Mike's Diary Day 73 - That's all I Could Remember

*Morning*

I passed out I don't know for how long. My body is all aching, can't feel my legs too. My back hurts like crazy, felt like its been carved by something. Sitting up was a struggle, lying down feels like hundreds of spikes thrusting up my back. I got no choice but to try to sit up while Jack was making breakfast. He told me what happened, and that's how I knew why my back and legs hurt like hell. He asked me what happened, so I told him what REALLY did happen. 2 nights ago I believe, when I was writing down my journal, I heard footsteps, well more like shuffles. I thought it was just going to be another craze, but when I was about to get up, I felt something stinging on my neck. I then woke up from that drugs, and was hung on a pool in a room, I saw my leg and what happened to it, but wasn't sure what she had done to my back. Her face was also covered with blood, though I couldn't really see since I was really busted up. She sent a final blow and I just passed out. Next thing I know is right now, that I woke up. He asked me if I could remember the features of that figure, and YES I'm pretty sure it was a woman. She was about 5"4 and thin build. I think, I wasn't sure since she caught me off guard and just stung me with a needle. Jack only nodded. I asked him what does that mean, but he only responded "I'll tell you when I'm sure myself, until I have a proof."

*Afternoon*

I was just basically trying to get as much rest as possible, while Jack is guarding the building for the moment. He wanted to go back to base ASAP, and I mean "As Soon As Possible because I don't like where this is is going" kind of thing, but I insisted because I was to busted up to even sit straight up. He agreed, and he told me that we should go back tomorrow for sure. The situation was tense, well Jack was really tense all the time. I then spoke up and told him that I remembered a phrase that she said before that final blow. She said "Sshh.. Do not watch." Then boom. At that moment, Jack's expression was blank. I didn't know what to say so I just drank and closed my eyes.

*Evening*

Jack was hunting near the building, for rabbit or such, I just woke up and fever was at its climax. I can't feel my body, it was like I was completely paralyzed. I tried my best to calm down until  Jack came back. He re-bandaged my wound because the old one was soaked with blood. He told me once again that after he cooked and after we finished dinner, I should sleep so that I can feel better again tomorrow and take off back to base as soon as possible. I know, because he really doesn't like what is about to happen next if we stay here any longer.

*Night*
The moon is right on top of us, and it was about 11 PM by approximation. He told me to sleep while again he guards the door. He notices me writing, and now he's back looking tensely outside the window. I don't know what he's thinking at the moment. I don't know what he's keeping away from me, but secrets can sometimes backfire and kill you or your comrades.

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Jack's Diary - Day 37, October 26th 2013

