Jack's Speech

"Everyone. I'm not sure if Mike's told to all of you where you're headed next, but where that is, I won't be joining you. These last few months, we've met many people that wanted us dead, some I once called friends and some strangers. Through it all, I thank you for sticking together and standing by one another. In life, you don't often find friends who would be willing to die for you and I couldn't ask anything more of you. Mike, you've saved my life on a number of occasions and you've always sought to do good by your friends and even by those you meet. Through my eyes, I believe you could accomplish anything. Julie, even being the youngest here, you've done amazing things. You're certainly braver than I was at your age. All of you have done great things and you'll no doubt continue to do so. I don't want to ramble on much longer. Time is of the essence. It's very possible humanity might die out, but even in its bleakest moment, our courage shines through and as long as we keep this, no matter what we do, there'll always be hope. Still, I can't live for the sake of living and I don't want to die knowing I did nothing to help this world. That's why I'm heading out to destroy as many as those monsters as I can. I wish to fulfill this hope even if it means leaving the good of my life behind."

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Jack's Diary - It's About Time - Day 88

*Morning*

            Mike’s still missing. I would’ve went out to search, but the fog complicated matters and made it near impossible to find Mike, let alone not mistake a soulless for him or the other way around. Moses wanted to light the flare last night, but I convinced him to wait. I thought Mike went back on the trail to pick up equipment he dropped. I regret stopping him now. We’ll have to wait until this new patch of fog clears before lighting one now (we shouldn’t take the chance of wasting one or attract unwanted attention. Mike may also be sleeping somewhere and not watching).

            Julie’s taking it pretty hard. Moses and I take turns keeping an eye on her. She’s already tried to run off twice to find Mike.

            Moses keeps giving me looks, the kind of looks you give to someone who just cut you off in traffic.

*Noon*

            Fog’s starting to let up. It should be gone soon. A few soulless wandered into our camp. We took care of them though (probably wouldn’t have mentioned them if I wasn’t trying to prove something to myself).

            I went out and gathered some berries and then tried my hand at fishing. I had been awhile. I had some fishing line with me and asked Julie if she had a hair pin I could “borrow” to make a hook. She didn’t though I had a wire clothes hanger with me and broke a piece of it to make one; managed to catch two trout before I lost the hook.

*Early Afternoon*

            Victor and Jess are back with us. The fog cleared so Moses lit the flare. Within an hour or so (at least, it seemed like it to me), Jess and Victor came walking down along the river. They were up the river a mile or so and had stayed there for some time (we really didn’t give them a specific location along the river so it’s understandable).

            As to where they were the whole time, they claim to have woken up in a deep pit without any recollection as to how they got there. It took them two days to climb (they didn’t spend the whole time climbing. More so falling back in and trying again.) After enough wandering, they found there way to the tree fort and then here. I didn’t feel like telling them about what mike, Julie, and I were doing so Julie did the storytelling. Needless to say, they were shocked. They probably thought she was lying, but Moses confirmed her story.

            Mike still hasn’t returned. I’ll give him a few more hours before I start looking for him.

*Night*

            Mike’s back. Looked like he was going to pass out when he showed up, but he made it back. He told us he tried to lead some soulless away from camp while we were sleeping (he should’ve just woken us up). The important thing is we’re together. Mike says we’re headed toward a town for supplies. Well, it’s about time! I’ve been inching to make some new stuff.

- Jack’s Diary

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Jack's Diary - Until That Time - Day 86

*Early Morning*

            I don’t care what Moses thinks. It wasn’t my fault. What was I suppose to tell them when I had that first dream? I wasn’t even sure if all that stuff happening it was real. They would’ve told me it was just a dream or worse, locked me up for fear I’d gone nuts. Of all the things Ann could’ve done, that had to be her last act. To stand back and watch us kill each other. What the hell am I writing her name for still? Never again! No more!

            What puzzles me is why Moses was left alone. He woke up and everyone was gone. Why was he spared? (Maybe as an insurance policy in case “she” failed, Moses might have killed me, especially if Mike had been killed).

            We got up early and are about to continue to head for the Grand Oak River. Still no sign of Jess and Victor.

*Noon*

            Right now, I’m sitting up in a tree, still not in a 100 percent condition. Had I been previous, there would’ve been no contest in that fight with (just a series of punches and kicks I dodged and landed on him). Now we’re resting. All of my grenades and flash grenades are gone, but luckily, there was some ammo left over at the tree fort and our stop there allowed me to bring my other non-essential stuff along, like books (I left them there, expecting to come back if my mission was successful. Had I not, someone else would get them). I hope we’ll stop in a town again some day; it’d give me a chance to restock and make some more weapons.

