13.05.202X - 21.05.202X - Past Trauma and a New Threat

Hey diary, continuing here since I'm out of journals at the moment. This is the fourth one so far.

05:50 13/05/202X 10°C  

Balmy weather outside. Summer is definitely coming.

I finally managed to pack up the last of the scrap metal I found at the Muldraugh-Rosewood-Bedford roundabout.
Harris is holding the fort, shotgun in hand, helmet on head, standing like a statue.

Still, guard duty almost feels... superfluous.

Apart from a group of three, I haven't seen rotters in southern Muldraugh for a while.
The situation in Rosewood seems pretty clear as well, for now. Downtown is clear, there's just the eastern suburbs and the school left.

Izzy said there's still roaming groups around. Speaking of which, she seems to be holding up fine.
Corned beef sandwiches for breakfast, apparently, and a lot of coffee. 

That's what I'm hearing on the HAM, at least.

Since I still had more than enough storage space in the new trailer, I figured I'd go down to the old warehouse just past the walls and try my luck there.
Mostly looking for planks and such, although with the forest around it's not like we're running out any time soon. Just prefer staying out of the deep woods.

Well, there was a bit of a painful reminder at the warehouse.

Pansy Conley, or what's left of her. 

She was among the first immunes we ran into, and we quickly teamed up.
It was actually her idea to use trailer park as a base, and I floated the idea of a compound palisade.

She'd gotten pretty badly scratched up, though, and while trying to save her I guess I messed something up with the blood transfusion, since she started seizing moments later and died.

Christ.

I'd forgotten all about that.

I found a shovel in one of the old storage crates, and I'm not going back before she has a proper grave dug.
It's my fault, after all.

I'm sorry, Pansy. Rest in peace. I'll miss you.

it's coming again i hate it i hate this i'm going to carve my fucking arms open i'm so sorry pansy i'm so fucking sorry it's all my fault

 



12:20 13/05 202X 15°C

It's been just me and Harris at the fort today. Gave him my old M1911 when he ran out of ammo for his shotgun. The piece has served me well so far, and is pretty much a guaranteed one-shot kill. That's one advantage of .45 ACP, although the magazine size always bothered me and...

Sorry, I'm rambling. After I buried Pansy I kinda broke down and just got really drunk.
Harre was really helpful and calm about it. He gave me some good tips for dealing with feelings like these.

I can't save everyone, and she might very well have died anyway.

"We're all living on borrowed time", he says, and I kind of agree with him now. 

It's sick to think about a human life as so fleeting, but we ARE incredibly fragile creatures.
One wrong move and you might be next on the list. I almost went there, still have the scar on my neck from that bite.

Harris apparently came close quite a few times, and from what I could see his forearms had their fair share of scars and burns, accompanied by a nasty gash on his lip.

With just us two, the housing situation hasn't been too bad, but once the others come back we're going to have to start sharing.

Jenna and Ems are both out scouting, and Harris needs time to heal. I figured I'd head back to Redstone with the Oshkosh, see how much stuff I can pull out from there.

While I do hope to see the others again, I'm not looking forward to sharing beds with anyone. I guess it would have to be Jenna or Izzy, just for the sake of propriety. 

Still... I don't know. 

I hope we can get those house extensions built soon.
I laid the foundations and general outlines already, but there's so much to do still before even one of those rooms turns into a livable space.

I emptied the warehouse of paint and plaster, and took all the crates apart for planks. This is going to turn into a real shantytown.
The trailers across the road are far too torn up to be of any use.

Maybe we could use the storage units as bedrooms and eat communal meals at the fort proper? That, or extend the palisade around the storage...

Whichever way this goes, it's going to be a lot of work, and I already feel I've done more than my fair share of it.

Blegh.

Oh yeah, one more thing! Harris taught me a new trick to use with my hearing protection. You can apparently TURN THEM ON.

 
They have built-in microphones that suppress sudden loud noises, and can be set to a certain shortwave frequency.
I was wondering what the microphone was for...

Anyway, now my hearing is even better, and as long as I remember to switch out the batteries I can whisper into the mic and the others on the same frequency close by can hear me.

On my last raid into Redstone I found a kind of hood, apparently called a "Viper hood", that Harris claimed is widely used by Russian snipers and special forces.

Hehehe, I feel so sneaky now!

It's got special netting and everything I can attach grass and twigs to, so I'l be practically invisible when I roll into Redstone.

Those fuckers will never see me coming.  
 

-Sayori Takahashi

 

 

 

16:50 15/05/202X 16°C

 

Late morning. Rolled in with the haul from Redstone late tonight, got most of it unpacked together with Harris.

Rufus is out disassembling tables and chairs, said he wants to build a little spot for himself in the corner. Said he might be staying for a while, if that's alright with us.
Fine by me, the more people we can get the better, and we're definitely not short on anything at the moment.
It's been raining pretty heavily the past few days, and today's no exception. Think I might just take it easy for a while now, catch up on some light reading.

