Drift Point Apocalypse Chapter 1

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Drift Point Apocalypse

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“You still can’t find them?” Captain Ari Aberash questioned. As his lead search coordinator Amin Sims responded, the radio began to buzz loudly. He pulled the receiver away from his ear and waited until he could no longer hear the ringing before putting it back in place. “I know you’re doing all you can, but I refuse to believe Marisa and the others didn’t survive the crash. She’s too resourceful not to be on this island somewhere.”

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“How’s Base Camp?” Ari hated the crappy connection on these radios, but it was remarkable that they had any kind of connection at all. “It’s about the same. Nothing to report. You did give everyone our latest recommendations didn’t you?”

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“I can understand they aren’t happy about all the restrictions, but we talked them through and really these give us the best chance to survive here on Drift Point. Yes, I know morale is at an all time low.” Ari sighed, “I’ll try to get in touch with Kennedy and see if we can get another scavenger party together, maybe we’ll finally find a decent source of food on this rock.”

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As Amin asked again about the wreck Ari shook his head. “I’ve looked over those charts a hundred times and I can’t find where we went off course. We hit one mother of a storm I know that, but as far as I can tell this place is uncharted. We were looking for an undiscovered land to settle, but I don’t think any of us expected to end up here.”

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“Ah! Ugh! Yeah, I think our connection is dying. Look Amin just try to keep the people near you as organized as you can. I’ll…yeah I know…I was saying I’m gonna call Cox and see if we can’t get another team together. Well if you do try to come over here, make sure you’ve got a clear shot. The weather can change in a heartbeat.”

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The connection on his lone communication tower failed and Ari headed to hang it back on the wall. So much for calling Cox, he thought to himself. Just as he was about to hang it up, the radio began to buzz.

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“Kennedy, how on earth did you get through? I just lost Amin.” He let out a low chuckle, “No kidding?”

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“So we were thinking that we should get another party together. I know this weather makes it almost impossible to really search too far outside our safe zones.”

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“Brandon found some of the vehicle parts? Well does he think he could get a few of them running? Huh, guess we lucked out finding that gas deposit in the last search then. Maybe we’ve got a chance to make this work.” The radio buzzed again and Ari sighed, “Thanks for the update Cox. I’ll be here when you get that company together. Be careful.”

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After a few productive conversations, and a sponge bath in the sink Ari headed into the snow. The weather was proving to be quite nice for Drift Point and he was even able to be out of the cooped up shelter for a little while.

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Night fell on base camp and still the weather had held off. Blizzards were common in this barren wasteland he and his people had crashed onto and you never knew when one would strike. The colonists from Simland had learned to take days like today for granted after six months. He cooked up his daily rations in relative happiness. Today had been a good day.

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It proved to be a very good day, since Amin managed to indeed make the trudge through the snow for a brief visit. You never stayed too long if you managed to visit another human being in these conditions, but sometimes the isolation could get to be too much. Ari wished he had the luxury of being able to take such risks, but he was the leader of this colony and he couldn’t risk just dying especially now.

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As he crawled into his bed that evening, Ari briefly recalled what it had been like to stay up all night. With very little power in Drift Point, and therefore very little entertainment, the residents of Drift Point tended to go to bed early.

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The colonists had quickly learned that a good day was often followed by a bad one. Though Ari’s day had started pleasantly enough with a welcome visit from Cox who’d rounded up a team to go scavenging, turned ugly when an unwelcome visitor turned up. “Landgrabb’s lackey’s here for the “rent” money.”

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Ari begrudgingly went into the house and found the box of valuables that had been set aside to pay off Landgrabb. He had gotten almost the entire military stockpile of weapons when the ship had crashed on the island. And now the colonists were forced to pay protection money once a week in order to ensure their homes weren’t attacked. “Here!” he shoved the box in Fancey’s face and gave her a snarl. “Feels a little light…sure hope it’s all here.”

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“Fancey, get the hell off my property! You’ve got what you wanted now run along and go be a good lap dog.” Melissa just stared her former captain down before turning on her heels and walking away. “Well at least I don’t starve or stink.” she called back over her shoulder as she disappeared.

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Ari slumped onto the bed after an exhausting day of futile search for food. The party had turned up some food that they could add to the colony’s stockpile, but it wasn’t enough to lift the food restrictions. He stared at his dirty stone floor and wondered if he’d ever be able to give these people a better life here.

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A few days later found Ari in slightly better spirits. The colonists responsible for the building and construction of shelters had made their rounds to his home and had given the walls a nice treatment. The captain had insisted that the colonists homes be taken care of first before his was given any further attention. He had to admit that whatever the builders had done certainly made his home feel warmer.

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He’d headed downstairs to get some fresh air only to find one of Landgrabb’s associates must have been by his home again. He stared at the snowman without any amusement before walking back inside. He would not even give the bullies the satisfaction of kicking it down.

