We are not welcome in this world anymore…
That’s what my father used to say, and I agree. The world has been turned inside out and it wants to digest what’s left of us.
—May 13, 02:45
Many years ago, my father saw the dawn of this terrifying new age, the collapse of everything they ever knew. He was my age when it struck and he can’t quite remember how things used to be way back, everything’s a blur. Maybe it’s for the best my mother didn’t live to see what this world has come to. Rest in peace, mom.
To me, it seems like mother nature was really upset with mankind’s ecological tampering and decided to punish us for good. At least, that’s what I’ve learned from the scrapbook we unearthed from a collapsed farmhouse. No answers, just a collection of old, messy notes. Too bad.
We still have some fuel and enough food for weeks to come. I hope we’ll get to run into some kind of community. My father said there were still good-natured people out there. He keeps it to himself, but I think he’s got a cough. Maybe something worse.
—May 21, 23:15
It’s bad. Real bad. We don’t have any directions - not even a map. It’s just doesn’t work. We can’t really see what’s ahead of us, even past our headlights. The thick fog keeps holding us back, keeping in suspense, leading up further offroad. I don’t what’s watching us, what follows us…
Something does. Once we turned to the woodlands, we haven’t been alone ever since.
The radio station has been silent for weeks now. I’m not even sure if anyone is still out there, alive. Maybe, we shouldn’t have made that turn. We’ve run out of gas and we’re stuck here, amid nothingness in the dead swamps.
I’ve lost my father…
—June 9, 06:30
I’ve been fighting this drawn-out battle for survival for a long time now, and this is a losing battle. I’ve seen it through, I don’t think I can go on.
I know it’s there, just outside, even if I can’t see it. I feel it lurk there, waiting for me. It’ll get me when I least expect it, when I all curl up on my deathbed, having spent my pitiful existence hiding in this musty, rotten hearse.
The truth is, as much as I’d like to cling to some idea of betterment and hope, I believe, I wasn’t really born…
I was stillborn…
—August 19, Unknown
Background
Stillborn is a post-apocalyptic eco-horror set in the aftermath of a devastating global cataclysm that, in a chain reaction of extreme natural disasters changed the face of the earth once and for all.
The old world order fell into ruin and the overturned ecosystem brought about new, hazardous living conditions, serving as the onset of the extinction event.
As the madness and desperation steadily took over, the dwindling remnants of mankind now struggle against the odds to live and see another day.
Setting
The story takes place 30 years from that dreadful turnabout, in a roughly-defined Sector 15, commonly known as Toil, a mountainous inland region surrounded by dense, impassable deadwood and a pestilent swampland.
An old radio tower looms over the land and observes isolated survivors, forced to live in shut-in environments, makeshift protection suits, and, as a rare commodity, hermetically-sealed mobile homes, and vehicles, with every outing into the open-air environment posing a risk of the infection.
Food and Water
By this time, crops have failed, with most of the natural foods and water resources contaminated and rendered unfit for consumption, except for sparse canned and bottled reserves out there.
Decades after, most of the emergency food and water reserves have been depleted, or otherwise spoiled, with famine hitting the region hard.
Well-filtered closed system water pools and indoor greenhouses are only known sources of edible food and clean water. Anything exposed to outdoor air may carry the pathogen back in.
Physical and Environmental Threats
Desperation is at large, with most scavengers unable to afford sufficient protection against exposure and the frenzied, bloodthirsty bandits, and disease-stricken crazies lurking about, making those survival odds quite dire.
Although wildlife is believed to be extinct, some strange sightings of uncanny nocturnal creatures persist, which are often attributed to the delirium. All domesticated animals that somehow survived the Downfall eventually go missing when left unattended.
A cloak of a noxious haze now shrouds the land as far as eyes can see, with those who managed to survive the catastrophe suffer from toxin-induced memory loss, delirium, and varying stages of immunodeficiency.
Highly contagious, the insidious airborne virus is suspected to be responsible for a lot of disappearances in isolated groups. Victims of the disease who wander out from the safety of their shelters are never found again.
Downfall - the local term for the Apocalypse that brought about the global devastation 30 years ago
Technology, Resources, and Infrastructure
Most of the modern conveniences are forgone, with web access becoming derelict; survivors now resort to limited means of long-distance correspondence such as through two-way radio or morse, or a more discreet means of dead-drop messaging between acquaintanced groups.
Air and water filters become the necessities of life, along with the medical supplies held in high value among the vagrant traders. Few possess the necessary know-how to manufacture these, so most of the quality filters are passed on from the moribund striders.
Firearms are scarce and the rare supplies of ammunition are almost exclusive to the thrifty hoarders, keeping their goods deep within their strongholds.
There is less fuel than there are working vehicles available, with wheelers risking getting stuck in the middle of nowhere every time they start their engine.
The only active radio station, the Emergency Broadcast Channel (EBC) forecasts regional environmental changes, hazards, and contingency reports, coming on air on an irregular basis and is assumed to be military-operated. If powers that be are still at play is largely unknown.
Hoarder - a common term for a survivor with a secure shelter at one’s disposal
Strider - a common term for a wayfaring survivor, mostly traveling by foot
Wheeler -a common term for a driving survivor, relying on one’s vehicle for mobility
Hosted and narrated by:
Mykolaus (Vangate)
Started 07/30/20.
Scenes played: 2
License: Host License
