Four separate stories, four different lives in the wake of the perfect storm. The choices we make are building the new face of humanity. Each day we struggle to survive. No more news, no Hollywood and no political finger pointing. Now the lights are out, water stopped running, this is Our World
Gilbert Hernandez
Jab, cross, hook, cross, hook, dig. Weave. Boxing is a dance. Get inside throw your melee and bounce out to avoid the retaliation. “just don’t hit anything that doesn’t look like your opponent,” words from my first trainer. Nothing gasses you more than a big old swing and miss, except a good shot to the body. Boxing the forgotten sport. It couldn’t sell enough sex or enough action. Funny. 10 rounds of well-trained men beating each other simply wasnt enough for society then. They wanted more. Always wanted MORE!
My last opponent made me open up the pages of my mind. My past training. He was tough. Well rounded. Danny Rhett was some kinda MMA junkie or lower level fighter. Shooting for takedowns and trying to clinch me up. I wouldn’t allow any of it in the first round but this guy was strong! Come round two he started getting into me. Getting close and throwing me around a bit. Things had to change.
I started to bounce a bit more. Use my footwork. It was crucial that I changed angles on him constantly. This kept him off-balance and took his confidence away and that was before the jab. By the third round my jab had closed his right eye and he had no chance after that. His depth perception was a mess. Swinging wild he was gassing out. Took him to the ground and it was head/body till he quit.
Sharon Kimball
Why couldn’t I have had a life? Who makes these decisions? God? I should be arguing over a toilet seat with my husband right now. Screaming at my little rotten children but I will never have that. The comforts of a home. Never. The security of love. Its innate to a womans soul. We aren’t meant to endure this alone not to say I can’t handle it.
Love is something you can feel. It’s almost like a shield around you. The energy others put into caring for you deflects the cruelties of the world. Instead here I am all my energy is gone. The ones who thought of me, who loved me are all gone. Sometimes I wonder if anyone even knows who Sharon Kimball is. Tomorrow I could be Sandra Dawson and the next day Tara Roberts. It doesn’t matter in our world. For now I am just Sharon. Alone.
I am a young lady. I guess there is time. I haven’t seen many of us around. At the very least we could be in high demand when the time comes to rebuild this mess. Who knows. So what then? Am I just a machine to repopulate the human race? So much happier I was in my ignorance. They built ignorance all around us so we could be blind and enjoy life. It worked until reality came knocking. So happy in my ignorance.
Terrence Howard
I realize out here in the streets that life in a bunker is really no life at all. The first few days I spent out were such a blind panic I didn’t take the time to look around and breathe the fresh air. Even with the type of desolation that is out here and the inherent danger it is life. Life is not certain and that uncertainty makes great people. I want my daughters to be great people. They have to experience this world to understand how to fix it and the problems that go along with it.
The four of them were hunkered down in a Pharmacy just south of our home. My wife said shots were fired into the Pharmacy as they made their way out. There were no medicines to be had but Baby Girl got her first dose from Daddy in that same Pharmacy. She will be fine. They were all so scared. I feel like that is important in life. To experience those emotions. You have to go through the gamut to better understand the world.
We won’t return to the bunker a family. It will simply be a pit stop. There are plenty of abandoned homes and shelters to live out of and perhaps the marauders will leave our home soon. I could TAKE it back but a risk with such resources around, well, just not prudent. Shelters are meant for temporary relief from a disaster. We are not moles. The outside world is made for us and as a family and part of a community we have the responsibility to fortify and rebuild starting with our own home, then our community. Maybe we can work our way back up to States and finally the Country itself.
Kurtis O’Leary
The days are getting colder. We move from place to place but to make it through winter we are going to need some permanent digs. I know there is a large suburb not too far from here. We may have to march a little while but hey that keeps us warm anyway. I would love to find a place that has been post decimated. You know where the looters have come and gone. Left nothing but bare walls. All I need is four walls and a roof. Fireplace would be great too.
I had too many unexpected appointments with death in this lifetime. Maybe I just wasnt man enough to handle keeping that many people alive in our world. You know despite that idea that we are all equal and it’s not about winning it’s about passion and everyone gets a trophy shit. A good handshake with reality reminds you that to build that winning mindset early is so important. We are just like wolves there are Alphas and Omegas. We have shielded our race from the horrors of natural selection but guess what I have seen it in action. The strong survive and the weak are killed or worse.
I Am Liberty 