            I’ve been thinking about that story. She said Carol had been a lab rat for a company. She couldn’t have been the only test subject; human testing labs always have more than one to more firmly establish that the test results apply to everyone and not just the test subject, even in extremely risky cases (you never want someone to question the results of your research because that could mean starting all over again). The thought of more nutcases isn’t comforting, but it’s possible the other subjects weren’t bitten, were killed, or they reacted differently than her (whose to say if that story is even real). If it is though, I’d like to find this company. Developing a substance to change the nature and jobs of cells is not an easy thing to do. Perhaps there’s more to the experiments and the company itself.

            Everyone’s quiet, probably thinking about Victor and Jess. Would you think less of me if I told you I didn’t care if they were alive? I don’t know why, I just don’t feel sad or worried. I wouldn’t abandon them and I’d lay down my lives for them, but I don’t miss them. I just don’t feel… anything.

*Afternoon*

            We reached it, Grand Oak River. Honestly, not really that grand. There was a flat rock outcropping, like a small cliff, eight feet tall next to the river bank. I was going to suggest we make a camp on it, but it would take considerable work to pitch and anchor a tent on a rock. After everything was set up, I got on top of the rock and looked out. There was something, like a town or city in the very far distance. Nothing else, but trees and birds.

            I went out and gathered some plants and berries. Many plants take advantage of the river water so vegetation was not in short supply. I also managed to catch two large frogs (one I speared by throwing a knife. I actually didn’t think it would work). I spent most of the afternoon cooking the frogs. Everyone tried it though I don’t know if they liked it.

            I’m starting to get a little concerned. I keep getting these migraines. They’re not extremely bad, but I never had them this often. I didn’t even notice them when they started, until they became a regular occurrence. I guess it’s kind of selfish for me to be thinking of myself at this time

*Evening*

            I’m on lookout right now with Mike. I’m thinking about things again. I can’t help, but ponder the line between right and wrong, for myself especially. There’s still no sign of Jess and Victor.

*Night*

            I just finished my lookout time with Mike. I now sit atop the rock and write this. The night’s quiet save for the sound of rushing waters and night creatures. There haven’t been many soulless bothering us. It’s funny, I used to always write about the soulless I encountered and killed. Now, I hardly mention them at all. Their intrusion has become a norm like eating and sleeping so much that I could kill 10 without even thinking twice. Even the faces are beginning to melt into one ugly image in my head.

            I’ve been rethinking my earlier statement, about what happened to everyone. It may just be my fault. It certainly isn’t the fault of those who died. Had I never met Mike and his group, I’d be dead and they never would’ve gotten involved in the matter. She would be alive too, but she probably would’ve found someone else to stalk. All those people, all those lives, every single one of them died because of me and it’s always how it is. No one stays alive for long when they’re around me except for Mike. If Jess and Victor don’t show up then that’ll only go to prove my point further. It’s like I have a grim reaper hovering over my head, pulling my strings and watching time unfold and the death count rise. If I can’t protect anyone then what the hell is the point of living? My entire purpose was centered on the idea that I could preserve lives, save people from a demise they would have met without me. It’s as if I’d help more if I didn’t exist. Maybe I should just spend my time killing soulless? I don’t see how any harm can come of that. Less soulless to bite and bother. If we ever reach another city or town, I might leave then, but not yet. Until that time, I’ll contemplate what to do next.

- Jack's Diary

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Jack's Diary - The Titan Falls - Day 75

*Noon*

            The chains seem to be holding the thing in place, but I could swear I heard creaking and bending each time it pulled at them. Mike and Moses were in shock and didn’t seem to hear me when I told them to follow me so I pulled them away into a storage room near the base entrance.

            “What the hell is that thing?!” yelled Moses.

            “A monster,” responded Mike. Moses grabbed a rifle off the table and was about to march out of the room when Mike and I got in his way.

            “We can’t just rush into this without thinking it through,” said Mike.

            “That thing can get loose at any second. I’ll put it out of its misery.”

            “Shooting it won’t do anything,” I said. “I came across this thing, or another one like it when I went into the city to get you, Mike. It took 7 shotgun blasts to the face at point blank range and it fell off a building and it still didn’t die. I’m not even sure if I hurt it so that gun won’t do you any good.”

            “Then what are we suppose to do? Crap our pants and cry for mercy?!” yelled Moses.

            “It’s big enough to break through our walls,” stated Mike. “We’ve got three options: we leave here, find a way to kill it, or…”

            “Or hand over Julie,” I said.

            “We’re not doing that!” yelled Mike.

            “I’m just stating our options.”

            It was then I saw Moses look back toward the door. There was Julie in the doorway. She ran out before we could say anything. Mike was about to do the same when Moses grabbed his arm.

            “Hold it!” stated Moses, “Look, I’m sorry, but this decision has to be discussed with everyone. We stand by our people, but if what Jack’s saying is true, then our whole base could be in danger and we can’t risk everything just for one girl.”

            “This isn’t right. There’s got to be another way,” said Mike.

            “I doubt they’d go through all this just to get Julie back. They’ll probably just let it loose once we hand her over anyways,” I said.