     It's strange how fate allows second chances in life. If given the choice this time, I'd decline, but quitting would mean that I'd surely lose and I couldn't lose this time. Let me start from the beginning. When I finally left the shed, I saw a large group of people gathered underneath a tarp. When I arrived, I was told that we were going to be establishing a new outpost. I was given a baseball bat, a knife (to add to my collection), and a few assortments of guns and ammo such as a sawed-off shotgun, a handgun, and an uzi (I'm sure they wouldn't have given me a gun if they knew what I thought of using one for a day ago). Mike, Jess, Lexi and I left for the trip. We came across a few soulless on the way (I found out that Mike calls them craze. To each their own I guess). We took care of them quickly and moved on. I didn't expect Mike and the others to be so good at killing, especially for as young Lexi is. We went into a very large old building (I could tell even before entering that it wasn't the most structurally sound, but it seemed safe enough). It was about 8 stories high so it would've definitely been a decent place to start an outpost. However, the mold and mild dew in the building wouldn't have made it a healthy place to live. I'm pretty sure Mike realized this once we reached the seventh floor though. Suddenly, the ceiling collapsed in and separated us into two groups. I was stuck with Lexi and Mike grab my arm and made me promise that I'd protect her.
     And here we are. Once again, I was to protect the life of someone else, a duty I would've gladly handed off. Had it just been me separated from the group then it wouldn't have been a big deal. I've grown accustom over the years to looking out for myself. However, with Lexi here and her being so young, I had to watch out for both of us. Even with Jane and Tim, they were both experienced hunters and we were never confined in such a tight space. There was always room to run or backup. What's worse, the ceiling collapse was loud enough to  catch the attention of many of the soulless in the area so a great number of them were already on the first floor moving upward. Also, the second stairwell was on the other side of the building and we originally came up the other one so we didn't know the condition of it.
     "Come on," I told her.
     I took the lead and looked into each room to make sure nothing was moving. I didn't want to get cornered if a soulless should decide to come out of a room for a snack. We only came across one and I bashed it's head in. Just before we reached the stairwell, Lexi asked me, "We're going to make it out of here, right?"
     I know I should've said something, but it wouldn't have meant anything. Better that she knows what can happen. I tried opening the door to the stairwell, but it was chained shut. Unlike the building, the chain and lock were in decent shape so brute force wasn't going to break it. I remembered I still had the bolt cutters with me. They were a pretty cheap pair of bolt cutters and the chain was thick, but I managed to break through. While I was working, Lexi alerted me to a soulless walking down the hall toward us. I turned around, shot it in the head from a distance, and went back to work.
     I realized why the door was chained after seeing the stairwell. Either it was never finished or something really bizarre happened because there were large sections and chumps of the stairs missing. We also couldn't get off at one of the next floors since nearly all of the stairwell doors were chained shut from the other side. The only hope was that the exit door at the ground floor could be opened. About one floor down after walking around the broken stair sections, we saw a soulless with swords for arms (Lexi called it a cutter). It was jumping over the missing segments and climbing towards us. When it was one set of stairs below us, I shot for its head three times, two of which were a hit. The last one it blocked with one of its swords. This was one of the first times I'd ever seen a soulless learn from experience. It continued to come toward us, covering its head with the sword whenever I pointed my gun at it. Its body looked like it had a thick outer layer to it so shooting at the abdomen wouldn't have done much good without bullet piercing rounds.
     "Shoot at the legs!" I told Lexi.
     We both shot and it fell backwards down the stairs. I jumped down hoping to finish it off without making more noise. As it got up, I smashed it in the head with the baseball bat, knocking it into the wall. It quickly recovered and charged at me. I ducked and it ended up stabbing the wall. I smashed it's head again and I tried again, but it swung its sword hand and cut through the baseball. It charged and swung at me again and I dodged as I took out a knife and my handgun. As it turned around, I shot it in the head and then ran behind it, jumped up on its back, and started stabbing its neck. It slowed weakened to the point where it could only stand, at which point I jumped off its back and kicked it down the stair. It didn't get up. I looked back at Lexi and her eyes were wide and she had a frightened look on her face. I would've asked why she looked that way, but I already knew. I was much more of a monster than that thing was. We continued on, encountering regular soulless and quickly killing them. Sometimes, if they were close enough to the railing, I'd just knock them over it (gravity is a close friend of mine).
     We came to the third floor and the rest of the stairwell was for the most part, not there. I was dumbfounded as to how so many of the soulless could reach us without the stairs until I turned around and realized that the door on the stairwell wasn't chained shut. We could've just went through the corridor and found the other stairwell, but there was too much risk. Also, there were already soulless heading toward us. I decided that I'd try and make it to the bottom floor by climbing down. There were a number of bricks and mortar sections missing so I could use them as footholds. I needed to bring Lexi with me though.
     "Climb on my back. We're going to climb down to the bottom floor," I said.
     "Okay," she said, though somewhat skeptically.
     Once she was ready, I started climbing down slowly.
     "Hold on tight and don't look down," I told her.
     It began to get tougher as we were half way down when my hands were starting to sweat. I lost my grip and fell with Lexi screaming into my ear, but I made sure to land on my feet and arms and not on my back. It hurt, but I was okay for the most part. I instinctively looked around and saw the door to the main floor open. We went through looking for kitchen where Mike said he'd meet us. I was limping a little now. It was then that I saw a large group of soulless heading toward us. We began darting down corridors, away from the many large groups approaching us. I was worried we might come to a dead end. It turned out that that fear came to be a reality in a way. Two groups of soulless approached us, one on each side of the hallway. There were too many in each group for our guns to take down so we ran down to the only door left to go through. By luck, it happen to be the kitchen, but there were already soulless in there as well. I pulled Lexi over to the only window in the room and tried to open it. It wouldn't budge so I tried breaking it open by kicking it, but it was too thick. I was about to take out my gun to shoot through the glass when it opened and I saw Mike and Jess. I grabbed Lexi and pushed her through the window and then jumped out myself with Mike shutting the window and prompting a pipe in-between the window screen and the inner wall of the window, keeping it from sliding open. Lexi hugged Mike who said, "Sorry, but we couldn't stay in there any longer with the craze in there. They had us cornered too."
     "It's fine. Let's just go," I said.
     We headed back to the original outpost. The day was taxing enough, physically and emotionally. Although it was a close call, I was able to protect Lexi. I felt like I had purpose. It felt nice. It was almost good enough to make me forget about my sprained leg.

