There Is Still Room for Hope

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

My words are:

daylight ~ see ~ bug ~ collapse ~ woods

They were submitted by: https://Bakinginatornado.com

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A lot of us look ahead and see the potential of a societal collapse.

I'm certainly guilty of that myself, but Im trying to get better. Obviously I get that line of thinking, though. We're in a post normal world now. The damage done to our climate and the related side effects from progressing climate change and atmospheric heating cannot be undone. Experts agree now that even if we went to net zero carbon emissions tomorrow, we couldnt erase the changes we are facing (and will continue to endure) before the end of this century, and we aren't even close to any sort of net zero emissions even as many countries are beginning to come together for timelines of when that may happen. Raging fires, ice storms, heat domes, lack of water sources, billionaires looking to space for the answers... it's all here to stay in our life times. Combine that with growing fascism in multiple countries, increasing street violence in those countries, civil wars, our fears about Afghanistan and the Taliban, weaponized unreality, the culmination of decades of science denial for the sake of profit, and a going on 2 year fight against a pandemic, and it's no wonder so many of us cannot see a future that isn't at least somewhat apocalyptic. Add in that it doesn't help when even the more "liberal" parties make promises of going back to easier times, promises that sound so good to many of us in theory but are outright lies in the face of climate change science, and you have a pretty heady mix of negativity. Yes, even without Trump or any of the other shit of even the last ten years, we would still be pretty royally screwed when it comes to being able to live and breathe easily from this point on. And constant promises of returning to a state of normal make it harder for folks to consider bracing for an ever changing future.

What I think we're getting wrong though is an end to everything as we know it being the immutable result of all this. I think, or at least want to hope, we can do better than that.

I live in a hurricane zone so I tend to keep some things on hand for emergencies, but I've made lists even on this blog for resources in case we do experience black and brown outs here and how to live off the land or pack a bug out back if things were to get really rough. I think there's a lot to be said for preparation, for the anxiety relief that tends to come with knowing you can weather most storms with a little know-how, work, and a few tucked away items.

But I think we also have to focus on the potential for rebuilding something new and better and to do that through mutual aid and community building. If there was one strong take away from the last couple of years at least, I would hope it's that we can, in fact, come together to handle most things for each other even while our politicians fight over which party can do as little as possible for the populace and get away with it. We can come together and build communities and mutual aid networks. We can be the hope we want to see in the world.

And perhaps most importantly, we can adapt.

Even if you just consider the changes that have come since 1900 when industrialization here in the u.s. was in full swing, our country grew, we got the automobile industry, plane travel, telephones and tvs and all manner of improved methods to listen to music, space travel, undersea exploration, the internet, computers that were as big as houses with barely any capabilities to computers we carry in our pockets. We've worked on defining human rights and adapting what those should be and who they should apply to. We've survived world wars and pandemics and companies hell bent on profit over people. And while some of us have done so with less grace than others here we are considerably better now than 100 years ago and still changing. It's entirely understandable to look at the last several years at the very least (and much of history for many folks) and feel like the pendulum has swung too far into hate and division and greed and destruction to be corrected, but the future is still wide open, and we could still make it swing the other direction with the right kind of work.

I'd love to run off into the woods and hang out with my pet alligator in a bayou hut far from civilization. I even painted myself one to look at every now and then. But there's still daylight at the end of this tunnel if we choose to make it that far, and I have to believe we can do better. There's no less reason to be prepared, but for all of us and everyone that comes after us, we have to build something different than we have, than we've ever had.

The challenge is in the not giving up, in seeing this through, in doing more than voting and going back to the day to day. We have to build not subsist on the same bullshit we've been fed all these decades. The challenge is in reimagining everything we know to be unchangeable and building something that works and not just a marginal step at best that will be undone every 4 to 8 years. We have to listen to the folks hurt by existing systems and who have always done their work to protect the world, and we have a limited time to stop questioning them and hear what they're saying.

We have to take "impossible" off the table.

There's still more than enough time for the future we have to be one of building a new way forward and not like you know being cannibals that eat each other to survive in a Mad Max landscape of hellfire and water shortages. We don't have to fight each other to the death for a bit of water. We just have to believe in how much better we can be and make it happen.

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Links to the other “Use Your Words” posts:

Baking In A Tornado https://bakinginatornado.com/

On the Border https://dlt-lifeontheranch.blogspot.com/

Wandering Web Designer https://wanderingwebdesigner.com/blog

What TF Sarah https://crazymamallama.blogspot.com/

Part-time Working Hockey Mom https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/

Preparedness and Shit

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

My words are:

French toast ~ wallet ~ dog food ~ trail mix ~ iPad

It was submitted by: https://crazymamallama.blogspot.com/

Being prepared and skilled *shouldn't* be a radical concept, but it's treated like one. Let's go forward from this point with an open mind. 

______________________________

A lot of people are still ignoring what should be obvious more and more every day. There have been calls for a second civil war, and the more violence that keeps occurring propels us further along that route with every passing week. To some experts, it’s all but guaranteed. The question, to them, is when not if, and this summer has done more to progress that possibility than any others in a long while. And while I hope that I am wrong, I also feel like ignoring the slowly accelerating descent into fascism that’s happening is what has allowed it to fester…to grow and spread and taint more and more of our way of life. I also think it’s better to be prepared for something major than to sit back and hope and pray you never have to deal with it while you dine on French toast and hashbrown waffles at brunch downing mimosas to hide your anxiety.

Yes, it’s more numbing to grab an ipad and scroll through the same 3 apps while dissociating for hours, but there’s also benefit in being prepared for emergencies, to have a plan in case something bad happens where you are that forces you to leave quickly or to hole up and do your own thing for awhile, and I’m going to give some resources to you in this post that might be helpful in making that plan and taking at least a moderate amount of control in a life that currently feels like chaos if you pay even a modicum amount of attention to the news especially as more and more countries have alt right governments. India’s prime minister is a literal Nazi, for example. He’s a member of the Nazi party in India. We haven’t learned much from our past mistakes, and we ignore even more.

Some of this will be common sense for any kind of emergency situation like having waterproof storage for your wallet, but obviously it’s more than that. Survival medicine, foraging, how to use every bit of land that you have access to for gardening, how to prep food for long term storage, how to make trail mix and homemade dog food, etc. Use them as you need to. And also keep in mind that in any scenario, your best bet is to find a group who all share these skills to make it longer term. Talk to your friends and family about these things and help them learn.

An overall base guideline 

· Checklist: https://theprepared.com/prepping-basics/guides/emergency-preparedness-checklist-prepping-beginners

· Tips for different scenarios: https://theprepared.com/emergencies/

· Survival tips: https://hueypnewtongunclub.org/survival-programs

· Intro to Mutual Aid: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/andrej-grubacic-david-graeber-introduction-to-mutual-aid

· Building community groups and mutual aid: https://www.paperrevolution.org/mutual-aid/

· Activist tools: https://www.paperrevolution.org/activist-tools/

Good overall resources 

· Coal Cracker Bushcraft (youtube)

· Gray Bearded Green Beret (youtube)

· Tacticool Girlfriend (youtube)

· Live Like the World is Dying (podcast. I listen on spotify)

· The Prepared (online site)

· https://nchfp.uga.edu/tips/tips_home.html (food tips)

· The Anarchist Library https://theanarchistlibrary.org/special/index

· Free publications, books, audiobooks, videos: www.archive.org

· War on Everyone by Robert Evans (also check out his podcasts It could Happen Here and Behind the Bastards)

· The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker

· https://www.paperrevolution.org/library/

Emergency Prep for if you have to leave your home or “bug out” 

· Ultralight bag with gear recommendations https://youtu.be/t4GYjhwfvwU

· Supplemental kit for urban environments: https://youtu.be/4vNEIJLk56I

· Several articles discussing individual items for your kit: https://theprepared.com/bug-out-bags/

· Winter supplemental kit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JilgutU2a5k

· Another Winter/super cold quick camp setup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1dYj9IbmPA

· Longer term wigwam setup if you’re in one area for a while before moving on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KbjX92VxnI

· Hygiene while on the move including info for people with periods (cw: cisnormative language): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ju01IPSwc4

· High calorie trail mix recipe: https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/yummy-recipe-high-protein-sweet-salty-trail-mix/

· Making fire in rain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lZcPzyg014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0Il5_F-ZAg

· Concealed wilderness fire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29woKujuuFs

· The beginning of a series on map reading (all are recommended): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLSanPt1BQc

· 5 minute tarp shelter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtnssu5gobk

· 10 survival shelters in under 10 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1jhcepnnCY

· Ultralight medical kit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaCTzaCZnWI

· Diy firestarters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BFu3dVmwQ0

· Best dry bags (for your wallet and shit): https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-roll-top-dry-bag/

Cooking for camps and blackout/brownout situations 

(also keep in mind if this will call people to you and leave you vulnerable. Only cook when it’s safe). We’ll have complex and simple recipes depending on what food sources are still available) 

· Complex probably wishful thinking recipes with subsections for “car” camping and vegans https://www.freshoffthegrid.com/camping-recipe-index/

· Camp bread (this same channel has many others that are good to watch): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Qo6kTkVDo

· Cooking fire building and how to make cowboy coffee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9m9KdtzILQ

