The Dystopian Diaries

by K. W. Callahan

  I guess that like my pickup fix, I’ll just have to figure this thing out. This might be a little tougher to wrap my head around than a loose battery cable.

  What would Thoreau have done? Like me, he probably wouldn’t have had a clue as to what was going on until everyone had fled or was dead. Then what? I guess he would probably have gone back to his cabin, read a book, taken a walk, or wrote down his transcendentalist thoughts on the matter. At the moment, I have no philosophical thoughts. What I feel is more basic in human nature – FEAR!

  While I moved here to take a break from regular society, I wasn’t expecting that regular society was going to take a break from ME. That possibility wasn’t in my deck of cards. Looks like it is now, though – IN SPADES!!!

  10:12 p.m.

  I think this is the first night since I’ve arrived here that I haven’t been asleep by ten or much earlier. But I’m not feeling tired at all. More than anything, I want answers. This is killing me!

  I didn’t mind not hearing the news when I first got out here. It was all death and destruction, conjectured political stories, and economic headlines. But this is different. This isn’t a tornado that ripped through the Midwest, a hurricane down south, or wildfires out west. Something like this is MASSIVE and affects the entire planet, and not in a climate change, global warming, national debt, Social Security type situation where we all know something needs to be done, but there’s still time to deal with it down the road. This is immediate and deadly in the moment, not 10 or 20 years from now.

  The more I read the newspapers I brought home with me, the more I worry about the state of our nation. I think we might really be screwed here. This doesn’t sound like just a national emergency, it sound like a national catastrophe!!!

  I think I need to start a new train of thought if things are really as bad as they sound. I read several more articles about the looting and rioting in Detroit and elsewhere. People were really going nuts by the sounds of it. And after seeing downtown Mills Creek with its deserted streets and busted out storefronts, I’m thinking the same thing might have happened on a lesser scale here. Desperate people take desperate measures, and for as much as I like to think that I’ve moved to a place completely unlike Chicago, human nature is human nature. I have a feeling that a desperate person in search of food will act much the same in a rural environment as in an urban one. It may not be on the same scale, since people here are more independent, but I still need to be watchful.

  Great! Good thoughts to try to sleep on. Oh well. Every day can’t be perfect here, and this one really took the cake!

  September 7th

  6:53 a.m.

  What a TERRIBLE night’s sleep! I just couldn’t get my mind to shut off. I kept playing out all the possible scenarios in my head. For as much as I was trying to imagine a life independent of society, I’m now having trouble imagining a life completely independent of society.

  Could life as I knew it be gone forever? If this flu is as bad as they say it is, there could be millions, scratch that, BILLIONS of people who are dead or dying by now. And if Mills Creek is any indication of what has happened in other areas, the world may no longer be the world it once was.

  I’m hoping that everyone is just hunkering down until this thing blows over and that it was just a few bad-seeds that did the damage in town. I guess I’ll find out shortly. I’m going to leave for town soon. I want to get in early to make a more thorough search of things. I plan to leave around eight.

  On a final note, I awoke to the power being off in my cabin. I’ve fired up my generator, but I feel that this is yet another indication of the way things are headed. I know I’m not exactly top priority on Michigan’s power grid, but with the weather calm, I see no reason for it other than what is going on with the flu and its apparent wide-reaching effects.

  8:25 a.m.

  I’m in town, writing from inside my pickup truck. I found another newspaper during my search of the town, but I discovered little else to inform me of the situation as it currently stands.

  I found the newspaper on the street. By the looks of it, someone had discarded it. The date on the paper was September 4th, and by the looks of the articles inside it, things around the state, nation, and world were getting worse three days ago, not better. It sounds like things were completely falling apart. There were still no reports of a vaccine for the Su flu, government offices were closed, infrastructure was beginning to fail, and there were a multitude of reports of people looting or taking the law into their own hands to protect themselves since law enforcement was largely non-existent.

  I’m left wondering what in the heck I should do. I took a quick walk through the grocery store. The shelves were almost completely empty. All the food was gone, and anything that remained was mostly useless. The power was off inside the store, as it seems like it is throughout the rest of the town. The town’s single stop light wasn’t working either. I tried the bathroom sink in the grocery store and found no running water. Makes me thankful I’m on an independent well system.

  Wait, I think I see someone coming. This could be good. I might be able to get some news about what’s been going on.

  9:17 a.m.

  Holy crap that was crazy!!!

  Okay, the person I saw coming that I noted in my last entry was not friendly AT ALL! And he wasn’t alone.

  Now I’ve pulled my pickup off to the side of the road and am trying to catch my breath.

  Thankfully, I was able to make it to my truck after hailing the guy with a friendly greeting. He was ambling down the center of Main Street toward my truck when I made my attempt at communication. As I waved to him and called out, he didn’t even respond verbally, he just came charging after me with a baseball bat!

  Real nice!

  He smashed out my driver-side window as I peeled away. I was just happy my truck started. It would have been the worst possible moment for that battery cable to have come loose again. As I drove away, I saw several other people form up around him. I think one of them even shot at my truck! I don’t think they hit it, but still, they SHOT at me! What the hell?! I didn’t do anything but attempt a friendly greeting! If this is what the world has come to, I could be in real trouble.