            We all stood in silence for a few moments in thought. As much as I’d like to stay here, the decision falls to everyone else. Are they willing to continue to fight or would they rather run?

            “Let’s talk with the others,” said Mike. He and Moses walked out. I told them I’d monitor the monster. Nearly everyone was already near the entrance staring at it (I think I’ll call it Titan) so it didn’t take long to gather the rest together. I didn’t attend the meeting; I climbed up to the watchtower and kept an eye on Titan. Some man called out from time to time, “You’d better hurry!” and “Give her up or else!”. Whatever they decide, I’ll go along with it. I’m sure they’ll have good reason for whatever they do.

*Evening*

            They decided they want to stay. Seems they came to the conclusion if they were willing to hand over Julie, they’d be obligated to hand over themselves if such a situation every came up again and no one wants to do that. Mike and Moses put the attack plan in my hands, which makes sense since I knew the most about it I guess, but didn’t really change the outcome.

            I directed a few men to sneak out over the wall and find the men responsible for bringing it here since they might have a way of neutralizing it had it escaped when they were bringing it here. The rest of us got all of the guns, explosives, and blunt weapons we could find and stationed ourselves against the entrance of the base. I didn’t see any men hiding nearby so there wasn’t any apparent danger from enemy fire. The attack went like this: a portion of the men marched out and attacked Titan’s legs with melee weapons (I even gave my Double Sledge to Victor to use). If it can’t walk, then it can’t very well break through the wall. They really wailed on its legs with hammers, shovels, bats, axes, pipes and others of the sorts, but after a few minutes, the men were already tired. The legs were heavily damaged yet Titan continued to stand and struggle against its bindings.

            We were about to start the second phase (multiple shotguns to the face) when a strange noise came from behind us. It was a subtle, siren like sound, like something you’d expect from a dog whistle. That’s when Titan went berserk. Its muscles bulged as it ripped off the supports connecting the chains to the cart like they were yarn and charged forward, slashing through or knocking away many of the men in its path and breaking through the entrance doors (Victor along with a few of the other blunt weapon wielders survived). The men instinctively fired on it randomly with no results as it ran toward the back of the base. That’s when the siren stopped for three seconds and started back up, this time coming from all around the base. It was like the noise was driving Titan mad. It broke through our supply sheds and damaged the buildings as it headed wherever the sirens were coming from.

            “Jack, I think we should skip to phase three!” yelled Mike.

            Phase three was to surround Titan with explosive and ignite them, hopefully blowing it to pieces. I wanted to save this for last while it was still bound because if it failed, the explosives would’ve blown away the chains and cart holding him, but that doesn’t matter now. Titan charged through the back wall, and stabbed something with its sword (most likely the thing making the noise). The sound lessened. Titan then proceeded to head for the other sources of the sound, again damaging our base and breaking through the medical building, more than likely killing the injured inside. The chains were still connected to its arms by shackles so I told half the men to grab hold of them while the others carried the explosives. We ran to get in Titan’s path and just when he took a swing at us, we ducked and grabbed the chains, keeping it from reaching the next siren. Even with 15 people on each chain with Mike, Moses, Julie, Jess, and myself, it still managed to move around. It certainly wasn’t stupid as it turned around and attacked us, cutting three men in half and crushing another person’s windpipe with its bare hand before we could react. It was then I took out my rope and lassoed its neck to give us more leverage. To make matters worse, soulless were coming in through the openings in the wall so many of our men were busy killing them. It was a lot like my dream in a way.

            Those carrying the explosives finally made it over and threw them around Titan. The problem was that by the time the entirety of the explosive were laid down, Titan had gone back to moving to the next siren and already moved slightly out of the circle of them. We all pulled as hard as we could, but Titan was just too strong. Mike and I even fired at its legs with our hands with little to no effect. That’s when suddenly, the sirens stopped (apparently they had been going off one by one for a while, but we were all too busy to notice. The men on the outside found them and destroyed them, thinking they were bringing the soulless to us, which is a good assumption). With the sirens off, Titan stopped struggling as much and we managed to pull it over and drag it back. It was less aggressive, but now not being driven made by the sirens, it was fighting smarter and slashed at the legs of the men and the rope around its neck. It had just stood up when we let go of the chains, backed away, and all of us fired at the explosives, setting them off. What a gust of wind that whipped up.

            You’d think that the battle was over, that would be dead, but we were wrong. As magnificent as that explosion was, the noise brought soulless from all around the area though that came a few minutes later. What’s worse, out of the fire came Titan, now with only one arm (the one with the sword), limping, his skin scorched and on still fire. Everyone was shocked, even me though I wasn’t as surprised as everyone else. I noticed that Victor had my Double Sledge on his back. I took it and said to Mike, “Let’s just finish this…”. Mike grabbed two axes off someone.

