transmission one - January 29, 7020
ksshhhh...h... i... thin-... ...king?fu... ...tch-slam!piece of garb- oh, it's on! thank the stars. uh, this is all happening with no plan, of course. heh... names? irrelevant. the miracle here is that this blasted machine is operational. it's been an eternity, feels like... no, it's been weeks.the sirens, they're my nightly lullaby now. mostly lost track of time; i sleep when exhaustion takes over. my eyes, ringed with dark circles - the mirror in what i guess is a bathroom here doesn't lie. need to give some background, right? context. let me check the date...papers rustling, things being tossed asidewhere in the blazes did i put that... ah, here. yes, it's the year 7020.i'm not sure how this machine correlates with... well, your time. missed that detail. but i reckon it's a leap of millennia, four or five thousand years, perhaps? to anyone who's picking this up... you're probably doubting, thinking it's some elaborate ruse. i wish it were, but no. i've royally messed up.rewind to 2020. picture me, your average gal, working from home, estranged from family. mundane, right? then there was covid, a wrench in my social gears. like everyone, i was searching for something, anything captivating amid the lockdown. hold on...beeeeepbeeeeepbeee-still have a moment. so, here's the crux of it: ever come across those time travel tales? seem far-fetched, don't they? well, i dabbled, did my research, and... i believe it worked. but something went awry. the details are hazy in my mind.'how do you know it's 7020?' you might wonder. when i arrived, digital billboards – some still functional – showed the date. december 4th, 7019. that was my arrival. now it's january 29th, 7020. almost two months here, though it feels like an eternity.found this decrepit apartment-like place. miraculously, there's running water. electricity's a no-go, but stumbled upon a generator that runs on oil. there's this massive oil refinery nearby. enough to last years, i reckon.but here's the kicker: it's as if humanity vanished. i'm not joking; excavated a few graves out of desperation. empty. no remains, no traces. animals, however, are everywhere. yet, haven't encountered a single human. there are androids, though. sparse, but troublesome. had a run-in with one; it demanded identification. thought it could help, tried explaining my situation. nearly got my head blown off. lucky for me, it had poor aim and was sluggish in pursuit.here, i managed to snap a photo of this building with an old camera i found. you'd think future tech would be advanced, but this looks like it's straight out of the early nineties..
i've got more pictures, but first, gotta hunt down a battery for this archaic camera. i-alarm blares in the backgroundoh no, wait, i need to- i have to get going, now! i'll, um, try to get back soon, hopefully...transmission abruptly cuts off
transmission two - January 30, 7020
ksshhhh...crackle of statiche…loud slamth.. blaste... ..achine better n... give up on m.. now! hey, it's me again. yes, the girl stranded in 7020. had a bit of a scare with androids outside my... well, let's call it 'home', last night. it's become a routine ordeal. what i do is flick off the generator from my room and keep as silent as a mouse till the alarms cease. oddly enough, these androids seem oblivious to the sound. spent ages figuring out how to mute the alarms before realizing they just don't react to them. small victories, i guess.what else, what else... oh! for those sending good vibes, thank you! today's a lucky day. amidst some debris, i found a battery for my camera. fixed the pixel issue, but there's still this interference. could be radiation or something messing with the images.i've got a picture for you...
as i mentioned, there's interference, but it's through this very device that i'm reaching out to the past. do i understand how it works? not a clue. but it's working, and that's what counts.found more food today. you might wonder what sustenance looks like here. well, let's just say i'm barely surviving on canned veggies from desolate grocery stores and rare fruits that taste like bitter grapes. hooray for accidental veganism, right? as for hunting... the animals here are riddled with some grotesque parasite. no way am i risking that in my system, cooked or not. i'll try to snag a photo of one soon; they're eerily alert, like the parasite has ears. even my breath scares them away, so it'll be a challenge.but hey, not just one picture today! i also captured an android. took a quick shot from behind a building.
