The End

Prologue
Year 2025



          It was the year of 2025 when the first outbreak of the virus showed up.  The world was finally at peace in this time. There had not been fighting or a war in three years all was peaceful and calm. Everyone was enjoying their lives and having fun.  Well that was until June 16, 2025 the day the world was rocked by the crazy unexplained deaths’ of hundreds of animals and man. The animals went crazy and killed or maimed humans for no reason. Many people thought that it was the beginning of a biological weapon gone wrong, and yet many more thought it was God finally taking his revenge on man for killing what he so lovingly created.
"Then there is the group I'm in, who thinks that finally nature has found a way to take back the world and to once again level out the numbers of man and animals.  Yes we were at peace, but I forgot to mention that years ago we had killed off most of the animals that roamed this once beautiful land. The Whales of the ocean have all been gone for years now.  Most where killed by poachers or strange new dieses that whipped out hug family groups, all in a matter of months. We had seen this coming at that point yet we did nothing to stop it, or I never saw anyone say or do anything about the dead bodies washing up on the shores all over the world. I think it was at that point we should have stood up and taken notice that things were changing and we needed to take action then and there."  "Not all this time later, when almost all the world has gone to ruin."
   
"I was devistated when I learned that the last whale was spoted floting in the waters off the coast of New Jersey, dead. It had gone missing a few days before and the scintice were very worried since it was a female and she was do to have a baby a small hope for us all.  I felt so sad to hear the news, to know my son would never get to see such a wonderful animal."
 
