Dead End Chronicles (Book 1): Dead End Journal

by Alex San Lyra

  Bibi complained, slurring words, “Wha’ kinda fucked up party is this anyway, tha’ doesn’t last until sunrise? You people don’ know how to fuckin’ party. You’re weak!”

  “And you’re drunk,” I pointed out, “Maybe someone should help her home.” I looked up at Stone.

  He pulled her arm over his neck and helped her stand. “She’s completely wasted,” he noted.

  “Now don’ you go thinkin’ you can take advan'age of me-ee, old man,” she mumbled, “I know I’m sexy, but jus’ cuz I’m dru-unk, it doesn’ mean I’m easy... pervert.“ But then she laid her head on his shoulder and hugged him.

  “Yeah, you’re as sharp as ever, Beebs,” he said sarcastically, but then he frowned and added, “We can’t leave her at the barracks shit-faced like this.”

  “Crap!” I agreed, “I forgot all about that. Maybe she should stay here at my place for the night. I’ll sober her up in the morning. She’ll be pissed, but at least she’ll be safe. Plus, I have a toilet, which she’ll be needing eventually.”

  “You sure about this, kid?” he asked, “You remember what she’s like on a hangover, right?”

  “Oh, I remember,” I answered regretfully, “but I think it’s better this way. Besides, if there’s anyone who can handle Bibi, it’s probably me.”

  Trying not to wake my brother, I took out my dad’s old mattress. Lexa helped me. Amazingly, she was still sober, even after all that careless drinking. Bibi, on the other hand, was already out when we laid her down.

  Stone chuckled at the situation and then said, “Good luck sleeping tonight, kiddo. I’ll, um, drop by here tomorrow morning to help you get her up.”

  In the hall, everyone was still waiting for me... everyone except Ranger. Typical. He was already long gone. One by one, the others all said their goodbyes and left... until only Singer remained.

  “Well,” he said, “that was some party. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever been to an actual party before. Only the town barbecues and the birthday parties my sister used to throw for me, but those were nothing like this.”

  “Oh, you haven’t seen nothing yet,” I pointed out, “this was actually pretty light for Bibi’s standards.”

  “Yeah?” he said thoughtfully, “You know, I’m kinda beginning to see why you’re both so close. Even though she got wasted today... She really is a good friend, not just someone who looks out for you... Those stories though... Are they all, by any chance, true?”

  “Hell if I know,” I chuckled, “I stopped asking myself that a looong time ago.”

  He nodded understandingly and then fell silent for a while, looking down the hall, to where Ranger and I had talked. When he looked back at me, he simply said, “I guess I better get going as well.”

  I thought maybe he wanted to ask me about that chat with Ranger, but he didn’t. After all, I had told him to forget about it and just enjoy the party. Perhaps, he didn’t want to spoil the night. It was probably for the best. I watched him walk away and then went back into my apartment. Bibi was snoring. I laid next to Xandy and quickly fell asleep, exhausted. My dreams were full of smiles and laughter.

  - - - - -

  Stone came around this morning, just before sunrise, as he had promised. He helped me get Bibi up out of bed and into the bathroom. I helped her take a quick bath. Thankfully, her hangover wasn’t half as bad as we had expected. She wasn’t even all that grumpy, kept talking about the party and all the fun we had.

  Then the siren went off and we headed out for breakfast. I don’t think any of the other guards figured out Bibi hadn’t slept at the barracks. No one even asked. After breakfast, I went to the hut to give the archery class, but I kept thinking about the party... about Singer and Ranger. I was going to leave the journal entry for tonight, but... Leaving Mouse and Lexa in charge of the class, I came back home and pulled out my journal.

  You’d think I’d have some kind of point I was going to get to, but no. I still don’t really know what to think. I mean, at this point, I don’t think I’ve misread Singer or Ranger. So, what if they DO like me? What then? Up until now, for some reason, I’ve never actually thought about them in “that” way. Of course, I’ve always thought Ranger was kinda hot... mysterious... and Singer is really charming too... in a completely different way...

