Jack's Diary - Operation Inferno - Day 137

     It's finally done! Operation Inferno is ready to go. Katy and I have been working overtime on this and it's finally ready. Let me explain the set up. On the tallest building near the center of the city, we placed three Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRAD), facing in different directions. They were originally used to signal people from far away and to deter wildlife and pirate without violence, as the device can make a sound powerful enough to cause headaches. You'd think equipment like this would be hard to find, but it really wasn't. The LRADs were probably brought in early on to try and bring the outbreak situation under control, only to have it backfire on them since the sound attract soulless (I say this all from observance, not from first hand account. We found these mounted on police vans and the area surrounding it was still sticky and disgusting from the previous accumulation of soulless). These things were not light (I almost killed myself carrying one up the stairs with Katy). The sound from it can reach about a mile or less, but we didn't stop there. We also ripped a bunch of sirens out of ambulances and police vehicles. Since my ability to focus well was slowly slipping away, Katy volunteered to scatter the sirens to lure more soulless when the time came. I didn't want soulless to just hang around outside the city so I attached the power cords that were attached to the sirens to a crank so we could reel them back in and draw the soulless into the trap. Katy managed to spread the sirens out to about 8 to 10 miles in each direction (with the amount of glue and duck tape I coated the plugs with, they better not come undone). I wished we could have gotten more LRADs to put on the very borders of where we ran out of sirens to attract even more soulless, but we only had so many to use.
     Now for my favorite idea yet. We commandeered several generators to power the local Water Plant (also used them to power the sirens). We also ripped a great deal of sprinkler systems from the more expensive buildings that could afford them. From here, we attached and welded the pipes together, attaching them to the tops of buildings across the city, to create a system of sprinklers that could drench every non-existent resident. I filled the Water Plant with the gasoline we accumulated to pump through the pipes when the time was right. Lastly, since we didn't want to burn alive and needed to be in the city to activate all this, we create a zip line to go from one of buildings to a small rock plateau in the distance, high enough of the ground to keep us safe from soulless and so we could watch the show.
     I decided to make some thermite bombs with charges connected to them so we could detonate them from a distance to start the fire. Katy and I shooting flaming arrows into the masses of soulless. Everything was set up. Before we began, I reminded Katy of my will in case anything happened. I then contacted Mike, after what feels like years, to tell him to pick up something I left for him (it was nice to hear him again). We're about to begin and I want him to have a front row seat to see Operation Inferno in action. Hopefully, everything works out and my goal will have been met.
     Katy, I'm sorry. It's time.

- Jack's Diary


Katy's Entry
     I felt like he'd want this. For me to complete this. The plan worked just as he said it would. We switched on the LRADs. They almost blew my eardrums out. He yelled at me to put in the earplug before we preceded. The sirens were switched on next. Soulless, as Jack called them, charged into the city, surrounding the building the LRADs were on. There had to be a 1000 of them within only two minutes of the LRADs being turned on. It was only the beginning. Mobs of soulless entered the city from all sides. You could hear their screams and moans as clear as day a top of a seven story building. It sent shivers down my spine. Jack waited another 5-10 minutes before we started reeling in the sirens, all the time hundreds of more soulless entered the city limits. The streets were becoming as tightly packed than when the ball is dropped on New Years. Two of the wires put up a fight. Part of them must have snapped off in the distance, but we still brought in the majority of them. It was such an amazing sight. A frightening sight. The sirens were followed by slow soulless, fast soulless that leaped each time the sirens moved, soulless with swords, soulless with long slender bodies, and horribly deformed soulless, ugly enough to make me gag. The smell of rotting flesh of near unbearable. I occasional looked over at Jack and he was happy, happy his plan was working as we'd hoped. The city was completely filled to capacity. There were a large amount of soulless outside of the city's entrance, unable to get any closer with the streets jam packed. Soulless were piling up on top of one another to reach the LRADs. The piles were three stories tall. There must have been 10,000 or 100,000 of them. Jack activated the sprinkler system. The moans were slightly drowned out by the rush of gasoline. The sunlight went through the gasoline, creating small temporary randoms in the air. It was so beautiful. We ran out of gasoline after three minutes. Jack then took out the charge and pushed it. The explosion rattled me and hurt my ears worse than the LRADs. The fire spread quickly where the bombs had gone off and we helped by launching flaming arrows into the soulless crowds. Soon, the LRADs and moaning was overtaken by the roaring fire that was engulfing the city. They were so stupid, still going after the LRADs while their bodies burned to a crisp.
     Jack told me it was time to go. I hooked a pulley on and went. The ride filled me with an adrenaline. I was so happy everything worked out. I landed on the pile of cushion we set and looked back. I kept expecting him to use the zip-line next. He just stood there on the edge of the building. I yelled for him to hurry. I kept yelling, but he did nothing, nothing except cut the zip-line rope. I could only watch as the fire slowly consumed the building and the black smoke blocked my view to him. The fire burned for what felt like forever. The soulless on the outskirts went into the city with the soulless there previously burning dead on the ground. Even more soulless came from all around and burned in what I now see as a mass grave. I didn't watch the whole time. Most of the time, I cried.
     Once the fire stopped and everything had calmed down, I went it to search for his body. The streets were covered in a foot of cremated corpses. His body was no where on or in the building. I was angry at him. He left me alone. He didn't have to die yet. There was still time. We still had time. The question of why bothered me until I found a letter he left for me.

