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 benefits derived from the survival of any group vastly exceeded the loss of any individual. Had we left the poor boy, for whom we felt no hatred, he would have died only a little later in severe pain. He would also have been given more of the limited and currently irreplaceable drug supply. Such largess would have achieved nothing but additional discomfort to the individual. There was, at that place, no blood supply, no doctor and only a partially trained medic to assist him. The best that could be done was to provide him with his comfortable exit.

  Fabio returned, soon after he had witnessed the death of the boy, to collect myself and Miguel. By this time we had buried Edmundo in a shallow grave with a thin covering of soil above which we placed some rocks. This simple internment, similar to others we had performed, being the best we could do for him at that time. We had, additionally, erected a simple recognizable stone monument so that we could return, at some later date, and improve our present internment efforts.

  On Fabio’s instruction we started the vehicle again for about ten minutes and hid and insulated it as best we could by inserting a blanket on the engine and ancillaries under the bonnet. We then proceeded, as requested by our new friends, to the cave. In this cave we were provided with a generous, simple, warm meal being very welcome as our last meal had been breakfast.

  We were then integrated with a group of scruffily dressed, somewhat dirty survivors and I was very pleased to meet them. I looked on each individual as both a new companion with stories to tell and a potential agent in the development of our future. We had lost a companion, as had our new companions, but we had discovered that with hard work and dedication a group could survive in fairly unsophisticated shelters. This discovery gave us increased hope for our future.

  The shooter, a boy of seventeen, and his companion of similar age had volunteered for the task of defending their companions against possible interference or invasion by any external group. They had been accepted for the mission as it was thought that an invasion was unlikely and it gave the youngsters the feeling that they had something potentially useful to do. In their shelter there were limited facilities for other useful forms of work or play and the young people had been bored. It had been thought that an outside adventure would be beneficial for them and their self esteem.

  The young pair had been provided with warm clothing and weapons on which they had been given a basic education. They had been told to stop any personnel of group approaching the cave if they thought discovery of their habitation was inevitable. The shooter had either panicked or, possibly, decided to try and scare us away. If the latter decision had been made by the pair it had had tragic consequences. In the circumstances, however, the incident was noted by everyone and, if not forgotten, it was discarded in order to support the potential benefits of the conjunction of both our groups.

  The new group had managed to obtain and store considerable quantity of diesel, food, salt, candles and to our delight eight sheep, two rams and some dozens of chickens together with a very large amount of animal feed obtained from local farms. The sheep feed could, in an extreme emergency, have been used by humans. The same applied to the sheep themselves though this would only have been a very last resort. They were, at that time, our sole examples of the species.

  Our shelter group would consider the sheep as a long term asset. It was obvious that by increasing the herd they would then be able to provide us with wool, milk and meat into the future. We were also advised that this cave group was only about half of the survivors from the area. These people had, luckily for us all, decided not to go to the government shelters.

  The majority of their food was stored with the other half of the group as that cave was larger. As a group they had considered that either cave was insufficient to allow the two groups to combine. They had, therefore, maintained themselves as an integrated group by allowing unlimited visiting rights.

  Our new friends expressed the opinion that their shelter, although sufficient to support their lives, was too cold, had little of sustainable interest and insufficient protection against the external environment. Their toilet arrangements were basic as they had to use two porta-potties in each cave. These required constant emptying outside the cave further reducing the acceptability of the environment within the cave. Their facilities for washing were similarly primitive and insufficient for even the most basic comforts of life. Due to their limited sanitary arrangements their body aroma was very noticeable to us who were used to far superior appointments.

  The problem for the two new groups was that there had been insufficient time for them to set up the caves with sufficient creature comforts such as our efficient cooking, showers, storage of food and the acquisition of clothing. They had considered based on their appraisal of the future at the time before the impact that the maintenance of a civilisation was of the prime importance whereas we, having had advanced warning, had considered that civilisation should develop around technology. Though they had done their best to meet their requirements the majority of those within the caves had not been selected for their abilities to support their future but rather because the individuals had chosen the cave option rather than going to the government shelters in which they had little faith.

  Unfortunately many of the most able potential survivors, especially those with young children, had decided that the government offer was viable and their best available option. Even before the impact I had known that, due to our knowledge of some of the nearby government shelter facilities, this was not the case.

  The more distant cave group had, in their store, a great deal more food, with additional large quantities of animal feed and fuel. The fuel in both caves was partially stored in five and twenty five litre plastic container but about ten thousand litres, in each cave, was stored in two hundred to five hundred litre plastic central heating tanks taken from the houses of the nearby villages. Of great interest to us visitors was that they, and their animals, had survived without loss without the additional support we has allowed ourselves. I thought it probable that they had been shielded from the full effects of the blast and the following earth movement and inundation had, in effect, literally passed them by.

