Day 531: Needed a break. I'm ready to write some more. Anyways. This is hard.

 

So we made it through the first year. A year without a summer. It got damn cold. I got rather good at fishing. Was never a good hunter. The men would go out hunting. Sometimes less would come back. Well, one thing happened in that long year...

 

After 6 months or so a band from the north came through. Apparently our mechanic wasn't the only one to come up with the idea of using the older type diesel engines. They roared into town, ready to loot. Most of us were on the boat and everything of value was already on it.

 

That's when the siege started.

 

I'll give the women who lived there props, they are made of sterner stuff then the girls back in America. They pulled duty on the walls right along with the med. They had the numbers, but we had the food and bullets. We lost two to gunfire over the next week. That's when we got an idea.

 

We always stuck to smoking fish on the boat after everyone was inside. It attracted the wolves. So we started cooking up a storm. Nothing happened for two days. The second night, however, they came. Not quite the hundreds from before, but enough. When the morning came, there were only four left, two in one truck, one in each of the others. One of the men was a damn good shot. Rich, I think. He got on the bow of the ship and shot out the windows. The wolves made short work of the survivors.

 

By this time we were down to eight, and in a few days we could go out and loot the corpses. We took everything they had. Enough food for thirty men was more than enough for 3 men and 5 women. We resolved to keep waiting. Waiting for the spring. Waiting for help to come through. Waiting for something. Anything. We lost two to suicide since then. Unfortunately the woman who killed herself. We just called her Ma. She was our top cook. We got desperate for food and killed and ate some wolves. Someone must have cooked it wrong, because a bunch got sick. I didn't . Didn't eat any, really. Wolf meat just smells funny. Fortunately we still had antibiotics from the town firehouse. That's where the paramedics operated out of.

 

Unfortunately we were all on the ship when the storm came through. It hit at high tide. It was a monster. It managed to drag the cargo ship back out to sea. At this point there wasn't much to do but hope we land safely. The Controls were powered by electricity so steering was out of an option. Some thought of building a sail and using that was brought up, but never really attempted. Besides. Didn't have time. I spent all my time trying to take care of the others.

 

Whatever it was, I had to clean a ton of chamber pots. And we had to use actual pots.

 

I was cleaning out the pots over the railing when the fog parted and I saw the rocks. I ran inside to warn everyone, but there wasn't much to be done. We hit, we rolled. We wound up on our side.

 

I guess that's how I got on great bear island.

 

Fortunately everyone survived, but the ship being on it's side became a real pain to navigate. Fortunately people were recovering at this point. Still ill, but getting better. The ship was rent in two and and it wouldn't serve as a long term shelter anymore. Especially if another storm yanked it back out to sea.

 

And that's when we started walking.

 

And that's when they started dying.

 

There were a few shelters along the way. Nothing to eat. The wolves picked up our scent and were behind the whole way. Apparently our numbers kept them at bay, along with the occasional pot shot, but they could smell sickness. When one of use fell, we took what we could carry and left them behind.

 

That's when we found the metal hatch.

 

There were just us three left at that point. We just stumbled across this thing in the middle of nowhere. It was chock full of food. most of it had gone bad, but a good deal was still eatable. We rested there until the food ran out. Maybe a week? Maybe a month? Not sure.

 

Rich and Hurley and me. And... Something happened to Rich. I don't know if it was the stress or what but he just snapped. He just lost it. Started going absolutely crazy. Hurley tried to talk him down. Rich then stabbed him in the throat. A second later it sunk in what he had did. Then he stabbed himself in the throat as well.

 

I admit it. I wasn't that stable myself at that point. I grabbed the knife and tried to save them, either of them but there...

 

...

 

I left. Actually, I ran. I'm not sure what happened next, except I found myself at a lighthouse. I got inside. There was food. There was fuel. There was a bed. There was bottled water and a sign written in charcoal.

 

4 Miles To The Quonset

Where The Water Is Always Free!

Please enjoy some Samples!

 

I really didn't know what to make of it. While I was enjoying the crackers and water as instructed, I went to the top and looked around.

 

On top I found a sign that said, "The best path to avoid the wolves: Just Follow The arrows"

 

At first I had no idea, until I looked over the edge and saw giant arrows made of logs of wood. They pointed a rather round about way to move through the area. I think the arrows pointed to a trail or something in the distance.

 

Over the railing hung a bottle of lamp oil. There was a string tied around the neck and it was just dangling over the side. I'm not sure why it was there, but I could use the fuel, so I took it with me.

 

I spent the night there. I was exhausted and eating nothing but crackers and water wasn't the best meal for my stomach. That night the aurora came and the radio turned on. There was music from nowhere from out of the blue. It was surreal. I laid there, watching the flickering lights through the window, wondering where the music was coming from. How exactly was it reaching the radio?

 

Then a sonorous sounding voice came on and started talking about odd events around the island. It was soothing and scary at the same time. About half way through the night I just burst out laughing and then started crying. "Obviously" I thought. I must be on the edge of some sort of civilized area where people had managed to get some sort of society back on track. Why they let this madman behind a mic was beyond me. But even if they were all barking mad, I didn't care much at this point. I've come too far to kill myself now.

 

I resolved to make for this Quonset at daybreak.

 

But that night I would spend crying for all the ones who didn't make it.