· Jerky and tipi smoker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmCjeXK0_S0

· Off grid cooking: https://storageprepper.com/food/top-8-grid-cooking-methods/

· Warm weather survival food kit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOgajE-Mfis

· Survival trapping kit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrpbffX6vOQ

Foraging:

· How to create a medicinal plants reference guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJUjxreelF4

· 3 part series on plants (video 1): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4aTF_F9-oI

· Finding and harvesting fatwood for good fire starting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enXEPGwWRG4

· Urban foraging: https://fallingfruit.org/docs/David%20Craft%20-%20Urban%20Foraging.pdf

· Natural vit c: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMDKK8GQnDc

· 7 nuts that can be foraged: https://storageprepper.com/food/7-edible-nuts-can-forage-fall/

· List of recommended products from foraging knives to resource books: https://www.wildedible.com/wild-food-resources

· Resources: https://identifythatplant.com/foraging-resources/

· Online resources list: https://www.kitchenunnecessary.com/stories/2020/4/16/online-resources-for-wild-food-foraging

· Using Black Walnut for iodine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tMP8B06uHA

· Milkweed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xxRu1Pezco

Trauma, emergency, and wilderness medicine:

· A list for bag essentials and recommended links for self teaching: https://iaf-fai.org/2020/08/31/skills-for-revolutionary-survival-1-trauma-medical-gear/

· Wound closure in the field https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmmZStW2wY

· Podcast with pdf downloadable transcripts for emergency medicine: http://embasic.org/podcast-direct-download/

· Survival Doctor’s guide to wound care (there’s a second book available for burns): https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B008M2E4IM&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_NdfuFbXMMCKC0

· In the extreme case you are in the wild without a first aid kit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O65FC8AEzIU

· Military medicine downloadables: https://fas.org/irp/doddir/milmed/index.html

· Another ifak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZacUj_mADWs

· Applying an Israeli bandage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj8tJhXX-8w

· How you lose body heat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RX7cDrUSi8

· Street medic guide: https://www.paperrevolution.org/street-medic-guide/

Bushcraft for long term scenarios 

· How to choose and use a knife: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOymA4RG638

· 18 Essential knife tactics for bushcrafting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCNoPuZw3oM&t=27s

· How to maintain your knife in the field: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qImoRFy8Wbk

· How to build a “camp” bathroom if you don’t have running water or housing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmNfmRMqYD4

· Lashing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ystfcYBmxk

· L7 trigger traps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2SHSK4vPF0

· Ridgeline toggles (for shelters): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7HxCBzcNBQ

· Making needle and thread: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJzIf_2fR00

· Basic knots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrOc3L9s4fQ

· More knots: https://theprepared.com/survival-skills/guides/best-3-survival-knots-every-prepper-should-learn/

· Choosing bladed tools: https://theprepared.com/gear/guides/how-to-choose-bladed-tools/

· Spring pole traps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrVVIMQNagY

· Making rope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrhgeSgYxgM

Staying hydrated/clean water/additional hygiene 

· Beating dehydration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LejPsJEcCp0

· Survival water kit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N96mFI-CKyA

· Sourcing water from the wild: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miuXQ6QqLGc

· Water storage at home: https://theprepared.com/homestead/reviews/best-two-week-emergency-water-storage-containers/

· Staying clean without running water: https://storageprepper.com/water/get-clean-without-running-water/

Gun and defense basics

· Ballistics protection: https://iaf-fai.org/2020/09/01/skills-for-revolutionary-survival-3-ballistic-protection/

· Personal protection equipment: https://iaf-fai.org/2020/08/31/skills-for-revolutionary-survival-2-basic-personal-protective-equipment/

· Various firearm basics, reloading ammunition, chemical exposure: https://socialistra.org/edu/ https://theprepared.com/self-defense/

· Basic gun safety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvTrIMvK6cs

· Black Bloc: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anti-racist-action-the-green-mountain-anarchist-collective-black-bloc-tactics-communique

Long term food storage 

· Pickling: https://storageprepper.com/food/preppers-guide-pickling/

· Building a pantry the LDS way: https://theprepared.com/blog/review-lds-food-plan/

· Best techniques for long term storage: https://storageprepper.com/food/the-best-techniques-for-long-term-food-storage/

· Canning tips: https://storageprepper.com/food/12-canning-tips-save-life/

· Best foods to buy in bulk: https://storageprepper.com/food/the-7-best-foods-to-buy-in-bulk-and-where-to-get-them/

· Freezing: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/freeze.html

· Storing guidelines and lengths: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/store.html

· Smoking fish at home: https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/cure_smoke.html

· Most recent consumer guide for buying a deep freezer: https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/freezers/buying-guide/index.htm

· Freeze drying techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzoHJn1lo_w

Gardening and homesteading: 

· Keeping rabbits and hens for protein: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpQS-I2ViZo

· 5 indoor fast growing veggies and herbs: https://storageprepper.com/food/5-fast-growing-foods-you-can-grow-indoors/

· Edible landscaping plants: https://storageprepper.com/food/10-edible-plants-to-add-to-your-landscaping/

· Starting seeds indoors: https://storageprepper.com/planning/start-seeds-indoors-better-summer-garden/

· Variety of gardening techniques, instructions, top survival scenario choices, etc: https://www.youtube.com/c/CaliforniaGardening/videos

· Building raised garden beds (see Gardener Scott’s channel for other raised bed tips and so much

more. Super valuable source): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRAieQI4SWo

· Easy fruit trees to grow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_FUwWtxVz8

· More gardening and small animal keeping videos: https://www.youtube.com/c/Selfsufficientme/videos

Communications: 

· Ham radio basics and resources: http://www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio

· Beginner’s guide: https://theprepared.com/survival-skills/guides/beginners-guide-amateur-ham-radio-preppers/

· Ham radio guides for hobbyists and for survival https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChAu6Cof9KlfFxSbL9ytosQ

Pets 

· Fema tips for pets: https://www.ready.gov/pets

· Cheap recipes for dog food if you can’t loot any: https://thebark.com/content/save-money-homemade-dog-food

· Some emergency care tips for pets: https://www.merckvetmanual.com/special-pet-topics/emergencies/emergency-care-for-dogs-and-cats

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Links to the other “Use Your Words” posts:

Baking In A Tornado https://bakinginatornado.com/

Wandering Web Designer https://wanderingwebdesigner.com/blog

On the Border https://dlt-lifeontheranch.blogspot.com/

Part-time Working Hockey Mom https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/

The Crazy Mama Llama https://crazymamallama.blogspot.com/

The Grass is Greener

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

My words are: boondocks, road trip, tires, trampoline, yours

they were submitted by: https://wanderingwebdesigner.com/blog

_______________________________________

I live in the country in the middle of nowhere really. The technical town listed on my address (and I live outside the city limits there anyway) has a population of 298 people. 298. Sure, it's quiet. It can be a little boring. But I've always been a bit thankful for that and the fact that we live far away from any really large metropolitan area. I've seen horror movies. I don't want to be trapped in a huge city with everyone competing for life and resources. I mean, have you seen the walking dead? atlanta is NOT where anyone wants to be when shit goes down, man. So here are some pro (ok that's questionable) life tips from someone who's been living in bumfuck nowhere for all her life and who might have read a post apocalyptic novel or two. or few. 

Post Apocalyptic Guide to Living In the Boondocks

1. I mean, wait. Unless we’re talking about an economic collapse, it’s probably going to be contained well before it gets to my place or yours. You don’t even have a Target store, so you probably won’t have to worry about, you know, roving bands of hungry urbanites looking for, I don’t know, corn or cows or the folks from Wrong Turn for awhile. You’ve got awhile to make a plan. Smoke some weed and craft some shit. We got this.

2. Your basic supplies will be covered by the stores you can find even in the boondocks, but you may want to take a road trip early on to get more complicated stuff that you didn’t panic buy online. Might be worth traveling for a sporting goods or camping store to be better prepared.

3. Prepare a bug out bag just in case you need to travel. First aid, fire starters, meds, a dry bag, thermos, life straw, etc. also definitely bring some kind of protection. Apparently people like Alex Jones are just looking for any excuse to eat their neighbors’ asses, and you have to fight them off at all costs unless that’s your kink then more power to you.

******If you want to try to stay in one place, do the following as soon as you start to worry. If not, uh…good luck.

4. Get an old trampoline. It’s good for building a pretty cheap coop for chickens, guinea, and ducks. The eggs are good for protein to trade and eat, and if needed the birds themselves will be good food. Consider larger animals if you have the space. Or have a couple pigs and a goat in the house. No one’s judging anymore. Live your Dr. Doolittle fantasies in real life. At least it will give you someone to talk to. and sure, yeah, i probably spend way too much time talking to my animals already, but whatever. I'm well prepared.

5. Use as much of your land as possible for a garden. Go ahead and till it now, throw down some black plastic to make sure everything is dead, then add nutrients to the soil and prepare it for veggies. Also buy some older fruit trees and plant so you may have fruits in the next year or so. Garden naked. Get dirty. Rub yourself with tomato plants and commune with the harvest goddesses. You’re going to need all the help you can get.

