[Kristen]

I've been watching this peak oil "thing" (maybe consequence) unravel for almost five years and have realized trying to talk about it upfront to those without its knowledge is a concrete wall, semi-truck combination. Therefore, I've decided to put a hint of it in this story I'm working on for class. Although it's not completely finished, the peak oil side of the story is explained in the beginning. Comments please! (but be nice ok??)

Stranded (The Lighthouse)

by Kristen Mcgreagor

“Look, over there!” Gail Gejdenson said excitedly. I don’t know if it was the reddish hue in the November sky, or the fact that the whole country was experiencing an oil shortage, but when I followed her gaze to the darkness of the lighthouse that towered over the Atlantic, eeriness overcame me. However my exhaustion was so great I would’ve slept anywhere under the circumstances.

What was suppose to be a scenic fall break driving up the east coast turned out to be chaos halfway through. There’s no way one can plan for these sorts of things. Fuck, it was like a switch on the supply of gasoline was shut off. Permanently. After our car finally sucked up the last drop from the fuel tank and died, we heard many stories on what really happened from fellow passersby.

The most popular theory was that Al Qaeda bombed the oil refineries along the east coast, leaving us without a drop of gasoline. We came across a geologist shortly after Gail’s Dodge ran out of fuel. He claimed that oil had peaked in 2005 and now the world was headed for permanent decline of petroleum. Whatever the case may have been the four of us were royally fucked. People had started looting food from gas stations and then burning them down. Luckily my roommate’s girlfriend Ainsley had very strong narcotics that we could trade for food. My roommate Nevan Northclif, came up with the idea himself.

We figured that if the country was going to hell, we were better off isolated from the rest of the population. I know what you’re thinking. Just because you leave five minutes early to work, doesn’t mean you’ll get their faster… why? Because everyone else has the same idea in mind. Sure it might have been not the brightest strategy, but what was our alternative? Sprinting into downtown unarmed would be a death sentence. We took side roads out of the suburbs until we reached an endless forest off the coast between New Jersey and Maine.

After surviving the lighthouse I often wonder if we were almost pulled towards it. Perhaps it possessed a sort of gravitational pull. The whole aura of the surrounding woods was far from welcoming. Their bare branches tangled together as if each tree in the forest were performing some sort of ritual dance. So there we were, the three of us, gazing up at Gail as she excitedly trudged up towards the cobblestone steps. What had started as a light mist, had become a steady downpour. Droplets of rain ran down my forehead into my eyes.

“Wait a second,” Ainsley protested.

Gail froze, and spun around, “What?” she asked dumbfounded, We’ve been seeking shelter for hours, and we finally found it.”

“Remember the last supposedly “abandoned” shack we found,” Ainsley put emphasis on the word abandoned, probably to be sarcastic. Nevan turned away from the girls raising his hands. He was not going to jump in the middle of the feud.

Gail sighed, “Ok I admit, almost getting shot down by some renegade group was a little frightening, but look at this place? It looks like no one’s been here in years.” She was right. Overgrown plants and vines ambushed the area surrounding the lighthouse. The once red paint on the wood leading up to the light itself had turned a rusty brown.

“Not too worry,” Ainsley’s brown eyes smiled merrily, “I have just the thing.” Nevan, Gail and I gaped as she let her backpack roll of her shoulders and crouched to the moist grass. “What is it?” Nevan asked. “Just my 40 caliber Gluck. Here name is Gina” Before any of us could respond (I had questions as to why she didn’t tell us earlier when we were being chased by a army with pitchforks) Aisnley grabbed the pistol and her bag and ran for the lighthouse. I almost wanted to tell her to stop, but the howling rain where like bits of ice, stinging my face with each hit. We hustled after her and reached the massive arch angular door. It was locked.

“Shit,” Gail cursed. I wrapped my arms around her, “Let’s just break it down, unless there’s a key around the door,” I shouted over the decanting rain. The wind was picking up speed then, the color of the sky was a swampy green. “I found it,” Nevan said. The key was hidden in a crack of the stone that bordered the archway. He lifted the key and unlocked the door. I shut and locked the door behind us.

Being a smoker, I pulled a lighter out of my front pocket and filled the room with faint light. I would’ve had a cigarette too, but I only had two left (which meant six, because I was only smoking a third at a time). Gail found a candle on a small wooden table to the right of the door. She gave me a smile and lifted it in front of my flame. The room started to take shape. We had entered the living quarters of light station and were in a living room. People had been living here a short while ago I assumed because everything was well kept. “Do you think anyone’s home?” Nevan whispered.

Gail rolled her eyes, “Hello? Is anyone here?”

We all stood in silence for a few moments, expecting something of a reply, but not a soul stirred.

“It looks like it’s ours for the time being,” Ainsley said at a normal voice, “First thing first, let’s get dry.”

