Jack's Diary - Appreciation and Death - Day 67

            As I expected, I didn’t fall asleep. I watched the night turn into morning with a blaze of colors charging over the horizon like a stampede of rainbow mares. I heard birds, a somewhat rare sight in this new world, desperately calling for mates when there are few to none to be found. It was sad to realize they may die alone without a partner or without starting a family. In this world, a happy ending in life is rare, so rare I’ve yet to see one. It may seem weird that I’m writing this, but when all you have to do is listen, see, and feel the life going on around you for hours, you start to think about it and appreciate it and feel sorrow for it. During that time, I think I heard every sound you could imagine from a cricket to a moaning soulless to a hawk squawking. I even heard the sound of a motorcycle or something coming from the city. Probably some survivor trying to get out (not a very smart choice since the sound attracts danger). I was about three quarters of the way up the tree so I had a pretty nice view. I spent most of my time watching a large come and go from a nest near the top of the tree I was in. I’m guessing it is a hawk. I really wanted my own hawk or some kind of large bird. I could teach it to gouge out the eyes of my enemies and to go pick up stuff for me. It would be awesome. I was tempted to climb the tree and take one of its babies if it had any, but the hawk would go completely nuts and probably peck me to death. I’m pretty sure even if I waited until it left, it would quickly rush back and kill me (mother intuition).

            There was one more town near by to search and after that, I’m heading back to base. Mike may have already made his way back, but if he didn’t, there isn’t much I can do anymore except arrange a search party to check the woods since Mike would have to drop 100 IQ points before considering searching any towns or cities further away, leaving the woods as the last option. The morning was quiet and there isn’t really much to talk about. I was hungry, but decided to eat some granola bars I keep with me (I hadn’t eaten in about two days). I also ate some wild raspberries I came across.

            My path to the last town was unheeded by anything or anyone. The town (or city. I don’t know anymore what to call them). It was abnormally quiet. No soulless wandering the streets, no bugs buzzing by, and hardly any breeze at all. Well, I guess there were soulless, but all the ones I came across were dead: shot, bulged, and dismembered. A somewhat disturbing sight, but it didn’t bother me too much: it did bring up some questions though. The town’s buildings were pretty diverse: it had a small community college, an arcade, a public library, an auto shop, a garden and flower shop, and veterinarian office. Lots of books, studying equipment, chemicals products, seeds, tools, and diverse drugs (mostly for pets) to take back. I found so much stuff, I used one of the wagons in the garden store to haul everything out. It squeaked from time to time, but this didn’t matter. There was no one around to hear. The most exciting place was the arcade. I really wished it had a small generator so I could play a game. I miss video games. The saddest of the building was the vet office. When disaster struck, the owners and employees must had run off and left a lot of the pets in the cages. Inside the cages, I found dead, rotting dog and cat carcasses. Nothing was alive except for maggots. Some laid peacefully in their cages as if they just fell asleep while others, I found broken teeth on the floor on the cages and outside of the cages, indicating that they tried to bite through the metal bars. It made me wish I knew about them before they all starved to death. They probably would’ve died even if they weren’t stuck in the cages, but at least they’d have die free.

            I had search the most of the stores when I moved into the neighbor to search there. That’s when things got dangerous. As I walked down the middle of the street, four or five windows opened up and suddenly, bullets were coming at me from left and right. I left the wagon and jumped behind a fence in the yard of what looked to be an empty house; that is, until the front window opened and a man leaned out with a shotgun. I quickly drew my handgun and shot the man, causing him to fall forward and out the window. Quickly, I crawled over with the others still trying to shoot me. I grabbed the shotgun, stood up and shot the person next door though it seems I only got their hand because they only dropped their gun. I dove through the window as more shots hit the wall of the house. I was now in a carpeted living room with a TV and sofas. As I looked around, there was a woman standing in the kitchen, pointing a rifle at me. I barely made it behind the sofa when she fired.

            “Miss!” I called out, “I don’t want any trouble! I was only passing through!”

            She answered back without hesitation. “You got trouble! You killed my husband!”