            All of us walked in front of Titan, with everyone still wielding a gun opening fire on it. Titan recoiled background from all the hits, but after everything went silent, still stood. Everyone holding something to swing stepped forward and proceeded to beat the snot out of it. It only managed to get in one good slash before we knocked it off its feet. Mike hacked away at its sword arm as others pulverized its legs. I, along with other hammer-wielding survivors, pounded in its face. Everyone took shifts in cutting down the soulless wandering around so we wouldn’t get swarmed, as we were “finishing”. I think everyone wanted it dead after all the damage it did. In the end, its sword arm was cut off, its legs were a bloody mess, and all that was left of its face was a large crater. It didn’t move anymore. If Titan was still alive, it wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone anymore. Titan had finally fallen. You'd thinking finally killing it that we'd be happy, but in reality, we lost.

            Moses decided that we had to leave. Its not that we couldn’t fix the wall, but with the threat of being attacked again by the Valors and us having lost a good deal of our men and supplies fighting Titan, we would be easy targets so we packed up what we could and left before more soulless arrived.

            I get the feeling that I am responsible for this. Had we just blown up Titan when it was still bounded, it would’ve saved us a lot of trouble, but how could I have known? The thing seemed invincible when I last fought it. Still, I don’t picture things going any better had we did it differently. What’s next? I don’t know. Everyone’s already gathered their stuff and left while I’m still at base, getting the last of my supplies and writing this. I’ll be joining them shortly.

            With all the bad stuff that just happened, I think I’ll tell Mike about Ann another day…

- Jack's Diary

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Jack's Diary - The Caged Bird - Day 70

*Morning*

            It turned out the kid was just putting a collection of ammo clips in the storage shed for one of the men who didn’t feel like doing it himself. I doubt he’ll do it again voluntarily after how much I scared him. Even in the presence of complete peace, it helps to be suspicious, even if it harms you a little in the long run. I went to Mike’s room to tell him I’d do the Project myself. He insisted that he’d go with me, since I could easily not make it back (which made sense considering I hadn’t attempted the plan yet so there might be some unforeseen consequences. I found it ironic that the guy who goes it alone so often is telling me I need backup). As much as I hate to wait, he said we’d do it after the Valors are no longer a threat. When exactly aren’t they going to be a threat? When they’re all dead? Do we really need to kill them all to have peace of mind? Even if we killed one hundred of them, who knows if they have a thousand more waiting? I wasn’t going to argue about it so I left.

            I’ve been recently thinking of catching a bird. A hawk would be nice. There are plenty of exotic birds in the area (maybe even some parrots from an abandoned pet shop that escaped). I’ve always wanted a pet of some kind and dogs and cats aren’t readily available at the moment. I intend to set up a trap. Right now, all I need is a cage, a pile of seeds, a long string, a stick of some kind, and a sturdy box with some holes in it. I’m going to make a rabbit trap (it should work with birds though). It’s easy to make: you prop the box up with the stick, tie the string to it, lay the seed under the box, back away a safe distance to lure the bird into a false sense of security, and pull the string to trap them. The supplies shouldn’t be too hard to find in the pile of assorted junk that’s accumulated in a few of the storage sheds.

*Afternoon*

            Usually, I excel at everything I do. Bird catching is not one of them. They seem to always fly away before I spring the trap. It doesn’t help that people walk by and scare them away. They probably think I look like a moron doing this, but I don’t care. While I was searching for the supplies, I found a cassette player. Until now, I’d forgotten about the tape I found on Matt. All it needs is some new batteries and I’ll be able to listen to it.

            I could’ve sworn I heard an air horn go off in the far distance. Man, I wish I had one; it’d work perfectly for the plan. Perhaps I found one and forgot about it. I’ve accumulated a lot of stuff myself so I’ll have to look.

*Evening*

            Finally caught one! It’s a small yellow canary. His (or her) name is Ray, as in a ray of sunshine (when you don’t know the sex of a pet, it isn’t a good idea to be calling it names like Drew or Mary when such names are mainly for boys and girls). It’s now perched inside the dog cage in my room that I customized with a bowl of food, a water droplet container, newspaper, and a thin piece of wood tied to the side of the cage for Ray to sit on (ironically, I used the same string from the trap). I get the feeling from the way it looks at me that it hates me for having caught it. I may not keep it too long. I had some extra time so I looked through my journal to see if I’d ever picked up an air horn. Only once. I’d planned to use it previously on home base of the red and blue uniformed men. If anyone would have it now, it would be Jess since I gave it to her. I’ll ask later.

            I heard Mike was brought in with an injury so I went to see if he was okay. He turned out to be fine. Just shot in the shoulder. Before leaving him, he tasked me to make a weapon that was silent, but could hit a target 30 meters away (about 100 feet, I guess). Easier said than done. I told him I’d see what I could do.

