Another day, another year.

So, new years eve.

Hard to think we made it through another year, but we still persevere through this strange new land.



I think I left off around new years the last time I was recapping the time we'd spent in the bunker, aside from getting used to the abilities that we'd started to manifest, albeit in small amounts, we also began to prep our gear to start exploring our surroundings a bit further out than just Sherridan. While it was serving us well with stores of food squirreled away across the more intact structures it would spell our doom if we were to run out. And so early into January we struck out west, which honestly if we'd gone east or south we'd have reached civilization a lot sooner than later, though it was curiosity that drew us, and possibly a lack of common sense.

It took us, guessing here since there was no day and night to guide us and the gps was utterly useless due to interference from the ash, a month and a half to reach the edge Yellowstone national park, or rather the edge of the lava fields. Most of the terrain was broken and cracked, though under the ash was dirt, and dead plants, though the further west we traveled the more ash choked the air. A stop in a town that had all but burnt down and collapsed supplied us with dust respirators. As we hiked and broke trail into the dark and ash stained wastes we paused in each town and small community and took time to thank the previous residents for the supplies we took, and apologize for the disturbance.  Cody Wyoming was about the furthest west we managed to travel. That's where the lava flows had rolled out to and most of the town had been destroyed aside from a few of the older civil defense buildings, and a couple of hangars at the airport. There we found the first signs that someone had made it through the initial radiation and ash. In the makeshift housing at the airfield we found no bodies, only some signs that people had been there, some left behind journals though those had been desecrated by the ash and heat and crumbled when we touched them.

However there was a message painted on the inside of a hangar. "Survived the end. Lava forcing us out, headed east and south. 30 of us. -Sep/Oct?" In our travel we didn't find anyone else, or evidence anyone had traveled along our path before us, so I hold out hope they did in fact make it out of the wastes, as there are plenty of towns to collect supplies from.

 Due to the heat and low likelihood of being able to find water out there, we chose not to approach Yellowstone any further  and headed back east to the bunker, carrying extra supplies we could use on makeshift sleds made from skis and pallets taken from the storage room of a sports shop. With the trail we had made still mostly there it only took us maybe a few weeks to return to the bunker.



And now back to the here and now. We've reached Cheyenne, for real this time. There are people here, less ash, more animals, and so far no one's decided to shoot us. However no one seems to be preparing to celebrate the new year. Once it's morning we're going to split groups, Rogan, Axel and once we figure out who's going with them, two others, are going to go into town and actually make contact with the townspeople... they seem nice enough from a distance, but we don't want to risk everyone being in town and them turning out to be cannibals or something.

Merry Christmas post, no recap tonight.

So, by all determinations according to the gps and the internal clocks on the internet, today is Christmas.

No a man in a magic sled did not deliver us gifts, though Axel did. He's apparently been working on some new gear for us for a few months using a bunch of cloth he collected. I'm actually damn impressed I knew he could sew from how well he stitched up my arm after I put a gash in it on a broken plate glass window, but I just thought he'd done emt work at some point. Turns out his mom runs (well hopefully still does run) a tailoring shop in Copenhagen off near the Spinderiet..... Yes I have no idea what any of that means beyond his mom is a seamstress and made him learn the trade as a child.

Anyway he made various coats and jackets for us while intermixing empowered runes into the gear using dark blue thread. Blends in the the black stained cloth (almost all our gear is stained black from the ash. I doubt even bleach would affect it any). Anyway all he did was word the runes in to prevent most wear and tear beyond intentional acts by us... Meaning it won't stop use from cutting it up into tatters with a knife, and may stop a bullet shot at us. Anyway he chose to make the clothes to match out personality and manner of motion I guess. That or he's a spiritual medium since he crossed a trench-coat with a tactical vest for me, and then added a hood for good measure.... It's basically everything I'd ever wanted out of an all weather piece of gear, no sleeves for unrestricted movement of my arms.

One of the other reasons he gave us for giving us the clothes was because of the Yule Cat... The short version of his explanation is that it's a mythological Scandinavian beast that eats people that don't receive new clothes around yuletide....To be on the safe side I have Axel my spare hat in return.

Anyway, merry christmas etc... and watch out for house sized demon cats from Iceland.

Recaps and recaps.

So I left off with the hallucination about he ground lightning. Over about a week or so all of us had one or another to varying degrees.  Basically to the outside observer we'd stop what we were doing, like something had got out attention and look west before passing out, for example Leishey says he heard something like a heartbeat growing louder from the west before a bolt of light pierced the ash cloud dispersing it and shot up into space, compared to Rogan where he says a '50s style UFO slammed down into the valley below the mountain and sinking into the ground, all of it was generally pretty weird. For a while we thought it was just stress really, as though we were losing our minds over time, but about two weeks later Eivan managed to get a plant to grow through force of will and we started to seriously consider that maybe something had changed. Axel was probably the first one to say what we were thinking, that Eivan had figured out magic. I don't really know what to believe about it really.

Eivan talked us through what he did and only Axel and I actually figured out how to do anything, I can sort of conjure up a ball of fire, while Axel figured out lightning and how writing out words while "thinking really hard" about what they meant, could imbue with with the effect. The first experiment he did, while simple, was quite interesting. "this paper is on fire" As soon as he finished with it, the paper actually did light on fire.

Unfortunately he tried this inside the bunker and in his ensuing panic managed to spread the flames to a bedroll, thankfully we had plenty of those. The followup to this, that I thought of, was "When this paper is torn it will catch fire". This worked out pretty well, but ultimately it would be dangerous to have a bunch of them written up as simply as that because apparently "when it is torn" is interpreted quite liberally to include damage from creasing the paper too much as well as just natural wear and tear.  We've also figured out we do have limits on what we can do. Eivan can't will a massively giant tree to grow from nothing, it has to start from a seed, and he can't do that in one go, at first it took him a month to get an orange tree to grow to maturity and kicking out fresh oranges, and it would take hours a day of concentration till he collapsed, now he says he could do it over a week just by casually focusing on it if he wanted. Haven't figured out how to use this on wounds on a person though, that would definitely come in handy if someone got hurt.

Comparative to how he started out, Axel says he hasn't figured out if he has a limit. He says it has to do with the effect and how intricate the conditions for it to work are. For example, a piece of paper written up so that it explodes into flames when torn isn't much, but say he words it so that it catches fire ten seconds after the border strip around the edge is pulled off at a specific temperature can actually give him a slight headache. As for me, I can't really do much, just conjure a ball of fire maybe the size of a softball and get it got enough that it can barely ignite stuff like kindling. I mean it's useful without a lighter on hand, but it's not showstopping like willing a tree to grow to maturity, or making a landmine out of a piece of paper.





So for the events since we left our camp near the town of children, Eivan insisted on waiting till night before sneaking down to their greenhouses and tricking the plants into doubling their growth rates for a while, It was a nice gesture I guess. Nothing much has really happened. Mostly it's just use walking through varying thicknesses of ash over-viewing a definite trail along the shattered earth as we follow highway 87. The trail is along the highway roadbed and it gets enough use... so yeah, though it seems the GPS is inaccurate as all hell because it was not Cheyenne that we'd found, but rather the smaller town of Wheatland to the north (yes we had to look at the sign at the edge of town to figure this out). It does appear that they have working vehicles in this area though since the roadbed is mostly cleared off of ash, though we haven't seen anyone driving along.

With any luck there will be people in Cheyenne to possibly explain things.

Test post, for potential publishing?