6. Maybe make an obstacle course? Get some tires for, like, cardio or whatever and some rope to climb or to spice things up with the last few tinder dates you manage to squeeze in. Might as well live it up while you can. If you’ve spent most of your nights rewatching The Office for the 30th time while you scroll through the same three apps on a loop every ten minutes because there is literally nothing else within a 100 mile radius of your house except the dairy farm that you’re pretty sure is ruining your lungs and definitely ruined the spring days with the windows open thing, then you might want to physically prepare. Do I know how to do this? No. But I'm sure you can youtube it?

7. Set up some traps. For people or monsters. I don’t know. It seems like fun when Fred does it in Scooby Doo.

8. Build a persona as the weird witch or wizard or oracle (or if you’re me, you’ve had this down for YEARS). Creep your house out. Put signs in the yard about reading auras or some shit. Use some trickery to make people BELIEVE it. You know what’s going to happen. You have all the best treatments. A, you can barter the fuck out of this. B, if you see anyone not from the area migrating to build something new, scare the shit out of them. Grab their arm and search their palm then scream about doom until they leave. Resources are scarce. Ok, unless they’re nice or whatever and then I guess maybe they can learn how to make soap.

9. Learn new stuff. Seriously. I think everyone should do this anyway. If you are unable, that’s one thing, but if you can, learn to knit or sew or make your own bread. It’s so gratifying to make a new recipe work with what you have on hand or to be able to patch up your own clothes or make your own masks right now. With the right tools, you can make everything you can’t get your hands on, and that’s always a plus. Also, learn how to just sit with yourself. Mindfulness. Awareness. Love yourself. Not like that. Okay, like that too. That’s always fun. But love your entire being. If the shit hits the fan, you need to be able to fuck shit up not be fucked up, so do the work when at all possible. You’re the best you that you’ve got or whatever I read on that photo of a beachy sunset that one time I accidentally added a Susan to my facebook.

10. Buy some books. You’re going to miss tv. And some days your own head isn’t going to be a safe space even when you’ve done the work, so yeah you might want to pretend you’re a pirate kidnapping a princess or Walt Longmire or a tiny kitten who gets lost or whatever and that’s ok. Escaping is good too. Make sure you include the Discworld series because it’s fucking amazing.

That's all I've got. I mean, we're all doomed if it gets any more serious than this first wave of corona anyway, but it's nice to think we might be prepared I guess. Good luck out there. Might want to check into moving to the boondocks asap. At least you can prolong your exposure!

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Links to the other “Use Your Words” posts:

Baking In A Tornado https://bakinginatornado.com/

Spatulas on Parade https://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com

Wandering Web Designer https://wanderingwebdesigner.com/blog

On the Border https://dlt-lifeontheranch.blogspot.com/

Sparkly Poetic Weirdo https://sparklyjenn.blogspot.com/

Follow Me Home https://followmehome.shellybean.com

Climaxed https://climaxedtheblog.blogspot.com

My Life After https://www.mylifeafterblog.blogspot.com

Southern Belle Charm https://www.southernbellecharm.com

Part-time Working Hockey Mom https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/

Light Lessons

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.

 

My words are: gut-wrenching ~ greenhouse gas emissions ~ blue zone ~ womb ~ associated ~ spirit

It was submitted by: https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/

                        __________________

I'm writing this journal from the womb that has become my home, a little underground bunker I worked a second job to be able to afford as soon as Donald Trump won his 4th term and nominated his sons to lead the country in case of his death and thereafter. I knew then that there was no hope left.

Probably should have realized that the first time with the mishandling of literally everything but especially the coronavirus and the looming reality of climate change. But I couldn't quite give up back then. I really thought any day people would wake up to how bad things had already gotten and would continue to get, but that time never came even as we died in astounding numbers from constant inaction and lack of adequate healthcare in various pandemics. Trump's flagrant misuse and outright theft of government funds in his later terms didn't help either.

It's gut-wrenching to think we could have stopped this. We could have put more research into the growing threat of novel viruses and super bacteria. We could have cut greenhouse gas emissions. We could have put stricter regulations on our military, our corporations, participated in the Paris agreement. We could have done anything, literally anything, but we chose profit over life, so now here we are at the end of ours. Collectively.

The end of humanity at least this go around...

Capitalism killed as so many of us said it would, and I hope if life happens again, those beings learn from our mistakes.

I live in what the United Nations named a blue zone in 2030. The various color schemes were meant to indicate how dangerous a zone would be for humans living above ground and without major protections. Red zones were coastal areas that essentially sunk into the oceans. Then orange, yellow, blue, and green.

I wouldn't even have to move to be safe in a bunker. Pro. I'd be underground the rest of my life with risky trips to get supplies or maybe healthcare if things continued on the same trajectory. Con.

I wouldn't have been able to save for a bunker AND a move so pros or cons really never mattered much. A move was never guaranteed as people emigrated en masse to those zones. Space was limited, and that came with other risks. Life underground would be my future if I chose to live long enough to see it through.

So here I am both loving and regretting being alive to experience this.

Life seems vastly more complicated in the grand scheme of things while the day to day stuff grew an inversely proportional level of simple. I grow a lot of my own food with grow lights in an off shoot of my bunker. I eat simpler, have less, and don't fight for a 9 to 5 to live paycheck to paycheck. There are no paychecks anymore. Life is fundamentally about substitence. The few people around me and I trade my cucumbers for their chicken eggs or something from my stores of booze and toys for some handmade socks. Bartering for necessities or small luxuries is an interaction I actually look forward to now instead of the existential dread I associated with a trip to the grocery store.

If it weren't for watching the world end, I think I'd be happier. That whole thing is sort of like a thorn in your foot though. Try as you might to forget it and keep moving on, it's always there to remind you with a little pain and potential infection. I'd be happier without the grief I feel for life as I knew it. It's never gone, but I still find myself smiling and at peace for more than I ever had time to do before.

So I guess what I really want to do with this journal from now until it's my time is show whoever comes next the true spirit of humanity without capitalism and money, to show that we do help one another. We do love and share and work. It doesn't have to be about winners and success because we can't win unless we all win, every last vulnerable one of us. I want to write down for all to see how we lived at the end, how we helped one another, how we grew into tighter communities and bigger families, and learned a different way of life, a better one. We're not lazy and unmotivated and greedy when there's system propping up those qualities as desirable and necessary.

Actually, I think we're the light. And I'm going to prove it.

                           ________________________


Links to the other “Use Your Words” posts:




Baking In A Tornado https://bakinginatornado.com/




Spatulas on Parade https://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com




Wandering Web Designer https://wanderingwebdesigner.com/blog




On the Border https://dlt-lifeontheranch.blogspot.com/




Part-time Working Hockey Mom https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/




Sparkly Poetic Weirdo https://sparklyjenn.blogspot.com/




Climaxed https://climaxedtheblog.blogspot.com




Follow Me Home https://followmehome.shellybean.com

The Real Cat Lady

Today’s post is a writing challenge. This is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once and all the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the writer will take them. Until now.


My words are triumph, trunk, terror, talk, and trust.


They were submitted by: https://Bakinginatornado.com

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She stared out at the horde of cats in front of her.

“Toby, Mr Wigglesnout, Sampson, Beverly PurrAngelo, Paula Meowdul, Janet, Lord Buttons, Jesus H. Paws… “

It took her several minutes to finish addressing them all by name, but she knew every single one on sight, knew who was who like she knew her own self, knew all their quirks, their strengths. The pep talk continued.

“…my trust is in you today. We will triumph. We will get the supplies we need to keep going. We will not perish and will celebrate tonight with tins of old anchovies. In oil if you’re lucky. This is the day we succeed, the day we have been waiting for! “

She was absolutely sure of it. They’d been training for ages, she and the cats. Some of the group would get out of control, but Toby was a born leader. The rest listened to him, followed him. If she could keep him on task from the sidelines, everything would be fine. She hoped. They might all perish, her babies and herself, if they didn’t get enough supplies to hide away for awhile.

The world had been full of terror for a long time now. Time, the measurement of time, was pretty irrelevant. The days lost meaning, ran together…there were no watches, no clocks, no schedules. There was only light and dark. Dawn and dusk. Go time, hide time. America’s economy had collapsed under Trump’s second term. And with that so did everything else. No infrastructure, no power grids, no transportation, no Internet…

It didn’t happen in the blink of an eye or anything. It was a slow spiral. When economy tanked, we entered a depression worse than that of the 20th century. People struggled, fought, lost, and died. They preyed on everyone and everything just to survive. Sure, folks banded together near the beginning of the end to try and destroy the government entirely. Rebellions sprung up all over actually, different ideological factions thinking their way was the only way to get us back on course. So instead of having one large group of rebels, we had rebels warring with each other AND the government. I guess that’s where they failed hardest. The military attempted bombing the different groups to prevent coups and civil wars between the different locations each group took over, but the slow spiral had convinced enough people to buy bunkers and arm themselves and to form and train militias. They’d go underground, hide out, strike again when they could. The largest group, The John Brown Union( NOT confederate flag waving assholes. Go figure) tried to set up some new government and named themselves the new leaders, but folks were starving to death. No access to clean water, no hope, no promise of tomorrow. The people kind of gave up, I guess. No one gave a shit what this group tried to do. Out here it was still a very Dog Eat Dog World while those guys were caught up fighting the other factions to retain “leadership.” How could anyone out here starving really care what their promises were? They couldn’t even promise to hold the White House. Probably would have been better than no government at all, but…eh. No one will ever know. Lawlessness is here to stay for now.

