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

  During our conversation that evening, with our new companions, we discovered that one of the new group ladies, Carmen by name, had been a jeweller. She had, with her family, sold and repaired watches. Though most of the watches she had worked with were electronic requiring little actual maintenance other than fitting batteries, we were delighted to hear that she was able, having learned the art from her grandfather, to repair old fashion clockwork watches subject to the proviso that she could obtain the items required. She provided the additional information, on being asked a direct question, that she had on several occasions adjusted and repaired antique grandfather and small clockwork clocks, including wrist watches, for her clients. This ability would make her a very valuable member of our society. This would be especially so if our metal workers could fashion the necessary components to the required specifications. At that time this remained a big and unanswerable question

  Another of the new ladies was a female hairdresser who had retained the basic tools of her trade. Casey was her name and with her talent we considered she would probably be looked on with much favour within our group. If she could cut masculine hair her services would be even more welcome being a currently unavailable service and it showed.

  The remaining male and his wife were tailors which would make them very useful if we could provide them with suitable material for the continuance of their profession. Until such material could be provided they would at least be able to modify and repair our clothes thus making these more long lasting, comfortable and pleasing to the wearer. Our little band’s limited capabilities would be greatly enhanced by these people. The biggest “if” at this time, however was whether our group, knowing the history of the new group, would accept them. I was, however, certain that their previous adventures would present no problems given their abilities and their alternative options if they were rejected from our society.

  As we had, for humanitarian reasons, released the new personnel we considered it was necessary to arrange a guard rota from our little group. Though we were all very tired we were at that time unable to fully trust our new guests. On the positive side they knew they were entering a new life and once they had experienced our shelter facilities they would be unlikely to present any danger. They had accepted a far less comfortable regime in order to survive and we offered them a better and potentially longer life with more security and definitely more choices of all sorts.

  Our first impressions of their characters were, with some minor reservations, favourable. Their only crime, that we were aware off, had been accepting an option that gave them a small chance of survival within a group that anyone else would have considered savages. Their acceptance of the arrangement had given them a very uncomfortable time. Any normal person, unless severely masochistic, would have been very glad to accept that their previous arrangement had now been terminated. Their new life would give them a number of future options.

  From our point of view these ladies were young, educated and would be able to provide many benefits to our future. They would, at the very least, provide further genetic diversity but against any benefits they would require access to our limited stock of food and clothes. The alternative view was that, within reason, the more persons we could support the better our group’s long term chances of survival.

  Considering only their abilities they would more than adequately justify their inclusion within our fold. At the most basic level their body heat would benefit the environment more than the small increase in required ventilation. The energy required to provide this would be more than saved by that energy no longer required at the rich mans shelter. In addition it was probable that our crude heat exchangers would warm the incoming air more than that lost due to the increased ventilation. As we, at that time, expected the external temperature to fall further any physical energy increase provided by our potential guests would be an important factor. In our shelter we had, at that time, sufficient food reserves for a reasonable increase in personnel so any cost benefit analysis for their acceptance was, in my opinion, definitely positive.

  The following morning we had to prepare for our return to our main shelter as soon and as rapidly as possible; we did not wish to unduly tax the rich mans shelter facilities any further. Firstly, however, we had to tidy, clean and where possible reorganize the shelter stocks. It was necessary to restore the shelter functionality, as far as was possible, to its original condition.

  We then had to rebuild the snowshoes and recharge the shelter batteries; charged lead acid deep cycle batteries would function far longer than discharged units and as the charging took place whilst we were using the generators it resulted in little extra expenditure of our diesel reserves. Everything had to be done to support any future visitors to the shelter. Any such guests we would probably welcome as they might, as we had discovered within our new recruits, provide some missing expertise.

  The gentlemen who had inherited, by violence, the edifice of the shelter had taken little care of its facilities. They had allowed the water reserves to be nearly exhausted potentially endangering the viability of the shelter due to lack of sanitation. For this reason, during all that day, we exerted ourselves to the maximum and did some good work restoring the facility to a reasonable semblance of order. During this period one of the new ladies, I believe it was Carolina though it was dark and she did not speak, found a shotgun and some ammunition which she passed to me. This gave me some additional confidence in our new group. A contrary argument could, of course, have been what else could she have done.

  When we had arrived at our main shelter, however, Carolina proved she would be a great benefit to us as she then advised, on finding that her expertise and experience would be useful, that she was a fully trained surgical nurse. This she had not mentioned on the previous evening as she had not considered it relevant. It was only on arrival at the quarantine shelter that she admitting her training and was immediately added to our shelter medical team. In that quarantine shelter she proved of great value in treating our injured ladies in the poor conditions of that environment; but that’s a little later.