Author's note: Just a test bit for critique, a story post will be made probably on Saturday.

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Temporary title; Blastwave I: The folly of war



Dear Reader,

Good morning, good evening. Where ever you may be, allow me to be your guide through this terrible tale of the folly of man. I have no doubt that it did not happen, but allow me to explain.

Last year during July fourth, when most other people would be out celebrating the birth of the U.S. by blowing up a small chunk of it, I and a few other researchers at a facility that need not be named were performing an experiment based on a new form of technology that we had developed that captured and stored Neutrino particles. In simple terms we were attempting to bypass the normal laws of reality and send something through time in a more... direct route. To say the least the experiment resulted in an electrical fire and a loss of all the collected neutrino particles. Initially we thought that we had been pranked by another research team due to the facility having been consumed by a prank war with the winner earning a very coveted statue of a monkey, however when the smoke cleared I found, in place of the Circle K 44oz soft drink we were attempting to launch through time, a well worn journal had taken its place.

Out tests conducted on the journal indicate that, among a detectable tachyon radiation count it also has been exposed to various heavy elements that are present at a recent atomic detonation, which leads us to believe that we have evidence of a variation of one of the alternate timeline theories in our possession. After a heated debate among my research group we decided to publish the contents of the book as an action adventure story for, though we have found no reason to believe that the events recorded within did not happen in the timeline it came from, and have found no proof that it was simply a clever ruse. I have been in charge of this side venture, and have chosen to leave most of the contents unedited, except in a few instances where noted. As an added note, the page where the writer wrote his name on the book was either torn out so we, unfortunately do not know who in this alternate timeline wrote the following.

With all regards,

Associate Researcher R.G. Phoenix








p1.

10-26-2012

Am I alive, or am I in hell? I don't know beyond that I slept through the apocalypse.  The power's been out all day and the battery on my radio died in the afternoon, though all it had on all the bands was the same automated message on a loop about staying indoors due to radiation. I shouldn't have stayed up most of the night studying for midterms. Now I'm stuck here and left behind. I don't even have my room-mate to talk to. He just vanished last week saying he had a family emergency before running out of the apartment with his camping backpack and a guitar case. Then again he wasn't exactly much for conversation. Keeping the fridge door closed to try and let the food last a while.

10-27-2012

I started digging through my closet today to keep my mind on something. Forgot that I'd stored the old microwave in there, and a laptop and a bunch of  old school stuff. Laptop powered on and  runs, so I got to play some solitaire for a while.

Midafternoon now, a miracle happened. The power's back on. I can listen to the radio, mostly static though. One of the rock stations is still playing music and the DJ is talking to keep calm and that help is on the way.

I miss my family, our dog, even the rabbit.

Short update. No recap today.

Made our way further south after bypassing the town of children. It's getting colder and there's less ash in the air to really trap the heat, so we're not exactly moving as quickly as we could due to lethargy from the temperature change.

Also seeing more animals, so that's nice as well, though having a day and a night again is a little disconcerting for us. Might take us a few more days to get used to this again. I'll probably post some more in a couple days when  sleep makes sense.

More recap and events of the week.

I'm more or less transcribing things from my journal at this point, skipping over the dull stuff though.



So our attempts at fixing one of the trucks parked outside the bunker was an abject failure. Possibly due to being so close to a detonation all the electronics were fried, and try as we might, we couldn't get it to start, even after employing every trick we all collectively knew. And so we walked.

Sheridan, all that we found there was death, damaged buildings and some makeshift shelters. Those that survived the initial blast from the bombs either died from the radiation, or from the ashfall. I suppose it was kinda like Pompeii might have been after the eruption there. We did find some supplies that were still usable and managed to find an older cat tractor that after a half day we managed to start up shot oil out of the exhaust stack over myself and Leishey before blowing a piston, so that plan went up in smoke.

Axel, one of the airforce guys under Commander Rogan (accent as thick as a brick since he immigrated from Denmark), insisted that we stay and hold a service of some kind to at try and lay the spirits of the town to rest lest they become some horrible darkness and ensnare unwary travelers. We built a cairn of rocks on ridge that the wind kept clear of ash, and we each said a few words, thanking them for the supplies, apologizing for the disturbance of their resting place and hoping they'd found peace in the afterlife. I don't doubt that we'll find more places like this.

As we returned to the bunker, we saw the orange glow dim to almost near darkness. We could almost see the ash thickening and beginning to swirl as another storm rolled in. Caught out in the open we ran as quickly as we can before diving into low spots along the broken road and held on. It was a terrible wind storm with some lightning. Because of the wind and ash we could only lay there with our head under our arms and occasionally call out for a quick head count. It felt like years bit it was over as quickly as it had struck. No one was hurt, though everyone was covered in ash, even more so than usual, though this storm had cleared the sky some and we could see the silhouettes of mountains to the east before the air thickened again and only the haze remained.

A few days later another earthquake hit, based off the way the radio antennae started tilting from this one, we think it originated from the east. The orange glow picked up a bit of blue and looked purpleish for a while before changing back to orange and for a moment it looked like electricity was arcing across the ground from the east, as though a power line had fallen over and was charging the ash. That's the last bit I remember before blacking out and waking up inside the bunker and hungry. According to Leishey, Eivan found me asleep under the radio antennae and carried me back in. Not sure if I was hallucinating from lack of sleep or not since no one else felt the quake.


Enough about what was going on back then:

So about the town of Cheyenne. It's weird to say the least, no one seems to have noticed us yet despite there being twelve of us, and having a relatively large camp. Then again we've been making an effort not to be seen. There's something off about the town. There are no one we can call an adult that we've seen, and everyone in the town appears to be fine with that. We're probably going to circle around the town and avoid it. Nothing really beyond that, I mean other than it being a town full of children, they have a small group of livestock and some greenhouses that every morning a group of them, different people each day, tend to carefully to clear all the ash off. It looks like a functional small self sufficient town, but with no adults. It's just... weird, and honestly a group of adults in all black sporting military rifles showing up out of the waste could upset whatever balance they have and throw it all into chaos.

Oh, right, the ash cloud is thin enough here that there is an actual day night cycle instead of light being reflected from yellowstone's gaping maw off the ash creating a perpetual sunrise/sunset effect.

More recap and a couple letters home.

It was actually easier hiking than we expected. The ash wasn't as deep as the stuff we've been hiking through before, though the landscape is just as cracked and broken as before. We're camped on a ridge above Cheyenne. Which is actually quite a ways away from Cheyenne mountain and Norad. To be fair the map we have is kinda falling apart and we read Cheyenne and a few other road markers and jumped to a conclusion... you're think Rogan would have noticed something like that being from this area in the first place.

As an added bonus, there are people in the town... not a lot, but enough that we're actually pretty wary of just walking into town out of the wastelands... so we're just going to sit up here and watch a few days and brush up on socializing.


So, where I left off earlier in the week. The weather. Our first experience with a lightning storm was one of shock and awe. Eivan and I were up topside trying to get the radio antenna sitting rightside up when the first bolt of lightning dropped from the sky about a mile away. Brilliant blue against the orange and black of the eternal twilight. It was blinding, and we stood there watching as another strike occurred. It finally hit us that we were in a very exposed position, trying to wrangle a massive lightning rod and we quickly headed back to the blast door. No rain fell from the storm as it whipped over our location, but the wind howled and the raw static buildup seemed to charge everything, and after a few minutes as quickly as the storm had arrived it settled and dispersed. That seemed to set the score for our time above ground, we'd always keep one eye on the sky as it could turn foul rapidly and send us running for cover, lightning and wind for one storm with relatively clear skies for a few hours and then a sudden downpour of firebrands and ash that would light wood, and clothes alight as well as the thankfully much rarer hail storms of pumice that were thankfully few and far between. After a month of this all of us had sort of picked up on the subtle cues and could almost time a storm's approach minutes before the first wind or thunder reached us.

