Chapter Sixteen – Burying the Past

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Creator: Christopher Russell

cyktrussell

Post-apocalypse Audio Book

Synopsis:

After the Apocalypse is a serial podcast that tells the story of the survivors of a 21st century plague that has catastrophically wiped out 90% of human population. Will they be able to survive? What happens to our modern world when the great plague comes? Can humanity survive and learn, or will it devolve into a medieval nightmare of our worst traits? Listen to the story of After the Apocalypse and find out.

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Format: Audio Book

Genres: Post-apocalypse, Science fiction

Not tagged: [Continuity] [Voices] [Maturity] [Creator demographics] [Character demographics] [Country of origin] [Transcript] [Completion status] [Content warnings]

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Episodes:

Season five, Episode five – “Entrance”

Sat, 16 Nov 2024 04:59:48 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season five, Episode five – “Entrance”

...

The Defender Bioceuticals building sat back from the road behind a large, well-manicured lawn like a nouveau-riche idiot’s version of corporate Versailles. The whole facility was surrounded by a large masonry wall topped with a robust combination of security fencing, tastefully screened by landscape plantings.

The expansive lawn was carved into a faux Victorian formal garden.

“There’s no way over that wall.” Zane observed.

“Place is buttoned up like Fort Knox.” The old man agreed. “Seems like overkill for a pimple cream factory.”

He was referring to Defender’s number one consumer product, a wonder treatment for adolescent acne. It wasn’t, however, a cream, NeoSpront was a daily regimen of pills that cost over two hundred dollars a month.

...

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RunRunLive

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Chapter Sixteen – Burying the Past

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 03:59:17 GMT

Chapter Sixteen – Burying the Past

...

Why hadn’t she stayed with Grace and Teri? She could have. Janet probably should have stayed and maintained human contact. Built a tribe or a new family. Found a way.

But she didn’t. She couldn’t.

The wounds were too raw. It felt too soon. Too soon to let new people in. This new world of chaos and dying had systematically torn away everyone she loved. She wasn’t sure she could take it anymore. She didn’t know if she was strong enough to take that chance.

An emotional shell was calcifying around her psyche, and she felt like a scared and angry child hiding in a closet from a terrible and unforgiving monster.

So, she shut the world out.

...

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Twitter -> cyktrussell@twitter.com

RunRunLive

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Season five, Episode four – “Search for the Cure”

Sat, 19 Oct 2024 03:59:34 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season five, Episode four – “Search for the Cure”

...

The small, yellowish, bones were strung on a piece of fishing line. They dangled from the man’s clutched fingers.

“Take another step and I end you man!” He threatened.

The muscles of his neck stood out taut like cords and he seemed to vibrate with malignant energy.

His eyes were narrowed with defiance. His fists clenched. He was like a cornered wild animal.

The Corporal glared in response.

It was a standoff.

...

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Twitter -> cyktrussell@twitter.com

RunRunLive

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Season five, Episode 3 – “Barn Storm”

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 03:59:54 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season five, Episode 3 – “Barn Storm”

…

Janet sat off to one side scratching Bill the dog behind his ear and watching the leadership group assemble. She suppressed a smile, thinking to herself that in the new barn it felt like an odd ho-down or square dance might bust out.

Bill’s hind leg twitched, and he leaned into her hand insistently with his big shaggy head, pushing closer.

The barn was a statement, some might say a ‘testament’ to what Mag’s and crew were building. The distribution center, because of its original purpose, had rows of long metal buildings, administrative offices and an equipment maintenance garage, but it was not designed, nor was it ever intended, to support a farming community.

So, they got together and built a barn. It was a place to keep their growing stock of animals and equipment.

A new place.

And a place that was, at the end of the day, a symbol. Evidence that they were working together to build something for the future.

...

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RunRunLive

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Season five, Episode two – Alliance

Sat, 21 Sep 2024 03:59:16 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season five, Episode two – “Alliance”

…

“The Plant” – was how locals referred to it. You didn’t need to specify which plant. It was the largest automobile production facility within 100 miles. The Plant employed over 1,500 union workers and pumped out 1,000 new trucks and SUVs a day at peak production.

The whole complex covered over 2,100 acres, with 2 million square feet of manufacturing.

150 truckloads of materials a day fed the production lines. A continuous line of barges, full of raw materials, were pushed up the river to its intake docks. At a dedicated rail spur loaded trains with new vehicles waited to be distributed to happy bourgeoise across the country.

The Plant was its own little city.

An industrial metropolis driving the beating heart of the great American manufacturing machine.

...

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RunRunLive

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Season five, Episode one – “Oracles”

Sat, 07 Sep 2024 03:59:50 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season five, Episode one – “Oracles”

...

Pure, animal terror gripped the Old Man as he struggled to climb. Every time he reached to grab, to pull himself up and away from the encroaching pursuer, his arms and legs would become tangled in torn shreds of clothing and dead flesh. He was trapped between the gibbering aberration of fetid death grasping from below and the decayed ornaments of human detritus crumbling in his hands above.

...

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Twitter -> cyktrussell@twitter.com

RunRunLive

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Interview – Les is Made

Sat, 24 Aug 2024 03:59:17 GMT

Interview – Les is Made

Alright my survivor friends. I have good news and better news.

Today’s interview is the last of the ‘filler’ episodes for the interregnum between Season 4 and 5.

On Friday, September 6th at 11:59 PM or 23:59 Season 5, episode 1 will appear like a rising phoenix on your podcast players around the globe.

And, If you can’t wait that long, I’m going to make it available to subscribers on Acast a week earlier.

That’s the perk. You subscribe you get early access I get money.

Quid Pro Quo, Clarice, Quid Pro Quo.

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Interview George Allen Miller

Sat, 10 Aug 2024 03:59:21 GMT

George Allen Miller Interview – Our Favorite Sci-Fi

Introduction

Hello my apocalypse survivors. This week we present to you the penultimate in the series of interviews from our summer break between seasons.

I'd love to be on your podcast! What days/time works for you? I put together a media kit on my website, www.georgeallenmiller.com, with details about me, the book, and areas we can talk about.

https://georgeallenmiller.com/eugene-mcgillicuddys-alien-detective-agency/

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Interview - Fran Tabor

Sat, 27 Jul 2024 03:59:37 GMT

Interview: Fran Tabor

Hello my survivor friends. Today we present a 25 minute interview of science fiction author and all-around interesting thinker, Fran Tabor.

Don’t worry, we are getting close to the end of our summer vacation. Soon, you and I, and countless others, will be walking hand in hand towards the blinding sunlight of Season 5.

I am working on the script for season 5. And by ‘working on’ I mean running out of time and worrying with intense apprehension at how we are going to extract ourselves from the story.

We need to give our characters compelling finality to their arcs, we need to resolve a number of tensions, we need to answer several questions and do it all in an entertaining and fulfilling way.

A world class way.

I always get it done. I will power through and I’m sure we’ll all be satisfied.

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The Stoned Genius Interview

Sat, 13 Jul 2024 03:59:32 GMT

The Stoned Genius Interview

Hello my survivor friends. Today I present a far-ranging, long form interview that I did for the Stoned Genius Podcast.

The TLDNR is a) If you are looking for the main narrative this is not that. Season 5 will start up again at the end of the summer. And b) this is me being interviewed on another podcast and is over an hour and a half long – so you have been warned and c) I’ll drop the full interview here and will not put in any outro comments.

The interviewer is Rodney – “the Stoned Genius”. He produces the eponymous podcast and interviews all kinds of different and interesting people.

I enjoyed having a conversation with him. I don’t get enough opportunities to interact with interesting people. I used to travel more and could scratch that itch. These days I’m felling a bit of cabin fever. I need to find a way to get out more and interact.

Send me suggestions on groups I should join.

This interview covers a lot of ground. Rodney was more interested in my long-distance running exploits than my writing and podcasting. So, get ready to learn some things about me that you probably didn’t know.

Rodney’s a curious soul.

That’s what I love about podcasting. Any curious soul can find and connect with their tribe.

If like what he’s doing you can find more at the Stoned Genius Podcast.

…

Show description:

The Stoned Genius" is a podcast that blends humor and cannabis culture, exploring a wide range of topics through the lens of genius enjoying marijuana. Hosted by Ro Martin the show features discussions, interviews, and even comedic skits, all infused with a lighthearted and often irreverent tone.

Like I said – I’ll skip the outro comments on this episode because the interview is lengthy.

Here are my updates:

You can find everything you need at my website oldmanapocalypse.com. I post all the links to everything I talk about there.

We are now at 493 members in our Facebook group.

· Website -> http://www.oldmanapocalypse.com

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Keep Surviving!

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Richard Anderson Interview – Evolution to Islands in the Void

Sat, 29 Jun 2024 03:59:52 GMT

Richard Anderson Interview – Evolution to Islands in the Void

Hello my survivor friends. Hope you are doing well and your summer is progressing nicely.

Today I interview Richard Anderson who is a scientist and writer With a career in the biological sciences.

Again – these interviews I do are special episodes while you are waiting for the main narrative of After the Apocalypse to restart at the end of the summer.

...

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Patreon to support the show -> https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Kindle Vella Story -> https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09LTRC8RH

Merch Store -> https://www.teepublic.com/stores/after-the-apocalypse

Twitter -> cyktrussell@twitter.com

RunRunLive

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Interview Roger Smith - Robotics and SciFi

Sat, 15 Jun 2024 03:59:31 GMT

Interview Roger Smith - Robotics and SciFi

https://www.rddsmith.com

Hello my apocalypse friends,

Hope you are doing well. In this episode we treat you to an interview with Robert Smith where we talk about robotics and AI.

For those of you time traveling in from the future, it is June of 2024 and we are between seasons 4 and 5 of the narrative.

As is my habit I take a break from the main narrative over the summer months, but fill the airwaves, or I guess that would be internet-waves with other things. For this summer I’m going to run a number of interviews. Some where I am the interviewer, like this one, and some where I am even the interviewee.

So – if you’re not interested in that, feel free to skip ahead to season 5.

...

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Kindle Vella Story -> https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09LTRC8RH

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Twitter -> cyktrussell@twitter.com

RunRunLive

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Alien McGuffin Noir Redux

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 16:33:41 GMT

Second pass AMN Epi1 Introduction

Hello Survivors!

We are on our break between seasons. As is my habit, I over you some different stories and interviews to hold you interest while I’m working on the next season.

Today I’m going to replay the first chapter in a story I’m writing called “Alien McGuffin Noir”, read by Mike Darling, AKA ‘Makeshift’ from the Wasteland.

So, if you’re a time traveler bingeing in from the past you need to skip ahead for new episodes of Season 5 of After the Apocalypse.

If you are a loyal survivor playing along in real time give this story a listen and send me some feedback.

...

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Kindle Vella Story -> https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09LTRC8RH

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Season four, Episode twenty one – “The End Days”

Sat, 18 May 2024 03:59:13 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode twenty one – “The End Days”

...

The next day the old man made it to the campus.

He watched Zane attempt to skip stones across the campus pond with Wili. She still couldn’t get it right and, instead, turned to shove Zane from behind towards the water. Zane caught his balance, laughed, and pushed back.

The shoving devolved into a giggling wrestling match.

The old man turned to his son Paul and said, “Someone’s going to need to have the talk with those two or you’re going to be up to your armpits in babies around here.”

...

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Season four, Episode twenty – “Future Shock”

Sat, 04 May 2024 03:59:59 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode twenty – “Future Shock”

…

Normal pace even tone to start.

Brent stopped the Humvee at the barrier.

Not that he had a choice.

He wasn’t going to get through unless the defenders let him through.

Janet was driving the second Humvee. She came to a stop with two or three vehicle lengths space between them.

Habits die hard in the apocalypse, and she had learned to always leave enough room for escape.

Don’t’ get boxed in.

...

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Kindle Vella Story -> https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09LTRC8RH

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Friday Night Feels

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 21:07:39 GMT

Friday Night Feels

Hello my long suffering survivor friends, this is Chris, and this is not a new episode, it is an announcement.

Life got in the way and I’m unable to release Season 4, Episode 20 today on schedule. If you were one of the 483 members of our Facebook Group you would know this already, but I figured I’d do the respectful thing and drop an audio notice here as well.

This is not something I take lightly. One of my strongest, most heartfelt, commitments is keeping to the publishing schedule for the podcast.

I may be wrong, but I’m assuming there is a cadre of you who download and listen each week as they are dropped and for those people, I am violating a trust. I’m honored to serve you; I don’t take it lightly and I apologize deeply.

Then there will be others of you who are binge listening through the series and hit this point and think to yourselves, “What the heck is this dope talking about?” For those time travelers I’ll leave this notice here as a token.

A token to the fact that this is a human enterprise. Pause in your fast forwarding and consider that. A human enterprise.

With all the frailty and baggage.

With all the enthusiasm and love.

With all the untidy things that bundle all human enterprises.

Were that we were machines and could not break down.

But we are human, and that is sublime.

So, I am working on it and will get it out shortly.

But, the lesson here, because if you’re curious there is always a lesson, the lesson is to not be so damn hard on yourself.

Friends, you are doing the best you can. Give yourself a Mulligan every now and then. You have my permission.

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Season four, Episode nineteen – “Escape”

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 03:59:29 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode nineteen – “Escape”

...

“Yes, I suppose the virus trigger could have been the result of genetic engineering - that could explain things....” The old man responded in disbelief.

He looked bug-eyed and disoriented in this new revelation.

The General sized the old man up.

He looked at Janet too.

There was a long silence. Like someone had said something unspeakable at a cocktail party and the gathering was trying to decide how to respond.

What was he going to do with these two?

...

Links

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Season four, Episode eighteen – “Turn”

Sat, 06 Apr 2024 03:59:28 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode eighteen – “Turn”

...

It was dark and Brent was feeling his age.

These 5AM morning runs weren’t as easy as they used to be.

But it was his habit and he cherished it despite the discomfort.

Every morning.

Since boot camp.

He’d rolled out of his rack and put in his 5 miles.

Part of his routine.

Like brushing his teeth.

It set him up for a successful day. ‘Win the morning and win the day!’ Is what the drill sergeant said as the recruits moaned in their sleep deprivation.

Brent had embraced the discipline.

...

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Season four, Episode seventeen – “Close”

Sun, 24 Mar 2024 22:08:25 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode seventeen – “Close”

...

“How much farther are we going tonight?” Brittany asked. She was carrying the baby in a sling on the front. It was hot. Her face was red with the effort of hiking and her hair stuck in sweaty clumps to her forehead.

“We should at least be able to make it up to the road tonight.” The old man responded. “Then we can get up early and push through to the campus tomorrow. It can’t be more than a couple miles – another hour tops and we’ll be there.”

He could tell the kids were tired. He was pushing them, but they needed to keep going. He was in a hurry now that he thought he might have a lead on the virus. He wanted to get back to the campus so he could take his research to the next step.

As long as they were out on the trail, in gang country, there was danger. He couldn’t afford to lose them now.

...

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Season four, Episode sixteen – “Duplicity”

Sat, 09 Mar 2024 04:59:41 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode sixteen – “Duplicity”

The General was talking about duty…

“But what exactly does that mean?” Brent thought.

