Dear Journal,
As you might have expected by the fact that I’m able to write in you at all, we didn’t get caught by anyone. But really, none of their other plans happened either. It’s weird.
So basically, my mom and Ben and Garrett and Hansen went back and forth until I got totally sick of them fighting and was like “listen, if we don’t go now, it’s not going to matter because we’re not going to get the chance to go at all!” Which surprisingly they listened to, even though they haven’t really listened to anything else I’ve suggested. Maybe when I give less suggestions, they’re more willing to listen to them? Or more likely, they were already thinking that for themselves.
But anyway, after I said that, they looked at each other and then Hansen kind of nodded at my mom in that super hot way that he does like everything, and he was like “you’re both right, we’ve got to do something about my dad, and we’ve got to do it now.” So as a group, we snuck out of the room and into the thankfully still quiet hallway, heading toward Rex’s room.
I’d only ever really seen Rex’s room one time, right when I first got here and they were giving us a tour. It was easy enough to find again, though, since it was pretty damn obvious. I’m pretty sure that when the power plant was still in business, it must have been the leader’s office or something, because it wasn’t really next to the other rooms. Instead, at the end of the long hallway of bedrooms, which was super freaky to run down because we didn’t know if someone was going to be coming out any of the doors at any moment, there was a second small hallway, and that went straight to Rex’s room. When we’d been on the tour, there had been a couple of people outside of the room guarding it, which I guess made sense because at that point, there were a bunch of new people there, but now the hallway was empty. We paused at the end of the hallways, and I’m pretty sure that even my mom was trying to gather her strength to actually beat Rex, because there’s a big difference between fighting someone and saying you’re going to fight someone, you know? But she took a deep breath and then started marching down the hallway, with us trailing behind her.
The door was unlocked, which was honestly the craziest thing to me. Who pisses off a bunch of people and then leaves your door unlocked while sleeping?
The silent darkness of the room felt ominous as we walked in behind my mother. Through most of the power plant, there were a lot of little noises - the sound of the river rushing by, or the sound of a generator turning, or just the sound of so many people moving about in such a small space. But either Rex or the previous tenant had added some soundproofing to the room so that everything was quieter. It felt like when we spent the right out in the wastelands when we were on the run, just with less people snoring.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The room was also dark, and smelled awful. I mean, there weren’t a lot of us who smelled really great anymore, because even if we had the ability to shower, it’s not like we had a lot of deodorant around. But it smelled bad in a different way. My mom whispered “it smells like something died in here,” and flicked on the lights.
Rex surprisingly wasn’t there, but with one look around, it was clear why. Those beans that I’d given him must have really fucked him up - the bed wasn’t made, which wasn’t super unusual, but it was covered in puke and shit. Like he’d suddenly been liquified at both ends. A trail led straight from his bed to the bathroom and then stopped.
Hansen was like “what the fuck even happened in here?” and I explained the whole thing with the green beans. I was super embarrassed to talk about it because I thought that they’d be upset that I tried to do something by myself, but the group was just silent until my mom finally came up to me and gave me a hug and was like “that’s my girl, I’m so proud of you for protecting yourself.” I hugged her back, and it meant a lot, but we didn’t have time to unpack it there, because a groan sounded from the bathroom.
My mom dropped me instantly and grabbed one of the like five knives that were laid out on the desk in his room before heading toward the bathroom. She gestured for one of us to lock the main door before she opened the second, which Hansen did seconds before she kicked open the bathroom door. She stared for a moment, and then started laughing in a weird way.
We of course rushed up to see what she was laughing at, and we found Rex, laying in a puddle of his own puke in the middle of the bathroom floor. He had obviously tried to make it to the toilet, but had failed, and collapsed right there. A small puddle of blood lay around him, like he’d hurt himself in the fall or something.
When my mom was done laughing, she was like “well, well, well, what do we have here? The high and mighty are looking pretty low now,” which I’m sure she thought was a super cool line, but I just rolled my eyes at her. Parents, right? But anyway, Rex just groaned, and my mom laughed again before saying “isn’t it the rules of this place that whoever beats you gets to take over? Does it have to be public, or can it be from someone slipping you some bad green beans?”
Rex opened one of his eyes and looked up at my mom. He looked super pale, like he was about to faint at any moment. I guess that had already happened, though, right? But he didn’t respond, and slowly, my mom’s face changed from funny to angry. She asked for everyone but Ben to go back out into the main room, and when we did, she closed the bathroom door behind her.
It’s been like close to an hour now, and they’re still in there. The 8 AM alarm went off a little bit ago, so people are now up and moving around, so there’s no chance for us to sneak out anymore, but I’m starting to think that’s not my mom’s plan. Either way, it doesn’t matter. I’m just happy to be out of my room and talking to people again. I heard all about what happened to Hansen and Garrett during the time we’d been locked away (short answer was not much, apparently Rex only had a soft spot for me, even though Hansen was his son), and even had a chance to catch up with Jared and Bryce for a bit between their make out sessions.
I hope my mom comes out of the bathroom soon, though. Eventually, someone’s bound to check on Rex, and we need to have a game plan by then. Maybe I’ll try to make one with Hansen and Garrett. They have a better idea about how this place works than I do, after all.
Love,
Kayla