Our first long trip from the bunker occurred about a month and a half of emerging from the bunker. By this point we were beginning to have to ration our supplies, and so we had to seek something out. It wasn't far though. Without the ash and other hazards it would have only been a couple hours of hiking down the mountainside, but it was nearly a full day out and back to where we found the resupply truck. It appeared that it had been knocked over on its side from the pressure wave of a bomb, or possibly had wrecked if the driver had panicked when he saw missiles launching in his side view mirrors. We didn't find his body though, and most of the dry goods were still intact however the refrigerated section had the dried remains of rotted food. We took what we could carry and returned to the bunker. With the realization that rescue wasn't coming we started making plans to eventually leave the bunker. It had served it's purpose, but if we didn't leave, it would eventually become a tomb.

Our initial plan was to try and fix a vehicle and build a makeshift plow onto the front of it, however with that failing, we ended up walking out having made sleds using sheet metal and carrying only what we needed, we set out for our first long term trip to the nearest town of Sherridan to our northwest.

This is where I'll stop for now, Eivan and Leishey asked me to append a set of letters home that they wrote once we found we had an internet connection.

This one is from Eivan:

Дорогая сестра,

Я надеюсь, что вы и ваш ребенок сделал это в московском метро, как мы были обучены, как дети делать, если сирены называется. Я также надеюсь, что ублюдок Сидорович споткнулся брусчатка на дороге, и вы оставили его позади. Я живу, как и моих товарищей. Есть три среди нас, что я могу доверить свою жизнь. Я, Leishey, и американский доброволец, который решил помочь бороться с китайцами. Тем не менее, я жив, и наша группа двенадцать сильным. Я надеюсь вернуться в Москву весной следующего года.

Ваш брат, Eivan.

and Leishey:

Мать,

Я не знаю, как вы добились, так как я оставил Донецк. Я надеюсь, что все будет хорошо. Я путешествовал далеко, так как я ушел с двоюродным братом Eivan бороться китайцев в Америке.Площадь мы находимся в является частью Вайоминг, я хочу отец жил знать, что я сделал это здесь. Я прошу вас хорошо и дом в порядке и кузине Анне сделали это к метро и является безопасным.

-Ваш сын
Leishey



The rest of the group hasn't decided yet if they want to make a letter to their loved ones or not. I however am going to get some sleep now, since the hike was exhausting and I have watch in a few hours.

Continuing from where I left off.

A word from the writer: Presently I have 8 as of yet named characters. 3 of which are airforce, 4 of which are regular army, and one of which is a conscript/volunteer like the protagonist who was part of the  "B-team" to keep any Chinese Intel teams confused as to what the hell was going on with the group headed east. I am accepting Name and character archetype suggestions at: blogwiththeblastwave@gmail.com

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A wire broke and it took me a few days to fix the satellite transceiver.

Anyway, for the first two days of the exchange we cowered like rats in the bunker, muttering prayers in our respective languages to our gods, and others hoping that we would be spared a long death. On the second day of the exchange a roar shook the bunker as our worst fears took shape that a retaliatory strike had been targeted at the command structure of this facility. The lights flicked off, the electric hum replaced by silence. After what seemed like an eternity I spoke. "Are we dead?", a clang of someone knocking over a pot and a curse in Russian was the response I got, followed by laughter from everyone in earshot. Slowly the hum of electricity returned and the lights, their dim amber hue blinding despite how it had been only moments that they had darkened. Then a massive quake jolted the bunker from the east, knocking us all to the floor and the lights died once more.

It took us about an hour to fix the generator. The quake that had shook the bunker had knocked part of the watermill loose and it was a feature Leishey had not seen during the cultural exchange so, it took a bit of monkeying to get it working right.

To bide our time and keep our minds occupied, Eivan spent a lot of time running us through drills, partially to keep us active, and partially to keep us from thinking too much on what might be waiting for us when we cracked the seal on the bunker through pure exhaustion. He told us of what he had seen during his training in The Ukraine, especially in and around Pripyat, how nature had reclaimed the city and of strange creatures that wandered the ruins, a curious hybrid of plant and animal that seemed to mend the environment wherever they wandered. I honestly feel that he is what helped us get through this whole year. We owe him our lives, even though he would never take credit for it.

3 and a half weeks in Leishey had started to go a bit stir crazy.... honestly we all were by that point. Commander Rogan spent most of his time dissembling and reassembling the bunker armory and finally he just decided to walk out, radiation be damned. It was the door seal alarm that woke most everyone up, once we knew what it was we joined him at the door... what we saw was terrifying. Black ash lazily raining down like snow on a shattered and alien looking landscape while a cold wind whipped in from the northwest bearing an ominous orange glow. We returned to the bunker one by one as reality set in.

After another week the radiation had died down enough for us to actually leave the bunker for a few days at a time and not worry about getting sick and thankfully the wind direction had been fair for us so we weren't buried in irradiated dust and dirt. Also working in our favor nothing had hit the facility that had a cratering depth deep enough to damage the bunker enough to make us leave.  One of the first things I learned once we began poking around on the surface properly was the proper use of a Geiger counter. The government paperwork that had come with the one I used after the first strike so long ago not only was confusing, but also had me adjust the settings on it so fine that anything above normal background radiation would have made me run fearing for my life with the machine clicking like mad. Apparently I could have been outside and grouping up with the other people that had evacuated Reedley for the nearby national park after only about 7 hours. So... I didn't actually need to spend over 2 weeks cooped up in my apartment like I did.

Perhaps... but it's pointless to mull over what could have happened had I done that.

Anyway the weather. the weather was.. odd. Thunderstorms and violent wind would pass through in a matter of hours before the sky would return to it's hazy red overcast, nature was in turmoil like never before. It was mid-november when we had started spending more time on the surface, except when the weather turned foul. The bunker was our refuge and shelter from the worst of it. Commander Rogan, a Wyoming native, his theory was that the nukes had broken the weather cycle in such a way that it would not be predictable for some time. I however had a theory that the war had awoken a slumbering ancient and that the weather, at least in this region would no longer be fully habitable for at least a few human lifetimes. It wouldn't be until earlier this year that my guess would be proven right and we found that Yellowstone had in fact erupted.


We're going to break camp tomorrow. We've been comfortable here for a few days, but we'll never find any other survivors just by sitting here, unless of course we're camped overtop of a bunker, but that's beside the point, though this close to Cheyenne mountain that's a very good possibility. Despite how well we've adapted to hiking through the ash, with the unfamiliar terrain, not to mention geological uplift it's been slow going. We might actually be at Norad if we keep this pace by next monday, that and there certainly is less ash and more dirt out here...so the ashfall isn't that bad as we travel south. Eventually we'll be able to head west.

Not dead yet.

The writer lives. And so the story returns.

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You could say there are a lot of things I am thankful for. For one, we're finally in an area where we have satellite coverage for the GPS unit, a second thing to be thankful for... my satellite phone machinations of the past apparently work still, though not the same way as before, this time I'm using the antennae and microprocessor from an Amorok Satellite radio out of a car, not to mention that there are authentication systems working, much less the internet exists.. even if it is slightly less... alive. you could say it is a shell of itself. Used primarily now by those that either could not forget what the world was like before the second strike, those that are looking forward, and simply those that have no other alternative way to contact the rest of the world. Latency sucks, and apparently some programmers and corporations saw....something on the horizon and prepared.

