It's Christmas eve. Think I might keep doing this journaling stuff. Should've done this a long time ago. Maybe it'll help Luna make sense of things one day, if she ever learns to fuckin' read.
Marie is asleep with Luna in the bunk. We only have the one bed and if I lay down, I'll probably wake them up. I have nightmares about the big boom. Feels like it happens all over again. I can't sleep. We had a compromised area in the tree line that I needed to fix. More of those fucking wild dogs. They get closer and more brave every night. Shot one two nights ago and the son of a bitch still came at me - had to put four rounds into it. Dressed it down and we've been eating on it the past two days in a tomato stew - have the ribs under snow pack - going to rotisserie it for Christmas dinner tomorrow - surprise girls!
When we first came here there weren't so many. Mostly the strays from the towns like Denver. I guess all these years have made them wild once more. I saw one the other day on the CCTV eating a bear corpse. They even run the wolves off these days. I almost don't even want to call them dogs anymore. They look like pit bulls bred with German shepherds. Wide, giant block heads with nasty brown and black manes. Easily 70 to 80 pounds on the small side, and probably north of 120 for the bigger males.
I taught Luna to make a rabbit trap yesterday. Marie has been teaching her how to skin them. We're getting older and, despite living at what appears to be the end of the world - we are both well aware of the congenital health issues our relatives suffered and it is not lost on us that we may soon suffer similiar fates. You simply never know. Marie and I talked, and we are going to head for Mexico. The last group that came through about a year ago said they heard a rumor that the ground there was a bit more fertile now - with what, all the sediment washed in from the gulf. Said folks were starting to farm down there. In the ground - not these fuckin' unnatural hydro systems. They said Cartels apparently still run things - but they're not so bad now. I guess when everyone is dead, drugs don't really matter that much. That last guy, a Mormon that called himself Tennessee, he told me the Cartels were pretty much the government down there now - and they were ruthless about law and order now. Kept the gangs in check. What a wild fuckin' timeline we're in.
Tennessee said the Cartels were fighting with the Mormon enclaves. That's where he said he had come from, a Mormon fortress a little north of Chihuahua. I had watched a documentary one time back in the Before - a whole bunch of mormon missionaries started up a place down there . . huge compound with .50 calibers on every tower. Maybe he was bullshitting me but, I believe him. He said that when the Moonfall hit, damn near half of Mexico went under, then got washed out to sea when the tides whipped back. Whole place is a wasteland on the eastern gulf side.. Neuvo Leon, Coahuila, most of south Texas - all gone.
He said the place they call Durango was where most of the population lived now, and they had contacts on the Pacific side that traded with the Californians. Marie wanted to try to get to California but we didn't think we'd make it with such a young child - the Rockies are nasty in their own right, but there was no way with the weather changes and the gangs . . . and the fucking dogs.
Maybe we should shoot for Durango instead of Chihuahua. A little further, but we need to be as close to law and order as we can. I told Marie - there's safety in numbers. And this place isn't safe anymore. She agreed with me - she's just scared - hell, I am too. But we can't keep staying here. This is not a life. This is simply existence. We need a community.
I wonder if they still have tacos. I miss tacos. I'm going to be loading up the 4Runner this week. We've got enough gas to get there by my calculations - assuming the roads and terrain aren't completely washed out. From what the Mormons had told us, it is passable if you stick to the New Mexico and Arizona borders. Said you can't go too far east or you'll hit the wavelands, where the Atlantic came in. Miles and miles as far as the eye can see of 3 foot deep water. It dries out about 3 or 4 months a year where you can transverse it but we are in the wet season now. Nothing out there anyway except those Loonies - those fuckin' weirdos who worship the moon, or the gangs.
We've heard a few people on the HAM talk about some kind of government enclave out East, but nothing good ever about it. Mostly tall tales or horror stories. Cannibals, shit like that. Also some kind of underground government city that survived the big boom. Mostly though - people just screaming shit into the microphone at one another on the radios. Seems everyone out east has lost their fuckin minds. We want nothing to do with that.