down at terrible beach the surf is good but very cold and the rain looks inhospitable, i decide not to enter but instead enjoy a coffee with my little social group. we are a small mixed group, south african, dutch, australian and english. we are all defiant anti vaccers ostracized for our stance upon the recent covid vaccines, all very sceptical when it comes to authority, government and the traditional forms of media. i get an education in a black native american salve that cures cancer. i get some info on adrenochrome, we talk about immigration in australia, ancient civilization, the vivid festival and various diets. we talk culture values and the economic apocalypse that is about to befall us all.

later i am left staring out at the ocean, pockets of sunshine tease me, the water is a shade of green tinted glass. not many people out there, a lone surfer. the sunshine fades and my friend and i observe a woman sitting alone looking quite bereaved. i wonder if i should ask her if everything's okay but my friend suggests she may not approve, so i just watch her as she waits for her green smoothie.

night time, the soft rain filters car headlights, the cold wind slices through the night as i drive north towards destination. the secret cult of post apocalypse survivors, we  share food, stories, information and laughs. it is all good, slightly surreal. i drive back with my assignment, the night is so soft, the rain no longer falls but shimmers as droplets hang suspended in frozen time along the freeway.