- Jack's Diary

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Jack's Diary - Day 33, October 19th 2013

     We've gone farther northwest than I ever imagined we would and in a very short time. The hunters are still tracking us and on top of that, I've spotted several strange and vicious looking soulless that I've never seen before. They reminded me of the one I fought in the fields before Duke joined me, but they are far slower and they still look like soulless, only bigger with slight modifications. There aren't a lot of them right now and I hope it stays at that low number because they're a lot more aware of their surroundings then the others.

     If Jane had any doubts about my abilities before then she shouldn't now. It's been four days since we left the safe house and we're all alive with the only wounds we've received are from the hunters. Neither Jane nor Tim have voiced any negative words about the current situation so it seems like they understand. We've even begun having small conversations with Tim telling us hunting stories and Jane about her former job as an architect. It was nice to talk with people for a while even for as short as the conversations lasted.

     We came upon a very large city, which I suggested that we hide there and maybe the hunters would think we passed through it and leave. It seemed like a good idea at the time and everyone agreed, including Duke. Just in case we were found though, we split into two groups and hid in two different buildings with shooting vantage points. I would've had Jane as my partner, but Tim insisted that he be her partner so Duke ended up with me.

     As the day dragged on, we watched out the window and after the sun had nearly set, the hunters marched down the street. They split into two groups, one headed towards me and Duke and the other towards Jane and Tim. At this point I knew something was off and I rushed out of the room and out the backdoor of the building without alerting Duke. He followed for a while, but he didn't catch up. I couldn't worry about him then; I needed to get to Jane and Tim before they did. How they knew where we were is still a mystery to me. I thought that Tim or Jane might have been in contact with them and had led them to us, but I found out later that wasn't the case. It wasn't easy sneaking passed all the hunters on watch, but I managed to reach the back of the building Jane and Tim were in. I was just about to enter the alley to way to get to the backdoor when I felt a gun pressed against my back, "Don't move," I heard.

     I was pushed against the wall and my guns and weapons were taken away. I was then turned around and faced three men. The one in the middle pushed me to the ground and said, "Walk forward with your hands behind your head. You do anything else and we shoot."

     Having no other choices available, I did as I was told. They told me to turn at the corner and marched me into the street. They didn't do a very good job of taking all my weapons. I still had a few knives, and other trinkets I could use as weapons, but being deprived of my guns meant that I couldn't just squeeze a trigger to kill these guys, which would be all the time I would have before they'd kill me. There were men at a distance killing any soulless that got near the area. There must have been about 15 or 16 men. After a few minutes or so, Tim and Jane were marched out of the building and lined up beside me. The man who had voiced the group who came to the last safe house I was at now faced us.

     "Where's the other one?" he asked.

     "Who?" I responded.

