Dear Journal,

Well, as you might have expected, my mom’s reaction to me wanting to even just make the path to the power plant better was terrible. You would have thought I’d suggested that we start a cocaine farm right outside of the coffee shop or something, with the way she reacted! If anything, I think she almost wants to make it harder to get to the power plant, which makes no sense to me. So I decided that the only possible way to deal with it was to run away when my mom wasn’t paying attention.

Trust me, that last part was the hardest, because ever since I even slightly suggested that I might want to go back to the coffee shop again, she’s been watching me like a hawk, like she’s scared that I was going to disappear right out from under her nose. Which, I guess, I kind of did, so in a way, she was right. But still.

Trust me, though, my plan was a genius one! So, I talked with Bryce one of the days she was in the kitchen making muffins, because I knew nobody would hear us from in there, especially not with the mixer going. And I told her what was going on, and of course she was immediately sympathetic about it because she’s such a good friend. I honestly wish I had known her back when we were actually in high school, but I can’t blame her if she doesn’t feel the same way. Looking back on it, I think I was one of the bitches in high school, but I guess that doesn’t super matter now that there are only a few people left from school to even remember it.

So anyway, she was super sympathetic, and when I asked her if she would help me sneak out, she immediately agreed. Then we pulled Jared in (which I honestly can’t believe that my mom didn’t catch us right then and there, because when have I ever willingly involved Jared in anything??). While I don’t think he particularly wanted to permanently move out of the coffee shop, I think he was also getting a little cabin fever, plus he said he didn’t want me traveling on the roads alone, because what if I crashed my bike and there was no one to help? So we decided that Bryce would distract my mom and Jared and I would make a run for it. It honestly probably wasn’t the best plan, because if both Jared and I were gone, my mom would probably notice that we were gone way faster, but it was the best we could come up with at the time.

So this morning, I made sure that I had enough stuff packed up that we’d be able to eat and drink on the road in case we ended up having to sleep somewhere, but other than that, I wasn’t planning on bringing much with because it seemed pointless to bring our stuff when they had better stuff at the power plant. Then I nodded to Kayla, and she broke one of the coffee makers in the shop. I didn’t tell her to do that, she just thought of it on her own, which was honestly brilliant because it was something that would keep my mom occupied for quite a while, and she was also the only one who would be able to do anything about it. Granted, if she hadn’t been acting like a crazy scavenger apocalypse survivor, she might have realized that there was no reason for us to actually need the three coffee makers there were in the shop, but I definitely wasn’t about to argue with something that worked.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

As soon as my mom ducked through the door to the kitchen, I grabbed Jared’s hand and we ran for it as quietly as we could. I think Mr. Williams might have seen us, but I wasn’t too concerned about it - if he thought anything about it, he would probably just think we were young lovers, which is honestly so gross, but old people have their weird ideas. But we ran out the door, closing it so softly that my mom would never hear the latch slip back into place, and we zoomed off on our bikes.

The road would have been much easier to get through had my mom actually let Jared and I go out and clear the path, but as it was, we soon had to abandon the bikes because there just wasn’t a clear path anymore. That still strikes me as one of the most annoying things about the apocalypse, other than the obvious lack of people and shops - the bombs scattered things so evenly that even just walking slowly, you were likely to trip over something. I never really got a chance to do much traveling before the bombs, and now I would never really get a chance. But I guess it also doesn’t matter that much anymore anyway, because it’s not like there’s really anywhere to travel to.

Jared and I walked as fast as we could without tripping, and we managed to get to the doors of the power plant just as the sun was setting. The dude outside wanted to keep us from coming in, but I told him that we’d been personally invited by both Hansen and Rex, and if he had a problem with us coming in, he could go ask them about it. He kind of looked us up and down after that, and then he shrugged, like he wasn’t all that invested in whether or not we actually came in anyway.

We only got into like the first part of the main room before Hansen came to meet us, so I don’t know if the guy had a walkie talkie and had called him, or if we just got lucky, but either way, it was so good to see him! He looked like he had just gotten out of the shower, and was even hotter than I remembered. But he asked us what we were doing there, and I told him that we ran away from my mom because she was being a psycho bitch, and we were hoping to take him up on his offer to stay there. Jared said that he wasn’t sure if he was actually going to stay there long term, but Hansen was clearly not listening to him because his eyes were only locked on mine. Then he nodded and told us that there were actually two rooms that were free tonight, and we could sleep in actual beds! We’d have to share a bathroom with each other, but compared to giving myself a sponge bath in the corner of the coffee shop, it seemed like the most luxurious place I’d ever been.

So right now, I’m sitting in my room (or what is my room for the night, at least, but like I said to Hansen, I’d be more than happy to just claim a sofa as my own, so long as we got to share a shower with someone), on a mattress, with an actual blanket over my lap. It’s such a foreign feeling after living so long with just coffee bags that I was half worried that I’d forget how to sleep on something that was actually comfortable, but I laid down for a second and had to sit right back up because I thought I was going to immediately fall asleep. I guess that’s what happens when you walk so far in one day!

I’m still kind of worried about what my mom did when she realized that we were gone. Hopefully she realized it late enough that she wouldn’t be able to make the trek in one night, so at least I’ll get a peaceful night’s sleep. I can deal with her in the morning.

Love,

Kayla