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.