2024 Story Collection

Friendship With The Fae

It was the same as any other day. The small cabin held nothing but her lonely thoughts. She's lived here her entire life, surrounded by nothing but the never-ending winter.

It had been a decade since the Final World War, the one that had destroyed almost everything. The bomb had dropped in Chicago, but the shock wave had finally sent Yellowstone's dormant Volcano into eruption. Between the two, the world went black. Ash and debris covered everything and all the solar fields no longer gave the power most countries had depended on.

Most of the world had gone to less environmentally taxing options for power generation, hoping to save the environment.

Who knew the thing everyone said would help the environment, help our future generations have a better life, would end up killing almost everything?

Even if you managed to be somewhere on the other side of the world and survive the raining ash, the cold from the lack of sunlight and the complete shutdown of the economy, that doesn't mean you'd be able to survive without power for long.

There was no light or warmth except fires. But most were smothered by the ash unless you were inside, but most governments had outlawed wood-burning stoves and fireplaces that were not electric. So you could risk burning everything down around you.

Most buildings were now made of plastic-based materials, which meant no fuel for fires, and no place to start them.

Cars were all electric, and communication was all electric. All the water that wasn't bottled was now contaminated. All animals and crops were now dead or dying. Canned food was the only option, but most canned goods were switched out for frozen goods, but those were going bad without the power to refrigerate them.

Not to mention the killings. People were desperate. They would do anything to survive.

Within 48 hours, almost all mammals that walk the earth were dead.

Well, everyone but us.

As the world had gone black and the ash choked out and killed most of life on earth, one small town went deep underground.

The underground bunker was built in the 1970s. The whole town had come together to construct a safe place just in case the worst-case scenario happened. My ancestors had maintained it and kept adding to the stock of food and necessities as the town grew.

It was one of the few bomb shelters that was put far enough underground that it would actually be safe. It was also built so that with a pull of the lever, the entry tunnel would break apart and the settlement would be burred along with everyone inside.

She'd been told the story.

The news had warned of a bomb being dropped. The mother had slammed open the window above the sink with her wet soapy hands screamed from her husband. Within 60 seconds, the whole town was burred alive inside the pod, over a hundred feet underground.

They felt the earth shake around them as the bomb hit and then more from the eruption, but as time went on, as the generations lived and died, eventually, they began to run out of supplies. They would have to take the risk and come to the surface.

They sent some men up to scout the surface.

It had blinded them, the sun reflecting on the white landscape. Their skin had burned almost instantly and their body shook from the cold. They reached down and felt the powder around them, snow.

The eruption had sent the world into another ice age. They had built a few cabins, greenhouses and hunted game to survive. It was cold and a harsh, endless winter.

Grace was of the first generation to be born on the surface. Her body had already adjusted to the freezing temperatures and blinding light.

She's lived in peace and harmony with the rest of the town.

She'd thought nothing would have changed that day. It was the same as most days. She'd been hunting with her brothers and had fallen into a strange hole. By the time her family could get her out, she had severe burns. They didn't know at the time, but she'd been exposed to radiation from an old factory. The roof had rotted and as she walked across the snow, it gave.

The burns left awful scars, but aside from that, she was okay. But at the age of thirty, they began to notice that something was wrong. Unlike the others, she did not age. She did not grow taller and her menstruation had never started again.

Only her hair and nails continued to grow. And strangely, her teeth would regrow as well.

She watched as the generations came and went until she was the only one left. The last of the town had decided to venture out and see if they could find others. They had followed a traveling merchant. She'd bid them farewell and stayed in the same cabin she'd lived in for close to a thousand years.

And so, as she cut the vegetables to add to the venison stew, she had felt more lonely than ever. Maybe I should've gone with them. It was a common thought, one that haunted her at times, but she'd made a promise. She would stay and keep everything maintained just in case they decided to come back. But after 278 years, she couldn't help but wonder, do they even remember this settlement? If they do, would they ever be able to find their way back? Would they want to?

Grace walks over to the large pot that sits on the old wood-burning stove her father had made with her brothers and throws in the vegetables.

She walks over and puts on her fur coat. While I wait for the stew, I might as well do something useful. So she heads out into the blizzard and carries in more wood for the fire and does her rounds, checking her traps. She guts and skins the few rabbits from the traps and makes her way back to the cabin. She throws them in the icebox outside the door.

I still have got a whole lot of black bear. I need to cook up, she tisks.

As she opens the door, she is greeted with a large cloaked figure.

To be continued...

January 16, 2024