Hi again. My posts to come may be a bit sporadic. Work’s got me on my heels, you know how it is. As much as I want answers, I also need to eat. Nonetheless, I’ve started reading the journal. I’ll list the names of the people Clint arrived with before I start typing it out. The ones who were still alive at the beginning of the first entry, that is. Just to make it less confusing.
There was Clint and Rust, of course. And then:
Duke – MMA fighter
Lauren - Archaeologist
Travis – The drifter
Christian – Discharged soldier
Hawkins – Cosmologist
Kagenori – Thrill seeker
Anyhow, here we go:
ENTRY 1:
I thought I’d write down my thoughts as well as any significant events while I’m here. Now, I’m not sure who this if for, or who’s even gonna read it… but I might as well do this. My name is Clint Rockwell and I’m currently in some strange world that isn’t earth. How’d I get here? Well, that’s a bit too much to explain here.
We’ve been on Dusk Blue (the island we first landed on) for around two months now. That is assuming, time passes the same here as it does on earth. And I think it does. Or close enough, anyways. Hawkins estimates that the time between days here is around 23 hours and 48 minutes. I shit you not, the guy sat there and counted the seconds one day. He’s pretty much gone crazy at this point. Can’t really blame him, though. This must be fucking insane for him. Besides that, everybody’s been pretty nice around here. All seem to be genuinely good people. Once you get past the cultural differences, that is. Apparently a handshake here means war.
But… I don’t know. Maybe there’s something wrong with me. For the first week, I was amazed by this place. But after that… shit kind of fell into a routine again. The satisfaction that came from making this discovery has been dwindling. It’s just day after day of manual labor, eating gruel and sitting around. The thing I didn’t realize was that nobody ever goes outside this place unless they deem it to be a direct threat worth intervening in. Hell, the only reason they bothered saving us was because we were leading the stalkers directly to them. There’s really nothing to do here. However, the stories I hear from the elders were pretty interesting. For example, some time ago, they found a dead body lying just outside the settlement walls. Not wanting it to stink up the place, some guys carried it away and threw it into some foliage. That night, they heard somebody yelling at around the same place they found the body. When they checked it out, it was the same dead guy from earlier. Except he was alive and didn’t have a scratch on him. They didn’t let him in, obviously.
You see, while shit like this would encourage most people to stay within the safer confines of the settlement, it just didn't have the same effect on me. Shit like this made me want to get out there. Made me want to go explore. I realize that we almost died on the way here, but we were also unprepared. With people who know their way around, it could work out. You can’t wave a piece of meat in front of a lion and expect it to stay in the cage. Alright, that was dumb as hell and I wish that I didn’t write it down. But I don’t have an eraser right now, so I guess that’s staying in. Maybe I’ll figure something out.
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ENTRY 2:
An opportunity arose just now. One of the guards here – Grillo, approached me yesterday. Apparently, a convoy from Paradise X is coming around tomorrow to pick up any enhanced children. Now, there aren’t actually any here, but this was his plan:
As soon as they came, we would tell them that we had some. We would lead them into one of the cabins and ambush them inside, while somebody else took out the drivers. I asked him how the hell we were going to do that, since they had guns. “But we do too.” He responded with a toothy grin. That’s when I realized. We did, didn’t we? Apparently, Paradise X goes off the assumption that nobody at any settlement possesses firearms, since gunpowder is pretty much unavailable on the whole island. The only reason Paradise X has them is because of a trade deal they do with some other place or something. Now, I’ve never done something like this and I don’t know if I really feel comfortable doing so. But… this seems like the only way I’m getting out of here. Still, I’m not killing anybody. Grillo also told me not to tell Slade, as it wouldn’t go down well with him, because of past incidents.
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ENTRY 3:
Grillo and I have worked it out. He’s got two other guards in on this, and I’ve convinced Duke, Christian and Kagenori. It didn’t take much. They were all itching to get out of here as well. However, Lauren wasn’t so sure about it. Maybe she’ll come around. Rust said “Fuck no” when I brought it up, and I’m pretty sure Hawkins is actually going insane because he just ignored everything I said. As for Travis… well he actually seems really happy here. I saw him smile for the first time when a little girl made him a wooden necklace. I’m not going to bother him. All I know is that this is happening, and no matter the outcome… at least I’ve done something few others have.
