Journal Read Online Free PDF Page A

turns
keeping watch throughout the night.  Anna would take the first watch, my turn
would be next, and Gabriel would take the last couple of hours.  I was worried
that Eric and his crew were behind us and might try to sneak up in the
darkness.  I was so exhausted, I went right to sleep.
    ____________
    In
the early morning of April third, when it was my time to stand watch, she woke
me up with a stick.  Yeah that’s right, she jabbed me in the ribs with the end
of a four-foot stick without even saying anything.  Now I can only imagine what
I looked like after several battery
operated radio with t days wearing the same clothes, unshaven, and wet.  
God knows how bad I smelled, too.  But to jab me with a stick like I was a
snake in her path, come on.  I’ll just be glad when I’m on my own again.  They
can keep their secrets and she her bad attitude.
    I
was so worked up from thinking about Anna, I decided to let the kid sleep
through his turn at watch. 
    When
morning came, and just before I woke them to start our day, I took the last of
some dry oatmeal I’d scavenged from a house near where I found this journal,
mixed it with rain water to soften it up, and split it three ways.  At least Gabriel
thanked me.
    This
second day of the three of us together was more of the same, lots of tough
walking.  This time no rain, though, just an oppressively gray sky with little
promise of better days.  I knew we were still on track when we angled ourselves
between two mountain peaks, one at 7000 feet and the other over 8000.  But
that’s when we hit our first real obstacle: a river too wide to wade across and
too fast to swim.  So we turned west, going upstream where I hoped we would
have a better chance of finding a place to cross.  We stayed on the south side
of the river, and in the late afternoon we encountered the ruins of a hunting
blind or maybe a small shelter that hunters had used during the season.
    It
wasn’t anymore than maybe twelve by ten feet with stones for one wall and logs
for the others.  The roof was made of poles and had been covered with shingles,
but these were for the most part missing, except for on one corner.  There was
no door, but inside it was fairly dry, and just as important, some of the
original shingles were there on the ground and were burnable.  We’d be able to use
them to build a small fire.
    We
used the tarp again to give us more of a roof and got the fire started.  I
can’t begin to tell you how good a fire feels when, in my case, you’ve been wet
and cold for three days.  I really wanted to sit there for a few minutes, I
surely did, but I had other things on my mind.  We were going to need food soon
because we were burning a lot of calories moving the way we were.  I didn’t
have much left, and I doubted that Anna had much either.  So I thought I’d try
my hand at fishing.  It wasn’t happening, though.  Maybe I just didn’t have the
patience for it.
    I
ended up using a soft carrot, half of my last piece of dried meat, and a piece
of potato that Anna contributed, to make a soup that we all shared.  Afterwards,
I concocted some tea out of pine needles and boiled river water.  With that and
the fire, I finally felt warm.
    I’m
tired of writing now, so I’ll finish catching up tomorrow, maybe.  There’s just
one more thing I want to mention because it helps explain why I have to get
away from this woman as soon as I can.  As I sat there by the fire, drinking my
tea, I took the time to wipe down my rifle and pistol.  I couldn’t afford to let
them get rusty.  After I was finished, I offered to clean Anna’s pistol as well. 
She looked at me like I’d just asked her for her left kidney or something and
told me, “No way.  I’ll do it myself.”  Why do I get the feeling that she doesn’t
trust me?  I just don’t get her attitude.
     
    April
7, 2054 –
    There
are a lot of things that have happened since I last wrote, three or four days
ago —