Jack's Diary - Bound to Death - Day 93

*Early Morning*
     I kept dreaming about it. The gathering of soulless, burning in one large fire. One by one, the fire would spread and engulf each one individually. The sky would fill with black smoke and the audible moans of the soulless would all come together in one torturous harmony. After a while, they would stop moving and simply lie down, the fire finally laying their wandering bodies to rest. For some reason, I found this so beautiful. I must be a sociopath or something. Still, dreams will remain dreams unless I make them a reality.
     Today was different than all the ones that came before it and I'll tell you why. It was barely morning when I felt someone kicking me.
     "Hey, get up you lazy bum," said the person. I didn't recognize the voice so once I was awake enough to be aware of the situation, I quickly drew my handgun only to have it kicked out of my hand and another gun put to my head.
     "Jack, seriously. Relax. It's me, Grant. Remember?"
     When you have a gun pointed to your head, you don't have much else to do, but think. That's when I remembered. He then took the gun away, seeing my look of realization I suppose. Grant was an associate (I guess you could call us friends even though I hadn't known him long) that I knew when I was still at the Hill. When I arrived, he was already well trained and a few months later, he left.
     No sooner he did this, he pointed it at where Mike was sleeping.
     "Ah, don't even try it," he said to Mike. His eyes were closed, but I could see that his hand was very close to his gun. The others woke up quite concerned when seeing Grant.
     "Guys, relax. He's a friend," I told them.
     "Why are you sleeping out here? You could be staying at Patrick's Mine."
     It turned out there was a base in town, or rather, near the town. It was established in a system of abandoned mine shafts. It got it's name from the sign the first guys to start it found on the boarded up tunnel. Grant led us there. I don't know if it was nostalgia or the anticipation in seeing what this mine looked like, but for once, I was happy. The others didn't look too pleased with Grant and were pretty wary of his presence, but not me. Any person from the Hill is a brother to me. It turns out Grant wasn't a member of this group of survivors, but he was hired to find more and to lessen the soulless population in the area or as he calls them, freaks. He made his living as a mercenary, traveling from town to town, being hired to either kill freaks or troublesome survivors, to guard location, or to gather hard to come by supplies. One benefit from this is that he had gotten a lot of cool equipment, including a SWAT helmet and what looks like a katana. He laughed when he noticed my Double Sledge. As I remember, he wasn't much for building his own weapons.
     The other's attitudes lighted up after entering the mine. All the entrances had been boarded up except for one that was on a large hill (a good strategy) and another secret entrance that was used for bringing in large supplies. Apparently, this town was a big place for mining back in the day so there are abandoned mine shafts everywhere though this seems to be the largest. The people there were very welcoming and they had everything you could imagine; food, water, weapons, couches, a generator, medical tools and supplies, decorations on the walls, a garden right outside the entrance, and some pretty attractive women (they also had some young children, which is good; we can't let the human race die out). For a system of tunnels, they really made it look good and went the extra mile to make it as stable as possible, putting extra support to the ceiling among other things.
      I'm going to cut this short. The others are checking out the base while Grant and I are going to catch up on old times.

