Jack's Diary - Indifferent - Day 76

*Morning*

            I caught up with the group; I was almost shot by one of the patrols they had roaming the area, but that’s what you get when you arrive near dawn. They had all stopped for the night and had dug ditches to sleep in (I don’t know why they never considered climbing trees and sleeping there). Apparently, we’re heading toward some place with tree houses. There wasn’t a single smile on anyone’s face and I could have sworn I saw out of the corner of my eyes Moses giving me an angry glare. I didn’t sleep; just wasn’t tired.

            Like I wrote previously, everyone except for myself left the base before the evening came. I would have met up with the group sooner, but there were some things that needed to be taken care of. There was a lot of stuff I wanted to bring with me so I piled most of it in the red wagon I obtained after my last “shopping” trip. It must have taken me an hour yet I find it interesting that no Valors or anyone came to loot the now exposed base as soon as possible. Leaving supplies for the enemy is generous, but not a good war strategy so I did what the Russians did during World War 2, which is the Scorched Earth Policy (a dignified name for a brilliantly destructive action): whenever the Russians retreated from their bases or houses with the approach of the in coming German soldiers, they took what supplies they could and burnt the rest, preventing the Germans from using them. And with just a can of gasoline and a box of matches, I did the same to the buildings and the wall (after taking what I wanted). If I had any Russian ancestors, I’m sure they’d be proud (this is why I’m writing the day after because I didn’t have a safe room to sit in and write).

            There was a little gas left over so I thought I’d try it on a soulless. Holding my double sludge against its chest to keep it an arm’s length away, I poured the accelerant on its leg, lit it, and watched to see what it would do. It didn’t react any different than normal, even as the flames climbed up its leg and covered it. After a good 20 minutes (I counted), it collapsed. I’ve lit soulless on fire before, but I never watched one die from it.

            The soulless really didn’t bother me or I should say, I handled them just fine. Any soulless that came close got the full blunt force of my Double Sledge or for when I was holding the gas can, a knife to the throat. Even as I left with to my left and right, I couldn’t help, but look back. A place that used to be a home now will soon be nothing except heaps of charred history and more ground for the bane of humanity to trot on. Through the smoke and floating ashes, I thought I saw a woman near the entrance smiling. A second look revealed it to be a propped up corpse against the burning wall (I think).

            I came out with so much new stuff. It’s amazing what my own comrades would leave behind: a large combat knife, a rifle with one of my silencers, a revolver, a long piece of metal of some kind (think of a yard stick that is 1/5 inches thick. I plan to wear one of its sides down to make a blade), five pocket knives, and artistically carved walking stick (I think the picture on it is suppose to be a boat in an ocean storm).

            It was a pretty long walk. I frequently checked to make sure no one was following me. By the time I was there, it wasn’t long until morning so I climbed a tree and waited. It’s morning now and I’m still writing and they’re ready to move.

*Afternoon*

            We reached the tree house places. Had I not seen it for myself, I’m unsure whether or not I would have believed it. There were so many, as far as the eyes could see through the forest of maple and oak, all of them sturdy, clean, and at least 10 feet off the ground. They were the perfect protection against nearly all soulless and they would be difficult for enemies to reach without proper equipment or proficient climbing skills. Within the dark windows, there were figures moving about. There was no question as to whether a few of these were ghosts or not as they stuck their heads out along with their guns, obviously skeptical of strangers such as us.

            Mike was in the lead of the group and I was near the back so I told the guy in front of me to tell Mike I was going to examine a few of these tree houses by myself. I didn’t know if Mike planned for this to be our new base, but I wanted some more time to myself (I don’t know why though).

            I called up to two of the tree houses, but the people who answered back refused to throw down a ladder. The group was pretty far off, to the point where I could hear silence fighting its way into the space around me. To pass the time, I sharpened my newly acquired pocketknives and throw them at the truck of a tree of one of the tree houses (my aim was still as good as it always had been). I went to retrieve them when I noticed some small words, that had been lightly coated over with sap, were carved into the tree. It said, “Live in hope of a better future and a memorable past.” I didn’t get to finish reading at the time, because a young woman dropped down from the tree house, slammed my arm against the tree, making me drop my knife and then with one hand, forcefully pushed me to the ground. I had my gun draw before my backside touched the ground and had it pointed at her.