  I guess my trust issues must have kept me blind to that whole possibility. Now, it’s like my eyes are finally open. I feel like such a “girl” writing about this shit. Since this is all still fresh in my mind, I’ll just leave it at that for now.

  Entry 07

  March 9th, 47

  How to end the world in a few easy steps

  I’ve spent this past week collecting my thoughts, making a “list” of sorts. I know that title sounds funny and lighthearted, but that’s just me trying to keep the mood light. The truth is, I haven’t really pinpointed any “steps” and they certainly weren’t “easy” on us...

  But before I get into all that, I want to register a quick update on life here in Harptown. Actually, quite a lot has been going on this week, I just haven’t had the time to sit down and write about it until now. For starters, the weather has been atypically moderate and hunting has been great. In fact, the whole town is living on a high. The farmers are producing more, the scavengers have been more successful... only the guards seem to be dissatisfied.

  Now they’re asking for an “election”. So it’s official, they actually want new leadership. I was scared when I first heard it, but Stone told me that they didn’t have enough support to pull it off. So far, he’s been right. No election has been approved by the council. I think they were just throwing the idea around to see what people thought about it. But that was about three days ago now. The subject has kinda faded a little already. I’m just glad they’re all talking things over peacefully at the council, instead of resorting demonstrations of force. Maybe people are more civilized than I gave them credit for.

  I went with Stone to a few of those meetings. He’s the only one I know personally that attends those meetings on a regular basis. Anyone can talk there, given they follow protocol. I don’t really know why I went though, I never say anything. Guess I was just curious to see how the discussion was proceeding. The place was packed with people, and sometimes they’d start yelling at each other. It’s weird, watching the guards acting like victims. Old man Harper seems to know how to handle them pretty smoothly though. He’s a good man. The few times I spoke up in that place, he never judged me.

  That was back when I was asking them to let me go out hunting, after my father had gone missing. Sitting there reminded me of my him. My dad knew exactly how to speak before the council, he was always the voice of reason. In the short time he lived in Harptown, at least he gained people’s respect. I guess I’m kind of following in his foot steps... Sometimes, I think I should be making myself more present in the town meetings. With our successful hunting trips, maybe we deserve some kind of recognition, maybe get a better hut or something. I kinda like that little hut, but soon we might need more space. However, if I ever go to the council asking for anything, I know I’d better have a damn good reason for it. The other hunters will always fight me on everything. And the guards might argue that they are being overlooked, while other factions get everything they want. So, for now, I’m satisfied with what we’ve got. I’m not an ambitious person. All I’ve ever wanted was a good life and nothing more. Besides, I’ve got other things on my mind.

  We’re making preparations for Harptown’s first ever “Bowhunting Trials”. After my little talk with Nelly and Mimi, I figured it was time to seriously consider recruiting more hunters. Up until now, we haven’t had actual trials for that sort of thing. Lexa and Mouse both refounded the current squad with me and when we recruited Buba, he was basically our only option. At the time, our archery classes didn’t even exist yet. But this past week alone, the number of students nearly doubled. Now we have two classes, with over ten students each. We’ve had trouble just accommodating ev
eryone in our little shooting range. Soon, we’ll have to redistribute the students again into three classes. I suppose, we’re getting to that point where we actually NEED more space to grow.

  Anyway, back to the trials. It took us a while figuring out how best to set the whole thing up. After discussing the matter in more detail with Mouse and Lexa, we concluded that, to begin with, it should be an open event. It’s only fair that everyone should be allowed to sign up, not just Nelly and Mimi. Of course, as a result of that, we ended up with a list of over fifty entrants. People showed up, who had never even attended archery class. Thankfully, enlisting closed yesterday.

