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

  Like most of the political class they had not the necessary intellect or experience to conceive the necessity of having professionals capable of producing and maintaining even the most basic technology. The politicians did not appear to have understood the importance of the technology they would need to maintain both their lifestyle and the consent of the people.

  Having, however, ensured their own physical survival they must have known that without even sufficient food to feed the masses their offer of security had no validity. The situation was a retake of the early period of the German blitz on London England many years before. The ordinary citizens, at that earlier time, were to be effectively sacrificed as no-one was, in reality, going to help them. Fortunately a politician, somewhat unusually, fought to offer the people shelter in the London underground railway system hence preserving many lives and maintaining, for that political class, some faith in the system.

  We now began a systematic, if rapid, search of the village. We had to be quick as we could not allow the vehicle’s mechanics to freeze. We found much that was potentially useful; especially tools and some bicycle air pumps. We also found several bicycles which we carefully stripped down, where necessary using tools we had found in the village, for wheels, tyres, and chains. We even took a couple of good quality frames as these would be useful later.

  We made a point of removing all the nails and screws we could find that were not performing a function together with paper and were pleased to find several books. We found about sixty litres of potential diesel within two central heating fuel tanks. This valuable material was loaded into some of the portable liquid containers we were able to find so that we could transport this fuel to the rich mans shelter. Our visit to the village, using a vehicle, had now, in our opinion, been totally justified.

  We collected together sufficient material by the late afternoon during which time we had started and moved the vehicle twice to keep it operational. We then proceeded to load the vehicle to the limit of what we considered safe. We even went to the extent of strapping some lightweight items, largely the bicycle frames and two blankets, onto the roof. On our return to the rich mans shelter the extensive use of storage space required maintaining the close personnel proximity of the human cargo; it being too cold to consider holding on to the sides.

  The day had proven very productive having provided us with much useful knowledge, additional facilities and equipment; if, unfortunately, no personnel. Some of the material we hoped we would be able to carry back, using our vehicle, to our main shelter. The rest would be stored in the rich mans shelter (the bicycle frames in the house as they would not easily fit in the shelter) until it too could be transported to the shelter if the inmates considered its value justified the expense.

  On our return to the rich mans shelter we covered the vehicle, in the garage, with insulating cloth in an attempt to maintain the warmth within the mechanical elements. We then made ourselves a very welcome warm meal and settled back to enjoy the exclusive comforts of the shelter.

  During our discussions, that evening, we decided that we would use the vehicle to get us to the other triangulation points without our being required to spend several dangerously uncomfortable nights in a tent which, in reality, was not an option. In the planning of this adventure we had previously noted that the second set of triangulated points indicated a target about twenty kilometres, as the crow flies, from the rich mans shelter. The map showed a road passing close by our proposed destinations; being an extension of the one we had used to get to the village. We hoped the road extension would be usable all the way to this new objective. Our recent experience of going to the village had given us some confidence in both the road and our vehicle. We decided that it was well worth a try as a potentially, possibly impossible, six day or longer expedition on foot, in very adverse, probably fatal, conditions, to this destination and back could, if we found nothing, be completed in relative comfort during a single day with our transport.

  We repeated our previously successful mechanical defrosting technique and made a small fire in the garage that night. In this case we intended to maintain the vehicle at a usable temperature for our following morning’s expedition. This additional work would have the benefit of allowing us an early start.

  We maintained a guard rota with the guard’s primary responsibility being the maintenance of the fire but having the very much secondary role of watching for any other dangers that might turn up. We considered the latter possibility an extremely small risk in the current weather conditions. However, as we had recently completed a journey of several kilometres in a vehicle we were aware that there was a small but realistic possibility for suitably equipped persons to visit us. They might attempt this if they saw the light from our fire. This small risk justified the acceptance of the secondary task as, in reality, it required almost no additional effort and there was insufficient light, in the garage, for reading. The secondary responsibility would tend to keep our guards awake.

  For our next journey we estimated we would need about fifteen litres of additional fuel with sufficient food and a tent in case of a breakdown. We still had about five litres in the vehicle so we added ten litres to the vehicle and took a further ten litres, from our discovered fuel, in a container. We considered that as we had found this material we were not eating into our initial reserves but had actually increased the quantity.

  Why did we not simply fill the tank? This omission was in case we had to dump the vehicle for any reason, such as irreparable breakdown, In this case we would not lose so much precious fuel and the ten litres of our final reserve, in two containers, were carry-able or storable. The fuel in the tank would also, on any recovery of the vehicle, be sufficient to fuel a return journey to the rich man’s shelter.

  If we found something useful we would have the ability to take some, or all, of any recovered bounty or, with luck, new personnel back to the main shelter via the rich mans shelter. We hoped that our shelter compatriots would consider this a full justification for using a vehicle.

