Day one, 05/23/2015;
To my new journal/guidebook/adventure log/whatever the heck this is. Today has been a very interesting day for me, actually I haven't done that much different from the usual, it's just that the circumstances behind it that are different. I think it would be best if I started in chronological order, that way, not only am I sure that I will be getting all of this down correctly, but it'll just make a lot more sense for anyone who is reading it. Actually, on second thought, let me tell you a bit more about myself first.
My name is Mitch; I'm 18 years old, and I'm currently a Private First Class for the North Carolina National Guard. My last day of high school was literally last week. Meaning I am a full fledged adult, officially recognized by this state to pay taxes on everything I buy. You know, if there was anyone left to buy from.
What else should you know about me? Oh right, of course, the most important thing: where I live. I AM using this to find people after all. I live exactly on the Henderson/Louisburg border. Seriously, it is the most confusing thing ever. You want to find my house by GPS you have to type in Louisburg, but if you want my mailing address you have to write Henderson on the envelope. Anyways, onto the house itself, it's very nice, big open living room on the second floor, four bedroom, two bathroom, even a pool. The only problem with it right now is that it is in the middle of nowhere. It takes about 15 minutes going 60 miles an hour to get to the nearest Wal-Mart, and about 45 minutes going the same speed to get to my school in Wake Forest.
I guess it's about time I moved on to my family... Well I live, scratch that, used to live, I guess, with my mother, my father, my younger brother, and my younger sister. We also had, and apparently still do have, one black lab mix named Gunther, and one cat (no idea what breed he is) named, sigh, Puffmuffin (my sister's idea not mine). Excuse me if I don't talk about them much from here on out. So far in life, the best way I've found for dealing with stress is to not think about it too hard.
Well enough about me personally, let's actually get to describing how my day has gone.
Do you ever have those few days, or week, where no matter how hard you try, you just can't sleep in those few extra hours that you know you deserve because you've just finished a hard test or a had stressful day in the office (I don't actually work in an office so I wouldn't know about that one)? Well me neither. I woke up that morning at 7:45 AM, no matter how much I wish it was 9:00 or even 10:00, especially in light of all that's happened.
Anyway, the first thing I did was moan at this single beam of sunlight that somehow managed to constantly find its way through my blackout curtains onto my face. I could feel numbness emanating from my limbs, but I just assumed that I slept in a weird position. It wasn't until I reached for the glass of water I kept on my bedside table that I realized something was wrong. Mostly because I knocked it, and just about everything else, off the table.
I'm proud to say I did not scream at the sight of the yellow hoof where my hand was supposed to be. I just kind of stared at it for a minute and tried to go back to sleep. Obviously I didn't fall back asleep, but I'll be damned if anyone else could have told the difference. It took about an hour of internal monologue, and slowly twitching my other appendages, before I worked up the courage to roll myself out of bed onto the floor. Then another five minutes, crawling three feet, to reach my full size mirror, one my parents had generously placed in my room just because they didn't want to put it in the garage.
This led to some startling conclusions. I was a pony, and not just any pony that you would see out in a field munching on grass. No, because that would have made more sense than what actually happened. I was smaller (only around 4 feet), had a dull yellow coat, and the largest eyes I have seen on anything ever. Seriously, if my eyes were any bigger they would take up my whole face.
I was so distracted by my new freakishly large eyes, that I almost didn't notice the small horn protruding from my head, barely visible through my messy brown mane.
If Greek mythology, and the Dungeons and Dragons monster manual serve me right, this means that I am some sort of pony unicorn. Meaning, that I have the capacity to use magic. I've always wanted to use magic, but never tried due to the fact magic doesn't exist.
It still probably isn't real, heck, I don't even know if any of this is actually real
Maybe that's the upside to all this; "everyone you know and love is gone, and you get stuffed into the body of a tiny pony, but hey, it's a MAGIC pony!" well, magic missile hasn't worked yet universe.
Wait, I didn't mention that everyone is missing? Don't worry I'll get to that, I'm still trying to go in order here.
Now to the surprisingly boring part of my reaction. Seriously, even I thought it would've been more interesting than what I actually did. I just kind of sat there, dumbly moving my legs (it's still weird thinking of all of them as legs instead of arms) and watching my reflection do the same. This went on for about half an hour before I hatched an ingenious idea. Since I had hadn't heard anyone else awake, I went to check on my presumably sleeping family, planning to go back to bed and wait till one of them wakes up to see how they handle it if they looked anything remotely like me.
