The fire I made from my survival kit is weird. It makes heat but doesn’t set anything on fire. In fourth age it doesn’t make heat. At least, I don’t remember it making heat. That is also the same as fourth age, you can put your hand right in the fire and it doesn’t burn you or hurt or anything.

It’s drying my clothes pretty quickly. I can’t complain about that. Joey seems to like the warmth too. Even though it isn’t cold out or anything. It just feels nice.

Does it ever get dark in here? I look around for the sun, but can’t see it. I’m not sure if I ever saw it. Maybe when I fell asleep I slept for like 12 hours and completely missed the night?

Even though mom killed one of the monster dogs my xp bar is empty. Maybe because I didn’t do anything to help kill it?

We eat again while waiting for my clothes to dry. My trays never disappear like Joey’s do, and Joey is playing with both of them. He ate most of his food. Good. I actually saw his tray disappear this time. I wonder if he understands what happened to mom, dad, and Carlos? That they’re never coming back. Probably not. I wish he could talk so I’d have someone to talk to about everything.

Joey’s poop didn’t disappear either. I decided the southeast corner of this field is now the designated bathroom area. I think Joey understands. I wish I thought a little more before cleaning off in the water near the store. The rations don’t give enough water and I’m not drinking poop water. Hopefully it will clean itself somehow, so we can drink it later. I only have one more ration before I have no water. Unless I start taking Joey’s.

My plan is to leave Joey here with his trays to play with while I sneak and loot mom, dad, and Carlos. And the monster mom killed.

I checked out most of the field earlier. It is a square. I figured out how to bring my mini-map up, as well as the regular map. Everything is perfect angles and sharp edges. Very weird. The whole forest has an invisible wall around it. You can see butterflies and birds in the forest, but I haven’t seen one insect on the grass roads or fields. Not a fly on the poop. Not a mosquito. Nothing.

My stealth works again. I don’t know why it didn’t work earlier.

I stand up and walk over to the bathroom corner. The fire disappears as soon as I walk about 10 feet away from it. When I’m done I go back and check my clothes. Still damp. My army boots are soaking wet on the insides still.

Well, the game armor is pretty comfortable. Even the boots. My survival kit is out of charges so if I want to dry my socks and underwear I need money and mom has all of it. I think. I hope she has money. And I hope there was a lot left after she bought all that stuff for stupid Carlos.

I shouldn’t think that. Not now. May Carlos rest in peace.

I still feel really heavy, even without the army clothes and army boots. Heavy and slow.

I know he probably doesn’t understand but I tell Joey to stay put. I walk north towards the intersection and as I’m about to hit stealth I notice Joey walking towards me. Holy moly! This kid is going to drive me up a wall!

Mom used to say that all the time. I’m not sure what it means exactly beyond Joey will drive you nuts. I think. What being nuts has to do with walls, I have no idea.

I miss mom so much.

When Joey gets to me I grab him and make him sit. “Don’t move! Stay Here! No move!”

Hopefully he stays, but if he doesn’t and the monster dog attacks I can use him as a shield again.

I hit stealth and move around the corner to the left. The monster is still laying down with his head on its paws. My heartbeat spikes when I see it. I hope stealth works. I really, really hope stealth works.

I sneak down the road and get to Carlos and almost become sick. I check the dog and he doesn’t seem to be aware of me. I touch Carlos and do the loot mental command, like in the game. I loot Carlos’ robe, light wooden shield, sling, padded armor, quarterstaff, belt, kits, and rations. I get the medium load debuff. I put back his sling, padded armor, shield, and kits. The debuff goes away. I take his boots. I don’t know why. They weigh nothing.

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I go to mom’s corpse. It is disgusting. I can’t even recognize her. Poor mom. I start looting. She has eight silver (yes!) and three rations I take. I leave her kits, robe, boots, belt and hand-wraps.

I go to the monster corpse next. I get a jagged fang, three leather scraps, two silver and eight coppers. No meat? My survival kit is out of charges but I still try it on him, since butchering is part of survival. It works. I get two pieces of raw beast meat and a ruined beast hide. And the medium load debuff again. I see the monster dog’s corpse disappear. Instead of putting stuff back I try moving closer to the intersection to see how much the debuff hurts. I feel way slower. I still feel heavy and slow like I’m underwater, and it is definitely worse now.

