Chapter One: Unpleasant Surprises

It's pretty depressing here, but we're making do. We managed to salvage enough supplies to build a small one-room shelter.

The new housing laws that supposedly are to "conserve supplies" mean that we are only allowed a small amount of space in this new regime. 8 square meters isnt very much....

We didn't take that much money out before we left for home, but we had enough for a small bed, a beat up sofa, a worn out chess table, and a couple of books. I found the battery powered radio out on the street, and Jace found a small self-powered typewriter. We have a small supply of instant meal drinks, but they barely curb our hunger. Due to contaminated water supplies, we cannot have a bath or a shower. All we have is a beat up sink that barely runs, but it's better than nothing.

It's hardly safe to leave the house anymore - zombies roam the town, attacking the few survivors that are left. Nobody leaves their homes anymore. 

I don't know how I would be able to survive if it wasn't for Jace. Any human being would go insane cooped up in a house with nobody to talk to, let alone to keep you calm while the world deteriorated around you.

Jace has been studying old cookbooks we found, trying to piece together some way to preserve the artificial food, and cooking methods to make it fill people up longer, but to no avail. He also got a job with the food distribution staff.

I got a job as an EMT. I've always wanted to be a doctor. I'm working with others to help out some of the people who have fallen ill. Medicine is scarce, so disease is a killer at the moment. I've been doing some research to figure out how we can cure the effects of the radiation.

As a matter of fact, I felt pretty ill yesterday. I figured I had gotten food poisoning from one of the emergency meals, because the illness went away almost as soon as it came.

One of the other survivors was searching the streets for supplies when he passed our shelter. His name was Kevin Davies, a man no older than us. Hope was still with us - others had survived unharmed.

While Jace was working late, I hung out with Kevin. We talked a lot about our current situations, what we knew about the world outside (newspaper circulation isn't always consistent anymore), and shared some tips and tricks that we had discovered. He told me that, although we couldn't really bathe, we could use whatever water we got from our sinks for a sponge bath.

Which later on, I tried.......

Jace wasn't doing that well. Aparently he had set the kitchen on fire at work. Luckily, the harsh employer didn't fire him - just docked him a payday. At least he still has a job....

That night, I woke up sick again. Then I started worrying - what if it wasn't food poisoning? What if I really was sick? Was it radiation? Or  was it something else.....

Like a child...