  Anyway, these people had vehicles. They chased me for several miles until I lost them at a fork in the road. I have no idea who they were or why they were so hostile, but I have to say, I have no desire to find out.

  I’m going to stop at Oscar’s again on the way home and see if he’s there. I not only want to see if he has some information on what’s going on, but I want to warn him about these people if he sees them.

  9:43 a.m.

  I’m back at my cabin. I won’t write much because I have a lot to do. I found Oscar. He was on his cabin floor, dying! He told me that there are people going house-to-house, raiding the places for whatever they have. He told me to be careful and then he died.

  I think there are three homes between mine and Oscar’s. I saw a bunch of vehicles parked in front of the one beside Oscar’s (the one farthest from my cabin) when I passed. That means it probably won’t be long before they make it to mine.

  I have to move…NOW!

  12:27 p.m.

  This will be short; I’m just taking a breather. I’ve been working non-stop since I got home from Oscar’s, all the while watching out for those people who killed my poor neighbor.

  My work is taking me longer than expected, but I’m getting close to being done. I just hope this works and I’m not overreacting. But how could I be overreacting to being shot at and seeing my neighbor die in front of me?

  All right, back to work. I still have a lot to move. I’ll explain more later…hopefully. I’ll carry my journal with me in my cargo pants pocket just in case I have time to write more between trips.

  3:59 p.m.

  I’m screwed! So while I’m lying low, waiting, I’ll explain what’s happening. For almost the last three hours I’ve been hauling stuff from my cabin out to the lighthouse. I
t was the best thing I could come up with considering the circumstances and at the spur of the moment. I didn’t know where else to go, and I figured the spot was secluded yet relatively safe, like a little island fortress.

  I had trouble getting the lighthouse door open on my first trip out, so on the second trip, I took a chisel and a big hammer with me and literally beat the lock off the door. I thought about trying to shoot the lock off, but I was afraid of a ricochet off the steel door or the lighthouse’s concrete platform base.

  So I was making pretty good progress loading up my boat with supplies and hauling the stuff out to the lighthouse. The loading process wasn’t too bad since I had much of my food and other supplies in easy-to-carry bins and other containers due to the mice infestation. And the boat trips back and forth between my cabin and the lighthouse didn’t take much time.

  I found that I could fit a good amount of stuff into my fishing boat. Getting it up onto the lighthouse platform and inside the lighthouse itself was another story. Many of my supplies are pretty heavy, and having to climb the steel-rung ladder with them to get up to the platform made it a time consuming process. I soon realized that it was much easier and more time-efficient to use a rope (sometimes tying several supply containers to the rope at once) to haul stuff up from the boat onto the platform deck.

  Thankfully, my outboard motor gave me no problems, and I was able to complete five trips. I’d just made it back from the lighthouse and was pulling my boat onto shore to prepare for my sixth and final trip when I noticed vehicles parked askew in front of my cabin. Rather than hop back in my boat and risk being seen making a break for the lighthouse (thus negating the whole purpose of my escape), I made for the shelter of the woods.

  Ooh, I just heard gunfire. Sounded like a shotgun. I wonder what they could be shooting at. Each other, hopefully? Maybe they’ll kill each other and my problems will be solved. Doubt it.

  I pray, they don’t notice my boat. Even if they do, I can’t imagine they’d do anything with it. It’s too large to take with them, and I don’t think they’d want it anyway. Most people around here already have boats. My guess is that these people are looking for things like food, fuel, guns, ammo…that sort of stuff.

  Speaking of guns, I have my .44 with me, but I don’t plan to use it unless I’m forced to defend myself. I don’t think that charging into my cabin to force an armed confrontation with these people would be the greatest of ideas. And I certainly don’t think it would pan out in my favor.

  Wait…I think they’re leaving. I hear engines from where I’m hiding about 50 feet inside the woods that skirt my cabin clearing. Hopefully they’re gone for good and I can get back to the lighthouse. Even if these people have taken the last of the supplies that I came back for, I still have a lot of work to do.

  5:05 p.m.

  Well this sucks! Unfortunately, someone must have noticed my boat. Since the boat was apparently too big for them to take, they’ve instead taken the outboard motor. Worse yet, rather than just leaving the fishing boat after taking the motor, they shot it full of holes with a shotgun. Nice…real nice.

  So here I sit, once again unsure of what to do. Now all my stuff is at the lighthouse, and I have no way to get back there.

  I’ve been sitting here thinking about what to do for the past ten minutes or so. I could swim, but I’m not sure I’d make it that far. And what would I do once I got out there? I mean, the water temperature is barely tolerable now. What would happen when I need to leave and temperatures have dropped close to the freezing mark or lower? Then I’d be stranded.

  I could sleep here at the cabin overnight. But what if those people come back for some reason?

  I considered patching up my boat, but I think it’s really beyond repair. Maybe if I had some of that stuff from that commercial where the guy saws his boat in half and then tapes it back together I could do something about it, but I don’t.

