the dimming of the light (Part 24)

Peter Hunter

Day thirty-five

  it was as if the land itself had turned against us maybe the green woods and fields had given up on us because we had failed them - exploiting their bounty and ignoring their need for sympathy and love

but this crisis was not of nature somehow symptomatic of human greed this was not natural I'm sure - but made by human hand.

Something no someone had done this to us either out of perverted mischief or in pursuit of a gain not yet apparent Reminiscent of the neutron bomb in the sixties - a device to kill the people. cause minimal damage and leave most property and infrastructure intact

In her own way, Alice's misguided, almost funny idea of 'aliens' was, if anyone believed in spaceships and extraterrestrial beings - as plausible as any one of our explanations

  something someone had to be behind it all?

But this is academic to me I am fading fast faster than the involuntary withdrawal of my medication can explain. It is as if some mythical vampire is draining my vital energy and blood supply

leaving me anaemic and weak

  I do not think it will be long now

*

  each day the village grows even quieter if that is possible and there is little sign of life.

We have noticed an increase in feral dogs, unsurprisingly and there are more wild animals in evidence as they become less fearful of what few humans they see

  it is hard to judge what proportion of the village people remain, but we fear is is not very many. Our location on the outskirt and the relative size of my property makes it less likely that we have contact and helps insulate us from the evidence of death and hardship of others

Despite the cold, I found I needed to spend more time on my own whether in contemplation of what had happened to our world and the country we live in

  anything

it was if I needed solitude to prepare my self for something I knew not what maybe our fortunes would change for the good, but I doubted that

  more likely this energy-sapping sickness

maybe the Yellow Death

(To be continued)

Peter Hunter 2012

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