"Katy,

     I hope you find this and if I'm not around, Operation Inferno must have been a success. You and I both knew what was going to happen to me eventually so I took matters into my own hands. At the end, I didn't want to end up like my friend, who went insane. It would've been dangerous and just a plain waste of time for you to look after me any longer. I didn't want to tell you because I knew you'd try and stop me. It's not that I don't care about you Katy. If I could have, I'd have stayed with you forever, continued doing this, and take back this planet. I wish my other friends would've come with me and that I could bring back yours, but life doesn't conform to what we want, sadly. I hope you'll continue on this work and know that if there is life after death, that I'll be watching over you and giving you all the prayers and help I can.

Your friend,

Jack"

     I decided to continue though it will be more difficult without help. Jack had more than just Operation Inferno in mind. While he was still alive, he spoke of others, like luring soulless into a large hole and either burning or just filling it back in with dirt. He called it Operation Re-burial. He only went with Operation Inferno because it was much easier and according to him, would make for a much better show. I may go with one of these plans. I stopped by the river where Jack had left his gifts for his friends. They had already come and gone.

     The night was quiet as I'd ever known it. There were no soulless, no danger, no paranoia. This is the kind of world I want and it's the kind of world I intend to bring back. I don't think I'll ever write again; it's just not my thing. I just felt it was the right thing to do; to write about Jack's last day on Earth so no one would forget. So I wouldn't forget. I'll miss you, Jack.

- Katy's Entry

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Jack's Diary - The Titan Falls - Day 75

*Noon*

            The chains seem to be holding the thing in place, but I could swear I heard creaking and bending each time it pulled at them. Mike and Moses were in shock and didn’t seem to hear me when I told them to follow me so I pulled them away into a storage room near the base entrance.

            “What the hell is that thing?!” yelled Moses.

            “A monster,” responded Mike. Moses grabbed a rifle off the table and was about to march out of the room when Mike and I got in his way.

            “We can’t just rush into this without thinking it through,” said Mike.

            “That thing can get loose at any second. I’ll put it out of its misery.”

            “Shooting it won’t do anything,” I said. “I came across this thing, or another one like it when I went into the city to get you, Mike. It took 7 shotgun blasts to the face at point blank range and it fell off a building and it still didn’t die. I’m not even sure if I hurt it so that gun won’t do you any good.”

            “Then what are we suppose to do? Crap our pants and cry for mercy?!” yelled Moses.

            “It’s big enough to break through our walls,” stated Mike. “We’ve got three options: we leave here, find a way to kill it, or…”

            “Or hand over Julie,” I said.

            “We’re not doing that!” yelled Mike.

            “I’m just stating our options.”

            It was then I saw Moses look back toward the door. There was Julie in the doorway. She ran out before we could say anything. Mike was about to do the same when Moses grabbed his arm.

            “Hold it!” stated Moses, “Look, I’m sorry, but this decision has to be discussed with everyone. We stand by our people, but if what Jack’s saying is true, then our whole base could be in danger and we can’t risk everything just for one girl.”

            “This isn’t right. There’s got to be another way,” said Mike.

            “I doubt they’d go through all this just to get Julie back. They’ll probably just let it loose once we hand her over anyways,” I said.

            We all stood in silence for a few moments in thought. As much as I’d like to stay here, the decision falls to everyone else. Are they willing to continue to fight or would they rather run?

            “Let’s talk with the others,” said Mike. He and Moses walked out. I told them I’d monitor the monster. Nearly everyone was already near the entrance staring at it (I think I’ll call it Titan) so it didn’t take long to gather the rest together. I didn’t attend the meeting; I climbed up to the watchtower and kept an eye on Titan. Some man called out from time to time, “You’d better hurry!” and “Give her up or else!”. Whatever they decide, I’ll go along with it. I’m sure they’ll have good reason for whatever they do.

*Evening*

            They decided they want to stay. Seems they came to the conclusion if they were willing to hand over Julie, they’d be obligated to hand over themselves if such a situation every came up again and no one wants to do that. Mike and Moses put the attack plan in my hands, which makes sense since I knew the most about it I guess, but didn’t really change the outcome.

            I directed a few men to sneak out over the wall and find the men responsible for bringing it here since they might have a way of neutralizing it had it escaped when they were bringing it here. The rest of us got all of the guns, explosives, and blunt weapons we could find and stationed ourselves against the entrance of the base. I didn’t see any men hiding nearby so there wasn’t any apparent danger from enemy fire. The attack went like this: a portion of the men marched out and attacked Titan’s legs with melee weapons (I even gave my Double Sledge to Victor to use). If it can’t walk, then it can’t very well break through the wall. They really wailed on its legs with hammers, shovels, bats, axes, pipes and others of the sorts, but after a few minutes, the men were already tired. The legs were heavily damaged yet Titan continued to stand and struggle against its bindings.

