wilt2

[wilt2]

The Stations

After the reckoning, most of civilization was gone. The infrastructure had burned away when the bombs fell, and any hope of rebuilding was crushed underneath the ever present fallout. It was the rural areas that came to the remaining peoples rescue. The plains of the west suddenly became a haven to those that had long since ignored them. When cars and planes broke down due to a lack of available materials, it was the trains and their tracks that saved the people.  

Old tracks not used in years were the first to be explored. While gas and electricity was rare, the mechanical turning of  gears was an ever present power. What once had been a hobby for a few adventurus folk was now one of the only reliable methods of travel. So once again humanity turned to the railroad, using it to cross countries in a way no one had done since the bombs fell.

The stations would come about in the 1st year of the reckoning. Tired, hungry and desperate survivors would come across abandoned stations which held rusted generators and a place to shelter for the coming winter. Those run down buildings are credited with as much as 90% of the remaining populations surviving through that first year. Some decided to settle down in those stations, forming small communities that would go on for the next decade, while others chose to continue onwards.

No one station is quite the same, even the stations themselves change with the constant tide of new travelers. Some have constantly changing residents, a merry go round which serves as a tiny rest point. Others have generations staying in those old brick walls, committed to upkeep the station as long as they are alive. 

Most are welcome at the stations, even those guilty of crimes before the reckoning. But find yourself causing trouble and word travels fast on the rails. Every station-keeper holds a list of those talked about on the rail. While no one is ever imprisoned, those on the list may find themselves leaving much quicker than they wished too. 

Nowadays, the stations serve as the only permanent residence to be seen on the rails. Most large communities don’t last very long, either falling to a lack of infrastructure, materials or just simple arguments. Most find it best to take lodging in small groups and will help each other as they navigate this strange new world. Communication between stations spreads far and wide, some theorize it could take as little as 2 weeks for a message to cross the country if you get it with the right group. Even in the apocalypse, people will always need news.

So dear traveler, where will the rails take you today? _____________________ More stuff for "Tracks that Remain" if anyone couldn't tell I like trains.

[wilt2]

"Okay, but it's not a dragon, a dragon has" if putting it in the sky would be sick as fuck, it's a dragon. Whales are dragons.

[wilt2]

The Tracks

When the world ended, the tracks were the only thing that remained. Most cars had been destroyed by either bombing or radiation. Those that survived were stripped for parts faster than you could get their engines to start. While planes flew for a year or two after the reckoning, the lack of resources made it increasingly hard to refuel. Let alone finding enough electricity for modern aircraft. Two decades after the world ended, the only reliable form of travel was the tracks.

You would think that they would have become a center of a new war. The only reliable form of transport and communication but the bombs had annihilated those with power. Now it was a simple struggle to survive. Peace and treaties were struck up among those that remained, who pledged to protect these remnants of the old world.

Most communities now live along the tracks. While some will travel like nomads, others will find an old, reliable station, and use it for shelter. Greeting those that visit with offers of food and trade. With the old station generators still providing sparse amounts of electricity, some will even sell electronics. While most satellites have long blown out of the sky, some few still hover ever more. Diligently broadcasting and receiving the sparse signals that come their way. 

Perhaps the most surprising thing about the apocalypse was how calm it was. The death and destruction came almost in an instant, and though the nuclear fallout still left some areas uninhabitable, it at least granted most of the population with quick deaths. Those that died to the fallout however, suffered what could be called the worst fate in the world. Slowly decaying away in poorly made beds, often dying of infection before the radiation could truly claim them. Others were left with ailments that affect them even today.

Yet here, decades later the apocalypse has come to a strange calm. The world will ever truly recover, almost 40% of the available land mass is now a fallout laden wasteland, but it goes on ever more. Most who remain have accepted that, and are happy to live their lives in a strange sort of comfort. Some wish to repair the damaged world, but that would require decades if not centuries of careful preparation. In the meantime, the people rely on those old metal tracks, and watch as nature reclaims the rest of humanities hubris.

The world may have fallen, but its people still live on. _________________________________________________

Honestly not sure what this is yet. Just something bouncing around in my head that I needed to expel onto the internet. Also let me know if someone's already written a book with this concept. Would love to read it.