She had lived alone with her 3 cats when things started going downhill. She worked at an office supply store that serviced a lot of the Southeastern U.S. Paper, staplers, chairs, copiers…perhaps a dying business, but she had been if not happy at least okay with her life. She didn’t get out much, spent a lot of time Netflixing with the cats, but it definitely could have been worse. The job was the first thing to go. She looked for months for something else, lost her apartment along with nearly everyone else in her building. She had lived in her car for awhile, but living in a car with 3 cats is gross. When things took a darker turn, she took the camper that her parents had stored away in their old barn and made a run for it. It was small, but she could get out of the city and away from most of the chaos. She bought supplies with the last bit of money she had, set up a plot on some hidden away land. She had her cats, a tent, seeds to start a garden, and some food stores that would last awhile.

The garden was still going strong actually, and it kept her pretty well fed, but the food stores had run out long ago. Things had devolved so much that it was never safe to go out at night when people had the cover of darkness to surprise her, and it wasn’t even okay to go out in the day without a weapon. She’d learned that the hard way. But it was either chance it or starve to death in the rv and let the cats eat her body to survive, and as much as she loved them…nah. Not the way she wanted to go. She hadn’t been ready to give up yet.

On most of her runs, she’d see former pets doing their own hunt for survival in the little towns around her patch of land. Or being hunted. People really weren’t choosy anymore. She took in as many cats as would follow her collecting tins and bags of food on her runs. She’d also learned the hard way that starving dogs and a big ass group of cats didn’t mix well without someone getting hurt or worse. She felt like shit every time she left a dog behind with a bit of food she’d found, but it was what she had to do. At least for now.

The group had grown and grown so much it was almost unmanageable at first. All she had was time, though. No job. No Netflix. A few chores. She certainly didn’t have to sweep and vacuum anymore. Or scrub a toilet. So she worked hard trying to train them. She’d use food and treats like sardines and canned oysters that she didn’t want to have to eat. Little by little it began to take hold. Nearly every single one would follow a command. Then she figured out about Toby. Toby had been with her since early on, and she knew all the cats took to him. If he wanted a piece of food, he got it. If he wanted to lay with her, it didn’t matter who was on his lap, they would move. So she worked harder with him than anyone. She noticed that if he did a command every other cat around him would follow.

Now here they were. Ready, she hoped. It had taken a few months if she had to guess. She’d stopped marking days a long time ago. All the while, every small run, she’d noticed a worse and worse crowd in the closest towns. Most slept all day in whatever buildings they were holding or at least seemed to. She’d done a little snooping and could see them in sleeping bags sprawled across the floors through the grimy windows. Others had moved in their RVs and tents. Different groups, though, and the tension was building. She was sure some fighting would break out soon, and any and all hope she had of scavenging in the area would be gone. She’d started to fill a trunk with seeds from her own garden and from the few home stores she’d spotted. She wanted to cram it on this run with more supplies, so they could pack up the rv and move.

These groups in the area would be the end of all of them one way or another, and she’d already waited on this long enough to make sure the cats were ready.

She’d collected a trailer that would fit to her camper awhile back. It was sitting in front of an abandoned home depot not long after she’d made her way out here, and she just had a feeling it would come in handy. Of course at the time, she never thought “handy” would mean stuffing it full of trained cats, but life is strange that way. Or maybe that expression no longer applies. Life is strange in every way these days. She had gas stored for her heaters and stove already. If they could just get food without getting caught, she’d fill better about the whole adventure.

So they set off.

It was fine at first. The cats were darting in stores in their little groups collecting bags of whatever they could find, signaling if it was clear for her to go in with a repeated stamp of their little paws. She’d dash in and grab anything larger while they dropped their goods into the cart she’d wheeled in with her. Things were good. She was sure it was going to be the easiest run of her life.

Of course she should have realized that was actual real life foreshadowing and that nothing in her life went the way it was supposed to…if she had, she wouldn’t have been so surprised when the doorway to the last stop she had planned on making filled with the largest man she’d ever seen.

She didn’t carry guns. She’d never learned how to use them, and by the time she figured out that maybe she might need one out here, most everything had already been scavenged. She found a couple of BB guns that came in handy scaring away scavengers in the garden, but she couldn’t kill a bug half the time much less actually shoot anything. She carried a large hunting type knife that her parents had actually kept in the camper, but…it was in her cart. She was utterly ridiculous.

She stood while he taunted her.

“what ya got there, little lady?”

“you’re a little small to be out here on yer own, honey”

“you look good enough to eat.”

“what makes you think I’m going to let you leave with anything my people could use?”

“What are you going to do about it?”

He was reaching for his belt for reasons to nefarious for her to consider thoroughly at the moment when he screeched and went down on his knees in the doorway. She moved closer to see what was happening. He was blocking the only way she knew in and out of the place. The back had always been blocked by a huge dumpster. That’s when she saw Toby with his claws dug deeply into the man’s back. He growled and howled ferociously for a cat that size, and as she watched more and more of the group showed up all claws and teeth. She couldn’t even tell what the guy looked like anymore when he fell backwards half in and half out of the doorway. He was moaning loudly, still alive, but all that blood…barely. He was barely alive, and maybe not for long.

She jumped over him knowing he wasn’t worth saving and feeling guilty for not helping anyways. She almost made it to the cart when more people started moving in her direction woken up by the commotion of the attack. They looked from the bloodied man on the sidewalk to her and back again.

“what the fuck did you do to him, you bitch?” screamed one of the saltiest women she had ever seen in her life. Her time after the apocalypse had not been easy. Her hair was stringy, greasy and missing in patches. Her face and armed were lined with thick scars like she’d been in a heinous knife attack, and part of one of her ears was missing…

“I…I didn’t do anything to him. It was my cats.”

Laughter surrounded her, but when the tall, lanky man in front of the group wearing the red MAGA hat made a move towards her, Toby jumped between them hissing and ready to strike. He yowled again loudly like he had when he’d attacked the other man, and as both of them watched, cats filled the space between them until you could barely see the street beneath them any longer. Every one of them arched their backs, tails up, hissing and spitting. The groups of them letting these people know they weren’t fucking around any more than Scarface. In fact, the guy on the sidewalk moaned louder still, and when Scarface tried to move to his side, she was held in place by 5 or 6 of the cats that broke away and pushed forward making sure she stayed where they wanted her.

MAGAman took this all in, backing into the group slightly, and frowned. They didn’t seem to have any guns on themselves either. She’d thought long ago that most of the ammo had probably been used up in all the fighting. All that was available to whatever motley groups that formed out here without any real militia training anyway.

“Lady, why don’t you just take what you got in the cart over there and yer cats, and we call it even. This is fucking crazy.”

Toby never eased even as she backed up to the cart and began called them all to her. He stayed until they’d reached the hill leading out of town, and then sauntered off to join them like the badass he was.

She knew they had to pack up and get out of there before those people came looking for their retribution…but she felt a little safer, a little prouder, and like a real fucking cat lady.

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Links to the other “Use Your Words” posts:

Baking In A Tornado https://www.bakinginatornado.com

Wandering Web Designer https://wanderingwebdesigner.com/blog

Spatulas on Parade https://spatulasonparade.blogspot.com

On the Border https://dlt-lifeontheranch.blogspot.com/

Follow Me Home https://followmehome.shellybean.com

Part-time Working Hockey Mom https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.ch/

The Judgment Tour (Chapter 1)

I wanted to do something a little different this Sunday. I've been blogging more than working on my first novel, so I'm posting Chapter 1 here to perhaps get some feedback and also inspire me to get back to working on it full time. Let me know what you think!

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We all have our Idols.

I reckon that's the best way to explain what happened Tuesday at 4:15 p.m. More so, it explains what has happened in the aftermath of what I've since named "Elvis' Return To The Building." It's Friday as I stand here in the cool of the night waitin’ in the line with the rest of them—I mean the whole damn town just about--for the Big Show. Three days have passed since Elvis graced us with his presence, and I'm still pretty clueless ‘bout what’s goin’ on ‘round here, but judging by how fast this line's movin' towards the entrance doors, I imagine I'll figure a few things out pretty soon.

I have to say I don’t have a real good feelin’ ‘bout any of it, though.

Here's what I know so far.

Every single radio station, television stations, pages on the internet that do live feeds....every media outlet possible broadcast The Return. I happened to be at work. I own a bar and keep a television on for the daytime patrons, The Regulars. The Regulars consist of two guys, Frank and Percy, who I ain’t likely to get rid of no time soon. We had the T.V. on Three's Company--the episodes when Suzanne Somers was still on. Frank and Percy were down at one end of the bar arguing over whether Jack's friend, Larry, was really a gay. That’s the way they talk or the way Frank talks. Percy don’t say much. By much, I mean he don’t say nothin’ at all and hasn’t since ‘fore I knew him. Now, I ain’t exactly educated, but you won’t hear me arguing with a mute ‘bout whether or not some fictional character on a long-gone television show is some kind of homosexual. And you surely won’t hear me refer to him as “a gay.” My mama raised me better than that. But, that’s Frank, and Percy’s just along for the ride it seems.

