Were We in this

Together?

By: Stuffy Lanus

 August 13, 1945 6:38 Am

Cold, death, and destruction painted the world's surface. The air gave my eyes a
burning sensation. Smells of ash and gasoline filled my nose, walking through this
grave-less graveyard. A symphony of steps interrupts the everlasting silence. The endless
walk allowed us to admire the oil painted sky; it was filled with an orange haze that
lingered with hints of reds and yellows that were layered in smoke. The ash and gasoline
slipped away, fading as the emptiness of smell cycled through my nose.
We had lost everything. The clogue of flowers that once covered paths, the subtle
fragrance of pollen which had skipped in the wind, the white painted walls pale as milk,
walls that framed are past and present generations, the cold wood that assembled the
floors, everything gone…

Entry 1: August 5, 1945

Happy Early Birthday to me! After many long months my birthday has almost arrived and now
the old geezer next door gave me this journal as an “Early present”. I'm not complaining as it's an
early present but I’m a little disappointed as once again father isn’t home. I mean come on, it's my
birthday. Let alone my 13th birthday.

August 6, 1945 7:02 Am

Fire and wax flooded the room with complex sensations. My fingers dance down
the candlestick leaving a cold slick residue on my fingertips. The smooth wax leads into a
cold slim ceramic base. A combination of cinnamon and vanilla brought familiar senses of
harmony. White smoke dances across my face, letting the heat invade my nose as its time
windles down.

Entry 2: August 6, 1945

Something is really wrong, my mom is frantically grabbing things around the houses. She told me
we need to hide in the basement. She looks crazy. I'm so confused. All I know is I'm hiding in the
basement until further notice. Wish me luck. I'll write later with a report.

August 6, 1945 7:45 Am

Sitting in the dead silence made me uncomfortable, and rubbing against the dust
that inhabited the wall disgusted me. The entire situation as a whole gave me the sudden
urge to shake. I took a deep breath and smelled what had lingered, concluding that death
itself was present in the room. My stomach twisted and my skin crawled. I used the
flashlight to look around to see what I could make out. Inches from my foot layed
something disfigured. I fumbled trying to stand and uncomfortably walked away, trying

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my best to focus on the echoes of my footsteps. I ended up at the base of the stairs and
waited.

Entry 3: August 6, 1945

I'm so lost right now, mom finally came down with a bunch of medical equipment. But she isn’t
talking much. All she did was sit next to me repeating “Sorera o hogo”, over and over again. I almost
choked trying to digest the wording, I needed to know what, I need protection from.

August 6, 1945 8:05 Am

Time layed still as the silence dominated the room. The basement's cold thick air
swallowed our warm and shallow breaths. The slight glance of my mothers mortified face
gave me spider-like chills that crawled down my back. My head filled as if it were a
balloon, filling every inch of space with questions. Words started to bleed out of me like an
open wound as I began to ask questions. I started with the basics like what's going on and
what we are doing. with no answer. I chose to project my voice louder. Talking became
Shouting then Yelling until my anger kindled itself into a raging wildfire..
“IF YOU DON’T TELL ME WHAT'S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW I'M LEAVING” I Roared
Are vision locked. My eyes followed the waterfall of liquid glass that fell down her cheeks.
Her tears left pools of sorrow and pain on the dusty floor. My eyes ran from my mother. I
struggled to look at her. My mom is a constant reminder of what a monster I can be…

August 6, 1945 8:15 Am

“Mom, I'm…” I mumbled.

The screams of sirens cut me off. The sounds brought a foreboding feeling that sent bitter
thoughts to my head. Flames of anger quickly extinguished as a tidal wave of fear
drowned the once silent atmosphere

Entry 4: August 6, 1945

Even though we're so far down the sirens are so loud. I don’t wanna die. I'm too young, I haven't
lived, We need help but I'm scared to look for it. Mom is really going nuts. I can’t tell if she's crazy
overreacting or if I am underreacting. I get scared of these kinds of things but I don’t get this bad. It
all feels off…

August 6, 1945 8:25 Am

The sirens, the tears, the foot tapping It all lead to a perfectly orchestrated song of
death. With its closing note being a bang. A tsunami of power swallowed the surface as
the ground started to vibrate. The sound made thunder feel quiet and made earthquakes

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seem pathetic. There was a sudden crash that bounced down the walls of the stairwell.
Without a delay of thought I began to dart up the stairs. But fear shackled me from going
beyond the halfway mark. What sounded like church bells bounced around in my ears, As
the world seemed to have turned off.