            We were about to start the second phase (multiple shotguns to the face) when a strange noise came from behind us. It was a subtle, siren like sound, like something you’d expect from a dog whistle. That’s when Titan went berserk. Its muscles bulged as it ripped off the supports connecting the chains to the cart like they were yarn and charged forward, slashing through or knocking away many of the men in its path and breaking through the entrance doors (Victor along with a few of the other blunt weapon wielders survived). The men instinctively fired on it randomly with no results as it ran toward the back of the base. That’s when the siren stopped for three seconds and started back up, this time coming from all around the base. It was like the noise was driving Titan mad. It broke through our supply sheds and damaged the buildings as it headed wherever the sirens were coming from.

            “Jack, I think we should skip to phase three!” yelled Mike.

            Phase three was to surround Titan with explosive and ignite them, hopefully blowing it to pieces. I wanted to save this for last while it was still bound because if it failed, the explosives would’ve blown away the chains and cart holding him, but that doesn’t matter now. Titan charged through the back wall, and stabbed something with its sword (most likely the thing making the noise). The sound lessened. Titan then proceeded to head for the other sources of the sound, again damaging our base and breaking through the medical building, more than likely killing the injured inside. The chains were still connected to its arms by shackles so I told half the men to grab hold of them while the others carried the explosives. We ran to get in Titan’s path and just when he took a swing at us, we ducked and grabbed the chains, keeping it from reaching the next siren. Even with 15 people on each chain with Mike, Moses, Julie, Jess, and myself, it still managed to move around. It certainly wasn’t stupid as it turned around and attacked us, cutting three men in half and crushing another person’s windpipe with its bare hand before we could react. It was then I took out my rope and lassoed its neck to give us more leverage. To make matters worse, soulless were coming in through the openings in the wall so many of our men were busy killing them. It was a lot like my dream in a way.

            Those carrying the explosives finally made it over and threw them around Titan. The problem was that by the time the entirety of the explosive were laid down, Titan had gone back to moving to the next siren and already moved slightly out of the circle of them. We all pulled as hard as we could, but Titan was just too strong. Mike and I even fired at its legs with our hands with little to no effect. That’s when suddenly, the sirens stopped (apparently they had been going off one by one for a while, but we were all too busy to notice. The men on the outside found them and destroyed them, thinking they were bringing the soulless to us, which is a good assumption). With the sirens off, Titan stopped struggling as much and we managed to pull it over and drag it back. It was less aggressive, but now not being driven made by the sirens, it was fighting smarter and slashed at the legs of the men and the rope around its neck. It had just stood up when we let go of the chains, backed away, and all of us fired at the explosives, setting them off. What a gust of wind that whipped up.

            You’d think that the battle was over, that would be dead, but we were wrong. As magnificent as that explosion was, the noise brought soulless from all around the area though that came a few minutes later. What’s worse, out of the fire came Titan, now with only one arm (the one with the sword), limping, his skin scorched and on still fire. Everyone was shocked, even me though I wasn’t as surprised as everyone else. I noticed that Victor had my Double Sledge on his back. I took it and said to Mike, “Let’s just finish this…”. Mike grabbed two axes off someone.

            All of us walked in front of Titan, with everyone still wielding a gun opening fire on it. Titan recoiled background from all the hits, but after everything went silent, still stood. Everyone holding something to swing stepped forward and proceeded to beat the snot out of it. It only managed to get in one good slash before we knocked it off its feet. Mike hacked away at its sword arm as others pulverized its legs. I, along with other hammer-wielding survivors, pounded in its face. Everyone took shifts in cutting down the soulless wandering around so we wouldn’t get swarmed, as we were “finishing”. I think everyone wanted it dead after all the damage it did. In the end, its sword arm was cut off, its legs were a bloody mess, and all that was left of its face was a large crater. It didn’t move anymore. If Titan was still alive, it wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone anymore. Titan had finally fallen. You'd thinking finally killing it that we'd be happy, but in reality, we lost.

            Moses decided that we had to leave. Its not that we couldn’t fix the wall, but with the threat of being attacked again by the Valors and us having lost a good deal of our men and supplies fighting Titan, we would be easy targets so we packed up what we could and left before more soulless arrived.

            I get the feeling that I am responsible for this. Had we just blown up Titan when it was still bounded, it would’ve saved us a lot of trouble, but how could I have known? The thing seemed invincible when I last fought it. Still, I don’t picture things going any better had we did it differently. What’s next? I don’t know. Everyone’s already gathered their stuff and left while I’m still at base, getting the last of my supplies and writing this. I’ll be joining them shortly.

            With all the bad stuff that just happened, I think I’ll tell Mike about Ann another day…

- Jack's Diary

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