//------------------------------//
// Day 4 
// Story: To Nopony in Particular 
// by Sir Squiggles 
//------------------------------//

Well, I wasn't sure if I'd actually be alive by the time I wrote this. Guess it's my lucky day.

When I last left off, I mentioned I would be leaving the Resilient to go to some caves a little ways away. I brought enough food and water with me to last a little while, and I headed off. With my bum leg, it took about four hours or so. But when I got there, I realized my mistake.

I neglected to bring wood.

I know, sounds a bit anticlimactic, but it seriously is important to bring. Without wood, I wasn't able to fashion some makeshift spears to plant in the ground outside of my cave, just in case some ravenous beast decided to peek in. Even more importantly, no wood means no fire. Not only would fire have warmed me up (it is absolutely freezing in the Badlands at night, just by the way), but it also would have helped to repel any predators. 

I only realized what I had done until after dark, when I reached the cave. As I had seen, there were lots of niches, some smaller than me, others large enough for the Resilient to have squeezed into. I ended choosing one at the bottom of the hill, as I had no strong desire to climb up a mountain with a broken leg. Funny, though, that would not be the worst idea I've had all week. 

So, as soon as I saw that I forgot the wood, I panicked. I nearly leapt out of the cave to make a mad dash to the airship wreckage until I heard it. A long, drawn out sound, somewhere between a moan and a howl, just like what I had been hearing when I was still back at the ship. But this time, it was much, much closer. I'm pretty sure I heard some scuffling and rocks falling too, from the footsteps of whatever massive creature was nearby, but I didn't stay outside long enough to see if I was right. For the rest of the night, I stayed huddled up in a corner of the cave, as far away from the entrance as possible. I did hear about half a dozen more bizarre screams, but after a little while they went silent. Despite being frozen with fear throughout the entire ordeal, I did slip off into a restless sleep eventually.

But it all worked out. Nothing came knocking on my door. I am currently not in the belly of a beast. I'm not dead. In my book, I would consider that a success. 

I plan to go back to theResilient today to pick up some wood and grab as much food as I can. Also, with the fire extinguished, I think that poking around ship and scavenging what items I can find would be really beneficial. There were all sorts of things on that ship, any of which could turn out to be useful. I think the first place to start would be the infirmary; if it survived the crash and the fire, there may be a first aid kit or something so that I can heal my leg quicker. That would be awesome. Or, even better, maybe the radio from the captain's cabin is still intact. If it is, I can send a message back to Canterlot, or the closest town, and hopefully I can get myself out of this mess. Some flares would be good too, in case they happen to send any pegasi out to search for the ship, but I doubt they will. Despite Equestria's outstanding safety policies and its many search-and-rescue teams, it's become common practice to exclude the Badlands from any extensive recovery missions. It's, to put it simply, way too big and way too dangerous. I'm not blaming anypony, though; Hell, if I were a pegasi and I were told to go searching for a single pony in the Badlands for a couple of weeks, I would laugh because I would believe it to be a joke. A scary, not-very-funny joke, but a joke nonetheless.

Anyways, enough of my ranting. I'm off to the ship.




Well, I'm bucked completely and utterly now. Because guess what? Something got into all the food I had moved! 

It's gone. All of what I saved. All that remains are crumbs. A whole two months worth of food, gone.

There's still the stuff I left in the galley, but it's only about a month's worth, if I eat once a day. So basically not nearly enough. I am so, so, so bucked.

I don't even know what to do at this point. To tell you the truth, I was hoping in the back of my mind that I could just hold off long enough for a search party. And yes, I know I'm a complete hypocrite for saying that. I know what I wrote, but a small part of me had wished there was some hope of safety. But that's been crushed.

I'm honestly really, really scared now. I've been joking around and stuff so that I wouldn't go into a complete panic. But now, I'm really, really scared.

I don't want to die here.