From the journal of Manny Stone, May 27

May 27, 2017

We pulled into another small town today, bigger than the one we all were trying to forget about. We've all been woken up by nightmares at least one night since we saw the remains of the women and read the letter one of them left. Marney was really reluctant to even stop and we had to talk her into doing so. We need food, water, ammo and lots of other stuff, so we can't pass up the chance to find supplies.
This little place has a real downtown area, probably already run down before  the pandemic hit, like lots of little towns around the country. The houses are off the main drag and most look like they were built years ago. Brick is the main facade of choice and two stories seem like some kind of building requirement since there are so many of them.
Marney stayed in the truck, keeping watch, while Alex and I went into the grocery store. We stayed together and checked aisle by aisle for undead before grabbing carts and checking to see if anything good was left on the shelves. Suprisingly, there was still a lot of food, mostly junk food, and a good supply of bottled water. This town must have been evacuated to an emergency shelter in one of the neighboring areas, otherwise, there wouldn't be anything left at all. We'd seen it, two days ago, when we pulled into this little town where all the shelves were empty, at the store, gas station, even the deli and restaurant. The houses had also been completely picked over and we didn't find anything to eat that night. Thankfully, we've built up a small store of food, but we have to constantly keep replacing and adding to it.
This time, we hit the jackpot. We put our supplies in the back of the truck and headed for one of the neighborhoods to find a place to stay for a couple of days. We've been on the move for full week and I know I'm tired and want to take a short rest. We don't want to stay too long, but a couple of days should be fine. We can search the houses and any other buildings we think might have something useful.

Again, Marney waited in the car once we'd chosen a house. Alex and I cleared it and made sure there wasn't any hidden suprises or horrors to be found. Then and only then Marney was ok coming inside. I know that the bodies we found really messed with me, more than I want to admit. But for Marney, I think being able to put herself in their place because of what almost happened to her, well, it has scarred her and will take a while for her to work through.
The house we chose is nice and is near the library. I plan to go there tomorrow, even if the others don't want to go. I'm looking forward to just spending some time walking through the aisles. I know I'd love a good book to read on our little bit of down time. I used to get books delivered to my old neighbor and he would bring them to me and I miss having something to take my mind off what's happening around us. While the towns people near my cabin thought I had cut myself off from the world, I really hadn't. They would've been suprised to see my library. Besides, with the internet, you can read about anything you want to read about and learn anything you want to learn.
Well, Marney's calling me for dinner and I guess I can write again later on. I hope this place is a good place to stop and rest. I also hope those men who were trying to find us in the mountains never found it and haven't tried to follow us. That's why we won't stay here for long and need to put more distance between where we came from and where we are.

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.