there it was, just patrolling. they mostly just roam, beep, and whir. managed to get some cool graffiti in the shot too. might try replicating it if i can find some spray paint or something.god, i wish i could have a two-way conversation with anyone out there. honestly, i'm not even sure this is transmitting anything. just going by what the screen suggests and a whole lot of hope. starved for human contact, so this is as good as it gets for now. if anyone's listening, a response, a voice, would mean everything.a bit of clarification from my last message: time here is a total enigma. yes, the camera tells me the time, but it doesn't match up with the light outside. and it never really gets dark here. that constant light in the photos? that's the norm. it fluctuates, but not often. i turn off the camera when not in use to save battery life, so i can't constantly check the time.i think i took the computer picture around 18:00. but now, exhaustion's setting in. been nursing a headache for days, and i'm dehydrated. need to boil some water... been procrastinating on that.i'll try to share my music with you tomorrow. found an mp3 player a year ago. only three songs on it, but they're my lifeline. the battery lasts, thankfully, as i conserve it like gold.so, that's it for today. hoping to connect again soon... if there's anyone out there. cheers.a prolonged sigh, then silence, before the transmission ends
transmission three - January 31, 7020
ksshhh...bzzztsighuhh, that went smoother than before. didn't even need to give it the good ol' slam.she clears her throatum, it's 00:57.couldn't sleep... thoughts of possibly being the last person alive are haunting me. but i'm not giving up on these transmissions. green lights usually mean good, right? i'm clinging to that hope.if anyone's out there listening, i just want to make it clear that i'm real, i exist. i don't want you to doubt that. so, i took a selfie to prove it. but first, let me properly introduce myself, something i skipped earlier.i'm Mina, 23, a college dropout and former editor for a publishing house. did a lot of translation work. it was an alright job, paid the bills. the rest of my life isn't as interesting, but that's a story for another time.now that you know a bit about me, i guess it's time to show you what i look like. getting a clear selfie with all this interference wasn't easy, but here i am...
definitely not the picture of health, huh? nearly two months of scraping by on scraps and fighting for sleep will do that to you. but, this should at least prove to you that i'm real and somewhere... out.. here.a long, weary sigh is heardabout those sirens i mentioned... i find odd comfort in them now. i didn't explain much before. i'll try to capture the sound from outside sometime, doubt this thing can pick it up indoors. when i first arrived, this haunting siren was blaring. it hasn't stopped since. it felt louder initially, but maybe i've just grown used to it. i sleep near a wall, and it's louder there. as i said, it's become a sort of lullaby for me. it's reminiscent of a nuclear or apocalyptic siren that just... never stopped. as if someone forgot to hit the off switch. it's a mystery how it's still operational. sometimes i forget it's even there.i um, promised to share a bit of my music, didn't i? well, here's one of the songs. the quality might not be top-notch – i'm not sure how good this microphone is – but it's what i can offer.
i don't actually know the name of the song, but it's become a favorite of mine. it's like a storm that's calm but also wild at the same time. sort of like what I'm going through here – some quiet moments, then suddenly it's all crazy again. the song kind of matches the ups and downs i deal with every day, but in a weird way, it's also comforting.i'll share the other two songs another time. think of it like a puzzle – you've got to wait a bit for the other pieces to be revealed, heh.my eyes are burning... i don't know why i keep rambling on like this. it's been probably over a month since i last really talked to myself, aside from the occasional murmur or reminding myself what to do next. but talking like this, actually expressing my thoughts and feelings, not just to the empty air but hopefully to someone out there... this is the first time.and it feels freeing, you know? like i'm finally letting out all these pent-up thoughts and emotions. the only thing missing is someone responding back. but i think, maybe, it'll be okay even without that.a sniffle is heardi'm gonna try and actually get some sleep now. this headache's just getting worse, and that one cup of water didn't do much. might spend tomorrow just boiling water, make enough to last a day or two. not much else to do, and i've got enough food for the next few days. the generator's still half full, too. Mina, out, i guess?she scoffs lightly, then the transmission clicks off
transmission four - February 2, 7020
ksshhhh...a long, weary sigh is heardit's... past midnight. that's all i know. these past couple days, god, they've been something else. two days ago, i woke up with this... this unbearable pain in my head. it was so bad, i could barely move. spent the entire day just lying there, trying to ride it out.and just when i thought it couldn't get any worse, the alarms started blaring midday. it was like each siren blast was drilling into my skull, making everything ten times worse. i've never felt so helpless... just lying there, wishing it would stop.the night was torture, barely slept. but, i don't know, something changed when the sun came up. the pain was... less. not gone, but bearable. so i pushed myself, got up, and spent what felt like the whole day just boiling water. had to make sure i had enough to last a couple of days. didn't want to risk having to do it all over again too soon.and now, here i am, making this transmission at an ungodly hour. because who needs a normal sleep schedule anymore, right? it's been tough, but i'm hanging in there. i'm still here, still fighting.the headache's still there, lurking. need to try and rest now, so this message isn't as long. just wanted to update you... if there's anyone out there listening.Mina, out.the transmission ends with a faint click