After The Fall: 2012 (A Short Story) (663 hits)
Category: GeneralRating: 1.25 on 21 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by frankthebear (View user info) at 2006-12-30 00:47:01 EST
After The Fall: 2012
We thought we were so smart. We thought we were so prepared. We were wrong. The scientists were so proud of their telescopes and computers. They were confident they would see any spaceborn threats. The government had all the nuclear weapons they could want, and enought rockets to send them anywhere. It was back in 2008 that we learned too late how ill equipped we really were.
The scientists saw it coming, an enormous meteor the size of Texas. A gigantic slab of rock soaring through the eternal night of space. It was coming straight at us, the the general concensus was to destroy it before it destroyed us first. The governments of the wourld worked as one for the first time ever. There was hope kindled in every heart, we would save ourselves, and we would have worldwide peace for the first time. At aproximately 12:05 pm eastern, August 8th, 2008, the rockets were launched. Two hundred nuclear warheads carried the hopes and prayers of the world.
The rockets intercepted the meteor two days later. The scientists reported the total destruction of the meteor. The world celebrated for a week. Then it ended. There was a gross miscalculation. We were so desperate to destroy the meteor, we didn't realise what would happen after, and because everyone was celebrating, no one was watching the skies. The meteorites started falling all over the world. At first people thought it was pretty, then they realized it was death. Showers of burning meteorites fell everywhere. Whole cities went up in flames overnight. In the span of seven days, The Fall was over, and the world was silent.
The first year after The Fall was the hardest for the survivors. Those who had managed to seek shelter during the catastrophy now had to survive off the scorched land. There wasn't much to go around and fighting quickly broke out. For arguments sake, one might say maybe 20% of the worlds population had survived The Fall. During the first year, another 5% failed to adapt, dying in the fighting, or from sickness, or injury, or starvation, or just plain accidents. I remember The Fall clearly. I was one of the lucky ones who found shelter in the fortified celler of a bank. There was an old abandoned fallout shelter left over from the 60's. There were only four of us there that week. No one else was lucky enough to find our refuge. There was room for so many more...
After The Fall, we emerged from the shelter and went about the business of survival. One of The Four died a month later. She broke a leg, and with no doctors, it became gangrenous. The other two went off together with a small band or survivors. They settled a small village together. I stop by once or twice a year to catch up. Sometimes I wonder how I've managed to survives all this time. I managed to stop myself wondering "why." I once read somewhere that survivors of disasters often go through a guilt phase, wondering over and over why they survived when others "more deserving" died.
Four years later, mankind had not gotten far. The Fall, as it was called, had reduced the world to the technological dark ages. The devestation of four years ago had left very little that still worked or could be fixed. Small communities had gathered here and there, never with too many people. They survived by farming and raising animals. These people's whole world was in those small villages. It would mean several days of dangerous travel to the nearest neighboring village. Roving bands of raiders still plagued the villages, sometimes taking one or two villagers with them to keep their gene pool fresh. But rudimentary civilisation wasn't good enough for some. There were always wanderers. Nomadic people who didn't like to settle too long in any one place. People like me.
After four years, I've learned that there is no fairness to life. There is no rhyme or reason, no "time to go," people just live for a while, then they die. I've made and lost many friends since The Fall, they died in different ways, and there was no preventing it. So I disconnected with the human race for a time. I wandered here and there, seeing many things, and meeting many strange and interesting people. Once I met a cult that went on endlessly about the end of the world. How these were the end times and Jesus was coming to bring judgement to the sinners. I politely voiced the fact that The Fall had happened four years ago, and yet the world was still here, that if the end times had come, why were we still here.
I was escorted out of the village and told never to come back. Well if waiting to die makes them happy, who am I to shit in their cerial? So I wandered some more, my only companions were my sword and my shot gun. I had plenty of practice with both, and I was pretty good, as many raiders could attest if they were still alive. Before The Fall, I would have denied that I could ever kill anyone, but now it's just a fact of life. I would have been apalled, I would have said that killing after so many had died was wrong. Well maybe it is. But the world has changed a lot since then, and it's kill or be killed now. Sad really...
The Fall was the worst thing that ever happened in my lifetime, and yet, it was also the best. Before The Fall, I was always dissatisfied with the way the world worked. Politics and polution, money, pointless laws and restrictions, too many people, Donny Osmond... Just kidding. But now for the first time in my life, I am truly free to decide the course of my life. I'n not tied down to a job, a family, bills, debts, or the laws of man. I can go where I please when it pleases me, I can do what I want when I want to, I am free. I miss my parents and siblings, my nice safe life before The Fall, but I would miss this life too. Go figure.