            The only guns in the base’s arsenal that could accomplish hitting a target at that distance by an average gun user would be a rifle or sniper rifle (I’m not aware of the types or exact names). Back at the hill, I learned a few different ways to make one, but I didn’t have a lot of materials to work with so only one effective method came to mind. For this, I need some water bottles, cylinders big enough to fit the water bottles in (anything from plastic pipes to Pringles cans), and padding (cloth, sponge, paper, bubble wrap). To do this, you cut two water bottles in half width wise, cut a third one’s bottom off, connect the three water bottle top to top while including padding in them, drill a hole in the bottom water bottle part cut off (I had to measure the bullet’s diameter to make sure it was big enough), reattached it, covered the whole thing in padding, insert it into a cylinder, and then drill a hole in it as well. The last thing to do was connect it with the gun. It looked like garbage, but nothing a little paint couldn’t fix. The material were pretty easy to get a hold off consider people in the base were throwing them away. A guy named Spence S. showed me how to do this while I was still at The Hill. It’s funny. He learned this back before the outbreak just by experimenting. He even claimed to have posted an instructional video about it, among other ones. Kind of wish he was still around.

*Night*

Asked Jess. She thinks she left it on the roof of their base. Oh well. I made and tested 5 silencers, 4 for regular rifles and 1 for a sniper rifle though the silencer may be obstructing the scope’s view. They worked fine and I only had to fix one. I would’ve made more, but it takes awhile to get the measurements exact. I don’t want anyone hurting themselves due to an error on my part. By now, Mike had gone to bed so I plan to show them to him in the morning. I could continue working, but it’s too dark and batteries don’t grow on trees so I’m not using a lantern. Speaking of batteries, I found a box full of them and decided to “borrow” two for the cassette player. I’ll listen to it before I go to sleep. Before that though, I have one more design I’m working on. I’ll write about it tomorrow.

- Jack’s Diary

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Jack's Diary - You've Been Warned - Day 64

(I know the next entry is going to sound crazy and I wouldn’t blame you for not believing me, but I’m telling you this happened. Read at your own risk.)

            I spent most of the next day lying on my bed in a dreamless solitude. I wasn’t tired or even hungry for that matter; I just didn’t feel like living. It was safe to say that I wasn’t getting over my depression so easily. It was more than the arm though. There was something more to my life that was bringing this sadness to the surface, something I’d been avoiding. I didn’t know what the problem was yet.

            With a knock on my door, I opened my eyes to see someone at my door. Ann came into the room. I hadn’t seen her since we returned to the base. She was carry a box filled with stuff. I quickly straighten up when she placed the box next to me on the bed and sat down.

            “I thought you could use some cheering up,” she said with a smile. She dumped out a portion of the box onto the bed. They were children’s toys: paddle balls, slinklies, small cars and trucks, Barbie dolls (wasn’t interested), and little plastic mazes with tiny silver balls in them among other stuff. They were objects I hadn’t seen or touched in years (I guess she stole them off the kids).

            “Do you like paddle ball?” she asked picking it and successfully hit the ball against the paddle 80 times without missing. I tried as well, making it to 20 before the ball smacked me in the face. Ann laughed and I guess I did as well. We went through nearly all the toys, laughing and taunting each other when one of us was better than the other. We were both acting like kids. I’ve never had the luxury or freedom to do so up until this point where I was both safe and didn’t care at all if I died. After we were done, she asked me if I was a good writer. She pulled out a story she’d been writing; 142 pages (I have no idea when she wrote this. Either she wrote it when she got back to base or she’s more private and secretive about her writing than I am). She read me parts of it, stopping to ask about her choice of descriptive adjectives. From what I could tell, the story was about a traveller in a dangerous world where there is an unbalance in everything. Mountains jut out suddenly from flat plains, large trees grow from larger trees like branches, dogs and cats dig their way from underground to the upper world, where they are either worshipped or despised. Both reason and reality were twisted yet it all made sense when seen as a whole. The traveller had a duality about him or her (it doesn’t indicate gender. Only the name traveller); the traveller has the power to bring life or to cause death, but he or she does not see this. The traveller is blind and therefore is unaware of the powers that are being unleashed on the world. We were near the end of the story when we both fell asleep. The traveller had decided to stop his journey for a time and had to decide whether he wanted to keep moving forward or turn around. Ann fell asleep, lying on the bed next to me with her back on my left shoulder. I didn’t care; I couldn’t feel a thing. I thought it was nice of her to try and make me feel better. She’d always been kind and understanding (if not a little stupid sometimes). There weren’t many people in the world like her anymore.

            The next thing I remember, an extremely loud sound of cracking wood came from outside. Both Ann and I jumped up in fright. I looked out the window and saw that part of the front wall had been broken in and soulless were rushing through the opening like bees out of a beehive. The nearby men killed a few, but there were too many and the men were quickly overpowered. These soulless seemed even faster and more vicious than usual. I saw this place as a sanctuary, that’s why I wanted to get back to this base so bad. I should’ve known better than to let my guard down or to place faith in anything, but myself after the first time this happened; when enemies sneak in, walls don’t try and stop them. Walls break or get built to break and age again. I am fool for accepting this peaceful illusion.

