Until she gives in to temptation

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

We're all out of dead giant lizard meat. Boyd ate the last of it, bastard.

And he keeps on trying to tell me something, but he can't. It's annoying. 'Mother of' something. Mother of God? Mother of Pearl?

Snakes. He just wrote the word 'snakes' in the sand. Mother of snakes? What does that even mean?

It doesn't matter. We're all out of food, there isn't any snakes nearby, and we're low on cactus water.

But fuck it if I'm going to give up. I'm not.

There has to be food around here somewhere. An animal. Something to eat. Something we can survive on. Something I can survive on.

There has to be something.

 -- April Chase

Still she goes forward with drive

I'm not even going to dignify that last post with an answer. Wait, I will: of course, I didn't fucking kill my professor. Okay, he was a giant sleazeball, but I was failing anyway. I just dropped out. Made my father angry, but he could go fuck himself. I just got a crappy job and started saving money.

We haven't been seeing anymore snakes lately, so all we have is the dead giant lizard-thing meat and there isn't much of that left. If we don't find some more snakes or other giant lizard-things, we might have to start eating rocks. Or each other.

Oh, there's an option. The long pig. Fuck, that's never happening.

Even though Boyd can't talk, he's been trying to tell me something. Something about how he got here. He's been writing in the sand, but the wind always blows it away as soon as he starts writing. All I've been able to read so far is 'mother.' His mother left him here? Weird.

Well, whatever. We'll find a way out. No matter what.

 -- April Chase

Interlude

April Chase was always a smart girl. A very smart girl.


She had gone to a state college on a scholarship. She was going to get her degree in business and management. She wanted a well paying job when she got out of school. She wanted to be well off.


But things don't always go as we plan them. What is the saying? "Man plans, God laughs." And the gods did laugh at April. She was a smart girl, but not in the way needed for her classes. Quickly, she was failing. And she didn't know how to succeed.


One professor, however, did and told her how. All that was required of her would be certain sexual favors.


April was many things, but she was not someone who traded sex for grades. She told the professor this and he quickly pointed out that he wouldn't just fail her, he'd get her kicked out of the college if she didn't do what he wanted.


Well, that irked her. And you don't want to irk April Chase. So she did what any sensible person would have done: she broke into her professor's home one night and chloroformed him while he slept. Then she put him into his car, stuck a hose from the exhaust into the window, and turned the car on. Then she left and let him dream.


It's what any sensible person would have done, right?

Amid the garden of desolation.

I didn't realize that finding a friend would mean sharing my meals. Sharing my water. I mean, we have enough dead lizard-thing meat to go around right now, but who knows how long that will last. The last one I killed, the meat lasted...how long? I don't know. I don't even know how long I've been here.

But I have to share it with Boyd. And my cactus water, too, even though the cacti are few and far between right now.

It seems we are entering a more deserted area of the desert. Wow, that was kind of redundant. Whatever.

We need to find something more to eat. I haven't been seeing that make snakes lately.

Oh well. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

 -- April Chase

When she finds someone at last

I fucking killed that thing dead. I am fucking Conan the Barbarian. Well, okay, maybe Red Sonja. She-Ra? I'm one those.

And now I have a new friend to help me through the desert. He can't talk, however. Something ripped out his tongue. He wrote his name out in the sand, though. It's Boyd.

Well, me and my new buddy Boyd are going to feast on some dead giant lizard-thing now. And then toast with some cactus water.

And then we're going to find a way to get the fuck out of here.

 -- April Chase

As she seeks her journey's cessation

It found someone else. Someone else here.

I FOUND SOMEONE ELSE.

Well, okay, that giant lizard-thing found them. Now all I have to do is kill it before it kills them. Him. It's a guy.

I can do this. I can kill it. I killed one before and now I have the element of surprise. All I have to do is stab it in the eye. Just do it, April.

Or I could leave. I can leave it to its meal and I can run away and live to fight another day. Shit, I'm quoting my fucking mother. No, this other person can help me. He looks like he hasn't been here a while.

I'm going to do it. I'm going to kill it.

And then I'm going to make a new friend.

 -- April Chase

How quickly time goes past

Why are they lying about me? Yes, okay, I was a cheerleader. And yes, one of my friends was dating the quarterback and he threatened to spread rumors about her if they broke up. That...that was the truth, though I don't know how they knew that. And I did imagine killing him, but I didn't.

I mean, he was a bastard, but he didn't deserve to die.

I've seen a few more of those big lizard-things out here. I'm trying to avoid them. The last one nearly killed me, though I got a lot of meat off of it.

The one I just saw has turned in a different direction. Good.

Wait.

Why? I can smell me, I'm sure of it. I haven't taken a shower in weeks, probably.

So why is it going over there?

I'm going to follow it.

 -- April Chase