Into Ashes: Act I

by _TheHumbleBrony_

Day 1

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Day 1

Gentle… I feel the soft warmth of a sunbeam against my cheek. I slowly bring my eyes open to a crack. The gentle rays of sun tenderly cascade through the gaps in the ceiling. Morning, morning is finally upon me. And so begins my first day completely on my own.

Ugh, what a rough night. I don’t feel like I got very much sleep. Truth be told I don't think I even actually fell asleep at all until the very end. It got so cold last night my constant shivering kept me awake. And what was with that.. weird dream? I don't remember anything about it. Only a faint feeling, a feeling of.. Being called to something, like I had missed out on something. But what was it? I’m not sure. Whatever it was it was just a dream.

I bring my eyes to fully open to find myself coated in a blanket of ash and surrounded by fallen bits of wood. I guess my makeshift ceiling patch didn’t hold and ash gradually poured in overnight.

I lay motionless for several minutes, dwelling on the discomfort of the passing night before I decide to get up and start my day. The basement is a mess, practically just as trashed as when I found it. Bits of wood of all sizes everywhere. I guess a bit of cleaning up is in order.

I spend the next ten minutes or so collecting up all the junk-wood and tossing it out. Some of it I carefully inspect for usefulness, but much to my surprise (or lack thereof) it’s all garbage. But it’s just a start, no need to get discouraged just yet; I have an entire town in front of me to pick through. Oh boy… It’s going to be a long day.

The sun is already up passed the horizon. By now the drones have gone back into charge mode and given way for me to take the day. I throw on my backpack, tend my rifle to my arms and - Oh yeah, it’d probably be a good idea to make a list of important items to keep an eye out for before leaving. I sit down, pen and paper in hand and begin brainstorming.

Things to find

As I write my stomach growls in mild protest. I didn’t eat anything all day yesterday and I could probably do with a quick bite right now. No, no, I need to conserve what little food I have as much as possible even if it means starving myself. I’ve gone longer with less food anyway. But just in case I’ll be sure to bring a Zeta-Ration and some water out with me today.

I empty out my bag of everything and pack only what I need for today’s excursion. Shortly after gathering my gear for the day, I guide back through the tunnel and step outside the breach.

Today… Looks just like any other day. Hazy, a brown-gray smog shrouds the world around me like a dirty fog. Tiny tufts of soot drift down from the sky like snow. The obscured orange sun, masked by the haze is only just now peaking over the vista. A chill breeze bites the morning air. It’s a beautiful day to defy the apocalypse.

I waste no time before starting my search, though I approach each rubble pile methodically. The first few “houses” I assume are all the same. I climb amongst the rubble only to find most of it to disintegrate upon contact. Each chunk of the skeletal building I touch simply turns to ash with a slight nudge. It’s a wonder how anything is still left standing. This causes me to take a more cautious approach to my search as I would not want to diffuse the wrong structure and have it all come down on top of me. But among these piles near my “home” I find nothing of interest.

Gradually my search takes me further and further from my start point. Eventually I decide to start sketching out a map of where I’ve been, marking what I’ve explored and what I have yet to sift through. In one of the houses I do find something of interest however. A small broken picture frame. Shattered, void of a picture, the frame cracked, and otherwise of no value. What is valuable however is that the wood it is made from is still healthy and can be burned. I decide to keep it and shove it in my bag. I’ll need a lot more wood than this if I want a decent fire that’ll last more than five seconds. I continue my search.

As expected the more I search the more I come across the same things. Everything I search through is useless and uninteresting. I do find something of value every now and again though. In what I can only guess is the remains of a general store I find a large knife along with a small pocket watch tuned to the local time. 7:46 am it reads. In another house just down the road I find more burnable wood, another ruined picture frame and a few small lumps of coal.

I search on for the next few hours. The next time I check the watch time has passed to 12:30 pm. After having dug through what feels like half the town I decide to reward myself with a small snack.

