Our asteroid survival: A fictitional history of the ten year survival of a large ELE asteroid impact by a small, pre advised, group

by Lionel Woodhead

  From measurements taken at that shelter they had well over thirty five thousand litres of diesel remaining in their tanks this being enough, by our calculations, for well over six years. We, therefore, transferred only a little diesel, from our then greater store of this resource, when we had the space for more on the inter shelter vehicles. We considered, rather hoped, that within six years the atmosphere would be less contaminated by dust and if support was necessary we would then be able to provide it. In the event that they considered an early shortage was probable they would have to reduce their daily allocation.

  We transferred eight horses (two stallions and six mares all young) to the original shelter; they were walked not carried. Each of these horses carried a small load of transferred stores.

  The animals were placed into two of the biggest outhouses which had each been partitioned into four units with all the windows closed and sealed by bricks, against the dust; any remaining glass being carefully preserved for a later return to their original position. We transferred six cows and two bulls into these building. All these animals were separated into the standard two separated herds of the same species one in each of the four partitioned areas which were each separated by a full wall with entry via a door from a corridor that went the width of the outbuilding.

  We intended to preserve, overall, sixteen horses; four of them stallions from our then twenty nine large horses. Therefore six mares and two stallions were reinstalled into the first class accommodation within the political shelter. Into this area we also installed ten cows and 2 bulls these animals could also, to a limited extent, be used as beasts of burden.

  We installed air inlets and exhaust vents in the horse/cow outhouse of our original shelter with air supplied by an electric air pump via a quickly built damp cloth type filter system. The pigs stayed at the politicos shelter again in two partitioned areas, in the accommodation that was originally being built for the ex leaders. This accommodation having been built external to the shelter we had to arrange for its connection to the shelter. The building was rapidly completed for the use of the animals; it seemed, to us all, an appropriate use for the unit.

  Within this same accommodation we installed our remaining unallocated sheep being eleven ewes’ six lambs and two rams. The external accommodation had to be connected to the politico’s shelter by means that did not require an external exit. This necessitated a tunnel reaching from the outhouse to the nearest shelter entrance. This entrance had originally been an emergency exit to a never completed quarantine area.

  The large house, at our main shelter, had now been restored for human habitation and was sealed against the ingress of the expected potentially deadly dust. The sheep, which had been the previous inmates, were removed to another outhouse.

  Air was drawn in via two thirty centimetre tubes, through two otherwise sealed chimneys, by means of two electrical air pumps driven by a four meter wind generator supported by two large, restored car batteries. The air pump was fitted with a damp cloth filter accessible, for maintenance, from inside the house. The air exited via two extraction vents through two horizontal, fifteen centimetre pipes about one and a half meters long. These pipes were protected against any misdirected wind by a metal screen. The extraction system relied on internal positive pressure to stop the ingress of dust. We installed a filter box for this extraction system in case it should be required. This unit requiring only a damp rag to make it functional; this protection was very rarely required as if the wind did not blow in the wrong direction at too high a velocity very little, if any, dust would flow back into the house due to eddy forces in the tube.

  The house was now connected, via an enlarged access, to the quarantine cellar and then to the main shelter. The house would now be a working area relieving further space, within the shelter, for personnel accommodation and entertainment areas. The small corridor to the rear door of the house was now converted, by an additional door, into a form of air lock between the living areas and an external door providing protected access to the outside.

  There was now little likelihood of danger from any significant, external, predators so the door was normally unguarded; though it was provided with a secure locking arrangement with an entry request system. This was a light in the main building operated by an external button. On seeing the light and receiving, via an analogue communication link, a verbal request the allocated operator would allow access, via the door, using a button, in the main building that operated an electric door switch giving admittance to the air lock.

  The roof space of the house was supported by wooden props and was used to store bulky, lightweight items allowing further living space within the shelter itself. In one of the downstairs rooms we installed the recovered Aga cooker; the interior environment being supported with pumped air similarly to the work area. The Aga had been removed from the Martinez village where it had been a much loved luxury. It was to prove a great boon in that it not only warmed the house, which could become quite cold, but cooked meals, heated drinks and allowed up to sixteen persons a day, when it was operating, to have the supreme luxury of a warm bath.

  Two small rooms, not required for other purposes, were set up for a few chickens (being effectively free range) and some rabbits in cages - we could not afford to waste any such space. Every inch of space had to be put to beneficial use. Although we had more chickens than in the original animal areas, just after the impact, we actually had less chickens per person. The big questions of that time were could we maintain them until the world again became productive and how long would that be?

  Fortunately the political shelter had considerable reserves of animal feed so we only transferred a small amount of this material on the otherwise empty return journeys from the main shelter. We were fortunate that the cave inhabitants had provided us with an excess of animal feeds which were a boon in this new environment.

