Axiom 2: Gather supplies.
Well, journal, it's two days later, and I'm feeling a little better about my situation.
Should I be calling you a journal? What's the difference between a journal and a diary? Ooh, I know, I'll look it up with my brand new DICTIONARY, right here!
Let's see...
Okay. A journal is "a daily record of news and events of a personal nature; a diary." Hmm.
Journal, maybe I'm going a little crazy from lack of human interaction, but at least my situation seems fairly good aside from that little issue.
I'm still in the Starbucks. I've decided to make this my home base - it's got comfy chairs and coffee, after all, and the roof still hasn't collapsed down on my head. I'm taking that as a good sign.
But while Starbucks has some very tasty sandwiches stored in the fridge in the back, that's not going to last me too long. So I've been scouting around in the area, scavenging all the supplies that I can get my hands on, and dragging them back here.
Let's see, what have I got... Journal, I'm carrying you around with me while I make a tally of all the supplies I've gathered so far:
- A wheelbarrow. I found this at a home and garden supply store, and it's amazingly useful for navigating around the rubble of a broken, destroyed world. It greatly cuts down on the number of trips that I need to take in order to haul cans of beans, jugs of water, blankets, and other invaluable supplies back to my coffee shop home base. Four out of five stars, with one star deducted for the time it tipped over and spilled cans of beans everywhere.
- Water. For some reason, the faucets don't seem to work any longer. All that comes out of them is this brown-red sludge. This is either a portent of the Apocalypse, or it means that our water system in town is terrible. In any case, I've got a couple hundred gallon jugs of water stacked up in the back room now.
- Blankets and sheets and pillows. Sure, the interior of my little personal fortress looks a bit like a tornado struck a Pier One Imports, but it's comfy!
- A hammer, nails, and extra boards. I got a little tired of feeling exposed, so I boarded up most of the windows, as well as the back door. I still remember that angel smashing apart that poor little devil Furby.
- Batteries. A lot of batteries. All sizes. I've got buckets just sitting around, filled with batteries. Can't have too many batteries.
- Some reading material. As I mentioned, I stole a dictionary from a nearby bookstore. Well, is it stealing if no one's around to ring me up? I waited at the checkout area for nearly ten minutes before I remembered that this was the Apocalypse. Besides, my credit card probably doesn't work any longer.
- Beans. Did I mention food? I've got more than beans, of course - I have cans of soup, vegetables, fruit, tuna, and just about any other food that can be crammed into twelve ounces of tin. But somehow, whenever I reach into my big can bin to grab my next meal, my hand always seems to emerge holding a can of beans.
So, I'm doing all right with supplies, I guess. It's not enough to keep me going for the rest of my life, but it's enough to keep me comfortable while I try not to think about how short the rest of my life might be.
At some point, I suppose, I'll have to start making my own food. I've never actually grown anything before, except for some peas, back in elementary school. My peas didn't make it to adulthood, although that might have been in part due to my totally-reasonable-at-the-time decision to water it with Mello Yello soda instead of using water.
I now know that, when growing crops, Mello Yello does not provide extra nutrients.
I'll also have to start cultivating animals, I suppose. Do animals generally get a pass on the Apocalypse? I'd hate to hike all the way out to a farm somewhere, only to find out that all of the cows have been Raptured up to Heaven. Are some cows evil, and stuck here on Earth?
Journal, these are the sorts of questions that keep me awake at night, staring out through the cracks I've left in my boarded-up windows.
Oh, and that reminds me. On a more sobering note, I do have one other item to add to my inventory list:
- Handgun. I found it in the sporting goods store, although I had to smash open a glass case with my hammer to get it. I had to mess around with it for a while before I figured out how it worked, and I nearly shot my own foot off when it first fired - but now I think I've got the hang of using it. I have successfully put holes in the following items:
- A large fiberglass deer in the sporting goods store
- Several store front windows
- A car tire
- A medium-sized shrubbery
- A glass bottle that I set up as a target
- The crate that held up the glass bottle
- A tree that had the misfortune to grow next to where I set the glass bottle
- The ground around the glass bottle
- A kayak
I originally kept the handgun sitting out, in case another angel came by and I decided to try and defend myself, but I didn't like looking at the thing. Something about it just seems sinister. It's as if the handgun is reminding me that, if I get depressed enough, there's always the quick way out.
Journal, I currently don't have any plans to shoot myself - but I might be tempted if the next can that I grab out of my pantry for dinner tonight happens to be beans.
In fact I'm feeling pretty hungry right now - writing journal entries can be exhausting! Let's see what's for dinner tonight...
Dammit.
To be continued...
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