Dark World : Logan’s Journal Entry 4

“Logan’s Journal“ is a series of in-character journal entries that serves as bonus material for the Dark World series.

These entries are written from the point of view of Logan, a character referenced by Dark World’s main protagonist Ruby R-1042 as her deceased grandfather. These entries take place 52 years before the Dark World series begins when Logan is a young teen of fourteen, only a few years after an alien invasion decimates the surface of our planet forcing the survivors to live in a large underground bunker known as The Complex.

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September 20, 2026

            Dale and Grover were taken for a task three days ago and they haven’t come back. I asked Penelope about them this morning and she got real weird and dodgy. She said that even though they’re sixteen instead of eighteen, the task they were taken to help with, working with our oxygen generators or filters or something, might mean they’ve been “permanently relocated.” She wouldn’t look me in the eye and that kind of freaked me out. They were the oldest orphans in our group, the strongest. Now I’m the oldest, and I’m only fourteen. The smaller kids have started coming to me and asking me questions that I can’t answer.

            Food has been getting even more scarce since the announcement was made that we’re stuck here in The Complex forever. I try to drink as much water as I can to dull the ache, but even water is being rationed now. I’m actually worried that we might all starve to death. Probably not everyone, but us orphans for sure. No one cares about us, we’re basically the last people to be considered for anything. Even if they let Penelope bring us more food tomorrow morning, I doubt I’ll get to eat. As much as my stomach is killing me I can’t stare at three bony six-year-olds and not give them everything we have. Maybe this is how I’ll die, my body will just eat itself until there’s nothing left.

            Or will I become a cannibal like people in the movies who are starving? Will I get so desperate for food that I’ll end up eating my friends? I guess I’m not as starving as I think I am, because the thought of tearing raw bloody meat off of human arm-bones with my teeth and bare hands still sounds disgusting to me. I used to like zombie movies when I was a kid. I wasn’t technically allowed to watch them, but it was easy to find ways around parents telling us no.

            Naw. If I start looking at my friends like food, I’ll kill myself. I’m serious. I’m not going out like a crazy wild animal with no mind left. I know I’m as good as dead anyway, stuck here in this dank prison for the rest of my life, but I’m not going to turn into a movie cliché. If I have to, I’ll cut my wrists or find some way to get some cyanide, or who knows, but I won’t eat my friends.

            Don’t get me wrong. I’m only talking about killing myself if it comes to my life or the lives of my friends. I’m not going to do something stupid like that when right now I have to help take care of the little kids. With Dale and Grover gone, they really do need me.

            I’ve been thinking more and more about the invasion lately. It’s so weird to me that this place was mostly already built when they attacked. If they anticipated an attack of this magnitude (another word Penelope taught me), then why didn’t the government do anything to stop it? I didn’t hear or see any air strikes when it all went down. None of us “civilians” got any type of warning that something like this could happen. What if we had? Would my dad still be alive?

            I’m just going in circles today. I can’t think straight, I know I’m not making sense anymore.

            Since I can’t eat or drink I’m going to try and get some sleep. My head is really starting to hurt.

-Logan
Orphan 018, Division Rhode Island

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