The Priestess was still in her sleeping bag even though it was almost noon. I couldn’t blame her really. It was going to be a hot day and a nap in the shade wouldn’t be a bad idea. But I had things to do. I was craving Maté but it was too hot to drink it so I settled for a nice chilled desert tea. Well, it wasn’t exactly chilled, we didn’t have any ice but we had left one of the canteens anchored in the stream so we could have cold water. The tea was a mix various desert plants and a little dried prickly pear thrown in for flavor. It didn’t taste great but it was better than nothing so I threw  handful of it in a mug and poured some cool water into. I set the mug down on our rickety homemade table and went about patrolling the perimeter and checking our traps. It wasn’t much of a hall. A few kangaroo rats and a tiny lizard. I grabbed all of them and threw them in my cloth sack, the rats would be ok for eating, the lizard might make good bait. 

Food was always an issue. Morrigan and myself were omnivores, we’d eat anything. The Priestess was a picky at first, she was a vegetarian, but unfortunately it was no longer a sustainable diet so she was forced to resort to eating meat for nourishment every now and then. Luckily we had a good supply of vegetarian MRE’s which although not very flavorful offered plenty of calories. 

I gently stepped over one of the many perimeter defenses. A thin copper wire connected to a car battery. It wasn’t meant to electrocute, though im sure it would give a bit of a shock. At the other end of the wire we had  jury rigged an alarm to go off when the connection was interrupted. It had been a pain in the ass as none of us were experienced electricians but we finally figured it out. It had taken even longer, however, to figure out how to rig it so we could turn it off without cutting the wire. The first time it rained we had to deal with it going off and on intermittently due to the moisture shorting the connection every now and then. I eventually was able to find a switch that was compatible with our setup and now we turn it off when it rains. 

Even further out I had dug a few pungi pits, substituting sharpened railroad spikes for bamboo. Closer in we had a simple tin can/wire fence set up. But enough about that, I’m sure you’re getting tired of listening to me ramble on about monotonous things like perimeter security. I marched back to camp and began skinning the rats. The Priestess was in bed, a satisfied smile stretched across her face and I smiled back although thought of her waking up and seeing me smiling over her like the village fool quickly set me back to my work. I was fortunate enough to have met these close friends along the long road to nowhere, they were people I could trust and people I wouldn’t mind spending the rest of my life with. They weren’t the first familiar faces I met along the way, but that is a story that I’d rather not recount right now. 

I ramble too  much. This is not something I just noticed, rather it is something I am working on fixing. If these journals are ever to be published I should learn to collect my thoughts in a proper manner. In any case I’m rambling again. As I finished skinning the rats I noticed The Priestess stirring in her sleep and so I put my work to the side. I walked over to the tea and poured some into two small glasses before walking back over to the sleeping area.

“Good morning,” I said with a playful smile plastered on my face.

“Morning,” She muttered back sleepily before returning my smile, “Though it’s more like good afternoon. Ahhh! I overslept again!” 

“It’s fine, it was my turn to take shift anyway,” I set a glass down next to her bed, “Did you sleep well?”

“I slept ok,” The Priestess yawned, “It was a little cold though,”

Summer was coming to a close. Fall would be here soon and after that we would have to find somewhere else to live. Winter in the desert is even more unforgiving than the summer. Food is even more scarce and the cold chills you to the bone. 

“It will be winter soon. We still haven’t decided where we’re gonna go,”

“South is the only place to go isn’t it?” She asked, though she and I both knew the answer.

“There’s too much radiation. But we might be able to go east and then south. Maybe to New Mexico or, if we have to, Texas. But it might be easier to find a city,”

“Mmm,” she sipped her tea and cast her eyes down in thought. 

The cities were a last resort. Disease and conflict festered there between the concrete trees and asphalt rivers. We had gather enough equipment to live comfortably anywhere provided there was enough food to hunt or scavenge. But it would be easier to find warmth in a nice insulated house and there would be more supplies in the city too. The biggest problem was bandits and gangs that collected and staked out there territory in the abandoned cities. 

“We’ll talk about it when Morrigan gets back,” I took a long swig of tea and licked my lips greedily, trying to get as much moisture as I could, “Why don’t you get ready and we can work on the garden?”

The Priestess nodded and rose from her bed. She was wearing a pair of wool long-johns and a baggy sweater. Hardly the kind of clothing fit for a High Priestess but then again a sleeping bag and old mattress weren’t exactly royal sleeping arrangements. Function take a back seat to aesthetics when your main goal is survival. Regardless I thought she was beautiful. I was still feeling conflicted about those feelings though, she was after all one of my best friends. It didn’t matter right now.

There was work to be done.