  They had about one thousand seven hundred and fifty litres of petrol, again, in metallic twenty-five litre containers. This petrol store had been sensibly stored in a small cave situated between the two inhabited caves for safety reasons. These items had also, fortunately, survived the impact effects without damage.

  Another discovery, which was looked on as a great boon, was a store of about two thousand five hundred litres of olive oil taken from a local factory (this they were carefully using to make a form of unleavened bread and as butter) and more sheep and chickens. They also had a considerable quantity of mechanical oil and grease as one of them had owned a warehouse which had distributed such products. We could, with this material and their food and fuel stocks, considerably improve the living standards of both the cave dwellers and ourselves if we could get it and the cave residents amalgamated into our shelter.

  We were further advised that they had a considerable quantity of additional stores including the ever needed high efficiency light bulbs and tubes, wiring and different types of batteries, including the modern deep cycle batteries removed from the village factory. These they had managed to accumulate as they were never rationed. Although the non deep cycle car batteries would be of limited use to us, they being too small to support the night batteries in our shelter, they would provide any future cave visitors with some initial lighting whilst they reconstituted the systems we would leave for their support.

  We intended, even at that early stage, that the caves would remain partially provisioned. The caves would, in spite of our lack of success at the rich mans shelter, be used as a honey trap for new recruits this being subject to the cave group agreeing to join us in our shelter. This proved not a problem as they were rapidly convinced that, if we were being truthful with our shelter description, that their chances of survival an
d indeed their comfort would be considerably enhanced with us. They also understood that the more recruits we could obtain and sustain the better for all our long term survival chances. We had a great need for missing skills and brains and new versions of these commodities could, for now, only be provided by new personnel integrating into our research and manufacturing groups.

  The majority of the local village’s personnel had left for the government supported shelters. Those we had found in the caves had decided they had a better survival chance if organized by themselves in the caves of the upper mountains. They had, therefore, carefully harvested the fields by hand, in the case of olives possibly a little early for perfection, and stored all recovered food in the caves.

  They had butchered the majority of the sheep preserving only those they considered maintainable for long periods in their caves. With these, like us, they had intended to create a future herd as they had recognized their importance as providers of necessary materials in the future. The meat obtained from the butchery of the unsupportable animals had been deblooded, dried, smoked and some were salted that the material might last during their period of incarceration. The same had been done to the cows and horses as they had insufficient space, or feed, to maintain those animals.

  We were surprised at the thoughtlessness of our original democratically elected government that had not bothered to obtain and distribute all the food that was available. They had not, apparently, bothered to set up a store of animals for the future. For us, in spite of their incredible negligence that had benefited us, this demonstrated how little care had been taken for the survival of the general population. This was most resented as it had been their responsibility to support, to the extent possible, the population in what had been quite obviously an extreme emergency.

  They had all too obviously considered the survival of the “elite” political class in their secure bunkers, which I was then sure existed, to have been their primary concern. They had considered that the elements (food and facilities) required for the long term survival of such large numbers of their constituents could not be achieved in such a short time so they had effectively ensured that they would not.

  I felt that they must also have considered that having arranged the survival of their political species this would allow them to return to a world where the remnant of the population would benefit from their organizational skills. Their leadership would then, inevitably, be over a much reduced and servile population who would be desperate for some provision of food and support.

  It could easily be envisaged that it was the politico’s intention that they would then use their command of those resources, if they had had the foresight to set up sufficient reserves, to control those survivors as slaves. Fortunately for us we had been able to benefit from their carelessness at the expense, unfortunately, of so many others. We had decided that if our conclusions proved correct we would never forget that loss.

  We were directed, by our new friends, to the other cave to which we drove in our vehicle. This was partly to maintain the operational temperature of its parts but mainly because we were all uncomfortable with the idea of walking in the extreme environment. The distance to the other cave was only about four kilometres but we considered it would be beneficial, in many respects, to use the vehicle. Our use of the vehicle, with its obvious indication of organization, impressed our new friends who were very pleased to see us. On arrival at the other cave we were introduced to the remainder of the survivors and we were indeed very pleased to meet them.

  We explained, again, our proposals and suggested that it would probably be better for us all if we consolidated in our shelter. Our justification being that we had better facilities and they would be a lot more comfortable with us. We suggested that we could load up our vehicle and take as much material towards the main shelter as possible thereby making maximum beneficial use of the transport and demonstrating, to our shelter community, the benefits of association. The cave group were justifiably suspicious of our proposal and countered that they should keep two of our group, Miguel and Fabio, in the caves while sending two of their group with us to examine the reality of the shelter facilities we had presented in our proposal.