Duty to what? Duty to whom?

As far as Brent knew most of the ‘whoms’ were dead husks, greasy piles of bones in expensive suits moldering on the floors of Georgetown row houses.

Brent’s sense of duty was as strong, probably stronger than most men’s. He’d fought and bled for his country. Now he wondered what the General was fighting for.

Dead men?

Ghosts?

Shadows?

Was he fighting for himself?

Or was he striving for something bigger?

Was he fighting for an idea?

The idea of ‘America’?

...

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Season four, Episode fifteen – “Clues”

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 04:59:14 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode fifteen – “Clues”

…

The old man stood in the shadow of the cabin doorway watching the summer rain drip-drip-drip from the overhanging pine boughs. A dark, wet cloud sat over the island, pregnant with moisture.

It seemed to grasp and squeeze everything, as if the whole lake was locked tightly in a grey tomb.

The water of the lake beaded up in a thousand ripples as the rain fell.

There was no wind.

The air hung heavy with the wet smell of moss and decomposing pine needles.

It felt oppressive.

He squinted at the sky. Its darkness echoing his own thoughts.

...

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Season four, Episode fourteen – “Island”

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 04:59:56 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode fourteen – “Island”

…

The Old Man and Bill the dog trailed Stevey down a pine needle carpeted path. There were handmade wooden signs with yellow inlaid arrows and labels nailed to trees at trail intersections.

There were names like “Tuckaleechee Path; and Sequatchie climb. Some called out local features, like Dinosaur Rock, or Little Falls.

“What is this place?” The Old Man asked Stevey.

...

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Season four, Episode thirteen – “Tracks”

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 04:59:18 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode thirteen – “Tracks”

…

They hiked up a twisting two lane back road with no shoulders. They were a half-day walk south of the campus now. The narrow road scaled a bluff on the west side of the river.

Tangled vegetation leaned in on the uphill side. The land dropped away precipitously on the downhill side behind a rusted metal traffic barrier.

It felt constricting and dangerous.

Before the apocalypse, traffic alone would have made this a dangerous place for pedestrians. If a vehicle came, the only escape was to dive into the harsh landscape on either side.

There was no place to hide.

...

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Season four, Episode twelve – “Coffee”

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 04:59:35 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode twelve – “Coffee”

...

Coffee.

It wasn’t great coffee.

But at this point, who complained about coffee?

It reminded Brent of that horrid, watery instant coffee the British drank on his deployment in the UK. Nescafe polluted so heavily with petrochemical derived creamers and sugar that it was more of a science project than a coffee.

He relaxed into the cafeteria chair and dreamed about good coffee.

“Ahhh… But the good stuff…” He reminisced, leaning back in the sun of the window, closing his eyes, and feeling the gentle heat of the sun through the glass on his face. “Dark espresso pressed in small cups and so strong it made your tongue curl around your teeth.”

He smiled.

...

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Season four, Episode eleven – “Embers”

Sat, 30 Dec 2023 04:59:16 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode eleven – “Embers”

…

Bill the Dog could sense concern.

He could smell worry, tinged with the need for action.

It was time to move.

His right hip ached a bit from the effort of chasing down and disarming the kids. The pain was new to Bill. It started after climbing through that window. Bill was made for action, but windows and hard tile floors were not in his training.

Bill wasn’t a puppy anymore. Like all good dogs, he had little concept of time and no concept of ‘getting old’. His experiences yesterday just made him a better dog for today.

There was no sense of tomorrow.

There was only now.

If there was anything that men could learn from dogs, it was to live in the moment.

Carpe Diem.

...

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Season four, Episode ten – “The New State”

Sat, 16 Dec 2023 04:59:32 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode ten – “The New State”

…

“I don’t care who you were!” The General began.

“I don’t care what you’ve done!” He continued.

He looked out at the newcomers like an eagle eyeing a field full of rats trying to decide which one to eat first.

His audience was the assembled remnants of The King’s men which Brent had brought back from the DC. Numbering a dozen, they stood uneasily in their dirty clothes.

The wounded sat in wheelchairs.

Some stared at the floor or off into empty space, exhausted and defeated and depleted.

Others glowered like defiant teenagers.

...

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Season four, Episode nine – “the General”

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 04:59:42 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode nine – “the General”

...

“I can do all things through him who gives me strength.”

The General finished his morning prayer, lifted his hands from the well-worn leather-bound bible, and felt the peace of that practice in his soul.

The bible was a gift from his wife when they first got married. Sometimes they prayed together in the mornings. The practice cemented their partnership. It got them through the hard times.

And there were plenty of hard times to be gotten through in a soldier’s life.

...

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Season four, Episode eight – “Post-Natal”

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 04:59:09 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode eight – “Post-Natal”

...

The mid-afternoon sun slanted through the dining hall windows and illuminated the two boys, Petey and Warren, hunched over large bowls of rice and beans, shoveling food into their mouths like it was some sort of carnival eating contest.

Paul looked beyond the ‘kids’ at the bullet holes in the glass panels of the front door and immediately began thinking about how to fix them.

One of those boomers at the zoo probably knew how to fix and re-mortar a window.

But should he bother? Was it even worth it now?

...

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Season four, Episode seven "Starve"

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 03:59:57 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode seven – “Starve”

...

Their thoughtful walk and conversation was interrupted by the echo of nearby gunshots and muted shouting - sounds that bounced their way through the campus off the walls of the empty dormitories and old classrooms.

The sounds were out of place and jarring, like derisive curses overheard at an elegant dinner party.

Paul and the Old Man, and Bill the Dog – the three of them - stopped on a dime and locked eyes with each other, instantly, wordlessly communicating the reality of the life-or-death tension that, here in the apocalypse, seemed to perpetually hang in the air at every turn.

...

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Season four, Episode six – “Hivemind”

Sat, 21 Oct 2023 03:59:48 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode six – “Hivemind”

...

The old man was eager to talk to his son, Paul.

Dr. Pannageorgio had confined the old man to his recovery room at the campus, but the old man was feeling better and chafing at the restrictions.

Since his conversation with Jen, he felt motivated. He felt some of the old fire in his belly. He felt an urgency to get back to the business of living.

...

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Season four, Episode five – “Government”

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 03:59:26 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode five – “Government”

…

Brad was exhausted. (pause)

He had spent the morning supervising the construction of the trench around the perimeter. They were making good progress, but never enough and never fast enough.

He knew Rome wasn’t built in a day but that would be cold comfort when the next storm came.

He could not remember the last time he had gotten a good night’s sleep.

Since the battle, he had been busy inventorying what had been used, what was damaged, and what was left. In the heat of the action against the King there hadn’t been much focus on controlling the check-out of items and materials.

Now he would be the one to clean up the inventory records.

...

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Season four, Episode four – “A Fool’s Errand”

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 03:59:05 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode four – “A Fool’s Errand”

...

It was a grey day without rain.

A slight wind ruffled the trees.

Heavy gray clouds pressed down on the river valley.

Even without the rain, the atmospheric pressure drained color from the surrounding forest and made it feel like they were driving through an evil forest tunnel, like something from a Grimms Fairy Tale or a Tolkien saga.

...

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Season four, Episode three – “Purpose”

Fri, 08 Sep 2023 03:59:04 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode three – “Purpose”

…

It was a warm day, but it was cool in the shade.

He sat in a grotto behind the campus infirmary.

A light breeze swayed the hanging branches of a large Weeping Willow tree. The dancing greenery filtered the sunlight into splashes of illumination on the patio and long grass.

It smelled like summer.

Bill the dog lay on his back in the grass, in a patch of sun, with his legs splayed, head to one side, tongue lolling, snoring softly - no cares in the world.

The old man watched the movement of the willow from his chair in the dappled shade. The flecks of sunlight caused him to squint when the kaleidoscope sun broke through the shifting of the draped branches.

...

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Season four, Episode two – “Vestiges”

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 03:59:36 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode two – “Vestiges”

...

The brake lights on the lead vehicle flashed bright red. Brent was pulled from his doze by the grab of the seatbelt.

He slid his hands down his thighs smoothing the creases of his khaki pants the best he could and craned his neck to look around the black Suburban for what the delay might be now. The tinted windows made it hard to see much.

...

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Season four, Episode one – “Resurrection”

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 03:59:03 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season four, Episode one – “Resurrection”

...

The smell of gunfire lingered in the air.

The storm had passed.

Black clouds, heavy with wind and water pushed east trailing rain like a dirty bridal veil dragging in the muddy grass.

Mags stood on a shipping container and surveyed the area where the battle had taken place. It was at the rear of the Distribution Center complex where the rows of metal buildings terminated at a weathered, eight-foot, chain-link fence.

When the storm passed, the smoke and haze settled into the low areas around the buildings and barricades.

Something inside one of the adjacent buildings had caught and smoke was rising out of the vent pipes. Could be bad if not addressed. Mags made a mental note to get a fire control team on that immediately before it spread.

They had lost enough on this day.

...

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Camping Calls - Walter Skrzypek

Sat, 22 Jul 2023 03:59:37 GMT

Camping calls me…

...

First person. fiction by author Magua

Walter Skrzypek (scrip-ek). AKA Magua (Mug-wa)

Magua is a modern age outdoorsman, woodsman, hiker and explorer of the lands along with my trusted companion Timber, my pup. He's enjoyed a 30 year journey through healthcare and retiring on good graces to share some tales from outdoor adventures and experiences. With years spent in the forests and lightly travelled areas, the exposure to unusual experiences has varied and it's time to share.

Story:

I have a favorite camping spot that I frequent or had frequented. I had done so consistently for about 10 years, but not now. I had an experience that has deterred me from ever returning to that Pa state park. Each Friday, I would clear up all of my final duties from work and spring out of the office about noon, and I would head off to camp for the weekend with my best friend at that time, Simba, my pup. One Friday, I headed out at noon to arrive home. I would have my car ...

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Links - https://fairview.deadfrontier.com/onlinezombiemmo/DF3D/DF3D_InventoryPage.php?page=31&hash=821f6b5deda6a51303d6e046762f0c11&userID=5105566&hash2=f5cc605b142713fca8c5714febf3ddf8

Year 12 - Jeff Brackett

Sat, 08 Jul 2023 03:59:52 GMT

Year 12 - Jeff Brackett

Hello, my survivor friends – How are you doing? For those of you time-traveling in from the future it is July of 2023.

Today we present to you another story from one of our fellow survivors Jeff who was kind enough to lend us some audio from one of his stories called “Year 12”

"Year 12" is a post-apocalyptic novel, a sequel to the Jeff’s first novel, "Half Past Midnight". You may remember Jeff and I had a conversation about half past midnight last year, right around this time, as a matter of fact, during our Season 2 break.

Patreon - www.patreon.com/jlbrackett

Newsletter - https://sendfox.com/jlbrackett

Amazon Author page - www.amazon.com/author/jeffbrackett

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/JeffBrackett.author/

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Electric Witch - Christopher Zuniga

Sat, 24 Jun 2023 03:59:00 GMT

ELECTRIC WITCH

The stormy night cracking sways the wind sideway across the skies, the rain drenches her pale white skin as her wickedness freezes it to ice and hail as falling gravel the size of stones.

Her eyes a glow send white beams of lightning scanning her surround for those that cower and oppose. Runes in hand and adorning her neck brill her skintight while she reaches with the devils horns. Her long fingers stiff, stretch to the wind above her head lost in the locks of blackened ends of flaming blue silver strands of silken hair she chants her spell. Binding all that fear her call and the ice of her skin. Her toll comes from the green sea of lake as she rises call to demons to strike, strike with their CRACKLES of electricity, their thunders of DOOM…blind them with the thick of FOG let down their fire of white flame and burn the wretched that do not fear her claims.

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The Blackening of Renn - Duane Hespell

Sat, 10 Jun 2023 03:59:51 GMT

~…and the darkness and decay…held illimitable dominion over all~

~ Edgar Allan Poe

THE BLACKENING OF RENN

Renn steadied himself…and breathed.

His lungs expelled their contents in heavy bursts, but despite the distinct cold that had settled over the city, Renn noticed no trace of condensation.

...

Duane’s Links:

· https://www.instagram.com/duaneswerld/ - Mostly posts on my acting and endurance adventures but would love to hear from any listeners.

· https://www.facebook.com/duane.hespell

· duanehes at yahoo dot com

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Season 3, Episode 20 – “Legacy”

Sat, 27 May 2023 03:59:30 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season 3, Episode 20 – “Legacy”

...

“Move them out of that goddam trap!” The King shouted angrily at Harlan. “Up the left! Get around that strong point!”

His men had run straight into an ambush on their first approach. Instead of the ‘cake walk’ they had assumed.

The King was angry. This fight wasn’t going to be the pushover he had expected. He still had the guns and the numbers but didn’t like the feeling that he was being made a fool of.

Not outfought but outthought.

...

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Season 3, Episode 19 – “Clash”

Sat, 13 May 2023 03:59:38 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season 3, Episode 19 – “Clash”

...

Michael had trouble hiding his surprise and fear when the pickets radioed in that a convoy of vehicles was moving in their direction.

He thought they were about to get caught with their pants down.

What had gone wrong? There were lookouts by the river crossings just for this reason, but this approaching force appeared from nowhere.

Was this an example of the ‘fog of war’ creating surprise and chaos, and nullifying their hasty, but well-made plans?

...

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Season 3, Episode 18 – “Rally”

Sat, 29 Apr 2023 03:59:34 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season 3, Episode 18 – “Rally”

…

For a big dog, Bill could move very fast when he wanted to.

And, right now, he really wanted to.

Paul was the first to see the furry apparition appear from around the corner of a building, ears pinned back, tongue lolling, and making a beeline for the two men on the path.

Paul simultaneously prepared to run and looked around for a stick or rock to fight with.

But the big…dog?...it looked like a dog but could be a wolf?...nothing would surprise Paul in this wasted world…

Whatever it was, it had no interest in Paul. Instead, without hesitation, it launched itself at the old man.

...

Links

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Season 3 Episode 17 - Grind

Sat, 15 Apr 2023 03:59:03 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season 3, Episode 17 – “Grind”

...

Mags stood on the porch of a two-story house on a small rise.

It wasn’t her house, but it was somehow familiar.

The air was heavy with moisture. The atmosphere had the oppressive weight it gets just before a storm.

As if a ripe fruit is about to burst.

A smooth, blue-green lawn sloped away to the tree line. There was a white, lank fence around the periphery which reminded her of horse farms in Kentucky.

The leaves in the trees rustled with a leavening wind.

Black and violent clouds rapidly approached.

...

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S3 E16 – Detente

Sat, 01 Apr 2023 03:59:13 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

S3 E16 – “Detente”

...

The college dining hall was dimly lit by the dying afternoon sun. Dust motes circled listlessly above a stack of dormant red plastic serving trays.

An awkward silence hung in the air between them like a plate of old glass, smoky, cracked and fragile to the touch.

The old man looked at the tile floor and thought about what to say. He hadn’t thought this part through and was unexpectedly adrift.

