Patrick W. MarshThe Greenland Diaries: Day 53
Last night, between the echoes of the Drum, two fast moving jets roared over the neighborhood in jet-fueled howls. I loved the sound. People are still alive out there. Pilots are still flying the sky in the beast-soaked darkness. When the Drum first started, I found some torn up wreckage of passenger planes closer to the highways. They’d been clawed to pieces, so I’m surprised anything would fly, especially when the Drum sounds. It might just be an anomaly. I’ll take it as a little hope, and a little optimism.
I finished Hard Times this morning. I liked the book, though, even in this sunlit and plant-forged cage, I could still feel that bleak British darkness. I wonder how Dickens would feel about the Drum. Would he dive into it like he did the Industrial Revolution? I would hope so, faceless monsters trump economic development any day.
Gerald didn’t come outside his house today. I felt weird walking up and knocking on his partially smashed door, so I didn’t bother. You can still see blips of blue paint between the leathery tendrils and ivy. You would think the Drum would eliminate all these cultural considerations we have here in the Midwest. Maybe in one more day, I’ll go talk to him. I’m worried he’s malnourished and dehydrated, but he’s too afraid to ask for help.
I’m his friend, he can ask for help.
I explored two houses today. They were two brick ramblers on the outside of my neighborhood, closer to Golden Valley. Their doors were broken down and one was missing a portion of their roof.
The first house hadn’t been touched since the first night. There were trails of dried blood, but no bodies or pulp. The house had been torn apart by the monsters as they searched it, but they’d clearly found nothing. The ivy inside the house was littered with blue and red flowers. There was gray dust on their paper petals, like nothing had stepped in there for days. I avoided the mirrors in the bathroom and bedroom. They can’t know I’m still rooting around. I found a bunch of canned food and a few bottles of water and soda inside the cabinets. I didn’t stay very long, Snowy started to whine hysterically the moment we walked inside. When we left, I thought I saw something moving in the basement window.
Another monster locked away.
The second house had already been ransacked, but I still found a few cans and bottles of water. I wonder who pillaged it first. I hadn’t noticed anyone except Gerald for weeks now. I wonder if it was the people who shot at us near Rainbow. Groups could be starting, militias or gangs. In the second house, inside the bedroom, there was a mirror on the ceiling. I didn’t even realize it when I walked inside. I looked at it just for a second. There were no monsters, only a velvet black stretch of night sky, with small drops of stars glowing quietly. It looked serene and quiet. How was the sky inside this abandoned bedroom?
The bed beneath the mirror was bloody and sprinkled with feathers.
That brought me back to earth.
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