Dear Journal,

If you thought my mom was going to be cool enough to let me stay at the power plant, you’ve greatly misjudged her. The moment I even mentioned that I might want to say, she said absolutely fucking not and started packing up both of our things, which seemed a little extreme to me. Like, if I really wanted to stay there, her packing up my stuff was only going to make it a mild inconvenience at worst, but it definitely wouldn’t stop me. I’m sure I could borrow some clothes from Hansen or something.

But I’m pretty sure my mom was convinced that I was going to run off the second she took her eyes off me, which she solved by never taking her eyes off me. Have you ever had a total chaperone? So ridiculous.

But anyway, because my mom was being so paranoid, everybody else packed up their stuff the millisecond they woke up so we could head out. And it was super early - one of the nicer things about the apocalypse is that alarm clocks have really kind of stopped being a thing, because like, what, do you have to be up for school or whatever? But at the power plant, there are still building-wide alarms every few hours to make sure that someone is awake to check on the power plant itself so that nothing super bad happens to it. Personally, I think if they managed to survive a shit ton of bombings, I don’t think anything too bad is going to happen within a couple of hours, but they seem to be one of the last bits of the old times that they are still clinging on to. Whatever makes them sleep better at night, I guess. Although, by design, it doesn’t make you sleep better at night, because you have to wake up at midnight, and then again at 4 AM.

The 4 AM one was when my mom started absolutely freaking out about the possibility of me staying that the power plant, by the way, so that also means that that’s when we started getting ready to leave. I know time is not really a thing anymore, but even through that, 4 AM is a totally unreasonable time.

Not to mention that it was a ridiculous time anyway, because my mom got us all packed up to leave, but then we really couldn’t even leave anyway, because it was way too dark outside, and since we weren’t really in the city, it’s not like there were any streetlights that had survived the blast. The moon was out, but it was kind of cloudy, so it’s not like my mom and Ben could have probably walked through the street without tripping on a corpse and breaking their leg or something. So we were forced to stay until the sun started coming up which to me meant that we could have just stayed sleeping for a little while longer, but at least we got a chance to have breakfast before we headed out. It’s been so long that I’ve gotten to have a breakfast that wasn’t just muffins from one of the leftover muffin mixes! But somehow, they still had eggs that were in these large jars of water on the counter, but one of the power plant workers said they were still good. We just had to take them out with tongs because apparently the water wasn’t great for your skin, but was fine to eat food out of? I’m not sure because I didn’t really question it at all once I had a plate of eggs and toast in front of me. It was like a huge luxury!

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

It wasn’t until we were almost done eating that Rex actually showed up, much to the disappointment on my mom’s face. I’m not sure why she dislikes him so much, other than that he wouldn’t leave the coffee shop when she told him to, but really, I don’t like to listen to her either, and she still likes me fine. Maybe she just thinks he has a weird vibe, which he admittedly does, but I think everyone who survived this far probably also has a weird vibe.

But anyway, Rex came in and was like “leaving so soon?” and my mom was like “yeah, we were just here to look at the power plant and spend the night, but now we’re going back to the coffee shop,” and Rex was like “oh, that’s cool I guess, but I wish you were staying longer. Did you think about my deal at all?” And my mom pulled out a small bag of ground coffee from her pack that I didn’t even realize that she’s brought with her, and she slid it across the counter to him. Let me tell you, journal, the man’s eyes just lit up! If that’s all it took to get along with him, then I really don’t see what my mom’s big problem with him is.

So anyway, Rex took the coffee from her and was like “this is great, I’d love to work with you more, and if you ever want to move here, you’re more than welcome,” and my mom said no in a way that made it clear that she wasn’t even going to be considering it, but then added that she’d be willing to bring him more coffee in exchange for the occasional trade, which Rex was super happy with. And I was super happy with it, too, if it meant that we could get more of those weird eggs. We had so much coffee in the coffee shop, after all, that even with us all drinking it every day, I’m pretty sure it would last us until we died of old age. And while I’m sure I’ll be wanting coffee at that time, I want eggs right now more.

So we finished up our eggs and my mom was washing the dishes for all of us because otherwise it’d be super rude to come here and eat their food and also leave dirty dishes. And they could just use the water from the sink, rather than filling it up with bottled water! But I was helping dry because somebody had to, and while I was doing it, Rex came up to me and was like “hey, we never officially got introduced, I’m Rex,” and I said “I know, I’ve met your son Hansen,” and he was like “oh yeah, Hansen is a nice boy” which I totally agreed with, but also “that he needs to toughen up a bit” which I don’t totally agree, because this world is tough enough anyway, but whatever.

While we were chatting, my mom was kind of watching us out of the corner of her eye, which I thought was ridiculous, because am I not even allowed to have a little conversation anymore? But she actually had a concerned look on her face, so I didn’t say anything too much about it because I didn’t want to be a bitch to my mom when she’s clearly going through something. But when Rex was like “hey, just so you know, the invitation is extended to you too, and if you ever want to stay here instead of the coffee shop, you’re more than welcome,” my mom entered turbo bitch mode and cut Rex off to say “no way will my daughter ever be staying here!” I thought it was pretty ridiculous, but Rex looked between us curiously and was like “oh, you’re her daughter? That makes so much sense!” which it really didn’t, but I don’t get half of the conclusions that adults jump to anyway, so who knows what he was thinking.

But anyway, as soon as we were done with the dishes, we headed out, and we ended up getting back to the coffee shop just as the sun was getting low enough that it was getting pretty hard to see. I’ll have to suggest to Hansen that they shovel up the debris by the power plant so that it’s easier to get there in the dark!

It’s good to see Mr. Williams and Hattie after having not seen them for the first time in a while, but I admit that after the power plant, the coffee shop is just pretty blah.

Love,

Kayla