[ENTRY A6: THE BLACK MARKET RISES]
Date: Four Months After the Fall
Where the military fails, criminals succeed.
The black market is everywhere now. Food, medicine, ODM gas—if you have money, you can buy anything. If you don't, you starve.
I arrested a man today selling his own ODM gear. Survey Corps issue. He'd been a soldier—lost his leg in the fall, discharged, no pension, no support. Selling his gear was the only way to feed his family.
"I served for ten years," he said. "Ten years. And now I'm selling my own equipment to keep my kids alive."
I let him go. Took the gear. Gave him half my rations.
He cried.
I cried too, later, alone in my bunk.