  We transferred to the politicos shelter four of our reserve low energy shower units. Though the politico’s shelter was well endowed with better showers these were too greedy, with respect to energy, for normal use. Four showers, organised as were our own, were barely sufficient for alternate day access for their personnel but they also had a very good, if small, swimming pool with plenty of water and filters. We had to organise our showers over a longer period (three days) with an occasional bath and our swimming pool. In addition we gave the political shelter a small freezer as their fridge and freezers together were far too expensive, related to energy, for continuous use.

  Their original food fridge was maintained for a short period that their beautiful store of frozen foods could be consumed before corruption. This largess meant that every member of the community got five full servings of ice cream; a luxury we have been unable to repeat even until this history was written. Their frozen medicines, in the freezer, would be kept frozen within the freezer until the external temperature went below minus fifteen degrees centigrade. The medicines would then be boxed and stored outside and the freezer shut down. It would be maintained in place and in working order in case it should be required later when the weather warmed up.

  The eves of all the external accommodation at both shelters were sealed by pushing in old rags and other material to prevent air flow. This job was not completed in the main shelter until we were all confined in our shelters. This was a difficult and arduous task as it required continuously squeezing into a very limited space. I was indeed fortunate as, because of my disability, I was never allocated this horrendous task.

  The partitioning of personnel was arranged so that families, those in the original research groups and other volunteers stayed together. The beekeepers where split one for the political shelter with one hive and two for the original shelter; with two hives with the bee reserve honey stores split in a similar fashion. The personnel partition became two hundred and sixty six for the political shelter and thee hundred and twenty for ours. These figures are as I recollect and confirmed with others but I would not swear to their accu
racy.

  The splitting of the windup torches was a problem with the allocation being two to a house with fifteen spares in the political shelter and a reasonable reserve maintained in the original shelter stores. We maintained the maintenance area for these items in the original shelter.

  The political shelter library was technical content poor having a large, for practical purposes useless, political component. We, therefore, agreed to share some of our library with them. Our original shelter library improved that distant library by transferring duplicated technical and educational books. This transfer included the older of our two printed versions of the encyclopaedia Britannica, together with a considerable number of duplicated fiction and non fiction books.

  The original shelter, with extension area and outbuildings, had considerable more space than the politico’s but this included areas allocated to our primary research groups. These areas reduced that allowed for relaxation. Though per person, in our original shelter, the area was greater we had far less entertainment facilities.

  The most distant outhouses, making up the shelter complex, were now interconnected via a tunnel propped with wood and sealed with our plastic. The nearest of these two outhouses was then connected to the larger outhouse via a short tunnel similarly supported from our limited wood supply. These were similarly set up for our sheep and goats of which the main shelter complex kept fourteen ewes six lambs and three rams and for the goats fourteen does, two very young, and two bucks being our total complement of this species.

  The animals were separated into the usual two herds with chickens everywhere and some rabbits in hutches. These hutches had sufficient space for the rabbits comfort but the animals were not allowed to roam free. The space and hutches were arranged and set up as needed. In this animal area we included several extraction pipes through which we removed any animal waste not required elsewhere for methane generation and fertilizer. Here we had only to worry about the circulation of dust hence these pipes were closed at all times except during waste extraction. This extraction was performed only when the external wind was in the right direction. The pipes themselves were about seven meters long and reached down the slope besides the building. Even then some mechanical pressure was needed to force the material from the pipes.

  These modifications took four days by which time we could clearly see the reduction in sunlight. This was not a great darkening but seen as a thickening haze. The sunrises and sunsets had become even more spectacular and the moon occasionally appeared almost blue. When we saw this we were encouraged to work even harder as we realized it might be for our lives. We were unable to predict the ultimate seriousness of the problem but tried to consider the worst case as this would, hopefully, be close to a limit.

  The recovered wind generators from our empire were split equally, related to their energy per inhabitant capacity, between both shelters. This time we did not need to worry about blast effects or the attraction of unwanted guests so they were made operational immediately. Some externally generated energy was individually allocated to the charging of our batteries, the air pumps and other ancillary operations. We could not, at that time, phase couple the AC generators so the use of this energy was less efficient than we would have wished.

  Within a week of the original warning all the wind generators were connected into the shelter elements and their mechanisms protected, as well as we were able, against the tiny glass like particulates. These units would give us continuous generation, when the wind blew, allowing an improved shelter environment but for a far larger population than was considered satisfactory for our psychological comfort.