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ENTRY 4:
I… don’t know if we could gauge what just happened as a success. Still, I came out of it pretty unscathed. As for my no kill rule... well those Paradise X motherfuckers were horrendous. As soon as they arrived in their three-vehicle convoy, they started causing shit. Some of them started taunting the townsfolk while others swept the cabins. I counted nine of them in total. I think it hit a boiling point when one of them started groping a woman. That’s when everything went to shit. I understood why Grillo was so adamant that we do this now. He was holding in some pent up rage, for sure. When he saw this, he stormed out of the cabin where we were going to hold the ambush and shot the guy down, who really wasn’t expecting it. He took out two more before rushing back in, sporting a nasty bullet wound on his thigh. I’m not so sure why he was so good at aiming, if he’d never held a gun before. What happened next went by quick. In a life or death situation, all reservations you had about morality go out the window. I took shooting lessons as part of my training beforehand, so I managed to take out a few of them myself. I didn’t feel anything when I did so. Things were looking pretty good until Christian blasted one of the soldiers point blank with the shotgun. He barely flinched. He was enhanced.
“Fucking hell!” I remember Grillo shouting. He had told us that there was no chance they’d send one of them with the convoy, that they were too important. Well, that was bullshit, wasn’t it? The guy went on a rampage, picking people up and slamming them on the ground. Every punch that he threw was fatal. Slade had come out at one point to challenge him but was dismantled easily. I saw him give a look of somber disappointment at Grillo before going limp. The whole plan was going downhill until Rust approached and shouted at the guy. “Come here you fucking pussy” was all that he said. I had no idea what his plan was. That is, until he took out a grenade. I guess he’d been hiding that. He took the pin off, chucked it at the guy and watched as it bounced off of him. I guess Paradise X didn’t use grenades, because the guy just scoffed and started towards Rust. At this point, Christian had already silently been gesturing everybody away from the whole situation. The grenade exploded right as the guy was stepping over it. Everything fell silent for a while. That’s when we heard groaning. He was still alive. But he seemed to be incapacitated. A bunch of guys followed up by tossing him out of the settlement walls. I guess all that commotion had attracted something in the jungle, because we heard screaming soon after.
After that, we stayed around to help for a while, rebuilding and tending to any injuries. Least we could do. I had to thank Rust for what he did. The guy really had balls. When I did it, he just looked at me like I was insane. It was a fair judgment, in retrospect. “That was reckless, kid” he told me. I just nodded and asked him if he had changed his mind about coming with us. I doubted it, but it was worth a shot. He looked around the village for a second before sighing and shaking his head. “No… no I got some work to do. And I don’t think I’d be able to get it done wherever you’re going.” He patted me on the shoulder before walking away. “Good luck, kid. Hope you find what you’re looking for.” Now I don’t know why… but that sentence filled me with a sense of melancholy. I guess it got me wondering what that really was. What was I actually after? Maybe I'm not so sure yet. But that was just more reason to go and find out. Before we left, I watched Travis consoling a group of children. I'm really not so sure if us landing on the island did any good for this place. Everybody seems... scared now. More than before. Whatever. There's no changing it now.
We checked out the vehicles after. I’m not really sure what kind they were, guess I wouldn't have known anyways. It sort of resembled an armored, lifted jeep. Eventually, we figured out how to get them going. At this point, it was me, Grillo, Christian, Duke, Kagenori, another guard named Novex, and Lauren. She’d changed her mind. Could have been for a lot of reasons, but she didn’t tell me. “Let’s just go” was all that she said to me when I inquired about it. We’re all following Grillo now. Apparently, he knows where to go. He also stated that he had a plan once we got there, but there was an obvious hint of doubt wavering in his voice when he claimed this. We’ll see what happens, I suppose.
END OF THE ENTRY
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This is how far I’ve gotten up to now. I’m not really sure what to make of this, but my perception of Clint Rockwell sure has been dynamic. I don't know what to make of this guy anymore. I’ll post again when I can. Bye for now.
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