  But with so many entrants, we were forced to organize “preliminary qualification rounds”, inside the town walls. We can’t take all those people out hunting, not even if we divided them into smaller groups. There’s just no time or manpower for that. Instead, we’ll have to evaluate them at our shooting range. There’ll be three of these preliminary rounds, Shooting, Tracking and Awareness. The first round will be eliminatory, it’s okay if we have to teach the rest, but we need people who can at least shoot an arrow. Secretly, I’m kinda rooting for Lexa’s girls. I won’t give them any kind of favoritism, obviously, but... they’re the ones who took the first step, coming to me. It’d be a shame if they didn’t make the cut in the end.

  About Ranger and Singer... They’ve both offered to help us organize things for the trials next week. It’s been a bit weird... I haven’t gathered the courage to talk to them about my feelings. Truth is, I’m not entirely sure what it is I feel yet. I mean, I get along great with both of them... I guess you could say I “like” them, but... I dunno. I hate the thought of trying something, failing and then end up losing our friendship over it. Thankfully, it seems both Singer and Ranger are giving me time to think about it. Cuz, if I receive any kind of proposal or ultimatum now... I think I’d seriously freak out. Maybe they can see that in my eyes. I get the distinct impression they’re both studying me, whenever we’re together. I need to have an honest talk with them. I’m beginning to feel like I owe the boys that much.

  Speaking of boys, the good news is Flavian hasn’t been coming around anymore. I think he might’ve actually given up on trying to talk with me. Actually, I haven’t even seen him around at all lately. I wonder if he was transferred to another section of the guard, like the night watch maybe. I don’t know... and I don’t really care, as long as he stays away.

  But enough about all that boring stuff, let’s talk about the end of the world. Yay!

  Turns out I remember more than I thought I did. As I thought back, memories started coming back to me. I tried to place them all in what felt like the right order, hence the “list” I mentioned. I could be wrong about some of it... and a lot happened all at the same time...

  Maybe some day, many years from now, when the world has finally recovered, some historian will find this journal and make some sense of it. Actually, with that in mind, I’ve decided to describe things so that anyone who picks this journal up will understand them, even if they don’t know anything about the world I live in... Then again, maybe no one will ever read it. Maybe we’ve finally managed to push our luck too far and humanity is living out it’s final few years on this world. One thing’s for sure, I wouldn’t know... I’m just a girl living in what could very well be the only remaining human town. On that bright note, here’s how it all went down as seen through my eyes.

  I was born on April, 4th, twenty-nine, right in the middle of what they called the “Climate Change Crisis”. That’s what they tell me anyway, I don’t actually remember this period myself. Something happened to the climate, it went crazy all around the world. In some places it got colder, in others it got hotter. They say no one could figure it out, the weather people, the scientists... Truth is, they didn’t even have a clue as to how clueless they really were. They thought they had it bad back then, but that was just the beginning. Through the years, it only got worse... a lot worse.

  When I was a kid, the weather was already pretty hard to predict. But even I still remember when summers were summers and winters were winters. As the years went by, seasons just stopped being actual seasons. Nowadays, we live on a daily basis. We wake up, look up at the sky and figure it out from there. Harptown, the town I’m living in now, is near the Ruins of Atlanta, in what used to be the state of Georgia. Atlanta used to be a “city”, a place with thousands of people. They say it was a good place to live, mostly warm, didn’t snow a whole lot. I wouldn’t know, by the time I got here, they already called it “ruins”.

  Back to my list, I think the climate was the major global issue for a few years, but then came the “Food Crisis”. One of the consequences of the climate going nuts was that farmers around the world were losing their crops. It was called “agriculture”, we had huge fields, acres upon acres of farm lands. Without them, people started to go hungry. My dad told me that, at first, it only really affected the poor countries, in Africa and other places far away. It took a while for us to actually feel the crisis here. Back then, this land was the great USA, the “United States of America”, the most powerful nation in the world... how proud we were. I don’t think we ever really considered things would get bad here. Other places, sure, but never here. I guess we all just thought we’d figure it out... Maybe that’s what all the nations thought, that somehow things would eventually get better.