User Reviews
Submitted by Benny (user info) at 2007-03-23 02:00:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Spell check is your friend.
Good ideas. Seems like it could build to be a decent story.
Submitted by swimmingbirdblue (user info) at 2007-01-04 01:08:22 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Thank you.
Submitted by sicosemen (user info) at 2007-01-03 17:55:34 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
I came back just to update your account.
Submitted by jfreakman (user info) at 2007-01-03 16:06:15 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Who the fuck is this?
Everything you ever wanted to know about docker
User id: 29670
Registered on or around: 2006-12-23 22:43:40
# Messages posted: 0
# Reviews written: 114
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Average rating of all messages: 0.00
Hello, alter.
anyway, your post sounded a lot like the Deathlands series.
Submitted by GMCrayon (user info) at 2007-01-02 23:30:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-01-02 23:07:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by frankthebear (user info) at 2007-01-02 22:59:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I'm working on an expanded version of this right now. I agree it was rushed and I assure you it will be better. I hope
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2007-01-02 15:53:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
for remembering that this place is a serious writer's forum
Submitted by frankthebear (user info) at 2006-12-31 01:11:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
okay, I'll admit, I rushed this. inspiration hit and I ran with it, a little too fast it would seem. Perhaps I'll revisit this sometime and flesh it out. right now I'm at that writing phase where I'm just throwing a bunch of different shit at the wall to see what sticks.
but at least I've gotten some honest feedback, for which I'm grateful. I now know I'm going in the right direction, I just need to put more time into it.
Thanks for reading!
Submitted by Amontillado (user info) at 2006-12-30 14:58:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I really enjoyed it.
Submitted by ICO (user info) at 2006-12-30 10:15:52 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Okay. But come on, 'wourld'? You would do well to spellcheck.
Submitted by hot_pocket (user info) at 2006-12-30 09:54:20 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
it seemed rushed, just as we were getting into something, the narrator moved on. i usually dont mind if theres one or two spelling/grammar errors but there were several...enough to subtract a whole point from your score, leaving you with this
Submitted by frankthebear (user info) at 2006-12-30 07:46:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
interesting view.
I suppose it was a little brief, but I had a burst of inspiration and I ran with it. And a massive meteor shower lasting seven days would blanket the globe. Maybe a little farfetched, but what the hell. it's just a story. did everything Asimov write make sense?
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2006-12-30 07:41:40 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
+1 for effort, but I didn't dig it. The narrator seemed to be talking about a lot of interesting things, but glosses over them in a dullish fashion. Every time I started getting into something he was saying, he'd just blandly state the bare minimum about it and then move on. Is this a set up to a series or something?
Also, the logistics of it all are a little suspect. Even ignoring the fact that a lot of the smaller chunks of rock would burn up in the atmosphere, the notion that only 20% of the population would survive is a bit much. After all, the Earth is round, and if the meteor barrage pummeled North America, then presumably the other hemisphere would be largely untouched, yes?
Just my opinion.
Submitted by yhywstudios (user info) at 2006-12-30 07:28:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by Chroniclysm (user info) at 2006-12-30 01:47:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
After the Fall of 2012, will be the Winter of 2012, during which the world will end just like the Mayans said.
Submitted by kuroneko_sama (user info) at 2006-12-30 01:03:06 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
needed some power armor mkII
Submitted by docker (user info) at 2006-12-30 01:03:02 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
Not bad, but you are on a -2 for life list.
If it makes you feel better this wasn't utter shit, in fact it's better than some of the posts I've +2ed today.
Submitted by frankthebear (user info) at 2006-12-30 01:00:15 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
um...gross...
Submitted by Orgasmatron (user info) at 2006-12-30 00:58:04 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
"After the Fall: A Short Story"
After she had fallen, despite the voice in her head assuring her that she was hopeless to succeed, Gladys did, indeed, get up. Then she enjoyed some prune juice on the patio and absently rubbed at her hip. The sun was falling quickly behind the mountains beyond, painting the sky in imperial violet. Soon the wind would carry the squeaks of Milton's approaching walker and, below it, the low hum of Murray's constant grumbling about the price of deli meat.
Yes, the weekly gangbang was approaching, and Gladys was happy she survived the fall to be a part of it. They were going to open her up like hunters gutting a deer, and she needed her joints at her best.
Feeling herself grow moist, she smiled. Ah, the beauty of it all...
The End
Submitted by DCWoody (user info) at 2006-12-30 00:50:22 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment