Through the Ashes (A Technological Apocalypse Tale)

[MsBloom]

First there had been the pandemic with the outbreak of COVID, then war had come as Russia invaded Ukraine, and now …

July 2025 a month dreaded by astronomers as the month when the sun reached the maximum of its 11 year cycle and this peak in solar activity would indeed be the big one, an event of cataclysmic proportions.

There had been predictions and warnings, of course, even plans for a global project to construct a protective shield to deflect at least the worst of the flares, but there had not been enough time, much less enough collaborative spirit amongst the still rivalling superpowers of human civilisation, for such a project to be launched. Who should build it and why? Could either of the superpowers trust the others to not build it to protect themselves and not the others, to use the shield as a passive weapon of mass-destruction. The UN Security Council failed miserably in negotiating a consensus on the matter and so ...

By July 13, the day when modern human civilisation as we knew it ended in one massive burst of space weather, there had only just been enough consensus to at least pull all personnel from the international space station.

There are more than 5000 artificial satellites orbiting Earth and on that day, July 13 2025, they all came crashing down, like a rain of fire as they entered the atmosphere at all manner of random angles and were ignited by friction. It was as if someone had fired a volley of asteroids from all sides at Earth, and of course there were those who honestly believed this to be the case, that July 13 was the day the aliens invaded. (There were all manner of distinctions as to exactly who and what the aliens were. Some spoke of The Greys, others talked about Reptilians, others yet talked about Cyborgs ruled by an artificial intelligence.) There were also those who took the event as a sign of God's Wrath, the start of the apocalypse, claiming that the rain of fire were an army of angels sent down to judge and destroy Earth and all of its sinful inhabitants, offering salvation only to those most pious and god-fearing, those chosen to repopulate the Earth as it was recreated as the paradise it had always been intended to be.

Most of the satellites crashed into the oceans as they make up more than 2/3 of the Earth's surface. Others crashed into desolate regions such as deserts or inaccessible mountainous areas such as the Himalayas, some of course crashed into the vast emptiness of Antarctica but others destroyed entire cities or valuable farmland.

Despite many flights having been cancelled due to the warnings there were still air planes that came crashing down to earth along with the satellites many of which crashed in urban areas as they either took off or were coming in for landing, other's of course crashed in rural areas or into water.

Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people died in this first instance of the cataclysm that not only brought modern human civilisation to its knees but quite literally obliterated it more effectively than any other civilisation in human history had been destroyed.

With the violent return to Earth of every artificial satellite also came the crash of the Internet and every electrical outlet and device were fried, some in spectacular explosions, others with just a sizzle and that night, between July 13 and July 14 was the first time in more than two centuries one could see the night sky unaffected by artificial lights even in major urban areas.

With the crash of the internet and the electrical grid the entire monetary system also collapsed, as much of it relied on digital transfers of some kind or other, be it credit cards, bank transfers, or even cash withdrawals from ATM outlets.

Frozen and refrigerated foods, whether in homes or supermarkets quickly spoiled and the world faced a famine of unprecedented proportions as even the rich nations were left with nothing but seasonal fruits and vegetables and tinned and preserved foods. Fresh water no longer came from taps and bottled water became one of the most valuable commodities.

The phones went down, there was no more radio or tv, no artificial lights. No one could prove or disprove their identity save for their driver's licence or other similar physical identification documents. There were no records of anyone having been born or died, save in the rare cases these records were kept on paper, though many of those were destroyed in fires and explosions.

Many saw this as a chance to reinvent themselves in this new dark world.

 

[MsBloom]

June 18 2026

Pippa

Pippa stood on the porch looking North towards Batavia. The last of the group of activists that had joined her and her ECO farmers not long after the rain of fire had laid waste to literally all of modern civilisation had just disappeared into the fading light. They had sniffed out the base of a small group of bikers calling themselves The Road Warriors and had planned to attack and sabotage their supply of fossil fuels for about a week now.

Pippa was not sure how she felt about it. Of course the idea of putting an end to fossil fuel in favour of renewable and sustainable sources of electricity appealed to her. The method perhaps less so. Violence, of any kind, had never been a solution in her world, (save perhaps for her leanings towards a bit of rough play in the bedroom). Still she realised that sometimes you have to fight fire with fire.

