Mike's Diary Day 60 - Ah. I'm Back in Business Bitch!

           I woke up on a very comfortable, cozy, small bed. In a small room full with all surgery equipment. My vision was still blurry, but I could see what so called the 'surgeon'. I looked down to my wound, it was already patched up, thanks to him. He turned around and looked at me smiling. 

           "Where am I?" I asked

           "Valors. You were shot when you were off chasing those guys who ran with the Valors' 'package'." 

           "But, I..." Then I realized that somehow they must've confused me for one of the Valors. I started to think what happened to the others. I'm worry about them, but now it comes down to me. What should I do? I wondered.

           "That note that your friend gave you." The surgeon said, "The one that says 'Do not ruin the plan Mike. Make your way out of the base safely, or else kill everyone.'" I looked at him confused, and I became very nervous at that time. After seconds of silence, he told me that he volunteered as the 'doctor' so the Valors wouldn't do anything bad to him. He also told me that he wanted to join me if the plan was successful. I nodded to him, but I didn't promise. I told him later to tell me where the Valors keep the kids, and I asked for the key to that room. He said he didn't have it. After minutes thinking of what we should do to get out of this base, I head gun shots. Right at that second I thought Jack. I fucking knew it. I told the surgeon to follow me. I was limping, weak, and my stitches hurt like crazy, but I managed to ignore it and move on. I saw a guy running towards us and yelled "We're under attack. Here!" while handing me a shotgun (bad idea). I stopped him and said that I need to get all the kids. When he was about to hand me the key, he asked my name in suspicion. I didn't say a thing, cocked the shotgun, and blast his guts out. I grabbed the keys and rushed to the room. I opened the door and everyone was panicking. When I was busy making sure that they're fine, the room beside us exploded (kitchen plus fire. Not a good idea). The surgeon was blown up to pieces, I fell down. I managed to get up to evacuate everyone out of the building when I saw Jack. He was a bloody mess. In this situation, there's no room for anything but humour.

           "You look like shit." I said to him

           "You don't look so good either!"

We proceed our ways, I followed Jack, and the kids followed me. It was a very cruel sighting for kids to see, but we continued outside. I heard gunshots, few, and slowly faded out to one or two shots. The base was a mess. Victor and the other older kids off chasing the remaining of the Valors (Which I don't like). They could be in much deeper shit than we were. Everything went smoothly, though Victor came back with some minor bruises. Oh great. Now we have an army of kids from age 12-17. Which is good and bad at the same time. We have 32 kids on board excluding the 6 of us, and we had a convoy of cars. Me, in a mustang, the lead car, a pick-up truck, and Rv, and SUVs. On the way back, all I could see in the rear-view mirror was Jack passing out. I wouldn't so worry about him, the guy is a tough son of a bitch. Thanks to him I was saved, but thanks to him also that we all almost died. We drove for hours until we can reach the eastern part of the country, which is our original base. Few more days, man knowing this, we should've taken the high way instead of the forest. 

           We decided to take a break here, in the middle of nowhere. Craze everywhere, so I had to get the people from age 16+ to patrol in shifts. I know, kind of cruel, but hey, we're a team now. I took all of their guns away and gave each of them machetes, axes, bats, and crowbars. I just couldn't risk attracting more craze with gun shots. I set up my usual tent right beside my car. Julie is staying in my car, she wanted to sleep there. The RVs surrounded my tent, Jack's tent is on top of a pick-up truck, the others were preparing fire. Julie's head stuck out from the car and thanked me. I said no problem. I went out from my tent to approach Jack to thanked him. I said that without him, all the six of us would've been dead. When I was talking to Jack, Julie approached me and hugged me. 

