Growing Lilies

During her time at the helm she’d gotten the first laptop set up. User name Lily, no password because she’d grown a special disdain for passwords over the last day. Unfortunately, with the computer completely empty and no wifi there was a limited amount of things to do.

She went to pop the Friends disk into the disk drive, but found that there wasn’t one. Which made sense. Most laptops don’t have them anymore. So, she set it aside and had a brainstorming session instead. What did she need to do today?

Well, putting aside getting back to Santa Del Mar as a given, what else? She would need to figure out how to dock the boat. Hopefully a space on the dock survived. If not… she might have to find a private dock or a different harbor even if it’s further away. But, even after that she was going to be so pressed for time these next couple days.

The electrical grid probably wouldn’t hold up forever, and neither would the internet. There was a strong possibility that both were already out across the majority of the city. If she was able to get power and an internet connection though, surely she should try to preserve as much data she might need later as possible, right?

Everything from youtube videos, to digital books, to… could she download all of wikipedia? Probably not easily. Maybe she could find out where the actual physical servers were located for youtube and wikipedia? If she could get access to those, she could figure out preserving the data later. In the meantime, she could find things that would be useful until she was set up. Books about survival, agriculture, engineering… She would need to know enough about how things like solar panels and battery systems worked to set them up without electrocuting herself. It was fine if she had the information and it took a while to learn. It wasn’t fine if the data was lost forever.

She thought about the library of Alexandria. How one burning library permanently erased so much knowledge for all of mankind, and how it all went up in flames. It was a strange parallel to her current situation. Wait, how much of that story was true, and how much was just from popular media anyways? She’d check wikipedia but… Stupid internet. Stupid phone not working.

Fine. She wanted as much data as she could get before things went down totally. Ideally software to rip things like disks and other forms of media too, so she could digitize the physical stuff she found. She didn’t want to be caught in a situation ten years from now where all she’d been able to do to keep from dying of boredom is watch Friends every night for a decade.

“Hah, that’s probably a good sign. That I can think about ten years from now at all.”

Okay, aside from that. What else did she need to collect before it degraded? Maybe domesticated animals? Chickens, cows… dogs…? Wait. Her stomach lurched. Wait wait wait. What about people’s pets? All of those animals are locked in people’s houses. All the dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters of the world that were now without people. Some might escape but most… They were all going to die. She could spend the next two weeks releasing as many of them as possible and she probably wouldn’t even get through all of Santa Del Mar, much less the rest of the world.

“Oh god. I– I can’t.” She couldn’t think about this. She couldn’t. She couldn’t let this become her responsibility. Even if she tried her best and did things perfectly, she couldn’t save even half a percent of them. And she would lose out on her opportunity to save things that mattered to her own survival. But she was the only one left. She teetered on the edge of an abyss. On one side, trying desperately not to think about it. Selfishly focusing on her own needs, and being willfully ignorant to preserve her sanity. On the other, a pit of despair. Trying desperately to help creatures that would thank her by trying to harm her, and failing to do even the tiniest fraction of that. But, her conscience would be clear.

The choice was obvious. But her heart broke in her chest. “I– I’m a selfish pathetic worm. But, I have to focus on my own well being. I have to. I can’t let this be my responsibility. The moment I do is the moment I plunge into a losing battle that might kill me. I can’t do it. It’s not my fault. It’s not my responsibility. It’s sad, but I am powerless to do anything.”

She tried to reason with herself. She felt like she was going to puke. She forced her mind to turn in a different direction. No. None of that. Her body was weak. She couldn’t afford to puke. “It hurts. But I am going to live through this. I made it through day one. I refuse to let a stupid thought take me down.”

She said it, but in her heart another voice whispered. “You survived day one with help.”

Lily ignored it. Forced her mind to work on something more practical. Domesticated animals. If she got some chickens and a cow she could have fresh eggs and milk for quite a while, right? She didn’t know anything about raising them. But she liked eggs and milk, and wanted to keep having them. So, they were on the list. Bacon would be nice too, but she didn’t think she could kill and butcher an animal.

Deep breaths. This is going to be okay. What else did she need before anything else? A home base. Maybe just this boat if she could put it in a convenient enough place. Wait, a cow and chickens wouldn’t fit. Okay, she would need two bases. Land base and sea base. She could do that. Maybe she could find a swanky mansion on the beach or something.

Then she could get her cow and chickens, and figure out how to make cheese. She couldn’t live without cheese forever. How did you even make it anyway? And butter. Butter was a necessity for human life on earth. “That is to say, necessary for me, and I’m the human life on earth.” She giggled to herself dazedly. Wait. She was… starting to drift off. She shook her head and forced herself awake.

Adjusting in her seat, she realized with a start that she was still naked. She slapped her forehead. “Oh my god, Lily, get it together.” Clothes. She needed to get clothes. Nice loose clothes that she could move around easily in that wouldn’t tear and would protect her from the elements. Pretty clothes can wait. Jeans, work shoes, simple shirts and a jacket were at the top of her list.

As Lily sat, staring out the front of the boat, her mind was starting to slow down. She could feel the thoughts coming to her slower and slower. Her eyes started to drift… She slapped her cheeks as hard as she could. “No! No falling asleep!” If she fell asleep while the boat was moving, she might crash. If she turned it off, she might drift further. She couldn’t let that happen. “Awake! Awake!” she told herself loudly.

That wasn’t working, so she parked the boat and went to find the nintendo switch to keep her awake. It had been about an hour at the helm when the shore came into view. Shore, but no city.

Lily stared dumbfounded at the shoreline from her boat. She’d maintained a safe distance so she wouldn’t sink the boat on rocks or whatever else was under the waves. But, there was no city. What the hell. Obviously, she must have drifted north or south instead of just west. But, how could she find out which? Staring at the shore wasn’t giving her any ideas.

Well. It was finally time. “I’m going to break into my stupid phone even if I have to wipe it. I need a GPS app!” She found her way to the bedroom and dug around in her suitcase until she found her phone again. She turned it on, and tried a few passwords she might have changed it to. “Girlbage?” No. “LilyLon3r?”. No. “Haven’t used that one since middle school. Stupid. Hmm. StawberryMilk?” Nothing. But then she tried typing in her usual password one last time. The phone unlocked immediately.

“What the hell? Why didn’t it work yesterday!?”

She turned over to her alarms first thing. They were all still there. Every one that had gone off yesterday, at the times they had gone off. But, there was nothing else of note. “Huh. Suspicious…”

She looked, and she didn’t have a great signal but having one at all meant that a cell tower was still up close enough by. That was good news! She started by calling everyone in her contacts list. Most of the numbers didn’t even ring. That was… bad news. But, more or less what she expected. From there, she opened her GPS. She was… about eight miles south of Santa Del Mar! And the GPS worked! Well even! She was worried about signal strength, but apparently this close to the shore it was fine.

“Alright! All aboard! .. wait, that's trains. Oh well. It’s whatever I want now. Choo choo!” she turned the ship gently left and started up the coast. She got a little scared that she might hit something under the water, so she pulled even further from shore. But then her phone didn’t want to connect. Her GPS still seemed to work though.

“Hmm.” She stared at it. “I remember reading that GPS works through government satellites. Does it not go through the cell towers at all? Well, that’s convenient. Plus one victory for Lily!” She was feeling pretty good all of a sudden. Just a couple small wins, and suddenly she was riding an emotional high. She was feeling confident! Today she was turning this apocalypse around! She was going to nail the next 24 to 48 hours and ensure that her time in this world is as comfy as she can make it!