  The whales were the first to go, then there where the land animals in different parts of the world just dropping dead or slowly fading away to nothing. The larger land animals where the first to go for some strange reason, the elephants where getting sick and then the hippos and on and on it went. Till most of the worlds animals where gone. The ones in the zoos where not safe either they died as well.  Scientist have many embryos of many species in labs across the world, but so many have died that who will be the ones to bring these once wonderful animals back, if any of us survive this virus of devastation.
As a single mother and a widow I worry about my child and his future and how he will live if this virus never dies. Will he always live behind these walls and worry about if they will ever find away in?  I know that is what I always worry about. I wonder also are there more survivors out there somewhere wondering if they are the only ones too?  Once the virus took over there were no more televisions, there was no more power there was nothing left but destruction. I can still see the fires in my minds eye and can still here the screams of the ones dyeing as they were being attacked. I am glade I lived out in the country with my husbanded and son before the outbreak. We lived at the bottom of the mountains in a small little town. There where about nine hundred of us in the town before the outbreak and only three hundred survived mostly woman and children but a few men and a small handful of elderly people who showed us how to live off the land in the beginning. We had to build a whole new life up near the base of the mountain with a giant wall of wood around it.  Slowly over the years on good days when there were no sighting of the infected around the compound men and woman would go out and work on the rock walls that we were building so nothing would have a chance to get into the compound. 
Life has always been hard and yet it was even harder for a young woman of twenty-two years of age and a widow to be walled in and alone for the first time in her life. Then having to be a rock for a young son of three, who had lost his father in the first outbreak in Africa, added even more strain on my shoulders. Don’t get me wrong I love my son with all my heart, but to lose his father was the worst day of my life. Some days I wish his father where here to see how much little Josh has grown, and how much he looks like him are the hardest ones to bare.
Each family lives in a two or three room apartment with small living quarters. This was a big change from the large ranch style house we came from. Many nights all the families get together and tell stories in the School hall where they also hold the town meetings and go over the food rations and other impotent things.  There are a number of young adults in the number of people many in their teens so we do have a future generation, I hope.  We have a few small town Doctors with us so we have some means of keeping the human race going. Everyone pulls their own weight. Everyone works or they don’t get food or cloths, I lived on a working farm so I was asked to be in charge of the Pig barns where we get a lot of our meat. The first two years we did not have very many pigs maybe around forty animals. But many people had brought their own food rations to the compound. But once we noticed it was going to be a long time before we could leave the walls we started to think of ways to breed and produce our own food and supplies. Thankfully we built this compound on the base of the mountain so we have a running stream for water and bathing. And we learned to reuse the water we had used by either using it to water the huge gardens or for water the animals with it if we there where no soaps or other chemicals in it.  When I go to work Josh goes to the little house  in the center of town where there are three woman who were once teaches they take care of the younger children till they got old enough to go to school. Yes we had a few years where there was a gap where there where no children to teach.  At age thirteen you where old enough to help with the hard work of keeping the compound going. Such as animals to feed and water and to make sure they were healthy. Then there are orchards and gardens to weed and check for insects. Water gathering to bring into houses for cooking or cleaning as well as taken to the animals and plants since there where no vehicle since there isn’t any more gas or coal.  There is always work; some where in this compound that needs to be done.  In the beginning all we had where four horses and they had to be retrained from riding mounts to working animals.  It was a long hard process to get to where we needed to be but we had to do it to survive right?
I hated my job always looking for signs of the virus in the pigs and if I thought just one looked off we had to safely get that animal away from all humans and other animals just in case the virus slipped in some how.  I was in charge of the breeding program where I had to pick the best sows and boars for breeding our future meals.  It sounds like an okay job right; I first thought well it will not be that bad, boy was I wrong it was an all day job checking each and everyone for any kind of sickness or genetic problems or even health problems like colds and soars. I would wake up before the sun rose and I would come home after the sun had set. That is how my days go, long and hard, I come home tired and sore and my dear sweet little man wants to play and be in my lap. Many times I fall asleep on the floor with one of his little wooden cars in my hand. Then he wakes me up with a little shove, “Mom you fell asleep again.” He would say with a little pout.  I wish life could be easier for him but there is nothing I can do to change it. Except by working my fingers to the bone and living the way we are now!
I hope over time we can get the breeding program into a routine where others can take over in the evenings or in the mornings so I can spend a little more time with my son, but as it sits, I have to make sure no one misses anything in these few animals we have.  This is the brake down of how many animals we have started out with its crazy but with some many of us helping with the fruit trees and gardens we have not really had to worry about meat, but you get tired of fruits and vegetables after a while so we started the breeding programs.  Ten families brought in their chickens and turkeys for eggs and meat. So they where the one’s to start the breeding programs for those two species. They had built two large barns for those birds to live in and each building had smaller buildings inside for breeding and housing for the younger birds. Then there where the four families that had brought their cattle, a few dairy cows I think at the time there where ten dairy cows all together and then fifteen cows that were strictly raised for beef. So the four families’ that brought these cows got together and came up with a breeding program for them.  I brought the four hogs we had left on the farm with me and the two horses in my large truck and trailer when the compound was done and the town moved into it. We had started the compound at the first signs of the outbreak in the United States. We had watched on the news how the virus was spreading in an alarming rate in other parts of the world. We had a town meeting and started building the wooden walls of the compound we had little less then two months to build the compound, but with all the help we got it done just in time to move in and see the virus slowly worked its devastation on the towns that did not take precautions as we did.
Many of use brought in supplies from our homes, but we soon noticed that there would not be enough for all of us for long.  Many farmers brought plants and seeds or even young trees to plant for the orchards and gardens. It was like stepping back in time for some of the older people. But I have to say they were the ones who taught the rest of us how to survive and how to live off the land once again.  We only had four breeding horses the rest could not be used for breeding since they were fixed and could not breed or they were to old those few horses that could not breed where put to work inside the compound.  The compound is huge the size of three large towns and each part of the compound is used for something.  The town first started the walls and the gates then started working on pens and houses. There are thirteen apartment type houses and a few farms where the breeding programs are.  Since I’m a single mother I was told I had to live in one of the many apartments that they had built. Since it is me and Josh only, we have a small two room apartment in unit ten.  Each day there are men adding on more rooms to the building for the younger adults to have their own homes and to maybe start their own families. Our building is now three stories tall where it was only two stories tall.  At least we do not have to sleep in the same room as everyone else like we first had too, because they were not done with building the apartments yet.

I think it was like the sixth week into compound when the town elders came to me to tell me I had to start working to earn my share of the food.  I was more then willing to work for my share, but I was never very fond of the pigs I had to raise. I told them yes and started coming up with ideas for pens and housing for the pigs and the supplies for feeding them and raising the babies. At the start we had to think of ways to keep them in single pens so if one did come down sick with the virus we could kill it before it bit or even scratched one of the other animals or one of the workers. This was the hard part, we had to make pens for them and do it in a day or two just in case one was sick.  It was long and hard back braking work for little o’l me.  At least me and Josh have gotten settled in and have a place to our selves.  Josh is young thank God so he will adjust to this new life faster then me, I’m still not use to the small space, but I guess its better then not having one. 
“Well it’s late and I have a lot of work to do in the pens tomorrow, I have a few sows that will either have their young tonight or early in the morning and then there is the hard work of cleaning out the pens, and then the joy of feeding all of them. I will write soon, I hope, since I don’t get time like this very often to write in my little journal.”