*Late at Night*
     Let me start from the beginning. Grant told me he had something important to discuss, something that couldn't be mentioned in front of anyone else. I found this to be odd, but decided to trust him. We left the base and went into town and found an old wooden two story building. We went into one of the rooms on the second floor and closed the door.
     "Was coming out this far really necessary?" I asked.
     "Perhaps not, but better safe than sorry."
     "So what's this important thing you wanted to discuss with me?"
     He sort of smiled, "Did you ever wonder how we became so knowledgable and skilled in using weapons and surviving?"
     "Not really. I just figured the Hill offered some kind of ideal environment for the training. There were also a lot of knowledgable people there to share knowledge with."
     "Did you ever meet the man who started the Hill?"
     "Of course. Ted Jackson; one of the smartest guys I'd ever met! It was sad when he left to start a new base."
     "Did you know he's died?"
     I paused for a moment, I stood across from him. I hated hearing bad news about my old comrades.
     "I can definitely believe that," I told him. "It's very easy to die nowadays."
     Any happiness on his face disappeared as he continued to speak. "He didn't die by normal means. After he left the Hill, he began to experience serious mental problems: seizures, depression, paranoia, schizophrenia, and signs of alzheimer's. He eventually went insane and was put down by his friends out of mercy."
     This sounded very uncharacteristic of Ted. He was awesome. I looked up to him since the day I met him. He was always calm and serious whenever I spoke with him so pictured him paranoid was just impossible.
     "You brought me here to talk about him? As much as I cared about my comrades, this doesn't seem like something that needed to be kept secret from my friends or anyone else."
     "It's not Ted's death that is important, it's why he died and what he did to us. We didn't gain our skill by natural means."
     "What other means are there?"
     He looked me stern in the eye, "Ted mixed medications into our food supply that made us what we are."
     I really didn't know what to say.
     "I couldn't believe it either when I found out." There was a sadness in his voice that came through more and more as he explained to me what he knew. "Ted was never a soldier or an experienced expert as we thought he was. Back before this world went to hell, Ted worked at a test patient at a medical testing facility. They'd were giving him a drug and never told him what it was for, but he soon figured it out. He was a man who believed that the end of the world was coming so he was constantly stocking up on food, supplies, and training and educating himself on combat and survival though his training took on a whole new level when he began taking that drug. He went from forgetting where he put his keys to memorizing books word for word. As for how the drug works, I'm sure you've heard that it's much easier to learn a language at a younger age. That's because kids have a large amount of neural pathways open which allows for much easier learning, memorization, and comprehension and keeps this information around for a long time to come; that's how they go from a blob of flesh to intelligent beings. This drug restimulates the neural pathways in the brain, giving existing ones a boost, prompting the brain to create new ones, and rewiring older, unused ones to make learning and analyzing much easier. It was developed with the intention of being used in military training so it would take less time to train soldiers. When the outbreak happen, Ted broke into the facility and took the remaining drugs so he could continue taking them. After a few weeks, he started the gathering place of survivors known as the Hill."
     "How do you know all this?" I asked.
     "Well, unlike you, I knew there was something weird about all this. No one goes into training for a few months and comes out experts. A few weeks after Ted left, I finally decided follow after and confront him. That's when he started showing the signs. I stayed with him until he died; I just couldn't confront him about it seeing him like that. I found out later he kept a journal documenting everything from his first dosage at the facility. Through it, I tracked down the facility and looked through their files. The fact that they were testing that drug on humans was insane. It was never approved for testing and what's worse, they tested it on rats and while the rats showed an increase in intelligence, they all died from neurological deterioration."
     "This means that we're bound to suffer the same fate. Why would he do this to us?"
     "Because he didn't know about the life-threating side-effects though he was aware of some side-effects like possible depression and mood swings, but if your trying to train men to look after themselves, you look for every advantage possible. no doubt you've experienced some of the side-effects; Ted lasted about two years on the drug, meaning I'd say we both only have a few months to live before we end up just like he did in his final days."
     This explained everything. It explained why my mood changed after leaving the Hill because I was no longer taking the drug (withdraw symptoms), why I was suffering from depression and why I was so paranoid a lot of the time and that seizure I recently had.
     "But why did you feel it was necessary to talk about this in private?"