            I waste no time when I realized what was happening. I looked away and went to grab my equipment when I realized Ann wasn’t in the room anymore. I thought she might have run to warn anyone still sleeping. I didn’t know if we could save the base, but I had to try. I gathered my equipment and headed outside (one arm was better than nothing). I was instantly greeted by three soulless, which I dodged and shot at point blank range (my aim and coordination was decent compared to how bad it was before). Around me, chaos rushed and moved just as fast as the soulless. A number of survivors were using guns (some of them using heavy machine guns, which were power, but forced them to stay in one place) Those who weren’t lucky enough to have a gun or to be near one rushed to the artillery shed, ran and hid in buildings and behind people or used whatever was nearby to defend themselves. The sound of bullets mixed with the screams and yells of the men and women either screaming in terror or slowly dying. The ground was already littered with bodies, both friend and foe and the air smelled of a thin smoke. I saw men and women get tackled to the ground and reach out their hands in vain as the soulless surrounded them and began frantically feasting on their still-living bodies. I even saw a man running away who had part of his face missing.

            One thing that should be noted about the situation; I didn’t see anyone trying to get away. Although people ran away in terror, they’d often grab a weapon and turn around to face the danger. No one tried to jump the fence or leave. This is how I felt it should have been. Everyone defending their home. At least, that’s how I thought I should have been before. I saw Moses in the distance manning his own gun turret on the back of a armored truck while someone else drove it. They were running over and gunning down enemies in large numbers until three large soulless with blade arms jumped in front of the truck. The truck crashed into them, crushing two out of three. The last one broke through the window shield and pulled the driver out, slicing clean through him at the waist and began eating his entrails. Moses continued to gun afterward even as soulless were mere inches away from his face. For as much effort and bravery as he put up, the gunfire still stopped; I could no longer see or hear him under the pile of soulless.

            I ran around the base looking for Mike and the others. I couldn’t do much in the way of combat right now so trying to help out the others would be near useless. I felt it was my duty to protect Mike and his friends (my friends), even if it meant me losing my life. Getting around turned out to be easier than I expected. For some odd reason, the soulless weren’t interested in me. A few would attack me and I’d take care of them, but many were running passed me, like they didn’t even see me. Even the men and women who were still fighting were too busy to notice me. Every wounded and suffering man and woman noticed me though as they begged for me to save them or to end their suffering. It was ironic; the same guns and the same screams that everyone was using to save the base or themselves was drawing the attention of more and more soulless. It was then that I started to question my resolve about fighting for the base and it was one in the multitude of screams that I heard since I had woken up that I heard Jess’ voice. I frantically looked around, looking at the faces, clean and ugly, and the bodies laying on the ground until I found her; she was trying to crawl out from a pile of soulless that were eating her. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she clawed at the Earth, yelling out to me in desperation, “Please help me!” I saw old memories, memories of Jane as they dragged her back into the gathering of soulless, but now Jess firmly took Jane’s place as her face of terror overpowered the old memory, bringing tears to my eyes as well. All I could do was look away; had I stared any longer, I don’t think I could’ve moved on.

            Not long after, I saw two men on top of a building; it was Victor and Brian. They both had grenade launchers and were using them wisely, taking out large gatherings of soulless. I began to make my way over to them when the door to the roof broke open and soulless ran at them. The soulless came at the men in such a rush, they ended up pushing themselves along with Victor and Brian off the roof before Victor and Brian had a chance to react. The impact of the fall killed them. I still wanted to check on them; at the time, I thought they could’ve survived the fall. I made my way over and knelt down to check on Victor to find his skull broken open, grey matter and blood leaking out onto the bone fragments. I proceeded to check Brian when some soulless were running toward me, probably to feast on their bodies. I raised my gun to shoot them, but my left arm began intensely hurting again, making the ability to aim a gun nearly impossible. The gun fell out of my hand with the soulless only a few yards away. I did the only thing I could think to do with the now limited mobility I had because of the pain; I’d seen them pounce at their victims when they ran as soon as they were within jumping range so as soon as their feet left the ground, I dove and rolled under them. They missed and quickly turned back (I guess, at the time, I really didn’t think about what to do next). It was then that they were gunned down from behind in a mere matter of seconds. Walking overtop the bodies came Mike and Julie.

            “Come on! We have to go!” he yelled. Julie helped me up and Mike led the way with his large machine gun to what I could only assume was a way out. We were getting closer and closer to the base wall and more and more soulless just kept coming. Mike gunned all of them down, sometimes having to kick a few away while reloading. The sound of gunfire decreased with every passing moment. Man after man fell to the surge of soulless and the number of soulless just kept increasing.

