Dear Journal,

I’m so glad I found you again! I was totally convinced that you were lost when we ran, but when I pulled out a sheet, you fell right out! I’m glad I started hiding you from my mom, or else you would have probably still been back in that old house.

So you know how I said that it felt like we were being watched back then? Well, it turns out, that wasn’t just my imagination at all. What felt like a second after I fell asleep, my mom shook me awake. I started to ask what had happened, but she shushed me and whispered that Garrett had been out running and had seen someone from the power plant not too far from the house we were staying in, headed right for us. Garrett said that he didn’t think he was seen, but he wasn’t sure. Either way, we had to leave quickly.

So, we packed up everything we could see as quietly as we could and headed out in the opposite direction of the guy Garrett saw. We didn’t get a chance to even look around the house to see if there was any food or anything, but I at least glad that we made it out okay.

The direction away from the power plant worker led us straight into the heart of what was once the town, which added another creepy layer to it, because there were so many places that someone could be hiding behind. That was never something I’d thought of before, but it’s weird how quickly being on the run can change someone. But Garrett and Hansen took turns running ahead, hoping to be the ones that would be seen if someone was waiting. They said they could almost certainly outrun any of the power plant workers. If it was Rex himself, that might be another story, but I don’t know if I could ever imagine Rex hunched behind a crumbling building waiting for us to pass.

The downside of them running ahead, though, was that we had to carry their portion of the load. I mean, it wasn’t quite as bad anymore, considering we’d eaten a bit of the food and drank more of the water than we probably should have, but still, it was heavy enough to slow us down. My mom said that if Garrett or Hansen signaled that there was someone waiting, we’d probably have to drop everything we were carrying and make a run for it. I wasn’t sure what that would mean in terms of getting food or water when we next needed it, but I sure wasn’t going to be the one to ask.

On the plus side, now that we were in a town, there were a lot more places to potentially find whatever we needed! This town had still been hit pretty bad, and most of the buildings were at least super charred, but the bombs must have been just far enough away to keep the actual blast from impacting too much, because a lot of the buildings were only slightly broken down. In fact, half of the building on the street looked like they were in better condition than the house we stayed in last night, and a lot of them even had second stories for us to hide in!

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My mom, who for one was apparently thinking the same way I was, decided we should stop for the day when we were on the other side of town. It really made sense to me - the buildings over here were starting to become farther and farther apart, and if we didn’t stop soon, we’d be camping on the ground, and I don’t think that would be the best move safety-wise. So, she pointed to what looked like an old house that had an upstairs and said we should spend the night there.

My mom and Ben left us outside while they did a quick sweep of the house and, after apparently finding nothing of note, waved us inside. And you wouldn’t believe it, journal - yeah, the outside was burned enough that there were some spots on the back of the house that you could see sunshine though, the rest of the house was pretty much pristine. Like, there were even still dirty dishes in the sink where someone had left them! There isn’t any electricity in the house, though. I guess that’s probably a good thing, because it means we’re finally out of range of the power plant, but at the same time it’s kind of annoying because, I mean, how the hell are we supposed to heat up out food?

I guess it doesn’t matter if we have the ability to actually bake anything, though, because this house is super full of food! Like, we peaked down in the basement because at first we thought that might be the best place to hide (my mom vetoed that, though, because if someone was going to attack in the middle of the night, there was only one exit), and this person had jars and jars of canned foods! We decided that, since there was so much, and we wouldn’t be able to take it all with us anyway, we might as well have a feast for the night. So all of us grabbed whatever canned foods we wanted and hauled them up to the second story and stuffed ourselves. I don’t know if I’ve ever eaten that many canned pears in my life, but it’d been so long since I’d gotten to have fruit that I couldn’t help myself.

When we were all pretty much so full that we would probably throw up if we ate any more, I took out any of the empty containers from my backpack and shoved as many new jars into them as possible. I didn’t even look to see what they were exactly, but at least we had enough food to keep going. I guess out luck isn’t up quite yet!

And then, journal, you’ll never believe it - Hansen actually asked if he could sleep by me tonight!! Isn’t that crazy? I kind of didn’t think my mom would let us do that at first, but when I brought it up, she said that we could sleep wherever we wanted, so I guess I’m kind of having my first sleepover with Hansen! I hope he doesn’t expect to talk to me too much, though - after not having gotten much sleep last night and then running all day, I’m almost falling asleep while writing this. But I’m honestly just glad that we can have a chance to hang out, even if it’s just for a few minutes while we’re going to sleep. I’ve missed talking to him, and between his dad being a huge creep and us making a run for it, I feel like I haven’t gotten a chance to even say hi for a while. Maybe this house has some coffee somewhere so I can stay up long enough to actually have a decent conversation, even if that’ll make me more tired in the morning. It’ll be worth it, though. I’ll let you know how it goes when I write tomorrow, wish me luck!

Love,

Kayla