Category: One Among the Dead

Day 79:

A typical meal for me is carrots, some pretty pathetic bread, and a fish.  In the morning I probably just gnaw on some stale bread. I keep some carrots on me to snack on throughout the day, and at night, it’s the whole carrot-bread-fish combination.

Sometimes it’s a carrot and fish sandwich.

No one would’ve convinced me that was a meal back before I landed here.

The biggest problem with this diet is that it is very heavy on fish, and fish are not easy to catch. So the last couple of evenings before the sun goes down (when it’s not so hot and the fish bite better) I’ve been fishing, but it hasn’t be overly successful.

I think soon I’m going to have to kill some of my duckens and cook them.

It’s one thing to kill something like a zombie that’s trying to kill me. It’s another to try to kill something that I’ve cared for. It’s hard. I don’t want to do it. But I tried eating no direct protein here (it’s not like soy power shakes are a thing) and I got really weak really fast. I need fat and protein and if I run out of fish I’m not going to have a choice.

Let’s keep hoping the fish come in.

Day 78:

I don’t talk about the weather here much because it doesn’t change often. If I remember correctly, Serendipity is one of those planets that spins perfectly on its axis and has no seasons the way that Earth does. The drop point was planned to be a bit above the equator, so not quite tropical weather, but certainly warm and muggy by most people’s standards. The trees are deciduous style leaves though I doubt they fall since they don’t get a “fall”.

Without naming temperatures, since I lack a thermometer and my “hot” may not be anyone else’s “hot”,  most days are warm enough to walk around in light clothing, and it’s easy to break a sweat if working out side. Most nights are on the cool side unless it’s cloudy – not cold enough to frost or anything like that but certainly not my ideal sleeping temperature. The fire’s always burning in my cave house, just to keep the dampness and cold at a minimum.

Since I spend most days underground where the temperature’s relatively cool (except near that strange hot wall I’m not willing to dig through) I’m more often cold than hot.

It rains a couple days a week, sometimes during the day and sometimes at night.

All this to say that I spent a good part of today standing in the lakebed dredging sand to make glass, so my feet are freezing and my arms are sunburnt. It reminds me a bit of going to the beach with my family when I was a kid, back before we moved off Earth.

Day 77:

I’m still exhausted from the mining I’ve been doing, and my body’s sending me signals that maybe I should slow down. (Those signals are things like bruises, and aching shoulders, and a smashed toe. Little things.)

I slept half the morning, then got up, checked on the animals, and took a walk.

I found some cane reeds down a ways, in the direction of the mountain. Not a lot of them, but enough that I took some to transplant closer to where I live. With the speed everything grows here, I should know in a couple of days whether the plans will live or die.

The cane smells sweet, so it might be sugar cane. Or it might be ok for making paper from.

I wonder how hard it would be to design a grinding wheel.

Day 76:

We’ll call it Day 76 anyway. To be honest, the days here are so short I still haven’t adjusted to them, and since I spend a lot of time underground I can’t be sure that it’s been only one day since the last time I wrote.

I’ve mined a lot of ore and quality stone since the last time I wrote. I’m hungry. I’m covered in dirt. I’m listening to zombies growl above my head and spiders whistle in various places. I’m really really happy. This much granite in this condition could get me a ship of my own! Even just my cut could get me a ship of my own!

I’m not sure what I’d do with all this wealth, to be honest. I’m considering how to secure it above and beyond what I’ve been doing so far. I mean, sure, keeping the zombies out of my supplies is important, but I hadn’t really considered what would happen if someone other than The Company showed up to mine here. We’re not exactly the only company that mines deep space. If someone else decides to land here, I’ve made it  whole lot easier for them to take my stuff without payment.

Ugh! I just want off this rock securely! And I’m working with literally iron-age supplies: no engines, no gunpowder…

Wait. I might be able to make bombs out of the explosive powder the giraffe corgis leave behind when they die.

Too many things to think about. Empty stomach. I should go eat something and sleep.

Day 75:

I have hit a motherlode of stone – up near the surface, where I didn’t expect it. Granite, andesite, diorite, even iron ore and coal! It’ll probably take me a few days to get it all out of its location and hauled back to my storage area.

It’s been two months (a little more I guess) since I arrived, and I haven’t seen a single sign of The Company coming back for me, but I still get excited at the idea of what all this stone is worth. Absolutely pristine slabs of granite, bigger than a billiards table, and twice as thick!

I’m designing a hauling harness for Stupid and Dumb (the other horse) so that I can use them to drag these goods back to the storage area. I don’t want to break the granite up any more than possible, but it’s way too much for me to haul on my own.