Story is set in 1958, not as a flashback but as a contemporary tale.
Without warning, the Earth is visited by alien spacecraft. The entire planet goes instantly into shock-- who are they and what do they want? In the panic over their arrival, trem...
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INITIAL REPORT - PRELIMINARY DR. GLENN HARDISTY OCTOBER 2, 1958 (EARTH CALENDAR)
I've talked with many, if not all, of those here. Our original count is hard to imagine, at 487. The ratio is 177 men to 310 women. I say original because it will eventually change. None of the women were with child when we made our escape, so at least we won't have to worry about new births for some months. How many months will that be, here? We don't have an accurate equivalent as yet and may not for quite some time. The days are within minutes of being identical, but we don't know how long a year is going to be.
I am writing this down because we need to record as much as we can. But, our resources to do that are very limited. We have 32 reams of hotel stationery and 9 reams of blank paper. Thank God one of us thought to grab a typewriter! We know that whatever paper we use has to be for an important or essential reason. One thing is for sure, no one is going to want to write home!
Everything we have is in short supply. Especially food. In the week since we got here, we've found only a few plants that are edible. We've found more that we need never experiment with again.
Actually, one of them has every indication of being a great glue! So, for now we are relying on everyone going as hungry as they can, which will extend how long the canned goods will last.
The other thing we have in very short supply is gasoline. We managed to bring two Jeeps and trailers with us, but there was not very much fuel on hand. We have about 140 gallons, in 5-gallon jerry cans.
In one of the trunks that wound up making the trip, we found a collection of records and a portable record player that can also double as a public address system. I have to wonder if there were other trunks that didn't make it! In our haste to create shelters and make preparations for our stay here, there are things we have not inventoried yet. I am looking forward to the new treasures that will probably be found.
As far as our inventory has gone, I am only now able to compile the information others have collected. I want to check some of these items since I'm sure more than one person counted them and I don't want to create an accounting that has possibly listed twice as many of something than what we really have. Some things we have a huge number of— like doors. In the
time we had to ransack the hotel, those soldiers managed to collect 647 of them!
We also had a pretty big stack of plywood in the lab. Because of the modifications we were about to make in the lab, we not only had the plywood, but cases of nails and screws. Fortunately, the carpenters were dropping off their tools in the days before the invasion, so actually constructing some kind of limited structures is going to be possible.
We were able to raid the pharmacy across the street from the hotel, so we have quite a lot of medical supplies and stuff for personal hygiene. There was a bookstore next to that, so we don't have to answer the age old question of what 3 books would you take with you if you knew you were going to be marooned on a desert island! We have hundreds of books, a lot in multiples. We just grabbed everything. If nothing else, they might make good insulation! I'm joking, of course. Things are pretty grim here and it feels good to make a joke, even if I'm the only person around.