The base was doomed. It was now about surviving.

            We reached the wall and Mike told Julie to stand on his hands so he could boost her up over the wall. She did so when suddenly, a sword burst through the wall where Julie was, ripping through her chest and protruding out her back before she could make it over. Mike reeled backwards in shock staring at Julie’s body hanging on the large grotesque sword, dropping the machine gun. She gasped for breath violently while the rest of her body was completely motionless (probably due to shock). The sword retracted and Julie’s body fell to the ground. Mike ran over to her. I knew we were going to get attacked by more soulless so I picked up the machine gun, positioned it between my right leg and one good arm, and started shooting at the soulless approaching us. I didn’t look back to see what was happening, but I heard coughing as well as a faint whispering of some kind, like “this can’t be real. This can’t be real…”

            “Mike! Get up now! Come on!”

            Within a few moments, he came back to my side and drew the rifle on his back, and began shooting as well. We were keeping them at bay at the moment though I knew we’d run out of ammo soon. The soulless numbers never decreased; they just kept growing, growing to the point where the place looked like an audience for a death metal band. It wouldn’t be long before the base was completely packed with soulless. Suddenly, I heard the now familiar sound of cracking again. I looked back to see the base wall falling forward. I jumped out of the way, dodging it, but Mike didn’t. The wall was at least a half-foot thick so it was extremely heavy.  The soulless that had killed Julie had broken the wall down as well. In an instant, I fired on the soulless and it fell over, but the situation was the same. Mike was stuck under the wall, extremely injured. I can’t stop to try and lift the wall up or else the soulless would kill me. I continued to shoot the oncoming soulless until I realized that the soulless were now coming through the new opening. One nearly got me.

            Mike struggled the whole time to get out. He was coughing up blood. It even looked like he tried to get ahold of his rifle to help out, but it was jammed underneath him. “Help… me…” he said faintly just as the clip in the machine gun was going to run out. Even among the snarls, stomping, and gunfire, I heard the words so clearly and I still do. I wanted to save him. I at least wanted to put him out of his misery, but the machinegun ran out of bullets. I ran away, following the base wall, hoping to find a door or maybe an escape hatch. I never looked back. My athletic skills were good, but I was barely staying ahead of the soulless. That’s when I saw Ann. Far off, I could see her standing by the base wall, looking at me curiously. She jumped up and climbed over the wall. I didn’t know where she thought she was going. I thought the outside was probably crawling with soulless as well. Still, she was the last one of my friends left so I followed, barely being able to grab the top of the fence and pull myself over (with one arm).

            The impact of the fall over the fence was nothing compared to the guilt I felt. I could’ve saved them had I been better. I could’ve saved Mike if I’d stay. I’m a hypocrite and coward. I expected a group of soulless to approach me at any moment. After a minute of nothing happening, I realized there was silence. No gunshots, no chewing sounds, nothing at all; not even a faint chirping of birds or a light breeze. Everything was silent. I looked up, expected a much different picture than what I was greeted with; in the forest around me hung bodies. Tree branches pierced through some bodies while others hung by rope like piñatas. The bodies were rotten and decomposing. It was one of the weirdest sights I’d ever seen. There was no movement at all. No soulless coming to attack me and no survivors or Ann. I couldn’t even tell if the bodies were soulless or human at one point in their lives; they were all grey, green, brown, and white. What shocked me even more was the vast number of them. Every tree I could see for yards and yards had bodies hanging from them. It was a disturbing sight that would definitely work well for Halloween. Strangely, although I couldn’t tell who they were, they seemed familiar. I wandered around when I suddenly saw Ann run passed a tree. I called to her, but there was no response. I ran after her, but found myself unable to catch her. This went on for a few minutes before my pursuit took me out of the forest, down a large hill and into a city. The city was empty as well. At least there weren’t any bodies hanging around. Suddenly, I heard Ann’s voice. It was much louder and firm then I recalled.

            “What are you thinking now?” asked Ann?

            “Where are you?”

            “What are you thinking now?” she asked again.

            “I’m thinking why are you hiding?”

            “Not a bad question, but how about this one: does any of this seem familiar to you?”

            “What do mean? Ann, stop this! Stop hiding!”

            “Really? Nothing? It reminds me of what happened to your old base.”

            “My old base?”

            “Yah, the Hill; the one that was overrun by soulless. I’d say today was just like it, if not a little more ironic.”

            There’s no way Ann could’ve known that. The only person I mentioned the name of my previous base to was Lexi and she died before Ann met her.

            “How… did you know about that?”

            “You are quite a writer at times, Jack. The way you describe your surroundings and express the truth of human nature makes me envious of your writing skills.”

            “You’ve been reading my journal?! Why?”

            “Curiosity. It’s funny. Your life is full of irony really. Anyone you try and protect always ends up dying and when the time comes for you to die for your base, you run with your tail between your legs.”

