Scorched Earth After the Fall

The cool august air wafted across the barren plains, what once was a thriving farmland now lay barren and uninviting. Merric was thankful that the air had cooled down, the summers in the plains were brutal. The autumn air felt cool on his skin, it reminded him of growing up in Azexico. The cool air on the mountain, the warm air in the valley where they took the sheep in the summer. But this place was like no place he had ever seen before. No plant life seemed to grow here. Just black dirt and sand all over, every footstep kicked up a plume of black and tan powder. Rain soaked in as fast as it fell, no puddles, no ponds, no standing water anywhere. That was a bad thing for Merric, his canteen was just about empty. He found shade beneath a large rock over hang, sort of a shallow cave. He lay the pack on the ground, leaned back against it, took a long cool drink of water, and enjoyed the cool breeze that drifted lazily across him. Merric felt his eyes grow heavy, ‘ a short nap would be good for him, at least now he could rest because he wanted to, not because it was too hot to move’.
Merric awoke to the low rumble of an approaching storm, he would need to find a better place if he planned on staying dry tonight. He gathered his pack and began to walk eastward again. The sun was still high in the sky, but the cooler air signaled the approach of a hailstorm, he would need to find cover soon.
In the distance a large gray box shape loomed, it could be an old abandoned farm building, or a government building. After Pandora most of the world collapsed, Merric heard stories of how the government had taken control of farms, and various other assets that belonged to the public. It was said that they were trying to prepare a safe haven for the Congress and President to wait out the virus’s gestation period. As he walked a large rusty looking door came into view on the gray building.
Merric made his way through the dunes to the door, he pulled on the door but it did not move, Merric took another drink, removed his pack, and put all he had into pulling on the door. The door gave a little, Merric’s hopes were renewed he dug in his heels and pulled again. Again the door moved a bit, but then stopped. Merric stood up and noticed that the door was pushing against the build up of dirt and sand so he took his entrenching tool from the pack. And moved the dirt and sand out of the way. He then returned to the door and pulled again, this time the door moved more easily. He opened it enough to get through. He grabbed the pack and stepped into the doorway. Just inside the door was a hard roadway, which was surrounded by a cinderblock wall, on the opposite end, was a chain link gate, which had partially fallen off of its hinges. The cinder block wall was in disrepair, large sections lay scattered and broken all around. Merric turned back toward the door, and pulled it shut. He noticed that a latch had been placed on the inside, he pushed the handle and the latch caught easily. Merric did not need any surprises right now. He stepped through one of the holes made by the fallen cinder blocks, and could not believe his eyes. Before him lay a plush green field of grass, several large trees grew through out, a medium sized river ran through the grassy field. A waterfall that seemed to come out of the opposite wall fed the river, an old wooden water wheel creaked and groaned as the water rushed beneath it. A large structure stood just to the left of the cinder wall. It was multilevel and seemed to be a place for living.

Overhead the ceiling seemed invisible, it was as if he was looking up at a beautiful blue sky, clouds drifted lazily across, the sun followed a tract across the sky. Birds could be heard chirping and singing, Merric had never seen a place this beautiful. He stepped onto the plush grass, it felt like a soft cushion under his feet. Merric pulled his boots, and socks off, and let his feet squish into the grass. It was cool and soft underneath his feet, although it was over ankle high. He walked through the grass to the building, the concrete walkway in front of it was in tact no cracks or wear of any kind. Merric noticed the first floor of buildings were designed to be stores. He pushed on the door of the first and it opened easily. Inside the storefront was material of all kinds, and colors. Clothing of all sorts hung on racks ready for sale. Merric looked at his worn clothes and decided that he needed a change, no one seemed to be around, and if they came back he would make arrangements to pay for what he took. He found a clean pair of denim pants, a nice tan cotton tee shirt, and several pairs of new socks, he would keep the boots, they were comfortable and had a few more miles on them still. Merric noticed that all the stores were the same size except for the one in the corner, it was quite a bit larger. He pushed the door opened and, found that it was a grocery store. The shelves were stocked with canned food, and a meat counter ran the length of the back wall. Although no meat was in the counter Merric knew what it was. He picked up several cans of food, dusted off the cans and checked the expiration date stamped on top of the can. He has learned as a child that most of the can food he found was packaged and label with a date, anything after that date was not worth eating. The cans here were marked with dates that were still good. He read the labels “ Long term food supplies”
As he read he found out that these were foods designed to last an extended amount of time because they were either dehydrated and packaged or freeze dried for canning and longevity. This was a good thing most of the canned foods still had several years on the shelf life. He put several cans in his pack, he would at least eat something other than cattails or snake meat tonight. He stepped out of the store and went to the stairs that led to the upper floors. These were living quarters, each one identical to the other, most of them were two bedroom one-bath apartments, except the end units they were one bedroom and one bathroom. Merric opened the door, it was dark and smelled musty apparently it had never been opened or lived in. He saw a small switch on the wall just inside the door and flipped the switch, the apartment lit up. The units had a power system, something most people did not have. After the Pandora epidemic, anyone with knowledge of power generation and distribution had died, and the plants that supplied the power had all shut down, even if they were still running this place did not have any power lines running to it to supply power. Merric was puzzled, there must be a generating station contained somewhere in this place. He looked out the window of the apartment, a large opening was just below the apartment. Curiosity set in, he would have to examine this and see what was on the other side. He continued to explore the living quarters, a bed was in the bedroom, completely made up, sheets pillows the whole thing. He lay down on the bed, it felt so good the mattress was soft, so different from the hard ground or the straw mattress he had known. He lay there and drifted off to sleep in complete comfort.