     "Well, one, I didn't know if you wanted your friends to hear you'd be dying soon and two, that you have an enhanced human mind through drugs. Anyways, part of the reason I've been traveling around, looking for people from the Hill to let them know. I think you're the last one so you can have this," he handed me the Ted's journal. "At this point, I don't think I'll find anyone else anyways. He wrote things about all of us in there, including you."
     I thanked Grant. I sat down on a chair near a desk and tried to find what Ted wrote about me. I was so lost in confusion and grief that I didn't notice Grant had drawn his gun. There was a shot. I turned around to see Grant fall over. The door opened and I saw that it was Julie holding a gun. She'd been listening in on the conversation.
     "He was going to shoot you!" she yelled to me.
     Grant went to point his gun at her and I shot it out of his hand.
     "Grant, what the hell is wrong with you?!"
     Grant slowly stood up facing me with a smirk on his face. "I believe you remember our combat practices. We'd fight to see who was better. Neither of us have long to live so I intend to prove myself to be the greatest. And I'll do this by killing you."
     A grenade fell to the floor from behind Grant and he made a dive for the door, landing onto of Julie. I dashed to the door myself, just making it out as it blew, but the force of the explosion threw me into the wall. I looked up to find Grant punching Julie over and over. I dove at him, knocking him off her. He wasted no time in retaliating and kick me off. Before I knew it, he had disappeared, but I knew he hadn't left. I checked see if Julie was alright; she was bruised and unconscious, but breathing. I then began peaking into room, being cautious of every corner he could be hiding.
     "Come on, Grant. Don't do this! We're friends! Comrades!" I yelled.
     He spoke, but his voice seemed to echo throughout the entire building. I couldn't make out his position at all.
     "To a dying man, friends mean nothing since last I checked, you can't take friends with you. Nothing you do can help me now or yourself."
     "What will killing me do?"
     "Nothing! Nothing at all and that's the point. There's no time to leave a legacy any longer. Isn't that the meaning of life, to leave some impact upon the world? To change it? We think we have all the time in the world, but we don't. We know it yet we never really live it until we've reached the point of no return. We're bound to death, not life."
     "There is still time. If we work together, we can do something to make a real difference."
     At this point in our shouting match, soulless began entering the building, attracted by the explosion and our screams. I rushed to Julie to lock her inside one of the rooms so they wouldn't get her. I proceeded to shoot and kill the soulless approaching me. Down the hall, I heard the sound of the air being sliced; the kind of sound a sword makes. I turned the corner to find decapitated soulless and a door closing. I followed in after. I didn't see him inside the room.
     "It doesn't matter, even if we did manage to make a small change, no one would remember or acknowledge it." It sounded like he was in the room, but I couldn't find him. "If the human race ever rises above this bleak period, they won't remember our struggles, they'll only know that there were struggles, but not ours. Not what we went through to survive, to keep the human race alive."
     "It shouldn't matter if they remember us or not. We'll know what we did."
     "Why should I care about a tomorrow that doesn't care about me? Besides, I have my own wish to fulfill before it all ends. We were the best of any men on this Earth. Together, we could have taken this world back from the freaks, but there just wasn't enough time. There's only one thing I wish to prove now and that's who's the best."
     "Being the better killer means nothing!"
     "To me, it means everything. It's all I have left. I intend to die in battle and not suffer the same fate  Ted did. I saved the others from this tragic end, just as one of us will be saved from that suffering."
     That's when I realized what he had done.
     "You killed them. All of them?!" I yelled.
     "Nearly all of them. All of our teachers are dead. If I missed away, hopefully I'll find them in time, but now..."
     I shot at the mirror believing it to be him, only for him to shoot me in the side.
     "The skill of throwing your voice was something they didn't teach us."
     He walked up to me, probably to put a bullet in my head. As soon as I was shot (I think the bullet broke a rib), I already lit a flash grenade when I fell to my knee (the one made out of a lighter yesterday). Just as I heard his footsteps cease, I fell to the floor, slamming it to the floorboard, emitting a bright flash of light. I took advantage of this and quickly ran for the door (this time I was smart enough to keep my eyes closed). Just as I closed the door, Grant blasted off a piece of the door with his scattergun. I turn the corner, killed the soulless opposing me and stood in the doorway of one of the rooms. I expected him to come around the corner to get me, but it became very obvious he knew this place well. Luckily, I heard the sound of a creek in the floor and caught him sneaking into the room through a sliding wall. I unloaded my gun on him, shooting him eight time in the chest. He stumbled, but only looked up at me with an intense glare.