Also I'm thankful to be alive. That alone can be considered a miracle, or pure luck depending on what you believe. According to the clock on the GPS, now that it's sync up with the satellite arrays, and with corroboration with one of the clocks I was able to access online, it's been one year, three months, and 27 days since the world over got bathed in atomic fire...well as far as we know that's what went down.... To be honest, now that we've made it to the edge of a massive field of ashes, it actually doesn't look too worse for it. Granted we haven't seen another living human yet, and the animals we have seen weren't keen for conversation.

I'm going to take the next few posts, and summarize journal entries that I wrote down, since a lot of it boils down to "woke up today, still in the bunker, checked the air vents and the monitoring station, still too hot radiologically to leave."

For starters, you could say we were lucky in the first place that the missile command bunker we made out way to was open at all. The commander said so himself, if we had come through any other day, the doors would have been closed and sealed shut, however that day they had been being resupplied and when they went to seal the bunker, well the door fucked up and wouldn't move and they'd been working on it all day, when the two guys on missile watch came hauling down the main corridor saying the board just lit up and was doing precheck automatically, then the sirens and the missiles launched. We arrived about twenty minutes later, hoping for shelter.  This is where our luck started. White Rock missile base happened to be a converted VIP bunker and not just a normal command post. Originally it was built to house 40 people comfortably like a small underground motel complete with exercise and entertainment facilities with a maximum allowable residency of 120. When the air force imminent domained it due to the proximity of the newly planned missile silos they kept most of the gear, but never staffed it with more than four people at the most.

Our second stroke of luck happened to be that Leishey, one of the soldiers from Eivan's group, was part of the cultural exchange with the U.S. during the 90s when we swapped missile engineers for training and understanding during the peace and disarmament talks and he'd actually trained here before. This is one of the reasons why he insisted we run towards the "comms" station when the missiles started flying, and not away. Anyway he actually knew how to manually override the main blast door, and with the combined work of 12 people we managed to manhandle the partially seized machinations into place and get it closed up.

Our third stroke of luck in this time-span, was the resupply they had received earlier in the day that led to the blast door seizing up. Normally enough food to last 4 men a full year (if needed) on very rich meals, when combined with the rations we had, we did the math and, if we wasted nothing, we could make it last 6 months for the 12 of us.  Thankfully we only needed 4 months... not because of the radiation, that cooled down enough after about a week that we could  go outside for about an hour at a time, weather permitting.... and god damn was the weather terrible.

That's enough typing for one night, Eivan and Leishey just got back to the camp and said something about a group of deer nearby and want to see if I can still shoot straight. We've got a running betting pool against each other, honestly I'd like to see Rogan shoot something off other than his mouth, he talks big about his training from the airforce, but we've yet to see anything come of it. Anyway, fresh venison sounds nice for dinner instead of more two year old canned food.

Teasers from beyond the blastwave Part VIII

Just informing my readers that Blog with the Blastwave is going to be going on a short Hiatus, though this will only be for about a month or so. I'm in the middle of a transition hase in my career and so will be scurrying around prepping my gear to move out from my apartment and take one of two options before me, unless an unexpected third option presents itself

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Coalinga was a blast as usual. A weird mix of chaos and order at the stockyards as they sell off most of the cow calf pairs to the ranchers in the delta to winter on the last crop of rice hay. Apparently I missed my older brothers visiting by a couple days. Eh there'll be more chances down the road I guess, some more research into the solar array has been done since I was last there, between the heavy armor cache underneath it, and the missile defense system, it still has secrets it's keeping. Hard to believe that it had had a massive chemical laser built into the solar collector and the whole facility has capacitors built into it. The estimates from the techmages that are poking around the facility are that it could burn a 40 foot hole through a meteor about a hundred miles out of atmosphere. Not really that impressive, but the information in the computers and paperwork in the control center itself imply that there's more of these hidden around the country, possibly the world.

And now we know where all that money for Green energy went, Al wasn't squirreling it away to be just a regular thieving bastard white collar criminal... he was becoming a supervillain.

Also did some testing with my gear and it's anomalous properties, basically I found a couple friends from college that got dragged along with the Mennonites into kings canyon when they evacuated everyone in the area the second time. Anyway the breakdown goes a little something like this:

Me without my ash coated gear=No visual anomaly.
Me with gear I took into the ashlands that stained: Slight visual anomoly, dizzying to look at.
Me, with my ash coated gear (the stuff I had with me out there originally) but no cloak: Kinda dizzying to look at directly.
Me, with ash coated gear, with cloak: Dizzying to look at directly, hard to notice in a crowd, even just alone standing out in the open a person just overlooks my presence unless I actually want to be noticed.

Further tests:
Friend with the gear I took into the ashlands: No visual anomaly
Friend with gear I brought out of the ashlands: Some visual anomaly, not as pronounced as with me though
Friend with my ashlands cloak: Same as above, some visual anomaly, not as pronounced or dizzying.

Got a job as a guard on a train to the north, so going to stop in Davis, there's supposed to be some smart folks to the north that might be able to figure things out a bit better than I can.


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Headed towards Oregon, mostly due to snow blocking my way south, and the route through Idaho is clear as far as I can see. Haven're really seen to many people, and no one's really commented on the wolf. I guess most of the stalkers are strange enough one with a wolf as a companion isn't too much of an oddity, even if that wolf is a cybernetic creation.

Anyway learned a few things about Pandora (great success, IDA finally decided that Pandora could actually be a better name to use since it's full designation of "Institute Design Ambassadorial" was a bit of a mouthful.) It can eat.  Anything organic, wood, grass, meat....me, etc etc. It isn't because it has dietary needs, rather it's because it's power source is an advanced microbial fuel cell, and yes, what goes in must go out as well, Pandora likewise wasn't programmed to taste anything but it does prefer cooked food over uncooked, something that due to the whole "having paws and not hands" thing it is incapable of doing on its own. The AI is also naturally inquisitive about the world, considering the programs that compose it originally came from the institute, and have never left the campus it literally has no knowledge of the world beyond what information was on the campus hard drives, and what they've gleaned off the internet now that that's a bit more restored to its former "glory".

As well as being inquisitive of the world, Pandora is also extremely cautious. They found a copy of terminator on a hard drive and a few Asimov stories in PDF form and are, probably rightly so, afraid of humanity and actually were quite afraid of even sending out some kind of ambassador. It apparently was a huge debate among the various AI's there so huge that it lasted four days, an eternity to them before they reached a consensus and decided I wasn't enough of a threat and had me do their search and rescue work for them.

Anyway, idaho, +  a light snow = a desolate place that's like they rolled the streets up and closed shop for the most part, at least for a person passing through. That's about it for this post. Should be into eastern oregon in a few days since I'm in no rush and the cold temperatures are keeping the deer I caught out in the open chilled with no risk of spoiling.

Teasers from beyond the blastwave part VII

I get less stares running around with my usual gear stowed in a pack. Apparently it is in-fact a visual anomaly based around the ash on my clothing... I may need to run some further tests

Oh right back in the CR, the caravan that I helped escort last week was the last big one for the summer especially with the snow starting to fall across the passes and no one wanting to invest too much work into getting a fleet of snowplows running again, at least right now anyway. Might do it when/if we're a unified country again but there's just too many differing opinions and fractured loyalties floating around right now, and too many people with those drastically differing opinions and loyalties that are employing small armies, however there are some signs of unity regardless.