Anyhow, the TV screen went black in the middle of a closeup of Somers and her school-girlish pigtails. She’s what you might call the essence of every dumb blonde joke, that Chrissy Snow. I was lookin’ at the screen thinkin’ how that schoolgirl thing she had goin’ on ain’t as appealin’ as it was meant to be not to me at least when "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" began to play. In the middle of the slideshow of schoolgirl types that was playin’ in my head, I thought, What is this bullshit? just before the screen showed a young Elvis descending onto a stage from the heavens. And when I say young Elvis, I mean 50s Elvis not bloated and sad 70s Elvis…not back from the dead, skeletonized, zombie Elvis either. This was the real thing if seein’ is believin’ as they say. The Elvis much of the country fell in love with way back when.

"What the fuck s'wrong with the TV, Mack?"

"Can't be the TV, Frank," I'd replied. "Just bought the damn thing. Cost me 600 bucks down at Wal-Mart. Maybe it's the cable or the channel itself." I grabbed the remote and changed the station but every channel I flipped to played the same thing. I had flipped full circle and come back the original channel when the screen started to close in on Elvis while the music simultaneously quieted down.

"Aw, horseshit," I had yelled down the bar to Percy and Frank. "You guys into Elvis?"

"Naw, Mack, not since I was a kid. You?"

"Nope." I'd powered the thing off by then and walked over to the satellite radio hookup I had over behind the bar. I kept it on Sirius’s Classic Vinyl channel playing all the greats from Rock ‘n Roll history (no Elvis). Everyone seemed to like it just fine when we weren't in the mood for daytime television bullshit. But, as soon as I pushed the power button, Elvis' undeniable voice blasted through the speakers.

"Thank you. Thank you very much."

I'd heard no applause. But, of course, Elvis continued on.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I've got a whole lotta shakin' up to do tonight. I'm here to give you some news that may be hard to stomach at first. The King is back, folks. Ever since I was a kid, I knew God had something special in store for me. When I passed on to the heavens above, He asked me for a personal concert then told me how I was his son and that I'd return one day to this world to fulfill his plan. I'm here, folks, to do just that. The gospel foretold of this day. I am the King, as always, but I have returned to my people, my fans as Christ. I know there will be doubts, but as I have always said, truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away.”

The station went to silence then. Nothing I did to the radio or the T.V. would work. Every channel was static. In the thick quiet of the bar, I poured us all a shot of my best scotch. TV, radio, even the Internet from what I hear...none of it has worked since.

This line's movin' slower than I first thought or maybe my nerves is just gettin’ the best of me now. I’m a bit antsy—that kind where you pop every knuckle in your hand 15 times just to have something to do with yourself. I have no fucking idea what's going to happen, pardon my language. But, sitting at home tonight wasn't an option. That thing that looks like Elvis and is calling itself the messiah made that much pretty clear the second time we saw it. That was Wednesday morning at about 10:30. We were all waiting for it, really. With nothing else to entertain us, the stories had already gotten pretty wild. Of course, the crazies were already out in full force, too. The gossips, the newspaper, every customer, every whispered word held stories of what could be going on. It was really Elvis after a lot of plastic surgery. This is the one people who were sure he'd never died, The Elvis Spotters, were always going on about. Then there were The Invaders. These people were sure it was aliens. Jesus Freaks were divided. Some said God would never pick such a loose hipped rock star to represent Jesus, Lord and Savior. The real nasty ones referred to him more as a drug-fueled, egomaniacal demon sent to take the first born of every man in the county, but that’s a bit much, ain’t it? The other Freaks thought it was a comforting, modern image...and smart of God to use such a recognizable, trusted face. The Conspiracy Theorists decided it was a government experiment and then The Desperate Housewives with their Elvis memorabilia in the form of Russell Stover collectible tins and Ty Beanie Babies were ready to be led like sheep to a slaughter. Everyone else, which was just me, Frank, and Percy far as I could tell, just sort of waited on some answers.

Strange world we live in.

So, Wednesday at 10:30 in the a.m. Every television, radio, computer, even mp3 players and intercom systems announced another speech when they simultaneously began to play Elvis' version of Amazing Grace. Wasn’t a single one of them things on when it happened. Not in the bar anyway. But it happened anyway. We were all on the edge of our proverbial seats, though, right where that...thing...wanted us. And we all hung on every word. I know I did. Frank and Percy had their eyes glued to the television set from their end of the bar, too. We were caught up in the power of it, but who wouldn’t be?

He didn’t descend from the sky this time, but he did his routine of playing to the audience—that’d be us and whoever else was watchin’. He was wearin’ a leather suit like he did in the 1968 Comeback Special, but this one was white instead of black. His shirt was black and the tie was white with just a hint of twinkling sequins—that familiar Elvis flamboyance was there but slight. He took a knee at each end of the stage, waving and blowing kisses like an ass finally stopping in the middle and raising both arms making his suit jacket stretch and pull at the buttons. Behind him, a line of gentlemen stepped out from the shadows. Some I knew right off and some I didn’t.

“Mack, who the fuck are they?”

“Shut your loud mouth, Frank. We ain’t never gonna find out if you talk through the whole thing.”

Elvis let his arms down then and stood to take the microphone.

"Thank you for more of your time, ladies and gentlemen. I'll be brief so we can all get on with our day and prepare. As some of you may have figured out, it's time for my next big comeback tour. We're callin' this one The Judgement. We've got a lot of dates and stops to make to fit all you folks in. I won’t leave a single soul in my flock behind, don’t ya’ll worry. That’s why I ain't doing this tour alone. I've got some good ol' boys to help me out. My apostles. Let me introduce you. This here's Peter, one of my original disciples. You might be more familiar with him as Bobby Fuller. That there is Andrew. Some people call him Dimebag but Darrell seems more appropriate, don't it, son? That's James the Greater. His name here was Rhett Forrester. James the Lesser was, well, not too well known as Jaco Pastorius. Then, there's my dear John who was named Joe Strummer for some time. My man down towards the end of the stage there is Philip better known as Peter Tosh. This guy here is John Bonham to you all but I've known him as Bartholomew. Next to Bartholomew is Matthew. He lived here in the Rolling Stones as Brian Jones. That guy down near Philip who's got his back turned is Thomas. Turn on around, son, and let them get a look at their beloved Jim Morrison. He's a little shy or he likes to play it anyhow. On this side of Thomas, there's Thaddeus. He looks so much like his daddy, that Jeff Buckley. The kid jerkin' 'round in the middle there is Simon. You probably know the name Woody Guthrie even if you don't recognize him. And then back here behind everyone hiding out is Judas. Come on out and show them your face, Kurt. Kurt Cobain to those who might know the face. Come on, now. They aren't going to stone you... That's everybody, ain't it? Yeah, so anyway, folks, you'll be getting a list of tour dates in the mail. We all expect you to be at one of these dates. It's free. Get on a bus or drive your car. Walk. It don't matter none. We'll take care of it. Just come to the show. If we have to come looking for you, you've ruined any chance you've got at salvation. We just don't have long enough for that. I expect you'll have your mail today. The first date is Friday. Now, I've been getting some bad publicity--you got to expect that. But, I also expect to see ya'll there all the same."

And that was that. The screen went black again and I poured shot after shot until I ran out of scotch.

Smoke and Mirrors (Like a Bunny Part 3)

It wasn’t until maybe a week after the power went out that things started getting really bad. A week of people being unable to shop for food and unsure of what would happen… A week of bipartisan bickering with each party blaming the other and neither accepting any responsibility… I mean, if you think about it, really think about it, a week of Starbucks junkies unable to get their caffeine fix is a disaster waiting to happen. A week without television for the majority of the U.S. is asking for riots.

Things were already tense before that. With a market crash far exceeding the recession and bank bailouts that rocked the country in 2008, unemployment skyrocketed, businesses closed, and the economy tanked leaving people fighting for minimum wage jobs and still unable to keep afloat. The government was forced to cut social benefits. No food stamps. No welfare. Social security was next. People were literally starving to death while Congress and the President continued to make full salaries and dine on caviar for breakfast (metaphorically and perhaps literally) every day. When a new budget approval bill stalled in Congress that both reinstated and increased these benefits and raised the debt ceiling, the government shut down cutting tens of thousands of more out of their jobs with no end in sight.

That’s when things went from bad to destroyed… sovereign citizen militias took advantage of this vulnerability and attacked the White House, the Pentagon, and Capitol Hill. No one had any idea the numbers these groups had, and the arms that had been amassed by them under lax gun control laws were staggering. Their targets were quietly and swiftly taken down in a matter of hours leaving a bare-bones government in place that still couldn’t tell its asshole from a hole in the ground, bumbled their way through managing the problem, and still, obviously, couldn’t get a budget approved much less get things back on track… Chaos is an understatement. The central government completely fell, and the states weren’t too far behind. Everything dissolved. Everything. So, people started taking care of themselves any way they could. No one was looking to rebuild. It was complete lawlessness and not in a feel –goody Libertarian utopia kind of way…in a cannabilistic, we’ll-rape-you-just-for-fun kind of way apparently.

Alyssa can’t help thinking about the past. About what has led to where she is now—camping with her partner in the middle of the woods with no tent, no supplies, and her badly injured father on the run from a group of Others. Others who wanted to rape and kill her. Others who tried to kill her father and may very well have succeeded.