     "Bullet proof vest," he said. Saying nothing myself, I drew my shotgun, only for him to go through the sliding wall again. I followed, narrowly ducking out of the way of his katana. He knocked the shotgun out of my hand and pushed me across the room. He still had his shotgun, which he wasted no time in raising to me, just as I wasted no time in reloading my handgun. I jumped off to the right as he pulled the trigger; I got him twice in the left leg and he got me in the left arm with the scattergun. Upon landing, I shot the scattergun out of his hand and he dove into the next room, but not before tossing a grenade in. It was a miracle I managed to reach it in time and throw it out the window. I proceeded to pick up both the scattergun and my shotgun and went after him again. This time, he wasn't too hard to find, seeing as he was leaving a small trail of blood behind. Sadly, that didn't stop him from taking me by surprise. He snuck up behind me, punched me directly at the base of my spine, causing me to drop the two gun and then pushed me down the hall.
     "Let's end this little chase like men. No guns."
     I didn't care what he wanted. I went for my handgun only to find him holding it. He tossed it behind him. He drew his katana, wiping off the blade with a rag he took from his pocket.
     "Whenever you're ready," he said casually. At this point, I needed to get out of here. Julie and I both needed medical attention. I decided to face him man to man, if you want to call it that. I drew my homemade sword and walked forward. It was an interesting fight to say the least. In five seconds flat, he sliced through my own sword, cutting it into pieces so I took out my the Double Sledge. One strike from the katana did a number on the wooden handle of the Double Sledge so I tried to parry his attacks with the metal sledge heads. Whenever I saw an opening, I swung my weapon, but I always ended up hitting the walls. Not long into the fight, he brought one end of my weapon, leaving me with a Single Sledge. He then grabbed my weapon, slammed the metal sledge into my face and was just about to run his katana through me when I spin around and used the momentum to deal hit to his spine. He fell to the floor stiff as a board, his face expressing agonizing pain. At his collision with the floor, his helmet came off. I would've finished him off then, but soulless were approaching again and being so weak, I just picked up my handgun and shot them. A rule in fighting is never take your eyes off your opponent. When our eyes met again, he was holding the scattergun and unloaded a round on me, directly into my abdomen. He might as well hit me with a train. I was barely conscious now, but could see him reaching for the shotgun, as his scattergun must have run out of ammo. It was then, the best timing possible that Mike and Moses showed up. They shot a few rounds Grant's way, hitting his right elbow and arm. Grant just threw another grenade their way, and they ducked for cover. Luckily, it didn't make it to close to them, but it was enough to distract them. Grant continued reaching for the shotgun and only having two round left in my handgun, I fired at him, but I only hit him in the outer region of the neck, very close to the shoulder. All I had left were knives so I threw them. By luck, one hit him square in the neck, stopping him in his tracks.
     "You always did like playing with knives, didn't you?"
     Through what looked to be sheer determination, Grant stood up, grabbed his sword, and limped to me, intending to finish me off.
     "I will live long enough to see you dead," he said. Mike and Moses were there to stop him though.
     "What the hell is going on between you too?!" screamed Moses.
     "No one will stop this fight! No one!" Grant yelled, knocking Mike's gun away just as he pulled the trigger, sliced Moses right across the chest with his katana, and then leaped toward me.
     He ran his sword through, but not through me, the floor. Much like my former comrade, I saw the potential of a shotgun with ammunition in it. Too weak to lift it, I fired it at ground level, striking his left ankle. He fell to the floor for the last time. Mike and Moses picked their guns and stood over him, probably deciding who was going to finish the job. Moses did the honors, putting a bullet through Grant's head. No sooner had Grant been killed, Mike and Moses stared down the hall, Mike saying, "Oh, shit," as they fired their guns. Soulless, no doubt. Before I passed out, I tried to point to where Julie was. Don't know if I succeeded.
     You'd think I was a dead man, but thanks to the people at Patrick's Mine, I lived. Seven hours of surgery. I'm told a number of people who had blood type O donated their blood to me, including Mike. To think, all that work to save a dying man. Moses and Julie are fine. Mike wanted to know what happened, but I told him to go talk to Julie. She heard what we were saying and had saved my life. Not only that, mike and Moses would've never showed up had they not been out searching for Julie. I owe her a lot. I asked Mike if he or someone could go get my stuff and Grant's weapons as well, including his bullet proof vest (we can probably give some of his stuff to the people here at Patrick's Mine. It's the least we can do.) Not the sword though. Grant broke my sword and Sledge Hammer weapon. The sword is mine!!!
     I only have so long left and now I have to waste a good deal of it recovering. Life really isn't fair. As much as I don't want to leave, I have to do. I have to do something more now that survival isn't an option for me. I have to leave.

