Survival Journal Entry Two

Mourning time is over. Everyone got this morning off in order to try to clear their heads but we needed to move on. We started construction on the wall this morning and it seems like it will take all day today and tomorrow and maybe some of Tuesday as well. Early this morning we sent out Carl on horseback to try and find another horde and see when it might arrive. When he got back, he said there was a horde about 50 miles to the east, so it should give us enough time to get the wall back up and get the guard schedule back to normal.

We got a radio transmition from the missing scavenging team today. Apparently when they were waiting for a horde to pass on the freeway, they got held up by one of the surviving gangs in San Bernardino. We have heard about them harassing other groups and we usually stay away from that area but recently we have been forced to travel out that way. It looks like I am going to have to take a small group out there to negotiate. I hope it goes better than with the scavenging crew or else things might get ugly.

Jim got out of lockup today and challenged Bill to a fight. It might not be the most civil way to settle things, but everyone deals with their problems in their own way. The fight was pretty one sided. Bill got his ass kicked by Jim which was honestly really funny to watch considering Bill was talking a lot of crap before the fight.

Problems:

Today I sent John (our handyman) up to the leak in the water tower and it wasn't good at all. The crack was in the center of a previous patch so he has to very carefully fix it over the next couple of days, before it actually bursts and floods the farms.

Since the scavenging crew got half of their food stolen by the San Bernardino survivors, we are going to have to ration for longer than we expected. Tensions are going to run high.

Jack decided that with the scavenging problem it was a good time to call for an emergency election. I am going to have to take this seriously but I do not at all think that he has a chance of winning.

A new problem arose. After going to find out where the next horde was coming from, Carl found an unusual amount of stragglers in the area, posing a couple of questions. Even when they saw Carl, they didn't pursue him. Almost like they were on a mission or looking for something. Every morning we are going to send someone out to monitor them and make sure nothing happens.

To Do:

• Gain access to the library the scavengers found when heading back from San Bernardino
• Start personal campaign for the emergency election
• Finish repairs on the wall and water tower
• Confront the survivors in San Bernardino

I am feeling a lot better emotionally than yesterday. Everyday is always a fight but today is easier than others. When I look around and I see how the community has rallied behind those who have lost, I am so grateful that we haven't lost our humanity. It might seem small, but we had a mass gathering around dinner time and just ate and talked for hours and hours tonight and I really think that it helped everyone lift their spirits. The San Bernardino crew couldn't have picked a worse time to attack our scavengers though. Usually I would be able to keep everyone at bay after giving the news but with everyone on edge, there was an immediate call to action. Let's hope for their sake that they are smart enough to give into our requests...