She took a deep drag on the last of the joint, a buzz she appreciated so much more than alcohol, dropped it to the ground, crushed it under her sandals, handcrafted from hemp fabric and birch wood., picked it up again and put it in her left back pocket before turning back towards the farm house which had once felt too big for her but now was crowded with people of all ages and persuasion that had one way or another been drawn there, for safety in numbers, food and shelter.

She cast a few glances over her shoulder, almost as if expecting to see the activists returning having thought the better of it but to no avail. She worried about them, perhaps more than she would have liked to admit, Astrid more than the others. She had never had children of her own and never even considered herself the maternal type but that was the feeling she had developed for Astrid and some of the other people that had come to live at her farm in the last year.

Astrid Kowalski

Exactly why Astrid had been drawn to Pippa's farm she couldn't quite explain. Maybe it had been little more than dumb luck that a satellite crashing no more than maybe a few hundred feet away caused her to lose control over her 2008 Tesla Roadster which crashed into a tree, and thus was rendered useless as a vehicle, no more than a quarter of a mile from Pippa's farm and thus was the first place she thought to go for cover. Maybe it was somehow fate that caused that particular satellite to crash where it did to throw her off the road. Whichever it was she was welcomed by Pippa with a lowered shotgun and a stern but over all friendly look on her face.

After a few questions Pippa had invited Astrid into the farmhouse and offered her supper. Luckily for Astrid Pippa's farm had a wind turbine of its own and thus most things electric worked. That had at least been something, had Astrid only had been able to use it to contact Wren, her partner of ten years. But the phones were out and so was the internet and lacking a homing pigeon there was no way to communicate beyond the range of her own voice. In fact nothing that didn't run on batteries worked anymore, unless you had access to a source of power not attached to the electrical grid, like Pippa's farm did.

There was not much in the farm house that ran on electricity though. Pippa had cooked the meal, roasted root vegetables in a wood-fired oven and boiled water for dandelion tea on a wood stove. They had talked through the night and shared some of Pippa's home grown organic weed. By the morning the world as they had known it was forever changed but they had both made a new friend.

Almost a year later Pippa had hugged Astrid for a bit longer than might be appropriate asking her once again not to go with the activists on their mission to take out The Road Warriors' fuel depot.
"I don't want to lose you. You've become like a daughter to me," she had said and Astrid had squeeze Pippa a little harder.
"Oh shush Mom," she had replied in a way that made it clear that she had begun to think of Pippa as a maternal figure.
She then kissed Pippa on the cheek and promised she would be back home safe and sound before the sun rose again.
"You better," Pippa responded and kissed Astrid back.

Morgan

It had been a relatively quiet evening at The Road Warrior's headquarters, which was basically Ajax's garage and the house behind it that had served as the biker gang's clubhouse since Ajax formed it many years before. Morgan was sitting outside the small shop attached to the filling station next to the garage smoking and having a beer.
"Everything alright?" she asked Wolfie, one of the younger members of the original gang, as he rolled on on his old Indian.
"Nothing unusual on the horizon Morrie," Wolfie replied in his characteristic deep voice that was nowhere near as rough as his looks might suggest but rather velvety smooth, the kind of voice that could easily have sung the panties off of any warm-blooded woman much the way Barry White's voice had in the seventies.
He gave her a thumbs up and a smile before grabbing a beer from the small fridge, that ran on a diesel generator, and sat down next to her.
"I certainly hope so. There has been rumours that those nutcases down near East Bethany are up to something."
"Well let them come then. I've got a bullet or two to spare."
Wolfie patted the revolver he now carried openly in a holster on his right hip.

Morgan nodded. She had one or two to spare as well in defence of their fuel depot. Her choice of weapon was quite a bit more modern and powerful, not one but two .50 caliber Desert Eagles, which she also carried openly since the apocalypse had rendered modern civilisation obsolete, and all government interference such as laws and law enforcement along with it. There was no longer any point in concealing your weapon if you had one.
"Stop your tinkering Clem and come have a beer and a smoke with us," Morgan called out to the girl that had rolled in to the garage about a year ago and proved to be quite the mechanic.
"It's almost dark outside anyway."

Wren Jones

July 15 2025

Wren was lost, entirely lost. No cell service. No WiFi. No nothing. They only had a vague idea where they were. West of Providence, still in Rhode Island when the battery of their Zeekr X died on them.
"Fucking useless piece of crap," they yelled and kicked the car.
"Fucking idiot me for not fucking charging it when I had the chance. While there was still electricity to charge it with. FUCK."
They had kicked the car once more and muttering to themself had started to walk westward. That's when they heard hoofs trotting behind them. A horse??? Where the fuck did that come from?

