Jack's Diary - Day 21, October 6th 2013

     I have that annoying urge to kill. Not for pleasure, but relief. I am an easy going person when it comes to things that aren't life and death and can for the most part control myself, but Duke is pushing me over the metaphorical edge. I woke up and found him reading my journal entries. I got up and snatched them out of his hands. "What do you think you're doing?" I said to him.
     "Well, you never gave me your backstory so I just wanted to check up on you," he responded.
     "Don't ever touch my writing again!"
     "What do you expect from a rude, narcissistic person like myself! How dare you say such things about me!"
     "I'll think, write, and say what I wish and I'll say it to you now; you're a selfish annoying person who would've died had I not come along! No wonder why you're alone!"
     "Coming from the person who was alone when he found me. If you're such a delight, where are your friends? Oh, that's right, you let them die!"
     "I'm warning you, Duke! Say one more word about my past and I'll end you!"
     "Doubt you would, you're too much of a..."
     I punched Duke in the face and took a slash at him with my machete, but I only managed to cut him under his left eye. He fell back near the edge of the high place we were on. There were about four or five soulless at the bottom, reaching up. We were too high up for them to grab Duke, but I could have easily kicked him over the edge. I approached the sniveling roach, as he pleaded for forgiveness between his violent weeps. I stood over him for about minute looking down at him with the sun to my back until I wiped the blood off my machete on his shirt and put it away.
     "Consider this my last act of mercy on your part. You will do as I say and keep your self-center personality locked away because it only takes one thrust or flick of the wrist to finish what I've imaged doing over 100 times in my head. Understand!"
     He shook his head yes and I turned away to pack things up. Even afterwards, I still felt like killing him, to watch his blood bleed out with the rest of his fluids and negative traits. I never believed the idea that there are those who deserve to die, but this man is making me question this belief.
     A few nails from above to the soulless heads and we headed off to the city. Duke hasn't said a word since, which is nice. The streets were a disaster area with broken glass, blood, bodies and large pieces of cement and building littering the streets and sidewalks. I wanted to seek out other survivors, but none were insight, leaving the only three options left: they were dead, soulless, or inside the building. If they were hiding within the buildings, I wasn't going to look for them. There's too much of an advantage for them if I were to step inside. They could easily club me over the head and kill me and Duke. Besides, with my current mood and the previous attack on my life, I'm not willing to try and find people. my only concern was that we might leave this city and Jane might be hiding here. However, none of the survivors I spotted before hand or afterward matched the description John had given me. Besides, we could always come back for a more "thorough" check.
     Every so often a group of soulless would begin to approach us, which I quickly dispatched with the nail guns while Duke cowered behind me. The biggest threat were the runners who came at us with great speed (about the speed of a brisk jog), but I managed to stop them, whether it was through shooting at their legs or doing a running kick at them and knocking them over. A large group of runners approached us at some point and I pulled Duke into the nearest building and locked the door (luckily, the door was in decent shape). The windows were broken out so we looked for a stairwell to climb. We found one as they were climbing and falling through the windows. I noticed there were soulless standing on upper levels of the stairwell so I took the lead and stabbed or knocked the soulless over the sides as we progressed upward. I thought I saw a few eyes peeking in on us from the exit doors on each level. I figured, the higher up we got, the less likely a soulless would take the time to follow. We must have reached the twentieth floor or so when I stopped Duke and listened. I didn't hear anyone following. We could have left after this point, but I decide to stay. I opened the exit door, dispatched the soulless in sight, checked the nearby rooms for more soulless and stuff to loot (basically, stealing what looked useful and killing anything that moved, except for Duke). We came across a few doors that wouldn't open (barricaded doors), a few of which I knocked on, asking if they'd seen anyone who matched the description I gave. Even Duke knocked on a few doors as well. I received silence mostly, with the occasional "No". This method was labeled dangerous by myself after the last person I asked shot through the door to try and kill me. After this, I found a room with a window for me and I told Duke to use the one next door. He was to knock on my door or I knock on his in a certain way to let each other know we weren't soulless or a stranger. Nearly all the food on that floor had been looted so there wasn't much point in searching. After I barricaded the door, I looked out the window, the great height giving me new vantage points to scout from. After the night began to return, I ceased my scouting, wrote this down, and noticed that I now wanted to kill Duke a little less.

- Jack's Diary