Maybe, unconsciously, the old man had been afraid to acknowledge the chance of Paul’s survival so as not to tempt fate.

But here they were.

...

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S3 E15 – The Rat Nest

Sat, 11 Mar 2023 04:59:00 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

S3 E15 – “The Rat Nest”

...

The utility truck rattled as Tasker drove over a section of rough road.

In the absence of regular traffic and maintenance weeds were beginning to heave up from the cracks and broken spots.

A piece of the truck grill had broken loose and was dragging. The errant strip of chrome was tapping out an intermittent metal buzz as it dragged and bounced along the road surface.

A Morse code signal from the underworld.

...

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Season 3 Episode 14 – The Kaiju

Sat, 04 Mar 2023 04:59:18 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season 3 Episode 14 – “The Kaiju”

...

The Kaiju sat hunched over a laptop on a workbench staring intently at the screen. Luminous green letters and numbers played across the lenses of his glasses. He paused to push the glasses higher as the reflected characters scrolled across them like mini-versions of the computer screen.

It created the impression that the glasses were alive and animated with the rising code.

That he was somehow the extension of the programming.

He would not have been able to tell you exactly when they had started calling him ‘The Kaiju’.

It was a label borrowed from Japanese.

Literally translated, it meant ‘strange monster’.

...

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Season 3 Episode 13 – Loose Ends

Sat, 18 Feb 2023 04:59:50 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season 3 Episode 13 – “Loose Ends”

...

It was the day after the escape.

Tasker squinted into the large mirror on the driver’s side of the work truck they had taken from the DC.

This truck was bigger than a standard pickup. But it was smaller than a dump truck. It was one of those trucks that crews of workmen might have driven out to fix downed power lines before the apocalypse.

The back and sides were wrapped in sheet metal lockers and there was a large, predatory bull-bar mounted on the nose like the bronze ram of an ancient trireme.

“They’re a ways back now. We should be able to make it across the bridge without having to deal with them.”

...

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Season 3 Episode 12 – “The Patrol”

Sat, 04 Feb 2023 04:59:15 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season 3 Episode 12 – “The Patrol”

...

Mac dismounted his ATV like a cowboy jumping off an energetic pony, and examined Zane’s abandoned mountain bike.

The handlebars were bent.

The sandy ground around the trail was scuffed up from activity. There was a confusion of animal tracks intermixed with footprints.

Mac fumed.

...

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Season 3 Episode 11 – The Zoo

Sat, 21 Jan 2023 04:59:01 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season 3 Episode 11 – “The Zoo”

...

Bill the dog sniffed and licked Zane’s face but got no response.

He continued working his nose down the length of Zane’s form, lingering at the upturned Vans sneakers.

Satisfied for now, the big dog collapsed with a thump to watch the proceedings. A cloud of dust rose and settled onto his curly fur.

Janet looked over the old man’s shoulder as he examined the kid on the ground. “So, did you kill him?”

The old man grumbled something under his breath that she didn’t quite catch, and then something she could. “No, he’s not dead. And you're the killer, I'm the doctor. Remember?”

...

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Season 3 Episode 10 – “Panic Attack”

Sat, 07 Jan 2023 04:59:26 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season 3 Episode 10 – “Panic Attack”

...

A bell rang out.

It was calling all residents of the Distribution Center to assembly.

Like a ship’s bell, it tolled a sharp, bright clang with every crank of the handle.

The citizens were starting to gather in the courtyard behind the administration building. Michael turned away from the office window and let the red curtain fall back into place.

In a few minutes he’d have to address the community. They had a right to know what was going on. He would need their support when he responded to whatever happened next.

He had to get himself under control. He couldn't let them see his worry and anxiety.

The future of the DC hinged on his ability to demonstrate leadership and make the right decisions in the coming hours.

...

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Season 3 Episode 9 – “Exit Wounds”

Sat, 17 Dec 2022 04:59:00 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season 3 Episode 9 – “Exit Wounds”

A warm, bright, morning sun lit up the parking lot.

Becca looked at the ragged group of five that had just arrived.

There was a middle-aged man, a young woman, and three children. They were like something out of a Victorian slum – Ragged, dirty clothes, long matted hair, and faces smeared with filth.

In a previous world they might have been a family, or at least that would have been Becca’s default assumption.

But, in these times, a closer inspection would reveal that there was no family resemblance among them. They were not a family in the traditional sense – those had been mostly destroyed by the sickness.

They were the new version of ‘family’ created in this desperate new world of isolated survivors who were driven into small communal groups by the chaos.

The apocalypse had shaken the world apart and now it was beginning to settle into these small clumps of humanity.

To Becca they were all starting to look the same.

...

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Season three, Episode eight – “Desecration”

Sat, 10 Dec 2022 04:59:52 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season three, Episode eight – “Desecration”

...

Wili parked the hybrid behind the library in a secluded spot screened by trees.

She smiled because she had an affinity for libraries.

From all the times she used the library as her refuge growing up in the city.

Libraries were her safe spot.

Her sanctuary.

She wanted to look inside. She was drawn to go inside. Even though there wasn’t much to be cleared from a locked-up library. It was in her nature.

Her job, the job of her crew, was not to reminisce in libraries. It was to systematically clear the residences and commercial buildings, to find any survivors and to take inventory of what was still there.

...

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Season three, Episode seven – “The Chaos Outside the Walls”

Sat, 26 Nov 2022 04:59:11 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season three, Episode seven – “The Chaos Outside the Walls”

...

Two more suicides.

(One breath pause)

The small, electric lamp cast a dull, industrial, patch of light across the desk blotter where Mags worked on paperwork.

The desk was cluttered.

She was very tired.

She lifted her hands and rubbed her tired eyes with balled fists. She was feeling worn out and knew she should probably get some sleep.

...

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Season three, Episode six - "Trap"

Sat, 12 Nov 2022 04:59:30 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season three, Episode six – “Trap”

(Janet thinking) “Damn that old man is a machine!”

(One breath pause)

Janet took a deep breath in through her nose and blew it out her mouth. She was struggling and the old man was pulling ahead.

She straightened up and pushed her hips forward into the hill. She pulled another large breath in through her nose so that it filled her lungs and expanded her abdominal cavity. She blew it out and focused, squaring her shoulders and bringing her hands up higher towards her ears and relaxing into the effort.

They were running hard towards that opening in the woods they had seen from the water tower.

Moving fast to gain an advantage over the person on the bike.

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Season three, Episode five – “Stealth”

Sat, 29 Oct 2022 03:59:08 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season three, Episode five – “Stealth”

...

The old man sat on the metal grating of the water tower walkway. His feet dangled over the edge. He stared out into the morning landscape, lost in thought, like a medieval gargoyle brooding over a Paris bawdy house.

...

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Season three, Episode four – “Hoodies”

Sat, 15 Oct 2022 03:59:45 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season three, Episode four – “Hoodies”

...

A rider in black stops hard on the gravel road.

A well-used, flat-bottom Vans shoe slaps the ground and takes his weight.

The big, knobby back tire bites and slides before grinding to a halt.

Dust rises.

He dismounts from the bike with the fluidity and grace of an athlete, lays it down gently on the shoulder and stands up straight.

He is hard and lean from both his youth and his months of riding.

...Links...

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Season three, Episode three – “Rabbit”

Sat, 24 Sep 2022 03:59:15 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season three, Episode three – “Rabbit”

...

Bill stood guard over a cowering bundle of misery. The man had greasy, shoulder-length hair that hid his face in dangling matts like a dinghy washed up on the shore by storms, buried in seaweed, forlorn and abandoned.

He wore dirty and frayed workpants that looked like they had not been changed since the apocalypse began. Out of these pants jutted scuffed boots with worn heels.

A loose, tattered winter jacket capped off his sartorial splendor. It fit like a trash bag and hung open to reveal a stained black sweatshirt with a picture of a cartoon rabbit that might have been the March Hare from Alice in Wonderland.

...

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Season three, Episode two – “Ossuary”

Sat, 17 Sep 2022 03:59:47 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season three, Episode two – “Ossuary”

...

The afternoon sun pulsed orange behind distant clouds as it sank toward the horizon like blood draining from a wound.

There was an earthy, sickly-sweet smell that lingered across the plaza, chased by a lackluster breeze.

“Yeah, we got some strange shit here,” the old man said, as he examined the bone monument in front of the town courthouse.

“Agreed,” Janet confirmed as she stole glances around at the quiet buildings. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

...

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Season three, Episode one – “Bones”

Sat, 03 Sep 2022 03:59:47 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season three, Episode one – “Bones”

The old man rolled over and brushed his head against the side of the nylon tent. It took a moment to shake off the velvet fog of a good night’s sleep and remember where he was.

He shook the sleeping bag off and curled forward, grabbing clumsily at the zippered entrance. His stiff hands and knees protested as he crawled out to where he was clear enough to stand. He unfolded upright with a customary grunt and grinding of joints.

He stretched his arms over his head to lengthen his spine, inhaled deeply of the cool morning air and looked at Bill the dog.

“It’s not the Marriott,” he said to the dog, who was eying him from a guard position outside the tent, “but it beats sleeping in the mud with the chiggers.”

...

Outro S3 E2

https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse

Hello my survivor friends. Welcome back to season 3 of after the apocalypse. Did you enjoy your vacations? Did you miss me?

Have seen the new subscription option on Acast plus?

You can pay me a pittance to get the shows early and/or ad-free now.

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Season two, Episode Twenty, “Overwatch”

Sat, 04 Jun 2022 03:59:20 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season two, Episode Twenty, “Overwatch”

A pair of sparrows made indignant noises in the tree overhead and a grey squirrel chittered from a low branch as Mags settled into a prone position on the hill overlooking the DC.

She leveled the rifle and squinted through the scope. According to her calculation, it was less than two hundred yards from her position, across the slope, the road, and then across the parking lot.

She spun the ocular and a lean, rat-faced, man came into focus.

He was reclined against a cement pillar smoking.

“You look pretty relaxed for a man in your situation…,” she thought to herself as she turned the elevation knob on the scope.

An inch or two in either direction could make a difference in the upcoming action.

She wished she had a couple practice rounds, but this wasn’t practice. But it wasn't her first time at the range.

She slowly scanned left and right and up and down and checked the whole area. There was another man by the entrance and another two on the roof.

She sighed, “Let’s hope they have sense.”

...

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...

Outro s2 e20

Welcome back my survivor friends.

This is your host Maddog comin’ at you from the pollen-soaked hills of early summer in in New England.

The Pollen Apocalypse – good name for a flower-power punk band.

This, my friends, has been episode 20, the final episode of season 2.

I know, we have some loose ends in the narrative, but not too many.

I’ve always operated under the assumption that you folks are smart enough to live with a certain amount of uncertainty. – And as I’ll talk about below, that uncertainty actually has a payoff.

It is designed in. It’s a feature, not a flaw.

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Season two, Episode Nineteen, “Teutoburg”

Sat, 14 May 2022 03:59:02 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season two, Episode Nineteen, “Teutoburg”

A cold, dry, wind swept dust and bits of trash from the parking lot.

It danced in the distribution center entrance like a tiny tornado.

Bert checked over his M4 and decided he should probably clean it at some point. As near as he could figure it had been a week since he’d done so.

He was leaning against a squat cement pillar that, he supposed, was meant to keep vehicles from crashing into the building. There was a line of them planted in front of the glass doors.

...

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...

Hello my survivor friends. How are you doing?

Ollie the Collie and I are doing well. Summer has arrived up here in New England with its long days and warm weather. Finally. I feel like I’m emerging from a hole.

This is episode 19 of the second season. For you chronologically-challenged this episode will drop on May 13th 2022. A little bit more than 2 years since the idea occurred to me on a drizzly run down by the banks of the Chattahoochee at the start of a global pandemic that, at the time, seemed like it might actually be the end of the world.

But we’re still here. Why? Because we’re survivors!

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Season two, Episode Eighteen, “Crossroads”

Sat, 30 Apr 2022 03:59:42 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season two, Episode Eighteen, “Crossroads”

The Old Man crouched behind a parked van with Bill and surveyed the building.

It was the same van he and Brad had crouched behind only a few, short days earlier.

A wave of déjà vu passed through him and the little hairs on the nape of his neck tingled. The human mind was a funny thing. What did it see in these echoes of the past that made it bridle with physical manifestation?

‘Déjà vu’…the old man thought, wasn’t that a Steely Dan album his wife had played over and over in their New York apartment? No, that was “Aja”

...

S2 E18 Outro

Hello my survivor friends – are there airplanes in the apocalypse?

I just got off one last night, didn’t get home until 1:00 in the morning – so if my voice sounds like a sexy overnight DJ, that’s why.

And kids, I don’t mean a DJ like the ones that spin beats at a rave while you stumble around high on ecstasy with a manic smile on your face, bouncing around to flashing lights – although that would be a good setting for a zombie apocalypse – not a good one, but like a direct-to-cable one – we could call it “Death at the Disco” – except that that is already the name of a franchised murder mystery theater…But I digress…

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Season two, Episode Seventeen, “Change of Management”

Sat, 16 Apr 2022 03:59:22 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season two, Episode Seventeen, “Change of Management”

...

It was like a scene from an old western.

Close ups of scared faces.

The smell of fear pheromones thick in the air.

The momentary stillness of the confrontation was punctuated by the susurration of a dusty wind in the parking lot. Crows cried complaints from the trees. There was the brushing crinkle of clothes and shoe leather as the men shifted nervously.

The mood was broken by Tasker, moaning, half mumbling, his confident swagger erased by the gun in his ear.

...

Outro S2 E17

Greetings my survivor friends. How are we all doing in this weird and wonderful apocalypse?

I was reading some of the iTunes and Audible reviews – thanks for those by the way – and there was one grumbling about having to listen through these outros.

Here is your simple solution my friends. As soon as you hear Robert’s narration stop and the outro music play, you can hit that “skip to the end” button and you’re not going to miss anything except a commercial from Acast and my ramblings.

Feel free.

I won’t be offended.

...

You can reach me directly at cyktrussell at Gmail.

Have a greats weekend everyone and until next time… Keep Surviving.

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Season two, Episode Sixteen, “Ghosts”

Sat, 02 Apr 2022 03:59:13 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season two, Episode Sixteen, “Ghosts”

John tasker lifted his head to the sounds of hurried footsteps approaching the door. He was in the middle of a meeting with Karl and Michael in the improvised gym-office. They were going through the week’s schedule.

John Tasker liked to stay on top of things.

A man dashed into the room breathless. “We’re being attacked!” he shouted, cramming the words together in a frenzied effort to get them all out quickly, turning the three separate words into a single interjection.

“Calm down, Kevin!” Tasker said, “Take a breath and tell us what’s happening. Let’s not ‘hurry up and screw up’.”

...

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...

Outro S2 E16

Hello my survivor friends.

Here we are at the end of Season 2 Episode 16. Glad you could join us. For you time travelers it’s the end of March 2022.

We are running at about 10,000 downloads a month. It leveled off a bit in February. So that means it’s time for you to earn your keep again and go rate and review an episode for us.

Tell your friends!

Help us help you!

