TLA-Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Charlie sat on a rock and tossed a fishing line to a quiet pool near the opposite side of river. He loved fishing because it gave him time to reflect. Other than the threat of crocodiles there really wasn’t much to worry about today. The events of the past several years passed by him like an old fashioned silent movie. This was the first time he had been still and at peace in a very long time. For once he could relax and take a little satisfaction in the way things had turned out.  In his mind’s eye he drifted back to a time when the world was a very different place. As he watched the black water roll past him and saw the sun begin to set behind the trees in the distance he remembered how it had all began.

That day he had slept in until his dog Willy had nearly scratched a hole in the front door trying to get out to relieve his overnight discomfort. Finally, needing to go to the toilet himself Charlie got up and opened the door to the small cabin. As Willy relieved himself in a familiar spot near a large pine tree Charlie could tell something was different. The sky was dark and foreboding. It was only 7am and usually there was full light coming across the mountains from the east. It was winter but before the first snow. This had been an unusual year weather-wise.  He had worn shorts and t-shirts far past Thanksgiving Day which was unusual for this part of North America.

Charlie wasn’t sure if the calamity that befell civilization that day had been natural or man-made. Either way, he surmised that he and his family could survive for a few generations based on his work in building "the retreat." His son and daughter and their families had been to the location and his son, a pilot, had a seaplane that could reach the lake nearby. The family had spent a few weeks each year visiting the site on vacation. But this year nobody had come. As political tensions in the world grew worse, Charlie had expected his family to arrive for a vacation. He diligently worked to complete the small projects he had going and to do maintenance on the garden, barn, windmills and other systems. He spent a little time fishing for trout each morning. Most days he caught something for breakfast, and something for the drying shed.

The day of "The Change" was December 26. As had been predicted in the Mayan calendar, this cycle of life and civilization had come to an end. They got the year wrong but only by a small margin considering the predictions had been made by a pre-industrial people over two-thousand years ago. They did get one thing right. The world did change immensely in the blink of an eye. Quickly and mysteriously one day all outside radio, satellite and electrical systems had failed. Charlie assumed it was the result of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from multiple nuclear explosions happening simultaneously across the globe. The skies had turned black, and there were many earthquakes. Some of them were small, and some were larger. Charlie was prepared when the day came as he had previously been “in the know.”

One of the earthquake events of the day had knocked down his wind generator. “Just as well,” he thought.” Damn thing is useless anyway with fried circuits.” He had buried a few cases of circuits in the ground along with about five cases of wiring just in case something like this happened, it would take time to rewire things. He had placed one long wave/short wave emergency radio in a box in the concrete basement of his cabin over the weeks following that eventful day there had not been any transmissions on any channel.  He had not seen so much as a contrail from a passing airplane after a few months, so he just waited.  One day he and Willy had just completed the daily chores, outside and in were resting in the cabin together.  Charlie reflected on his friendship with the old dog. Willy had been a great companion but he was getting old. Charlie patted him on the head, sat down in his simple leather chair and began re-reading a paper from a week before “The Change.” He flipped through the front pages, mostly stuff about how the US Government was defaulting on its loans and how this was causing a cascade effect around the world and by the time it got to China it had taken up a full head of steam. The Chinese, it seemed were trying to trade in their US debt for land. US territory, namely Alaska was up for grabs. While this was sovereign territory to the US, the Russians had recently enacted a law that nullified all treaties signed by the Czar relinquishing Russian territory. The Chinese leverage on the debt presented an opportunity and in a backroom deal in Moscow the Chinese government had carved out a deal with the to return the Alaska land to them in return for some advanced military technology, namely nuclear submarines and space technology. The plan had been leaked to the press by an “unknown source.” Tensions had been building for months without any progress. Charlie reread the same paper he’d read a hundred times over the past few months and spoke out yet once again as he read the sports section. “The Damn Niners were on their way to winning another Super Bowl when it all fell apart!” They were supposed to play Dallas in the upcoming NFC Championship game.  Charlie remembered the golden years of his team, how they had been the team of the 80’s and made history with Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, great defenses and superb coaching. Then Steve Young had come along and brought them another championship before going out with a career ending concussion just when they were on the march again. It had been many years since they’d had success. Jeff Garcia had made inroads and got them back to the playoffs but the front office had flubbed things and tore down a once mighty franchise and put it in the ditch.  Then along came coach Jim Harbaugh and one of the greatest defenses ever and a once proud franchise had regained its luster. “But it’s all over now,” he thought. He stroked his thin white beard and clapped his bridge for his dentures with a short clapping sound as he did often when he was thinking.