  After a short discussion it was agreed that two of our group, Fernando and I, and two of theirs would visit our facility. We would return and report back to the cave as soon as possible. The group, going to the shelter, would take with them as much as could be loaded into the vehicle as an example of the benefits our shelter would obtain from our new friends. This allowance was made on the assumption that our claims were valid as demonstrated by our good faith in agreeing to leave two of our companions at the caves.

  We casually asked about the optician and it appeared that the optician had gone to the government shelter. There was, however, his assistant Alfonso, who had been a resident of the village and was, fortuitously, now an inhabitant of the caves. He was presented to us as a well qualified optician with considerable experience in his profession. He had come to the village to escape the pressure he had suffered in the cities. He had then fallen in love with the freedom of the mountains and stayed.

  Alfonso willingly agreed to be one of the pair to accompany us to the shelter. He saw the trip as a deviation from the boredom he suffered in the cave. We indicated that we needed this gentleman to accompany us so that he could examine the village optician equipment and be able to decide what elements of this treasure should be transferred to our primary shelter. His accompanying us to the shelter was immediately agreed

  We left the caves the following morning with a full tank of diesel, two hundred litres of diesel in containers, a considerable quantity of food, some specialist equipment and four men. Our first destination was the rich man’s shelter. We arrived there rather more rapidly than had been the original journey to the caves; the road having been cleared, by us, of obstructions. At the rich mans shelter we picked up some of the items recovered from the village and dropped off some of the food and a little of the fuel we had brought with us from the caves.

  We took with us, for the main shelter, all the equipment from the optician’s that was recommended by our new professional. We then proceeded as far as possible along the track towards the main shelter. We looked carefully at the unmoving river to judge its security. It now appeared solid and being reasonably flat it appeared that we might be able to drive across. This was attempted and we were very pleased to find that we could easily cross the obstruction. We had to change direction a few times and stopped twice to remove larger obstructions, however, within a surprisingly short time we arrived at our marked stone.

  We drove towards the broken village and lake on rough but passable ground looking for the remains of the lower parts of the road that we knew passed the shelter. The lower slopes of the road itself had been largely washed away but the slope in the region of the original road was sufficiently low and flat to allow the passage of our little vehicle. Only four and a half hours after leaving the caves we arrived at our destination. I was surprised, though very pleased, at the simplicity of the operation.

  We opened the quarantine cellar and had something to eat while communicating with the shelter. Our first task was to outline the situation as it appeared to us. We explained that none of the cave people showed any signs of illness and requested that a fast isolation period be accepted in order to allow a more rapid assimilation of our new guests into the shelter.

  The doctor came to examine us individually for all diseases and accepted that he could find no reason why we should not immediately enter the shelter. He, however, made it perfectly clear that he was not happy at such a potential break in a previously agreed protocol.

  It was then agreed that one of our passengers, Pancho, from the cave would be allowed to visit the shelter to see the facilities so that he could pass back what he had observed to his companions. He would, however, be allowed no physical contact with any of the shelter’s residents. In the agreement that was made those in the shelter
would be removed from the entrance area so that our proposed guest would have no physical contact with anyone. The evacuation was performed and I showed him round the upper floor of the shelter though he was not allowed to enter the homes but had to make an external examination though the door. Together we looked down the main access holes so that he could see some of the dimensions of the edifice and the rows of family houses we were offering the cave-dwellers as their new homes.

  I explained the extension area and power station but he was not shown this area as he would, of necessity, have had to come into contact with those working in that area. He was quite satisfied with what he had seen and it obviously became his opinion that his group’s survival potential and especially their comfort would be considerably enhanced by combining their group with ours. I remember that during a conversation with me he excitedly stated that after so long in the caves he looked forward to the superior creature comforts he observed within our shelter.

  We then told our shelter group that we had brought a vehicle and that this required shelter to shield it from the direct affects of the climate. This, we explained, was required so that we could return to the caves as quickly as possible in the morning. This information was not initially well received by some of our group as it was contrary to the spirit, but not the totality, of our agreement regarding the use of our diesel stocks. It appeared that some persons were dedicated to the status quo.

  We presented the case that without a vehicle, in the then prevailing conditions, it would be impossible to integrate the inmates of the cave, together with their stores, into our shelter within a reasonable period of time. I stated that such an idea would be impractical as the journey, using any non vehicular means, between the two habitations would take at least a week each way and require the travellers to live in tents for several days. This would be very dangerous as the external environment was not conducive to the movement of personnel and especially large quantities of goods without a vehicle.