Lots to talk about this week. We’re up over 130 folks in our Facebook group. So at least I have some people to talk to! We’ve created a couple fun events for the team.

You can find our TeePublic store to buy some of those cool stickers at teepublic all one word forward slash aftertheapocalypse.

We’ve got a Patreon page as well if you’d like to support independent podcasting with a monetary donation.

The most helpful thing is rating us and posting a positive review, or sharing the show with your networks.

All the links to these things are here in the show notes.

Have a great weekend and whatever you do – Keep Surviving!

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Season two, Episode Fifteen, “Breakout”

Sat, 19 Mar 2022 03:59:45 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season two, Episode Fifteen, “Breakout”

Mags could see the distribution center buildings stretching off into the horizon in neat, rectangular rows of asphalt and metal.

From her perch on the hill overlooking the port authority complex it was like looking down on the map of an old board game.

The mid-morning sun had chased the fog away. Its warm rays now glinted off shiny, metal, man-made objects in the panorama. She squinted at the ‘glass menagerie’ effect that created prisms of light in her scope as she scanned.

Outro S2E15

Hello my survivor friends!

I liked this episode. I tried to take a little extra time and make sure we got the characters and the scenes right. I thought it came out well and I liked Robert’s read.

By the way, if you have any audio projects you can reach Robert at CommandVoices.com. He doesn’t just do the gravely old man voice – that is an affectation just for me. He does full on commercials and voice overs.

I kicked off a contest on the facebook page. I want to have one of you be a guest reader for one of my stories – not this story but something standalone I’ll write – All you have to do to play along is send me an audio recording to cyktrussell At Gmail – and I’ll have my panel of judges listen to them all and select a winner. Then that person can perform a story and we’ll drop it on the feed.

The other thing I need help with is some proofreaders. This is deeper than typo hunting. If I’m going to turn these seasons into proper books I need to flesh them out a bit. And I’ll be looking for help from you to do it. So reach out to me in any of these haunts if your interested in joining the editorial board.

Other than that Everything is on track and wonderful.

Hope you all are well, links in the show notes and don’t forget to keep surviving!

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Season two, Episode Fourteen, “No Good Choice”

Sat, 05 Mar 2022 04:59:15 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season two, Episode Fourteen, “No Good Choice”

Mags knelt on the gravely tar roof of the building and surveyed down the road. This was where the dog was leading her, but she didn’t like being so exposed.

She had climbed the rusty fire escape of this place to take a look.

...

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…

Anyhow, hope everyone’s hanging in there.

“May you live in interesting times” is a phrase that is commonly attributed to a Chinese curse when used ironically.

That is most likely apocryphal, i.e. made up by the British fairly recently.

We probably don’t get to choose the nature of our times, interesting or not.

Our job is to take it day by day and keep surviving.

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Season two, Episode thirteen, “Dead Man in a Chair”

Sat, 19 Feb 2022 04:59:14 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season two, Episode thirteen, “Dead Man in a Chair”

KJ felt her hand hit hard against something under the water. Not so much felt as sensed the impact. The cold water had numbed and sucked the sensation from her extremities.

She swam on muscle memory now. She trusted her technique, long tuned by hours in the pool, to keep her afloat on the swollen river and move her forward.

To the far bank.

Her only chance was to make it to the other side.

...

Outro S2 E13

OK my survivor friends. Nice to see you all again this week, although some of you look like you haven’t got a good night’s sleep in weeks.

That’s what the apocalypse does to you.

Apocalypse Post Link Tree

Do us a favor and like the podcast, leave a review, forward it to a friend so we can all Keep Surviving.

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Season two, Episode twelve, “Trust”

Sat, 05 Feb 2022 04:59:03 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season two, Episode twelve, “Trust”

Brad looked at the steaming pile of eggs on his plate and didn’t know what to think.

‘Eggs for dinner?’

He loved eggs.

His mom used to make them for him.

And did the concept of ‘dinner time’ even mean anything anymore?

John Tasker noticed his hesitation and said with a smile, “Go ahead, boy, dig in!”. We got plenty.”

Brad did as he was told, bringing a greasy, savory forkful to his mouth.

There was a time he wouldn’t have even thought about the taste of his food.

But now, this mouthful of scrambled eggs felt like a warm explosion of joy in his mouth.

His whole body shuddered.

...

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Season two, Episode Eleven “John Tasker”

Sat, 22 Jan 2022 04:59:33 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season two, Episode Eleven “John Tasker”

The old man grabbed Brad’s arm and hissed, “Let me do the talking.”

Brad felt the strong grip on his arm and watched, mystified, as the old man transformed.

He hunched over and assumed the guise and deportment of a completely different man than he was, an aged and feeble man.

With the old man shuffling and supported on his arm, they emerged into the daylight.

...

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Enjoy your week, spring is coming, the days are getting longer, (at least on my side of the planet) and Keep surviving.

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Season two, Episode Ten “Logistics”

Sat, 08 Jan 2022 04:59:42 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season two, Episode Ten “Logistics”

Mags looked at the old man with a tiredness that belied the weight of the world on her shoulders.

She hadn’t been getting enough sleep.

There was so much to do.

There was always too much to do.

She had to stay on top of the details.

They couldn’t afford to lose any more people to this chaotic world.

How had she been thrust into the leadership role of this small and broken tribe? She didn’t know if she was up to the task, but she would keep working to make something out of this and out of them.

If humans were to survive and move forward, it would take groups of people working collaboratively. She thought that, just maybe, this group could be the start of something good.

She wasn’t going to let that die on her watch.

...

Outro S2 E10

Hello my survivor friends.

Had some interesting irony this week. I started reading ‘The Stand’ by Steven King. I’m 2 weeks and 700+ pages in. It’s a big book and takes a long time to build. I’ll have more thoughts on it when I’m finished.

If I ever finish.

The ironic part is that I picked up a cold over Christmas from my 87-year-old Mom. Which is ironic in itself because we’ve been trying so hard to protect her from the actual pandemic and she turns around and gives us all a bad cold.

I was hoping to get a lot done in my week off – and that statement right there tells you a lot about me and my neuroses – but I was sick and spent a lot of time reading and resting, which was good timing to tackle the oversized tome that is The Stand.

Here’s the ironic part; I’m lying in bed reading about all these characters who think they only have a cold actually having a superflu that wipes out humanity. At the same time I’m writing a story about a pandemic apocalypse where everyone dies from a virus and listening to the news about a raging pandemic.

Talk about meta! I’m a character with a sore throat and a runny nose during a global pandemic, reading about a global pandemic apocalypse and writing about a global pandemic apocalypse.

That was my week.

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Season two, Episode nine “Reunion”

Sat, 25 Dec 2021 04:59:36 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season two, Episode nine “Reunion”

Bella watched as the big dog pushed his head into the old man’s lap. The dog was wiggling its butt like a puppy and the old man was pretending to be mad.

“No”, the old man said, looking away from the supplicant dog, who was vigorously nuzzling at him. “You didn’t listen to me. You could have gotten yourself killed.”

The dog gave a big push and the old man slipped out of the chair sprawling onto the linoleum floor. Bill pounced on the old man as he fell to the ground and licked at his face. The old man put his hands up for protection and laughed despite himself.

...

Outro S2 E9

Hello my survivor friends.

Welcome back to the apocalypse.

In this episode I wanted to give all y’all a bit of a breather from all the tension and action. That last episode where KJ has to escape across the river was harrowing. Death, destruction, fear, tension, cats and dogs living together – real end-of-the-world stuff!

My editors and I had a multi-day discussion as to whether she would bring her boots with her. Tim said to tie the boots around her neck. I just couldn’t see how she could swim with the boots around her neck.

I rewrote it 3 times. Tried a compromise. Long distance swimmers actually have these waterproof floaty bags they put stuff in and tie to their ankles. But it was getting to complex and awkward, so I sent them a text that read “I don’t care about the @#$%@ boots!”

It’s running joke between us now.

I figure in the Hollywood version of the story this scene will give them an excuse to have the heroine take her clothes off! Of course, by the time Hollywood is done with it there will be sea monsters, laser beams and aliens.

So – I wanted to take it easy on you this week. And I gave you that tense reunion scene as a flashback so you would already know the outcome and it wouldn’t require so much stress.

Then we got them all together back at the school.

A bit of a holiday gathering if you will.

The security of the group.

The gathering. Not the quickening. The gathering.

It’s odd how strangers can come together for a common purpose in times of crisis.

...

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Season two, Episode Eight “The King”

Sat, 11 Dec 2021 04:59:30 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season two, Episode Eight “The King”

The King’s given name was Andre Bobette.

No one called him that.

No one had ever called him that.

When he was a kid his hard-drinking, white-trash father had called him ‘Bubba’.

At least he had, as long as that miscreant loser was still living with them in the double-wide trailer.

...

S2 E8 The King – Outro

Hello my survivor friends. Welcome back. How’s the apocalypse going for you these days?

This was a long episode. 3500+ words. I thought about breaking it up into two episodes, but it seemed to hang together well enough, and it advances the story line in the right direction.

I just listened to Roberts read of the King’s backstory – OH MY GOD! It was terrifying!

Great work.

Why does Janet care so much about what these bad guys are doing? Because she sees the bigger picture. She sees that this is one of those moments in the arc of time when direct action by a few individuals can determine or alter the broader outcome.

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Season two, Episode Seven “Industrial”

Sat, 27 Nov 2021 04:59:02 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season two, Episode Seven “Industrial”

It was slippery and tough going in the industrial rubble by the river’s edge.

The old man pulled himself up over a concrete slab that blocked the trail. The slab had rebar sticking out of it like the broken bones of an old corpse that had been torn open by wolves.

...

Hello survivors. Happy Thanksgiving!

Let me say, first of all, that I have been dying to use the phrase “Arms akimbo” in a story my whole life.

Akimbo is an interesting English word that means "with the hands on the hips and the elbows bent outward at sharp angles".

They think the word akimbo has some relation to the word ‘bow’ like ‘bow and arrow’ – because the arms are bent like a bow. The first recorded usage was by Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales in the 1400’s.

I’m going to stop right there before I start waxing poetically about Richard III and Henry IV and Iambic Pentameter.

All in good time.

Back to the story…

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Season two, Episode six “Scorpion”

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 13:06:41 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season two, Episode six “Scorpion”

…

Bill the dog was attuned to gunfire. It did not bother him as much as it heightened his senses to what was going on around him.

Bill was trained to save lives. He was trained to sense danger and do what he could to protect the lives of his squad.

He was a soldier first. He didn’t think. He acted in accordance with his training.

He had no sense of bravery or heroism – only a burning sense of duty.

The safety of the squad was his first priority.

...

Outro S2 E6 – Scorpion

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The Show on Acast -> https://shows.acast.com/after-the-apocalypse

11/10/2021

Hello survivors.

Here we are, Episode 6 of the 2nd season of After the Apocalypse a Pandemic Survival Story.

And we have our friend Bill back in play, so you can stop with the angry messages. But, we’re not out of the woods yet. We left you with a cliff-hanger! Or more like a grassy-knoll hanger.

https://flashfictionmagazine.com/blog/2021/09/26/writing-tip-23-never-kill-the-dog/

Learned a couple things this week.

First, and I already knew this, but it was hammered home by some comments on our Facebook page, is that when you’re reading or listening you create a picture in your head from what the author is telling you. That is the magic of reading or listening. That’s the advantage of reading or listening over TV or movies.

You get to create your own visuals.

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Season two, Episode five “Forage”

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 03:59:22 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season two, Episode five “Forage”

Janet braced herself against the doorway of an old brick mill building. She had worked her way through the back streets and vacant lots to the river’s edge. From this vantage point, downriver, she could see the bridge and the river foaming around it.

She held her breath as the shuttle bus punched into the water and bounced unsteadily across the span. Janet uttered a small prayer as the men in the Humvees arrived and started firing on the bus from the bridgehead.

Adrenaline mixed with fear and anger as she searched her mind for any action she could take to help them.

...

Outro S2 E5

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The FaceBook Group -> https://www.facebook.com/groups/oldmanapocalypse

The Show on Acast -> https://shows.acast.com/after-the-apocalypse

10/29/ 2021

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Season two, Episode four “Empty”

Sat, 16 Oct 2021 04:04:55 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season two, Episode four “Empty”

Mags watched the old man slump into an overstuffed, coffee-stained chair in the teachers’ lounge. It smelled like cigarettes and moth balls. Decades of stale smoke wrapped in tweed jackets with elbow patches.

Undoubtedly, it had been the treasured refuge of some crusty old academic with only a few years left to retirement. This old chair his redoubt from the squalling of adolescent rage.

That person was gone. Their jaded, dusty dreams swept away with the apocalypse.

Now this chair was empty.

Now it made a good place to temporarily store this old man.

...

S2 E4 Outro

Hello survivors! Welcome back!

Picking up steam in Season 2 now. How do you like our new characters?

I like the Mags character. I hadn’t pre-planned to write her this way but she just naturally turned into a strong person. The kind of person you need in the Apocalypse.

I did have several people threaten to unfriend me over at the Facebook group after episode 3. Have patience. And, if you need to yell at me you can join us at the after the apocalypse Facebook group.

And, if you want to hire Robert for something, I don’t know, maybe to record the message on your voicemail, you can find him at Command Voices.

Wouldn’t that be great? “Welcome to the Apocalypse, We’re tied up surviving at the moment. Please leave a message. We’ll get back to you, if we survive…”

…

Our tribe is growing nicely. We are at 28XXX downloads and running between 100-400 per day.

Thank you to those of you who have subscribed in your apps. And thank you for sharing with you friends, enemies and total strangers.

It looks like it’s working.

Keep it up!

Just drop the link shows.acast.com/after-the-apocalypse into Facebook, twitter, whatever. We are word of mouth so keep making words with you mouths in the direction of other people.

Also thanks to new Patreon member Corby who threw me a couple bucks. I appreciate the help.

…

Feel free to reach out to me with any suggestions or comments.

I am having a blast writing and producing this – and I hope you are too.

If we have brightened your day even a little bit with our story telling it makes us happy.

We appreciate all your help and attention – and whatever you do – keep surviving.

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Season two, Episode three “The Hungry River”

Sat, 02 Oct 2021 14:11:37 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season two, Episode three “The Hungry River”

Janet glared through the sleet, up the hill, searching for the Humvees that she expected to appear over the crest at any moment.

“Persistent deadbeats…” She swore under her breath as the chain saw chattered in her hands.

She knew if she could slow them down, even for a minute, it might give the bus enough time to escape.

...

Outro S2 E3

Hello and welcome back survivors.

Here we are, episode 3 of season two and it feels like we’re hitting our stride.

This was a fun episode to construct. I love the visual of the river devouring the bridge. Just a great picture in my mind’s eye.

The other thing that happened here, not to give you too much of the sausage-making, was a roller coaster ride. It’s a series of tension builds and releases, where we are just letting you off the hook and we slap you again with a new shock wave.

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Season two, Episode two “Pursuit”

Sat, 18 Sep 2021 16:30:30 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season two, Episode two “Pursuit”

KJ clutched the knife in one cold hand, lowering the heel of her other hand to the ground for support.