For example: the California Republic and the Salt Lake Confederation, somewhat opposed ideologies: the CR having become extremely libertarian after the first election that was had, mostly due to shell-shocked folks just looking for some kind of  flag to rally around and the idea of "spreading the wealth around" didn't hold to well with them. However some things never change and San Francisco is one victory parade shy of being Communist totalitarian, but that's a whole other story.  Meanwhile the SLC's governance structure has faith intertwined into the highest levels, I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's just you wouldn't expect the CR whose leadership professes "No gods, no kings, only man" to be trading partners with a confederation whose ideals and politics are intertwined with that of the Mormon Church.

Now some of you reading this may be wondering, "but where is the military in all this? Why haven't they stepped in and acted as a nationwide unifier/police force? Why are mercenaries like you protecting caravans?"

Well it's simple, the remnants have described that as not in their job description as they are mainly for defending us from foreign threats, that and the bulk of the military was in the field and got hit by tactical nuclear weapons. So most of the ones that are still around that didn't retire and or desert are stationed along the Ravenwood/Alameda DMZ and various other Chinese military footholds still in the U.S.

Anyway, headed over to my hometown to check on things there and see how everyone is before considering what to do next. Might bother a couple of friends that are around on the east side and run some tests with my ashlands kit to see what's what with the anomalous properties.

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Snow, I hate snow.... well not so much hate... dislike being cold and wet is a better choice of words I guess... my own damn fault for heading north to Canada without much cold/wet weather gear, then again I didn't plan on spending a month or so up there's that.

Anyway, found a snowmobile store out here in between towns, IDA (trying to convince it that Pandora would be a better name, though my arguments on the symbolism of pandora's box and the potential chaos that the idea of autonomous artificial intelligence could bring to human society has so far fallen to deaf audio sensors) and I were able to get it running after monkeying around with it and stuffing the engine off a portable diesel generator into it in place of the gas engine making it a bit more versatile in the fuels department... and easier to deal with since it's just compression at that point and no spark, and no electronic ignition needed. Hell pulling the computer, engine, and other unnecessary components (block heater and battery is necessary) made the damn thing lighter and easier to drive even after stuffing a diesel engine into it, weird, but it happened. Anyway this is making getting back south towards....hmmm.. not sure if I should go near the SLC just yet... a robot hellhound could get me burned at the stake, Ashlands stalker or not...Oregon perhaps?

Eh this is just musings though. dunno where to go just yet.

Teasers From Beyond the Blastwave Part VI

Bit of a short update for today. Like I said, Mea culpa Mea culpa. 

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So I finally got someone to tell me just why ashlands stalkers, not some of the new guys, people who started off the apocalypse out there, get talked about like we're harbringers of the apocalypse and things of that nature.apparently there's a miasma about us that makes us and the air around us blurry, kinda like a heat mirage with a hint of shadow is how he put it. Apparently this only affects people who started out out there. Which I guess makes sense, that area is weird with anomalies and what some people are calling magic now, so it could be a matter of acclimation as well, which would explain why none of us are able to notice it and everyone else does.

I guess that could be intimidating to most people... I'll have to bring this to the others, so we can figure things out, might have the organize those of us into some kind of order since this apparently affects the ash too which is why people need us as guides...

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Weather sucks, trapped in a forest due to snow. Not much to say. IDA is having a blast running around through the snow with a "holycrapwhathehellisthis" reaction to the snow. Which is kinda odd for coming from Canada....but..yeah.

Well not so much trapped as it's taking a while to slog through all this snow, and I can only melt so much of it in a day with fire.

My apologies.

In the last 6 days I've spent 30+ hours in the driver's seat, my mind is shot, I will be posting a double update this week, once on Wednesday and the followup on this-coming weekend.

I meant to make this post on Thursday but preparation for a camping trip distracted me.

My apologies.

-Blastwave

Teasers from beyond the blastwave part V

Reports of my demise have been greatly hyped.... but wrong. Just was a little bit busy with work the last couple of weeks and it resulted in writers block. That and I'm trying not to get too close to the terminator franchise with the institute's envoy into organic territory... The Ellison Lawyers are scary, especially since they're backed with funding from the CIA.....No seriously Oracle was largely built up with money from the CIA because they wanted simple and easy to use databases, unlike the most recent articles that don't even mention them, with only a passing mention to government contracts, at all and implying that it was all private sector willpower and capitol.

Anyway I digress, and have changed the AI coming with the protagonist from one based off an austrian bodybuilder to a robot dog.

Back to the Blastwave.

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The ecologist is back in the CR, Eivan stuck around to negotiate some kind of contract for a larger expedition next spring.... We're going to have to hunt down [redacted] to help us if we're going to be making this venture work, they'll be able to help organize things. One person was almost more than Eivan and I could keep safe at any given time. Well, one person who's more curious about stuff than is safe to be curious about.


Anyway... I'm currently contracted out as a guard for the caravans to and from Utah....I don't know where they found it all but the mormons pay surprisingly well for my services. 2 meals a day with fresh vegetables+ whatever the trail scouts catch when picking the route for the day, on top of the 50 rounds of pre-war sealed ammunition a day. I think they might have one of the folks who figured out how to manipulate plants like I did with fire. Which is surprising to me I guess, never thought their faith to be as accepting of that kind of change, much less outsiders.

Either way my everyday goes more or less like this right now:

• wake up before dawn and check my gear
• swing by the food truck and get something to eat for breakfast
• climb partway up the cattle trailer, or the largest rock near camp and check the horizon and surrounding area for anything the nightwatch may have missed, escaped horses, rabid bandits, herds of cows that were just over the rise and no one saw them or heard them, things of that nature.
• take my perch atop the cattle trailer and settle in for the day
• chew on jerky around mid-day
• stand up because I saw something odd, usually just an angry rabbit (seriously they have no fucks left to give and will attack a full grown man on a horse, it's comical but at the same time a person caught off guard will usually require stitches), and also because at this point in the day my legs have fallen asleep and I forgot to stand up and stretch earlier.
• help direct the traffic from up top of the trailer as they set up camp for the night
• get something to eat for dinner
• patrol first watch then grab some sleep under the dozer

And that's a normal day for me right now. Haven't had to shoot anyone, the one group that did pass by headed east to Salt Lake kinda got hushed and talked quietly among themselves as they passed the cattle-trailer. Afterwards someone told me that they apparently consider me otherworldly due to how my gear is stained from the ashlands. I seriously don't understand the superstition that's cropping up around those of us who have no problem wandering around out there. It's just ash, there's nothing magical about it, you just need to take the basic precautions and the right types of food, and something to filter water. Hell it's possible to build a community out there if someone wanted to. And it'd be worth it with all the old world tech hidden and preserved under the ash.

That's just my two cents anyway.

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Got to actually see inside the institute..... it is...the most impressive gem of pre-war tech I have ever seen. It is what legends are made of to be honest. Somehow here a remote technical college in Canada....actually honestly most of canada survived the exchange, so it really shouldn't be surprising. But still, everything in here is a weird melding of magic and tech, the likes of which the techmages in the Silicon Valley would either farn over in absolute adoration.... or declare heresey and attempt to purge is from the realms of man.