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That afternoon a small party went scavenging for food. They found enough to restock the supply house, but again did not find any new resources that they had not already found. Brandi, Kennedy, and Amin decided to head back to base camp and give Ari some company for the day. They could obviously sense that their captain was feeling lonely. “You still haven’t found her have you?” “No, “Brandi replied a little sadly, “But you know what they say. No news is good news right?”

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Kennedy ended up staying far later than Brandi and the others, but that wasn’t because Ari hadn’t tried to insist that he go home with the others. Finally as it grew dark Aberash put his foot down, “Cox, as it is right now I can’t afford to loose you. You’re the only other man here that can lead the scavenger teams. This good weather we’ve been having can’t possibly hold out for that much longer. And Landgrabb’s people wander at night. Get back to your shelter while you still can.”

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As it turned out Landgrabb’s people decided to attack the base camp itself. Apparently some of them had gotten word that one of the colonists had constructed the captain a very nice bookshelf, and apparently in their minds it was too good for Captain Aberash.

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The next afternoon Ari was able to get the radio working long enough to radio Amin and let him know what had happened. It was decided that until further notice colonists should be careful about what they talked about these days. Apparently Landgrabb now had spies intercepting their personal communications therefore any messages going about town would have to be thoroughly checked before being sent to their destinations.

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As he ate his daily rations, Ari was cursing the implementation of yet another restriction on the people’s daily lives. How many more could he possibly inflict before they all rebelled and all out anarchy took over this island? If he could lift even one restriction, he felt he and the council would have a greater chance of keeping order.

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He’d been washing his hands after his meal only to have his only source of water break. As he fiddled angrily with the valves his frustration over the past year’s events finally came out all at once.

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Hopelessness was even starting to set in with Ari. He yelled at the ceiling above his head, “ What else can possibly go wrong! Is the house going to burn down next? Or perhaps the stars themselves will just come falling out of the sky! Everything has gone to hell for us since we left Simland! I promised to give these people a better future than what we had back there, and now look what I’ve led them into! Starvation, near freezing temperatures, no basic rights at all, fear around every corner!” He slumped over the sink in exhaustion and whispered, “What am I going to do?”

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The next day marked the one year anniversary since the crash and found no snow on the barren ground. Still Ari was in no mood for visitors having slept a maximum of two hours. “What is it Amin?” “Captain I’ve got great news! Lillard got a handful of the vehicles running. Cox has a team ready to look for new resources and places to set up safe houses.”

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It took the Captain a moment to register what he had just heard but then his face broke into a full smile. “Well Amin, fire up those vehicles or tie some of the animals up to them and let’s go see what we can find!”

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Two weeks later found Ari on the phone with Sims who had been placed in charge of the group who was now residing in the new safe zone just beyond the mountains, “Amin? So you all are getting set up over there in that valley okay?” …. “That’s great. And you’ll be able to send regular food shipments in because I’ve got Long organizing a small group of men to patrol the road to the main colony. And with those mountains surrounding you, you should be able to have some shelter from the weather and Landgrabb. I told Cox to let everyone know the ration restrictions have been lifted.”

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The next morning Ari took out some food to make his first breakfast in a year. He smiled a little as he cracked open the eggs. It was so odd eating breakfast again. He honestly had started to think they weren’t going to make it in Drift Point. The colony had a long way to go, but hey it was a start.

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Of course, Ari hadn’t used a stove in a year and really the stove he’d been given probably wasn’t exactly top of the line either, so the fire that started was probably inevitable. “I give my people food only to burn alive in my own kitchen!”

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As quickly as he could, Ari started pouring water from the nearby sink onto the flames. Gratefully, Captain Aberash was able to put out the fire on his own. He sent out a warning to the heart of the colony for colonists to be careful cooking on the new stoves and to make sure a sink was nearby at all times.

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That evening the captain received an unexpected visitor, “Brandi, I thought you were out with Cox on a search?” Brandi smiled, “I was, but I took the old car back the minute we found this. We figured this was one thing you were really going to want to see.”

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From around the side of the old multi-terrain vehicle came the most wonderful sight Ari had ever seen. “Marisa!” He soon wrapped his long lost fiancé into a passionate kiss.

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The three headed inside and Ari whipped up a batch of burnt fish. But at least the stove didn’t actually set into full flame this time. “So where were you?” Marisa leaned back, “I ended up coming ashore on the west side of the island and with the weather and the injuries, we were all sort of stuck. I know everyone’s glad to be back in civilization.”

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Ari wasted no time getting married to Marisa. He didn’t really care much about having some big formal ceremony and really such a thing seemed frivolous to both parties, so they simply shared wedding vows in the middle of the kitchen right next to the burnt salmon dinner.

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But really both were just happy to have found one another after spending so much time apart.

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Ari held Marisa tightly in his arms as they slept in their new bed. The mattress squeaked and their was a nail in his back, but Ari couldn’t remember sleeping so well in Drift Point as he did that night.

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The next morning Marisa Aberash flew out the front door and into an awaiting transport. Landgrabb’s men had injured a group of colonists during a raid and Cox had sent for Marisa immediately. As the only trained medical professional on the island, her skills were most certainly needed.