She was in a full crouch now. Just a few yards away she could see the hooded man on the bench, under the portico, and he looked to be dozing.

“If he’s a guard, he isn’t a very good one,” She thought.

Something about him didn’t fit.

A moment ago, as she was sneaking along the wall, she had glanced into the window of the resort and saw some of the thugs.

The King’s soldiers were no better at guard duty. They lay sprawled and asleep on the lobby furniture, surrounded by trash and bottles, no doubt sleeping off another hard debauch.

...

Outro Episode 1 Season 2

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Season two, Episode one “The Gathering Storm”

Sat, 04 Sep 2021 20:08:51 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A Pandemic Survival Story

Season two, Episode one “The Gathering Storm”

“Geez-Us”, the old man swore, looking out the window. “Is this ever going stop?”

Janet just looked at him.

She didn’t feel like beginning another conversation about the weather.

It had been raining for at least five days straight. Some sort of late season not-so-tropical storm remnant had wheeled up the Gulf and parked over the Southeast.

The weather was strange.

Something about the abrupt cessation of human activity on the planet had thrown everything into chaos.

Once again, Janet thought, the irony was thick and steady in the apocalypse.

...

Outro – S1 E2

Stranger in a strange land.

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Season One, Episode Twenty - “The Road Ahead”

Sun, 11 Jul 2021 18:38:42 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season One, Episode Twenty - “The Road Ahead”

“Ear Wax.” The old man said.

“Here we go again...” Janet rolled her eyes and lay back against the rock outcrop using her pack as a rough pillow. She arched her back like a cat, stretched her arms out over her head and relaxed to look at him.

“No, seriously…” The old man continued, “How do you deal with ear wax in the apocalypse? You can’t see into your own ears…”

“I’m not touching your disgusting old ears.” Janet responded, hoping this was the end of this particular conversation.

They were on a bluff a couple hundred feet above the river. She looked down and across the muddy flow at the smoke rising from another burning town. The bridge spanning the watercourse was dotted with abandoned cars and trucks. The trailer of an 18-wheeler was sticking half out of the water, near one shore, jammed against a bridge pylon.

...

S1 E20 - Outro

So here we are my survivor friends. The end. But, it’s not the end. Think of it like those old SciFi movies where they’d put up the words “The End” and then tag a question mark onto it.

Don’t worry it’s not a question. “We’ll be back.”

It’s one of the strange ironies of these stories is that the more you do it the more ideas you have. It’s like a perpetual motion machine.

Because I am super psyched! Really. I am so pleased with the way this season came out. I am in love with these characters and their arcs. I’m in love with this universe that we’ve created. I’m in Love with Robert’s audio performance. It really came together and beat all my expectations.

And you! Nothing happens unless you show up my survivor friends. I am so grateful for your attention, especially in this attention scarce world that we live in.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I just went over to A-cast and checked; we’re at 13,000+ downloads. Which is amazing. Thank you to all of you who have left a review or shared the show with your friends.

I hope you’ve noticed that I’ve tried to keep the narrative smart. Not just string together action and dialogue. Assume that you folks don’t need me to explain everything. I can reference history, or philosophy or literature and you are going to get it.

So, again, thank you for being a smart audience. Pat yourself on the back. You earned it.

Hopefully you liked episode 20. I know it was dialogue heavy. I wanted to fill in some gaps and cement the journey of these three characters. Coming up in season 2 we’ll introduce some new characters, and we’ll raise the stakes as this universe starts to coalesce into centers of gravity.

I did a fun interview with Mike from the Apocalypse Post podcast this weekend. We had a blast talking about the characters and the show. I’m going to get the recording of that and we’ll stick it on the feed here so that you can listen to it.

Hey Mike, thanks for having me.

His universe is more of a Mad Max universe. I remember Mad Max. I actually saw the Road Warrior first, which was Mad Max 2. It had everything a good apocalypse movie should, a good anti-hero, a dog and lots of action in the wastelands.

Road Warrior was a great movie. I loved it. Mad Max was a pretty good movie too. The original Mad Max movie cost $200k to make and made $13M. That makes it one of the most profitable movies of all time. I guess there is money to be had in the apocalypse.

Anyhow, Mike and a few thousand others get costumed up like Mad Max characters and go out into the desert to a festival called “Wasteland”. If any Wastelanders are listening – welcome thanks for spreading the word, have fun this year, it’s coming up in 10 weeks.

I’ll give you a little fan-boy trivia. There was a role in the Road Warrior called warrior woman that was played by Virginia Hey who was also the blue skinned alien Zotoh Zhaan in the cheesy SciFi show FarScape.

Next up I’m going to hit ‘pause’ on the show production for a couple months. We’re sitting at the middle of July 2021, Let’s shoot for starting Season 2 in September. So don’t’ delete us, stay in touch.

In the meantime, I’m going to convert season one into a book, e-book and audio book, if I can swing it. I’ll be posting various progress reports and looking for help from readers and spell checkers on our Facebook page. Join me - “OldManApocalypse”.

As always I am working to a tight budget, like the first Mad Max film! – so if you can go to the Patreon page for After the Apocalypse and throw me some money it makes everything easier. Just to be fully transparent, we are not talking about a lot of money here, but currently the variable costs per show are about double the income.

As they say in the startup world – we’ve got a negative burn rate. With your help I can turn that around!

That’s it for this season my friends.

I feel a bit sad having to say goodbye to you for a couple months.

Don’t worry, we’ll find a way to fill in some of that dead space.

So chin up, one foot in front of the other, and above all else – Keep surviving!

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Season One, Episode Nineteen - “The Gauntlet”

Sat, 26 Jun 2021 19:45:26 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season One, Episode Nineteen - “The Gauntlet”

“I don’t like it.” KJ said.

“Of course you don’t.” the old man said in return. “Besides the obvious answer that the world has gone to hell, why not?”

“There’s too much smoke. Why would there be so much smoke this many weeks in? Who’s burning stuff and why are they doing it?”

“Maybe it’s a barbeque.” The old man joked. “Yah know, short ribs, beer… It does smell like cooking meat.”

“Maybe they’ll barbeque your scrawny ass, old man.” She countered. “It smells more like plastic or tires or something.”

Bill sniffed at the air and didn’t seem pleased with what he smelled, but for now he could only pace and offer up an occasional worried whine.

...

Greetings my survivor friends. How’s the apocalypse treating you?

Special welcome to my daughter, who pitched in with the typo hunting in this episode. Thanks for the great Father’s Day card!

I am stunned and amazed that here we are, episode 19. Who knew we’d be able to pull it off. This chapter was fun to write. I think we have a clear understanding of who these characters are – so I can drop them into situation and let them speak for themselves.

We see our female protagonist Janet, a.k.a KJ the Killer, slipping into that ambiguity that the end of the world forces on people. We see the old man teetering on the brink of reality and sanity. We see the world thrashing about in the worst types of reactions that befall humans.

The question is which way will they all slide? What will they choose? Do they even have a choice?

We introduced that there is a ‘big bad’ roaming around as the world starts to coalesce around survivors. The ‘big bad’ is more than an antagonist to create narrative tension. The big bad is an alternate blueprint. He is the dark side of humanity that is always just outside, peering through that little window shaped like a porthole in the front door of civilization waiting for us to make a mistake.

And that’s always the tension with humanity.

Civilization is a chaos suppressant. Civilization sees chaos as evil. All our religions have a manifestation of chaos, from Loki, to the Devil, to Coyote – there’s always that tension between order and chaos, or more pedantically, good and evil.

If you don’t have that tension, then the story is just action without purpose. Or horror without purpose. Or comedy without purpose. And when the narrative fiction falls into that space you lose interest in the fate of the characters and all the action in the world can’t keep it going.

You need stakes. Unless there are stakes. Unless there is tension. There is no compelling narrative.

And that’s the fun part of creating a dystopian, apocalyptic universe. You get to decide how that tension of good versus evil is resolved.

Anyhow… enough with the ontology.

And speaking of Coyote the mischief making chaos god of some Native Americans - Here’s my reading list tip for you this week. The Tony Hillerman books about Navajo police detective Joe Leaphorn? I’m not a big mystery fan, but I started listening to these on audio book when I was commuting from my home outside Boston up to an office in Quebec City Canada.

It’s a long drive.

I would get books on tape at the local library for the ride. Hillerman was an Albuquerque New Mexico resident and did a great job describing the Southwest US cultures, and in particular the Native American mythologies. The audio books, if you can find them, are read by Native American voice actors and the cadence of the read is amazing.

There ya go – grab some Hillerman audio books for your summer vacation.

In two weeks we will present the last chapter, chapter 20, in this first season. Then we’ll take a pause to turn the first season into an e-book, a paperback and an audio book. I’ve got a copy editor to work through the scripts and I’ve got a couple artists working on cover art.

I’m recruiting a book launch team and typo hunters. Come over to FaceBook and join the After the Apocalypse group that can be found by searching for “OldManApocalypse” – all one word – and pitch in.

I’m asking nicely. I could use the help.

I’m happy with how this season and the overall format came out. We’re up over 11,000 downloads now. That’s not bad for 6 months in as an indie podcast.

The format lends itself to binge listening. The short consumable episode length and consistency allow people to just queue them up and march through them. Another irony of the podcasting world is that what took me 6 months to produce takes you a couple days to consume!

I can keep up with this fortnightly cadence and still produce a decent quality product. Unfortunately for you I have a full-time job and other things to attend to or I would be cranking out a season monthly!

The next season we are going to add more compelling characters to the universe, we are going to add situations and institutions and threats that test our survival skills.

So stick with us after the break. I hope all of you up in my hemisphere are enjoying your summers and those of you in antipodal hemispheres are enjoying your winters.

As always I could use your support on the Patreon page to keep paying the bills. And I can use your participation on the facebook group at oldmanapocalypse.

And of course keep leaving 5-star reviews on iTunes and keep telling your friends.

And together, we will keep surviving.

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Season One, Episode Eighteen - “The Shot”

Sun, 13 Jun 2021 19:37:57 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season One, Episode Eighteen - “The Shot”

(Narrator)

What runs through the mind of a dog?

Not just a dog, but a soldier and a veteran.

FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF BILL THE DOG (think of him as a soldier grunt. He speaks simply and mostly in the present tense, but with urgency:

Now.

It is quiet. I am alert.

My pack is safe.

I see them on the roof of the building. The large cat waits below.

The pack is my duty. I protect the pack. I fight and die for the pack.

I hold here out of reach of the cat, waiting. It is hot. I am thirsty and hungry.

But I will wait. Until my new man says otherwise.

The new man commands less than my soldier.

The new man gives commands.

But the woman acts like pack leader.

There is only now. There is only the mission.

I can fight. I can harass. I can run.

But I must protect the pack.

...

Outro S1 E18 – The Shot

Hello my survivor friends. How’s the apocalypse going? The is Chris your host fro this apocalyptic after-party. Thank you for showing up and joining the old man and KJ for an adventure!

I really liked Robert’s read of this one. I think he got the dialogue just right. I had written these two chapters about the animal farm in 2020 during the height of the pandemic while I was experimenting with this universe to see if it merited the effort of my attention.

I wrote it originally as a two-parter with the cliff-hanger. This time around I tried to cram it into 1 episode but it would not be crammed so we left the original 2-parter structure with the cliff hanger and fleshed out the dialogue a bit.

I think it works.

We are 2 episodes away from wrapping up season 1. Like I said before, we are going to take a break after episode 20 and turn the first season into a paperback, ebook and audio book. The mechanics of this are not unfamiliar to me. I have done it before, but not for a couple years.

I contracted a starving artist to work on a cover for me and another to edit it back into book form. The difference between writing for an audio read and a regular read is minor but I think it’s worth the help.

When I write for audio I break up the paragraphs into smaller chunks and phrases to reinforce the cadence. So I’m having a nice lady from Jamaica go through and pull some of those back together for readability. Also she’ll delete all the audio instruction notes, look for typos and blatant grammar issues, like dangling participles.

I would love to have any of you who are readers support the book launch if you’re game. I could use typo hunters. You get a pre-release of the book. Come over and join the FaceBook group for After the Apocalypse and join the team.

I’ll apologize for making you work hard, but There are a bunch of Facebook groups and pages called After the Apocalypse, mine is https://www.facebook.com/groups/oldmanapocalypse/

Another thing I’ll be recruiting for is a book launch team. In couple months when all this comes together I’ll need help in, for lack of a better word, marketing. Again, FaceBook, After the apocalypse.

Since we last talked I’ve been reading a Robert Heinlein, retrospective called Requiem, which if you are interested you can procure on Thriftbooks for $5.29. It a collection of “unreleased” stories and other stuff. One of the stories is a novella he wrote in 1950 called Destination Moon.

You may know him from his more famous works, Stranger in a Strange Land, Time Enough for Love, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

This novella or short story depending on your appetite is followed by piece, penned by Heinlein about the making of a movie from the story.

So I, curious as I am for the literary obscura, of course went out and hunted down the movie, which you can watch on Youtube.

It’s interesting because it is such a time capsule, (pun intended), of a sort of religion of hard science that came out of American engineering culture in this post world-war 2 time. This golden age of science fiction.

Heinlein was involved in the movie production and they worked really hard to make sure that the science of it made sense. That the gravity and the exit velocities and all the other stuff actually made sense. It ends up as almost a documentary of sorts.

These guys were one of the big influences in turning the American cultural knobs towards space. Cheerleading, if you will, that going to the moon was not fantasy, not fiction, but science. And if the incompetent bureaucratic government would just get out of the way of industrialists and engineers it be done. And it could be done before the Russians did it!

But, it’s a great example of what the sci-fi of the time was all about. They loved hard science. They thought every problem could be solved by smart, brave, independent minded engineers. It was this vision of reimagining the world as a fact-based, science-based libertarianism.

Heinlein is famous for the following quote:

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” ― Robert A. Heinlein

And, yes, if all this sounds sort of pseudo religious, religions were founded based on this scientific-libertarianism. These guys believed that the soft-sciences of psychiatry and religion could be fed into the logically precise meat grinder of science, and that what came out the other end would be free of all the emotional clap-trap of society.

I bet you’ve all heard of Dianetics which grew out of this process by golden age sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard. But, you probably haven’t heard of the Church of All Worlds a neopagan religion that was founded in California (of course, because all the crazy head for the coasts) based on the writings of Robert Heinlein.

So, I guess the moral here is be careful what you imagine, be careful what you write, be careful what you believe because sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. These golden age writers, by pouring their beliefs and realism into their writings made them compelling, more than stories for boys, and, quite literally, changed the world.

Sorry for the long screed, but I find it all very interesting and thought you might too.

Remember to make a donation at the Patreon Group, I am reading extra credit stories into audio for members there.

Join the Facebook group and volunteer to be a typo hunter or a member of the book launch team.

Maybe you and I can change the world.

But above all else, put one foot in front of the other, confront each morning with joy and Keep Surviving.

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Season One, Episode Seventeen - Prey

Sat, 29 May 2021 20:11:23 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season One, Episode Seventeen - “Prey”

It was a bumpy and uncomfortable ride. And the old man chittered on happily behind her like old people…or crazy people do.

