From the journal of Jenna Bless,March 17

March 17, 2017

     We left Brule today. I was sad to watch it disappear into the distance, but I also felt happy. It has not been the easiest place to grow up in. I mean, I know that ghettos in large cities must be worse with gangs and drugs and all that. But the people here are just narrow minded and were not nice to a lonely little girl who had done nothing wrong. Parents would not even let their kids be friends with me like my supposed shame could rub off on their precious little angels. Lot of good it did them, keeping them away from me and my immoral family. I have not seen a single person even close to my age, at least not alive, anyway. I had seen a bunch of then undead at the school. Shot a bunch of them, too.

 We spent yesterday going through the houses in town looking for anything useful. I asked Williams what we would do if we found survivors. He had to think about it but finally decided that we would take it on a case by case basis. This sounded good to me because I know some of the crazies who live around here and I would not want to have any of them along for the ride.
     It was a long but rewarding day. We found 7 shotguns, three 9 mm's, a .357 revolver and a bunch of ammo. I also found a hunting rifle, but Williams said it was too old and rusted to be trusted. We found other weapons as well. Food would not be an issue for a while, between what we had left from the food bank and what we scavenged. We even ended up with some home canned items like preserves, relishes, cucumbers and tomato sauces.
     We searched the first couple of houses together and he said he was impressed with some of my suggestions for weapons, like and ax, baseball bat or even the fireplace tools. He told me that after my "valuable contribution" and my show of brilliant brain power, I should take the houses on the other side of the street by myself. We agreed to meet back at the largest house on the block, where we started and left the truck. We had pulled a small enclosed trailer, hoping that we would find enough to make it worth while.
     We spent a couple hours apart searching and kept in tough with the walkies. When we met up, I showed him my haul. I had collected a pile of food, a Japanese katana sword, a small sledgehammer and a set of shovels and hedge trimming tools. I had even grabbed a bowling ball because I thought it might be funny to bowl the next small group of moaners we came on. But I told Williams that for the ultimate game of moaner bowling, we would need about a dozen balls because who would want to get them back!
     We spent hours going through most of the houses in town and ended up with a large haul of goods. We took it all back to the food bank and separated out what we had found to make it easier to pack and find when we needed to. We ate an early dinner and then we went to bed so that we could leave at first light. I thought I would not sleep again, but it felt like only a minute had passed when Williams woke me up. I crawled into my clean clothes and into the truck. I was really glad that he had made me help pack up the truck last night even though I complained the whole time because I was so tired. I know that I watched out the window as Brule disappeared, then I went back to sleep for a while. I don't know where we are now but Williams said we were no longer in Nebraska, so I guess we are in Colorado. Hopefully everything goes well on the way to the airport.

As a writer and artist, I appreciate any readers and their comments. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. Please, come read the other blog I write for our artisan collective, Raven's Castle Creations, on our website at www.ravencastlecreations.com. It includes posts on art, the mythology of symbols we use in our art, history and more! Also, come see the art we produce in our Etsy store at etsy.com/shop/RavenCastleCreations. Follow us on Twitter at @ravencastleart and on Facebook at @ravencastlecreations.