January 5th

This is Jimmy again and I am still alive. Today’s hot meal will be a can of ravioli. I usually hate ravioli but I have been looking forward to this all day.

I am also drinking the last of Coca-Colas and I have to tell you that I am a bit cranky about that.

So Chuck and I got back to Home Base. It is this nice two story house in Midtown. I was pretty surprised. You see these houses all the time and you wonder who has that much money to live here in the middle of Atlanta. It had bars over the windows which was a better selling point than location in my mind.

Chuck knocked on the door. “Let us in, Annie!”

The door opened and there was this really thin woman with long brown hair. She looked at me a bit strangely but didn’t say anything as we came in. She was staring at me the same way Chuck had been earlier. I felt that panic rise again. I was worried she was going to kick me back out.

“This is Jimmy,” Chuck said. “I think he’ll be perfect.”

Annie nodded. I didn’t like the sound of that.

“Perfect for what?” I asked.

“For building a good Home Base,” Chuck said. “We need people who can work hard and keep cool. You were out there on your own, man. You didn’t get eaten like a lot of people have. You’re the kind of guy we need.”

I nodded. “Thanks. I’m starving though.”

“Of course you are!” Annie said. It was the first thing she said. She turned from a suspicious woman into a big sister in an instant. “Come in and sit down at the table. I have some chili we made when we still had power. I’ll warm it up for you.”

Fuck, that was the best meal ever. The chili was too spicy and there were too much pulpy tomatoes but damn if I didn’t eat two bowls. It had flavor and it was warm and that was all I care about. It was fucking awesome.

Chuck talked at me through the entire meal. He told me that he was ready for this. He thought he might have to go into hiding when Obama came to lock up the white people, so he had been training. He bought as many guns as he could and he had watched videos on how to survive. When Hell Day happened, he and his girlfriend were ready.

The house had two rooms upstairs. One had a bed while the other room was a sort of study. I could have the study and they gave me a sleeping bag to use. Chuck said that once I had rested, I could go on search missions with him to find more supplies and people.

I agreed to everything he said. I had a full stomach and I was exhausted. He might be a racist paranoid freak, but he was my racist paranoid freak. I went upstairs and fell into sleeping bag.

I heard them lock the door on the study. I wasn’t too surprised. I was too fucking tired to care.

I was also pretty sure that Chuck and Annie had lied to me about almost everything they had said.

Ravioli is done. I’ll talk more tomorrow. As for what I am doing now? Not much. I am kind of enjoying being by myself. I found a bunch of old board games and I have it set up at the dining room table. I am playing entire games of Monopoly against myself. I don’t think I have ever played Monopoly to the end before. The Top Hat owned everything yesterday.

Going now.