Like when your Mom or Granma keeps an entire conversation going regardless if you are even listening.

Those interminable phone calls Janet used to avoid and dread, droning on and on about the flotsam and jetsam of an old person’s life, only to surface from the lily pads every once in a while, to ask some prying or unanswerable...personal question.

Janet felt a momentary pang of sadness.

Maybe she should have taken the time to talk when she had the chance.

Before everyone she knew was taken by the Apocalypse.

...

Outro – S1 E17 After the Apocalypse – Prey

Hello and welcome back by survivor friends! So we have our two protagonists trapped on a roof in the apocalypse! Just like many of us feel most of the time!

Hope you all are enjoying it. We’ve gotten up to 8500 downloads. And believe it or not we’ve managed to knock out 17 episodes, which is about 42,500 words!

My plan is to find a good stopping point in the next 2-3 episodes and end season 1. Don’t worry, I won’t go away, I might take a couple weeks off, but I’ll be back. I’m going to turn the existing words and audio into a book set.

If you think about it, it makes sense. I’ve already got the content built so I might as well leverage it into a book, e-book and audio book. It’s pretty easy these days to self publish and I’ve done it before a couple times, both on Amazon and Audible.

Of course , you, yes you, can help.

First, I’ve started a Facebook group called AfterTheApocalypse all one word. You can go there and chat with other survivors and give me some feedback. Second, while you there you can help me vet some cover ideas. Third, I’m going to need a launch team when I release the book(s) so you can help with that.

And finally, as always, you can help me survive by dropping a nickel in the slot of the Patreon page and telling a few science fiction geek friends about the podcast.

I have been watching and reading some interesting SciFi over the last couple weeks.

First, I watched the new Netflix apocalypse movie “Army of the Dead”. I won’t spoil it for you but it was pretty disappointing. I really like Dave Bautista, especially his role as Drax the Destroyer in the Guardians of the galaxy movies, but he couldn’t save this one.

Second, and on a much more positive note, the new season of Love, Death + Robots on Netflix was incredible. This is a series of animated shorts, but they are all incredibly robust, standalone stories each with a beginning, middle and end. The Drowned Giant, based on a story by J.G Ballard, is an amazing and thoughtful piece that speaks volumes without having to say much.

Snow in the Desert, based on a story by Neal Asher was a really good apocalyptic treatment. I would pay real money and go see a movie treatment of those characters and that universe. It’s a shame there are only 8 episodes in this whole new season.

Moving along down the short fiction video quality scale is a channel on YouTube called Dust. It’s a whole bunch of short SciFi videos. Some better than other. Some seem almost like trailers for the move the artist wanted to tell but didn’t have the money for a full-length film. What they lack in quality they make up for in quantity.

And, if you’re really brave or bored you can meander into the SciFi sorts on Vimeo. Some of these have promise but many look like high school computer graphics projects gone awry.

I also finished reading David Brin’s Sundiver. This is the first novel in his Uplift series. The premise of his universe is cool. All intelligent life in the galaxy only exists because some previous, older races uplifted them. Mankind is treated mostly derisively by the rest of the intelligent life because they don’t know who their parent race was, or even worse, uplifted themselves by accident, which is unheard of. Man in turn, once they have the knowledge of these other, more advanced, alien races uplifts dolphins and chimps.

Brin is in real life an accomplished astrophysicist, and this makes hie prose and SciFi nice and tight. None of that magical-fantasy crap to make things work. All the future tech is well thought out.

This was a drop-back read for me. I found his second book in this series at a book sale and liked it enough to go back and read the first. Good book, worth a read, but at close to 400 pages it took a fair amount of concentration from me to get though it.

That’s probably more a comment on my life and my attention span than Brin’s work!

Come on over and join the facebook page and say ‘hi’. Get ready for the end of season one, we’ll have a party!

But, above all else, my friends, Keep Surviving.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

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Season one, Episode Sixteen, “Infected”

Sat, 15 May 2021 14:19:33 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode Sixteen, “Infected”

The old man pushed himself to a sitting position, his back against the far wall of the pit. He reflexively clutched at his shoulder and massaged the side that had taken the brunt of the impact. He could hear the steady drip of water falling from the cliff face and the wind pushing dead leaves around up above.

He slowly lifted his gaze to the surface level to assess the real enigma: the woman.

...

Outro Thoughts – S1E16

May 15th 2021

Hello, my Apocalypse surviving friends. How are we doing this week? Are you managing to stay one step ahead of the evil undead as civilization crumbles around you? If so, in the immortal words of Bill Murray, “So – you got that going for you.”

This week, 16 chapters in, we finally bring our two protagonists together. The old man and Janet. I was going to title the chapter “Meet Cute” as a satire on all the Hallmark movies ever made. You know the one’s…Somewhere in act one the slightly attractive woman who has had to go back to Christmas Valley because her family’s cupcake business is in danger of being taken over by an evil developer and her father is sick? Anyhow, somewhere in act one she stumbles into traffic and almost gets run over by a slightly attractive man who she immediately hates, but you can tell there’s a spark there?

Yeah, except in my meet cute she wants to bash his head in. Spoiler alert, I’m not a big fan of shoehorning romantic subplots into science fiction. I don’t see these two ever having that kind of relationship but I’m willing to write it if you want! It would be a challenge.

A couple of questions and announcements for you. First, I have set up a Facebook group for this show and I will start populating it with these outros and a whatnot. The link to find it is OldManApocalypse – all one word. https://www.facebook.com/groups/oldmanapocalypse It’s a private group so I have to accept you, I think, but if I set it to public it just gets too spammy.

Go out and join up so we can trade stories and I can get some feedback. My first order of business is to post some fan art that my buddy Dave’s daughter drew for us. I think she did a pretty good job. Take a look and tell me what you think.

So, I had a question, did any of you get lost in the timeline here? Meaning, I left the cliff-hanger in episode 13 where the old man gets pushed into the pit. Then I dropped back for two episodes to fill us in on what Janet’s been up too. Then I brought the timeline back together at the pit. Did I lose you? I had one of my readers get confused. Go to the Facebook group and tell me if I lost you.

Also, over the last two weeks I figured out how to manage the integration of Acast and Patreon. I set it up so I can create bonus episodes and if you are a Patron you get them exclusively. I have already dropped one bonus episode from another apocalypse universe I play in called “The Dead Frontier”, and I’m dropping a reading of a early Vonnegut story “2 B R 0 2 B” which is in the public domain. I’m going to keep creating these bonus episodes for patrons so go to the patreon page, sign up as a member and get the extra, good stuff.

This week I’m going to refer you to a Apocalypse movie from 1962 called “Day of the Triffids”. Based on a novel of the same name by James Wyndam from 1951. It was very big in the UK. It was remade and modernized in 2009 as a BBC series with among others Eddie Izzard and Vanessa Redgrave. You can see both versions for free on YouTube.

I remember seeing this as a kid on one of the B-movie Horror and science fiction shows I liked and it always stuck with me. It’s basically a zombie apocalypse but instead of zombies there are carnivorous plants walking around England. In the original novel the plants were created by the Soviets and kept in thrall because they produced Oil. In the 2009 version the Soviets are replaced by mindless corporations.

The interesting twist in this movie is that there is meteor shower that makes 90% of the population go blind. You get this interesting apocalypse with wandering killer plants and disabled people.

This move had some of the classic apocalypse tropes that you will recognize in more modern tales. The first one being the ‘waking up in the hospital and everything has gone to shit’ trope. This is where the protagonist has been unconscious or otherwise waylaid in a hsptial bed and misses the events at the opening of the apocalypse. Think Walking Dead and 28 Days Later the awesome 2002 Danny Boyle zombie film – both referenced this device from Triffids.

Another device here is the ‘hey we survived the apocalypse let’s have an orgy!” trope. I don’t think I’ve watched or read an apocalypse treatment that doesn’t’ have a scene where the survivors figure the best response to the apocalypse is to have a big party/orgy. Usually, it’s the army guys. I guess that says something g about human nature because I can totally see that being a response.

Another theme pioneered here is the uprising of a abused sub-class to overthrow their masters. In this case it’s the plants who turn against their masters. But, this is a deeper theme, and especially in 1962 England, where there was real fear of the peoples the British Empire had colonized turning around and taking over.

Anyhow, I’d recommend ay and all of the Trifid pieces with a bottle of beer, a bag of salty snacks and a comfy couch on a rainy afternoon.

Those are my thoughts for the week. Remember to like us, leave a review, forward to your friends and enemies. Go forth and join the ‘new’ Facebook group so we can trade ideas.

And above all, Keep Surviving.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

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Season one, Episode Fifteen, “Not-So-Innocent”

Sat, 01 May 2021 18:06:05 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode Fifteen, “Not-So-Innocent”

A sharp wind evaporated the sweat from Janet’s arms. She felt a chill, like a passing ghost. Her heart settled from a hard drumbeat in her chest to a low rhythmic thump as she walked, recovering from her run.

She felt cleaner now.

Refreshed.

The familiar ache of bone and muscle comforted her.

She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt and looked ahead at the vehicle in the road.

What was going on with this overheated camper van?

It was an older, boxy model. The hood was propped open, and she could smell the metal of the overheated radiator.

Janet could hear snippets of argument as she cautiously approached.

It was hard to get all of it. The wind was gusting, creating white noise that washed out the voices, making them fade in and out like a bad phone connection.

She approached the van on the opposite side from where the people were arguing. Better to stay unnoticed. Was this even something that she wanted to get involved with?

...

Episode Commentary

Season One, Episode Fifteen – “Not so Innocent”

Hello and welcome back my survivor friends. How are we all doing? How’s the apocalypse treating you?

What did you think of the episode? Frankly I struggled writing this one and my editing team helped A LOT! Thank you Duane! If anyone wants to help with writing or editing please feel free to reach out.

I didn’t want to just have action. The action turns into “he-said-she-said” type motion-without-meaning after a while. And that get’s boring.

There are no stakes. Not snakes, stakes. You always have to ask and answer that question: what are the stakes here?

On the flip side you don’t want to bulk up with too much exposition and emotions – because that gets boring too.

The key is to marry the exposition and stakes with the action. Have what the characters do and say make your points for you.

Language is a powerful thing. Story telling is a basic, human, powerful thing.

So – long story short (pun absolutely intended) I had to wrestle with that in this episode.

I wanted to make sure that we were understanding the motivation of the characters and moving the broader narrative forward and even exploring some deeper themes.

And, as it turns out, this is a common theme in apocalyptic literature – how does your current pre-apocalypse skill set translate into a post-apocalyptic world? It’s not just preppers and backwoodsmen who will do well. It’s also the resilient, the fast, the smart and those willing to lead.

And to show this we take individuals out of the real world and drop them int the apocalypse – in our case Janet the type-A lawyer and the old man, a disgraced doctor turned ultra-runner.

That’s the theme that I’m trying to play with. And that’s what makes science fiction so much fun. Because you can create these mashups and play with them. What would a pre-school teacher do in an alien invasion? What would the ballet-teacher do in an alternate universe? I don’t know but you could write that story.

One of my favorite versions of this is when Rod Serling dropped a book loving bank teller into the apocalypse in episode 8 of the original Twighlight Zone titled “Time Enough at Last”. First aired in 1959 and based on a story by Lynn Venable.

In this episode Henry Bemis played by Burgess Meredith,. loves books yet is surrounded by those who would prevent him from reading them. (You know Burgess Meredith as the original Penguin in the Batman TV series and as Rocky’s crusty old coach Mickey in the Rocky movies.)

The episode follows Bemis through a post-apocalyptic world, touching on such social issues as anti-intellectualism, the dangers of reliance upon technology, and the difference between solitude and loneliness. In the end he breaks his glasses so he can’t read the books even though he’s the last one alive.

This was one of the most popular episodes of the original Twilight zone.

Anyhow, that’s an example of how you can make an episode compelling without much action at all.

…

Congratulations to all of you my surviving friends in the apocalypse. We are over 5,000 downloads strong now. Let’s push it to a million! Tell some friends, keep it moving. Post the link to the show in your social. You my friends are our personal agents of chaos spreading the apocalypse love.

I do need more of you to join the patreon page as members. I want to be able to keep the storygoing. And you can help me survive with your support.

As Patreon Members you get full access to scripts and show notes.

But I am going to sweeten the pot.

If you go and join Patreon at any level I’m going to give you special, members only episodes.

https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse?fan_landing=true

Starting with this one here from one of my other apocalypse universes.

Insert clip here.

So if you want to hear more of that, and get other shows I’m going to drop go join the patreon page so I can keep the show going.

Thank you all very much and until next time…Keep Surviving!

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

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Season one, Episode Fourteen, “Run”

Sat, 17 Apr 2021 14:12:21 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode Fourteen, “Run”

Janet ran...

...and the obscenities pouring from the man she had just left bleeding in the dirt faded away…

like the man himself.

He was nothing. He was a threat that had been dealt with.

Like she always dealt with threats.

She had the hard skills, built up over years of practice. She could dominate most situations. Her force of will bent others to her path.

And if they didn’t bend, they got run over or shoved aside.

KJ the Killer.

...and she ran.

...

Outro S1E14

Hello my fellow survivors. How is the apocalypse treating you?

This is Chris your host. And a fine Saturday morning it is up here in New England.

We had a storm fly through yesterday with wind and rain and snow.

I was worried about our friend Tim who has been helping with the story ideas and editing. He’s been out on the Appalachian trail for 2 weeks. He’s currently passing through the area near where Janet and the old man are struggling to survive the apocalypse in our story.

Imagine if a storm like this hit out in the Smoky Mountains while they’re out in the trail? I’ll have to see if we can work a storm into the story.

When I was a teenager, I spent a week hiking in the Joyce Kilmer National Forest which is near there, a bit south. It would have been this time of year.

I remember we did get an ice storms a couple days, but you just crawl into your tent and wait it out. I remember waking up an hitting the plastic tarp overhead and the ice shattering and sliding off.

But we survived. I would have been 16 and just rolling out of wrestling season, so stupid but indestructible.

…

Speaking of hiking adventures in the wilderness, my wife forced me to watch a movie called Into the Grizzly Maze from 2015, mostly because she likes to look at the actor James Marsden.

I’ll be honest it was a silly movie about an angry Grizzly bear who likes to eat people. For some reason they talked some A-list talent into it. Billy Bob Thorton is underused as the bear hunter, think Quint from Jaws.

Thomas Jane was one of the main characters, who is one of my favorite actors, you may know him as detective Joe Miller in The Expanse, which is one of the best hard space Scifi shows to come out recently.

Or, for you Marvel fans, Thomas Jane was the original Punisher who went after John Travolta in 2004.

God knows how these actors got caught up in the hot mess that is ‘Grizzly Maze”. I suspect a paycheck was involved.

…

Looking out my office window this morning, the forsythia is out and my cherry tree is about to bloom.

What did you think of this week’s story?

Janet is discovering or rediscovering her strength and how it can help her in the Apocalypse.

