We are alone, all of us. Life has a way, even before all of this, to make us feel alone, by ourselves, isolated. Before The Virus, before the lockdowns, before the quarantines, life was deceivably lonely. We got up, went to work, came home, watched tv, and went to bed. All of it alone. We were trapped in patterns that brought us apart. It wasn't until we were forced to look at our lives, look at ourselves, and reevaluate who we are and who we'll be on the other side, that we really understood ourselves. Turns out a lot of us were doing the bare minimum whether by choice or necessity.

Quarantine turned out to be a magnifying glass on us as a culture, society, and species. Humans aren't that different from a virus. Most importantly, we don't do well when we're alone. Quarantine, for all of its downsides, was a blessing, and a curse.

Being alone with yourself, with your thoughts, it's hard. But it can allow you to see things you would normally ignore. It can allow you to become a part of something you didn't know existed.

It likely doesn't surprise you that, like many of you, I'm trapped at home. Like many of you, I've taken up a new hobby. I've discovered that there is more to life than most people are aware of. I stumbled across something that piqued my interest... stories. Stories of people who, like you and me, are experiencing "the new normal" as the media likes to label it. Life inside COVID-19, Covid times, or simply quarantine. Only, they aren't like you and me at all. These people, in these stories, are dipping their toes into a pool of unrelenting horror. They don't know it, understand it or want it, but that's part of the process. You don't go looking for something like this, well... unless you're me.

I'm an Aurora Wasteland researcher, at it less than a year. I picked it up when this all happened, during the very first round of quarantines. Then, like now, I'm trapped at home. I can't go out. I have my reasons. What I do is somewhere between data scientist, therapist, fake news debunker, and paranormal investigator. My work is done here, sitting at my desk, reading. I dig through all the garbage, the heartbreak, the surreal, for you... and well... myself. I'm looking for something, and I hope with the noise of the world dialed back, I'll be able to find it.

Let's work our way through this somewhat chronologically. Stories often make the most sense when told in order, though that can be the least exciting. I'm going to go with linear, but feel free to hit the random or shuffle button, it's your experience do so with it as you'd like.

What I've found is fresh, still dripping with slime. These aren't old cases dug up to tell a story. This is all new, fresh and unspoiled by the words and insights of other Aurora Wasteland researchers and investigators. These are my takes, my research, my findings, my stories.

Welcome to the Aurora Wasteland Quarantine.

A collection of short stories by Sci-Fi Horror author Vaughn Ashby spread across the literary universe unknown as The Aurora Wasteland.