text: That's the thing about this city. No one lives in it. Except me. Me and my loyal dog Lick-- back off I named her when I was five.-- So here I am writing in a notebook I stole from the store that no one shops at. And if you want to know why everyone left. I don't know. I just grew up here all by myself and have never seen another person. Okay okay, calm down. I will answer all of your questions in time, but I thought it would be fun to write down what my days are like living in an abandoned city. Entry 1 That first entry wasn't official. But this one is. Hi, my name is Bean. I came up with that name because it's my favorite food, and I guess I just called myself that. I think, from what I guess, I'm around 17 to 19 years of age. And I don't know my birthday so I celebrate it on the fourth of July. I came up with that by looking at a calendar. It was all bright and caught my eye so I chose it. And if you want to know what I look like. Too bad you'll have to wait. So to start my day, I woke up with the sun then I got out of bed and woke Lick up. Also a note, she's more of a wolf than a dog, but she's domesticated so I don't know. You’ll find I don't know a lot of things. But what I do know is that after I ate a nice breakfast of toaster squares, I went to the school. I've been trying to teach myself more, and they have everything I could possibly need there. Today I tried to learn about Algebra. I didn't get it. The numbers confused me, and I wondered if there was a certain order you were supposed to learn these things. I also drew with Crayola's today. I drew that thing you see after it rains and the sun comes out. The red ink got all over my hands and made it look like I was bleeding. It was awesome. Then I read an entire book about a guy and a girl falling in love. It made me cry. After that, I started to hear my tummy growl. I pulled out my iPod and blasted a bunch of interesting sounds. It's called music (you probably knew that). I did it as I walked to the store to get myself some food. I went to my usual store. The sign is broken, and I don't know the name. So I just call it The Store. I went to my garden that I scraped together. I picked some food from it. And also got a bag of dried apples. Lick and I ate together, and the two of us sat watching the sun go down. We sit at the top of a really tall building I use as shelter. I always do that. The sunset is pretty. Now I'm here writing my day. I enjoyed this. I think I might keep doing it. It does get a little lonely sometimes. But I'll always have Lick. Entry 2 I decided to try driving again. It's been about two months since the last time I decided to drive to the store for dinner and ended up inside the gas station instead. And when I say inside I mean inside. I literally stepped on about a thousand chips as I got out. Lucky Lick decided not to join me. Since then I've been terrified. So today I have finally mustered up the courage to try again. I found the car I had crashed into the station, but I couldn't find the keys. So I went around to all of the cars, peeping through the window, to see if any of the keys had been left. Some of them did, but they were locked. I didn't want to have to break the window to get to them. I did finally find a newer-looking black van that was unlocked. I hopped into the seat without Lick and turned the keys. The car came alive and... jolted( that sounds right). I tried to remind myself which one was the stop and which one was the go. I couldn't quite remember so I tried one. I did remember to take the car out of the P into the D. I pressed my right foot to the go pedal and zoomed forward. I wasn't the best at keeping myself on the streets. But I made my way to the store without crashing. It was only when I got to the store I got so excited and forgot I was driving. Then when the wheel turned me into a tree I think I might have blacked out. Good thing the pillow saved me from any real damage. I evacuated the car-- yes, I looked at that one in the dictionary-- though I learn most of the words I use from the big box that turns on now and then. I heard a loud boom, and the ground shook a little. I don't think that it's really of any importance though. I had a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich on some stale crackers I found in a beaten-down house - I think you call it - for dinner today, and the sunset looked a bit redder than usual. I didn't do anything else exciting today. And the light is running out so I'm going to stop. Goodnight. Entry 3 It's the middle of the night, and I'm writing because the big boom and shaking happened again, but even more than last time. I'm starting to think there is a problem now. I'm restless (that means you can't sleep right?), and so is Lick. She keeps whining and is now sitting in my lap as I write this. She's a bit heavy but it's the only thing to keep her from being scared. I feel sad for her. She's the one who took care of me. And honestly is the only reason I'm alive. She brought me food to eat and water when I was young. And she kept me from doing anything dangerous. Like one time I claimed a tree and fell out, breaking my leg. I sat there for a week waiting for when I could walk on it again. And she stayed with me the whole time and brought me food and water. I love her so much, and I don't know what I