            “Don’t touch my tree!” she said.

            “What? The tree’s your property as well?” I responded

            “My grandfather planted it for me so yah, you could say that!”

            I put my gun away. She handed me my knives.

            “Not to sound too rude, but can you please go somewhere else? I’m very protective of my home,” she asked.

             I could understand her; you can never be to certain today. Strangers are even more dangerous than soulless. At least you know a soulless is dangerous, but a stranger is like the weather; even if you’re good at telling the weather, it often times doesn’t act as it should and suddenly, a tornado hits you (just an example). Before walking away, I asked what the phrase carved into the tree was. She said that her younger sister put it there. I glanced up at the tree house and didn’t see anybody moving so I’m only guessing what happened to her sister and grandfather.

*Evening*

            This place is abnormally deprived of soulless. I sat down most of the afternoon, found a good stone to use in sharpening that metal yardstick thing, and went to work. The noise didn’t attract any soulless though I did get yelled at by some of the neighbors and had to move around. During one of my relocations, I saw that on the border were soldiers (or people dressed like them), standing guard around the perimeter. Any time they saw a soulless, they’d go up and club it to death (it reminded me of police brutality). This would explain the devoidness of soulless here.

            Really, there’s not much to say for the day. Just when I thought Mike might need me, a man came up to me from my group saying, “Where the hell have you been?”

            Before I could answer, he told me the group requested my presence. He didn’t say who exactly wanted me. He’s telling me where to go right now and is waiting impatiently as I finish this last line.

- Jack’s Diary

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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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Jack's Diary - Live Losing Or Die Brutally - Day 75 Season 2 Finale

*Early Morning*

            Barely slept. Didn’t feel like it. I finally perfected the Double Sledge (getting it stable wasn’t the hard part; it was filing down and taping over the nails so they didn’t pierce my hands in combat). Too bad I’m not using it today. I’m going to be a sniper with Julie as my spotter (don’t really need one, but I’m not complaining. She didn’t seem too happy). Other than my knowledge of constructing weapons, I’d say my sniping accuracy is one of the greatest skills I gained while at The Hill. I would’ve never gotten this good had the men there not taken the time to instruct me. Maybe I should be teaching here as well.

            I should give the people at this base some credit. A few men followed the two Valors after they left and now we know exactly where they are. From what I heard, they have themselves stationed in a building at the top of a hill. It is heavily armored, secured, and wider, but not as tall as the one that burned down though for them to have established a base in this area so quickly is saying something (might explain why we hadn’t received any word from them for so long. I still don’t know how they found our base in the first place).

            Everyone’s either grinning with excitement or shaking a little in quiet fear. Everyone except for me, I guess. I just want this all to be over. I bet Ann’s going to get a kick out of all this.

*Late Morning*

            I found an apartment complex off in the distance that had a good view of the base from the south end. The twins were somewhere in the area, Mike told me they’d be covering the south wing as well, but he didn’t tell me what weapons they’ll be using. Much like our own base, they have lookouts, one positioned on each corner of the roof and what appeared to be a short-range sniper in a roughly built crows nest. Mike’s team was waiting quietly in the woods and I watched for his signal. That’s when I saw 40 men marching up the back, 4 by 10 rows. Those who weren’t carrying guns were lugging a tall crate, nearly 10 feet tall, chained to the cart it was on. More and more men kept coming into sight as the minutes passed and I knew we were outnumbered. I put down my rifle and told Julie to stay put while I went to signal Mike to call off the attack. I managed to reach him before he gave the signal. Instead of retreating, Mike came up with a different plan though it didn’t really make much sense to me. As I understood it, whenever an enemy would spot them, I’d take them out (I guess he wanted more time so he could strike at the right moment). I went back up on the building and did what he said. I should’ve told him no and got everyone out. I don’t think he knew just how many there were. I sniped three men, but when they were spotted, that’s when the bullets started flying. I quickly took out the sniper and the four men on top of the building, seeing as they had an advantage in their field of vision. Death came to both sides of this war with bodies hitting the ground like the beat of a drum. Any men that came onto the roof, I killed though a few Valors were firing back at me with their own rifles (luckily, their aim stinks). Our groups were retreating and once they were at a safe distance, Julie and I did as well. With out troops gone, I’d only be a matter of time before they’d come after Julie and me. We ran back to base with our tails between our legs. Now, I’m waiting for our next “battle strategy” while sitting up in my lookout point with my gun to the horizon.