- Jack's Diary

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Jack's Diary - No Time For Pleasure - Day 77

*Morning*

            Well, it wasn’t that urgent of a meeting. Hannah, a leader in this tree village, wanted to see everyone in charge of our group. In meeting her, all I did was say hello. I don’t say this too often, but she was a fine looking lady, worthy of praise in beauty alone (concerning other areas of expertise, perhaps I’ll find out). I sat back and let Mike do the talking. Long story short; we get to stay on their land if we behave and are useful.

            Afterward, everyone went to sleep except for those on patrol and guard duty. I read chapter 7 of The Art of War by the dim light of tiny campfire. I couldn’t very well continue sharpening and wake everyone up. I must have fallen asleep at some point.

            I had a bizarre dream. I dreamed I had woken up on the side of a hill whose top overlooked the tree houses. When I had opened my eyes, I noticed a bright light coming from over the top of the hill, along with a looming figure that stood at the top, projecting a shadow over me. I joined them and saw the tree house forest aflame. There were no screams of terror or people trying to do something about it. Only the roaring crackling of fire. The figure turned to me, saying, “Isn’t it just beautiful? The fire performs for us while disposing of unwanted nuisances. Nothing has really changed in that regard. In a world of ruin, opportunity like this awaits the powerful, don’t you agree?”

            It was, of course, Ann though she looked different. Parts of her face had rotted or were ripped away, leaving holes of exposed flesh and bone surrounded by normal human flesh. I was woken up by Mike before I could react. Though the dream lasted only a few moments, my waking was much later than usual.

            For today’s tasks, I am to lead a hunting party. Mike made it clear he doesn’t want us to make a lot of noise and for us to play it safe. He even handed out walkie-talkies to the group leaders. This should be interesting.

*Afternoon*

            I suppose you could say this was a successful “hunting” trip. When it comes to hunting, I believe there are only three ways of doing it: wait for the animals to come to you, set traps, or go out and find them. The trouble is the “going out and finding them” has some drawbacks to those unskilled in proper hunting; you’ll probably find animals, but unless you know how to step, where to stand, and how to go about getting closer, the animals will detect your presence and run, sometimes before you even notice them yourselves. Sure, at times you’ll get lucky and shoot an animal when it goes to run if the area’s clear enough and if you’re a good enough shot, but this leaves too much up to chance and I don’t like gambling when it comes to survival.

            This situation happened to be the case with my group; as we were going out, none of them could go 10 seconds without stepping on a twig or whispering to each other. I told them to be more careful, but the warning didn’t completely stop the noises so I came up with a plan to compensate for this. I told half of the group to go back the way we came, follow the outline of the forest from where we started and then find their way back here (I gave each group of two their own direction and amount of steps to walk along the outline before coming back in). I told the others to spread out and climb the trees. My plan was this: those on the ground would scare the animals inward toward us and while sitting still in the tree, we would take them out once they wandered into our area. A few of the men had rifles with my silencers on them and I made sure that they joined me in the trees to ensure we wouldn’t immediately undo the herding the others did with a loud shot. It would’ve been easier to just gather plants to eat, but it would’ve taken too long to instruct them what was edible and what wasn’t, not to mention we had no bags to carry the plants so we wouldn’t be able to take many back with us. It was best to stick with the large game for now.