That's how they met Aoife who graciously offered them a ride, despite them being in such a foul mood.

June 18 2026

"Are we even still in New York State?" Wren asked Aoife as they concluded that the abandoned filling station they had just ridden into had already been properly raided.
"I mean that last escape was quite the detour," they added referencing the two of them having been quite close to being robbed by a bunch of rednecks that had been particularly persistent in pursuing them.

For almost a year now they had been trying to make their way towards Buffalo but Wren couldn't help feeling they were riding round in circles.

 

[Colonel_Liam]

Liam

Liam grunted and heaved, sucking in a deep breath as he braced himself for what was to come. Pushing deeper, his hands closed around his objective. His forearms were covered in blood and other fluids, but slowly and surely the second lamb, who had gotten twisted in it's mothers birth canal came loose. "That's it. Just like that." he said as the lamb took it's first real gasp of air and curled next to it's twin.

The exhausted mother lay there for a few moments, recovering it's strength, but slowly sat back up and began to lick it's offspring, cleaning them off and reabsorbing some of the nutrients it had lost. Liam stood up, and content that this little family was safe for the time being started back towards Pippa's farm house.

After the earthfall, he had known that the cities were death traps, millions of people packed together, dependent on technology for their daily needs. While the majority had stayed put, per government orders, waiting for help that would likely never come, Liam had scrounged what he could and made his way North.

His original plan had been to head towards Buffalo and follow the great lakes west, but having experience camping, and having to survive on your own in the remnants of the old world were two separate things. Having run out of food days ago, Liam had been lucky to find a remote farmhouse one night in the pouring rain. The shot gun it's owner had pressed to the base of his spine had been a less pleasant surprise, but eventually Pippa had come to trust him after he had managed to set a broken arm of one of the other vagrants she had taken in.

The community had slowly grown, and Liam's veterinary experience had come in handy time and again, though he had expanded his practice to include humans. The more militant part of the growing community had tried hard to recruit him for their expedition, citing the high chance of injuries, but Liam had declined. He would of course patch up anyone who came back, but in truth his loyalty was to the community that had helped him, rather than any ideological goals concerning the use of fossil fuels rather than wind turbines. He figured use what you could, while you could. Without refineries, gas would run out or go bad eventually anyway.

Heading towards the house, he saw the convoy off in the distance. Going to the water pump he started it up, and began to wash his arms and face off. As the flow of water stopped he began to pump it again. Seeing Pippa on the porch, he called out, "Good news Pippa. We got twins out of the last sheep." he said, happy to have some sort of good news.

 

[Colonel_Liam]

Aoife

The redhead yawned and shifted in the saddle as she let her traveling companion going on another of her rants. It seemed that Wren wasn't used to traveling without her car's gps, let alone on a horse. The young woman sighed internally. "Their rants. Their car's gps."

Aoife had been pretty sheltered growing up and hadn't really had to deal with people who didn't fit into traditional gender norms before she had found Wren on the side of the road kicking their car. The learning curve for the young redhead had been quick and harsh.

Still Wren was probably the best company she could have found lately. It seemed that the world really had fallen apart. Normal people had turned into roving gangs, looking for the next place to loot. The next person to rob. Some of the people they had interacted with had looked at her and Wren in a way that made her feel very uncomfortable. In the end Aoife had decided that someone who kept their little tent a bit warmer and wasn't trying to carry her off like a spoil of war against her will, was an ok friend to have, even if Wren challenged Aoife's world view.

She pointed up at the sun, explaining again. "The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, so long as we keep the sun to our back in the morning, and ahead of us in the afternoon, we're going in the right general direction." she explained again. The pair had gone off road as they got closer to Albany, not wanting to risk going close to a city. The few less than hostile people they had come across had told them all kinds of rumors about cities.

Inside Aoife began to fret herself. They were heading towards Buffalo, which was a city too wasn't it? And Aoife wanted to go South, where her family farm was. Going West took her further from home, but she was afraid of leaving Wren on their own. For both their sakes. Reaching forward to rubbed the neck of the stallion they were both riding. "Besides, Apollo is smart. He knows where we're going."