A Mother's Woes

February 4th, 2021

Hello.

I am writing in this book because Janice told me that it usually helped her when she was younger. To write down her thoughts into one of these and maybe I’ll be able to coordinate my scattered thoughts. It’s been difficult ever since we got locked up in this bunker. Things haven’t been the same since.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. My name’s Jona. My husband and son’s names are Derek and Charlie. Me and Derek met before the pandemic. Right around summer of 2017. We were younger than and maybe a little foolish to get married right away, but that never stopped us. We did well for ourselves, until we had to drop everything and head right for the bunker.

The stress of the entire situation caused me to go into labor. Which caused a whole other layer of stress. Charlie was a few weeks underdeveloped and the doctors worried about his health. He was surviving the best he could for a long time, but the doctor’s were scared he wouldn’t make it.

Luckily he got my fighting spirit and his dad’s stubbornness. He pulled through and became a healthy baby boy, even if he was a little scrawnier than most of the kids his age. Which there weren’t that many of. There were probably only three other families who had children of their own. One didn’t even allow their child to leave their quarters. They had a supernatural fear of the disease that swept across the nation.

Regardless, we managed to make it through seventeen years strong. Charlie is just about to graduate from our home schooling and he’s been doing quite well. Though, he has been slipping for a while now. I’ve noticed that he fails to pay attention a lot during my lectures and Derek says that Charlie’s been failing a lot of his tests recently. 

I also noticed his tendencies to stare off into space, as if he was in his own little world. I wouldn’t mind the lack of focus, if it wasn’t completely unnatural for him. Charlie was a fussy child, sure, but every child is. They never listen when they're young. But right around thirteen to fifteen years of age, Charlie was fairly well behaved. He didn’t sneak out of his quarters and he followed all of our rules.

Now that he’s seventeen, we’ve been beginning to see a new side to him. One that’s become more adventurous. Just the other day, a member of the bunker security (basically just the local police force before the whole shutdown) brought Charlie before us and said that he had been caught in a restricted area of the bunker. After we brought him in to scold him, Charlie argued that we shouldn’t be locked up like this. That it isn’t fair to be forced into the underground when the security force refuses to give us a reason as to why we’re down here.

We had to inform Charlie again why we were down here. A disease had swept through the entire world. This disease alone had killed almost half of the population in just under two years. The governments of the world were running out of options and this was their best one.

“To dig us all in an early grave!?” Charlie yelled that one loud. After Derek heard that, he just sent Charlie off to bed early. I understood Charlie’s stress on the situation. But I knew that it was harmful to think in such a way. I know that what’s happening right now isn’t the best situation. But we have to pull through as long as we can. 

Maybe I should tell Daniel that? Before he cries himself to sleep.

***

February 10th, 2021

I completely forgot about this journal. So much has happened since the last time I wrote. The disease was said to have stopped, the government still isn’t letting us out of the bunkers yet and Charlie’s gone missing. 

Me and Derek have gone to the local security to have them search for him. He hasn’t caused much trouble since last time, but the guards remember his face. It isn’t that hard to remember everyone’s faces and names, especially given the circumstances. What else are we to do when we’ve played all the board games we could?

Either way, Charlie has been missing for two days now. The security team is saying that they’re doing everything they can to find him, but I doubt that. I’m not sure why, call it mother’s intuition, but I have a sneaking feeling that they aren’t looking as hard as they could be. I have no proof of this, of course, but I need to find Charlie.

Me and Derek have done searching of our own. We’ve gone through all of the possible list of places he could have been. Even through some that were off limits to us. But we searched the best we could and found no sign of Charlie. None of his few friends had anything to say either. They were clearly hiding something, but they all kept their mouths shut.

I’ll admit, I’m panicking as I write this. I can only wonder what’s happened to my Charlie. Where did he go? Why hasn’t anyone found him yet? Did he escape?

That’s impossible. The entrance to the bunker is sealed tight. Security also patrols the controls and, from what I’ve heard, the door takes forever to open. It also blares an alarm as it’s opening, to allow everyone in the bunker to know when it’s opening. But if he did escape, why didn’t the alarm go off?

Me and Derek are going out again in a few minutes to search for Charlie. I’m taking this notebook with me in case I find anything. We’re bound to find some clues of some kind. Charlie, if you find this by some miracle, please know that I love you. I’m sorry if I or your father mistreated you. Please know that we love you very much and want you to come back to us. Please Charlie.

***

THE BUNKER IS OPEN!