Seriously, this was my plan, make sure other people were having the same problem as me then hide and hope that they have a better way of dealing with it than I did.
Needless to say at this point, and even now, I am not the stealthy ninja I once was. Hooves are not very quiet on tile, or wood, especially when climbing half a flight of stairs from the bottom to second floor. Luckily, Gunther must have been outside or something because he didn't bark and scare the shit out of me. I shuffled my way, albeit loudly, down the hallway to my brother's room. Though having his door shut has never deterred me before, this time, it might as well be the door to a safe for all I could open it. I continued it down the hallway until I reached the junction where my parents and sisters' rooms meet; I found no one in either.
It only got worse from there; no cars were missing from the driveway. Using my face on my phone (which is about as hard as it sounds), I tried to call their cells, but both rang from their respective chargers somewhere in the kitchen. Panicking a bit more now, I tried calling some of my school friends, no answer. Then, a few random numbers before I worked up the courage to call 911, I got an answering machine.
I may, or may not have started talking myself into a panic attack at this point, trying to convince myself that none of this was real, or that I was part of some new drug testing in a lab somewhere. The only reason I surfaced from the depths of my panic attack is because Gunther reminded me that it was time to feed him.
Which reminds me, the cat's bowl probably hasn't been refilled all day. My sister is usually the one who feeds him. Probably why he's been bugging me so much. Hold on, I'll be right back.
Okay, where was I? Right! Feeding the dog. I couldn't actually fill up his bowl with hooves and all, so I had to make do with popping the lid off where we keep the food and watching him to make sure he didn't eat all of it at once. Which he didn't, he actually showed a surprising amount of restraint, he just took a few bites, looked at me, then walked away. I didn't think much about it back then, but in retrospect both of the animals are acting kind of weird.
After making sure the dog ate I decided to feed myself with whatever I could reach from the bottom drawer of the fridge. It ended up mostly being vegetables and fruit, which is good because I really didn't want to try testing this body's reaction to meat. And because preparing any sort of meat, even at the simplest level requires some sort of heat source. I can't reach the microwave and there is no way I'm going to try to use an oven when the only way to reach the controls is by leaning against it.
I got to say, either my mom got the good stuff when she last went shopping, or apples and lettuce taste a lot better with this mouth. Which reminds me, if you are a unicorn like me ( never going to get used to that) be very careful with your horn. That thing is sensitive as shit. While I was using my entire face to reach into the drawer, I smacked it into the counter above. It didn't hurt per se, it just felt like, I don't know, but I really don't want it to happen again. The closest thing I can compare it to is when someone drops an ice-cube down your back, but ten times worse.
Nothing else really happened today until now. It took a good while to get back downstairs into my room, but it was worth it because now I have this laptop. I've been using a pencil in my mouth to start everything up until I could turn on this Dragon voice recording software. Oh look at that, it even capitalizes itself automatically when you say it, neat. Anyways, in addition to writing this, I'm using my limited power and Internet connection to look up as many post apocalyptic survival guides that pertain to this situation as possible. In fact, most of the learning stuff I mentioned at the start of this chapter will probably be from those guides. I didn't exactly learn much today, besides how to properly inch your self across a floor with four hooves. And I can't really give you any advice on that besides practice makes perfect.
Well, that's most of day one. If there are any other survivors out there please remember to try and get in contact; I don't know how many websites are going to stay up during this so the sooner you try the better. But enough of that, let's move on to something a bit more useful for anyone listening. It's time for:
<<< Useful survivor tips>>>>
1.Humans, and I'm assuming tiny unicorns, can only go about two days without water. Now, I'm on my own well water out here, but I rely on electric pumps to get it out of the ground and into my faucets. So the best thing to do is to go around and fill every available container with water before it stops. Yes, even plugging the drains in your bathtubs and sinks and letting them fill up.
2.Don't try to use highways or freeways, I haven't actually been outside of my house or even able to really see the road, too many trees in the way, but if everyone really has disappeared off the face of the earth, then thousands if not millions of cars should have crashed or swerved off the road. Now that I think about it, this tip seems more useful for people who are driving a vehicle. But still, don't try to use them as shortcuts, because they are probably so congested with cars you can barely walk.
3.And finally, for those of you that are already in a group, consider this; you are quieter, faster, and use less resources when traveling in small groups. On the other hand, there are obvious advantages to having a high number of people defending one area. Just be careful about noise, light, and litter discipline. Unless you want others to find you.