We had been driving for about 2 hours. Through some old road that hadn't been used in a long time, just past Lambertsbaai we saw something in the distance.A road block of some sort, there were all types of obstacles in the road that these people were using to stop us. A whole lot of tin roofing, tyres, oil drums and even a car on the far left that was set alight. We all started to panic.. 3 white people in a top heavy E80 Corolla, jam packed with supplies ranging from a solar panel to a whole mess of auto parts and not forgetting we had a hefty hunting kit supply that we stole from Peter's father. We could use it to defend ourselves but I highly doubt that 2 9mms and a 30-06 rifle are going to make that much of a difference seeing as though we are in a car.
We all started to quieten down, somehow we had all agreed without speaking on the idea to just drive straight through. I knew this by everyone bracing themselves. The closer we got the more softer things around me became, I started to be able to hear them whistling at us and shouting. The car's engine just became an ambiance to the area, and all I could hear were the tyres rolling against the asphalt. We were about 50 metres away now, just a few seconds until we die or survive. I chose to take a detour around the road block on the right side. And as I did so a young child ran towards us thinking we would stop, unfortunately we all had no intentions to. His lower torso hit the left fender of our car and for a split second I could see him looking straight into my eyes... I had never seen such apathy before. I had never felt such disappointment before. He rolled towards the windscreen screaming, hitting his head straight against the glass, a massive dent that cracked so clean it had to be some undiscovered form of art. As we got about 50 metres away I started hearing these strange noises, it almost sounded like rocks hitting the metal of the car. I soon realized what it was and I started driving all over the place to avoid them. We had gotten about 200 metres away now.
We were in the clear. As though I thought... My friend in the back grabbed my shoulder, his hand was shaking and I knew exactly what was wrong. He said in the most child like manner while gasping for air "I'm hit! Cunts got me on my fucking shoulder! The left one! I can't feel it that much, the only thing is that it's really hot!" I stopped the car underneath a nearby bridge. We hauled him out and threw him on the floor, he started screaming from the pain. Peter quickly got him on the boot and started to hold his mouth closed. "Go inside, lift the back seat up I've got a first aid kit there!" Peter said cautiously while looking in every corner and open area. I started throwing everything in my way out of the car; the hunting kit, the water and some clothing. I climbed out and gave the first aid kit to peter, his hand was bleeding profusely - probably from Ryan biting on it, obviously just shock. I didn't know that much about first aid, but the only thing I did know was that anti-septic was good and bleeding was bad. So I poured some vodka straight onto his wound. Both Peter and Ryan started screaming from the pain. Peter took his hand from Ryan's mouth, there was no way this was going to be a silent job. Ryan started biting down on his teeth, shouting for me to help him. I took more vodka and threw it on a cloth, then I tightly wrapped it around his shoulder and through his under-arm. Peter came to me with sugar water and insisted that Ryan should drink it. There was a slight pause at this moment. The only things to be heard was Ryan's groaning and a strange sound getting closer on the road above us. Once again we were in the shit, Peter and I stared at each other and I noticed how we started getting into this fight or flight mode.
Our breathing deepened, our actions became entwined and it was almost like we were communicating without any speech. We both went for the guns and got the 2 9mms. I only noticed now how little ammunition we had, 3 magazines for each gun, excluding the 30-06 - we had a whole box of 30 bullets. As we were loading up I said to Peter "You really think these people have communication? Like radios or whatever? Because I highly they do, I think we should pull off a trap. Then steal their vehicle and their guns!" Peter frowned at me and started laughing. "And what if they have some bakkie with 6 people in the back hey?! Still want to pull off some Rambo kak here? Fuck you we staying right here. If they come, then we will attack. If not then we let them know we aren't here. Understand?!" I could here them getting closer. "Wait here with Ryan, I'm going to take a look and see what we're really dealing with.." Peter grabbed me as I started walking. "You walk away and I swear I won't help you." I stopped and turned around. "So where you going once you run out of petrol or water? There's no fresh rivers or lakes around here buddy. This is Namaqualand. These people coming down the road obviously don't live around here, and there's no fucking way I'm letting a chance like that slip through my fingers. They'll have supplies! Stuff we need you know? Water, petrol, ammunition.. What ever the fuck you want they'll have at least one of. Now I'm going up there to see if we're dealing with anything dangerous. Who knows maybe it's some boer that can help us and give us a better place to stay! A place that ISN'T 300 fucking kilometres away!" He let me go after that, finally...
