The power is off again.
It took a day for the first few to reach the bar. I spent the time before their arrival trying to drum up support from those close enough to help. Turns out the nearest ship was seven days away, and heading in the opposite direction. They were non-committal. A swarm of parsnipheads is not exactly big news.
In the days that followed I nailed more boards over most of the windows, and counted the cans of food. Most of the chairs ended up in a pile in front of the main entrance. I started to believe everything might be OK. That I had overestimated how many hid inside the heaps of grain.
Then this morning they arrived in earnest. One must have knocked out the generator again en route. Or maybe a few chewed through the wires. The wires are green after all.
Either way I am rationing battery life for the radio and the computer, and hunting every day. I have taken down sixty-seven so far. If I am lucky, that is ten percent. I hobble round the bar. There are blisters on my hands the size of sparrow’s eggs. It is days like this I am grateful for my hook.
I need a shower and a sit down. Ten hours sleep and some soup. But I can no longer tell the difference between the rain and the hammering of hands on the glass.
It is not about them getting me. Unless I am vey unlucky, I do not need to worry about the bite. You know how much time I spent on the defences. But even so light peeks through loosening boards on the window, and puffs of dust rock the floor and fall from the ceiling with every bang.
I have overstretched myself. I understand this now. All that work tending the garden, experimenting with drinks, writing this blog…I have let things slip.
So this may be the end.
This is what billions have gone through across the universe. That hammering on the door, that creaking. The knowledge that everything will be over soon. There is no room for self-pity when this is a galactic condition.
Thanks for reading. Thanks for the messages of support. Sorry if this the last one. I understand you would come and help if you were not so far away.