  It was unfortunate that we had initially agreed, in principle, that we would not use a vehicle, except in an emergency, due to our, supposedly, limited energy reserves. From our point of view, during our discussions in the rich mans shelter, we had not used any of our original reserves. In addition we probably could not have completed the investigation of the distant radio sources on foot in the prevailing weather conditions. Six days, possibly more, in those terrible conditions carrying sufficient rations for the trip would have been extremely risky. I consider that using the vehicle was fully justified. In fact it would later lead to the beneficial expansion of our empire.

  We set out at about 8 o clock in the morning having completed a well cooked and very acceptable breakfast. The vehicle, on which we had lavished such care, started at the push of the button and we set out on our new adventure. We drove slowly in the early morning twilight and looked, with considerable interest, at the scenery. We were all comfortable and in high spirits. At this time there was little greenery and a quantity of snow and ice deposits. A distant frozen river appeared as slivers of green and blue and I wondered if any fish would have survived. I was, at that time, not very hopeful though later I was, fortunately, proven wrong.

  On several occasions during our journey that day we were forced from our comfortably warm vehicle to remove obstructions from the road. These obstructions were usually only small trees and shrubs and we were able to remove everything manually without necessitating the investment of much effort or time. This diversion of effort, however, delayed our progress and ate into our fuel reserves.

  We were forced to drive slowly in a lower gear than optimum due to ice. Fortunately for us the slope of the road was not excessive and the ice had a moderate covering of soft snow which initially improved the grip of our tyres. We had found some snow chains in the garage but fortunately they proved unnecessary as the virgin snow had not yet been converted to ice. We could see that before our current adv
enture the road had not been used by anything for some time. With our current mission being to find new personnel we were unsure if this was a good sign.

  In several places the road was partially washed out. Such changes to the road surface caused us little difficulties thanks to our lovely four wheel drive. Unfortunately getting round some surface obstructions ate further into our fuel reserves. We calculated, however, that we had more than sufficient fuel and the return journey should be easier the path having been cleared by us and the slope tending gently downhill; at least to the village.

  In about two and a half hours we approached our calculated reference point. We stopped and carefully examined our objective through binoculars. A faint sun was fairly high in the sky but still giving some shadow and we observed no movement in the countryside. At one point I thought I saw a little splash of light further up the hill towards the east. I advised Fabio of what I had seen but the flash was not repeated and my observation was unfortunately ignored. I was sure I had seen something but it could have been a reflection off of the snow or even a piece of glass so regretfully I accepted the decision.

  We re-entered the vehicle and proceeded slowly down the road an additional few hundred meters. All of a sudden there was a sound like the thwack of a whip on bark, a pink mist and a splash of colour to the left side of the vehicle. The driver, Edmundo, shot backwards and then slumped forward over the steering wheel. The vehicle turned sharply to the right. Instantly Fabio pulled on the handbrake and vehicle stopped at near right angles to its original direction.

  Fernando and I, jumped out of the vehicle as we had been taught. Both of us moved rapidly in different directions hoping to confuse our attacker. I went to the right looking for some protection among the rocks. Fernando must have thought quickly as his instructions were to defend the vehicle. He got out on the left side and ran to the left behind some large stones. The sergeant, Fabio, who had the rifle, stayed with the car as did Miguel who was trying to help Edmundo. I could see, when I had reached the protecting rocks, that he was obviously severely injured.

  We had some toxic questions that required immediate answers. Firstly and most important was where and who were the person or persons who had fired that shot. Our opponent might have been close or distant both options potentially requiring different solutions to the primary problem of removing the danger to ourselves by finding and dealing with our attackers.

  I believed they were close as I had not heard the sound of the discharge which would, if close, have arrived almost simultaneous to the bullet. In this case the sound of the bullet passing through the windscreen and the sonic bang would have hidden the sound of the discharge. There was also the alternative, though slim, possibility that it came from a great distance so the sound was not heard within the vehicle. In this latter case we would probably be dealing with a very dangerous professional. Lastly it might have been a silenced weapon at very close range though this was unlikely as the bullet had passed through the windscreen, a head and then through the pillar of the vehicle; a scenario which suggested a full powered bullet and not a subsonic.

  Fabio indicated, with his hand, the probable direction, being to the right of the road. He had derived this information using the windscreen hole, the pillar hole, our original direction and the injury to the driver as indications. We had only heard the crack, probably the supersonic shockwave and the windscreen entry with some ballistic and body entry sounds. Given the information available we had only a limited idea of distance. The next questions also required rapid answers. Were we dealing with an opponent, or opponents? Were our opponents near or far? Was the shooter a trained shooter or was the hit a chance affair? The answers to these questions were critical.

