Oct. 19th

I burned the notebook before going to bed last night. Hopefully, I wasn’t infected by ‘Hanna’, or whatever the hell it wants to call itself. I haven’t encountered too many of Them like Hanna – a Runner I met last May called them ‘Shards’, actually- but from what I understand, they can latch onto items as well as people. Makes them deteriorate over time, apparently. The journal seems to be in good condition, though, so it’s possible that the Shard didn’t pass to it when Janie’s group was slaughtered. And from the sound of it, it wanted to go back east, so I could be safe.

Seems like Dallas is out. I probably would’ve avoided it, anyway- when everything started to go to hell, Dallas was one of the first cities to fall. I remember watching some news footage of there- rioting, looting, citywide fires… it looked like a warzone. From the sound of it, not much has changed, except that people are squabbling over a pile of ruins.

I definitely don’t want to head too far west, though. A Runner I met a while back mentioned that most of civilization west of the Mississippi was gone, and nature was reclaiming what it’d lost decades ago. “Anarchists” was how he put it when I asked what the people were like- at least, the ones in the big cities. I think it’ll be a lot like the east- avoid the big cities, and don’t attract attention. And always be on your guard.

Well, we’ll see how well that’ll work for me.

Also, last night marks the first time I can’t remember dreaming. Maybe things are looking up for once.