Dead Land Journal June 13th 2027

Damn, lost eleven days of entries here. Serves me right for not backing up more often. I think I am going to have to start printing out and backing up on a daily basis.

Dee (I still don't know if that is her given name or just a nickname) smashed my computer last night. It wasn't intentional, she was just playing in and pulled it off the counter onto the stone tile floor in the kitchen.

For my imaginary readers following my story, you have not really missed much. Mostly just me bitchin about having to learn to cook for someone other than myself. Most of my cooking since Lisa died involved a can opener and a microwave. Dee is a little more picky than that. And I think that a child needs better nutrition that what you can get out of a can anyway. I think I mentioned that she doesn't like dried milk, but loves the canned stuff. Would love to give her some fresh stuff but that is not going to happen. I have never milked a cow in my life and any self respecting cow would probably kick me in the head before allowing me to even try.

Dee and Emily get along just fine. I was worried at first. Emily is such a big dog and it would only take one snap of those powerful jaws and it would be all over for Dee.

All the downstairs windows are boarded up now. I know I mentioned this in one of my lost entries. I boarded up the window I shot out that same day, but the night after that I found those rubber ball prints all over the downstairs windows, so I made another trip out to Lowe's and using the measurements I took that morning cut several squares of 3/4 inch plywood to cover all the windows. They have a big generator out there that will power the whole store in case of power failure and I was able to use their bid saw to cut the sheets. Took me a little bit to figure out the saw. Thankfully they have an instruction manual right next to it with big clear photos and small words so that the high school drop outs that work there can figure it out. Dee was terrified of the saw though. She ran screaming the first time I cut it on and I had to coax her out of the big plastic Rubbermaid Fort on display. Once I found her that is. Or rather once Emily found her. She spent the time I was cutting the plywood in the employee's break room watching 'Finding Nemo' on a portable MP4 player with Emily. Emily did not like the saw any more than Dee and was happy to be away from it. Besides it only took me a couple of minutes watching them play together to realize that Emily would chew the arm off of anyone that messed with Dee or die trying.

Finding Dee has given me a lot to think about. I had assumed that I was the only person left alive on the planet. Sounds conceited I know, but all the evidence on hand suggested that. But as I look at Dee, curled up sleeping with Emily I have to admit that it is very likely that there are other people out there. I should try to find them or make contact with them for her sake. I mean what if something happens to me, who will take care of her?

She did survive on her own for almost two months. She has not been able to tell me how though. She has a somewhat limited vocabulary. Not to imply that she is stupid, she is very smart. But she is three and half (she insists on getting that half year in there) and I would think that her vocabulary should be larger that it is, but I have only heard her use about twenty five words. But I am not an expert in child development.

So I went to the library and found a book. Libraries are wonderful things. The Internet is gone, but the libraries are still standing. Anyway the book suggested that an emotional trauma could easily cause a child to revert to more simplistic speech patterns or lose the ability to speak altogether.

Even though she has only been with me for eleven days I have become attached to her. The thought of her wandering around alone in this empty city is ... I don't even want to think about that.

Tomorrow I am going to see if I can find an old ham radio. I remember watching an old post apocalyptic movie called 'The Day After' when I was a kid and this old man made contact with cities all over the world with his ham radio. Maybe if I set up a radio set here I can do the same. Don't really know the first thing about it. Sounds like another trip to the library is in order.

© 2009 R. Keith McBride