Jack's Diary - Bare Arms and Covered Darkness - Day 74

*morning*

            I already told Mike we’re going back to base. I characterized Ann by using the word “maniac” when stating why we needed to go. I think it fits her. For some reason, it never occurred to me until this morning that obtaining a car would get us back faster and safer (plus, if by chance I saw Ann, I could run her over). I plan to go out as soon as I’m done writing this.

*evening*

            We made it back to base. Two soulless almost got to Mike, but I took care of them. The truck was surprisingly easy to find. He thanked me, but at the time (like most of the time), I wasn’t in the mood for talking. Mike’s seeing a doctor right now. As soon as I parked the truck, I ran to my room to grab the journal pages documenting my dream, but I couldn’t find them. If Ann could sabotage those rifle silencers without me knowing, she could have snuck in and out of here with the pages, especially while we were gone. The only real evidence to defend myself, to show that my explanation isn’t crazy and she took it. I wasn’t even that good of evidence since a mad man can write in blood, but I wanted to show it to Mike. Now I have nothing except my word (there’s the hand and footprints I painted over, but that would take some scraping on my part and with my luck, they probably disappeared. She’s one step ahead of me.

            You’d think after being out in the open for so long that I’d bask in the safety behind these walls for a while. I didn’t. Not when what I truly fear can scale them. I took a walk outside, avoided the soulless and just looked around. Again, I kept hoping to see her. In some way, I wouldn’t mind dying by her hand since that’s what I’m expecting to happen anyways. There was nothing save for a few stray soulless.

            I went back to the armory and looked over the rifle silencers. Nearly all of them had something metal blocking the opening. I removed the potential dangers and stored the silencers away except for the few I wasn’t done with yet. I’m going to finish them now.

*late evening*

            Mike came to see me and he asked what I thought happened out there. I was really ready to tell me even if he didn’t believe me when there was the sound of gunshots from outside. We went out and found Moses and Victor outside the door of the base talking with two guys (Valors) who wanted Julie. When Mike refused to hand her over, they proclaimed they’d return tomorrow with a present. This definitely didn’t sound good to me. There’s less of them now since our prior incident with them, but we don’t know just how many there were to begin with or just how great their influence is. I’ll stand by Mike, but I’m not looking forward to more death.

*night*

            I practiced with the sniper rifle by “hunting” soulless from the watchtower. Impossible to hunt at night, you say? No, just really, really difficult especially without night vision. I was glad to have the moon out. The swift motion of their bodies hitting the ground alerted me that my proficiency with the weapon hadn’t changed. No one heard or saw the shots thanks to the silencer (at least, I don’t think anyone saw the shots). As much as I’d prefer to be part of the action, I feel like I have more control over battles in a sniper position. I can see everything; I can see who needs help, and who is the real danger to us.

            I must say, I really admire the people of this base. They all want to remain and protect it. Then again, values and objectives change when the time comes to make true on words. I hope they are serious. I don’t want to lose another home.

            Mike asked me what I was going to say before, but I told him I forgot. I remember how first realizing that things like Ann could exist in this world shook me up and Mike doesn’t need that now. This battle coming up is more urgent. I think I’ll finish off my double sledge before tomorrow. Super glue and nails will have to do.

- 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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Audio Literature - Original Inside Apocalypse Teaser. What do you think?

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Mike's Diary Day 66 - Oopps, WRONG WAY!

