From the journal of Nikki Feather, June 26

June 26, 2017

     We've been driving for ten days, heading West and slightly South, heading for the foothills of the Rockies. We've passed through a bunch of small towns, all deserted like my home town after the horde came through. We don't stop downtown anywhere now. There could be hundreds in the shops and buildings and with only the two of us, we can't take the chance. It wouldn't even take hundreds, only a couple dozen, and we'd be screwed. Probably not even that many and we'd been in major trouble.  

     Jackson and I have taken to scavenging anytime we found a house or a couple of houses on their own. We'd found this farm house two days ago that was amazing. It looked like it should've been in a Norman Rockwell painting, like 100 years ago. Now, it could've stared in a horror movie all on it's own. We saw this driveway, heading towards what looked like a fruit orchard on the next hill over, so we turned down the driveway. After eating snack foods and canned foods for days, any kind of fruit would be welcome, and if we got lucky, they might've had a garden, too. I would've killed to have something green and fresh!

     The driveway had to be at least a mile long and when we got to the end, we found the house. It had been white at some point, but was a really dirty off white now. It was made of brick and had a couple of balconies on the side we approached from. The orchard surrounded the house and was probably planted when the house was built. It hadn't been taken care of in years, but there was some fruit. There were two apple trees with green apples on them. I know I'll get a stomach ache from eating them, but I picked some of them anyway. There were plums, cherries and peaches, too. They weren't fully ripe, but we picked some of each and put them in the truck, taking a couple inside with the rest of our supplies.

     It was late afternoon, so we decided to stay the night in the house. The inside was as creepy as the outside.It was mostly empty, but we did find a table with one chair. The walls were chipping with faded wall paper peeling from them. I bet we were breathing in all kinds of toxic stuff from the walls and possibly even the wall paper. In past centuries, lead and other poisons were used in paints and wall papers. Besides this possible danger, we secured the house and put up our low tech alarms, in case someone or something tried to get inside.

     We set ourselves up in what would've been the dining room, it had the most sturdy floor and the only pieces of furniture. I brought in the sleeping bags, all six of them. They were pretty comfortable with two under you and one to sleep in. Jackson brought in the food supplies and the small camp stove we had to heat up our food. We kept the supplies we took inside to a minimum so we could grab them in an emergency and run.

     I had found some old Stephen King books in a house we had searched and after eating, we took turns reading from them out loud. I really find it funny that before the dead started walking, I scared too easily to read horror novels. Now, the book was kind of tame compared to our reality. I did wonder, briefly, if the author was still alive, dead or wandering around as a zombie.

     When the sun stared to set, we got out one of our charged solar lights and turned it on low. They only last for a few hours when fully charged and once the light ran out, it was bed time. We have ten of them, but usually only turn one on a night. That way, if there's an emergency at night, we have nine fully charged lights to see by. We quietly read out loud to each other until the light dimmed, them got in bed. I can barely see to finish writing this and will have to give up for the night. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a good day. Fingers crossed.

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.