The following interview was transcribed from a recorded session.
AA – “Thank you for coming along, there seems to be a lot to do today…”
RJ – “Aye, there’s a party happening in town tomorrow. Decorations and such have to be up.”
AA – “A party? Interesting, well get to that soon I think. Just for the record please state your name, age and current occupation.”
RJ – “I’m Rob Johnson, sixty-five years old and I’m a bit of a jack-of-all, but my speciality is computing.”
AA – “Ah, a man of code! So few of you seem to be around these days.”
RJ – “Might have something to do with the world ending…”
AA – “You’re right of course, I don’t suppose there’s much call for a computer expert around here?”
RJ – “More than you think actually, I’m starting to get everyone round to the idea of digitising a lot of our systems, moving away from paper, starting our own network etcetera.”
AA – “Wow, that seems like quite a challenge for a town like this, especially now.”
RJ – “Well, it’s not all that difficult really. Most of the infrastructure is still there, computers still work, components are plentiful, and I imagine the internet is still having around somewhere.”
AA – “Now that would be handy. What do you hope to accomplish with it?”
RJ – “Everything. We seem to be heading toward how things were. It might not have been the best place to be, but it’s something everyone knows, and most of the time people just want things to get back to some semblance of normality.”
AA – “This is very true, the people I’ve spoken to so far certainly see to think so.”
RJ – “Well if that’s where we’re heading I might as well do everything I can do to help. I’m building a few computers and getting a few servers ready now, we managed to stumble across a few computing outlets while we were scavenging so that’s come in handy.”
AA – “You must have had quite the education before The Fall.”
RJ – “Not particularly, I was fairly average at school I think. These things just come naturally to me, I can build a computer from muscle memory alone and the rest of it seemed to just stick with me.”
AA – ‘Are you hoping to establish communication with other colonies?”
RJ – “Well, you’d hope so. But we’ve tried everything from smoke signals to wide-band radio and so far we’ve got nothing. If the internet still exists up there, then we should be able to communicate with others if they’ve managed to establish a connection. That’s if we can even establish a connection on our end…”
AA – “Hmm, quite so. Now, you mentioned a party in the town earlier. Can you elaborate?”
RJ – ‘Sure. So we managed to find quite a large party of survivors this week. There was around one hundred of them I think, but we haven’t done a proper count yet. There were a few empty houses around the town but more are going up as we speak.”
AA – “That’s a rather large party, I’ll have to talk to some of them later, I think.”
RJ – “We all would, but maybe give them some time to settle in? I dread to think what they’ve been through.”
AA – “Oh absolutely, I wouldn’t harass them after such a harrowing journey.”
RJ – “Fair. They brought a couple of trucks worth of supplies with them too, tools, weapons, clothing, food. That’s usually the other good thing with finding a group this size. They’re usually organised, if a little distrustful of anything resembling civil order.”
AA – “That Segways nicely into my next topic, if I may? How do you arrive here?”
RJ – “Probably the same way everyone else did, sheer luck. Woke up in a bunker with a few other people. We stuck together for a while, eventually we either went our own way or were killed off. Nice group of people though. There were only a couple of us left when we found this place. They welcomed us in and now I’m helping drag them back to the age of technology.”
AA – “So do you remember much before The Fall?”
RJ – “Such a dramatic name. But no, I don’t. Like I say, probably the same as most people around here. Woke up in a bunker, barely remember getting there, can’t imagine how I found the place. Stayed around for a while, found other people. We made a living out of staying inside.”
AA – “A similar story, yes. Do you remember anything at all?”
RJ – “Persistant aren’t you? I was probably about twenty-five give or take a few months, gauging on what other people have said. I think I worked for a tech or engineering company back in the day, that would explain why I have an affinity for technology now.”
AA – “And that’s all?”
RJ – “Yup.”
AA – “Fascinating, I’m starting to sense a pattern here.:
RJ – “Yeah, most of us figured that too. Problem is, if we think too hard about it it tends to…break most people.”
AA – “Oh? Can you elaborate for me?”
RJ – “We’ll see if it kills me, but sure. If we concentrate too hard, pulling at the threads of our memories, it hurts. A lot. Severe migraines, bleeding from the nose or ears, sometimes from the eyes or all three. I’ve know of at least a handful of people that died that way. Guess it will be buried forever.”
AA – “That’s it? No nagging curiosity?”
RJ – “If it hurts that much, and judging by the state of the world now, probably not much worth remembering. I miss my family, I think, and my friends. No one here has jogged a memory for me yet. Best to look toward the future, how to rebuild, and get back something of what was lost.”
AA – “Very well put, I appreciate the idea of looking forward rather than over our shoulder, ready to trip.”
RJ – “Very well put yourself.”
AA – “Why thank you. Now then, if I can ask-”
RJ – “Actually, if I may ask?”
AA – “Please.”
RJ – “Who are you?”
AA – “How do you mean?”
RJ – “In every sense of the word. Where do you come from, how old are you, what did you do before The Fall? All of it, who exactly are you? And why are you here?”
AA – “I know it’s easy to mistrust strangers, especially when they act strange-”
RJ – “It’s not that, and you’re avoiding my question.”
AA – “Are you sure you weren’t a psychiatrist in your previous life?”
RJ – “I might have been, though I’m not a dick so it’s hard to know for sure.”
