock echoes from the original impact, though much reduced in potency, did nothing to assist our mental state.

  It was the impact fragments that caused us the greatest concern at that time. A direct hit from even a moderately large item could have resulted in the destruction or, at least, severe damage to our shelter. Fortunately, a near miss from even a relatively large object would cause only a significant shaking resulting only in increased nervous tension. It was fortunate that the impact velocity of the incoming debris was now only a few hundred kilometres an hour rather than the tens (possibly hundreds) of thousands of the original impacting material.

  Another worrying effect that we expected, over possibly weeks following the impact, was the heating of the upper atmosphere caused by the high speed entry of displaced material. This heating would be caused by air friction which would heat the returning debris creating great heat in both the upper atmosphere and the debris itself. This hot material could result in major forest fires, the heating of the general atmosphere [possibly to a dangerous level] and the pollution of the air by chemical reaction. Fortunately the great fires of the dinosaur period were considered unlikely due to the reduced oxygen content of the atmosphere of our period.

  These fires and the resultant pollution were definitely of concern to us as no human record of such an event existed hence we did not know what to expect. As time went on, however, one became partly inured to the problem but unknown dangers are always worrying.

  Within our shelter we hoped to alleviate, as much as possible, the discomfort of smoke and other potential fumes using, initially, simple water on cloth filters. If this proved insufficient we had a considerable store of home made activated carbon filters to remove combustion chemicals. This would, unfortunately, require the short term increase of energy usage to overcome the filter resistance. These filters were followed by water on cloth filters to reduce any particulates that might affect the lungs.

  If all else failed we had the military chemical filters. These, however, were of limited number and would only be used as a last resort as they required the use of even more energy. We might then have had to set up one of our small petrol generator to cover any increase in energy usage.

  We had many carbon dioxide absorption pads and chemicals but these would have been sufficient for only a relatively short period and we wished to conserve such elements for medical or other purposes that might occur in the future. Carbon monoxide from the fires was also a potential problem. As a last resort we had a few dozen bottles of oxygen, provided largely from medical stores, which might have helped those most severely affected by the inhalation of fumes passing through our filter systems. The oxygen was occasionally used for headaches and was quite successful for treating such ailments hence it was used as a medical aid.

  We were not sure what ground level atmospheric effects to expect. We had done our best to be prepared to counteract such problems by setting up a simple system to continuously drip cool water on the final cloth filters should this prove necessary. If it had ever got to that level of discomfort we would have been most concerned. The initial increase in temperature caused some minor discomfort but was considerably less than we had anticipated as possible. We were able to keep the temperature, even during the worst periods, acceptable. A little cool water on the cloth covering of the air filters and the smoke fumes and particulates from external fires were barely noticeable. Fortunately, chemical pollution, which our chemist constantly monitored inside the shelter, did not become a concern.

  During the early post impact period lights on the lower animal floor were maintained for twenty four hours a day and that soft music was played through loudspeakers. The children were shown films and were otherwise entertained. It was very stressful for the adults entertaining those children and watching their nervous little faces. Those frightened big eyes had their effect on the population the children now being were aware of the dangers but unable to comprehend the cause.

  We were, however, very fortunate in having a natural storyteller in one of the builders relatives. This young boy, named Carlos Calvo, would now prove to be of inestimable value. Using only his imagination, personality and presentation skills he maintained the attention of both adults and children alike with his simple stories. Those wonderful stories he appeared to develop during his presentation. His stories were skilfully extrapolated to the reaction of his audience who reacted splendidly somehow improving the presentation. He was, using his incredible talents, able to ward off for short periods all those background uncertainties that affected us all. He successfully took his listeners into a strange world of his imagination. Even the impacts of the occasional larger missiles were forgettable while he worked his magic on his audience.

  A problem that plagued the inmates, at this time, was the use of the toilet facilities which had been opened for general use after the pressure waves had passed. It was not considered safe to make general use of the upper toilets so the rule became that pure white and yellow liquid material would be left in the porta potties and anything else deposited in the upper toilets as rapidly as possible.