  Within a few hours the small shelter was again returned to a state to receive future guests. As previously decided we would leave all that we did not need to support us on our return journey in the original shelter. I suppose that the rich mans shelter could then be seen as a web to entrap new recruits; though with the very best of intentions on our part.

  The last thing we did for our hoped for future guests was to write a detailed set of instructions. Here we gave them directions for the use and maintenance of the facilities and advised any such survivors that we would, if possible, return at some future undefined time to assist them. We left them considerable quantities of fuel, food but no weapons other than cutlery. With reasonable care up to twenty persons could, in what would then be somewhat cramped conditions, survive for a reasonable period.

  The accommodation would benefit from a reasonable number of occupants to keep the internal temperature acceptable. The outside temperature was, by this time, well below zero and would undoubtedly get colder. They had, in the shelter, the facilities to make hot meals but this would use important reserves of energy as there was then only twenty five full bottles of gas remaining. How long this reserve would last would be down to the care taken, by any new inmates, to maintain their environment within the limits of the facilities with which they had been provided.

  That night we, from the main shelter, had a discussion ranging over our work within the shelter. We decided that it was true that there were some risk involved in making our generous offer to unknown new inmates. Our reward, however, would be the benefits of the ability of those that could have survived for such a period in the prevailing conditions. Unfortunately we had to accept that we might receive a repeat of the recent inmates and we were at a loss to know what we would do should that prove to be the case. It would be true that any survivor group requiring our assistance was liable to have developed a strong survival instin
ct around a leader. Because of such bonding, within their surviving group, this might result in them being excessively aggressive towards our offer for them to join our group. In addition any actions they had previously taken, to allow their survival, would be unknown to us and might present a risk to our “original group”. Against this we hoped that any survivors would, once in our main shelter, accept entry into our strong community spirit. Into such a group any relatively small number of new personnel would have to integrate to obtain the benefits of our society and we would not allow any new members to retain any weapons.

  If anyone was unable, for any reason, to integrate into our group our “original group’s” survival would, in all respects, be paramount. In such a case they would have to be ejected, if necessarily by force (even lethal), from the shelter. Such ejection into the current external environment would almost certainly result in their extinction. Knowledge of this, we considered, might result in extreme physical resistance to excommunication. In the circumstances any such resistance would, of necessity, have to be dealt with for the preservation of our society. To resolve such an impasse, however, we would have been able to offer them a return to the rich mans shelter as an external associated group which, hopefully, would then be acceptable to them. Fortunately this scenario never occurred but I well remember that discussion in that shelter.

  Early the next morning, having sufficiently tidied the shelter, we prepared a warm meal and several flasks of hot coffee and soup for our journey. We were then able to make our final preparations to leave. We closed down the shelter but left indications, in the form of simple pointers, to enable anyone that came into the area to find the entrance and gain access to the unlocked facility.

  We fitted the snow shoes to everyone except the injured female child who was fortunately the lightest of our band. She travelled, without significant additional effort, on one of the sledges. We took with us our original sledge and that which had once belonged to the invading group. On these vehicles, in addition to our food reserve, we carried a very limited quantity of the personnel property requested by our new friends. Their remaining property had to remain in the shelter but that which was missing would be largely replaced from our stores; it consisted mainly of clothes and blankets. What they were allowed to take with them were mostly irreplaceable personnel momentous and professional equipment of little weight or volume.

  We set up the standard rota to pull the sledges and two males went in front and expanded the path through the snow and rubble. We travelled fast and fairly easily as the amount of new snowfall was small and we followed the path that we had created on our journey to the shelter. As we passed we initially made an effort to disguise our tracks within our limited means. This work was performed even though I, and others, believed it was a wasted effort in the prevailing conditions. However, it was part of our instructions so we dutifully maintained the effort during the early part of our journey.

  Reduced precipitation was, at that time, to be expected as both the land and sea would, by now, be much colder than normal and evaporation, necessary for precipitation, had been much reduced. The majority of the group considered that due to the lack of precipitation our path would remain an indication of our presence for some time therefore, based on our instructions, it should, to the extent possible, be hidden. Mobile democracy was maintained and the additional workload continued.

  Later there was an acceptance of my opinion. This was due to the argument that any sizeable group would find it very difficult to travel any great distance in the prevailing conditions. Additionally their ability to cause us any danger would be severely limited by their lack of numbers and capacity to carry food, clothes and weapons from a presumably relatively safe place to an unknown destination. As a concluding argument we were looking for new inmates.