Entry 5: August ?, 1945

I can’t tell how much time has passed since I fell off the stairs. Everything is spinning, I feel
nauseous, the dizziness won’t go away, and My head is throbbing. I can’t tell but I think there is blood.
Moms helping me through all of this mess.. She's now using the medical equipment to patch me up but
everything hurts. I really want my dad. After some rest I think I'm going to go up and check out the
house. Even though mom won’t let me, I'm still going to. I can't bear the stench down here.

August 8, 1945 7:21 Am

My senses tingled as I began to listen to the Rhythm of water drops. I tried

Cranking myself up but felt rusted, slow, broken Just Horrible. Letting out a long
yawn sent little bits of water down my cheeks. I picked at my face until it was clear
of all the little bits of dirt, grime, and crust, and began analyzing the room. Sitting
on the stairwell was mom and a bowl of something. I fumbled to stand and
trudged my way over sitting next to her. She offered me a small little pile of oat
flakes and I quickly declined. She scolded me to eat them anyways. I was annoyed
at first but was glad she was talking more. I always hated the taste of oats. The
texture reminded me of flaky tree bark and it always tasted like dusty wheat. But I
shoved it down anyway so mom would be happy.

Entry 6: August ?, 1945

Mom and I finally had a normal conversation today. It was about dad. She was telling me how
brave he was and how he's doing so well in the Army. She started talking about all his stories and
started crying. I guess I'm not the only one who really misses him. I wish he would come home and help
us figure out whatever was going on. I don’t think I'm going to leave tonight. Mom is staying up late
tonight cleaning up the area.

August 9, 1945 3:49 Pm

Scratchy paper clung to my skin flipping through the dense book. A

glooming figure limped over and sat next to me.
“Yes Mother?” I worried
“Where out of food…” she hushed, “Stay here no matter what.”
I looked at her all confused
“Ok?” I replied

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She put on a mask and a scarf and shot up the stairs and out the exit. The loud
Srrreek and Clack of the door startled me. I jumped looking back realizing the
hatch had already been closed.

August 9, 1945 8:51 Pm

Silence had become my best friend at this point. Other than the silence I
could only hear the empty winds and my short shallow breathing. It wasn't nice. I
stared into the concrete ceiling and admired the different shades of grays that
pained it. It was so simple the different little details had me memorized. While
drifting into slumber I thought of ways to keep me company like coming up with
imaginary friends or narrating what I was doing. It of course sounded dumb but it
was all I could think of.

Entry 7: August ?, 1945

Writing this early in the morning because 1. I finally got used to the smell and dust which is
good. But 2. Mom seems off today. She was really happy for someone who couldn’t find food. She has a
super big smile + she is looking at me way too much. When I woke up she was just staring at me.
She is talking way more than she had in the last few days. I wonder what happened out there?

August 10, 1945 6:57 Pm

“Mom Why are you so happy?” I questioned

“I'm just staying positive!” she quickly responded
I didn’t think about her response and just sat and read while having the
occasional conversation with mom. She felt more comfortable than usual and I
loved it. We went over and sat on the stairs. It was so nice we listened to the
breeze and talked about life. Well I talked about my life, mom just sat and listened.
This didn’t last long as hunger began to eat at my body.
“Mom, can we go look for food again?” I mumbled
There was a moment of hesitation to think
“Yea can you wait till tomorrow i'm tired. Tomorrow we can look together.”
She stated, “Get lots of sleep and we can leave early in the morning if that's fine
with you.”
I responded with a yes and prepared to sleep. Not before long the world
started to close off and I was sent into slumber. I Twisted and rolled scrunching
my blanket into me.

Entry 8: August ?, 1945

It's the middle of the night and I woke up from a bad dream. It all felt so real. We were
standing at the bottom of a cliff and someone tried to climb it, but they fell and I just woke up. I wish I
knew what happened but oh well. And mom is being weird again shes just staring at the wall this time.
I need to sleep so I'm well rested for tomorrow.

