From the journal of Jenna Bless,March 22

March 22, 2016

     We passed through a lot of small towns in Colorado over the last few days. I remember Julesburg, Crook, and Iliff. They were all small and cute while we passed through. There were not a lot of people is some of the towns along the 138. Sterling was the largest place we have passed through so far this side of the state line. It said the population was almost 14,000 people, but it seemed like there were twice that many undead creatures walking around. We did not stop there, it was too risky for the two of us to think we could handle a really big group of them. Williams said it was smarter to wait and scavenge in the smaller towns on the way while avoiding the more populated areas.

     It has taken us a lot longer than Williams thought it would to get this far. There are cars abandoned everywhere. We have had to stop and move more cars than I can count and we haven't even made it there yet. I bet there are going to be more and more cars as we get closer to Denver and I am not happy about it. I am so sore from pushing cars and walking and just getting by. I want to be at the airport already and I really want there to be other survivors there. I might still stay with Williams even if there are others there. I will have to wait and see what they look like and decide what to do from there.
     Tomorrow we leave again at first light and will be passing through a place called Fort Morgan. I looked it up in the map book we found two days ago and it says the population is over 11,300. We are not going to stop but keep pushing through to Wiggins since there are less than 1,000 people there. I just hope that we don't run into any groups we can't handle on our own. It would be different if we had more than 20 other people with us. There would someone to watch everyone's back. It would be better even if all we had was around 10. Really any more than the 2 we have now would be an improvement. Hopefully, we will find others at the airport and we can all team up together.
     I never thought I would say this, but I miss school. It was sure a lot better than the way things are now. I miss my grandparents and I guess I miss my mom. I wish everything was back to way it used to be. I would even be fine with the people in town calling me names and being mean, as long as I got Pops and Gran back. I would be OK with Mom not coming back, too. As long as Pops and Gran were OK.
     I have never been this far from Brule before and definitely not for this long. I miss my room and being in the living room watching stupid T.V. shows with Pops. I really miss the smell of Gran's cooking and would eat anything that she made right now, even the sauerkraut!
     I better go to sleep soon as Williams will be getting me up at the butt crack of dawn and insist on leaving within 10 minutes. I have not idea how he keeps watch most of the night and still stays awake all day long. So far, he has not trusted me to drive, but he told me he will teach me when we get to the airport. I sure hope so. It would be another skill that I don't have now and it might save us sometime if we get in a jam.
     Time to sleep. Tomorrow is gong to come soon enough and it should be really fun getting through Fort Morgan.

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