     The man nodded to one of the guard and I was punched in the stomach, "Where is the last member of your group?" he asked again.

     "Dead," I answered.

     The man nodded again and I received another blow, "We know he's not dead."

     "How would you know that?" I said and I was immediately punched again. This pattern of questions and abuse were repeated until I was on the ground, where the punches turned into kicks. Jane and Tim were telling them to stop and that I was telling the truth, but it did no good. Finally, a man yelled, "Found him!" from far away. I was stood up and saw Duke being marched toward us.

     "Well, lucky you! Your suffering will soon be at an end," said the man.

     Duke was lined up beside us. The man looked us over with an angry yet amusing look.

     "Greetings," said the man, "Allow me to introduce myself to those of you who don't know me. My name is Alexander the Great. I'd tell you why you are currently at gunpoint, but I believe you already know that. Are there any questions before we begin?"

     "Begin what?" I asked.

     "The trial, of course!" answered Alexander, "You all have committed crimes and, although we live in barbaric times, we believe in the law established by the government that all people must be given a trial before any punishment is given."

     "So what, you're going to hold a trial here?" asked Tim.

     "Yes. For the world to view and judge for themselves," answered Alexander.

     "And who's going to be the judge?"

     "Yours truly. Who else, but someone with a degree in law is more qualified in this situation."

     "And what stops you from letting your own involvement influence the trial?" I asked.

     "No trial is perfect."

     Tim snorted in anger.

     "How were you able to find us?" I asked.

     "Oh, very good question! As much as I would love to reveal this to you, I'm afraid I can't due to a certain party's involvement."

     "Can you tell me why you were so persistent in trying to capture us? We're at least 30 miles from Saint Angeles," I asked.

     "Because justice must be carried out. We must go to great length to stop evil doing-ers as yourselves from corrupting our already fragile society.

     I knew how the trial would go. It would only be a mock trial to vindicate their reason for killing us. I had to do something.

     "Wait! Let the other three go. I'm the one who killed your men, not them. They are innocent."

     "Well, thank you for admitting that. It will make it much easier to prove our case. However, they have committed crimes, such as aiding a known criminal and a few attempted murders when you fired upon us. And let us not forget how many my men and innocent people were lost at that safe house when we tried to arrest you. Their death is on your hands. Besides, your associates will most likely receive a lesser charge, but we won't know until the trial has taken place." He turns around and walked away a little and turns around again. "Let the trial commence!"

     The trial went like the ones I had seen on TV or at least it did at the beginning. We swore an oath with our hand on a Bible to tell the truth, but after that, the unfairness began with us being given no chance to speak as "witnesses" came forward that I had never seen in my life, telling everyone the crimes that I committed (and a few that I didn't commit) against them. The trial went on, night fell upon us with in the distance shooting and clubbing soulless. I knew I had to think of something to escape so I waited until it got a little darker and then attempted to light the flash grenade (one of the many small things they left with me). There were still guns pointed at us, but the rule of my hands needing to be behind my head didn't come up when I put them down. The flash grenade was in my back pocket so I slowly moved my hand back into my pocket and attempted to stick it partially out into the open and lit it. I couldn't look back to see what color the flint was without the guards getting suspicious of what I was doing (if they weren't already suspicious) so I wasn't sure how long to wait. I figured that if it blew while I was holding it, it would still project a bright light to blind the guards, allowing Duke, Jane, and Tim to get away and I might even be able to escape even with only one hand. However, it wasn't long before the copper wiring I'd wrapped around the lighter to keep the flint in place began to heat up and burn my hand. I couldn't hold it much longer without making any groans and I tried to gently toss it away, but it had fused itself onto my hand. Suddenly, in a desperate attempt to remove it, I tossed it forward onto the ground near directly in front of me and a great flash of light blinded me and everyone else nearby. I probably should've warned the other three. One by one, I vaguely saw them running away with the sound of inept gunfire filling the air. I, on the other hand, was able to make out a figure far in front of me that was probably Alexander so I pulled a knife out of my shoe, rushed forward, and stabbed the figure multiple times and up close, I saw the shocked and petrified face of Alexander. Someone came up and grabbed me, but I threw down Alexander's body, stabbed the person, and stole their gun. It was then that I made my escape with my vision still distorted and the flash grenade still burning brightly behind me.