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 August 11, 1945 6:23 Am

Mom Greeted me early that morning with a big hug. She took me up
the stairs and out the hatch. The air was vile and the sky was covered with smoke.
I looked around and saw nothing but rubble. It was horrible…
“What happened” I asked
She looked at me
“I don’t know” she stated
We pushed on through the rubble and a vile scent grew stronger and stronger. It
was masked by the smell of fire and gunpowder but was still strong. I followed
mom's every movement. She led me to this small decline that looked to have some
houses. Dust brushes my face as we enter the run down house. A light pressure
started to push at my face and a small pain followed it felt warm like a thousand
little bug bites all over my skin. We had entered a part of the area that had
already been scavenged you could tell by the open and recently moved debris.

Entry 9: August ?, 1945

I'm not feeling good. We have only been out here for a few hours and I already feel dizzy. I
feel like I wanna throw up but there's nothing in my stomach. Mom says I'll be fine but I don’t know if
that's true. Everything is wrong. No food im, I'm sick to my stomach, there's all these horrible smells.
WHAT HAPPENED HERE???

August 11, 1945 2:34 PM

We began the walk home listening to the wind. But it was hard to
ignore this specific stench. It smelled like something was burning and rotting. I
couldn’t ignore it anymore and took mom to go look for the putrid scent. We
climbed around looking for the scent till we found it. Laying in a pool of vomit and
blood layed a tall slender woman. She looked similar to mom, silky long black hair,
small boddy, pale skin. Even dressed similarly. She held two cans of corn in her
right hand and laying next to her in an ocean of blood was a white piece of paper.
Half of the paper was painted with her blood.

Entry 10: August ?, 1945

I found FOOD. I've been starving. The note makes little sense but I figured out what happend.
She had a note from her husband who works undercover overseas in america. It read out to be a
warning to hide out from a “Nuclear Bomb?” supposedly it's supposed to destroy everything on the
surface in the blast radius. It's lucky mom knew about this, maybe dad told her! Ill haft to ask her later
I just wished that she would be the one to tell me

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 August 12, 1945 1:33 AM

I shot to life and vomited all the corn I had eaten. I felt weak and
couldn’t stand. My legs trembled as I tried to stand. I was really nauseous. I asked
mom if she had any leftover corn and found out she didn’t eat any. I begged her
to share and she just gave me the whole thing. I asked If she was ok and I got no
response. When I tried to grab her but it felt like nothing was there. I hadn’t
noticed it at first but she felt lifeless it felt like she passed right through me
raiding my body with chills

Entry 11: August ?, 1945

Is mom real? I can't tell anymore. I think I'm imagining things… But she doesn’t feel real. But
she's here so how wouldn’t she be real??? It's weird. After leaving she hasn’t been… herself well she
has been herself but she hasn’t been HERSELF??? I'm just tired and need sleep I think

August 13, 1945 6:33 AM

The sound of wind and water play a beautiful melody waking me up

to the sight of mom. I ask her if she's ok after that night of sleep. She doesn't
respond. I started asking her normal questions to try and start up a
conversation. It felt like I was talking to a wall.
“Mom please stop ignoring me!” I bellowed
She looked at me with this dead expression. It brought this somber chill that
climbed throughout my body. I backed away and looked towards the stairs. I
announced that I was gonna go out and look for food. And she just gave me the
same blank dead stare.
Bolting out of the house I tripped on a sandy large rock and rolled onto my
back. Streaks of rummer rays shine down on my face. I layed for some time
smelling the burning gasoline, gunpowder, and rainwater. I admired the sky. The
haze that had lingered reminded me of a painting. The different hints and shades
of color were mesmerizing and I fell into this feeling of joy and happiness. But
there was also this major sense of dread realizing that I was alone and everyone
was gone.

Entry 12: August ?, 1945

I feel better today. I'm more at ease and the dizziness started to go away. I'm going back to find that
dead woman I feel bad for leaving her undealt with. I'm gonna go back and bury her. It feels like the right thing
to do right?

August 13, 1945 11:23 AM

I came up on the sight of where she layed and instead of taking the
descent down I chose to climb down. The wall was loose and rough and climbing

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it I realized it was a mistake. I gasped for air falling backwards and tried to grab
on to any bit of rubble. I was falling. Was this It.. Was I going to die…

The End