I ran up the bridge with Peter following, to a huge bush that was covering a square 3 metre corner of the concrete. We sat and waited for whatever was coming.. And to our relief we started to recognize the sound of a 2-stroke motorbike engine. Peter and I giggled for a few seconds. We were expecting some bakkie full of tikked up schizos. The bike was about a 100 metres away, we started to notice that there were 2 passengers as well as a driver. It slowly creeped onto the bridge, and as it did so we jumped out waving our guns around. The driver got such a fright that he tried to maneuver around us, unfortunately physics told otherwise... They all fell and rolled in our direction for about 3 or 4 metres. As one of them fell he started searching his bag. We took the most hostile scenario possible and started beating them, we took the bag and found an old revolver inside. Along with a handful's worth of bullets. "Wat plek gaan jy!? Wie is jy en jou vriende?!" Peter shouted repeatedly. As he was speaking to one of them I told the other 2 to take their shoes, pants and jacket off leaving their shirt and underpants to themselves. I started looking through their pockets. The only things I found was a cell phone, 3 bags of tabbaco, 1 bag of dagga, a pipe and rizla. These men were just bystanders, no one that important. After about 5 minutes of Peter shouting at them they told him that they were from a nearby town called Doeranbaai, he went on to explain that he was coming from Langebaan to escape what had happened in Cape Town.
We still didn't know the full story of how everything just went to shit but we knew that the whole city was in complete peril. One of the main reactors at Koeberg had apparently exploded aswell... Which made no sense seeing as though we didn't see a nuclear blast. But one thing we did know and see was the hurricane damage. Yes a fucking hurricane... We still had no idea how something like that could happen and disappear so fast but it did, luckily for us we were far enough at the time that it happened. At Peter's farm in Malmesberry.
After he told Peter that Koeberg blew up, we didn't know what to say. And it seemed very possible due to no one having any power... "Hey what's happening? Who the fuck are these guys? You two do this? Jesus Christ.. Nice work!" I stood in disbelief and told Ryan what they told us. "Ja we did, they crashed though so it wasn't that hard.. But this guy here tells Peter that one of the main reactors at Koeberg blew up! It doesn't sound that mad though, don't you think? I mean we got no power and everyone is evacuating through the mainland." Ryan laughed and replied "Fuck... That is abit crazy hey. Remember that Russian city Chernobyl? Well their power station also blew up, also nuclear aswell. Now when it explodes it doesn't create that typical mushroom cloud type of shit... The explosion isn't big at all, it's enough to blow up the building it's in, that's all. But it's the radioactive wind that gets everyone in the kak." I sat down and took a deep breathe. "Ok now what the fuck are we gonna do about these idiots?" Peter replied by saying. "Take what you want and leave them."
We took their bag with the gun inside and an old army jacket that the driver was wearing. There was no point taking the bike or petrol inside it seeing as though it was a piece of shit and all of the petrol was mixed with 2-stroke already. We told them to leave first, and they did just that. Luckily they went on the coastal road, a place we were staying far from for now. The road we were going to take was next to the Sishen-Saldanha Railway line. We waited until we couldn't see them anymore, and soon after we got in the car and carried on with our journey. The place we were heading to was lutzville another hour and a half long trip, I knew someone who had a farm nearby. Too bad none of us had any idea of what lay ahead.