Merric stretched and sat up, he had no idea how long he had been asleep, the lights were still on so he had no clue if the sun was up or down. He stretched some more he had not slept that well in a long time. Walking into the kitchen area he found the refrigerator, inside were several bottles of water, cold water. He took one of the bottles of water and opened the plastic lid. The water was still good, he took a long cold drink, and it tasted good. He wondered if the electric stove worked, turning the knob a red light appeared on the panel of the stove, the radiant burner started glowing red and began heating up. He turned the burner off, he had found a place unlike any other. All of this technology had been lost after Pandora, and yet here was a place that seemed untouched by time, but how. He opened the cabinet and found more of the long-term food in the cabinet, which reminded him that he had not eaten.

Merric sat down at the table and began to eat, it tasted different, but good. He ate till he felt full, anymore and he would be useless the rest of the day. He stood and washed the plate and the utensils then returned them to their proper place. Afterwards he grabbed his pack and started out the door. He wanted to check out the large opening he had noticed from the apartment window. He ran down the stairs, anxiety pushing him toward the opening. From where he was he saw more grass, and trees. TREES, those could not be trees. He stepped through the opening, large trees populated most of what he could see. A large clearing was just a ways past the tree line. This place just got weirder and weirder. He walked through the trees, birds chattered in the tree tops, squirrels jumped from tree limb to tree limb, small creatures scurried through the grass it was amazing. Suddenly movement caught his eye, it was large and moved with grace. Merric watched as the creature moved closer, ‘could it be’ it was a male white tail deer. Behind him were several Doe, and a few calves. Merric was amazed at the fact that all this was under these roofs. He wondered through the woods, a small stream meandered through, ending at a small pond. Fish could be seen swimming in the pond, this was heaven on a scorched earth.

Merric sat and enjoyed the scenery, the cool breeze, and sound of the water rushing over the rocks. He watched as the animals of this forest appeared then disappeared into the tree line. He felt at ease, in a world where everyday seemed to be hell on earth Merric found himself able to smile, and forget about the world outside for a while. He leaned back against a tree and just soaked in the pleasure. The warm sun felt great on his skin with the cool breeze caressing his skin, he did not have a worry in the world right now. Time passed slowly in this place, and Merric was thankful that it did, he did not want to leave.

The day passed and evening started to fall, Merric stood and stretched he had had a wonderful day of nothing. Taking in the whole environment still left his mind reeling. He walked through the wooded area for a while, back to what he thought was the same opening, but from a distance it looked different. As he got closer he realized it was a different opening, as he looked through the new opening he noticed a barn, fields, and more buildings. He stepped through and into a farm, again he was amazed no way this could possibly be real he thought. Merric stepped into one of the fields, wheat was growing, it had been growing unattended for several years, it was a thick crop, no rows, but very healthy. He plucked one of the grain heads, rolled the wheat onto his hand, it was ready for harvest. If no one harvested it, it would once again fall into the field, the next time the harvest would be shallow, all the nutrients would have gone into this years production, same with the corn, and the cotton. A fourth field held a garden style crop, lettuce, snap beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, and what appeared to be barley and wild hops. The only thing missing was the farm animals. At least as far as he could see, those might be in the barn. It would not surprise him the way this day was going, but that would have to wait. Merric spied a fourth opening, ‘ where could that lead?’

He moved into a position to be able to see through the opening, it lead back to the beginning, finally. He stepped toward a building that was obviously meant to house workers. Merric stepped up onto the porch of the living quarters, the door opened easily, it smelled of dust, he felt that urge to sneeze, but fought it. Merric walked through the house, several large rooms, with bunks in each room, a large common bathroom all on the top floor, a large common area on the bottom floor, a large eating area, and a large kitchen with a large cooler. Unfortunately the cooler was empty. Merric left and returned to the apartment he had slept in. He sat down on the sofa, propped his feet on the table and began to let the discoveries sink in. Suddenly a large black rectangle appeared from out of the wall. He knew from the teachings of his parents that this was called a television, people used to get information from images on the front.


The screen flickered and an image appeared. An older mans face appeared and began to speak.
“ Greetings traveler, you are welcome here for as long as you like. This is a self-sustaining community, and will provide you with all necessities to live within these walls. Each person is to add to the community’s success by doing what he can for the entire community. After you have found your place you are welcome to come and go as you please.” The television went blank and Merric was left confused. This must have been a place designed to help those who found it get back to a life they may have known. But apparently he was the first to find it, Merric knew now that he had a mission.

He lay awake long into the night thinking who else might be looking for a place that they could feel safe and live a life without fear and worry. As he finally drifted off to sleep his mind was filled with the things he could do to try and help those who needed it.