  Okay, Nathan…think…think…think. Ooo! I have an idea.

  9:49 p.m.

  I’m writing by flashlight. And I’m back at the lighthouse. How? Well, I walked to Oscar’s place. It was quite a trek since I walked through the woods rather than taking the road since I didn’t want to be seen. I remembered seeing a canoe lying alongside his cabin when I stopped there earlier. It was an old wood canoe that didn’t look like it had been used in some time. At first glance, I wondered if I might be better off going back to attempt my fishing boat. The canoe appeared to be in really bad shape. But there was a paddle underneath the overturned and half-rotted hull, and I didn’t see any glaringly obvious holes in its bottom, so I figured I might as well give this new vessel a shot.

  The canoe was mostly watertight with only a few small leaks (not enough to sink me on my way out to the lighthouse), and I found it extremely easy to paddle. I made great time paddling back from Oscar’s cabin directly to the lighthouse, only having to pause once to bail a little water. The canoe’s leaks seemed to start getting worse as I approached the lighthouse, though.

  Since then, I’ve been doing my best to put some organization to my situation here inside the lighthouse. I’ll write more about my temporary new home tomorrow. For now, I’m physically exhausted and need to get some rest.

  September 8th

  10:51 a.m.

  Last night’s sleep was TERRIBLE! And that’s an understatement!

  The reason for my late start this morning is that I must have finally fallen asleep closer to morning. Without windows in the bottom portion of the lighthouse, it remained very dark, so it was hard to tell when morning had arrived.

  Right now, I’m sitting out on the concrete platform that forms the base for the lighthouse. It’s a beautifully sunny day but there is a definite chill in the air. I’d estimate the current temperature at mid-50s range.

  I’m sure glad I didn’t try swimming back to the lighthouse yesterday. Not only would I probably have gone hypothermic, but there’s no way I’d want to have to swim back to shore today.

  I’m going to paddle back to my cabin when I’m done writing. I need to get some more clothes and bedding material – that is, if those people yesterday left any behind. In my haste to get my most important supplies hauled out here yesterday, I left that kind of stuff there. That’s part of the reason why I slept so poorly last night. Try sleeping on a cold, hard, concrete floor with just your clothes and your coat. I tried taking my coat off to use it as a pillow. Then I got cold. I put my coat back on to warm up, but then I couldn’t sleep because my head and neck were killing me. Finally, after what felt like hours, I got up, found a 5-lb bag of rice, and used that as a pillow. It was better than nothing, but not much.

  So that was my night in a nutshell. Even my physical exhaustion from all those trips back and forth hauling my stuff out here wasn’t enough to get me a good night’s sleep. I feel like going back to my cabin and just crawling into bed – if my bed is still there that is. But I know that would be stupid. With my luck the way it’s been lately, I’d be in a sound slumber right about the time those people who raided my cabin showed up again.

  No thanks.

  1:09 p.m.

  I have bedding!!! Had I a bigger boat, I would have hauled the small mattress from my cabin’s bed out here to the lighthouse with me. I’ll just have to make due with the blankets and pillows I have. I brought several heavy blankets and two thick quilts as well as a large trash bag of fall and winter wear in the canoe with me. Thankfully the people who pillaged my place must have had enough of those sorts of items. The few foodstuffs I had yet to take yesterday were all gone, though. They also took the generator and most of the extra gasoline I had on hand. I’m just glad I got what I did before they arrived.

  Paddling back and forth between the lighthouse and shore was a different experience. I have to say, were circumstances different, I’d actually prefer a canoe over my fishing boat with its noisy motor. I’m sure that Thoreau would have agreed. That motor really cuts through the silence like nails on a chalkboard. But I
have to say that I certainly enjoyed the speed it provided. I find that now, paddling along at a slogging pace in the canoe, I feel so exposed. If those people come back, they’re bound to see me plodding along. Then I’d be nailed for sure. I need to make this my last trip for a while or chance being discovered out here.

  I also realized that the canoe is a red flag to others that I’m here at the lighthouse. Therefore, when I got back from this final trip, I pulled it (using a rope and some mighty effort) up onto the lighthouse platform. Then I dragged it inside the lighthouse itself. Unfortunately, at this point, the canoe is leaking badly and really on its last leg. I’m glad I’m pretty much done using it for a while.

  Speaking of the lighthouse interior, I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had much time to explore or describe it until now. I’m going to take a few minutes to look around and then I’ll report my findings – after a bite to eat that is. I’M HALF STARVED!!!

  2:22 p.m.

  Mmmmm…that hit the spot! It wasn’t the most luxurious lunch, but it was better than nothing – ham and cheese sandwich, potato chips, grapes, and a can of soda. I’m trying to finish the stuff that I was able to gather from my refrigerator and that will spoil soonest. I have a cooler full of such stuff that was hastily thrown together in my rush to escape the cabin.

  Up next, once I digest my food, I have to start putting some sort of order to my situation here. Right now, I sit among piles of supplies scattered around me haphazardly. I guess that one good thing is that I shouldn’t have any mice out here to contend with.