I climb to the top of a large heap of rubble and find a large flat stone at the top. How the stone got up on top of this heap, I don’t know. But at least it’s a convenient spot to sit down on and eat. It even comes with a nice open view of the town.

I open my bag and pull out the Z-Ration. Spaghetti in Red Sauce (Artificial) reads the labeling on the outside of the package. Mmm.. one of my favorites. Too bad I don't have anything to warm up my meal with just yet. I guess I’ll save the actual spaghetti for later and just eat one of the side items for now instead. The side item of choice, Garlic Snack Bread. I rip open the packaging, tear out half of the bread and pack the rest away for later. Though it is only a small portion, the nutrient density packed into this bread is more than enough to sustain me for some time.

As I sit eating atop the stone, I have an excellent view of the town. But as the day has progressed, thicker and thicker the ashen haze has become. Gusts of wind in the area have been kicking up dust and laying it out all over town, limiting my view to only about 100 meters. The ash has become so thick that every now and again I have to wipe my bread clean of it. That doesn’t stop me from enjoying it though.

Everything is ash. The sky is ash, the ground is ash and now even my food tastes of ash. Somehow even my water, tightly sealed in its container picks up a slight hint of the telltale taste. Or maybe it’s just from all the polluted air I’m breathing in all the time. I’m surprised that given the current ashy state of things I was able to find anything not completely burned in those houses at all.

1:16 pm

As I feel ready to get back to my search, just as I start climbing down from the rock I notice the remains of a very large tree in the heart of the town. It really piques my interest. And given that I have so much time left in the day, I prompt myself to go check it out.

I climb down from my perch and weave my way through the streets and wreckage, being careful to map out my path as I go. Given that everything look the same in all directions, one could easily get lost.

When I happen upon the tree I can see that there is not much of it left. All its branches have been blown clean off, scattered around the area. The entire front portion of it has been blasted wide open, exposing its insides to the outside. A small fire still burns at the edge of its trunk.

The lack of homeownership here makes me feel invited to waltz right in and explore. It appears to be the remnant of someone’s home. There are several shelves lining the entirety of the main lobby walls. A winding staircase leads to the now missing second floor, and several doorways lead to many different rooms and nooks, all of which have also gone with the blastwave.

In the main lobby, a hint of color on one of the shelves catches me in the middle of my studious search. Most of the shelves are filled with, as one would guess, ash but not this shelf. On this lonely shelf rest a hint of tattered red peeking out from the surrounding ash. I go to it. Very gently, I brush the ash from atop the object. It appears to be a.. Book of sorts. What could it be about I wonder. Hmm, perhaps inside there are pictures or diagrams I can use to understand its contents. Ooh, what if it’s something that could give me more insight to the Equine culture? I think I’ll give it a look.

I’m very careful to pull it slowly off the shelf. But, to my dismay, the cover has been burned soft and wilts within my grasp. And as I lift it from its resting place the pages turn to ash and spill to the floor all over my boots. A wave of hollow disappointment washes in. Damn, what a shame. I’ve always been fascinated with the Equine culture and how many of its facets are similar to my own. That could have been my chance to have a glimpse into their lives through their own eyes. But I don’t know what I was expecting. Of course it was going to fall apart like that. Like all other things it too has turned into ashes.

I stand for a moment, staring down at the pile of sadness now at my feet. How disappointing, I really would have loved to look into that book. I take a step back and hear a crunch of glass. I look to my ash covered boot. Beneath it, yet another picture frame. I lift my foot and bend over to pick it up. At first I think it just another one of those useless frames but I notice something very peculiar. Attached to it in the bottom right corner, barely hanging by a thin piece of tape, a piece of picture. It’s just a small portion of the larger picture, but what is included in the picture fascinates me deeply. The picture is of a small… purple and green lizard creature of sorts. It smiles, waving its hand happily to the camera. The hoofs of others peek in at the corners but I can’t make anything of them out. Those are Equines I assume. The picture is torn just at their feet. I haven’t seen this type of creature before. Perhaps the owners kept it as a pet and treated it like family. It’s smile seems so… happy. So genuine, so belonging…. I’ve always wondered what it’s like to be a part of an actual family.

