Chapter 9

As witnessed by Jenna Pitman

It's been a madhouse. I thought things were bad before but they've gotten even worse. I've not seen hide nor hair of that slimy bastard, Harton. Hope he's gone. Whatever was in the fifth ring is gone too. But everything's been really hush-hush so I couldn't tell you what went down. Every day it seems like more and more people are choosing to stay inside rather than face what's going on out here. I wish I knew what was going on myself; I'm starting to wonder if anyone does. It's really scary. I guess talking to Burke was a mistake.

There are a lot of people missing. One of my roommates hasn't been home in about three days. The rest of us are just pretending to be occupied so as to avoid any real conversations. At least that's what I've been doing. Morton has taken his gun apart and cleaned it three times today and Cynthia hasn't turned more than two pages of that paperback she's read four times this year so I can only assume that they're doing the same thing.

***

There have been strangers outside. I've never seen these people, they must have come through that hole in the ninth fence. I have to assume they're here for our fearless leader, Burke. I still haven't heard anything about Harton. Is he dead? Hope so.

Morton went out to get food for us yesterday and he said that only certain people are being allowed out of the first ring, most of them aren't being allowed back in. Just enough to maintain the food supply, continue baking, and care for the dogs. No one knows what's happening. It's nice that I'm not the only one. I'm glad we're being fed though. I guess.

***

They took Cynthia. Last night they came by and took one or two people from each house. Morton was going to shoot them but they just knocked him down and kept him there. No one knows where they took everyone. This is really bad.

***

We got a new roommate this afternoon. Some new girl. She's terrified and won't even tell us her name. She took Anne's old bed. She's just been sitting there this whole time. I wish she would talk. Maybe we could get some answers then.

***

There was an attempted coup last night. A few of the houses from the other side of the ring rallied together and tried to take out our captors. Unfortunately it wasn't as organized as it should have been and within minutes our jailors had reinforcements. Where the hell did they come from? How many of these people are there?