            Oh, you should’ve been there. It was like a carnival game, but with live targets! All together, both herders and the ones sitting in trees, we ended up getting 4 deer (one a large buck), 6 rabbits, 2 groundhogs, 2 wild boars, a hawk, and a rattlesnake of some kind (the last two were definitively mine. They were in my sight and I was bored) before I got the call from Mike to head back.

*Night*

            Seems the leaders of this forest outpost were impressed with our work. Later, when I asked Hannah if I could speak with whomever was in charge of food gathering and/or food management, she pointed me to a guy who was leaning against a tree with his arms around two others, giggling like an idiot. I’ll wait until tomorrow to talk with him. With all the supplies I brought with me, I still had the seeds so I’d figure I’d talk to someone about planting them here, perhaps underneath the tree houses. With this, those who lived in those tree houses would take care of the crops under their own trees. Of course, I wouldn’t “give” them the seeds completely for free as I’d like some supplies in exchange. Looks like I’ll have to wait until he sobers up.

            Right now, everyone’s celebrating. I’ve just made several copies of a list of edible plants, descriptions and what is edible on them like fireweed and clover and I’ll continue to make a few more. Afterward, I’m going to try and develop a trap. Sadly, it was one of the few things I didn’t learn a whole lot about at The Hill. I am vaguely familiar with a simple snare trap, but that’s about it. If someone will let me borrow a large deep barrel or pot, I could bury it deep enough to where the lid was equal with the ground and could trap small animals in it. After I’m done with these copies, I’ll start working on more designs.

            I’m just not the partying kind, not when there is so much work to do and enemies, some that you never met, preparing to take from you what they wish. Pleasure is the last thing on my mind.

- Jack’s Diary

One of the tree houses.

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Jack's Diary - Live Losing Or Die Brutally - Day 75 Season 2 Finale

*Early Morning*

            Barely slept. Didn’t feel like it. I finally perfected the Double Sledge (getting it stable wasn’t the hard part; it was filing down and taping over the nails so they didn’t pierce my hands in combat). Too bad I’m not using it today. I’m going to be a sniper with Julie as my spotter (don’t really need one, but I’m not complaining. She didn’t seem too happy). Other than my knowledge of constructing weapons, I’d say my sniping accuracy is one of the greatest skills I gained while at The Hill. I would’ve never gotten this good had the men there not taken the time to instruct me. Maybe I should be teaching here as well.

            I should give the people at this base some credit. A few men followed the two Valors after they left and now we know exactly where they are. From what I heard, they have themselves stationed in a building at the top of a hill. It is heavily armored, secured, and wider, but not as tall as the one that burned down though for them to have established a base in this area so quickly is saying something (might explain why we hadn’t received any word from them for so long. I still don’t know how they found our base in the first place).

            Everyone’s either grinning with excitement or shaking a little in quiet fear. Everyone except for me, I guess. I just want this all to be over. I bet Ann’s going to get a kick out of all this.

*Late Morning*

            I found an apartment complex off in the distance that had a good view of the base from the south end. The twins were somewhere in the area, Mike told me they’d be covering the south wing as well, but he didn’t tell me what weapons they’ll be using. Much like our own base, they have lookouts, one positioned on each corner of the roof and what appeared to be a short-range sniper in a roughly built crows nest. Mike’s team was waiting quietly in the woods and I watched for his signal. That’s when I saw 40 men marching up the back, 4 by 10 rows. Those who weren’t carrying guns were lugging a tall crate, nearly 10 feet tall, chained to the cart it was on. More and more men kept coming into sight as the minutes passed and I knew we were outnumbered. I put down my rifle and told Julie to stay put while I went to signal Mike to call off the attack. I managed to reach him before he gave the signal. Instead of retreating, Mike came up with a different plan though it didn’t really make much sense to me. As I understood it, whenever an enemy would spot them, I’d take them out (I guess he wanted more time so he could strike at the right moment). I went back up on the building and did what he said. I should’ve told him no and got everyone out. I don’t think he knew just how many there were. I sniped three men, but when they were spotted, that’s when the bullets started flying. I quickly took out the sniper and the four men on top of the building, seeing as they had an advantage in their field of vision. Death came to both sides of this war with bodies hitting the ground like the beat of a drum. Any men that came onto the roof, I killed though a few Valors were firing back at me with their own rifles (luckily, their aim stinks). Our groups were retreating and once they were at a safe distance, Julie and I did as well. With out troops gone, I’d only be a matter of time before they’d come after Julie and me. We ran back to base with our tails between our legs. Now, I’m waiting for our next “battle strategy” while sitting up in my lookout point with my gun to the horizon.

