A Life Sentence

August 13th, 2026

August 13th, 2026

I haven't bothered with this thing for a while, been a little bit busy. We had a wind storm roll through and tear some crap up. We had to patch the barn roof. Let me tell you, I hate heights and getting on top of that thing was not fun at all. The whole time Lucas was down below telling me not to fall. I thought about trying to drop a hammer on his head, but nah, I need the jerkface.

We have been doing some canning too, well learning how. Much to my surprise, and even more so Lucas's, he turned out to be really good at it. Who knew? I did the prep work and he did the hard work. We also started gathering wood from around the house. The wind storm helped with that since it tore down a lot of limbs. We wanted to avoid chopping it outside since it would be an indication that someone was living here, but eventually we had no choice. We at least did it in the backyard so anyone passing on the road wouldn't see anything

Truthfully, today is the first day we had a chance to even really relax. My shoulders are completely destroyed from swinging the ax for so long. I don't even want to say anything about my back. I don't think Lucas is much better, though he would never admit it.

There was one good thing that came from all this work, well that and the dogs, I haven't thought about Elena as much. I still do when I try to go to sleep, but at least the pain is dulled somewhat. My rage at Rod is as strong as it has ever been, as awful as it sounds, I am glad the bastard is dead. If he wasn't already dead I may have shot him. I bet Elena would have liked the dogs, she was always a dog person.

Speaking of the dogs, Chonk seems to have taken a liking to me. All the dogs like me, but Chonk just won't leave me alone. Right now he is laying at my feet beating me with his wagging tail. He's a good boy. He is also the reason why I am even bothering to write this.

While we have been working our butts off the past few days, last night was the grand finale. It seems like most of the weird stuff happens at night.

I was about to head to bed and I was in the middle of my nightly ritual of trying to get Chonk out of the way enough so I could lay down when he suddenly perked and started looking out my window. Well, by now I am smart enough to know that if the dog thinks something is up, check it out.

I grabbed Lucas and out we went. We figured it was just an animal or something. We had tall grass and I am sure there were some stray veggie scraps outside, but it never hurt to be sure.

As soon as we went out something came around the side of the house. We could tell by the moonlight that it wasn't an animal, it was a person. Lucas just about blew their head off, but he waited. I think it was because of two things, they raised their hands and it was a girl.

She told us that she was being chased, and at first we really didn't believe her, at least not completely. Then we heard the shouts coming down the road toward the house. Lucas and I ducked down into the grass, our visitor followed suit.

They came up the driveway a little bit, but not very far. We couldn't tell how many there were. They only had one flashlight, but we could hear a lot of talking. It didn't take too long for us to be convinced they were looking for our prowler.

She was clearly afraid, but for all we knew at the time they had good reason for chasing her. Maybe she killed one of them.

As they got closer I looked at Lucas and he shook his head, which was kind of surprising. He wanted to wait them out rather than just open up on them. It proved to be a wise choice, they turned around and left.

They went past the house rather slowly. They were peering into every bush. To be honest I am surprised they didn't check around the house more. I mean come on, it would have been a perfect place to hide. Maybe it was known that we live here and were willing to shoot.

Once we were sure they were gone we took her inside. Once she calmed down and we got some coffee in her and she was able to tell us what happened. She didn't shoot anyone, or so she said, which made us feel better. What she did do was steal from them, she wouldn't say what, but after looking at her I would guess it would have been clothes or food, or so we hoped. To be honest, part of me thought this was just a plan to get someone inside to kill us so their little gang could take over our little fortress here.

We gave her some food, some new clothes and let her get cleaned up. After all that she either felt like she trusted us enough, or thought she had her hooks in us, either way, she finally told us her name, Kate.

So for now we have a new housemate. I still don't trust her, and neither does Lucas. We are keeping the guns under lock and key. We are also doing everything we can to make sure she doesn't know all the supplies we have, and we are keeping her out of the barn. As far as she knows we just have the car out front.

As much as Lucas and I would like to, we aren't going to force her to leave. We could use some more help around here and as Lucas pointed out it would be kind of heartless to just put her out. For Lucas that was a weird thing to say. I think he was thinking with his other head when he said it.

At least the dogs like her, especially Abby and Oz. I figured that the momma dog would sense if Kate was someone that we should worry about, or at least I hope. I will say this, she is funny as hell and she definitely doesn't mind unleashing some snark on us.

We will keep an eye on her and see what she does. I should be compassionate, but that is a dangerous notion that can easily be exploited. We are doing what we need to survive. We have to assume that Kate is too.