Journal:Juicebarjoseph

A battered leather journal found in the ruins of the old Clegg Cinema. Written inside in faded, shaky handwriting is one survivors account of day to day life after the infection.

5th April 2006

I remember where I was the day the infection came, heck, everyone does. I was one of the ones lucky enough to be out of the city. It was my first day of training when I heard what had happened, my first day in the army. I had joined to make my family proud.

They were the reason I came back.

6th April 2006

I had asked to be dropped into my old neighbourhood in Shore Hills, a once well maintained suburb of Malton. I barely recognised the place now, deserted and boarded up. I sat for nearly an hour on my old just looking at the smokestacks that littered the skyline. I took one final look at my meagre equipment - rations, water, spare clothes and a cheaply made flare rocket - not much but it was all that could be spared. I could see that I would have to survive on my wits alone. Taking one last look back at my old house, I vowed that I would find out what had happened to this once great city, and to try and put it right again.

7th April 2006

I spent the night holed up in clegg cinema. Although it lacked creature comforts such as a bed, it was safe. I slept fitfully, curled up in a seat in front of the crumbling projection wall.

At sunrise, I set out to explore the city. Initially, I wandered aimlessly, lost in the destruction. Eventually, I stumbled upon an abandoned railway station. After an hour of fruitless searching, I went up to the roof. Looking around, I could see lights on in the distance to the north of me. I think that may be a good place to start my search.

8th April 2006

I got my first look at the shambling nightmares which now plague this once proud city. It was standing over me as I awoke, just standing there staring at me. Fighting the initial panic, I picked up the first thing that came to hand as a weapon - the flare. Although it went wide of it, the shot distracted the thing long enoough for me to escape. It looks like I'm gonna have to be more careful about where I sleep of a night.

Meanwhile, I'm getting nearer to the lights I saw two days ago from the train station

9th April 2006

I reached the mall last night, and was warmly welcomed in by the group of survivors currently calling it home. At first light I began searching through the ransacked shops, hoping to bolster my meagre equipment. This time I was lucky, and found med kits, pistol ammo and a moblile phone. Sadly, all the weapons had already been taken in previous raids, so I'm still mostly unarmed.

10th April 2006

I was woken in the small hours this morning by the sound of breaking glass. While I slept, the mall had been broken into by a passing group of zombies and was under attack. I leapt up, hoping to try and repel the attackers, when I was grabbed from behind and bitten. I was on the point of passing out when another survivor noticed and drove it away.

As he patched me up, I explained to him my vow to find my family. He said he'd heard about a shelter set up in Molebank by a preacher by the name of Jeremiah Breeze who might be able to help me. He also said that the journey would be dangerous, and gave me a fire axe and pistol. Thanking him, I left immediately.

I headed west through Lukinswood, stopping only to spray lines of 'I must not eat my teacher' onto one of the boards in my old school. It doesn't feel like it was all that long ago that I was writing lines for real in detention.

11th April 2006

I made a good start on my journey to St. Judes. Sleeping overnight in an auto repair shop, I awoke to the smell of petrol. Looking around, I quickly found two full cans of petrol. I figured they could come in handy, so I stowed them at the bottom of my bag. After a last look around, I headed out in the general direction of the largest spire on the horizon. I made good progress through the abandoned streets, and by nightfall, I reached the outskirts of molebank. I quickly found a well barricaded pub to spend the night in, and to my pleasant surprise, I found several other survivors. Breaking open the cellar, we discovered a large amount of... (The rest of the entry is obscured by a rather large beerstain.)

12th April 2006

My head is killing me. Judging from the amount of empty bottles laying around, it must have been a good party. Ignoring my hangover, I staggered out into the morning sunlight in the direction of St. Judes.

13th April 2006

The Cathedral was deserted when I got there. Standing outside, I could see that there had been a struggle of some sorts. Inside were the scattered belongings of whoever had been living there, several corpses and standing, swaying gently in the corner, one of the attackers, left behind by the rest of the horde. Seeing the damage that had been done, I flew into a rage, swinging repeatedly with my fire axe until it fell. As I turned to leave, something caught my eye. Glinting in the gloom, I saw a small crucifix. On a whim, I took it.

15th April 2006

I spent most of yesterday wandering around aimlessly, disheartened by the lack of information at St. Judes. After spending the night in another run down pub, I awoke to find the place surrounded by a horde. I escaped mostly unharmed except for a couple of bites, which were easily treated. I headed back east towards Havercroft, stumbling into the safety of a random building.

