From the journal of Jenna Bless,March 9

From the journal of Jenna Bless, a teenager who was rescued by CO Williams in Brule, Nebraska.

March 9, 2017

     I have been stuck up in this stupid play structure for three days now. If I didn't come to get supplies and manage to get food and water, I would be dead by now. Luckily, even though the school was overrun, I still got into the cafeteria and got a backpack full of food and bottled waters. I am also lucky that the local artist who designed this play structure wanted it to resemble an atom. A small wooden play structure like we used to have wouldn't have been tall enough for me to be out of the moaners reach.

     I hope my Gran and Pops are still o.k. I didn't plan on being gone this long. I also hope that Mom has stayed away because she only causes problems every time she shows up. She likes to come over and eat all our food from the church food bank. I wish, just once, that she would bring us something to eat, even if she has to steal it first.
     The last time she came over, she brought some of her tweaked out "friends" and they stole my baby sitting money. I had been saving for almost two years to get a moped when I turn 16. That way, I could get a real job with a steady paycheck to help out around home. I was looking forward to being able to buy my own clothes for school next year, too. I mean, the clothes would have still been second hand, but I was looking forward to paying for them with my own money. Gran and Pops don't get a lot from Social Security and I get even less than they do from the government. Most months, we barely squeak by. Bill juggling is becoming my teenage super power!
     I was always wishing for more time to sit and do nothing, but being up in this play thingy is so boring. Sitting here, listening to my former schoolmates moan and watching them trying to reach up to where I am sitting. I almost brought a book, but decided not to because I could get more food and water in my backpack without one. I knew that food was going to start becoming an issue soon. All the local stores have been looted already, so the school was the last supposedly safe place to get food from someone willing to hand it out. This would have been a good idea, if it had not been overrun or if the moaners were not loose.

     I should have taken Pops advice and tried the church food bank first. He said it would be safer because it was not declared an emergency evacuation center and Pops thought that the priest said he was going to slowly bring the food to the school. I guess it would have been smarter to go there instead.
     How was I supposed to know that everyone here would already be dead, or undead or whatever. I thought it would be just like last time. Four days ago, I came to the school and Mr. Janson gave me a backpack of food. But when I got here, it had already happened. I wonder what went wrong? If Gran was not still under treatment for cancer when this all began, we would probably have been here too!
     I am really glad that I told Pops about the food I have been hiding under my loose floorboards. I have been putting a little bit of food in there for months. Always the stuff that would be good for a really long time. That way, if Mom came and cleaned us out again, we would still have food to eat. About six months ago, she had done that and it was Friday night. The food bank was not open until Monday. We were really hungry by Sunday and Pops had to ask Father Jameson for food at church on Sunday. It was really embarrassing for him. He is so proud and to have to explain to Father Jameson what happened to the food we had just been given was really hard on him.
     I am a little surprised that Pops hasn't shown up here in his old Toyota truck to find me. I wish he would show up soon. I am tired of being up in this thing.
     I can see that the "Bod Squad" were all here when whatever went down happened. No longer so beautiful girls, blood has a way of ruining even the trendiest clothes. Wendy looks like a chew toy for a giant dog. Her throat is mostly gone which makes her moan more of a tea kettle style hissing. Sue's stomach is missing. Not like she got skinnier, but like someone took a chunk out of her belly. Her guts are wrapped around the legs of all the moaners that followed me out here. Beth is missing her lower legs except for some bones. She can't even walk, she just crawled after me and the other moaners and is now on the ground under the play structure trying to climb the ropes. Guess it's a good thing that these moaners can't climb.
     I hate to have to eat more of the food that I came here to get for us to eat. If I can find a way to get down, I will have to try to go back to the cafeteria to get more food before going home. If that is not safe, I will try the church food bank. I wonder if Father Jameson was here? 

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