Daniel moans in his sleep then pulling her out of her own head. She goes to him to check for fever careful not to wake him.

“He’s got to be quiet, Lys. He’ll attract people making noises like that.”

“And this fire won’t?”

“Point taken.”

She smirks at Jamie across the fire. Even in the most dire of situations, she can’t help that warm feeling she gets when he admits she’s right…mostly because she’s right pretty often, and he can’t stand it. It has been that way since they were kids.

“I hate that look you get.”

“The one when I’m right and you’re not?”

Jamie shakes his head but even in the shadowy, low light of the fire she can still see the smile on his face. Moments like this almost make her feel normal again. That feeling is gone in a flash, though, when she hears her dad moan again and she has to wonder once more if he’s going to make it. She has lost everything. She and Jamie both have. He still doesn’t have a clue what he will find when they finally make it back home. Will there even be a “home” or will Jasper be taken over by Others? For all she knows, their childhood homes may be demolished, burned to the ground perhaps. It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve seen it during their travels. What she does know is that her mama is gone and her daddy may die, too. The wound in his shoulder needs treatment that she can’t give especially not without supplies. If he makes it through the night, they’ll have to scavenge somewhere for whatever first aid items they can find.

“Lys…?”

She shakes her head attempting to break loose the thoughts that seem to have rolled their way inside her mind threatening to take root and realizes that Jamie must have been speaking to her then entire time. She hasn’t heard a word of it.

“I….uh…what?”

“Did you hear anything I said?”

“No…I was lost in thought, I guess. What is it?”

“Nothing important except that we should get moving soon. The sun’s coming up, and I don’t want to stay in one place too long just in case we’re being followed.”

“I don’t think Daddy can move right now. He needs his rest.”

“And we need to move. If he’s going to come with us, he’s going to have to move, too.”

What they really need, she thinks, is for everything to be fine again, for the power to come back on, farmers to go back to work, for each other to no longer be seen as food and for some sort of manufacturing to take place to fix what has been destroyed and get things back on the mend … Order needs to be restored. People can’t continue to live like this. As it stands, there have been several groups that have tried to take over and create a functional government or so the rumors go. News travels slowly in these times, but it still gets around. The regular players attempted to step up with their ideas about how to make it work, radicals with extremely conservative goals took a shot, and of course, the militias, but nothing has been able to stick, nothing works. Nothing’s going to work as long as far gone as everyone is, not for the entire country anyway. If it were left up to her, being as she’s always right and all, maybe the best solution would be smaller governments based on region with a central government forming later if at all.

With the sun higher in the sky, Jamie begins to get edgy. He paces out of frustration. Daniel is still out cold. He hasn’t stirred except the occasional moan, but he’s still not feverish. Not yet anyway. It’s time to go. Jamie’s right--staying in one place isn’t a good idea. She shakes her dad calling to him softly at first to wake up, but he doesn’t respond until she’s nearly yelling at him. He stirs and blinks slowly at her groaning in pain.

“Daddy, it’s time to go. We need to get moving…the sun’s already up.”

He nods. He’s in too much pain, it seems, to actually form words, but he manages to get to his feet with her help. There’s nothing to pack, and the fire had already dwindled down to smoldering ash.

They have nothing but themselves and each other.

The small group heads towards Jasper. Alyssa’s mind is on loss…losing her country, her home, her mama, everything she thought she needed. She lost her phone, her ipod, coffee…PIE…everything. Everything she thought was important in life, that was necessary for life is gone. She doesn’t even have tampons anymore. No gummy vitamins. No dresses or bags or shoes. No candy or chocolate. She doesn’t even have a fucking hair dryer or shampoo for fuck’s sake. Everything she ever knew about the way life works, about how to fucking live. It’s all gone. But, what she realizes now trudging through these woods to get back home with the sunlight in her face, hand in hand with Jamie and her arm around her dad for support, is that everything she ever really needed was inside her all along, and every day she continues to prove that. The things she thought were central to life were all just smoke and mirrors…illusions of necessity to fuel a broken system.

Of course this has been another installment of Sunday Confessions with More Than Cheese and Beer. I hadn't really planned to continue this story (again...ha), but when I saw the prompt this week was "power" I had to continue it at least once more. It's not all that action packed, but I enjoyed it all the same. Thanks for reading. Be sure to check out the other contributions on the MTCAB page and anonymous confessions on the Facebook page. 

Eddie (Like a Bunny Part 2)

The two of them are sure, certain in fact, that they are going to be chased through town. They stick to the shadows moving quickly but stopping to listen if anyone is close on their heels. At no time do they hear footsteps echoing behind them, no mad laughter cackling over their shoulders. Backyards give them enough cover to make it out without ever having to go into a street or dealing with the guards on the road out of town.

One of the backyards leads them to a field they cross before coming to a wooded area, but that’s where Alyssa stops.

“I have to go back for my dad.”

“What? What the fuck, Alyssa. NO. No way. You saw what was going on back there. You heard what I heard!”

“What if he’s still alive and they’re just keeping him around for…for…” She cries then and not just a little…not just silent tears. Huge, racking sobs shake her entire body for a few moments before she is able to get them under control. “Jamie, family always, always comes first. You know that.”

“I do.”

“Then we have to go back for Daddy.”

“No. Even if we were to go back, that man back there isn’t your daddy anymore. That’s not the Daniel I’ve known since we were little. That’s not the Daniel that gave me a talk about how to treat a woman when you and I finally started dating. That Daniel is gone. That man back there isn’t family anymore.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it. If that were true, we’d still be back there tied up and probably missing a leg right now and smelling ourselves roasting on an open fucking fire.”

Jamie sighs. She’s right. She knows she’s right. He knows she’s right. Her dad couldn’t have revealed who they are without looking weak, without revealing a vulnerability that would later be used against him. But he still risked himself to get them out of there…

“Okay, I’ll compromise. We can wait for him like he asked on the outside of town. In hiding. The first hint that anyone else is coming for us, that anyone else is out there and we’re gone. If he doesn’t show, we have to leave it. We don’t have anything. The few things we did have are back there. We can’t take on that whole camp of Others to get your dad and you know that. If we try, then we all lose. We all die and get eaten. Your dad took that risk to see you live so why make his sacrifice worth nothing?”

“If my daddy doesn’t show up, you’re not stopping me from going for him. I’m not leaving here without him.”

“Let’s just move back to the edge of town. We’ll cross that bridge when it comes. There’s no use standing here arguing when we don’t even know what’s going to happen.”

“Fine.” She crosses her arms signaling her discontent that he’s even fighting her on this. This is her DAD. This isn’t really some stranger. How could she not go back for her dad whether it was stupid or not? How could she live with herself if she didn’t?

The sun is setting in a blaze of blue and pink hues as they make it back and find a hiding spot to wait for Daniel. Dan. Whatever. There are plenty of bushes and trees to keep them safely hidden, and if nothing else, they can crawl back into the thicker parts of the woods from where they are if they hear anyone coming. It’s as good as it’s going to get.

Time passes slowly as the two sit at the base of an old Live Oak peppered with Spanish Moss giving it the distinguished aesthetic of a gentleman with graying temples. There’s no comfort there despite Alyssa loving these old oaks. It’s the thing she’s missed most about her Southern home, but right now, there’s nothing that could put her mind at ease except seeing her dad and knowing he’s going to be okay. And if he is, she’s going to throw on that pouty, wide-eyed look of hers that has always gotten her what she wants. The phrase “daddy’s girl” is an understatement. Jamie knows that. He also knows she’s not going to give up on this if Daniel doesn’t show…

Jamie grabs her arm in mid-thought almost causing her to scream out loud until she remembers where she is and what’s going on. She clamps her mouth shut tight breathing in sharply. She turns to him with a “what the fuck?!?” look on her face as he reaches one finger up to his lips telling her to keep it quiet.

“Listen,” he mouths without making a sound and points to their left in the direction of the town.

She cocks her head to the right listening, breathing slowed and eyes looking around at nothing in particular as if this somehow amplifies her ability to hear whatever it is she’s supposed to be hearing. That’s when she hears the underbrush moving. It’s faint but it’s there, and it doesn’t sound like whatever or whoever it is wants to sneak up on them. She starts to move but Jamie’s hand tightens on her arm. She glares at him, but he only shakes his head solemnly and holds up his finger telling her to wait.

Alyssa settles back down into her spot and cocks her head again… Did she hear what she thinks she just heard? Was that a whistle? She leans forward some straining to hear better and recognizes the sound instantly when it winds through the trees again. It’s what her father passes as a bird call. He’d use it whenever he was looking for her when she was a kid. He couldn’t stand the way her mom would stand at the backdoor and scream her name. It would piss him off every single time. So, he came up with whatever this is. He says it sounds like some kind of bird native to the area, but she’s never heard a bird that sounds as pathetic and constipated as that whistle makes it out to be. Naturally she returns the whistle. It’s what she has always done.

“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST DO?!!” Jamie hisses at her.

“That’s my dad. That’s his whistle. You know that!”

“And what if he’s taught that whistle to every single one of the Others in this camp? What if it’s one of them? What if one of them is with him?”

All she can do was look at him. He was right. She should have waited. The thought of her dad being out there was too much for her though and she had gotten ahead of herself.