…

I’ve been reading through a SciFi series called the Lost Fleet over the last year. I’m about to crack into the 8th and final book. It’s a Space Epic but I also realized last night that it parallels Xenophon’s Anabasis.

Bear with me, here. Xenophon was a Greek mercenary with a force of 10,000 other Greek mercenaries hired by Cyrus the Younger to help him seize the throne of Persia from his brother, Artaxerxes II, in 401 BC.

Note this is before Rome, and a70 years before Alexander the Great.

Anyhow, they march deep into Babylon and Cyrus gets killed in battle. The opposing Persian commander invites the Greek leader and his staff to a banquet to talk things out and instead has them killed.

This leaves the 10,000 Greek mercenaries deep in hostile territory with no leaders. So they elect Xenophon, who leads them out of Persia and back to Greece with a tactically brilliant retreat.

To make a long story short that is exactly the story line of this lost fleet series, except with spaceships.

I feel like I have to reach out to the author and ask him if that was his intent. I’d be curious to know if it was or if it was just an example of how universal human stories are.

If you want to delve more deeply into any of this the links are in the show notes and on an accompanying post at my Patreon page.

Survivors, we are about to crack 4,00 downloads, which is good, but we can do better! I need your help. I need you to like the show, post a review and, most importantly, tell 3 friends about it. Please share the show on social.

I really want to start publishing weekly, but I can’t afford to unless I get more survivors to tune in. I’m just a guy doing what he loves, not a corporation, so I need your help.

If you enjoy the story help me keep it going by contributing $5, $10, $20 to the Patreon.

It is Patreon.com/aftertheapocalypse all one word.

Do it now. Let’s keep it going and until next time, keep surviving.

…

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Season one, Episode Thirteen, “The Dig”

Sat, 03 Apr 2021 18:26:06 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode Thirteen, “The Dig”

The old man kept a slow but steady pace down the gravel road. It was getting on in the day and he needed to start thinking about shelter for the night.

Bill, the dog trotted about 10 yards ahead as the vanguard.

A small dust cloud rose behind them marking their progress.

The old man thought about that.

...

Hello my survivor friends,

How is the apocalypse treating you? Happy Easter! I figure rabbits will probably survive the apocalypse, right? Cockroaches and rabbits.

There’s a zombie online multiplayer game I play called Dead Frontier, yes, I’m all in on the apocalypse, and for the easter event you get to kill zombie bunnies.

Reminds me of Monty Python – “It’s just a Bunny Rabbit!” – You kids who don’t know what I’m talking about go stream Monty Python and the Holy Grail and you can thank me later.

Did you like today’s cliff-hanger? Maybe it was more of a pit-hanger.

Good news we at about 3500 downloads. We have new listeners in Minsk Belarus, Dhaka Bangladesh and Portoviejo Ecuador. All places I’ve yet to visit. I have been at Mahabalipuram on the Bay of Bengal, but that’s another story.

Send me an email if you are listening form one of these far-flung places. Love to get your feedback.

cyktrussell@gmail.com

I need a favor from all you great people, whether Belarusian, Bangladeshi or Ecuadorian. Go into whatever podcast app you’re using and leave a review. Just a quick note. That’s what drives the algorithms. And we all love algorithms.

If you’re feeling super motivated tell a few friends. If we, you and I and Dmytri from Belarus can grow this tribe I can accelerate to weekly episodes and I’d really like to do that.

If you are just beside yourself with enthusiasm you can throw some Belarusian rubles, some Bangladeshi taka or some Ecuadorian dollars – because, yeah, Ecuador switched their currency to the US dollar – and you can do that at my Patreon page patreon.com/aftertheapocalypse.

I listened to a couple interesting SciFi stories recently. I like these short SciFi stories because they have that one really interesting idea that makes you say ‘Huh’.

One is a story called Things by Peter Clark - Have you ever seen a movie called The Thing? It was released in 1982 starring Kurt Russell (no relation) and directed by John Carpenter, based on a book by John Campbell from 1938.

Now you might be thinking, ‘gee all of those names sound familiar’ and you’d be right. John Carpenter the prolific director who brought you the Halloween moves, as well as some other B-movie SciFi classics like Escape from New York, also with Kurt Russell in 1981, just a year before The Thing, and one of my personal favorites, They Live with professional wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper.

And of course John Campbell, who wrote the original story, was one of those giants of the golden age of Science Fiction, both as a writer and the editor of Analog.

I know, I know, I keep doing this to you, but trust me all of these factors come together to make The Thing a great sort of SciFi-Grindhouse mashup with lots of practical horror effects. The links to all of this stuff is in the notes and don’t get me started on Adrienne Barbeau!

Any of these movies would be a good streaming choice for SciFi lovers on a Friday night in the apocalypse.

The critics hated Carpenter’s version of The Thing at the time. No one knew what to do with a horror – SciFi mashup, but I liked it.

There was an original version in 1951 called The Thing from Another World, which I have seen and was pretty good for it’s time.

Anyhoo – to make a long, complicated, meandering story short - the Peter Clark story I listened to on a bike ride reimagines that movie from the alien’s point of view.

If you have seen the movie this story, especially as read by Kat from Clarkesworld, is just an awesome fun-house mirror read of the same story from a different angle I really enjoyed it.

That’s it my survivor friends, this is Chris your lead survivor wishing you a happy Easter and as always…

Keep on Surviving!

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Season one, Episode Twelve - Partners

Sat, 20 Mar 2021 14:45:28 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode Twelve, “Partners”

The old man spent the rest of the day with Bill. They were feeling each other out.

Learning each other.

The old man was sore and tired from the day’s digging. He figured another day of rest couldn’t do any harm. Another night of good sleep inside wouldn’t hurt either.

A couple more good meals to refuel.

Bill seemed less concerned now but was still following the old man around. Right on his heels most of the time. Watching him.

...

Outro S1 E12

We are 12 episodes in my survivor friends! You have, ahem, survived this far into the story!

Thank you – this is Chris your cruise director. Now we have Bill the dog and the Old man in a partnership. And maybe the old man is starting to step back from the brink of his fatalism?

What happened to Janet? What happened to KJ the killer? What other characters are roaming the apocalypse with them?

Stay tuned to find out!

We are up to 2,390 listener downloads. That’s great. Up 41% since last episode drop. And I blame you. All of you who took the time to tell a friend or give us a like or a review. Keep it up!

I will work my tail off to bring you a new chapter every other week, or fortnightly, for those of you who like that term.

I commit to a steady release schedule so you can plan for it. I know I hate when podcasts are inconsistent. Or when they fade out after a few episodes.

We’ve passed the one-year anniversary of when this idea of the Old Man in the apocalypse came into my head. It was the week the Pandemic started, and I was at a trade show in Atlanta. This picture of the old man popped into my head while I was running down by the Chattahoochee on a rainy morning.

I wrote the first chapter on the plane on my way back home. That’s the last time I was on a plane!

I have read a couple SciFi books since we last talked. I’m an avid and voracious consumer of books. I do like hard science fiction. I think I found a list of ‘best books’ or something so I bought a pile of them from Thriftbooks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Icarus_Hunt The first one was a novel called The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn. Decent book. It’s a bit of a who-dunnit caper in space. The tech was good. The characters were good. The action was good. The story moved right along. It kept your interest by creating tension around the big secrets and slowly teasing them through the narrative until the last act. It seemed a bit rushed at the end with the big reveal and I was left wondering ‘wait, that’s it?’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warchild_(Lowachee_novel) The second was a much bigger book called Warchild by Kiran Lowachee. The characters, especially the main character are very compelling, very deep. It has a bit of ‘Starship Troopers’ in it. It was 400+ pages but quite compelling. I have to admit that the pirate-child-sex-slave themes really creeped me out. On the one hand it’s a testament to the writing, on the other it’s just creepy and I don’t read escapist fiction to get creeped out. This is an amazing piece of work for a first novel.

Links in the show notes, which you can find by looking at them in your podcast player or the website, which points to the website page on Acast, or of course, on the Patreon page.

Both good hard SF novels. I’d recommend them. Tell you what, if you contribute to the patreon for the show I’ll drop ‘em in the mail to you.

Still looking for supporters to help me finance this.

I wanted to thank my friends Tim and Duane for being editors. They pick up stuff that I don’t and it makes the product better for all of us. The show is dedicated to them. And Tim, hopefully you’ll be able to download and listen to podcasts while you’re out on the Appalachian trail this summer.

Hope everyone is enjoying spring, or fall, depending on which side of the planet you’re on. Reach out and say ‘Hi’ at cyktrussell at gmail.

See you next time and Keep Surviving!

Standard outro and links

After the Apocalypse is written and produced by Chris Russell (that’s me) aftertheapocalypse.me

The show is narrated by Robert Weinheimer who’s work can be found at https://commandvoices.com/

The intro and outro music is by Bobby Quinn https://www.fiverr.com/bobbyquinnc

Thank you for listening to After the apocalypse. Make sure to subscribe and please tell your friends. Because this show can only survive the apocalypse with your help.

Be a good survivor and spread the word. Go onto your favorite podcast service and write a review.

One of the best ways to directly support the show is through our Patreon page –go to patreon.com/AfterTheApocalypse https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Links to everything can be found in the episode and show notes.

You can find out more about the show at our website www.aftertheapocalypse.me

Until next week. Thank you for listening and keep surviving.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season One, Episode Eleven, “Service”

Sat, 06 Mar 2021 18:43:59 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode Eleven, “Service”

Bill the dog watched as the man he had brought to the house bent over and touched his fingers to the throat of the Corporal.

Bill let the man touch the Corporal.

He knew the man was trying to help.

But Bill also knew that the Corporal was gone.

He could smell that the body was without life.

He knew death when he smelled it. He had smelled death many times when he and the Corporal were deployed.

In the war.

...

Hello my friends and welcome to the Apocalypse – this is Chris your Apocalyptic cruise director.

Today’s episode is brought to you by my friend Ann who is a writer and owns a social media marketing company. She contributed to my Patreon! Which you can too at patreon/aftertheapocalypse – all on word.

You can find links to all Ann’s stuff in the show notes. If you want to sponsor a show I’ll put your links in the apocalypse as well.

Ann M. Brennan

Owner of Ann's Social Media & Marketing

Creator of Burgers & Bands for Suicide Prevention

Author of A Running Commentary

Subscribe to ASMM Digital on YouTube

I’m usually pretty good about putting links in the notes to anyone or anything I talk about here – so if I reference someone or something, like a movie, an author or a book - I link to it.

I’m also post the episode scripts for members on the patreon page.

I’m in this for the long haul but could sure use your help!

We’re closing in on 2,000 listeners, which I know is a drop in the bucket, but with your help we will grow! Leave a review, tell a friend, let’s keep it going! We added 10 listeners from Japan, domo aregato.

I have worked in Japan, but that’s another story. And we added Denmark, and Finland and Puerto Rico. I’ve been to Demark and Puerto Rico, but I don’t think I’ve been to Finland – so there’s something to look forward to.

I think there are somewhere around 170 – 190 countries in the world, depending on how you count them – so let’s get them all.

Feel free to reach out to me with any ideas or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you! Cyktrussell at gmail dot com.

When I first told Ann about this new project she said, ‘well, that’s nice Chris, but it’s not my cup of tea’. She surprised me with her Patreon contribution – I asked her what changed her mind and she said she loved KJ!

I consider that a success.

Did you like this week’s attempt to see the world through Bill the dog’s eyes? If I can make Ann like one of my female characters, maybe I can make you like my canine friend Bill.

The other thing I’d be interested in some feedback on is the length. I’m purposely keeping these episodes to shortish 2000 word chapters. I’m curious how those string together in the narrative as you’re listening to them. Do you binge through them? Is it long enough to have you looking forward to the next one?

I’d like to release more frequently than every two weeks, but I need some traction to do that so keep reviewing and forwarding. Let’s see if we can’t get some acceleration.

Things are going to continue to get exciting here in the apocalypse.

Let me know if you need anything. Thanks for listening – and Keep Surviving!

Links

After the Apocalypse is written and produced by Chris Russell (that’s me) aftertheapocalypse.me

The show is narrated by Robert Weinheimer who’s work can be found at https://commandvoices.com/

The intro and outro music is by Bobby Quinn https://www.fiverr.com/bobbyquinnc

Thank you for listening to After the apocalypse. Make sure to subscribe and please tell your friends. Because this show can only survive the apocalypse with your help.

Be a good survivor and spread the word. Go onto your favorite podcast service and write a review.

One of the best ways to directly support the show is through our Patreon page –go to patreon.com/AfterTheApocalypse https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Links to everything can be found in the episode and show notes.

You can find out more about the show at our website www.aftertheapocalypse.me

Until next week. Thank you for listening and keep surviving.

...

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season one, Episode ten, “No friends in the apocalypse”

Sun, 21 Feb 2021 18:19:56 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode ten, “No friends in the apocalypse”

The old man separated a leg from the cooked rabbit with his long blade and tossed it to the big dog.

Since they had crawled out of the swamp, the dog had been laying prone, like a sphynx, a few feet away, watching the old man.

The dog’s large curly head rested on extended paws; his expressive brown eyes under bushy eyebrows watched intently, like he was weighing the old man, assessing him in that impenetrable doggie brain.

The dog sniffed at the proffered food and cocked an inquisitive glance at the old man, one eyebrow raised.

...

Outro

After the Apocalypse is written and produced by Chris Russell (that’s me) aftertheapocalypse.me

The show is narrated by Robert Weinheimer who’s work can be found at https://commandvoices.com/

The intro and outro music is by Bobby Quinn https://www.fiverr.com/bobbyquinnc

Thank you for listening to After the apocalypse. Make sure to subscribe and please tell your friends. Because this show can only survive the apocalypse with your help.

Be a good survivor and spread the word. Go onto your favorite podcast service and write a review.

One of the best ways to directly support the show is through our Patreon page –go to patreon.com/AfterTheApocalypse https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Links to everything can be found in the episode and show notes.

You can find out more about the show at our website www.aftertheapocalypse.me

Until next week. Thank you for listening and keep surviving.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season one, Episode nine, “Bill the Dog”

Tue, 09 Feb 2021 00:59:12 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode nine, “Bill the Dog”

Bill the dog watched the old man cooking over a low fire at the edge of a swamp.

It wasn’t a fire that humans would likely see or smell, but a dog’s nose was different. Bill had picked up the scent of cooking game and followed it.

It was an overcast, fall day. The days were noticeably cooler and most of the leaves had been blown from the trees with the approach of winter.

Bill lay concealed in the underbrush and leaves. Silent. Watching. Curious.

The old man’s dinner wasn’t the only scent on the breeze. There was, as always, the background smell of smoke and death that seemed to permeate the apocalypse, but there was something else, too.

There was the smell of other dogs.

...

Show notes:

After the Apocalypse is a serial podcast that tells the story of the survivors of a 21st century plague that has catastrophically wiped out 90% of human population. Will they be able to survive? What happens to our modern world when the great plague comes? Can humankind survive and learn, or will it devolve into a dark ages nightmare of our worst traits? Listen to the story of After the Apocalypse and find out.

