The following is an excerpt from a journal found in Miskatonic, MA. It is an personal diary of a survivor in the Great Collapse. The narrator is Howard Robert Phillips, a college student from Midway, PA. The journal details his personal experiences with the Great Collapse as well as his journey from Midway to Miskatonic. The details reveled are startling but have been confirmed by other survivor accounts. We hope that this will shed enough light on the Great Collapse to help us reclaim and rebuild the world.
My name is Howard but all my friends called me Ward for short. Two weeks ago I worked at Movie Stop at night and went to Midway Junior College during the day. My life was pretty normal which means it was pretty boring. A single white male college student between the ages of 18-25, I was society’s prime demographic. I wanted to be a writer or director in Hollywood so I was taking courses on film study and journalism. I figured I’d get some of my basics taken care of at MJC before moving out to LA to pursue further education and a real career.The the apocalypse happened. It seems so weird to actually write that. I mean, the end of the world is happening around me every day and two weeks ago I was eating nachos while watching Family Guy. But it’s really happening. I remember the day it all started. There was a lunar eclipse that night and the next day scientists noticed unusual activity with the sun. I only remember it because there were religious protesters everywhere claiming that this would be the end of the world. Then, there was this massive earthquake. Knocked me on my ass and busted my head open. I mean, I can’t remember when there was an earthquake in Pennsylvania.
The TVs reported it around the world which was nigh impossible but since it happened at the same time the sun started burning black in the sky I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. The sky lit up with a meteoroid shower shortly after that followed by winds that knocked out power to my apartment. The sirens starting blaring and panic filled the streets.
I locked my door and hid in my bathroom, expecting some sort of weird weather system to be the cause. I sat in my bathtub with blankets over me for hours. I could hear the wind howling so loud outside that it blocked out anything else happening. I don’t know how long I stayed hidden there, the wind never stopped so I never felt safe enough to leave. Then as suddenly as it all started, it all stopped. Everything went silent. Unearthly silent. I stayed in my tub for an hour or so longer before I heard a scream outside. I threw off the blankets and ran to my window. I’ll never forget what I saw…
The Miskatonic Chronicles are an upcoming interactive fiction by Rob Justice of the Bear Swarm! Podcast.
This is only a small teaser of the first Chapter. Comments are appreciated.