Yeah... no middle ground with them really. One of them fixed a night vision filter for my M4's scope and the guy next to him grabbed it and tossed it in the trash and it almost turned into a knife fight between the two of them....Techmages are weird...but they keep the internet running and create fantastic machinations, granted those machinations take constant maintenance to keep operational. Wonder if we'll be back to Vegas in time to see the launch of the Auk IV (whoever named it after a flightless bird needs to be slapped), first manned mission to orbit since the war. As Eivan put it "Is great momentous occasion, do not be of missing. It will be spectacular even if it is blowing up of launch pad and not taking off into space like majestic reverse meteor shower of last year"....and he kinda has a point.

So as I said.. We'll try to be back in Vegas for the launch. I have a companion now. One of the ai's from the institute, well a group of them. According to IDA-01 (Institute Design Ambassadorial model 1) it has about 9 times the programs of a standard institute platform, and 12 times the processing power allowing it to move around and hold an intellectual conversation on its own without need of the institute's wireless network. That and the platform's design is much more complex compared to the normal two foot four legged spider drones they use for moving around most of the campus. I mean it looks like a dog, to the point where it has synthetic muscles and skin with a self repair function as well as a very complex temperature regulation system involving fur made up of bundles of carbon nano-tubules. The only way one could tell it wasn't a dog, or wolf at first glance is the pattern welded teeth and claws, mechanical blue eyes that are backlit, and the fact it can talk.

Going to have to come up with a decent name for the dog though, IDA doesn't fit its personality since that just seems cold and calculating to me while the AI is naturally curious and inquisitive about its surroundings, pandora maybe? Anyway, according to the other AI's they chose a canine as the base for model 01 because of humanity's long partnership with them. I think it might be a longshot, but I'll escort their ambassador around the major hubs.... let's hope no more weird mythology about the ashlands stalkers crop up because of this. According to some we're ghosts of the old world, while others call us angels sent to judge the fate of the survivors of the war, while others call us devils, however none of the last group have openly tried to kill any of us.

Regarding that book. Still no idea what's up with it, and the institute drones would lose all power if they got nearer than 40 feet to it. They would reset once taken out of the area. the AI's made a consensus about this pretty fast and have decided to seal off the entire floor of the hotel just as a precaution, with monitoring stations with hardwired connections to keep an eye on things in the event the effect's area expands.

Teasers from Beyond the Blastwave Part IV

Didn't want to head south to Salt Lake... though really didn't get much of a choice. Largest settlement at the edge of the ash-lands, especially with the mega Desal plant working again, all the tech, and people, that survived in the Bingham Canyon city sized bunker made that possible. Despite the chaotic weather there was an amazing crop of vegetables that grew in the surrounding farmland.

Anyway, backing up to Why we headed south instead of continuing west. There was a creature in the way. Not really sure what that was to be honest, it wasn't there when we hiked through the first time. The best description would have to be a dragon. Lizardlike, as long as a bus is, The wingspan was just as wide that allowed it to glide easily enough while it used it's tail like a rudder as it moved through the air, two rear legs no front legs, when folded and landed it used its wings as such. It was terrifyingly majestic as it slowly circled above us after leaping off the cliffside before landing in front of us lightly. Eivan and I had the sense of mind to grab our ecologist friend and drag him back, it's mouth could have easily swallowed any of us up whole in one bite. It didn't breath fire on us, though we didn't give much of a chance since we immediately bolted back down the road we'd came. Didn't stop much as we headed south along the 15 towards Salt Lake. It followed us for a couple days, watching us, we didn't stop till the ecologist dropped from exhaustion and we took shelter in a bus terminal in Malad. I guess by that point it had grown disinterested in us. We rested a day then continued south to Salt Lake to get supplies and see if a caravan along the I-84 needed guards. Thankfully they didn't give us as much grief about being non-mormons this time, fair prices on food and drink as well.

Hopefully we'll be back in the CR in a few days and we can finish our contract by getting our ecologist friend home safe and sound.


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The s͇͎̳̯͇̯͈̮͔͚̖͇̹̘̗̗̤e̳̪͕̗͍͕̬̭͕̙̰ͅv̱͉̻̱̬͎̰͍̟̩̘͕ͅͅe̯͓̯̩̟͍̜̝̜̮̳͉̹͍̮̮ͅͅn͔͚̮͕͖̳̰͎͙̬͉t͔͚̮̠̖̥h͈̘̹̼̘̱̘̺̲̣͔̩ͅͅ floor is definitely larger on the inside than the outside, it is definitely a labyrinth as well, however I was able to map it all out, I didn't find the missing drones in it. That took most of the week, would have been faster if I'd figured out how to see in the dark faster, well and adjust to that which took a day. A quasi modification to my eyesight that allows me to see into the u͚̺͓̲̼͇̦ͫ͒ĺ͚̑͛t̺̊̍ͨ̐͛̿r̦̤̥͕̓͑̚a̜̯̰͛ͤ̔̇v̖̺̯̺̩̽ͅĩ̟͇̤̬̦̲ͯ͒õ̳̤̬ͧ̂l̬͔͖͔̹͇̫̳͖ͬ͂͛̑ͮͯͭͯͫe͍̤̓̋̍ͭ̍̐̓ͤ̚t̲̠̞̲̤͉͈͋ͯ͊ ̤̭̻̣̪̙͉̲̼̍̑̿̌̍̐̍̈́s̞͖̹̮̣͋̌ͅp̲͉̣̰͖̤͔ͣ̐ͅe̻̘̥̱̙̦͚̋́̈̀̎͒ͥc͎̝̱̗̯̘̭̭̞̀͛ͣ͌ͧ̃̐t̜̝͎̼͖̻͊̂̿ͭͨ̓r̩̲̜̫̩ͮ̊̓ǘ̹ͧ̋ͨ̾͛̑ͧ̃m̻̝͊̇ͭͬ. I was wondering why the drones had no problem with the seventh floor while I couldn't see jack, Something about the air of the seventh floor adsorbs all normally visible light. No idea why, and since there wasn't anything physically there to sample there's nothing to really check. Anyway, no drones. I did find a dias made of apparently all the towels that were on this floor with a leather-bound book on it but it c͕̬̃̈́͊̋̈r̸͉͚̘͍͎̤̂ͫ̂͊ͯͫ̓͝ȇ̛̩͓̦̹̳̪̟̈́̕é͍̦̖̜̗̲̱̗̇ͯͯ͂́͜p̶̘̞̬̥͔̳͚͆̀̇̎ͭ̔̒̉̐e̵͔͔͙̯͂͆ͤ̅͂̓d̵̺͔̭̱͇̼̮͐̑͂ͣ͢ͅ me out enough I didn't want to touch it. Something just seemed... ỏ̻̤͓̤ͪf͈ͦf̤̟̩͍̳̩̖̾ͫ̌ͅ about it.

Fifth and sixth floor still remain impenetrable despite the best attempts of myself and drones from the institute. ID-9 though has declared that I attempted to complete the task in good faith and that the inability to explore the remaining floors doesn't count against anything, the fact that I did in fact find one of the missing drones is being debated upon and hopefully a c̳͛͑o͖̬ͦ͋ͩ͊͌̑̅͐n̤̭̩̝͑̌͐͂̍̾̆̏s̲̖̤͖͓̙͛͌̎̂ͣe̟̭̹͉̥̓̍͂ͩ̎̈̀n̰̬͍̗͗̓ͥ̋͊ͤͩ̓s̤̗̗̄͆̃ͫ̄ͩ͐̔ͅu̱̰͈͉ͥ̌ͪ̇ͣ͂͊s̘̳͙̒͒̾̐ͮ on whether to open up "trade options with organics" or not can be made in the next day or so Snow's starting to fall now..