The monster dog hasn’t moved yet. Dad’s corpse is like…a good ways down. Way closer to the monster dog. Should I risk it? I could go back and drop everything off and come back without the debuff. But my hide and move silently skills are maxed out for level 1, and I have 18 dex, and the halfling bonuses to those skills too. All added up my hide is 12 and my move silently is 10. Both pretty high. Maybe real high. Especially for level 1. The left side of the trail has some okay shade. And listen and spot are both wis checks. A monster murder dog can’t be very wise. And he hasn’t noticed me yet.

Since I already have the debuff I go back to Carlos and grab the light shield and padded armor.

I start sneaking towards dad. Not even halfway there the dog looks up. I freeze. My heart almost bursts. I’m so stupid. Please, please, please, please don’t notice me. Please. My legs are shaking. I can’t stop the shaking. How dumb am I?

Please, please let me get back. Let me get out of this. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to be eaten. Without even thinking I start moving backwards. His ears perk up more. He looks right at me. I freak out and start running.

I’m not running fast. Not fast enough. The corner is a little ahead. I feel a tug on my left heel and hop forward a little, then see an arrowhead icon – which means piercing damage – float on the left side of my vision. Then I feel extreme pain on my foot. I jerk my leg and spill forward and see the monster tumble by me. I’m past the corner and see Joey still sitting on the ground playing with the trays. With adrenaline on high I jet forward on my hands and knees and barrel onto joey, wrap my arms around him, and then roll over to get him on top of me. To shield me.

My foot is on fire. It hurts so bad! Holy moly! Joey is screaming and trying to get loose. I tuck my legs in and hope the monster has nothing easy to bite on me with Joey flailing around. “Shut up Joey! My foot is killing me. You’re safe. Relax. Shut up!”

He starts pushing his forehead into my face as he screams. I want to punch him. The pain in my foot isn’t stopping. I hear the monster growling. I can’t see him. I wish he would eat Joey.

No. Stop it. What is wrong with you, Kim? My foot hurts too much to think clearly. I don’t want Joey to be hurt but if the dog focuses on him I can get away. And Joey will be fine. He has the giant shield thing, and it hurts monsters when they attack him. But I don’t think I can run on this foot. Or even walk either.

Owe! It hurts so bad! “Shut up Joey! Stop moving!”

We lay there like that for a couple minutes. The pain doesn’t die down. Joey doesn’t calm down. I’m ready to kill him. He squirmed lower down on me. His head is on my chest now. I look up and I don’t see the dog anywhere. But I don’t trust it. This is a trick to make me let Joey go. I know it.

One minute later still no monster dog in sight. I don’t hear it either. But the monster can be quiet. And silent. And tricky.

With my good foot I start scooting me and Joey backwards on the grass. My head presses against the invisible wall of the forest and I keep scooting. After I’m out of breath I keep scooting. I scoot until we are a good distance into the field. I still don’t see the dog.

I let Joey go. He hops up angrily, stimming like mad. He walks back towards the intersection and grabs the trays and walks back past me. I can tell he is mad at me. Oh well. He would be starving to death if I didn’t open his food for him. Or show him the thing floating on him was food. Moron.

Seriously, what is wrong with you Kim? He is all you’ve got left. He’s family. And you’re his older sister and he needs your help. You need to stop this. Stop being mean.

I keep scooting till I get near to where the path to the store is. Where we had the campfire set up and my army clothes are. Where my brother is.

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The pain isn’t so bad if I don’t move. The problem is Joey. He went to the bathroom in our area, and he won’t come near me so I can get his meal for him. I love him but I can’t stand him sometimes.

He has three more trays now. He really enjoys them. He hasn’t eaten since I’ve had those three meals. I’ve slept a bunch too. I guess if he gets hungry enough he’ll work with me.

My foot isn’t bleeding but it is all brown with dried blood. The crazy thing is it doesn’t look very damaged. It's getting pretty puffy though. There are three bite marks on the inside of my heel, and four on the outside. It hurts really, really bad. I wish mom was here to help. I miss her. I miss them all. So much.

The heal kit didn’t do anything to help with the pain or make it heal. When I used it a green 2 floated up the right side of my vision.

I had a plan about using the quarterstaff as a crutch. I need to get to the water to wash my foot off. Using the quarterstaff as a crutch just doesn’t work. My foot hurts too much to stand on it at all. I have a new plan. I wrap my army top around my foot and start scooting to the water.