            A young boy came down the steps across from me with a pistol in his hand and fired; it jumped out of his hand and it missed me completely, but made me roll out from behind the couch only for me to roll back as the woman shot at me again. She was moving closer to the sofa. The boy scrambled to pick the gun up, but when he saw that I already had my new shotgun pointed at him, he ran away to where he came from, leaving the gun. A man looked in the window, asking, “Where is he?” He had just seen me when I shot off his face.

            “This doesn’t have to happen! Just let me go!” I yelled, “I hold no grudge against you.”

            “There’s been too much blood spilled already! You must pay for it!”

            I could tell by the sound of her voice she was almost right behind the sofa. I was leaning against it at the time so I spun around, put me feet underneath it, and kicked it forward, knocking it down and exposing her to the barrel of my gun. Had I been any later in pulling the trigger, she’d be telling this story. As the shotgun bullet pierced her chest, she dropped her rifle and fell background.

            “Shot him! Shot him now! Shot him now!” she yelled and in response, tons bullets pierced through the front of the house and more followed. Luckily, the bullets were always at least 6 inches off the ground so I crawled across the carpet to the kitchen. As I approached the woman, she remained completely still that is, until my legs were near her and she grabbed them with the intention of holding me in that spot until one of the bullets got me.

            “Jacob! Jacob!” she called out. At any moment, I could have been fatally hit so there was no time for mercy. I drew my handgun and shot her in the forehead. It was then only a matter of shaking her stiff arm off my leg and crawling in to the kitchen. From there, I went out the backdoor, only to find a man waiting for me. I dove out and managed to fire off a shot before he got the chance to. The rapid firing up front stopped and the movement of feet filled the once silent air. There wasn’t much time before they surrounded me so I ran around the corner of the house with a knife drawn and handgun out, and they were coming around the corner just as I was. A stab to the neck, a shot to the chest, two dead, and a hop over the neighboring fence. I reloaded my handgun and after a few seconds, I jumped up on the fence and saw three guys looking around cluelessly. I killed two of them and injured the other before having to fall back.

            “Just leave me alone. I don’t want to fight.”

            This must not have set well with the guy because directly after saying this, he charged over the fence and somehow fired off a two-handed shotgun with one hand. It nicked my arm, but mostly hit the fence. Two bullets to the chest and the man was down. I had hoped that that was everyone when I knew this wasn’t true. This town I walked into is inhabited by families, groups of people that did extremely well in eradicating the soulless. There had to be more, at least more mother and children baring arms. As fun as it is to take on an army by yourself, it is much tougher when the people you are fighting are smart, coordinated, and fight for a purpose. I wasn’t going to stay around any longer so I needed to devise a means of escape. There was a garage door on the house I was near so escaping by car was both practical and awesome. It wouldn’t open by hand and as I expected more bullets were flying in my direction so I broken through a window (which looking back on this, it was pretty stupid considering that’s how I injured my arm in the first place). I cut myself up a little, but nothing too major. Two men, a woman, and a boy were rushed into the room armed. I didn’t get too good of a look at them because I was already running for the door leading to the garbage. For some reason, they didn’t fire at me. I pulled a large workbench in front of the door to keep them from opening it and then went to the car. To my luck, it was a big, powerful truck. A broken window, a few wires and sparks, and it was ready to go. I broke through the closed garage door (after which, I found the garage door opener) and barreled down the street, only to stop and pick up my wagon. Dangerous? Yes, but it was worth it. In a short minute, I was out of town, but not out of trouble. As if I was psychic, two large soulless with blade arms got in my way. I was going to fast to stop so I rammed them. They died or at least were stuck under the truck, but the truck refused to move afterward. I really liked that truck.

            It’s sad, really. No matter where I go, I bring destruction and death. Ann probably got a kick out of watching me today. I wonder what she thinks of the times where I am still, like last night. Would she leave me alone if my life was boring or would she try and make it exciting? Perhaps I should draw her out with boredom.        

           With my wagon trailing behind me and the night approaching once more, I climbed the same tree I had the night before and waited for either sleep to visit or for night to pass. Tomorrow will be no different. 

- Jack's Diary