....seriously w͇̤͙͕̆́̃ͪ͂ͮḧ͇̹ͯͮ̐̚o̥̟̪̥̙̙̪̎ͮ̃͌̚'̭͔͂̉ͪ̇s̻̮͋̽̇̾̈ͤ̿͑͒ ̹̬̭̪͎̩͍̠ͥ̊̍͐̃i̗͇̦͑̎̑d͓̻̫ͧ̚ě͓̫̭̟͎̭̭̼̿̈́ͪ̓̒a͓̥̳̖͂ͬͨ̓ͮ͐ ẃ̗͓̘̤͈̫̟͙̤a͏̨̞̩͉̼̀s̡̱̰͙̠̙̙̠̦͓ it to make ME the ambassador for the human race to new creatures and entities? First the Drakony, and now AI's... what's next E-T's?

Teasers from beyond the blastwave Part III

Made it to our supply cache at the edge of the ashlands today. We left yellowstone early due to earthquakes and more magma belching up out of the pools. The ecologist is still giddy and wants to contact us out again in a few months once he's gone over the data he collected. I don't see why not, it's not like the place could get much more dangerous than it already is. It's just lava, sharp as glass ash and noxious gases, and the potential goring hazard from the flaming bison out there. No they aren't actually flaming but their skin is surprisingly flame and heat resistant. In the name of science, and also because fresh meat sounded like a good idea, we slaughtered one out of a small herd we found. Tasted great with a little salt, kinda smoky though. Anyway theory is that one could make a raft out of the hide and use it to float out over some of the runnier lava, but we wisely managed to get that idea out of the ecologist's head.  Also that weird tree thing I saw, still no clue what it actually was and didn't see it again. Most of the trip out was rather uneventful. Should be able to see all the stars in a day or two, it'll be nice to be back in civilization for a while.

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Fifth and Sixth floors have plates of metal welded up against all the windows. Even a cutting laser from the institute didn't scratch it, more and more of the AI's have come to watch my attempts to discover the secrets of the building though. It's pretty interesting to have an audience. Speaking of which, I did find the manager on the eighth floor. Pleasant fellow, if a bit distant, he and ID-9 had a staring contest for an hour that ended in a draw (I did not know the AI's could blink but ID-9 did). I did some exploration of the seventh floor, it is the strangest of them all, it seems to be configured in a maze-like shape, and time... has no meaning there, also space since it seems to cover more area than the footprint of the building itself. I thought I was only inside for a couple hours but it was in fact a day and a half according to ID-9. I did manage to use rope that one of the AI's made for me, glows on it's own, to sort of guide myself around the maze some. I'm wondering if I'm going to find a Minotaur in it... considering the dragons off in the ashlands I would not be surprised. Whelp a couple of the ai's just wandered up saying their calculations say they may have increased output of the cutting laser by 120% at an increase of energy use by 300%.... so instead of an hours worth of cutting time It should only have 20 minutes... well if I did the conversion right anyway. First gotta find my welding goggles.

Teasers from beyond the blastwave in two different points in time.

Spent this week keeping the ecologist from getting too close to the lava pits. Did find some more signs of life from larger fauna, and there are some plants further away from the actual lava pools further out on the rim of the caldera. It also rained last night, making everything a muggy soggy and muddy mess. Score one for fry's though, whatever they did to the laptop and satgear works and it repelled the water pretty well. After the downpour I got to see stars for the first time in a month. It was nice, though the ash clouded back up pretty quickly returning everything to the ever-present red haze.

Woke up this morning with a note from Eivan: "Ecologist heard cows or something off in the distance wanted to check it out I'm with him." So that left me with time to take inventory of our gear. Maybe another week's worth of supplies left before we have to start headed back.

While Eivan and the ecologist were off doing stuff I took a walk off towards where I'd seen some more of the hardy plants we'd found inside the caldera. tough woody stuff with dark gray foliage. While I was having a closer look at it I heard a noise and saw something off on a hill about a hundred yards away. The best description I could give it would be an Ent from Tolkien's works.... I'm tentative about telling the ecologist only because he'd want to chase it and I don't know how it would react to our presence.

No sketch this time, the pen ran out of ink and I don't have any spares.

Anyway, after a while it just stomped off after staring at me for a bit. Once I couldn't hear it I made my way up to the hillside, under all the brush where it had walked through was fine dark gray grass. More questions than answers I guess when it comes to the ashlands.



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Found the first AI rig on the fourth floor. Yes there is a perpetual discotheque, and according to it (ID-274-9998) , it's sensors had lost its path due to the constantly changing lighting, it finally gave up after finding a wall plug to keep charged and hope something got within radio distance so it could call for help. I can agree though since I had a hell of a time making sense of the floor's layout due to the constantly changing lighting. I'd also be willing to bet the walls are moving in time to the music that's running over the PA system on that floor.

First and second floor were pretty normal while the basement has a colony of rats the size of dogs that apparently have been acting as the custodial staff....oddly enough. Regardless they pay me no mind unless I mess something up, and then the nearest one runs over and starts chattering loudly at me  while cleaning up the dirt.. Fifth and sixth floor doors are welded closed from the inside, both in the elevator shaft and emergency stairwell, while the seventh floor opened up into a dark shadowy void that I have not explored yet because my flashlight can't even light up the floor, and the eight floor I haven't found either the keycard or keycode yet, while the rooftop is a veritable garden with no ai rigs found there.

Going to try and burn through the doors or climb down and enter from the outside on the fifth, sixth and eight floors.

Teasers from beyond the blastwave and two different time zones.

This has been one of the biggest hassles ever.. well I mean other than getting out of the ashlands in the first place. Some crazy ecologist wanted to go into them, specifically the source, Yellowstone of all places. Initially I refused, but god damn we he persistant. He said he didn't trust the others who were willing to guide him in, something about lack of experience of having not survived. (apparently those of us that made it out are kind of a big deal to the folks living on the edge and away from the ashlands, I don't get it. All we did was do our best to survive a hostile environement while trying to make sense of what the fuck was going on while thinking we were dying from radiation and not just acclimatizing to what some are calling magic's resurgence. Eh I dunno, shit's weird and I can light stuff on fire with my mind, dunno what to call it. Magic works for now I guess.)

The pay is insanely good though, dunno where he found it but sealed and unexpired food that isn't irradiated is also kind of a big deal, and the guy hasn't done anything too stupid... well Eivan really hasn't given him much of a chance to do anything too stupid like trying to hug a bear or something. Anyway, the GPS stopped giving us a satellite reading five days ago so we used a map from a park service truck we found half buried in a bank of ash west of the park along highway 287. A bit of guesswork later, since everything topographically has gone to hell out here. If we did everything right we're at the old faithful geyser, or near there.

This is where the ecologist kinda went bonkers starting writing notes and looking around for signs of life. Eivan and I have had to fish him out of a hole twice now and keep him away from the lava about seven times.

A bunch of basalt formations were pushed up when the volcano erupted and pushed, kinda reminds me of the devil's post pile a little, only with more lava. Speaking of which the lava in the central ring of basalt bubbles constantly, and occasionally "belches" up a stream of it, so we haven't been able to get too close. Honestly I don't want to stay here too long anyway. There's some distinct radioactivity that's not natural, which implies what the air force guys in colorado said about their radar tracking several warheads into the national park boundaries. So.. basically it seems someone nuked yellowstone as part of a mutually assured destruction plan. Go humanity I guess.