            “There was nothing I could do. Besides, I was following you.”

            “That’s right. Another irony. To think, the one and only person you personally let into the group was me. You’re usually such a good judge of character. I suppose we all make mistakes.”

            “And what’s so bad about you?”

            Ann laughed playfully.

            “Oh, Jack. You’re so stupid. Do you think all those soulless gathered at the base on their own? I brought them. And your arm, well, that was one of the most delightful of my projects.”

            She sounded devious and insane. If what she’s saying is true, then my suspicions were right before.

            “What did you do to my arm?”

            “Oh, I can’t reveal all my secrets. Instead, let me fix it.”

            Suddenly, an arm wrapped around my waist and another one grabbed below my armpit near where the cut was. There was no time to struggle; I felt a small intense pinch in my arm and within a second, I felt myself being kicked to the ground. Instinctually, I went to grab a knife when I realized I grabbed it with my left arm. It was perfectly fine. I looked back and Ann stood indifferent to me, as if this was an everyday event.

            She wasted no time, “I’ve been watching you for a long time. Long before you met Mike and his stupid friends. I’ve seen you go from a man who killed when it was only necessary to where death is your go to answer. You remind me so much of myself and yet you still cling to an abstract moral code that even you question. You’re capable of so much more than merely surviving and looking after the human mongrels you care so much about.”

            “I don’t have much of a choice now. You killed them all and now I’m going to kill you!”

            “Aren’t you being a little hypocritical? You’ve killed hundreds of people, all of who had families and friends. Just like the ones you protect. Why are they important? What makes them better than those you killed?”

            I came at her with the knife, but she sidestepped me and grabbed my arm. She didn’t even have to bend it; all she did was squeeze extremely hard and I am sure I felt something break (the crack was as loud as the broken walls). I screamed in pain.

            “It was fun to meet you close up. You learn so much about someone through first hand interaction. I could kill you, but like any child with a magnifying glass, I love to watch the weak suffer. The fear on your face when you realized your arm was useless was exciting. There’s a powerful feeling in making others feel powerless. It was almost as exciting as watching your battles. So much blood!” she said with excitement, “But I think I should be going. A show is only good when you get to sit and relax during its performance; being a part of it isn’t as much fun.”

            I quickly threw a knife, only to have her catch it. I stood up, drawing another knife and approached her. I prepared to stab her when she used the knife I threw before to slice open my chest and gab her hand inside. It was such a strange, fearful, and shocking experience that I couldn’t move. She pushed her hand under my rib cage and grabbed my heart and started squeezing it. The fear was 10 times worse than the pain.

            “What… what the hell are you?!” I asked, almost pleading.

            Her skin began to change to a pale color as it developed wrinkles and scars. Her eyes became darker and the air around her changed to a dark mist. Everything else began to look red.

 “I am no one. To you, I’m Ann, but you can call me…,” her voice changed to a sinister, loud tone, “the Devil!”

            Suddenly, I woke up. It was still nighttime. I was back in my room laying onto of my bed and everything was quiet. It was all a dream… or so I thought. Ann wasn’t in bed with me so I figured she went back to her room. When I pulled up the covers, I found blood on the mattress cover. It wasn’t mine. Upon further inspection, the blood reached down the bed for five feet (which was about how tall Ann was). The place where the blood had soaked in was exactly where Ann had been laying (it even had a slight outline of her body). I thought she could’ve been hiding in the room so I looked around. That’s when I noticed the red handprints and footprints on the walls and ceiling, as if some had been crawling across them. They led to the window, which was open. There was no one outside and the base was still intact. Another thing I didn’t notice; I could move my left arm again. It was completely fine.

            At this point, I thought that this might all be a joke or something. My mind couldn’t accept what was going on. It was a dream involving Ann being a traitor (and maybe something even worse). I wake up to find blood places where it shouldn’t be. I thought that Ann may have had her period or something, but it didn’t explain the prints. I even found one on my face when I looked in the mirror (it was as if it was cradling my cheek). You may wonder how I was able to remember that dream so well. Truth is I didn’t have to. Next to my bed on the nightstand was a collection of papers that described every detail. What was stranger, it was written in blood and in my handwriting. My last question was partially answered; my right index fingernail had been cut out in the shape of a fountain pen, meaning that I could’ve written; yet I don’t remember doing so. At this last realization, I rushed to Ann room to find it empty. I searched all around the base and she wasn’t there. Was it a dream or a message? Was it a prediction? It was a frightening thought that I didn’t want think. Not only this, Mike wasn’t here and neither was Julie. Please do not let this be real. I closed the window and I haven’t been to sleep since (not easy to sleep when you think someone’s watching you). I’m waiting until morning and if they don’t return, I’m going to look for them. One thing is for certain. I’m not telling anyone about this. They’ll think I’m crazy! And they might be right!

- Jack's Diary

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