            "No seriously. Thank you Mike." She said. I looked at Jack in hesitation whether I should hug her back or not, and Jack looked at me as if he was saying "C'mon, give the kid a break you fucker.", and so I hugged her back. I almost teared up, and Jack left us both (I don't know what he's thinking about Julie and me now. Who cares, Julie gives my life a whole new meaning.) Julie stopped and looked at me and said

            "C'mon old man, don't be such a pussy." Then she punched me on my stomach. Ouch... I held my stomach, and all I could see was everyone giggling at me. I went back to my tent to rest, to get all recovered for our next journey back home. Hopefully it'll be a safe and not bumpy ride for all of us. I'm done writing, I'm sleeping.

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Jack's Diary - Day 42

            Ah, a dilemma, just when good news rolls in. Let me start from the beginning.

            Mike came into my room and told me his brother gave the okay for farming and he put Mike in charge, but he told me to do what I wanted. He didn’t say anything about the rain catchers or some of the other small things I mentioned so I decided not to press my luck (for now). Besides, growing food was the main goal I had hoped to achieve at the base so it seems I will be staying and if the farming works out, I’m sure that there won’t be any objections to the next project I work on. I decided to begin small with planting next to our building to see if I could get plants to grow (different soil presents different problems). I managed to get a few seeds early on in the day while Mike went out to get some more supplies (alone again. I can’t say he isn’t consistent). The hardest part of farming, at least in this situation, is preparing the ground. The soil was dense and had many rocks throughout it so I needed to loosen the soil with a plough, but since I am at a base and not a farming convention, I spent most of the day searching for/creating the tools necessary. With some scrap metal, some left over branches, and an old wheel, I put together an ugly looking till. I also found a shovel and hoe (though I had to trade some of my newly made weapons for them since the survivors were using them as clubs). For as much as I planned on doing, I was considering not ploughing and just digging holes and planting the seeds since the plough would probably not hold up for as much as I planned to do.

            Thirty minutes in, after I had broken and replaced the plough’s tip three times, I changed my mind and started digging holes and planting seeds. I planted spinach since it grows fast and I’ll be able to tell if I can grow in this soil. Since I knew the other survivors would not want me using up their drinking water on crops, I went in search of a stream and a few minutes in, I found one outside the base a few minutes away. After carrying buckets of water back from the stream to the base, I was tired and before going in, I set up six large barrel in the back of the building to catch rain water because I really didn’t want to make the trip to the stream next time.

            I went back to my room and work on the weapons again, recreating the ones I traded away (They weren’t really that creative anyway. A large hunk of metal stuck onto a thick wooden stick is a practical weapon, but it looks like junk). Mike came in later and told me that he and a few of his friends were going to deliver a package to a group of people named “Valors” in exchange for weapons and food. I had never heard that name before and I knew the entire thing was a bad idea, especially when he told me just how far he’d be going. Neither of us knew anything about the Valors. Why did they want a group of strangers to deliver a package? How do we know they’re not sending us into a trap or if they’ll even pay up once the package has been delivered? There could be a bomb in the package and maybe they want us to deliver it to a rival base. There was too much uncertainty and I’ve learned to be cautious of everything and everyone, even friends. Worst of all, Mike just got back not too long ago from being capture and the same thing may just happen again. I didn’t give him a definitive answer, but he told me if I still want to join to meet him at the gates at 6 o’clock sharp.

            I spent hours thinking about it after he left. I feel like I’ve been thinking about this for a week now. As much as I’d like for Mike and his friends to stay safe, I can’t keep looking after them like they are children (well, Mike at least. The others are actually children). If a man throws himself into the ocean and almost dies and you save him, what would have been the use if he does it again and again after each time you save him? It’s just delaying the end result. Still, that’s kind of over-exaggerating the situation. Mike has the right intention and for all I know, the situation could work out fine. I’d let Mike go on this mission by himself to see if my expectations of his abilities are right or wrong, but he’s bringing Lexi, Jessie, and the others and death can come so swiftly for anyone. And really, it’s going to take some time away for the spinach to grow and that dull feeling of adventure and meaning are nagging at me; they’re the only things that keep the nightmares away. I’m going. However, I’m going to go talk with Mike about Victor coming along. He’s a little too young and we may need someone with more experience.

- Jack's Diary

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