  Staying in the upper toilet facilities, for any period, was not, at that early stage, recommended. At all times children venturing to the upper toilets were escorted by an adult to, hopefully, protect or assist them in the event of an emergency. We were indeed very fortunate in not having any major adverse event during this period. In fact we had only one slight injury due to a hurried return from a visit to the upper toilets. This injury was merely a twisted ankle that occurred whilst the person was coming down the stairs when a larger than normal vibration hit the shelter. It is, however, true that, in that early period, the situation caused us all considerable concern.

  The porta potties would be emptied, at least once a day, into the upper toilet facility which would itself be flushed at least once a day. This required considerable labour to provide the additional water to the flushing tanks. This work involved some, though I believed acceptable, risk to the working parties involved. For this reason the task was performed by volunteers of whom I was one and fortunately no injuries occurred.

  Though we did not suffer as much as expected, based on our din
osaur extinction research, from the forest and undergrowth fires, they remained a concern as we did not know what was going on outside our shelter. Inside we were only aware of the effects when they past our filters. Fortunately such effects never reached a level of real concern.

  The external temperature did rise several degrees over a couple of days and the rate of this rise did, initially, cause some concern. Fortunately it then slowly returned to levels below normal over the period of the following few weeks. The exact period is difficult to remember as time was not a concern and we were not greatly concerned by this problem once we observed that the effects were reducing. The fires appeared to have been rapidly extinguished in our area by the increasing precipitation resulting from the inundation.

  The area around the shelter had been cleared of vegetation; except for tree stumps that were left to reduce the downhill material velocity resulting from the expected deluge. These stumps existed for a distance of about seventy five meters each side of the center of our shelter parallel to the slope behind the shelter. This work had been performed, during the last few days prior to the impact, partly as a make-work scheme to reduce our anxiety by giving us a final open air task. In reality I have no doubt that it had some beneficial effect during this most dangerous period of the inundation; we, therefore, received a dual benefit from the effort.

  The trees in the proximity of our abode, below the shelter, had been cut down much earlier though the roots and a little over a meter of trunk were left in the ground. These efforts were designed to reduce the local effects of fire and, in addition, the effort probably helped to protect the soil structure and stability during the deluge.

  About forty eight hours after the fires had started the rains began. The return of the enormous volume of warm water lifted into the atmosphere quickly extinguished the local fires. Initially the precipitation was just a heavy shower but it rapidly increased to such a torrent that a walk outside would probably have drowned an unprotected person.

  Our observation of the outside world, at this time, was overcome by the precipitation and the resultant steam damaged our periscopes. Until these units could be repaired we were effectively blind to the outside world. Fortunately for our nerves it was unlikely that this loss of vision would result in any danger as an external adventure, at this time, would have been far too dangerous if not impossible for any adventurous souls. The torrent became so great that we could hear it from within our accommodation at a level that sometimes almost drowned conversation. It was so severe that we feared the flooding might overflow into our accommodation via our air vents. Fortunately this never happened

  Another worrying prospect was that the inundation might expose, by soil erosion, our shelter such that later it would be visible to any casual observer. This also did not occur and I believe this was partly due to the roots of the beheaded trees and the buildings further supported the original soil. A lot of material that was washed down from the hill stopped within our shelter area. The flow appeared to have been slowed down sufficiently by the stumps and roots so that the soil depth over our shelter actually increased resulting in too much material above our exits. This material we had later to remove in order to allow safe exit from our home. We did, as a precaution during the worst twelve hours of inundation, turn off the generators and relied on the batteries for lighting and ventilation. This extreme action was due to the possibility that the pipes, providing air to the generator, might become overwhelmed as these, of necessity, were the least protected.

  There was some leakage of water into the shelter which ended up covering the sump floor to a depth of about twenty centimetres. At no time, thankfully, was the flow rate sufficient to cause us real concerns; though it did cause some discomfort. The contaminated water was later removed, with much effort, through the toilet facility.

  The cleanup work took about two weeks and we do not know, because again we were too busy to measure, how much water had actually leaked into the shelter. After the water was removed we set up and loaded the fungi shelves hoping to receive a crop within the year. The hydroponic units were set up sometime later, due to the manual labour required; especially that required to operate the pumps.

