Day 556

 Since the collapse of civilization

            I remember the fallout like it was yesterday, the last remaining fossil fuels we had were gone. Mass chaos broke out and the people went crazy; the government could not control them and they soon fall apart.(1) Where was I during all of this? Well I just finish my major at MIT, for mechanical engineering, and I was heading home for summer. My father, Jesse, knew about the energy crisis and he was prepared for it. He made one of the greatest electric cars to solve this problem. A 1971 ford mustang mach 1 convert for electricity. Usage of an outlet for recharging and it can run up to 250 miles before needing a recharge. It is also a sports car and rockets from 0 to 60 mph in about 4 seconds (1). He built a solar panel into the roof for recharging on the go. But he never got to see the car hit the road.

            So where am I now? Well I’m on the side of the road because it is an electric car and it can run out of power; so I’m waiting for it to recharge. Since I’m waiting here, I guess I can write about an event that happened to me a few weeks ago. It was a day similar to today and I was stuck on the side of the road again waiting for my batteries to charge, so I told the time to explode the area. It looked to be that I’m in a valley of sand with only a single road running through it. Before the fallout people used to call it route 66. As I walked of this hill I saw the most beautiful things ever.(2)

             I found white windmill generator standing over a small village in the sand. The clear white paint still looks to be out of the box it came from.  The hundred foot tower dropped me to my knees and filled me with hope. After I stopped crying for happily, I picked myself up and headed the two miles towards the windmill.

            But as I came close to the village I was greeted by gun point by many guards. They handcuffed my and pulled into the inner walls. I was thrown in front of a very large man, who told me his name was Matt. I told him that I’m only a traveler who saw the windmill and that I mean no pain. I later learned that he was the leader of this small town. That night he described to me that the whole reason why I was treated so violently was because the guards thought I was part of the others. The others were a road gang, who were attacking them for the electricity. Matt went on by saying that that whole town ran off the single windmill.(2) He told me the leader of the others, “the Hunter”, was an angry ex-army captain who wanted the windmill for himself.

            Since my car was still recharging on the side of the road, they let me stay a few nights in one of their spare rooms. And over those few days I developed a sense of family with this small town. 556 days of living and surviving for myself, but now I wanted to help and live with my new family. The feel of love that I had felt before the death of my father. But that feel of happiness was cut short.

            The sky turned dark the smell of fear filled the air. The sounds of happiness turned into sounds of terror. As everyone ran inside in fear of their lives, I ran to the outer walls to see who my enemy was. What I saw was a small group on military vehicles charging at full speed to the windmill. At the front of this gang was a man on a motor bike, who I could only assume was the Hunter.  The smell of gasoline and loud noises was followed by gun shots, and I knew the end was near.

            I ran to the Matt’s house only to find that I was too late. The others had already got to him; he was bleeding out on his living room floor. His last words to me were to grab some of the extra batteries from the windmill and get the hell out of here. I ran from house to house out of the eye line of the others as they raped and pillaged. Once I made it to the base of the tower, I grabbed all the batteries I could and ran only because I knew I could not stop them. The only hope for me was my car that was two miles away.

            Once I made it outside the walls of the small town I could smell smoke raise for inside the walls. After I made it to my mustang, I changed some of the batteries and got out, but not fast enough to see that beautiful windmill fall to the ground.  

            That is the end of that story but I guess as one door closes another opens. As I wait for this these batteries, my only hope is that I can find a world that is better than this hell hole that I’m in now…

1. Tuite, Don. "Racing Against Time To Charge The Family Car." Electronic Design 59.8 (2011): 52. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.

2. Tuite, Don. "Racing Against Time To Charge The Family Car." Electronic Design 59.8 (2011): 52. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 22 Feb. 2012.