     I took refuge in the building where I hid in a closet, hoping that my sight would return to what it once was with time because I could barely see the paper in front of me right now. I hope my writing is readable.

- Jack's Diary

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Jack's Diary - Day 23, October 9th 2013

     This morning, I woke to the sound of music. I could tell it was folk, but I only recognized it as being  a Bob Dylan song until I opened the window. There was a man sitting on a pile of stuff that he probably accumulated there during the night. He was playing a guitar decently and singing the song "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue". There must not have been any soulless around when he started the song because by the time I opened the window and looked out, he was already on the third set of verses and the soulless were beginning to approach the pile. As he continued to sing and the soulless drew ever closer, his demeanor and voice didn't change at all. It was as if he wasn't scared at all. I knew even before the end came that this was a swam song, quite literally. As the soulless were nearly on top of him, he stood up and kicked them down the pile while still playing the guitar and singing. I suppose he wanted to finish the song. Others were looking out their windows and doorways at him as the amount of soulless grew with each chord he strummed. Eventually, kicking did little to nothing since the soulless behind the ones kicked acted as cushions, keeping them on the pile. He was nearly done with the song when he put down the guitar, now completely surrounded and about to be eaten/trampled when he pulled out a grenade and pulled the clip, at which point I brought my head back into the room and closed the window. The explosion was loud, but so sad. I took one more peek before unbarricading the door. The pile of stuff was still there for the most part, some pieces scattered, but now a menacing art piece made the street its canvas. I suppose the name "Suicide or Sacrifice?" would be a pretty accurate description. The crowd of people were no longer watching the street, but I thought I could hear the faint sound of crying.
     After unbarricading my door, I knocked on Duke's door and waited for him to come out. He greeted me with the question, "What was that noise?"
     I told him it was nothing and we moved on. The explosion took care of a large portion of soulless in the area, but that was the least of my concerns. I wasn't planning on having a companion with me since I only packed enough food for myself for 4 weeks. In a few days, we would run out of food so we needed to find more. I lead the way into the forest on our way to the next and last town. The forest has an abundance of unspoiled nutrition (as tasteless as it might be). I decided to gather edible plants, berries, and roots while I told Duke to gather up any insects, reptiles, fish, birds, small game, or basically any living creature that we could eat (I gave him a butterfly net I picked up on our way out of town). He complained, "Why would I catch bugs? I'm not eating them."
I said, "Because I told you too! Do I need to give you a reason! Insects are a good source of protein and we can use them as bait to catch bigger things. Now go!"
He walked away mumbling under his breath. After about two hours of gathering and washing the picking in the same general area, I went to look for Duke, remembering that I never told him not to get lost. I found him a distance off with a bag filled with a bunch of insects, worms, slugs, crayfish, and a few toads and frogs. I said, "Good."
     As it turns out, Duke isn't completely useless. I took out the worms, put them in a separate container, and then sealed up the bug to cut of the air supply to kill everything else. After this, we continued traveling to the final city, Saint Angeles, still walking through the forest area, picking and eating what looked edible. It would be a few days before we reached Saint Angeles since it was far off. Luckily, Duke kept his mouth shut so it was a peaceful hike and there were no soulless in sight. After about an entire day of uninterrupted peace, from midday to midday, we began to get tired and as much as I hated the idea, set up camp in the forest. I made a small fire to cook the stuff Duke had caught so prevent it from going bad too quickly and when night came, I climbed up a tree and slept safely among the tree branches while Duke slept on the ground. I honestly didn't think I cared if he got eaten or mauled, but for some reason, I spent a good part of night making sure he was safe. I suppose there's still some humanity left in me to care about a stranger.

- Jack's Diary

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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

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