AA – “Hah, very well then. I remember about as much as you do, which is to say almost nothing at all. Fairly normal as far as I can think, family, job, wife, kids and the like. Probably pets too. We found our way to a bunker when something…felt…off? Difficult to explain, but I’m sure you know the feeling.”
RJ – “Sadly, we all do. I fear that’s the only reason we’re here.”
AA – “Indeed. Well, after that we all woke up. Travelled around a lot, fought a few battles, lived in a few villages. Lost my family in a multitude of ways. Now I just…travel.”
RJ – “Lost your family?”
AA – “Difficult to talk about, as you could imagine.”
RJ – “Most people have some kind of emotional reaction when they talk about it”
AA – “You know what they say about time healing all wounds…”
RJ – “I’ve often found it to be a lie.”
AA – “A lot of people do.”
RJ – “So now you just…travel? Documenting people’s stories?”
AA – “Travel, interview, investigate. I’m trying to piece together a very large puzzle. In the dark. With most of the pieces missing. I can only guess at the larger picture.”
RJ – “We’ve all tried, better to rebuild I think.”
AA – “Yes indeed. I find people’s stories fascinating, I’m trying to document everything that has happened between The Fall and now, a period I’ve taken to recalling The Reclamation.”
RJ – “Poetic, if a tad cliche.”
AA – “Can’t argue there, but there are only a finite amount of words in the world. Now, anyway. Perhaps Sequentis would be more applicable?”
RJ – “Original too, Spanish?”
AA – “Latin.”
RJ – “Talk about a dead language.”
AA – “I fear that’s all too close to the mark.”
*RJ nods in approval, deep in thought*
AA – “Anyway, if my interrogation is over?”
RJ – “Hah, for now. You still avoided most of my questions but you seem to do it so naturally, I figure there’s stuff you won’t talk about. To each their own.”
AA – “Quite so. So, where are you getting power from for your machinery?”
RJ – “I’ve got a couple of generators separate from the main grid read to power the servers and computers. Obviously, the servers need to be connected at all times so it’s going to be an ongoing task.”
AA – “What kind of generators?”
RJ – “Petrol for now. We’re still rebuilding an entire field of solar generators and hooking them up to arteries so we can store the power for overnight use.”
AA – “A sensible precaution.”
RJ – “Common sense really. Solar uses sunlight, we get none of it during the night cycle. We don’t get much during the day to be honest.”
AA – “I remember that much about this country anyway.”
RJ – “You can see it in action!”
AA – “Quite. Are you still hunting for other power sources?”
RJ – “Over to the east you can see a wind farm, mostly intact. I’m getting a brief together for The Boss requesting a team and resources to go salvage them. It’s a windy area here, positioned well in the hills and so on.”
AA – “So you plan to take them down, transport them and bring them here?”
RJ – “I remember how they work, must be a throw back to my previous life. Should be more or less common sense to disconnect them, take them down, move them over and stick them back up. Luckily that construction site isn’t too far away, they have functioning cranes, diggers, tractors and everything else we would need to replant and hook the turbines up.”
AA – “Moving toward renewable energy?”
RJ – “Makes sense. It’s a stable supply, doubt the wind will go away just because the world came to an end. The sun is always there, if hidden behind the clouds. We have a feeling there’s a hydro-electric dam nearby too, so we’re hunting for that. Between the three supplies, we should have a steady source of unlimited energy.”
AA – “Very sensible indeed.”
RJ – “We’ll always need power, most things use it, even now. We’re using it to keep the water running, the lights on and we’re starting to heat the first houses. If we are going to start running servers and trying to contact the outside world, it’s even more vital now.”
AA – “Agreed. So how do you find living here?”
RJ – “Hard to complain about it really. After we arrived we were welcomed in, given food, shelter, clothing and given something to do. That was the most important part for me.”
AA – “Which?”
RJ – “Everyone needs to be needed, given a purpose. That’s what I found here. If the other survivors I was with tried to start somewhere new, we would’ve been doubtlessly killed in the wilderness. Here, on the other hand, I can be useful.”
AA – “Did you set about your job immediately after you all arrived?”
RJ – “Most of us did, yeah. Took a day or so to settle in, learn our way around, meet a few people. After that we were quizzed about our names, where we came from, sort of the same questions you’re asking really.”
AA – “I know, sorry about that. They’re the easiest questions to ask.”
RJ – “It’s fine really, good to keep reminding people who they are. Anyway, we gave our names, our backgrounds and our skills as best we could remember. Pretty sure I got my name right. They found us stuff to do and here we are.”
AA – “And how long ago was that?”
RJ – “A year now, as best as we can guess. People weren’t super strict about time keeping until we got a few clocks dotted around the place.”
AA – “It will be interesting to see how you recover your sense of time after this.”
RJ – “You mean we?”
AA – “Hmmm. Well, thank you for joining me Rob, a pleasure to meet you. I’m sure you’ve got plenty to be getting on with out there.”
RJ – “Thanks for having me, we’ll get to my questions another time.”
END.
This one was…different. I find it tough to explain it in more clear details than that. Definitely smarter than he looks, not to be underestimated, I have no doubt he’ll be back to ask the questions just like he promised.
It will be good for this town to have one semblance of technology restored to them. If other colonies have formed out there as we hoped, and they have also come to the same conclusion, we should be in for some interesting development.
I’ll have to monitor the situation.
The Digital Author 