Down, down, down.
Went the world.
Germs spread, wars spread, greed spread, panic spread.
And then all was lost,
Gone.
Eli woke but chose to keep his eyes closed. He chose to do this most days.
The cold wind howled across the barren landscape but Eli decided it was a warm breeze he was listening to while sitting on a beautiful golden beach in another time and place. He allowed himself to continue in this reverie for a moment before resigning himself to lifting his eyelids slowly. Another day had begun and it was impossible to escape for more than a few odd minutes. There was too much to do and too many dangers to be aware of.
Getting to his feet, Eli noticed the sun shining on a metal object nearby. It was small and he wasn’t sure why he had even paid it any notice. He walked away from the shelter of the dead tree where he had slept and looked down at it. A coin. Stooping to pick it up, he studied the picture it bore as it lay on his dirt-encrusted palm. A relic from a different time. Back when people used to trade with money. He had heard about this from his father when he was still a child.
Of course, the coin was now devoid of value and it also served no purpose whatsoever. But for some reason Eli decided to keep it. He carefully placed it in the pocket of his combat trousers with the few other meagre possessions that were in there – an old penknife, a petrol lighter and a small pot of healing balm he had prepared months ago.
The day was the same as yesterday and the same as the day before that. The sky was metal-grey and flat, the ground was hot and dry and there was nothing in sight for miles apart from a few other dead trees. Eli had been walking for two weeks and he was beginning to wonder if he would ever find what he was looking for.
He set off in the same direction he had been heading in the day before. He was looking for the remains of a city that had supposedly once stood. Before the Earth had finally bitten back and removed most of humanity from its face. He walked at a moderate pace but it felt far harder than it was; it had been six days since Eli had eaten. And his last ‘meal’ had only been half of a half-decayed crow.
The day was growing darker when he first saw the structures in the distance. At first he thought he was hallucinating. But as he trudged on he realised the buildings he saw were indeed real. After another hour he was standing in what used to be a street. Perhaps here he would finally find some other people.
There were only parts of buildings here. Nothing had survived in its entirety. Eli took his time looking around as he had never visited an area quite like this before. He had only seen smaller groups of ruins prior to today. Suddenly he noticed an opening to something underground. It was mostly covered by a large lump of concrete and only a portion of the original entrance was visible. But this portion was large enough for him to squeeze through. He retrieved the lighter from his pocket and gingerly made his way inside and downward.
Stairs. But only a few. He found himself standing in a small room with a table at the centre. On the table rested a book. Eli had seen a few books before, but never one quite like this. Instead of paper pages, this book held cards with shaped holes. There was also a candle beside the book and Eli carefully lit this. Now he could see things more clearly.
As he leafed through the s
trange book, he saw that some of the holes had been filled with coins like the one in his pocket. Now he knew why he had kept the one he had found.
Slowly, and with the sense he was performing some sacred act, Eli pressed his coin into a hole on a page. He knew it was the right place to put it as the picture in this hole was the same as the picture on his coin. He had no idea what the writing on it meant, but the picture looked very much like the world as it was now.
Eli stepped back waiting for something magical to happen. It didn’t. The cold wind howled.
The day was the same as yesterday and the same as the day before that.
(written in the style of sci-fi writers from the past such as the late, great Richard Matheson. I do hope it contained all of the necessary bleak, hopelessness of a post-apocalyptic world!)
© Article copyright Mik Smith 2022
MAIN IMAGE – created by Mik
other images reblogged (and monochromed) from freepik and shutterstock