  Because of the above we agreed that the potential benefits of the more the merrier, within reason, should be conclusive. We should, therefore, stop expending energy in disguising our path. This change of mind was, in itself, partly due to exhaustion which further confirmed us to the new arguments. This was most important, in my opinion, as we would need all our strength to get home especially with our far less than optimally fit personnel.

  The original main shelter visitors, having lived in our clothes for several days, had built up a considerable level of accumulated oil and dirt which, though not a blessing to others, helped insulate us against the cold that was now quite severe. As to the new members of our group though they were dirty and certainly not perfumed they had made some attempt at cleanliness. Unfortunately this cleanliness now began to tell against them and they became more physically distressed by the cold and their strength rapidly ebbed away.

  To assist in their protection against the elements we had dressed them in as many layers of clothing as was possible. We then covered their exposed skin with grease that they would not suffer too severely from the ravages of cold wind. The young girl was well covered with as many clothes and blankets as we had available because she would not have the benefit of exercise to keep her warm. In addition we advised her to lay in the foetal position to minimize the area for heat loss. Though uncomfortable, with a very painful leg and suffering from the severe cold this brave young lady never complained.

  The journey to the river turning point, indicated by our markers, was exhausting for the ladies. It was fortunate for us in that it was also uneventful. In order to rest our guests we stopped for the night in a large clearing, some way above the river bed for improved safety. We drank our coffee and sipped our soup for supper and struggled to get fifteen persons into the four, three person tents we had brought with us. We arranged our usual two hour guard rota each element of which was made up of the members of one of the tents. By agreement the first guard duty was given to the tent with the injured young lady so that she would not be troubled during the night.

  Each tent was provided with a weapon as we now had some faith in our group and it was expedient for us to allow this trust. We considered that even the most troubled of our compatriots, at this point, would have realized that, based on the principle that we were telling them the truth, they would be heading for a relatively improved level of comfort and security. This assumption would be based on our description of the main shelter which had been as accurate as we could put into words. Even ignoring this benefit it was definitely in their interest to get to our shelter as rapidly as possible in order to remove themselves from the weather and into some far superior, if still limited in area, form of protection from the elements. I was personally content to consider that they no longer represented any significant risk.

  To preserve ourselves during that night we arranged a small fire against the cold using material from the remains of a forest round the clearing. The fire was advisable so that our guards would not freeze during their watchful period as we found that, during our previous guard period, lying down was liable to induce sleep. For this reason the guards, excepting the young girl, were instructed to leave their tent and keep near the fire for warmth. The chances of an invading group of humans or animals were small and any that did show would probably be put off by observing our numbers and our attentive guards. There remained, however, a very slim possibility, that we then considered acceptable, of desperate human predators attacking us for our rations.

  Though a small predatory group was considered a slim possibility a group of any size that might endanger us would be an even smaller risk. Nevertheless a small group might make advances to join us as we were obviously a well organized party. Such a group might benefit from joining us for mutual support which we would probably have found acceptable. As is obvious, from this narrative, we all awoke safe and refreshed in the morning. We then had, and greatly enjoyed, our few remaining biscuits and some now merely warm coffee for our breakfast. We repacked the transport and continued to the main shelter which we hoped to reach before the evening.

  Initially our passage through the snow was relatively easy but it soon became
more difficult and not a little dangerous. Our original path across the river had disappeared, as expected, down the valley with the slowly moving sludge. It was therefore necessary to break a new path. The problem was that the frozen sludge, forming the remains of the river, was an effective impediment to travel for our larger group. The sludge was far from flat and several items of rubble, such as trees, strove to block our path.

  The sludge was slowly moving at an almost unobservable rate through the valley towards the east. The sludge, itself, was nearly solid and could be crossed with care, using our snow shoes, but the energy expended remained exhausting; especially for our guests. In addition it had become obvious that the sludge was probably building up, unobserved, further up the valley. Eventually we could expect a sudden burst of movement as that obstruction collapsed.

  We were left with two possibilities to be discussed. Firstly we could return to the rich mans shelter that we had recently left and retrace our steps hoping that later the system would, by then, have stabilized after a collapse. Alternatively we could continue, hoping for a safe crossing, to our more comfortable destination. It was decided, almost unanimously, that we should continue as once we had passed the obstacle we would be at the main shelter within a few hours. The alternative rich mans shelter was now more than an exhausting day’s, largely uphill, march away and this, we believed, was now beyond our capabilities. It was further observed that as we had limited our food reserves, to reduce the load carrying requirement of our group, the return option was, in reality, unsustainable. It was by now obvious to all that we had insufficient reserves of strength, in the ladies and children element of our group, or heating, for our limited food reserves, to realistically consider the rich mans shelter as an option. We had to move across this danger zone as rapidly as possible and hope we suffered no disaster.