I met another person today. Well, I say met, more like saw from a distance. I don't think they spotted me though. I was checking the fish traps when I saw them across the river. Hard to miss, really, they had bright red hair, long and wavy. But not like shampoo commercial wavy, actually wavy. Kind of messy. I'm pretty sure the only reason they didn't see me was because of the mud I had smeared on my skin.
I remember being down by the river, and it's usually so peaceful just listening to the water murmuring along through the woods, but I heard a branch snap. I was worried it'd be something like a bear, or a moose, but of course that's stupid cause moose live really far north. I definitely didn't expect to see another person. I'd taken a lot of precautions and tried to live as far from other people as I reasonably could. But there they were. So I have a neighbour now.
It's really stressful, knowing there's someone so close by. What if they're not alone? What if they're aggressive? Well, everyone's aggressive these days. Before all this mess I'd have never caught and killed a fish. But the society that let us push aggressive necessities onto other people is gone and now you have to do your own cruelties. I just really hope I'll never have to do any to this other person.
Maybe they'll be friendly. Maybe we can work together. Everything I've learned so far says that that's a terrible idea, that they'll always just betray you in the end, but on the other hand, I'm really lonely. It'd be nice to have someone to talk to besides you, dear, future, totally hypothetical reader. Maybe you'll never even exist but I have to believe you will cause my only alternative is risking saying hello to a red-headed stranger in the woods.
BINABASA MO ANG
The Survible
Teen Fiction...the girl is gone, but the record lives on... Collected writings of a young girl living alone in the wake of a terrible public health catastrophe. The author was never found. They consist primarily of journal entries, experiment notes, recipes...
