As I
expected, I didn’t fall asleep. I watched the night turn into morning with a blaze
of colors charging over the horizon like a stampede of rainbow mares. I heard
birds, a somewhat rare sight in this new world, desperately calling for mates
when there are few to none to be found. It was sad to realize they may die
alone without a partner or without starting a family. In this world, a happy
ending in life is rare, so rare I’ve yet to see one. It may seem weird that I’m
writing this, but when all you have to do is listen, see, and feel the life
going on around you for hours, you start to think about it and appreciate it
and feel sorrow for it. During that time, I think I heard every sound you could
imagine from a cricket to a moaning soulless to a hawk squawking. I even heard
the sound of a motorcycle or something coming from the city. Probably some
survivor trying to get out (not a very smart choice since the sound attracts
danger). I was about three quarters of the way up the tree so I had a pretty
nice view. I spent most of my time watching a large come and go from a nest
near the top of the tree I was in. I’m guessing it is a hawk. I really wanted
my own hawk or some kind of large bird. I could teach it to gouge out the eyes
of my enemies and to go pick up stuff for me. It would be awesome. I was
tempted to climb the tree and take one of its babies if it had any, but the
hawk would go completely nuts and probably peck me to death. I’m pretty sure
even if I waited until it left, it would quickly rush back and kill me (mother
intuition).
There was
one more town near by to search and after that, I’m heading back to base. Mike
may have already made his way back, but if he didn’t, there isn’t much I can do
anymore except arrange a search party to check the woods since Mike would have
to drop 100 IQ points before considering searching any towns or cities further
away, leaving the woods as the last option. The morning was quiet and there
isn’t really much to talk about. I was hungry, but decided to eat some granola
bars I keep with me (I hadn’t eaten in about two days). I also ate some wild raspberries
I came across.
My path to
the last town was unheeded by anything or anyone. The town (or city. I don’t
know anymore what to call them). It was abnormally quiet. No soulless wandering
the streets, no bugs buzzing by, and hardly any breeze at all. Well, I guess
there were soulless, but all the ones I came across were dead: shot, bulged,
and dismembered. A somewhat disturbing sight, but it didn’t bother me too much:
it did bring up some questions though. The town’s buildings were pretty
diverse: it had a small community college, an arcade, a public library, an auto
shop, a garden and flower shop, and veterinarian office. Lots of books,
studying equipment, chemicals products, seeds, tools, and diverse drugs (mostly
for pets) to take back. I found so much stuff, I used one of the wagons in the
garden store to haul everything out. It squeaked from time to time, but this
didn’t matter. There was no one around to hear. The most exciting place was the
arcade. I really wished it had a small generator so I could play a game. I miss
video games. The saddest of the building was the vet office. When disaster
struck, the owners and employees must had run off and left a lot of the pets in
the cages. Inside the cages, I found dead, rotting dog and cat carcasses. Nothing
was alive except for maggots. Some laid peacefully in their cages as if they
just fell asleep while others, I found broken teeth on the floor on the cages
and outside of the cages, indicating that they tried to bite through the metal
bars. It made me wish I knew about them before they all starved to death. They
probably would’ve died even if they weren’t stuck in the cages, but at least
they’d have die free.
I had
search the most of the stores when I moved into the neighbor to search there. That’s
when things got dangerous. As I walked down the middle of the street, four or
five windows opened up and suddenly, bullets were coming at me from left and
right. I left the wagon and jumped behind a fence in the yard of what looked to
be an empty house; that is, until the front window opened and a man leaned out
with a shotgun. I quickly drew my handgun and shot the man, causing him to fall
forward and out the window. Quickly, I crawled over with the others still
trying to shoot me. I grabbed the shotgun, stood up and shot the person next
door though it seems I only got their hand because they only dropped their gun.
I dove through the window as more shots hit the wall of the house. I was now in
a carpeted living room with a TV and sofas. As I looked around, there was a
woman standing in the kitchen, pointing a rifle at me. I barely made it behind
the sofa when she fired.
“Miss!” I
called out, “I don’t want any trouble! I was only passing through!”
She
answered back without hesitation. “You got trouble! You killed my husband!”