                  I couldn't sleep, so was Julie. I woke up 2 hours earlier and she. It was quite, and I was pretty sure the craze had given up trying to break the door open. I walked over and sat on the edge of the building, trying to get a clear view of possible escape routes, and there were many. The problem is that I don't know how to get down there, with Julie. I don't want to risk anything because our chances of surviving is low. I kept thinking, and I came up with a brilliant idea (50% chance of success). I woke Julie up and told her the plan, and she seemed like she had no trouble with it. "Better than being stuck here." She said. I took out a rope, not more than half a metre long, and I took my uzi out. I switched the magazine with my one and only extended mag, which loaded with 45 bullets (I didn't want to use it). I tied the rope from the trigger to the handle, turned the safety off, and threw it pretty far down to our left. Bullets start flying through the air, making such a magnificent noise pollution, and in the matter of seconds, all craze were running towards it.
                  "This is it" I said to Julie
                  "Let's do it." She responded.
I unblocked the door, opened it, and with only an axe in one hand, and a machete in the other, I rushed downstairs, while Julie followed. There were only several craze left in the building, which Julie and I took care of no problem. After we got out, Julie and I just kept on running towards the forest, we didn't stop one bit. I had a feeling that it will not only attract hordes, but only other survivors. I didn't want to encounter any, so Julie and I forced ourselves to run, even when our legs almost couldn't take it anymore. After we made sure that we were safe, we sat down for a minute or two. Julie was exhausted, and so was I. After we had enough resting time, we decided to continue our way back to base, but I didn't know in which part of the forest we were, so I decided to climb the tree and try to get an advantage point; however, we were getting nowhere. The view was blocked by other trees, which made it really hard for me to even see what's near our position.This is just great.
                    "Ha, we're lost" I said
                    "Good fucking job." She said
                    "Hey, I'm sorry that I had to make sure that we were safe, and get as far away from the city as possible." I said.
                    "Could do it without the sarcasm." She responded
Great, now what? I asked myself. I think our only way is to find our way back to the city and go back home from there. There's nothing to worry about now at least because the place is quite, so that we can listen to any movements or noise made by animals, craze, or people. However; I only have my handgun and a molotov left, so I don't know how we're going to fight back in a firefight. I hoped down from the tree, and checked our loots.
                     "Hey, we made a good run in only 2 days " I said
                     "What do we got?"
                     "Medicine, med-kits, canned food, water, matches, ropes, sweaters, t-shirts, books, and toys."
                     "Yeah, ain't we make a good team?" She said
                     "Sure. I guess."
                     "Awhhh C'moonnn. You should stop being so serious." She said
I opened 2 canned food and handed one to her, best one we had in a while, considering we didn't eat yesterday. I finished the canned food in less than 5 minutes, and so did she. We wanted another one, but I told Julie and myself that we should reserve that for later, and that we should start budgeting what we gather, and what we use. The evening approaches softly, Julie and I decided to get to the top of the tree to sleep in one of the branches, and tied ourselves to the trunk. Julie climbed up to the branch above me, and is staring right now at things, while I'm doing this. Yeah, we will try to find a way back to the city from here tomorrow, and hope that we will have a ride that we can use to get back to base. Our backpacks are getting heavy with loots, and a carrier wouldn't hurt.

                   

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Thomas' Diary | Day 32 |

The last day this sorry fucker wrote in here was day 24. Since he hasn't been dead for too long, I would speculate it to be around maybe day 32 post-outbreak? Let's go with that.

I've been walking down this road for 6 nights now with no sign or sight of another person (don't know if I should take that as a curse or a blessing) and with little contact from any zeds. Being alone for the past couple days, scavenging for only myself, defending me, I thought it would be better. Writing this I'm struggling for words. It's hardly been a month and I've already started to forget what Ms. Fackrel had tried to teach me in English class those few years ago. Being like this kinda makes you realize how much you've taken things for granted.

For tonight I'm going to hole up in a trailer, not the most protected piece of engineering, but it is something people will easily look past and there is no risk of me not of clearing it thoroughly. Tomorrow I'm gonna take some backroads and try to find my way back to a Route that will hopefully take me to some towns that are actually labeled on a map, there I may be able to find a house or something with a little more insulation, too many more nights like these and I'll freeze my damn nuts off.

-Thomas

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Day 13, July 9th 2013 - Possible Survivors

11:35 PM

We found a treehouse and we are in it now. This morning, I woke up early and serve Lexi some breakfast, "smells so fucking good." Said she in sleepy tone. She just woke up. "You talked in your sleep, I hate bad dreams too." I said. "Hey you did good yesterday, saved my ass couple of times." I said, "yeah teamwork !" She put her hand up as if wishing for a high five. So I gave her that. We got up and planning on going deep into the suburbs. We encounter some more craze, I took some of them out, choked it. We went into a gun shop and guess what? We found a katana, not bad I guess. But it's fucking bad that people already took the guns and ammunitions. Lexi looted some gear that we could probably use for aid kit or some sort, she also found stuff that I could use to modify my baseball bat a little bit. Today was a success but our food source is thinning out. We need some more food so we decided to check out the supermarket, candy, chocolate, chips, and some bottle water. We made a deal, she brings all the food, I'll bring the gears. She's pretty damn tough, I'm telling you that much. She asked me what I wanted to be, I said dance. I'm a pretty good dancer I must say, not mean to be brag but yeah. She told me to teach her some moves but I couldn't. "C'mon man, dance for me." Said she, "yeah. Haha. You wish." I said. We walked outside and we heard some noise. Not craze, it's someone speaking through a walkie talkie. We scattered around the street and found the walkie talkie. We decided to respond, and ask where the person with the other talkie might be at. She said that she's with her little brother in a house with a tree house. We wondered for hours and then "Mike look !" Lexi spotted the tree house.", "Hood job kiddo." We walked towards it but the house is over run. Maybe that's why these guys want us to come. To help them clear the path. I didn't trust them at first but Lexi convinced me. She peeked through the fence and said the girl has a little brother. So we decided to go and get them. On the way there, there was a horde of these fuckers coming from behind us. So without any hesitation I boosted Lexi up the fence, I climbed it and I told Lexi that we should get on that treehouse, and that's how we ended up here. We just keep talking, and I'm trying really hard to keep them calm. It's midnight and I told them to find somewhere to hide and sleep until Lexi and I managed to get to them. Tomorrow is going to be tough for me and Lexi. But I trust her, she seems like she can handle herself better now that she took out a guy with a single bullet the other day.

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