  The Fabio raised his jacket very carefully and this time we heard the discharge almost simultaneous with the sonic crack and I saw the flash of a glass which I now took to be an unmasked telescopic sight. I now knew that the weapon was sophisticated but the shooter careless. He was about one hundred meters away and probably not well trained.

  I proceeded to the right as fast as I could keeping into the rocks and remained, hopefully, invisible to a gunman in the position I had observed. I had to assume a static single opponent or multiple opponents in a single position. The weapon I had was only a light semi automatic pistol with an accuracy of just a few tens of meters.

  I arrived at my destination as rapidly as possible maintaining, as far as possible, my visual security. I was now at a point about ten meters above where I had observed the, assumed, telescopic sight. I looked very carefully over the rocks and saw two persons. Both looked very young and were, by their movements, very nervous. I could see the rifle in the hands of one of them and the other appeared to have a pistol.

  Both young persons were somewhat naively peering occasionally at the vehicle; something like partridges in a field. I also saw two other persons running down a small ravine to my right; moving rapidly in the direction of the shooters. I shouted at the two shooters telling them to put down their weapons. Unfortunately the one with the rifle stood up and fired twice in my direction. Another rifle spoke and the firing from the shooter (he was not a trained sniper) stopped.

  The two men running down the valley stopped about fifty meters from my position and, immediately on seeing me, raised their hands. I could not see the shooters from my then position as it had been necessary for me to move to a better position to monitor these newcomers. I remained cautious of their intentions though I could see no visible weapons from where I was. I shouted at the two that I could see telling them to lie down on their stomachs and show their hands to which they both promptly conceded.

  I then looked gingerly round the edge of the rocks at the two shooters. I saw one looking down at the other who was obviously injured. I could see that the injured man was moving and therefore alive. I repeated my demand to these two telling them to throw away their weapons and lay down with their hands visible. This demand met with the movement I had requested by the one still not already fully on the ground. I could now see all four opponents who were separated by something less than thirty meters.

  Fabio was proceeding rapidly, but cautiously, in my direction and I then spotted Fernando holding up his pistol, to attract my attention, about fifty meters away on the other side of the road. He was providing additional cover to the two newcomers. Fabio arrived at the position of the two young men and told to me to return to the vehicle and guard our two companions. He took over the situation and the last I saw was him shouting at all the unknown opponents to maintain control of the situation.

  I returned to the vehicle and saw Miguel pulling Edmundo gently from the vehicle. When I got to them it was, unfortunately, obvious that the incident had cost us a good companion. This was the first life we had lost within our group; other than the old man whose parting had been expected. It was quite a shock and I thought immediately of his wife. In the circumstances I considered she was probably better off than she would have been in our old world. She would be assisted within a sympathetic group and supported by that group. She would not have to survive, by herself, on a tiny pension. I thought, at the time, that this was a strange thing to think of when such a close friend had just died in ones company.

  I guarded the vehicle as I had been ordered. However, I became a little uneasy when nothing happened for over two hours. It had by then been necessary, for me, to enter the vehicle as not moving in the slight wind was severely affecting my concentration; I had been freezing to near unconsciousness. I also needed to start the vehicle to prevent the mechanic’s freezing which allowed the heater to warm the cockpit after I had blocked the intrusive holes in the windscreen and door panel with some adhesive tape I had found in the vehicle.

  I was to find out later that my companions had gone, with our attackers companions, to a deep cave a short distance along the track. The front of the cave had been heavily barricaded by local villagers, some being from the village we had recently visited, against the external elements they
had expected both directly and indirectly from the impact. In this protected environment twenty five persons had survived; including the four that I had previously seen.

  This group were living somewhat precariously and, in truth, uncomfortably with what was first thought, by Fabio, to be a very limited food supply. It was, however, immediately explained to him, on his questioning, that they had considerable quantities of food, diesel, gas and even petrol being, then, the essentials for survival. These items were, of cause, of great interest to us. The group had some basic medicines and when the injured boy arrived at the cave a young woman immediately tried to assist him.

  It was obvious, however, that the wound on the left hand side of his body was too serious for survival without specialist treatment. A well equipped hospital might have saved him but with only the basic facilities available in the cave his life would soon to be extinguished. He was, therefore, given a large injection of their limited morphine supply to make him as comfortable as possible. After receiving this treatment his life ebbed gently from the body and he was at peace.

  We, from the shelter, regretted both deaths but those reading this history must consider the position we were all in at that time before condemning either side. Billions of human beings were then very probably dead and our original civilization no longer existed in any recognizable form. All the remaining earth population were busily trying to survive in an extremely hostile and variable environment; many more would undoubtedly fail in their endeavour. Many, it must be said, would not survive due to the actions of fellow human beings. Many would have studied and derived some theoretical knowledge of potential disasters but human kind, in general, had no previous experience of such a catastrophe. In such an environment the death of an individual was something of limited importance except to that person and his/her friends.