“We have to wait, Alyssa. We have to wait and see just exactly who is out here with us. We can’t stop being smart about things just because family is involved. If we’re not, none of us are going to make it. Don’t you get that??”

“Sure,” she answers. And that’s all she can manage beyond the tears in her eyes. It sounds sulky and in a way it is. She’s mad at herself for not thinking more than she’s mad at Jamie for calling her out about it, but he rolls his eyes and grits his teeth in that way he does anyway.

“Look, why don’t you wait here and keep your whistler zipped. I’m going to go around behind where they are and try to see what’s going on and who exactly it is. Don’t move. Don’t talk. And especially don’t whistle again.”

He doesn’t even wait to see her nod in agreement before he’s silently moving through the trees. Their only flashlight is back in that building with the rest of their stuff, so she doesn’t know how he expects to see with the light nearly dead on the horizon and the moon just a smear behind the clouds in the sky. She suspects he has to get away from her for a bit before he loses his cool and gives them away himself, but she doesn’t feel good about being left alone no matter the circumstances.

The whistling sounds more fervent now that she’s returned a call of her own, but it doesn’t sound much closer. Whoever is making the call is still pushing through the brush but it’s hard to get a fix on how far away the person is or which direction they’re headed. She leans her head back and closes her eyes listening and waiting.

“Well, lookit what we found, Dan! Sleeping Beauty! I thought you said that girl of yours was long gone by now. Another lie!”

Alyssa snaps her eyes open and is immediately blinded by a glaring flashlight. She scuttles around the tree, but a hand reaches out lightening fast and grabs a handful of her hair pulling her towards him.

“OWWW… let the fuck go of me!”

“This daughter of yours sure does have a filthy mouth on her, Dan.”

“Daddy…? What’s going on?”

“Zip it, Alyssa.”

“That’s right, sweetie, you better do as your ‘daddy’ says . The two of you’s in a whole heap of trouble after that business in the Hall today. We got a man dead and all his fresh meat lost just because your dear ol’ man got a bit sentimental. And we ain’t having that. We cain’t even justify Beau’s death since we cain’t keep the meat fresh. Such a waste, too. We coulda had a half a dozen meals off that carcass instead of just one good meal tonight. So now your daddy’s gotta make up for that with you and that other one. Where’s he?”

“How am I supposed to know? He took off when I wouldn’t leave without my dad.” She’s lying but she hopes that lie will save them from looking for Jamie. At least one of them should make it out of this mess alive.

“Bullshit!” the hand yanks on her hair a little harder until she has tears in her eyes.

“It’s the truth!”

“Let her go, Eddie. You don’t see the boy do you?”

The hand tightens on her hair again, and she hears a meaty sound that makes her want to puke. Dan moans softly sounding not quite there but she can’t see anything that’s going on. Her head is bent unnaturally from the vise on hair. She’s clueless.

“That wound looks pretty painful there, Dan. You want me to dig my fingers around in it one more again? Ol’ Beau at least managed to get a shot off, didn’t he? Right into that shoulder, huh?’ She hears that sound again, hears her dad begging.

“Please… just please let the girl go. She ain’t got nothin’ to do with this. It was all me. “

“And? What is that going to do for our food count, Dan? Can we eat your blame? Your responsibility?”

“No, but you can eat me.”

“DADDY!” Alyssa screams. She fights throwing punches against unseen enemies struggling to break free but never connecting.

Eddie laughs it off and cinches his hand tighter. “Keep on wiggling like that little girl and see if I don’t knock your ass out.”

She stills herself, thinking…searching for an answer.

“Now, Dan, why do you think I’d rather eat you and not her? She’s young, tender, and definitely got way less fat on her than your big ass. The fact is we’re going to eat you both. I ain’t lettin’ go the best meal I’ll have all damn month likely, and until we get ready to eat, she’ll be good for morale, don’tcha think?” he laughs then sounding just as mad as the one her daddy must have killed. If she lives through this, she’s sure she’ll never get that cackling out of her head. Even now it feels like a parasite that has managed to root its way under her skin making her ache for a shower that she’ll probably never get.

“No one really gives a shit, Eddie.” Dan’s voice is weak, but the conviction in his words is still coming through intensely. “That’s why it’s just you and me out here. Everybody else told you it was a wild goose chase and to forget about it. All you have to do is look inside to that human being that used to be there…you used to be a father yourself, man. Let her go. That’s all you have to do. Let my girl go.”

Tears threaten to spill from Alyssa’s eyes again but not from pain this time. The sound of her dad crumpling to the ground pulls her out of her sentimentality, though.

“What the fuck’s that?” Eddie manages to get out before he collapses to the ground releasing her hair in the process. She stays on the ground until she sees its Jamie standing behind where the men were holding a tree limb nearly as big as he is. He runs to her frantically and begins checking all over for signs of injury.

“Are you okay, baby? Please tell me you’re okay. Just please be alright.”

“I’m fine. Why’d you knock out my dad?!”

“I save your ass, and that’s the first thing you ask me about? Daniel? Daniel who must have led that man out here since he’s the one that called you with that whistle of his?”

“Family first, Jamie. Always.”

He shakes his head, but he hugs her tighter until he hears moaning coming from the two downed men. He leaves her then to check. Eddie’s armed with some sort of rifle. She doesn’t know what kind. That’s never really been her thing. Jamie takes it, chambers a round, and looks back at her.

“Don’t look. And cover your ears, okay? It’s going to be loud and that’s going to signal the Others, but it’s the fastest way to do this. We’re going to have to get the fuck out of here after this and both of us don’t need ringing ears.”

She does as he asks and turns her head. Eddie has to die and she doesn’t feel the least bit sorry right now, but that doesn’t mean she wants to see it.

The gun makes an enormous sound even with her hands clamped tightly over her ears. Jamie comes for her and quickly pulls her to her feet.

“What about my dad?”

“What about him?”

“He’s coming with us.”

“Alyssa…he’s shot. Look at him. He’s going to die.”

“He’s not going to die here to become food for these maniacs!”

“Fine, help me get him up. We’ve got to move. Now! We should be outta here already.”

They get Daniel to his feet. He stumbles, almost falls down again but catches himself with Jamie’s help.

“You got this?”

He glances over at Alyssa. That look in his eyes…he knows she won’t leave without him. He doesn’t have a choice but to get moving unless he wants to risk her even more.

“yeah,” he says. “For now anyway…”

Alyssa takes his hand in one of hers and Jamie’s in the other, and they run for it.

More fiction on this fine Sunday as part of Sunday Confessions with More Than Cheese and Beer. I had a couple people ask what happened to the folks in the last story I posted. I hadn't intended to finish anything. The idea was to leave it as a cliffhanger, but a certain blogging goddess I know said that would be evil. Ha. So, here we are. I don't think this is any more of a finale than the last, but I hope you enjoy it all the same. As always, any feedback is appreciated. And please, please, please head over to the MTCAB blog to read the other linkups and check out the Facebook page for anonymous confessions. 

Like a Bunny

“quick, like a bunny!” he half-whispers.

“what’s that from?”

“Fear and Loathing. Don’t you remember?” he asks the girl.

She sighs audibly going to great lengths to make sure the exaggerations are noticed. “I miss that movie. I miss any movie. I definitely miss Johnny Depp. I’d even watch him in late era Tim Burton films! Even Dark Shadows! Ooooooh, I’d love to watch Gilbert Grape.”

“Alyssa…”

“Yeah, yeah. I know Tim Burton didn’t do Gilbert Grape but that movie is awesome. I’d even watch 9th Gate right about no—“

He interrupts her with hiss. “You don’t want to do this, do you?”

“No.”

“What choice do we have?”

“I know.”

She knows what needs to be done. Of course she does. But that doesn’t make what she’s about to do seem any less daunting. That’s the way this world works. In a way, she supposes that’s how the world has always worked. Fighting to survive was always a part of the equation, right? But, now it was so much more of a literal take on things rather than a euphemism for trying to make it in a society that, by definition, always put a whole lot of people in the tar pits. A system like that can’t sustain itself forever though. Not really. Eventually when you take all you can from those beneath you, when there’s absolutely nothing left to take, things get messy. To say the least.

Things are pretty much beyond messy.

They need food. It has been a couple days since they had anything substantial to eat because they’ve been in the woods. It’s always safer in the woods than on the street or in a town even if all they have to eat is a few berries, mushrooms, and some dandelion shoots. Maybe a rabbit or squirrel if they’re lucky enough to catch one. Which… well, to be honest, neither of them likes to do. She always cries. To be fair, though, she cries a lot these days. Point being, they’re in the woods more than anywhere else. Alyssa, who never camped a day in her life. The irony of it all, situational as it may be, really isn’t lost on her.

After a few days of scraping together what they can gather, staying on the move, and having zero protein, though, the two of them were forced to leave safety and take some risks which brought them to this place, a smallish town near where they grew up. Over the last several months they’ve traveled from NYC where the food ran out quickly and looters turned murderous in a matter of days to try and go back home to find their families. Or, at least, where home used to be. They’ve been getting closer and closer to where their parents are in hopes of reuniting with people they trust and trying to build something like a normal life again. That’s the plan anyway.