*Noon*

            I saw it. I would’ve sniped the guys bringing it, but they were pushing the crate from the back. It smelled rotten and putrid and the box swayed back and forth. I couldn’t shoot out the wheels because they were just metal cylinders. Once they wheeled it in front of the base door, the sides of the box fell and the men dived behind a tree. It was the giant soulless I’d seen from when I went to rescue Mike. It looked even taller and larger than before. The wounds that were previously inflicted on it were gone, but I could see the gore laying on top of the pinkish, brown flesh. It’s facial features, the skin covered eye sockets and the handsome human like shapings of the head and face were the most disturbing of all its traits. The blade on its arm had been sharpened and pulled and yanked at the chains that bounded him to the cart. There came a shout from the tree the men hid behind "Give the girl, or we'll destroy you."

            Normally, I would’ve fired, but it didn’t do much the last time except draw its attention and I didn’t want to risk prompting the men to free it. As I came down from the lookout, so many questions ran through my mind: how did they get it, why is Julie so important, and what in the world is it?! Had they formed a legion with those men who captured Mike or was this just a similar monster? It could no doubt destroy the walls of the base and I didn’t want to see what this thing could do at full strength. Mike opened the door and Mike, Moses, and I stared at it. I don’t back down from challenges and I am tired of losing my home and friends. Then again, I don't see how I came save both and live to tell about it. 

To be continued…

- Jack's Diary

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Jack's Diary - Watch and Be Watched - Day 72

*Early Morning*

            Nothing happened or at least I hope nothing happened. I fell asleep for a few hours (paranoia can sure make you tired). I straightened myself, feed the canary some seeds, and went outside. There were a few people out on watch, but for the most part, everyone was still sleep. I climbed up on the wall and for once in a really long time, watched the sunrise.

*Morning*

            A relaxing view isn’t enough. I feel like a caged animal or a test subject. Just the idea of being watched is so disturbing and disgusting. I ended up going outside the base and killing a few soulless and not just quick kills; I rammed my machete through one of their backs and out their front (it interesting to hear a soulless gag). I also made it a point to see if I could pierce a soulless’ skull with just my machete. After a few adjustments with the speed and force of doing it, I succeeded. It was strangely… fun.

*Noon*

            I started looking over my old journal entries. That whole experience this morning made me realize that I have changed and not for the better. I always knew I had, but now the label human doesn't seem like an accurate description of me anymore. When I started out from the Hill, I was for the most part a pretty well put together person; I enjoyed nature and just wanted a purpose. Now, I’ve got over 100 murders under my belt and all this strange stuff keeps happening to me. And what worse, I’ve become a spectacle, a grand show for a demon, who when I compare her (it) from my dream to me, we are almost similar. Which makes me even more miserable.

*Afternoon*

            I resolved to put on a solid outer appearance despite this paranoid fear that I feel. I made four more silencers and then went for a walk. Mike was still working on that building project with Victor and the twins and I have no clue what he has planned with it. He wouldn’t tell me. Still, I managed to put on a brave face and have a conversation with him about the funny aspect of opening up a survival store when Moses brought up Ann. I left shortly after, not saying another word. Why can’t people let the name die! They haven’t seen her around so they automatically assume I should know since she hung around me like a necklace. If I don’t want to talk about it, they should shut up!