PART 2
We came into Doerenbaai, the town was dead silent besides for the poverty stricken people who lived on the outskirts. We noticed something strange ahead of us, something we'de never forget. The lands were endless and the seas were gone. Miles and miles of open land where the sea used to be. You could smell the stench of rotting fish as soon as you got into town. All over there were people picking up the left over crayfish, about the only thing still fresh enough to eat - We didn't have the time to waste on such things. But one thing we did have time for was to get this momentary cripple in the back of the car fixed up and ready to go. A perfect idea, never the less a stupid one. As soon as we drove into this place, the eyes started prying. Everyone had their one eye on us, and these people weren't your friendly neighbors. They were half-crazed blood thirsty animals. All ready to start clawing at your door for the smallest bit of scrap food. We all started arguing with each other about this new found idea that Ryan was so fond about. To him maybe, but to us... There was no way. Besides where the fuck does he expect to find a doctor in the mists of this place? So we carried on.. We were 50Km from our destination, and hopefully this being the last stretch untill we figured out what was really going on.
We stopped right outside the entrance to the farming community, the one where we were headed to. We stopped to get water for Ryan. As we did so we could hear the sound of music in the distance, large thumping bass - the sound of a diesel engine soon followed aswell. And then the sound of shouting a few seconds afterwards. Our car was hidden behind the reeds. We could hear them all shouting and screaming, drugged up or boozed up it made no difference. These people were the same story as the last and they had troubled us before, from climbing into the farmhouse from the roof and excreting all over the place to camping on our land and helping themselves to the lambs. All of us sat dead still, each clutching onto our excuses for life savers - these guns that we stole. Slowly but surely they disappeared into the distance. We immediately got back in the car and started to put foot, there was no way in hell we were going to get caught by the next truck load.
Everyone had their eyes on us, the fishing village is situated at the bottom of the road - so what ever car comes through, everyone sees and hears it. We got about half way through the village when some moron tried to shout at us that the devil was here and god is coming very soon. Obviously just an Apocalypse believer. We carried on, we could see that he wasn't meaning to harm. People were scavenging everywhere, the local dump was full of people just searching through everything. And if they were desperate enough to do that, who's to say they haven't done so already to the farmhouse? I suggested the idea to Peter and Ryan. They didn't say anything, they knew it had probably happened already. They knew we'de find some corpse with every window and door kicked in. Well... That was what they thought, luckily for us my uncle was a paranoid bastard who had already been driven insane by the previous intruders.
The gate entering the farm had been broken, everything appeared to be normal, hell even the diesel tank was still standing. We slowly approached his house, the place was a locked up tight fortress. We went to the front door and asked him to come outside, the door even had a metal plate on it to prevent people from kicking it in. We waited for a few minutes, there was some hefty shuffling noises coming from inside the place. Suddenly the window next to the door crashed open to my uncle pointing his rifle at us "What the fuck are you doing here!? How did you get here?! Where your parents?!" We all looked at each other... I was the first to start speaking. "Have you heard what's happened in Cape Town? Have you seen what's happened to the sea? And I have no idea where my parents are... I think they've evacuated. Well I hope so..." He focused his eyes on me, squinting them. "Yes I have heard about it and yes I have heard about the sea, I have no idea why this is all happening so don't ask. What the fuck happened to your friend he looks like a mess! Hold on I'll open up for all of you..." The latches and bolts all started to click and the door was soon wide open. We were safe, for the moment... My uncle looked like he hadn't slept yet he pointed to Ryan and I and explained. "You, take your shirt off and you get some hard liquor. This is not going to be painless, I have to get the bullet out of your shoulder and I'm going to use something that has been used for generations." He started to heat up an iron rod. We all knew what he was planning on doing. Ryan stood in horror as my uncle slowly started to get ready. Finally he sat down, and it began - Ryan's face was something I had never seen before. He was in such pain that he was using his shoe as a jaw clencher, his eyes were rolling around his head and he was shouting at the top of his voice. Hopefully this was the last time we'de have to hear it.