-Sayori Takahashi

 


10:40 16/05/202X 12°C

 

Rufus got bit in the night while out scavenging. He got it patched up well by himself, but I did give him some morphine for the pain.

Probably shouldn't have done that. Now the old bastard apparently wants to go to Bedford Falls. Heard this moments ago from Izzy.

So guess who's hopping in the APC and dragging his ass outta there? Me.

Ammo's packed and I'm ready to go.

-Sayori, pissed

 


21:40

Bedford Falls was a close call. Managed to cause quite a bit of a ruckus.
Almost died again, managed to patch my neck up just in time. It's a nasty scratch, but nothing serious enough to require stitches.

Just another painful reminder.

Rufus seems to have fared better than me.
He did get scratched up a bit, but nothing worse than that, nothing that would have required my help.
Actually think I caused more trouble than I was worth this time around.

Makes me wonder how many other times I've gone in with good intentions and just ruined everything...

Pansy comes to mind.
I don't know. I don't really want to think about it and I don't want more Valium.

I'm on night guard duty today. Harvested the strawberry crop and set a lot of fruit to dry.

I'm thinking that if I find the time I might start turning the storage units into proper rooms and start erecting a palisade around the lot.

Had a sandwich for supper today.
Also threw a Molotov into the police station in Muldraugh and watched it burn while listening to the emergency broadcasts.

Signal's bad, as usual. Tomorrow's gonna be a bit chillier.

Heard reports of mutations and something else that kinda worried me, but I'll try not to think about it.

Gonna keep my gas mask in my bag nonetheless.

-Sayori

the choppers are coming and they're going to drop nerve gas on us all and we're all going to die choking and screaming

I contacted the others via walkie-talkie after I calmed down a bit.
Apparently nobody else is hearing them. I could have sworn I saw black shapes moving across the sky, but it's too dark to tell properly.

I fucking hate this.

04:00 17/05 202X 7°C

Just got back home from patrol. Found a nifty new car, iced a couple rotters.
Feeling much better now. On 40mg of Oxycodone, feeling very warm and fuzzy, waiting for my fruits and meats and fish to dry.

(Rufus showed me how to make a South African jerky called  "biltong" earlier. It's a really wonderful snack, and I've always liked dried fish as well, although I could do with a bigger spice cabinet.)

I kind of wanna just take off my vest and crash, but I still gotta wash myself and bleeeeeegh-

At least I found more toothpaste, my old tube was running out.
Fixed the engine on the old APC a bit, and heard something about "grid location india sierra mike" and then static and a couple garbled numbers.

Dunno what's going on, or if that's just routine.

Dunno how to feel about it.

Maybe there's still a world out there. 

If Rufus is to be believed, there's definitely other survivors, even in Knox County, and while the ones he encountered were scumbags, that doesn't mean all of them would be.

It might just be the drugs, but I'm feeling kinda hopeful.

Very slow, though, and very tingly.
Can't wait to get to bed. 

-Sayori Takahashi, high and tired

14:40, 17/05/202X, 12°C

Woke up maybe an hour ago, feeling kinda dizzy.
Izzy's finally out and about, and we've been chipping away at the new palisades ever since, felling trees and dragging them over.

She might not look like much, but she does pull her own weight.
I checked out her stitches and switched out her bandages, just in case. No signs of infection.

I'll write more in case something interesting happens, but right now it seems we'll just hold on to what we've got. Been making loads of biltong, jerky and dried fish, along with other dried goods, since we have so much perishables I've had to start tossing stuff in the compost.

-Sayori Takahashi

05:20 21/05/202X 6°C

In front of a cozy campfire, waiting for Izzy to get herself ready. We still need to find her a bed.
I welded up some storage lockers for her in my old bedroom and agreed that she'll be allowed to use that.

We also need to take her on a range day, clear out some rotters.
The axeman and the punk decided that Fort Rosewood would be a very good idea.

So, housing crisis averted, for now.
Jenna and Ems still aren't back and I'm getting worried.

Rufus and Harris are just kind of doing their own things at the moment, foraging and foot patrol, respectively.

Also, I finally got confirmation on the toxin situation.
We had a heavy fog rolling in this morning, and those first breaths - before I managed to get my gas mask on - they STUNG.

The fire's flaring up like a goddamn propane torch. Good thing we got the call on the AEBS yesterday evening, had enough time to get everyone masked up.

There's a green tint to the air.
The sun looks sickly and pale. I think this is it. 

The Earth is finally dying.

-Sayori Takahashi

 

Went for a gas run. Rufus, foolhardy as ever, said he is going to go check the traps.

Good luck to him with that. I'm feeling very tired all of a sudden and the night spent welding sure as hell doesn't help with that.
I think I'll postpone everything to another day. Can't see far enough to shoot in this fog anyway.

Rufus in a M17 mask and a doff hood is quite a sight to behold. I almost think his beard would be enough to filter out the fog...

Going to sit here and contemplate for a while.

-Sayori Takahashi, last man on Earth

 


11:50

 

Fog has lifted.
Izzy is looking bad, like mentally bad.
Gave her half of my oxys.

Logging off here.

-S