  Of course, it only got worse. I don’t think there are any nations left now. They all fell, one by one. There used to be billions of people in the world. I can’t even begin to understand that number. A hundred, a thousand, that I can grasp... but billions? I’ve seen old magazines, with pictures of massive crowds, rock shows. But my dad said that was maybe a million people or so. To think so many people got together just to listen to music. It’s insane. I mean, I wonder if there are even a million people left in the whole world now.

  Most of what I know about back then comes from my dad, what he taught me. My first actual memories are from when I was about five years old. I remember the city’s skyline outside the window, all those buildings. I remember stuff like watching cartoons, playing video games, eating cereal... We were still living in New York then, the biggest city of them all. The world was still working, I guess... mostly. We at least still had cartoons, televisions, computers, electricity... food. Half the time, the television was on some news channel. People were talking about all the problems in the world. I wish I had paid attention. Maybe then I’d have a better notion of what happened. But I was just a little kid, living my little life... going to school, playing with my friends and shit. Meanwhile, the economy was going south like it had never gone before.

  People couldn’t find jobs, stores closed and everything got really expensive. Then there was that year that the whole country froze over. A winter out of hell. We had to stock up and stay indoors for months. A lot of people died that year alone. I think that’s when people started to realize that things weren’t going to get better, because everyone started going crazy. When summer came around again, there were riots all around. People started beating each other up in the streets over food and clothes. The police was completely overwhelmed. Police... The word itself sounds weird to me now. To think there was a time when we had organized forces with the sole purpose of protecting us. I mean, we have guards here in Harptown, but it’s different. The police were uniformed, trained officers... upheld the law. We don’t really have those anymore.

  In any case, that’s when my dad decided it was time to head south. He put me in the minivan and drove all the way down to San Antonio, Texas. I think that was in thirty-five. I was about six. We bought a big old house there. I hated that house, even though it was a good house, roomy, comfortable... but I didn’t know any better. All I wanted was to play my video games and we had to go without electricity altogether. At first the blackouts came only once in a while. Then they came every week, then every day... one day the light went out and simply didn’t come back on ever again. Eve
ntually, piped water stopped reaching us as well. My dad had to dig a well. For food, he started a small orchard in the backyard. We had some rabbits in cages too. I remember I was devastated when I found out they were for eating. They were so cute. But hunger quickly changed my view on that. We were almost self sufficient and there were other people in the neighborhood to trade things with. The world was still mostly civilized. We all still helped each other in whatever way we could.

  I can’t remember when exactly my father started hunting, but I think it was around that time. The wilderness was already growing back over the city. Some neighborhoods looked more like forests and, as a result, wild animals were moving in. I remember thinking my dad was just being silly, like he'd never really come back with anything to eat. I also remember how impressed I was when he finally did. I don’t even know how, or when he learned to hunt... I think he might have done it all on his own. Necessity really is the mother of invention.

  After a few years living there, my father remarried and a few years after that, Xandy was born. I had some friends in the neighborhood and I played with them everyday. My dad would say that it was like in the old days again, when kids played in the streets instead of playing video games all day. I hated him for saying that. I was so stupid. Looking back, those were the best years of my life... tough years, for sure, but good. I didn’t think so at the time, I thought I was miserable, living in the dark ages. But the dark ages hadn’t even begun.

  The dementia disease... it came out of nowhere. The first time I heard about it, I thought they were talking about some zombie movie. It had to be a movie, or maybe some video game, it just couldn’t be real. The infected people eventually went completely crazy, attacking anything that moved. They ate human flesh and, if they didn’t kill you, you’d become one of them. It was... The word "terror" gained a whole new meaning to me. I think there was some kind of scientific name for the disease, but it’s lost to us. Now, we just call the infected “demented" and the disease "dementia". It's a wonder we didn't just call them "zombies" to begin with, the description fits... almost... well, not really. Zombies were supposed to be slow and mindless, right?