Olivia’s Survivor Story Part 8

Olivia strolls about the valley, trying to get her bearings.

Missed the others? Why not look back at Part 7?

Day 22 – The Highway

After letting my clothes dry out a bit last night, I gathered up my stuff and started off this morning to a crisp, cold day. I should be dead after last night’s snow storm, but my sleeping bag and my dry clothes kept me warm enough. I guess the cave trapped the heat from the fire pretty well too.

I have to say though, I should be dead. I had to kick out an opening in front of my temporary home before I could get outside. I can’t imagine what I would’ve done had I not found this cave in time. Going outside yesterday was incredibly stupid in retrospect, but I couldn’t stay in that house after what I went through there.

As I hiked across the crags and rocks, poked about some burnt out cabins, and kept walking as far as I could. I found a beautiful view during my outing. In another time, I think I would’ve liked to visit here. It seems like a really pleasant place to live. Somehow though, even given that this is Canada, I can’t shake the feeling that the weather here lately is unnatural. Something is different.

Nothing really drives that point home more than finding people in the ice and snow, lying lifeless on the ground. As I forged ahead, I came across what seemed to be a highway, and it wasn’t long before I came across vehicles. Most I’ve come across are just abandoned on the side of the road, as if the drivers ran out of gas or something. One group of cars stood out though.

It looked as if someone got rear-ended, and a three-car pileup caused all three to veer off into a ditch. I wouldn’t have thought much of it, except there were bodies in the snow outside the cars, with frozen blood beneath the corpses. It looked like the one in the back started the accident. He got out to check if the others were okay, and walked around to the passenger’s side of the second car. The guy from the pickup was lying face-up next to the rock that stopped his truck. Both had bullet wounds… I’m guessing that the one in the middle got out and shot the other two, because there were bullet casings all around the area and his car was cleaned out. I think it was best to not stick around, so I got moving.

After following the highway for about a mile or so, I came across a small town of a few houses. Given that it was getting dark, I felt it was best to not go much further. I poked around some of the houses and picked one to stay in. There’s no fireplace, but I was able to take stock of what I have at least.

I’m making progress, and that’s the least I can ask for.

Also, I took some water from the toilet. So that happened.

Day 23 – Country Roads

I slept well last night. The owner of this house had a nice, King-size bed. Memory foam and everything. That had to be the best night of sleep I’ve had in over a month.

5 out of 5 stars.

Anyways, today was pretty boring to say the least. Boring and disappointing. I took the highway even further, only to realize that I looped completely around the valley back to the farm. In the interest of not revisiting that place, I took a path along a river until I came across what looked like it may be a country road. The same road I came across when I first got here. 

I also had a major case of deja vu once I got there. I mean, I know I have been here before, but still. I think it’s because it seems so similar to home in a way. I used to go hiking along my family’s road in the winter with Will back when I was in high school. He always seemed to have the best advice for me whenever I had trouble with my folks, or with some guy at school. I wonder how he’s doing? I wonder if things are like this all over?

It didn’t take me long to find something new at least. As I was following the road, I noticed a giant, orange spire sticking out of the hills. It wasn’t getting late, but I was so excited that I sprinted up the hill to it. Not only is it a radio tower, but there’s a control station here too. It looks like it’s built for people to stay here long term. That’s great news to me, because that means that I can hang out for a while at least.

The bad news though is that the radio here isn’t working either. There’s gotta be something going on… This isn’t the first military-grade radio I’ve found that isn’t working.

No matter though, I’m going to stay the night here. I’ll have some of these baked beans and peaches for dinner. I know it sounds gross, but when you’ve been freezing all day, it feels good to have anything warm for dinner.

Day 24 – The Tower

This tower… I like this tower. It has a great view, plenty of supplies, thick walls, a ton of stuff that doesn’t work.

Speaking of stuff that doesn’t work, I found something really interesting, a compass. I’ve never known a compass to be “broken”, but this thing is totally outta whack. I went outside to see if the thing would be of any use to me, and brought one of the military maps I found with me. After staring, dumbfounded for a while, I came to the conclusion that the compass is pointing… everywhere.

Will explained it to me one time, but I was half paying attention. He told me that the needle doesn’t point to the north pole, but to where the magnetic north is. 

I don’t know what it means when the needle is spinning in circles though.

Now that my brain hurts, I think I’m just going to sit here and make some arrows or something. Maybe cook up that deer meat I found in the freezer. Yeah, that sounds good. Some deer steak and beans.

I wonder why I can’t seem to find any vegetables…

Olivia’s next chapter begins here.

 

Did you like this post? You should click “Like” if you did. Feel free to follow Falcon Game Reviews as well. You can also find me on Twitter and even send me a direct email to FalconReviewsBlog@gmail.com!