A young boy
came down the steps across from me with a pistol in his hand and fired; it
jumped out of his hand and it missed me completely, but made me roll out from
behind the couch only for me to roll back as the woman shot at me again. She
was moving closer to the sofa. The boy scrambled to pick the gun up, but when
he saw that I already had my new shotgun pointed at him, he ran away to where
he came from, leaving the gun. A man looked in the window, asking, “Where is
he?” He had just seen me when I shot off his face.
“This
doesn’t have to happen! Just let me go!” I yelled, “I hold no grudge against
you.”
“There’s
been too much blood spilled already! You must pay for it!”
I could
tell by the sound of her voice she was almost right behind the sofa. I was
leaning against it at the time so I spun around, put me feet underneath it, and
kicked it forward, knocking it down and exposing her to the barrel of my gun.
Had I been any later in pulling the trigger, she’d be telling this story. As the
shotgun bullet pierced her chest, she dropped her rifle and fell background.
“Shot him!
Shot him now! Shot him now!” she yelled and in response, tons bullets pierced
through the front of the house and more followed. Luckily, the bullets were
always at least 6 inches off the ground so I crawled across the carpet to the
kitchen. As I approached the woman, she remained completely still that is,
until my legs were near her and she grabbed them with the intention of holding
me in that spot until one of the bullets got me.
“Jacob!
Jacob!” she called out. At any moment, I could have been fatally hit so there
was no time for mercy. I drew my handgun and shot her in the forehead. It was
then only a matter of shaking her stiff arm off my leg and crawling in to the
kitchen. From there, I went out the backdoor, only to find a man waiting for
me. I dove out and managed to fire off a shot before he got the chance to. The
rapid firing up front stopped and the movement of feet filled the once silent
air. There wasn’t much time before they surrounded me so I ran around the
corner of the house with a knife drawn and handgun out, and they were coming
around the corner just as I was. A stab to the neck, a shot to the chest, two
dead, and a hop over the neighboring fence. I reloaded my handgun and after a
few seconds, I jumped up on the fence and saw three guys looking around
cluelessly. I killed two of them and injured the other before having to fall
back.
“Just leave
me alone. I don’t want to fight.”
This must
not have set well with the guy because directly after saying this, he charged
over the fence and somehow fired off a two-handed shotgun with one hand. It
nicked my arm, but mostly hit the fence. Two bullets to the chest and the man
was down. I had hoped that that was everyone when I knew this wasn’t true. This
town I walked into is inhabited by families, groups of people that did
extremely well in eradicating the soulless. There had to be more, at least more
mother and children baring arms. As fun as it is to take on an army by
yourself, it is much tougher when the people you are fighting are smart,
coordinated, and fight for a purpose. I wasn’t going to stay around any longer
so I needed to devise a means of escape. There was a garage door on the house I
was near so escaping by car was both practical and awesome. It wouldn’t open by
hand and as I expected more bullets were flying in my direction so I broken
through a window (which looking back on this, it was pretty stupid considering
that’s how I injured my arm in the first place). I cut myself up a little, but
nothing too major. Two men, a woman, and a boy were rushed into the room armed.
I didn’t get too good of a look at them because I was already running for the
door leading to the garbage. For some reason, they didn’t fire at me. I pulled
a large workbench in front of the door to keep them from opening it and then
went to the car. To my luck, it was a big, powerful truck. A broken window, a
few wires and sparks, and it was ready to go. I broke through the closed garage
door (after which, I found the garage door opener) and barreled down the
street, only to stop and pick up my wagon. Dangerous? Yes, but it was worth it.
In a short minute, I was out of town, but not out of trouble. As if I was
psychic, two large soulless with blade arms got in my way. I was going to fast
to stop so I rammed them. They died or at least were stuck under the truck, but
the truck refused to move afterward. I really liked that truck.
It’s sad,
really. No matter where I go, I bring destruction and death. Ann probably got a
kick out of watching me today. I wonder what she thinks of the times where I am
still, like last night. Would she leave me alone if my life was boring or would
she try and make it exciting? Perhaps I should draw her out with boredom.
With my wagon trailing behind me and the
night approaching once more, I climbed the same tree I had the night before and
waited for either sleep to visit or for night to pass. Tomorrow will be no
different.
- Jack's Diary
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