Jack's Diary - Some Thinking - Day 90

*Morning*

            We’re on a dirt road headed toward a town or something. Something that has buildings. I’m not really paying that much attention to the where so much as how we’re getting there. I’m looking forward to walking on solid asphalt and cement again.

*Noon*

            That stupid fog just had to roll in again. We can’t see more than 10 feet in front of us, but Mike’s pretty sure we’re still headed toward our destination (I was more concerned with what will come out of the fog than us going into it). It’s like we’re in a Silent Hill game. Every so often, soulless would wander into our path and we’d beat them to death, or back to death, instead of shooting as to not attract more. At least there weren't a whole swarm of them. What’s worse though, there’s something very eerie about the silence that came with the fog. There are no animals making noises, not even birds chirping or the sound of crickets. I don’t get scared too often anymore, but this sure is bringing me close to that point.

*Afternoon*

            The fog cleared up enough to where it was only like smoke hanging on the air. Near the end, I could’ve sworn I saw someone in the distance. I even asked the others to verify, but they didn’t see it. Am I hallucinating? I hope so.

            We’re getting closer. By tomorrow, we will have reached the town or city.

*Evening*

            Mike’s looking for a spot for us to stop for the night. I must say, other than the creepy fog, I feel more peaceful though I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t anything bothering me. I don’t feel like writing it all down again.

            I do remember considering a while back splitting from the group. I can’t let that slip my mind, not after the horror I brought along with me. I guess when you think about it, when I joined up with Mike, I brought along my baggage and made them help carry it. That’s not right. As much as I’d like to stay, perhaps they’d be better off without a murderer. It appears I’ll have some thinking to do before we reach the town tomorrow.

- Jack’s Diary

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Jack's Diary - Day 17, October 2nd 2013

     City or town? Sometimes, I just don't know what to call these places. They always look so different from one another. Tall buildings don't make a city. I've come across old cities with a multitude of businesses that barely went above the ground level. Houses with yards don't make a town though it is rare to see yards in places with large towering structures. I'd say where I am now is more of a city than town. There's a decent number of tall buildings, but not too tall. I spent part of the morning resting on the roof on an apartment complex, looking over the ledge to the smog of life below. Perhaps it is just the view, but it seems like there is more diverse life here than in other places; a few soulless and a raccoon picking berries from the bush that grew between the cracks of a sidewalk (it'd been awhile since I'd seen a raccoon or any uninfected animal for that matter). There were always birds perched on old telephone lines or standing on distant rooftops. Birds and soulless were probably the most plentiful of creatures left on Earth since most of the birds predators had decreased in numbers do to a number of unfortunate reasons. I suppose a world of birds wouldn't be too bad. It's humanity leaving behind the soulless that I am concerned with though. If we could do one last thing with our fleeting lives, it should be to cleanse this planet.
     After sleeping for a good 8 hours and taking a few more hours for bird watching and scouting the area, I had planned out a looting route to take. I was mainly looking for two items in particular: a flashlight and a map of the area. I didn't want to get caught in the dark again and although John gave me some directions, they were vague which is understandable, seeing as he has never actually visited Saint Angeles. I don't want to end up getting lost  and wasting time.
     I walked through the streets undisturbed by anything and made my way to what looked like a small novelty shop. Lots of toys, trinkets, and other assorted things. I was just entering the shop when I felt something press against the back of my head (my first thought was a gun). Turned out I was right.
"Alright, hands up and down on your knees" said someone behind me in a tough voice.
     I put my hands up, but took my time doing it. As soon as they were up and I started bending my knees, he kicked me down. He started taking a few of my weapons and putting them on the store counter, giving a few comments now and then, such as "decent" or "nice". My back was to him so I couldn't even see his face and he kept the gun pressed against the back of my head. It was during his examination of my stuff that I noticed that the circular mirror that shop owners install near the front desk to catch shoplifters was turned just enough in my direction for me to see the outline of the man. I kept an eye on it and waited for an opportunity. After a minute of going through my stuff, he spoke to me.
"You got a lot of nice stuff. I hope you don't mind if I hang onto it for safe keeping." he said a smugly triumphant way.
     He took the gun away from my head, but still had it aimed at me. He took a step forward and twisted his body and arm to the right to backhand me with his left arm. At this point, the gun had moved out of line with my body and just when he was about to make contact, I ducked, he missed, I kicked him in the shin, which caused him to stumble and lean over in pain and before he could turn the gun on me, I jumped up and struggled to get the gun from his hand. A shot fired from it, as I repeatedly slammed his hand against the store counter until the gun came loose. He reached for one of my weapons on the counter, but he was just out of reach of them before I slammed his head against the counter, knocking him out. I then preceded to snap his neck to prevent future conflicts. I don't know where this guy came from, but he must have been pretty good at hunting to have snuck up on me without making a sound, especially with all the broken glass on the ground. This is an example of how far humanity has fallen although I expected such behavior. Death is the consequence of trying to take what is mine and no one can argue when there is nothing keeping humans on peaceful terms with each other except for our own beliefs and morals. That, in its self, can never be enough.
     No sooner did I kill that man and began collecting my weapons, a guy runs up outside saying, "Ron. What the hell are you doing? You're going to get us killed..."
     He quickly shut his mouth upon seeing me and his partner dead on the ground. He already had a handgun out to his side and I saw him move his hand up to aim the gun, but I prevailed; I shot him 7 times with a nail gun, but he did manage to fire off one round that barely missed me while I fired. It didn't take me long to realize what he was so upset about: loud noises bring death. I could see a few soulless walking toward me, while others ran. I quickly reloaded the nail gun I'd used and went outside into the corridor of the store and began picking all of the approaching targets until none remained.
     Wasn't too bad of a day. I got a few new weapons and supplies from the two guys: two handguns with a few clips, a hunting rifle, a long hunting knife and case, rations, beef jerky, a bible (ironically), a pocket knife, a lighter, duct tape, and flashlights. With all this, i didn't need to go shopping for a while. There were a few other things that may have been useful, but I chose not to take them (I would've if I had an infinite amount of inventory space, but this isn't a video game).
     As I was looting from the two dead men, I heard crying in the back room. I found a man who was extremely scared and begged me not to kill him. After a long talk, I decide to let him join me on the condition that he carry and do what I tell him to do. He accepted. For the next day, we search the city for a map and found one, now we're off to a town by the name of Haleton. The guy's name is Duke. I'll  describe him more in future logs if I don't kill him by the time I write the next one (he's already starting to bug me).