The hope for now, she can't really call *this* a plan per say, is to scavenge enough from this town to get them through the last bit of their journey. There might be food here. There might be nothing. It's a gamble, and a dangerous one at that because there’s definitely some Others. They heard them talking loudly, unafraid of who might come up the road, unconcerned about danger which meant these Others are the danger. If you can be that unafraid in this world, then you’re the thing to fear.

The two of them have been watching in the shadows for a bit. There were a few Others guarding the road’s entrance into the town but mostly they were goofing off. Because they don’t have to worry really. Because they’re armed. If they’re going to make it into this town to do some scavenging they’ll have to be quiet. And quick.

They move from the road looking for a way in elsewhere that might not be guarded and find it through a backyard. They’ve done this before but only out of necessity like tonight. There’s no way they’ll make it home in this cold if they don’t get some food. Real food. A place like this with Others is going to have the food stockpiled in one building which is stupid, of course, in case people like Jamie and Alyssa come through, but it’s the way it always is. When you are the danger, when you’re the thing to fear, you stop being as cunning. You stop believing in anything except brute force.

The two of them stick to the shadows searching for the stockpile aware that it might be guarded but often it’s not. Just the main roads to town are. It's just a game of trial and error when it comes to what you'll find. Maybe this time they’ll be lucky and find it completely vulnerable. If not, they’ll move on and brave the cold another night. By tomorrow, they should be home.

Maybe.

If they can pull through…

There are no longer motion detector lights to worry about. The power grid went down in the first few weeks after the stock market crash and the government shutdown. So, moving through yards is ideal. Most of the dogs have probably either been eaten, starved to death, or moved on, but every now and then Others have used them to help guard their camps, so the threat is there but it’s small. Neither one of them could survive a dog bite though. They haven’t seen any antibiotics in a town in ages. As long as they stay quiet and there are no dogs, they should be good. And if they’re captured? Chances are good they’ll be part of the stockpile of food. At least that’s the way things have been going. The less food is available, the more people are willing to do whatever it takes. This isn’t going to be easy.

But they keep moving.

They have to.

Both stop at the edge of the property crouched beside dying bushes and wait. There’s no sign of any Others, so they move on to the next yard. And the next and the next until they reach the center of town. City Hall will be the place. Or it’s usually the place at any rate because for whatever reason most people seem to think democracy still exists and the best place to keep things for everyone to have access is the power center of the town. It’s sad that people still hold onto that kind of shit even while they’re eating other people to stay alive. It isn’t going to make a damn bit of difference in the end when things are already this damn bad.

The closer they get, the more she shakes. This part is never easy. There have been more than a couple close calls in these last several months. And that one time that she won’t talk about with that man…She can’t even think about it without getting sick. She used to think the world was a terrible place as it was. She was mostly wrong about that. It was terrible…it just wasn’t this kind of terrible.

In the darkness against the side of small City Hall building, they wait for any sign of life. They hear nothing, though. Not a crackle in the breeze. No sounds of life on or outside of these streets. Not even a cricket to be heard. Her heart rate should be slowing down while they’re still and lying in wait, but it’s on the final stretch of the race. She may as well be sprinting towards the finish line with her competitor close at her heels as far as her heart is concerned. She’s pretty fucking sure that as quiet as the night has become, the thump in her chest can be heard two blocks over.

This is the hardest part.

They circle the building looking for a side or back entrance if at all possible. A window, a back door…anything that isn’t locked or locked down well. Going in the front is never a good idea. It doesn't even take trial and error to figure that one out. If anyone IS in there, the front entrance will be guarded more than anywhere else. The windows on the ground floor are all locked or maybe painted shut. Either way, they’re not giving them a way inside. There’s a door on the far side though that appears to only be secured with an old, rusty padlock and fortunately, they scavenged some bolt cutters a few towns back…

With the lock cut free, the door opens easily and the two manage to get inside. Just as Jamie suspected, the food was stored right there downstairs in an office to the side of the main lobby. It’s not much food. Some unmarked cans. Beans. Tuna. Dry pasta. Bags of rice. Barbeque sauce. A few scarce packages of peanuts and cheese crackers. They’re only going to take enough to get them through the night. A couple cans of tuna and some beans will do. Maybe a couple packs of those nuts. They start loading up their score when a bright light blinds them both.

“Just what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” the gravelly voice on the other end of the light asks.

They can’t see a thing.

“Hey, Dan! Dan! C’mere. We got ourselves some fresh meat.”

The two of them hear footsteps. Jamie reaches over and squeezes her hand briefly then takes off charging in the direction of the light. “Run, Alyssa! Now!”

She takes off into the connecting office and breaks into the hallway before she feels huge hairy arms grab her around the waist and pick her up off the floor. She hears a thud in the other room and screams “Jamie!” She kicks back as hard as she can connected with what she hopes is a set of balls but feel s more like a meaty thigh. The guy gives a grunt but holds on tighter refusing to let go.

“Babygirl…?” he whispers.

She freezes. Her heart is in her throat as she tries to turn around. “Daddy….?”

“Don’t turn around. Don’t look at me. Don’t act like you know me. I’ve got to get this figured out. Act like you’re passed out or I swear to God I’ll knock you out.”

He throws her over his shoulder. She’s panicking. Maybe she’s having a heart attack. She doesn’t fucking know for sure but she does what he asks because being knocked out can only lead to bad things. She learned that the hard way. At least if she’s conscious she can figure things out. Could this really be her father? This man living with these Others? It sounded maybe like her father… That man called him Dan. Her father is Daniel. Who else would call her Babygirl? Who else would know to call her that? Who else has those gigantic ape arms that would call her that?

With her eyes closed, she can't see where she’s going but she's sure they’re moving back towards Jamie. The Other with Jamie says, “I got this one knocked out and tied up already. Whatcha wanna do with her? Time for a little of the old in and out?” He cackles madly like he’s just made the funniest joke of the apocalypse. Apparently even with a societal collapse, douchebags remain douchebags.

“We ain’t got time for that, Beau. We just ain’t. We need to get her tied up, too, and secure that back door. I told you that lock weren’t good enough and now look what we got to deal with. “

“What we got to deal with is food and playtime…everybody wins. Well, everybody ‘cept them, of course.” He cackles again sending shivers down her spine.

Jamie groans below her somewhere.

“Why don’t you go take care of that door while I get this one situated?” Dan, Daniel…her dad says to the Other.

“Why don’t you go fix the door if you’re so damn bent up on it while I have a little fun with that pretty little thang right there?”

“ENOUGH with the bullshit. You’ll have her here tied up to do what you want with when the time comes. That time ain’t right the fuck now. Get the door fixed, Beau. Now.”

Her eyes grow wide. Was her own flesh and blood father just going to tie her up and let this man do that…do that thing the other one did to her? What kind of hell is this?

She hears footsteps stomp loudly down the hall just before the arms swoop her down and softly set her on the floor. She looks up and inhales sharply, tears in her eyes.

“What…Daddy? What’s going on? What are they going to do to me? What are you doing here? Where’s Mama?”

“You always did talk a mile a minute, Alyssa. We ain’t got time for that right now. He’s gonna be back. And you ain’t gonna be here when he is.”

He unties Jamie. “You and that boyfriend of yours never should have come back home. It ain’t good down here.” He tries shaking him but Jamie only manages another groan. “You’ve got to wake him the fuck up and get gone.”

“But…what are…what about you? What about my mama?”

“Alyssa, your mama’s gone. She’s been gone. I ain’t got time to sit and cry and moan about it right here and neither do you. I can’t leave here. This is all I got. Get out to the edge of town and when shit settles down, I’ll come out and we can talk about it, but then you’re gone and you ain’t coming back, you got it?”

He reaches over then and slaps Jamie right across the face.

His eyes flicker open, then. Searching but not quite seeing, not focusing.

Dan picks him up off the floor while he struggles weakly. Alyssa takes his hand and whispers, “it’s alright, Jamie. It’s my Daddy. Look at him…”

Jamie turns his head and a look of recognition sweeps across his face.

“Shut up, boy. Don’t say a word. We’ve got to get you out of here. Now, I need you to punch me. We gotta make this look like you escaped.”

“I can’t---“

“You can. And you will. Or you’ll be food. As hungry as I am right now tonight, I can’t see my Babygirl end like that. And I won’t see her go through what I did with her mother if it happens to you. Now punch me, you little shit. And make it good.”

Jamie pulls back and let’s one fly busting Dan’s lip. Blood pours from the split and Dan howls in pain.

Jamie and Alyssa take off to the front. They hear a loud click before that gravelly voice croons, “Now, just where do you think you’re going?” They can barely make out his silhouette in the moonlight but he’s there between them and the doorway.

Dan charges into the lobby pushing past them and tackles the Other to the ground.

“RUN!” he shouts as the two struggle.

They head to the back hoping the lock is still broken, push through…everything they had is still back in that room but they keep going in the shadows looking for a way to cross to the next block trying to stay quiet. Trying to be quick. Like a bunny.

They hear a gunshot followed by a mad cackle and make a run for it.

Thanks for reading another installment of Sunday Confessions with More Than Cheese and Beer. Be sure to check out the other linkups this week and the facebook page for anonymous confessions! And, in light of my decision to possibly enter a short story contest in January...any and all feedback is welcome. Thanks!!