*Noon*

            I saw it. I would’ve sniped the guys bringing it, but they were pushing the crate from the back. It smelled rotten and putrid and the box swayed back and forth. I couldn’t shoot out the wheels because they were just metal cylinders. Once they wheeled it in front of the base door, the sides of the box fell and the men dived behind a tree. It was the giant soulless I’d seen from when I went to rescue Mike. It looked even taller and larger than before. The wounds that were previously inflicted on it were gone, but I could see the gore laying on top of the pinkish, brown flesh. It’s facial features, the skin covered eye sockets and the handsome human like shapings of the head and face were the most disturbing of all its traits. The blade on its arm had been sharpened and pulled and yanked at the chains that bounded him to the cart. There came a shout from the tree the men hid behind "Give the girl, or we'll destroy you."

            Normally, I would’ve fired, but it didn’t do much the last time except draw its attention and I didn’t want to risk prompting the men to free it. As I came down from the lookout, so many questions ran through my mind: how did they get it, why is Julie so important, and what in the world is it?! Had they formed a legion with those men who captured Mike or was this just a similar monster? It could no doubt destroy the walls of the base and I didn’t want to see what this thing could do at full strength. Mike opened the door and Mike, Moses, and I stared at it. I don’t back down from challenges and I am tired of losing my home and friends. Then again, I don't see how I came save both and live to tell about it. 

To be continued…

- Jack's Diary

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Mike's Diary Day 75 - Is this the end? Season 2 Finale.

*Early Morning*

I woke up, and found out that everyone was already with their weapons and their battle gear ready to attack the Valors. I saw Jack with his sniper, and he told me that he preferred to be the sniper, and he'll be the one that would protect, well tried to protect the others from a hill or building behind the valor's base (whatever suited him). I told him that he would need a partner/spotter, but most of the people preferred to go into the battle field with Moses and I. I saw Julie and Jess. JULIE AND JESS?! I thought. What the hell ? Why are they going ? I told Julie that she should not go, but she insisted, and brought up the deal again. If I go, she goes with me (I don't remember that part, but she fooled me already.) The battlefield was too rough for Julie, so I told Julie to be Jack's spotter. She was disappointed, but it's for her own safety.

I divided the group into 3 different groups. 10 people in each, 2 medics in each team. My group and I will storm the front. Moses's will go from the right wing, Victor's group penetrates the west wing. The south wing, well I had that planned out. Jack, probably one of the best snipers, with Julie and the twins covered the south just in case.

*Before the attack*

Jack ran down from his post, signaled me to cancel the attack. He was panicked, and apparently saw the Valors bringing some re-inforcements. I came up with a whole new strategy. This time, it'll be stealthy, but I'm really doubting Jack. Well, you gotta try to trust others to survive right? The plan was simple. We in the back of the hill, and every time we see someone, Jack fires the sniper that already has a silencer installed. Simple enough? Well, 3 valors went down, but soon we were spotted. We were forced to retreat back to the base. This was the most dangerous situation that our group has gotten in. We waited in the base, I was trying to figure something out. To actually defend the base. We will defend the base, and hold it in one condition. Too many blood sheds in our group, we're retreating. Everyone agreed, including Jack.

*2 Hours later*
I was sitting in my room, drawing diagrams to defend the base as best as we could, when I heard a yell from the outside. "Give the girl, or we'll destroy you." I froze, sweat dripped down my chin. I got up, met Moses and Jack, opened the door, and saw the biggest, baddest, most disgusting, horrible monster. The smell of the rotten flesh was unbearable, we all froze thinking what was there to do.


To be continued...

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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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