After about an hour or so afterwards Ryan was out. He had drunken himself to shit. Which we were planning on doing, for his sake and for ours. My uncle came from the kitchen, threw the soap water off his hands and sat down next to us. "Now tell me how you ended up here, I have to know." I took a long breath and started to explain.
"Ryan, Peter and I all went to Peter's dad's farm for the weekend. We had woken up at about 2ish to the sound of the fire brigade's syrons, all screaming terribly down the road. I went outside and asked the nearest person what was happening. "I don't know for sure but apparently there's a massive storm coming this way. I'm sure we'll be fine though, we've survived storms many of times, probably just a freak thing happening on the coast." I didn't take it seriously at first. Untill I saw the police escorting people out of the outdoors and into the public facilities. They were shouting at us to leave with them. Something about the sea level or tides? The rain above us didn't tell anything extraordinary but In the distance I could hear more shouting, not the type where people are talking loudly but the type of shouting where people were getting hurt. My curiosity was soon answered when I saw this guy running with a black bag, the police soon caught him and started to beat him. The stuff inside of the bag? Electronics, shoes etc.. Obviously just looting some place. I turned to my right and saw blue lights flashing in the distance, the road coming inside the town from Cape Town had been blocked off by police, no one was allowed out that way but people were allowed in. I immediately ran back inside. "You think we should go? I heard and saw some dodgey shit out there hey! People screaming and saying Cape Town's flooded or in some storm or something... And the police letting no one out into town, these crazy choef kops looting places and everything! I think we should leave. I mean we can go up to my uncle Frank's farm, it's near Lutzville. This place is like 300 something KM away up north and besides I don't think that, that road's been blocked. I mean even if it is we can go around..." They stared at me, speechless. Peter got up and put his shoes on, "Ok, I'm going. That doesn't sound good about what's happening in town and all, I mean... Not alot of people over here get worked up so easily about anything. So there must be some sort of heavy shit going down. Go get Ryan upstairs, I'll pack some stuff in your car that ok?" I agreed and set off. The morning was still early and the rain still surrounded us. We were far from the sea, and wanted to stay that way. Stories about flood always got me shit scared. There's no escape from flood, once you're stuck in it you're ruined. Especially if you're in a car with R20,000 worth of supplies. So we left finally, with no radio or cell phone signal. A strange solitary ride we were going to have for the next few hours. Luckily we were prepared. And luckily there was no flood, but still do you have any form of communication? What about the satellite internet here!?"
Frank just started at us, "Wow.. That's some story, so you think you guys can fend for yourself here? Just because you have guns? These people aren't stupid.. They haven't come here yet. And when they do I doubt they going to come unprepared. They know me, they've seen my guns aswell. There's no fucking way they going to forget about something like that. I'll let you stay here under one condition, you have to keep guard at night and fetch water from the pump down at the fields. That's all... And no the telephones are out and there is no cellphone signal. Satellite internet? That still works? I thought it was only for your aunt's house down the road?"We were both relieved."Ok that's fine don't worry we'll handle it. But about the internet... If I can set it up right then we can use it to find out what the fuck is happening everywhere." I immediately tried to get this internet working, after a while I eventually did and what I found was an eye opener. Apparently something of earthquake proportion had happened in the Pacific, to do with the ocean floor. It cracked in such a way that it actually created an opening of some kind. Basically like creating space for water. It then created a water droplet effect and sent tidal waves in all directions. Luckily this was all in the vicinity of the Japan side of Asia. There were reports of all kinds of incidents all over the world. Just one of them being that Koeberg exploded, they said the reason was "Unknown" because they needed time to investigate. Now Cape Town was just a mess of radio-active winds. Another Cheynoble as the reporters would say... I had no fucking idea what to say about any of this. We all sat in silence after I read everything out aloud.
