Jack's Diary - Day 42

            Ah, a dilemma, just when good news rolls in. Let me start from the beginning.

            Mike came into my room and told me his brother gave the okay for farming and he put Mike in charge, but he told me to do what I wanted. He didn’t say anything about the rain catchers or some of the other small things I mentioned so I decided not to press my luck (for now). Besides, growing food was the main goal I had hoped to achieve at the base so it seems I will be staying and if the farming works out, I’m sure that there won’t be any objections to the next project I work on. I decided to begin small with planting next to our building to see if I could get plants to grow (different soil presents different problems). I managed to get a few seeds early on in the day while Mike went out to get some more supplies (alone again. I can’t say he isn’t consistent). The hardest part of farming, at least in this situation, is preparing the ground. The soil was dense and had many rocks throughout it so I needed to loosen the soil with a plough, but since I am at a base and not a farming convention, I spent most of the day searching for/creating the tools necessary. With some scrap metal, some left over branches, and an old wheel, I put together an ugly looking till. I also found a shovel and hoe (though I had to trade some of my newly made weapons for them since the survivors were using them as clubs). For as much as I planned on doing, I was considering not ploughing and just digging holes and planting the seeds since the plough would probably not hold up for as much as I planned to do.

            Thirty minutes in, after I had broken and replaced the plough’s tip three times, I changed my mind and started digging holes and planting seeds. I planted spinach since it grows fast and I’ll be able to tell if I can grow in this soil. Since I knew the other survivors would not want me using up their drinking water on crops, I went in search of a stream and a few minutes in, I found one outside the base a few minutes away. After carrying buckets of water back from the stream to the base, I was tired and before going in, I set up six large barrel in the back of the building to catch rain water because I really didn’t want to make the trip to the stream next time.

            I went back to my room and work on the weapons again, recreating the ones I traded away (They weren’t really that creative anyway. A large hunk of metal stuck onto a thick wooden stick is a practical weapon, but it looks like junk). Mike came in later and told me that he and a few of his friends were going to deliver a package to a group of people named “Valors” in exchange for weapons and food. I had never heard that name before and I knew the entire thing was a bad idea, especially when he told me just how far he’d be going. Neither of us knew anything about the Valors. Why did they want a group of strangers to deliver a package? How do we know they’re not sending us into a trap or if they’ll even pay up once the package has been delivered? There could be a bomb in the package and maybe they want us to deliver it to a rival base. There was too much uncertainty and I’ve learned to be cautious of everything and everyone, even friends. Worst of all, Mike just got back not too long ago from being capture and the same thing may just happen again. I didn’t give him a definitive answer, but he told me if I still want to join to meet him at the gates at 6 o’clock sharp.

            I spent hours thinking about it after he left. I feel like I’ve been thinking about this for a week now. As much as I’d like for Mike and his friends to stay safe, I can’t keep looking after them like they are children (well, Mike at least. The others are actually children). If a man throws himself into the ocean and almost dies and you save him, what would have been the use if he does it again and again after each time you save him? It’s just delaying the end result. Still, that’s kind of over-exaggerating the situation. Mike has the right intention and for all I know, the situation could work out fine. I’d let Mike go on this mission by himself to see if my expectations of his abilities are right or wrong, but he’s bringing Lexi, Jessie, and the others and death can come so swiftly for anyone. And really, it’s going to take some time away for the spinach to grow and that dull feeling of adventure and meaning are nagging at me; they’re the only things that keep the nightmares away. I’m going. However, I’m going to go talk with Mike about Victor coming along. He’s a little too young and we may need someone with more experience.

- Jack's Diary