- Jack's Diary

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Jack's Diary - Day 13, September 28th 2013

     The time no longer matters to the world unless you have plans to meet someone. I haven't looked at a clock in years, only at the sky. When it is day, you work and when it's night, you sleep, pray, or work cautiously. I spent entire day and night making my way to the next town, moving out of the forest, onto a long stretch of road, dodging and killing soulless when necessary. I finally made it to a small town called Duck: how imaginative! Along the way, I picked up some plants that I came across that I recognized as food or medicative so I'll have something to do in case I get trapped for a time.
     The town had an average number of soulless walking about in a tranquil state as I walked among them. It's strange in how some places have soulless who will attack on sight and others places have soulless who wander about like medicated morons. Still, I didn't let my guard down. I hardly ever did. Other than the five fast food restaurants, two shopping centers, car wash, and electronic store, there was   a hardware store with a name I couldn't read due to the fading of the sign. The only clues that hinted at its purpose were the large hammer and saw paintings on the outside wall.
     I wanted to better prepare myself for the future since up until recently, I'd been gambling with death and for some fateful reason, had been on a winning streak. It only takes one scratch or bite to lose yourself. With the equipment inside, I made a spear using one of my machetes and a wooden pole with a hole at the other end (I drilled the hole in case I wanted to tie some strong twine through it so I could throw the spear from a distance and pull it back), two nail guns with laser pointers for better aim, a taser made from a disposable camera, a small makeshift hatchet made out of large hammer and a flat blade screwdriver, and a pair of bolt cutters. I also took a few other small things with me like nails and paper clips. I might have tried to made a few small bombs had I not heard the windows being broken in. The soulless were suddenly aggravated now, their mood changing just like the ones back in the other town. I found another door in the back, but I heard violent pounding on it. I looked around for another exit or somewhere to hide or make a last stand against them. Luckily, I found a small office room with the windows smashed in. I entered it, locked the door (stupid, I know), I closed the drapes, and leaned the desk and bookshelf against the window wall. There wasn't much else in the room so I knew they'd easily break through so I looked around for something that could aid me in anyway. I noticed that the ceiling was comprised of large loose tiles, meaning that there was likely empty space above it. The soulless had just about created enough space in the window opening to get through when I jumped on top of the chair, knocked out one of the tiles and went up into ceiling. There were pipes and other large machines up here to walk on and/or crawl across as the soulless below piled onto of one another to reach me. A few managed to break through the tiles, but I shot them in the head with one of the nail guns, instantly stopping them. I followed the systems of pipes and machines which led into another area outside the confining walls of the rooms. In this section, I found a small opening to enter through, which I now believe was a crawl space, possibly created when the store was first built for storage or for easier access to the store ceiling. Not much was up here, but I did find a hatch that led to the roof. I used the bolt cutters on the lock and break open the hatch. Now, I'm sitting on the opposite end of the roof, watching the hatch in case I should receive a visitor. In the meantime, I began eating/preparing the plants I gathered and afterwards, took to writing this all down.