  The original diesel generators were now used, in the main, only, when necessary, to support lighting, showers and cooking during the now allowed twenty four hours of operations. The generators were utilised only when other sources proved inadequate. The generators were often not required allowing a considerable reduction in the actual use of our diesel. Sometimes, during low requirement for our alternative energy facilities, the cooking energy came from our larger wind generators allowing the energy from the generator to be occasionally used for other purposes such as additional showers necessary to provide for our considerably increased population. We were lucky that our water supply, especially the internal well in the sump, allowed this luxury to continue during our stay in the original shelter. The internal well water, however, though it was confirmed as potable did not have a good taste.

  As we were becoming ever more confident with our power supplies we were often, allowed the luxury of a hot breakfast. The required water was pumped from the external wells using external energy sources not required at that time. The internal sump water source provided much of what we required but when precipitation was limited, as things got colder, we sometimes required washing and sanitary water from the other sources. The water from one of our external sources tasted much better than the sump’s which we tended to use for the showers, washing and other non cooking or drinking purposes.

  The farmers studied our crops and decided what and when to harvest but with pressure to decide for the earliest date if the external situation warranted it. We had to harvest by hand which, if the atmospheric problem continued as expected, was going to prove very uncomfortable. In spite of this, however, the amount of work was considerable requiring a great effort involving large numbers. For the political shelter, which had the greatest area to harvest, the work effort was tremendous and several of their personnel were hospitalized with lung problems. These problems were due to their harvesting efforts in the increasing level of dust. Fortunately all those suffering from dust inhalation appeared to recover completely within a few months. This was probably due to our decision to remove any persons, showing any such symptoms, from work within the contaminants.

  The cereals had already, fortunately for us, been largely harvested by the time the volcanic dust was observed and before it became really uncomfortable for those working outside. As we then had no functioning harvesting machines outside of our shelter all our crops had to be harvested by hand. This work caused many blisters especially among those using the old fashioned scythes, a task requiring experience. These implements came from our stores with a few newly made versions from the blacksmith which included a form of scythe stopper I had not seen before. Gleaning, after we had harvested, was performed by the elder children, who wore masks much earlier than the adults, as the physical effort was less and they wished to be useful.

  The recovered material was transported hay and crop, by the regretfully condemned horses, to our shelters. When sufficient land had been harvested some areas of our land at each shelter, though a much larger area at the politico’s area as this land was of better quality and near that shelter, were covered with plastic sheeting from our original shelter stores. This sheeting was carefully weighted to the ground that it would not be lifted by any expected level of wind velocity. This laying of the plastic was done that the land could, in the future, be more easily cleared of sterile ash for rapid cultivation. We initiated this task as a precaution but in the future it was to prove beneficial to the rapid restoration of some of our farming land to productivity.

  Half the condemned horses, when their work was finished, were humanely killed, the meat butchered and the result shared between the two shelters and taken into store. For a few days we had fresh meat which was very satisfactory though several refused the benefit and I felt sad at the loss of those beautiful creatures. I found it strange that such sentiments can be felt for a horse but there is not a similar consideration given to a cow though even I can see that a horse is a beautiful creature and a cow has not that visual attribute to the human eye. We, even now, had insufficient quantities of food or space to ensure that we could maintain the lives of all the animals for an unknown period; this being then assumed, for the convenience of managing our resources, at about eight years.

  The remaining condemned animals (which included the three little horses so loved by the children) were brought
in. Due to the children’s requests these three little horses were reprieved at our shelter as their food intake was lower and they provided some genetic variation; or was this justification merely an excuse. The others were maintained for their meat and would also be humanely killed when we had a means of storing, or using, the material.

  The valuable little tractor and its tools were returned to our original shelter’s garage. This had been enlarged so that our four wheel drive could also be stored there safely with plenty of room for it and potentially two other vehicles to be maintained by our mechanics. Two other of our vehicles were stored at the political shelter with some additional tools and the farmer’s engine hoist, provided from the original shelter, to supplement that not available within the political shelters tool box. The politico’s appeared not to have considered this deficiency as they had no understanding of the problem and had apparently intended to live in a slave supported society.

  Our microlight aircraft was returned to our shelter and stored with great care as we considered, because there would be less of the asset, we would now have to look further afield for survivors. We would also have to look for the coal mines as our adventure in that direction had not yet taken place. Coal could be, initially, of great benefit even if it did not fully fit within the remit of long term sustainability. It could, however, satisfy until the forests had recovered and we had developed other means of sustainable energy generation.

  The two small cannons and the two mortars, together with their remaining ammunition, were split into two sets and each asset carefully stored at one or the other of our two shelter accommodations. The tanks (except a functioning environmentally protected (plastic sheeting) motor version at the main shelter) and the large guns were left at the political shelter having been protected, as far as possible, from the expected cold and dust. We hoped they would never be used but they were definitely a defensive asset and all usable assets had to be protected. The ploughs that had been made by the political servants were shared between the two shelters and carefully stored to await their reuse.