16th April 2006

I was woken up this morning by the sound of a low flying helicopter. As I groggily dragged myself up, I realised I'd stumbled into some kind of research facility disguised as a regular office building. Looking around, I quickly found several strange objects, including a syringe filled a double helix of green fluid. Although the power was out, there were several filing cabinets which appeared to be full of papers. They should make for interesting reading, if not fire materials.

17th April 2006

I found these in the abandoned Necrotech building I slept in last night. It makes for compelling, if slightly frightening, reading.

(Pasted to the page under this entry are two typewritten documents on Necrotech headed paper)

PROJECT SUNRISE
STAFF MEMBER: 717
DATE: 16TH JUNE 2005
SUBJECT: NEW PROCEDURE MEMO

FOLLOWING YESTERDAY'S INCIDENT, ALL STAFF ARE TO REDUCE THE SERUM DOSAGE IN OUR LONG-TERM
EXPOSURE EXPERIMENTS. IN ADDITION, ALL SUBJECTS PERCIEVED TO BE SHOWING ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR
ARE TO BE TERMINATED IMMEDIATELY.

PROJECT SUNRISE
STAFF MEMBER: 606
DATE: 3RD JUNE 2005
TO: HQ
FROM: NT RESEARCH, MALTON
SUBJECT: SERUM BREAKTHROUGH

WE HAVE MADE A MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH WITH THE SERUM. BY COMBINING THE REANIMATION PROPERTIES
OF THE METEORITE BACTERIA (HENCEFORTH KNOWN AS STRAIN X5,) THE REPLICATING CAPABILITIES
OF MRSA AND THE MASS TRANSMISSION OF THE H5N1 VIRUS, WE HAVE PRODUCED A WORKABLE
REANIMATION AGENT (CODENAMED AGENT 51). WE ARE REFINING THE PRODUCTION PROCEDURE AND
ARE WORKING ON A METHOD OF CONTROLABLE INTRODUCTION INTO A TEST SUBJECT. WE ANTICIPATE
HAVING A FULLY WORKING, SAFE SERUM IN THREE TO FOUR WEEKS.

18th April 2006

I'm convinced that Necrotech have something to do with this outbreak, but in order to prove it, I'm gonna need to find more evidence. I'm currently heading North East to Ridleybank, where the first cases of infection were reported. I'm hoping that the outbreak prevented special ops. fom covering up any evidence.

19th April 2006

I passed through the city zoo today. I only vaguely remember it as a child, when the enclosures were still full of animals. Now everything is empty and overgrown, the stalls deserted with the prizes either looted or iscarded. Judging from some of the graffiti, there are still a few survivors around occupying the abandoned buildings. On a whim, I wandered into the ruins of the aquarium. Amid the destruction of the display tanks were three zombies, moving in a seemingly aimless manner. My first instinct was to let fly with my axe, but as I watched, I realized they were 'tending' to non exisant specimins. I left and hurried on my way. Very odd indeed.

27th April 2006

I woke up in the Catherine General Hospital this morning. Apparently I've been out of it for about a week, after my last safehouse was attacked. I have vague memories of shambling through the streets like a zombie, but I've heard dreams while in a coma are possible. I thanked the guys who looked after me and patched me up and left.

1st May 2006

I found out today that I've been heading in completely the wrong direction for the past week, in exactly the opposite direction to where I want to be. I've not got this lost since I was eleven.

2nd May 2006

I've finally got myself back on track, and am considerably closer to Ridleybank than I was yesterday. I'm hoping I'll be able to find a Necrotech building I can loot for supplies and information, although I'm concerned by the amount buildings being ransacked by the shambling plague.

4th May 2006

I've found what appears to be the main necrotech building in Ridleybank. It's currently occupied by a ragtag group of survivors intent on re-inhabiting Ridleybank. I'm currently using it as a safehouse while I scour the suburb for more evidence of Necrotech involvement in the outbreak.

17th May 2006

I woke up in a gutter this morning somewhere in Barrville. Usually, this sort of thing would worry me, as I'm not usually a sleepwalker, but since beginning my mission in Malton, this sort of thing seems normal. I'm fairly sure that my safehouse was broken into, and judging from the lump on the back of my head, someone's used one of those strange syringes on me.