Dear Journal,

I’m not even going to apologize for not writing this last week and a half. I saw my mom picking you up at one point, and while I have no proof that she actually read through you, I don’t doubt for a second that she would if she had the chance. So just in case, I had to avoid you for a couple of days so that it didn’t look like I actually wrote in you at all. Hopefully it’s been long enough that she stops checking, but just in case, I’m going to find a better place to hide you.

But we’ve got more important things to discuss! Hansen’s dad came today - and by came, I mean he’s still here.

So I’ve been kind of waiting for Hansen or his dad to come back for the last couple of days, because it seems like the fastest they can make a trip is four days. But after four days, they didn’t show up, and I thought at first that maybe they were just busy and they’d come as soon as they got the chance. But then they took forever and a day to get here, and I realized that I think they were trying to wait my mom out. I think Hansen especially was hoping that my mom would see reason and would decide to go to the power plant on her own, but that just goes to show that he really doesn’t know my mother. Once she’s decided something, she “sure as shit isn’t going to do it,” as she always says.

No, instead of going and meeting Hansen’s dad like a normal person, she decided to go out and try to find some better weapons and make some traps around the coffee shop in hopes that, if they came back, they’d get trapped in those. It was really kind of a bitch move on her part, because she might not trust them, but it’s not like we really have medical care out here if they end of getting injured because of her. At best, we can give them some gauze and some medicine that my mom kind of sort of understands. And I bet she wouldn’t even give them any medicine if they actually were hurt.

But then eventually, after way too long of keeping the door to the shelter closed and cutting off any source of fresh air we have, I was helping Bryce in the back with some of the food prep when something slammed against the door of the shop. Even I froze when it happened, because Hansen had never done anything like that when he’d come to visit, but then I thought that maybe it was just because his dad was such a huge guy that he couldn’t help it.

Ben went to answer the door because my mom was busy trying to decide on the perfect weapon, which honestly just seemed pointless to me. Even if they did attack, she might have been able to take on Hansen, but there was no way that she’s be able to do anything to his dad. But he wasn’t attacking at all! When Ben opened the door, Hansen’s dad put down the shovel that he’d used to hit the door with and gave Ben a big handshake! Turns out he wasn’t trying to scare us at all, he was just trying to make sure we heard him through the heavy door.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Anyway, he came in and sat down on a large pile of empty coffee bags, and my mom just kind of glared at him, but he didn’t seem to notice at all. He said his name was Rex, which I personally don’t think is his actual name, and said that he was just here to talk. My mom really didn’t seem to want to talk, but the second I stepped forward, she stepped in front of me and started talking to him. I don’t know if she just wanted to keep her place as the ruler of the group or what. But she told Bryce, Jared and I to go back into the kitchen and do some cleaning while she talked.

My mom has not spent a lot of time in the kitchen of the coffee shop, and if she had, then she would have known that we can always hear her just fine from back there. And we could hear Rex especially well - I don’t know if he’s just a really loud dude, or if he was trying to talk louder so we could hear him.

But anyway, Rex was saying to my mom that he mostly wanted to come check us out to make sure we weren’t about to go and like wage war on his group anytime soon. My mom said no, we weren’t planning on doing anything like that, and we should have even been out in his territory in the first place. Rex said that the place where he saw us wasn’t really his territory, it was just a place that he happened to be searching for supplies, which I definitely agree with more than my mom’s idea of having split up territories or whatever. But he saw a couple of people out walking around, and he said he got kind of excited because he didn’t know there were any other people around still, but he was also scared because he wasn’t sure if they were going to immediately attack him. I gasped when he said that part, and Jared had to cover it up with a cough so we wouldn’t get caught eavesdropping, but it was so crazy to me that we were thinking about each other the same way.

But then Rex said, yeah, it’s clear now that you’re not looking to really start a war or anything, which is great, but I wonder if it would be best for both of us if we teamed up. My mom asked what he meant, and he suggested that we all leave the coffee shop and go live at the power plant with him. I wish Hansen had run that idea in front of me last time he was here, because I could have told him right then and there that it was pointless to ask me mom to do that, because I think I am the only thing that would make her abandon the coffee shop. But Hansen didn’t ask me, so Rex didn’t know that, and probably didn’t understand when my mom instantly got mad at him and asked him to leave.

But Rex didn’t really take it badly when my mom asked him to leave. He just kind of laughed in a way that didn’t feel super nice to me, and then said that he wasn’t planning on leaving just yet. So my mom was like “Fine, you don’t have to leave yet, but I’m done talking to you,” and she went over to the corner where Mr. Williams and Hattie were sitting and started talking to them instead. That seemed crazy to me, because they’re always here, and even if she was mad at Rex, she should have at least been a little more willing to hear him out in my opinion. But luckily, I didn’t have to worry about whether someone was going to talk to him, because Ben went up to him as soon as my mom left and started talking with him. I don’t know what he said, because both Rex and Ben started talking quietly enough that even we couldn’t hear them, but when Ben finally left, Rex looked super happy.

I don’t know how long we’re supposed to stay in the kitchen, but we’re done with our chores now. My mom seems pissy enough that I’m not going to tempt it for tonight, though, so I guess we’ll all just hang out in here for a little longer. I think putting you back behind some of the muffing mix is the best plan for keeping you hidden. My mom never makes muffins, so you should be nice and safe back there.

Love,

Kayla