The days went by slowly those first two years. He finally decided nobody was coming. One night, sometime during the second winter, Willy died peacefully in his sleep. Charlie hadn’t moved for days after that. He even considered taking his pistol and finishing things off but his residual faith prevented him from doing it. Faith was something Charlie had always had, but he never bought into so called, “organized” religion. He wasn’t against it, except for the hypocrites he saw using it to line their own pockets or to control people for elections. He wondered if religion had caused the calamity that ended life as he had previously known it. He’d had some religious training growing up but never really thought much about God. When he got to Vietnam he’d said a few “foxhole prayers” like everyone else did.  Unfortunately, a lot of the guys that prayed got killed anyway. So Charlie lived his life believing that there was a God but not really feeling like he mattered much to that God in the overall scheme of things. The universe was far too vast of a place for him to be of any consequence. But since “The Change” he had started to believe in something different. All of that solitude, waiting for his family to come, and knowing full well that an absolute catastrophe had occurred in the world made him feel “blessed” somehow. In Vietnam he had survived on adrenaline and youthful vigor. He didn’t really see any spiritual connection to any of it. But now, much later in his life he decided that if he had been spared for some reason he would try to pursue that purpose. There had to be some reason God had spared him.

He waited patiently through another year of winter. Days were filled with simple chores, finding food, planting, storing food, etc. After the short summer the cold returned with a vengeance. The food which he had planned to feed his family with for a few years turned out to last about half as long as he anticipated. His calculations had not included nearly two years of winter where there would be little of any yield farm his garden, hunting or fishing. When the second thaw came he knew that if he was going to get out it was now or never. It was clear to him by then that it was unlikely that anyone was coming to join him.

Charlie set about building a balloon to carry him out of North America. He had seen an “around the world” attempt once in his life. It had failed but managed to make it about two-thirds of the way around the world before it ran out of fuel and had to ditch somewhere in Mongolia as he recalled.

Their craft had been quite heavy with the oxygen tanks and supplies needed to fly high and circumnavigate the world on the prevailing northern hemisphere westerly winds.  His craft was much lighter and it used his never patented fuel cell powered stove as an engine for the balloon. He estimated it could take him up to 20,000 feet if necessary and would last at least ten years with the hydrogen fuel he’d created weighing less than 25 pounds. He had a water distiller on board and assumed that he would have to come down for water every a few days over the ocean. He practiced using a snorkel device on the lake nearby and with favorable temperatures guessed it could be done in flight if there was no landing zone available.

Charlie designed his craft to be light, not more than 2500 pounds. His fuel cell engine was adequate to heat and lift the balloon to the jet stream and ride it east. He predicted that the stream would drop south due to the change in the earth’s attitude. He guessed he would end up somewhere in West or North Africa but there was a chance he could end up landing in the Swiss Alps if his estimates on the jet stream were off a bit. In any case he believed it was his best chance to find other people and to help rebuild some kind of "civilization."

Before he departed he wrote a note and stuck it to the door of his cabin inside a plastic bag.

Dear John and Becky,

            I had to get out of here because my supplies were getting short. I left the designs for the balloon I made in the shed along with one of the fuel cells and a burner to use for an engine. There’s still enough canvas and composite to build another balloon. John I taught you everything I know so if you want to join me you know what to do.  If you decide to stay I understand. You can have a nice life here if the weather evens out a bit. There’s still about 4 months of dried meat and survival meals in the basement. Wish you and the kids the best of luck. I’m heading out,

Love Pa

P.S. If someone else finds this well I guess I’ll wish you good luck as well, if you can read this…

 Charlie drew a map by hand based on his celestial observations. It wasn’t perfect, but it proved to his satisfaction that the axis of the planet had shifted about fifteen degrees. That meant most of the northern part of North America, Europe and Asia dipped into the Arctic Circle for winter.

Africa moved into the temperate belt according to his remade map of the world. The Sahara region in his theory would become temperate. His journey, if his theory and calculations were correct, would put him on a direct course to Africa along the jet stream. By his calculations he should end up somewhere in West Africa in about a month. The hardest part on the trip would be crossing the Atlantic from Greenland to Morocco or points south depending on the winds. He could stop all the way along his course if necessary to get water or just to rest. But once he got over the Atlantic he would have to stay aloft or bail into the survival boat he had in his parachute pack.

There was still a huge degree of risk in his undertaking. He knew it. But dying aloft in some kind of storm or accident he decided was infinitely more attractive than sitting in his cabin waiting. He left at dawn on the 4^th of July. Even though it was all gone now, he still considered himself an American and was proud of the good things his country had done in its day. Just like all of the other great empires throughout history this one had reached its zenith and started to fall apart. Now he might be the only remnant of a civilization that had only lasted a little over 500 years.