(Bear in mind that this is my very first draft)

April 9th, 2040
Dear Diary,

Daddy died today-

Adelaide stopped reading. She could feel the lump in her throat, choking her, bringing tears to her eyes. She took a deep breath and looked back at the page.

Daddy died today, while he was working. Everyone in Germany must’ve seen it happen. Mommy’s locked herself in her room, and she won’t come out. Elsie is in the living room, staring-

A tear hit the page. Elsie. Adelaide’s twin. Where was she? Was she still alive? What about Mother? Adelaide didn’t know. She hadn’t seen another human being in a couple of years.

staring at the blank Television screen. I miss Daddy, horribly. I’ll never see him again, and it’s all Their fault. What happens when They get here, anyway? I don’t want to die. I don’t want to watch what happened to Daddy happen again.

Her father, Dale Yaeger, was a field reporter for a news station. Adelaide had forgotten its name. He’d been sent to Canada, to cover the invasion. She remembered that day, watching in horror as his eyes, green and pleading, stared at them from the television, his short, plump figure silhouetted against the explosions in the background. She remembered his blond hair, dirty, tousled, and long, flying wildly in the wind. She remembered all too vividly the flying piece of debris that hit him in the back of his head, and sent him flying into the camera. She’d remembered her mother screaming.
Adelaide looked a lot like her father. Her blond hair, now knotted up, short, and filthy, had once been smooth and long. Her brown eyes were the only things she’d inherited from her mother’s side. She was short, like her father, but the constant starvation had left her gaunt and thin.
Adelaide shivered. She didn’t like the memories. She’d rather have remembered those cold winter nights, curled up on her father’s lap with Elsie, listening to his stories.
No.
She had to read her diary, had to finally accept the deaths of the people she’d loved, and betrayed.
She flipped the page.

April 11th, 2040
Dear Diary,

They’ve attacked Sweden. We have to leave, but Mommy still won’t come out of her room. The government is ordering everyone to evacuate, but she won’t listen.
Elsie is crying in the corner of the room. She keeps asking me where Mommy is.
“I don’t know,” I tell her, “I just don’t know.”

April 12th, 2040
Dear Diary,

Denmark is gone. We could see the explosion from our home, in Rostock. I felt the ground move.
Elsie’s arm is broken. The cupboard fell on her when the floor shook. It’s bent the wrong way at the elbow, and Mommy won’t come out of her room to comfort Elsie.
I’m so scared. They’re getting closer.

April 16th, 2040
Dear Diary,

I’ve killed them-

Adelaide was sobbing. This was the entry she’d been dreading, ever since she’d returned to Rostock and found her old diary in her room.

I’ve killed them! It’s all my fault. They’re dead. Dead!
I don’t know where I am right now. I’m cold, I’m filthy, I’m hungry.
I was so scared. Those Things had come to our house. Mommy, Elsie, and I had run down to the basement. We heard Them coming down the stairs, and I got scared. I crawled out the window and shoved a piece of debris in front of it, to keep Them from following. I was so panicked, I hadn’t even thought about Mommy, and Elsie! Now they’re dead, just like Daddy, and I’m all alone.

Adelaide remembered writing this entry. She’d been sitting behind a crumbling wall, listening to explosions and wallowing in her guilt. She’d remembered sobbing for days, crawling from hiding place to hiding place. She’d wanted to die then, but she’d fought with all her might to stay alive.
Footsteps approached. Adelaide shut the diary and crouched in the hole she’d dug for herself. She waited as the footsteps stopped briefly, then continued moving away. Adelaide peered cautiously to see what it was.
A young man with jet black hair and white skin was walking slowly, robotically away. Adelaide shivered. These people were all over the place, people who’d chosen life as a mindless servant to the invaders over death.
The man seemed to be carrying what looked like a box. Adelaide knew that these patrols sometimes carried food around for their personal nourishment,
She jumped out of her hole and ran up behind the man, brandishing her shotgun as she drew near. She pressed it against the back of his head and fired. The box dropped first, then the man slumped over it. Adelaide kicked him off and grabbed it. She opened the lid as she jumped into her hole, finding a small loaf of bread and a bottle of water. She devoured the bread and drank the water in a single gulp. She was about to cast the box aside when something caught her eye. One of the corners was folded upwards.
Adelaide held the box up, but there was no hole on the bottom. She pulled out her pocket knife and pried away at the corner until she could get her hand in to pull it up. At the bottom of the box, there was a scroll. Adelaide picked it up and unrolled it. She gasped. She had to get out of Germany before it was too late.