  During this period it was decided that, wherever possible, the inmates would receive three meals a day one of which would be, at least, warm. Actually we nearly always received two warm to hot meals every day as the showers were not then in use and this energy was transferred to our meals. Our insulated cookers proved very efficient hence the apparent extravagant use of energy was not what it appeared and it certainly improved our morale. I even put on a bit of weight which I later lost when our rations became a little less generous.

  We provided everyone with two special drinks, other than water, every day. The choice was a cup of coffee or tea, light beer (warm) or soft drink (also not cold). Drinkable water was available at any time as we had managed to collect a sufficient quantity of this material to last both us and the animals for several months. If it became necessary rationing could have been imposed at any time. Milk and sugar (single teaspoon) or sweeteners (preferred by the management) were available for tea and coffee. Children under fourteen received two sugary sweets, of their choice, every day for the first month. Perhaps this was not best for their teeth but its morale effects on the children overruled other consideration at that time.

  Our limited supply of chocolate was held in reserve for special occasions. Initially we decided to keep this commodity cool so we stored our reserve in weighted waterproofed biscuit tins within two of our reserve water containers. A limited store of ether, not in our external shelter, was also stored underwater as was anything else we considered required this facility. A single small swimming pool was available for human use in case it became too warm. This service was never required to support comfort levels but was well used; especially by the children.

  Our four dogs caused some concern as they were considerably agitated by the loud sounds and earth vibrations. In spite of the dogs being strongly sedated one adult was bitten while attempting to calm them. The bite, in itself, was not serious but its effect on the children was considerable and caused much parental concern. For some time a growling dog made both the children and parents nervous. It was some time before everyone were prepared to accept the dogs as an attraction or a shelter pet but this change did come though slowly.

  The training of the dogs was instigated by the farming group. After a few weeks of this training all of us were prepared to accept that the guilty animal and his companions were not a risk to human or our other animals. For this reason no action was taken against the guilty dog but for several weeks they were all kept away from the children.

  It had always been our intention that the dogs would be working animals and the farmers were requested to train them in goat control and, on orders, for shelter defence. We also hoped they could be trained for animal and human protection, however, in the future they would prove very useful in controlling our later acquired small herds of sheep.

  Initially the number of eggs produced by our chickens was very disappointing at about eight per day but as things settled down and the chickens began to relax we were rewarded with nearer twenty eggs. Later this number grew considerably as we allowed our little investment to expand until it sometimes appeared that chickens were everywhere.

  After nearly a month had past it was observed that the level of precipitation had been reduced to more moderate levels. On about the thirty fifth day we had a day without any detectable precipitation; we could not hear it. In addition the amount of returning debris had reached a level where we considered that such dangers were now acceptable.

  There was still a risk but on the evidence of our ears we decided we would launch our shelter into the more normal routines we had previously planned for our long term occupation. In addition the salination level of the water had returned to an acceptable level; the contaminants had been washed out by rain. We would now be able to open the showers for general use;
this being a great fillip for us all. The payback for this looked for luxury was that the number of hot meals was necessarily reduced.

  An additional small percentage of our fish stocks were now invested into a fish pond that we had filled with new water from the well a few days before. After a couple of days these fish remained content and were obviously full of life having apparently suffered no ill effects. We decided to wait for a further month before entering our last unallocated fish reserves into their new environment. All the fish were young and small having been only a short while before the impact, hatched from eggs. We therefore had no problem with congestion.

  We now realized that life for us all was about to become a little more pleasant, if a little mundane. We genuinely believed we had long past the highest levels of external danger; at least from those elements directly related to the impact. We had sufficient water, food and basic necessities, with even some luxuries, to last for a period of time that should take us through the worst of the current upheaval. We were, in fact, content with our new world order.

  Chapter 6. Early Days.

  .

  We were now living in our hole in the ground. We were aware that if we were to survive we would have to accept that this hole we had created for this very purpose was to be our home/prison for a considerable period of time. It was, therefore, necessary that we should modify the existing concrete box into our medium term, moderately comfortable, home rather than merely a shelter designed to protect us from an initial very dangerous external situation. If the level of comfort remained unacceptable for long term occupation we would have to deal with psychological problems that might destroy the unity of our group