After the Apocalypse is written and produced by Chris Russell (that’s me) aftertheapocalypse.me

The show is narrated by Robert Weinheimer who’s work can be found at https://commandvoices.com/

The intro and outro music is by Bobby Quinn https://www.fiverr.com/bobbyquinnc

Thank you for listening to After the apocalypse. Make sure to subscribe and please tell your friends. Because this show can only survive the apocalypse with your help.

Be a good survivor and spread the word. Go onto your favorite podcast service and write a review.

One of the best ways to directly support the show is through our Patreon page –go to patreon.com/AfterTheApocalypse https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Links to everything can be found in the episode and show notes.

You can find out more about the show at our website www.aftertheapocalypse.me

Until next week. Thank you for listening and keep surviving.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season one, Episode eight, “West”

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 12:15:44 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode eight, “West”

Janet stopped the Range Rover and threw it into park. The big car had apparently taken enough abuse and refused to keep running. The engine choked and coughed to a rattling halt.

Stepping out and shaking the last of the glass fragments from her hair and clothes she looked to see what was going on with her father’s truck. It didn’t look like it had crashed, more like it had simply rolled there. She couldn’t see any immediate signs of trouble.

It was with a sense of dread that she climbed down into the ditch to check. She could make out a person inside through the back window.

She was afraid of what she would find.

...

Outro

After the Apocalypse is written and produced by Chris Russell (that’s me) aftertheapocalypse.me

The show is narrated by Robert Weinheimer who’s work can be found at https://commandvoices.com/

The intro and outro music is by Bobby Quinn https://www.fiverr.com/bobbyquinnc

Thank you for listening to After the apocalypse. Make sure to subscribe and please tell your friends. Because this show can only survive the apocalypse with your help.

Be a good survivor and spread the word. Go onto your favorite podcast service and write a review.

One of the best ways to directly support the show is through our Patreon page –go to patreon.com/AfterTheApocalypse https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Links to everything can be found in the episode and show notes.

You can find out more about the show at our website www.aftertheapocalypse.me

Until next week. Thank you for listening and keep surviving.

Episode Outro

Outro S1 E8

Hello my friends, how are we surviving? This is Chris your writer and producer talking to you live from the frozen wastes of New England.

Today we wrapped up the fourth chapter introducing our friend Janet – “KJ – the Killer” – What do you think? Would love some feedback.

As always would love whatever support you can lend me through sharing the story with your friends, (or enemies), as we build our audience and community. I’m enjoying myself but I need your shekels, ducats, real, pounds and dinars to keep the lights on. So do us a solid and got to the Patreon page at patreon.com/aftertheapocalypse and make a donation to keep the story going.

This week I’d like to thank Jim for pitching in. I appreciate the support Jim.

I’ve always been a fan of science fiction and writing this story has led me to think harder about the genre. For a lot of people SciFi is the stuff of 10 year old boys or nerdy men with no social skills. It gets the short shrift, so to speak.

But I’ve always been a fan. I like the way SciFi creates a safe space to explore new ideas. Sort of a sand-box for out-of-the-box thinking. It’s a place where authors can chew on ‘what-ifs?’ and not get beat up culturally for it.

I just listened to a piece by Jordan Hill on the Libertarian History of Science Fiction which was thought provoking. He references the hard SciFi authors from the “Golden Age” of SciFi, like Asimov, Heinlein, and all those great stories. I can remember starting to read “Dune” by Frank Herbert or the Foundation books by Asimov and not being able to put them down.

I’ll share another foundational, (pun intended), story that has influenced me. It’s a book, that started a pulp serial, written by L. Ron Hubbard – yes that L Ron Hubbard – before he went nutty with the Dianetics stuff - called Final Blackout, published in book form in 1948 and very much influenced by the world wars and that generation’s experience in those wars.

It has a character named “The Lieutenant” that is one of the best apocalyptic characters ever written. It’s a bit dated now but it’s a fine piece of writing and I fully intend to lean on it in my apocalypse.

Thank you for listening. If you can contribute some to the Patreon that would be great. I’m posting the transcripts of the shows there and other things, like these outros and character sketches – if youbcome a patron you get access to those.

Please share with your friends. We are 4 weeks into our official launch and we’re just passing 700 listeners. If I can get a couple bucks from 100 true fans I can keep this project going.

My friend Dave is offering to have his daughter do some fan arts on the characters. I love that. I have very clear sense or picture of them in my head but I’d love to see how the picture paints itself for others.

I leave you with that my fellow survivors. Next show we introduce my favorite character so far, and I know you’re going to love him as much as I do. As always – Keep Surviving.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season one, Episode seven, “Home Again”

Sat, 16 Jan 2021 04:59:32 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode seven, “Home Again”

The skies were darkening now as Janet eased the Range Rover onto the entrance ramp to the expressway. Her hands trembled as she gripped the steering wheel hard, adrenaline still pumping through her body.

“That man just committed murder right in front of me”, she said, not sure if she could believe it. What the hell was going on? What was this nightmare? Was it like this everywhere?

...

Buy me Coffee -> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/cyktrussell

Subscribe page on Acast -> https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse

Podcast on Acast -> https://shows.acast.com/after-the-apocalypse

Facebook group -> https://www.facebook.com/groups/oldmanapocalypse

Patreon to support the show -> https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Kindle Vella Story -> https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09LTRC8RH

Merch Store -> https://www.teepublic.com/stores/after-the-apocalypse

Twitter -> cyktrussell@twitter.com

Email List -> https://acast.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a02fed2a783fcc887760255a9&id=e15419e7be

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season One, Episode Six, “Anarchy”

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 20:46:25 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season One, Episode Six, “Anarchy”

Janet glanced back at the nose of the Range Rover sticking out from behind the dumpster.

She regretted having to leave it. It had become the center of her world since fleeing the city the day before.

A safe harbor. A den-like space, comfortable and familiar where she had control.

It couldn’t be helped. She needed fuel. She needed food and supplies.

...

Outro

After the Apocalypse is written and produced by Chris Russell (that’s me) aftertheapocalypse.me

The show is narrated by Robert Weinheimer who’s work can be found at https://commandvoices.com/

The intro and outro music is by Bobby Quinn https://www.fiverr.com/bobbyquinnc

Thank you for listening to After the apocalypse. Make sure to subscribe and please tell your friends. Because this show can only survive the apocalypse with your help.

Be a good survivor and spread the word. Go onto your favorite podcast service and write a review.

One of the best ways to directly support the show is through our Patreon page –go to patreon.com/AfterTheApocalypse https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Links to everything can be found in the episode and show notes.

You can find out more about the show at our website www.aftertheapocalypse.me

Until next week. Thank you for listening and keep surviving.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season one, Episode five, Killer

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 23:25:57 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode five, “Killer”

Her name was Janet Kramer,

(Pause)

but her coworkers called her “KJ”.

She didn’t know why.

She supposed it didn’t matter anymore. The lines on the road flashed by and she started to fade from consciousness again, caught herself and focused.

Who was she now?

In this new landscape of chaos and death?

...

Show notes:

After the Apocalypse is a serial podcast that tells the story of the survivors of a 21st century plague that has catastrophically wiped out 90% of human population. Will they be able to survive? What happens to our modern world when the great plague comes? Can humankind survive and learn, or will it devolve into a dark ages nightmare of our worst traits? Listen to the story of After the Apocalypse and find out.

After the Apocalypse is written and produced by Chris Russell (that’s me) aftertheapocalypse.me

The show is narrated by Robert Weinheimer who’s work can be found at https://commandvoices.com/

The intro and outro music is by Bobby Quinn https://www.fiverr.com/bobbyquinnc

Thank you for listening to After the apocalypse. Make sure to subscribe and please tell your friends. Because this show can only survive the apocalypse with your help.

Be a good survivor and spread the word. Go onto your favorite podcast service and write a review.

One of the best ways to directly support the show is through our Patreon page –go to patreon.com/AfterTheApocalypse https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Links to everything can be found in the episode and show notes.

You can find out more about the show at our website www.aftertheapocalypse.me

Until next week. Thank you for listening and keep surviving.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season one, Episode four, Home Invasion

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 21:14:55 GMT

After the Apocalypse

A pandemic survival story

Season one, Episode four, Home Invasion

The old man was awakened by the sound of men shouting. It took him a minute to shake off the haze and remember where he was. He had to pee but that would have to wait.

“Nothing in the basement!” the first man shouted from the house.

“Check the garage!” The other man shouted back from further away. “The tracks led this way. He was here. Watch yourself.”

...

Show notes:

After the Apocalypse is a serial podcast that tells the story of the survivors of a 21st century plague that has catastrophically wiped out 90% of human population. Will they be able to survive? What happens to our modern world when the great plague comes? Can humankind survive and learn, or will it devolve into a dark ages nightmare of our worst traits? Listen to the story of After the Apocalypse and find out.

After the Apocalypse is written and produced by Chris Russell (that’s me) aftertheapocalypse.me

The show is narrated by Robert Weinheimer who’s work can be found at https://commandvoices.com/

The intro and outro music is by Bobby Quinn https://www.fiverr.com/bobbyquinnc

Thank you for listening to After the apocalypse. Make sure to subscribe and please tell your friends. Because this show can only survive the apocalypse with your help.

Be a good survivor and spread the word. Go onto your favorite podcast service and write a review.

One of the best ways to directly support the show is through our Patreon page –go to patreon.com/AfterTheApocalypse https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Links to everything can be found in the episode and show notes.

You can find out more about the show at our website www.aftertheapocalypse.me

Until next week. Thank you for listening and keep surviving.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season one, Episode three, Home and Castle

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 01:43:38 GMT

After the Apocalypse - A story of pandemic survival

Season one, Episode three

Home and Castle

The old man pushed on as the dirt road turned away from the river and drifted westward. That was a plus because he really didn’t want to go into the city.

He was still on the outskirts of the great sprawl of Atlanta. There were more buildings here, not directly on the dirt road but visible through the pine trees draped with kudzu.

...

Show notes:

After the Apocalypse is a serial podcast that tells the story of the survivors of a 21st century plague that has catastrophically wiped out 90% of human population. Will they be able to survive? What happens to our modern world when the great plague comes? Can humankind survive and learn, or will it devolve into a dark ages nightmare of our worst traits? Listen to the story of After the Apocalypse and find out.

After the Apocalypse is written and produced by Chris Russell (that’s me) aftertheapocalypse.me

The show is narrated by Robert Weinheimer who’s work can be found at https://commandvoices.com/

The intro and outro music is by Bobby Quinn https://www.fiverr.com/bobbyquinnc

Thank you for listening to After the apocalypse. Make sure to subscribe and please tell your friends. Because this show can only survive the apocalypse with your help.

Be a good survivor and spread the word. Go onto your favorite podcast service and write a review.

One of the best ways to directly support the show is through our Patreon page –go to patreon.com/AfterTheApocalypse https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Links to everything can be found in the episode and show notes.

You can find out more about the show at our website www.aftertheapocalypse.me

Until next week. Thank you for listening and keep surviving.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season one, Episode two The Ford of Death

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 01:20:44 GMT

After the Apocalypse - A story of pandemic survival

Season one, Episode two

The Ford of Death

The old man looked around. The river, the smoke, the light drizzle and the soft hump of the body making its way down stream to feed the rats of Atlanta.

He’d seen his share of death. He’d seen worse than this when he was in Africa and the far east where, until not too long-ago, death still stalked the muddy streets in the old ways.

...

After the Apocalypse is a serial podcast that tells the story of the survivors of a 21st century plague that has catastrophically wiped out 90% of human population. Will they be able to survive? What happens to our modern world when the great plague comes? Can humankind survive and learn, or will it devolve into a dark ages nightmare of our worst traits? Listen to the story of After the Apocalypse and find out.

After the Apocalypse is written and produced by Chris Russell (that’s me) aftertheapocalypse.me

The show is narrated by Robert Weinheimer who’s work can be found at https://commandvoices.com/

The intro and outro music is by Bobby Quinn https://www.fiverr.com/bobbyquinnc

Thank you for listening to After the apocalypse. Make sure to subscribe and please tell your friends. Because this show can only survive the apocalypse with your help.

Be a good survivor and spread the word. Go onto your favorite podcast service and write a review.

One of the best ways to directly support the show is through our Patreon page –go to patreon.com/AfterTheApocalypse https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Links to everything can be found in the episode and show notes.

You can find out more about the show at our website www.aftertheapocalypse.me

Until next week. Thank you for listening and keep surviving.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Season one, Episode one - The old man

Sun, 20 Dec 2020 20:24:48 GMT

After the Apocalypse is a serial podcast that tells the story of the survivors of a 21st century plague that has catastrophically wiped out 90% of human population. Will they be able to survive? What happens to our modern world when the great plague comes? Can humankind survive and learn, or will it devolve into a dark ages nightmare of our worst traits? Listen to the story of After the Apocalypse and find out.

...

After the Apocalypse is written and produced by Chris Russell (that’s me) aftertheapocalypse.me

The show is narrated by Robert Weinheimer who’s work can be found at https://commandvoices.com/

The intro and outro music is by Bobby Quinn https://www.fiverr.com/bobbyquinnc

Thank you for listening to After the apocalypse. Make sure to subscribe and please tell your friends. Because this show can only survive the apocalypse with your help.

Be a good survivor and spread the word. Go onto your favorite podcast service and write a review.

One of the best ways to directly support the show is through our Patreon page –go to patreon.com/AfterTheApocalypse https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Links to everything can be found in the episode and show notes.

You can find out more about the show at our website www.aftertheapocalypse.me

Until next week. Thank you for listening and keep surviving.

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Quick Introduction for New Listeners

Tue, 01 Dec 2020 21:00:39 GMT

Hello my survivor friends.

Welcome to a quick introduction to the After the Apocalypse podcast story.

I am putting this first in the feed to save you time and trouble.

I am the producer of the story, and you can call me ‘Maddog’.

What you will find here is an audio drama about the survivors of an apocalypse. It is professionally produced and narrated. The story is presented in seasons of 20 episodes each. As of this writing we are in the 3rd season. We plan to have 5 seasons in the story arc.

Each episode is 15 – 20 minutes of the story followed by 5-10 minutes of commentary.

By default the shows have commercials inserted by the hosting provider, Acast.

If you want to avoid these commercials there is now an Ad-Free option you can subscribe to at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse

If after a few episodes you dig the show and want to find any of the extras, like the subscription, the facebook group, etc, I have put all those links here in the notes of this message.

All you have to do is click “show notes” or whatever the equivalent is in your podcast listening ap of choice and you’ll see all the links.

Thanks for considering our show, we look forward to hanging out in the apocalypse with you!

Subscribe page on Acast -> https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse

Podcast on Acast -> https://shows.acast.com/after-the-apocalypse

Facebook group -> https://www.facebook.com/groups/oldmanapocalypse

Patreon to support the show -> https://www.patreon.com/AftertheApocalypse

Kindle Vella Story -> https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09LTRC8RH

Merch Store -> http://tee.pub/lic/8MubRv7yeAwMy Twitter -> cyktrussell@twitter.com

Email List -> https://acast.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=a02fed2a783fcc887760255a9&id=e15419e7be

Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/after-the-apocalypse.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.