*Later Afternoon*

            This isn’t right. Mike and I went out to test some of the silencers I made today and yesterday. Early on, he kept talking about Ann; about how quiet and nice she was and that he hadn’t seen her in a while. I should’ve just told him she decided to leave or she got bitten and I shoot her. Both of those are believable and don’t sound insane, but I can just feel that lie coming back to bite me and everyone else later (quite literally if she enjoys human flesh). She poses a danger to more than just me. Going into the city since nature was slowly taking it back anyways, we found a young doe eating a plant that was growing between the cracks of the road. I intended to kill it with one of the rifles, but when I pulled the trigger, it backfired and made the top of the silencer container explode. I didn’t have time to check it out at the time since the sound brought soulless from all around the area to us, but I retrieved it when everything calmed down; it was a thick piece of metal that was shoved in front of the barrel (I’ll admit that I worked on a lot of these while drowsy and even partially blind, but there is no way that a piece of metal like that would end up blocking the barrel by accident. I’d never seen it before in my life). Anyways, Mike and I had to run. He ran down an alleyway and I jumped on top of a truck. I may have been able to make the jump to grab onto the side of a building, but I didn’t want to risk it being so far away. The soulless surrounded the truck, swinging their arms wildly at me, trying to knock me off. Every so often, one would get up on top with me from the front hood and I’d stab it through with the machete and kick it away just like earlier. I didn’t bring much in the way of weapons with me except for a handgun, my knives and machete, a few grenades, and the rifles (which I chose not to use at the time for fear they would backfire as well). The noise the soulless were making, banging their arms against the truck were bringing more of them. I decided to jump and make a run for it. The alleyway Mike went through was blocked by soulless in it so I ran down the street slicing and stabbing anything in my way. A few blocks down, I saw a car that had been driven through the front display window of a building so I used it as a step to reach the roof and then jumped to the accompanying building’s roof. I looked for Mike, but he was nowhere in sight.

            Now, as for that metal piece, someone had to have put it there intentionally. The other rifles I had with me were ones I recently made (judging from the different tapes that I used). None of them had anything blocking the barrel except for one, (a large metal piece just like the other) which I am certain this one was made yesterday as well. The thought of Ann doing this was believable enough for me to stop weighing the options and start looking for Mike once the excitement calmed down.

*Night*

            Found Mike alive, thankfully, but not in the best of shape. I was tempted to believe he went back to base, but I wanted to be sure he was all right. Building after building I searched. I found a small journal on the floor of a house (strangely, it was the only door I had to break down due to it being locked). After carefully disposing of the soulless that heard the commotion, I began leafing through it and it seemed to be Mike’s. I never saw his handwriting before, but it mentioned Julie, Victor, and me so I’m certain it is his. There was no sign of him there. I ended up finding him in a more menacing position. Near the city hall for this particular city was a flagpole. I have no idea what flags were hung there when civilization was bustling, but even in the distance, a dark red flag against the pale moonlight looked peculiarly odd. At its top, I saw Mike tied by his arms to the rope that held the flag up. Blood dripped down from his shoes as his body swayed in the wind with the flag. It took a little maneuvering to lower him down, but he made it to the ground safely. He was unconscious when I found him. The area where his wrists had been tied was rope-burned and near white from the lack of blood flow. There was a small mark on his neck, the kind that you’d receive from getting an injection. A section of his leg had been carved out like the inside of a canoe (I’m inclined to believe after looking at the flag closely that it was colored with his blood using that spot in his leg.). I carried him to the roof of city hall and wrapped up his wounds with pieces of the red flag, as I didn’t have a medical kit on me. I’m going to wait a while and hope that he wakes up so I can take him back to base. If he doesn’t before dawn, I’ll carry him back myself though it would leave both of us vulnerable. This is Ann’s doing. I’ve never been so certain of anything in my life. I don’t understand why she would do this to him, but it must be her, especially after finding the words carved into Mike’s back, “watch and be watched”.

- Jack’s Diary

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