Anyway, we did find a boiling lake near the geyser, and there's some kind of algae growing in it, it took a few tries but the ecologist got a couple samples, but it looks like it died outside the heated water. We haven't seen anything bigger than a mouse though, and most of the soil's been covered with ash and other volcanic byproducts.

A sketch I did so people can kinda visualize it.

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Still in Canada, found the robots. They want me to investigate Le Grande Hotel to find out what happened to the last set of drones that went inside before they consider sending a representative south to consider trade negotiations. For entities that were basic chatbot intelligence before everything went tits up they're pretty sophisticated and came to a consensus that trade with humans may be beneficial for us all, though we have to pay it foreward first. Anyway I'm not too far inside the hotel yet, just at the managers office. The desktop still works, though it took some tinkering by myself and ID-9 (Institute drone 9789) to get it working so I could access it. It's also been complaining of a lack of wifi connectivity, which explains why the other ones that came here couldn't have called for help.

Some interesting logs. The manager seems to have gone mad after some point and attempted to draw in customers despite the apcolypse, one of the vending machines was somehow spitting out an infinite number of sodas, possibly from the rampant magic that the eruption of yellowstone unleashed, or other unknown factors. either way he put up a billboard that read "free cola with visitation", also something about the lights on the fourth floor having gone into rebellion and declaring the entire floor a perpetual discotheque.... considering from the outside I thought someone was inhabiting the hotel at first and someone was welding up there there may be a kernel of truth to it.  Eh, ID-9 has declared I'd had enough resting time, so I may as well resume poking around here and try and find the missing Ai rigs.

As promised I've started doing sketches in the mindset of the protagonist, here's one of them.

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Lifealope resting after receiving medical treatment

Happy Freedom Day.

I've moved, and things are settled down. No I don't have anything storywise to post. However it's been one year, more or less, since I blew up the world of Blog with the blastwave. Once I get my scanner setup and playing nice with my computer I'm going to post some sketches from the journal of the protagonist regarding the changed world and a few more teasers. I actually plan to start writing regularly on this story again early 2015. Here's a short nonsequitor post that literally has no story attached and has no reference to where it fits into the timeline of events. Well aside from being set on the 4th of july at some point.

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Saw an Eagle today. It was eating a rabbit I think. There were also crows harassing it. Reminded me of the way things were.

Happy 4th of july.

ZEE WRITER IS MOVING>THE NEXT UPDATE/TEASER POST ETA UNKNOWN>END OF LINE
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One last displaced post

This is the last of my time displaced posts that will be available for a limited time. Read it while it's hot off the presses.

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Alone again. I'm surprised the lifealope traveled so far into the ashlands with me. I followed me for a few days before deciding to head southwest. No one likes to come even a few miles into the ash much less hundreds of miles.

The stillness and emptiness, just the ash, occasional cooling floes of lava, buried cities and  the occasional dragon. I'm surprised this tablet can reach the satellite network through the clouds of ash and smoke from yellowstone, then again the technomancers can make "miracles" happen. Though I'm more surprised the satellites even function with no maintenance since the war. According to the satellites it's supposed to be sometime in the afternoon. But from the clouds obscuring the sun and the ever-present glow to the northwest in the caldera it's impossible to tell what time it is. It's not like the first few months after the bombs fell though, now to keep from breathing in the ash I can get by with just a shemagh or balaclava with a couple cantrips woven into it to keep it clean without the need to wash it out.

When we first climbed out of the bunker in the shattered mountains of Wyoming, the ash was so thick and heavy on the air it was almost a fog. Not only did we need armored mopp gear from how sharp some of the airborne particles were having at least three layers of filters on the respirators was the best. Some loose weave cotton cloth but not loose like burlap, something a bit finer, and then the mask filters themselves. We learned quickly, suffocated, or worse.  Our rapid grasp of the wild magic that had been unleashed on the world certainly helped. Eivan was the first to truly "understand" the changes going on not only in the world around us but within us. His experiences in the Ukraine certainly helped him have a stronger grip on reality, and in all honesty we likely would have died if it were not for him. Not to the ash but the dragons.

Not many people make it back from the depths of the ashlands. Even the more experienced, or arguably less reckless, stalkers avoid travelling here because of them. We don't know if they came after the apocalypse or were simply sleeping under the earth waiting. They are like the beasts of lore, powerful scaled creatures. Lizardlike with great wings. They can dart through the air like a fish in the water and breath down hellfire at a whim. While they may seem mythic but they are still living creatures. They eat, they breath and most importantly sleep.

Now the question becomes, why have I mentioned these dragons? Well, the closer I get to where Granite Inn is supposed to be, the more dragonsign I see. Melted ash in the form of furrows and wallows alike. That and an ever-present sense of being watched. I thought I saw one out of the corner of my eye, but it moved fast enough I couldn't be sure, however I have my suspicions that my destination is in fact a nest. Now that is troublesome, but at the same time I wonder, just how smart the dragons are.  Perhaps if I employ some tricks of my own and melt a tunnel under the ash and burrow like a badger I'll be a bit safer. Options open up when a person can bring forth fire and ice from their fingertips on a whim, and failing that I can fall back on steel and iron.

Another time displaced post.

A continuation of the previous post.

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While I'm certain other people have gotten a chance to examine a lifealope up close I may be one of the first to actually do so with it alive and with the creature calm and somewhat relaxed.  I was able to actually coaxe the wolf close in after a few hours of patiently sitting by my campfire, after I'd set my rifle down outside of my reach anyway.

I sat there quietly with a handful of juniper berries in my hand waiting, finally it approached and after a short, and tense standoff it laid down in front of me and allowed me to come close. So after offering it the juniper berries I examined its wound, and the creature before me. As I'd guessed before it appeared to have been shot in the shoulder with no exit wound. I carefully examined the wound, I confirmed there was a bullet in there with a device that had been fashioned using a studfinder and a metal detector. (sold for five bullets of any pistol caliber, only available, as far as I know, at Fry's Silicon Republic in Seattle) I then used a small dab of numbing poultice (mint, mutated nettle and some wet clay to hold it all together), and waiting a bit before attempting to fish the bullet out with a set of medical tweezers sterilized in the fire.

Yes I was successful in pulling the bullet, and yes I got bit for my trouble, but that was more of a reaction it seems rather than intent because once I had pulled the bullet it began to wag its tail and it released my shoulder, and healed the bite.

Once I'd cleaned off the bullet and examined it I found it was rather corroded and was disintegrating in the air rapidly. There were runes carved into it but it crumbled too fast for me to make sense of it, but my guess is that it was designed to inhibit the healing energies that are naturally present in lifealopes, because a few minutes later you couldn't tell the lifealope had been shot. It also seems to have decided to follow me for the time being.


I wonder... if it knew I was hiking into the hellish landscape of the ashlands would it be so willing to travel with me? Then again this is probably a fools errand trying to find an old world tech cache, though the pay is good, since I'm getting a can of 5.45 in advance and a can of 5.45 on confirmation of the location or extend of damage to, according to this military map the "Granite inn" vehicle and equipment storage facility. My guess, if I had to wager on it, is that all the gear was deployed during the Chinese invasion and is lost to the ash of yellowstone. Though if it is intact, I get a finders fee of as much as I can carry myself, and regardless I'm making a total of 880 military grade rifle rounds for the work, so I can't complain too much, even if it is wandering around the ashlands trying to find landmarks in its shattered landscape.