“Sounds, good,” I replied, “I’m going to check the fuel house first, and see if I can get the generator started.” Shivering, I stepped back out into the roaring thunder. I ran to the lighthouse, which was connected to the fuel house on the other side. I was ecstatic to find a power generator and a few gallons of propane. When the generator rumbled back to life (Thanks to me) a flash emerged from underneath the door. I ran back outside and to my consternation, the lantern room was bright enough to light a city. I hustled back into living quarters to confide with the others. I figured our best bet was to shut the damn thing off too not attract unwanted attention. It may sound harsh, but the four of us had witnessed the horrible side of human nature. It’s amazing the things we Homo sapiens will do in order to survive, good and bad.

When I entered the living room, the lights had been turned on. The living room looked cozy, but I had work to do. Gail insisted on accompanying me to the top of the lighthouse that towered as if it reached the black heavens above. She was eating a pop tart and handed me one (a healthy meal). Pale yellow light leaked from the lenses as they rotated as we approached it. I noticed fluorescent lighting, which was the Watch/Service Room. One of the elongated bulbs flickered on and off, almost as a warning.

The moment we stood in front of a similar massive arch door of the living quarters, I felt the evilness of the place. The Arch was lined with a golden maple trim and uncanny symbols were carved in crudely. I put my arm in front of her, blocking her from entering.

“Alan, What is it?”

“I just don’t like the feel of this place babe,” I tried to explain as smoothly as possible, I felt like I was being irrational, but the sinking feeling of dread was overpowering.

“Are you ok?” Gail frowned, “It’s been rough on all of us. Our entire futures are gone. It’s a harsh reality.”

I knew that all our hopes had been crushed, but that didn’t seem relevant. However, not wanting to look like more of a douche, or a coward, I agreed with her analysis and allowed her to lead us into the artificial moonlight.

The door shut behind us and locked. Alarmed, Gail reached for the handle. It wouldn’t budge. I paid no attention to her in spite of this; the lifelike mural that traced the walls up the spiral staircase mesmerized me. “Will you look at that?” I said wide-eyed. Directly where Gail and I stood, the mural depicted the bottom of an ocean, well more like a swamp. Tendrils emerged out of the dark sand, escaping whatever abysm lies beyond the bottom of the sea. “Lovely,” Gail said, “Are you going to help me out with this?”

“One second,” I said, “It must go up the entire wall.” I scurried towards the staircase and made my way upward. It appeared as though I was climbing out of the sea, and I was not alone. Reptilian creatures that almost resembled human figures swam up the walls around me. Their jack-o lantern eyes gazed at the white light painted on the ceiling in determination. I half expected one of the figures on the wall to shift its head in my direction and shoot me an evil grin, but they remained still. They were just painted, after all.

I ascended the staircase higher until the watch room was just above my head. The monsters had emerged out of the water and were swimming towards a lighthouse that resembled the one we had found. This particular image disturbed me. Also I took notice that the whole stain seemed freshly painted. It wasn’t worn and faded like the crumbling stone steps beneath me.

Gail, giving up on the door, caught up to me. She grimaced at the sight of the ungodly creatures. Although she remained silent, by the way she was looking at me I could tell she was as perplexed as I was. Her forehead was crinkled, and strands of blond hair were wisped about. “Weirdest thing, I ever saw,” She said nonchalantly. I poked my head into the watch room, directly underneath the lantern room. It was completely empty, minus a metal desk and chair that were littered with documents. The light of the room reflected off the glass, but I could still see the shore some hundred feet below. The midnight water crashed and toiled over the mountains side like spilled oil. When I turned away from the spectacular view, Gail had vanished.

I turned off the lights to the watch room, and headed up one more floors to the lantern room. On the wall to my right, the monstrous creations were climbing the rocks and onto the green pastures. Their evil grins made me shutter inside. When I reached the last step I uttered a cry in disbelief.

The lighthouse keeper lay murdered on the floor. I say murdered because the cadaver practically sliced from head to toe by some thick instrument (Or he was clawed to death). My initial thought was perchance he got attacked by a rapid pack of dogs, but there were no disturbances in the room except for a bloody handprint that smeared all the way to were the dead man lurched. Besides, Gail was frozen in horror, and the last thing I wanted to do was terrorize her more with inexact theories.

“Babe, it’s going to be ok,” I said softly. She had her back towards me and stood motionless, gawping at the corpse. “Babe, lets shut the light off and get out of here.” Instead of replying or indicating she was listening at all, she pointed downwards, “They’re coming.” The Astragal bars rotated the light quickly and it was impossible to see outside.

I took a step forward, “Who’s com…” I cut myself off short when I saw the shadowy figures emerge from the crashing waves. At first, I thought it was just splashes of water, but as they crept closer, they became separate from the black eyed ocean. More and more shadows materialized, and they showed no sign of slowing down. The army of phantoms split into two paths, some heading here, the others to the living quarters. “Holy Shit!” I explained. (What else was I going to say?)

The first objective was to warn Nevan and Ainsley. Of course on top of that, we were locked in and had to reach them before whatever it was outside got us first. I grabbed Gail’s arm and pulled, “We have to help them,” I pleaded.

to be continued...