I decide to keep the picture, and stick the tape to the side of my rifle scope. Might as well keep it as a token of interest, a nice keepsake of memories long gone. I give the rest of what I deduce to be a library a thorough search but I find nothing of worth, nothing that is worthy of more than a mere passing glance.

3:16 pm

All the wading and sifting through rubble has been hard work. My supply of water is already running low. Perhaps this is cause to call it quits for today, I don't want to work myself too hard with as little sustenance as I have. I decide to head home.

The walk back seems much longer than I remember it taking to get here. Maybe I’m just secretly lost and don't want to admit it to myself just yet. But a check of the ol’ map tells me I’m on the right track I think. It’s hard to tell. And what definitely isn’t helping is a dust storm is beginning to brew. The breezes blowing throughout the day have substantiated into strong gusts, and now a blinding dust storm is on its way to blow through the town. This isn’t going to help me get home any quicker.

4:04 pm

Trudging through the heavy wind thick with dust I somehow manage to meander my way back home. The storm is getting pretty bad. My basement is mostly protected but that doesn't stop an annoying amount of ash from blowing in through the ceiling. It’s not showing any sign of slowing down either, so I guess it’s safe to call this a signal to end the day. And what a long day it was. Actually it went by faster than expected but still, the amount of digging and sifting I did today is worthy of a nap. I feel exhausted. I might as well lay down for a bit. There’s nothing to do outside with that storm abrewin’ and nothing of real value in my pack so, why not. I’ve earned a nice nap. Nice.. Ha..

I set my gear down, lay in the ash and curl up, trying to close my eyes and rest but the howling wind and peppering of ash makes it.. Difficult. Eventually though, I do somehow manage to reach that respite despite all the racket.

I open my eyes. Tired.. Groggy.. Hungry.. But somewhat refreshed. The dust storm has mostly settled down and given way to the night. Now only a gentle breeze whimpers outside. I sit up to find myself again coated in a blanket of ash. It all spills off my chest as I come to an upright position. I decide to check the time. It’s dark, almost too dark to read my watch but as my night vision kicks in I can barely make it out. 9:29 pm.

Hmm.. Maybe I do have enough wood to start a fire. The nighttime chill is beginning to set in and it would be nice to actually get some sleep tonight unlike the previous night. I open up my bag and, without bothering to take things out by hand just dump everything on the ground. Out falls the picture frames, my z-rat and water, all the wood and everything else I collected today. Turns out I gathered a lot less wood than I thought I did. A truly pitiful amount to be honest. Obviously not enough for a fire, it’d just be a waste to try and burn what I have right now. Angrily does my stomach growl for my attention. I decide to eat the rest of my snack bread.

I pull the snack bread back out of the package and without cleaning it, bravely shove it into my mouth. This was a mistake. I should have cleaned it off, now it tastes more of ash than garlic but somehow I manage to chew and swallow my first bite without gagging on the added seasoning. I’m more careful with eating the rest.

The biting chill of the night gradually becomes more strident. But in my exhaustion from just waking back up I feel like I can ignore the cold and just go back to sleep. I lay back down and close my eyes, reflecting on the events of the day.

You know what maybe this whole surviving on a dead planet thing isn’t so bad. I mean just look at all the cool stuff I found. So much more than I could have expected and it’s only my first day. And all of the wood I found that can still burn. Pretty exciting. I got a brief look into the history of this place… *yawn*.. Oh who am I kidding. This sucks. It sucks real bad. Food tastes awful, it’s cold, I have no one to talk to, I’m being hunted… *sigh*.. I don’t know what to make of my situation. It’s too easy just to bring it all to an end right now but… It might still be worth seeing what lies ahead. I guess I’ll just keep letting things play out… For now.

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