- Jack's Diary

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Jack's Diary - Day 3, September 18th 2013

     Even when it's completely quiet, there's no peace to be found when you're out in the open. At any moment, that silence can change and with that sudden ripple of sound, you're life is now at an even greater risk for being lost, whether you made the noise or something else did. I watched from a distance as these situations transpired, usually involving stupid and panicked survivors. Now, I know better than to mindlessly daydream on the unsuspecting field of battle.
     I expected to see a lot more abandoned cars and objects on the highway than I had. Most of them were wrecked, dirty, and looted for parts. There was hardly any movement at all: no animals of any kind and no lost souls. At least, that's what it started out as. In the distance, I saw a few on a highway bridge. I couldn't resist. I lured them close to the side and knocked them off the bridge, one by one. I could only watch the last one fall since the rest began to make their way to me after hearing their "brother" get hit with my club. I didn't find any enjoyment in it, as much as I had hoped to. I kill for the sake of killing, merely to pass the time.
     Passed the bridge near an exit off the highway, I spotted signs of a camp: a long since burnt out fire pit and a few logs and lawn chairs to sit on. Nothing too significant. Suddenly, my ear caught a sinister and weak groaning. I decided to cautiously check it out and was met with a most unexpected sight: a pit filled with lost souls. There were at least 14 of them, with many more on the ground, unresponsive. The pit was about 8 feet deep, completely flat with the corners dug out. In the center of the pit was a tall, thick wooden rectangular pole with a rope hanging from it and from that rope hung a body. From the looks of it, the body had no signs of change other than rot so it died as a human. There were also many cuts and lacerations on the body. I determined, although, this is just a guess, that this pit was dug for the purpose of collecting or trapping lost souls and that the body (whether it was alive when it was first hung is debatable) was meant to be used as bait to draw them in. As long as you didn't fall in, these things couldn't touch you so I could've walked away, but I didn't. I went back to the highway, found a small gas tank in the back of a pick up truck, siphoned as much gas from the vehicles as was left, went back to the pit, yelled out to the monsters to gather them into one spot, and doused them with gas. I lit a match and set them a blaze and watched as they walked about, some being more aware of the flames than others. I stayed until each of them burned to the ground. The "green" people always talked about the fact that humans leave a carbon footprint or a record of all the waste they've attributed to the Earth. I think of my actions as one in the same: I'm ridding the world of these things before the time that I become one myself.
     To the pass the time, I looked around a little more and to my surprise, saw a small wooden fort in a near-by tree. This surprised me because of how well it was hidden. Had I not been actively looking, I would have never seen it. It looked like something used in hunting a long while back. I climbed up it and found a few useful object like binoculars, a slingshot, and a machete. I already had one machete, but you know what they say: better safe than dead!
     As the fires burnt down to smoldering ash, I left without a single taste of satisfaction. I followed the exit ramp off the highway until I came upon a town. I decided to search the town, but I had no idea what I was looking for; I had sufficient food and water and the equipment I needed. I suppose I was just wandering around. In the distance, I thought I saw some movement. After three seconds, it gained in size and right then I knew that my life was at stake: it was a charging group of lost souls. I broke out the nearest window of a house and jumped through, toppling a tall cabinet over to barricade the now exposed window. I locked the door and rushed up the steps and opened the second door on the left and locked it behind me, barricading myself in there as well. There wasn't any time to check whether or not the backdoor was locked or to see if there was a backdoor. I could hear the pounding on the walls, the shaking of the house, and them rushing around on the ground floor looking for me. I don't know why they all did that. It was the same thing with the Hill. It's not normal behavior or at least what I am used to. Well, I figured that this gave me time to write. They might get to me soon so I should probably write fast. I'm not afraid to die.

- Jack's Diary

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