would do without her. It’s happening again. The shaking. And I have this really strange feeling that there are other people out there. Out there causing this to happen. It makes me feel happy that maybe I can meet another person. But I’m scared at the same time. If they are causing the shaking then do I want to trust them? My curiosity is killing me. My stomach is a knot, and I'm starting to shiver. I want to know. So badly I want to know. So I might just find out. I'll come back too. I love this place too much, but I'll bring you along; I mean my journal. And, of course, Lick. Alright, I'm going to pack. See you. Entry 4 It's morning now, and I watched the sunrise this morning because I won't be able to watch the sunset. I've never seen a sunrise or sunset so red as this morning. It was pretty but unnerving. I'm all ready to go. I've got some food. I've got a jar of peanut butter, Some food from my garden, and I picked some food from a tree that I like to climb. Ohm and some beans... yum. I don't know if that will last me, but I've seen Lick catch stuff. I've also got my iPod with all my songs. Along with a book about how to survive in the wild. There is no sun today. So I'll have to wing it. Wish me luck. Entry 5 Good news! The last time I wrote, a large grey blob appeared in the sky, so I followed that. It was an exhausting day. It's night now. I just walked through a large forest. It was a very yellow forest and looked amazing with the blue sky. Like my eyes. But my eyes are more grey. Anyway, I walked for what I think was four hours-- again the sun wasn't out so I couldn't tell.-- before something interesting happened. I met an owl! And it attacked me! I must have accidentally thrown a stick at its nest because it was angry. This spiraled into me getting covered in mud. First, the owl swooped down and scratched me on the face. I then tripped over a root and tumbled down a small hill gaining speed until I tripped again and started rolling instead. Then I rolled into a large puddle of mud at the bottom. Yeah, my hair used to be black. It's brown now. I didn't bother cleaning it because more and more events kept me busy. I lost the grey blob at one point and had to climb a tree to find it again. The problem was Lick barked at me to come down the whole time, and I couldn't focus. I yelled at her to stop but it didn't help. By that time I was too high for her to hear me. I met several birds I didn't care about. And when I finally got to a spot I could see the blob again I was so high I didn't want to come back down. I stayed there for a bit and thankfully did not fall when I did decide to come down. I was tired and hungry. The sun came out and gave me two minutes of hope and told me what time it was. It was lunchtime. So I ate an apple with peanut butter for lunch. I fed Lick some carrots. Then I started walking again, but my bad luck seemed to continue because as I did I felt yet another shake and heard another boom more vicious than anything I had felt in the city. I fell on my butt. It hurts now. Along with my face, head, feet, legs, and throat. Oh, I forgot to tell you about that one. Well, the reason my throat hurts is because, at some point during the day, I also lost Lick. So I spent the rest of the day yelling her name until I finally found her only a few steps behind me. Have no idea where she went or when she got back, but now my wrist hurts from writing this too. See ya. Entry 6 I didn't write the past two days because I've been too tired. I spent those two days walking. I eventually found a river and washed my hair. And if you want to know, yes, I do wash myself often. There is a lake a little ways away from the city that I use. The days were pretty uneventful too. Which is another reason I haven't written. Just walking and trying to stay on my feet from the more frequent and ever-growing shaking that keeps happening. Lick found a friend. It's a small cat that is really friendly. It brought me a rat. I thanked it and threw the rat over my shoulder. I've eaten rats before but it's not really... not... I don't really like eating it. That was pretty much the first day. There were some more quakes and I found that they come in short spurts. And then leave for a long time. The second day it rained all day. I got some walking in but it was wet and we were all tired. Plus there was lighting and Lick is terrified of lighting, so we sat most of day two under a tall brown tree with lots of leaves to keep ourselves dry. The cat was there too. I named it Jack. And if it's a girl I'll just change it to Jacklyn. No biggie. It was peaceful sitting there. The forest went quiet under the sound of the rain. I caught up on a lot of sleep the second day. We did walk a bit that day too. Maybe about for an hour and then we stopped in a cave that we shared with a couple of rabbits. I noticed something white falling from the sky. Except it wasn't snow. It wasn't cold, it was warm. I don't have a clue what it was or why it was there. So that leads up to this day. It's morning so I haven't done anything yet. It stopped raining and it's cool for now but the sun is out so it's probably going to get warmer. Write later. Entry 7 I found the city today. I walked all day and got here at sunset. This city is a lot like mine. But the thing about this city. Is that it's on fire.