Ashfall Journal #2

         The most important event in the book is also the most obvious and is what kick starts the entire story. The eruption of the volcano in Yellowstone completely changes Alex’s life forever. He started out as a typical teenager who wasn’t too fond of his family and just spent his time in his room. He gets left on his own for the weekend while his parents and younger sister go to visit some relatives. Soon after, the volcano erupts and Alex is forced to face the disaster all on his own. He starts out staying with his neighbors for a few days until they end up brutally murdering three men that try to break into the house. Alex is too scared to stay with them any longer and decides to set out to find his family. This experience only gave Alex a small sample of what was to come later. He takes a pair of skis and some supplies from his house to begin his quest to find his family.

As he travels across the wasteland that is Iowa, he has to learn about the new ways to live in this post-apocalyptic world. The entire state is hit with extremely cold weather and endless ash fall with little to no food or water left to spare. All Alex has to enter this world is a few basic survival supplies, his basic knowledge, and his skills in tae kwon do. But Alex doesn't really know what he's doing. He doesn't bring enough food or water and uses all of it up so quickly that he barely makes it through the first few days before he is running low on supplies.

Along the way he meets many allies and enemies that he learns different skills of survival from. He figures out he can drink from toilet water, dig up corn from farms, and even how to slaughter animals for meat. He learns most of these skills from Darla, the foil and love interest for Alex. With Darla, Alex immediately notices how hard she’s worked her entire life and it inspires him to do the same for the rest of the story.

Meeting all of the other survivors gives Alex a sense of generosity along with other life lessons. After meeting up with Darla and her mom he realizes that it was the kindness of others that was keeping him alive for so long. It would have been much easier for him to only care about himself, but he sees that he can spare some supplies to help others even when it's not necessarily the best thing to do.