The next five are all drabbles, so you get three today and two next week. Enjoy!
021 Water
It's getting harder.
At first there were other things to drink. Sodas, fruit juice…Chip nearly made himself sick trying to drink all the milk before it went off. We're still ok for food, even if we're all losing weight, but water…that's becoming an issue.
Clare's been helping me cook. She's really good at making a full meal out of three ingredients, and the fact that we're cooking over a fire doesn't worry her. She hasn't said anything, but I know she's getting worried about the water as well.
Tomorrow I'm going to go out and see what I can find. I know a lot of ways around this town that no one else did. I might be able to find something. Anything to keep us alive a little longer.
022 Fire
It's always so cold.
I know from watching the others and talking to Clare that it's all in my head. It's like the cold from the nights before we found this place has sunk in, right to the bone. I'm never warm.
We keep the fire going all the time now. Xander agreed, a while back, that we need warmth more than safety—I think it was waking up to find his pants frozen to the floor that changed his mind. We've burned all the furniture from the kitchen, and I've cleared most of the classrooms on this level. I'll have to ask Chip or Vida to help me with the next floor—it's dangerous up there.
I think Clare's getting worried; she keeps trying to give me her drink or an extra blanket or whatever, and she makes sure she's lying beside me at night. That was weird, at first, sleeping with everyone, but that wore off fast.
I just wish it wasn't always so cold…
023 Earth
I wish we were safer.
It still surprises me how fast things went bad. Take away shelter, take away power, take away control, and suddenly everyone's an animal.
Chip won't tell me why he was attacked. Only that we need better protection. So while Nick keeps us warm, Vida keeps us safe, and Maddie and Clare keep us fed, Chip and I have been building more barricades. We've stopped using the gap in the wall to come and go; we've made it look like it collapsed and now we go through the school instead. No one can get to us now, not with all the earth and dirt we piled up.
Funny how it doesn't feel any safer, though...