40 days after ts
It was Alice, William, and I’s turn to go out and scavenge. Some days we were lucky, able to salvage some cup ramen or other unspoiled foodstuff, other times we spent a lot of energy and time wasted running away from zombies. Our map slowly started to become more filled with markings and notes about places we tried to search, and new spots we should try. We spotted some other scavengers as well, but we kept to ourselves as they did. We actually began to have a net positive in our daily supply consumption, gathering more foodstuff than we ate, but I suspect this won’t last forever as more places are looted. Jess woke up a day after she arrived, but she still needed to recover and showed signs of having an infection/cold.. At this point the wound has mostly sealed, but it still looks like it could start to bleed if she moved too much, so she’s staying back for now and resting.
50 days after ts
Zeke got injured. Almost got bit too, but we were able to escape. Normally we don’t try to raid any place we think are dangerous, but the zombies this time moved too fast, and weren’t there when we first arrived. The zombies, they seem faster somehow now. Before they would move at a fast walking pace, but now it's almost at the speed of jogging. Zeke figured even though we spotted them starting to come towards our location, that we could nab the countertop items then leave in 10 minutes, but they got to us faster. Almost surrounded us. I hope this virus isn’t fucking evolving. Zeke sprained his ankle which should heal on its own. Our supplies are ok still, but they're starting to dwindle now. Jess has recovered from her cold, and is helping to organize the place. She even self designated herself as having control of the budgeting and accounting for our supplies. It seems she was the student Treasurer at her time. Alice herself has proven the best scavenger of us so far, she tires the slowest, and is one of the braver one. She mentioned she was in a lot of sports at school.
60 days after ts
We had our first negotiations with another scavenger group. They approached us first. “Heyyy” a man, with mohawk hair and sunglasses waved his hand. Thankfully he didn’t shout, and there weren’t any infected in the vicinity, but I guess he knew what he was doing, trying to appear non threatening by keeping both hands in the air.
“Hey if you have any food and medical supplies, we would be willing to trade to make it worthwhile.” We ended up exchanging some energy bars for jerky. I asked if he was willing to trade us any weapons. As soon as he said yeah, he motioned to one of his friends, a big burly bear with a viking like darkish red beard, but bald on the top of his head. He slowly motioned to the back of his pants, taking out a pistol.
“Stop.” The man thankfully stopped. “We don’t have enough supplies to warrant a trade for weapons on us right now.” Looking carefully at the men’s expressions. “How about this, we already traded some of our current supplies for the jerky, so you can take the rest in our bag. Tomorrow at this same location, you drop off the weapons in that car into the glove compartment and below the seats, along with the bullets at 12 pm. We will come and pick up the goods after, and leave the rest of the supplies in the same compartment which you 2 can take the next day? That should be fair enough?”
The mohawk guy put his fingers on his chin in a thinking motion, “Hmm, sure” and nodded his head. We handed him our bag, he emptied the contents into his own bag, and handed it back to us, then we left.
“Why’d we just give him our supplies like that? Why not just trade with him tomorrow. Now we risk being scammed if they don’t drop off their end of the bargain,” William asked.
“Idiot, you do realize that from their ‘trade’, implies that they literally have armed guns? The only thing that was probably stopping them from killing us and looting our dead bodies is the fact that ammo is probably limited and the gunshots would alert the undead. Giving them our supplies was our way of saying it's less worth it to go through the trouble of killing us. Maybe they are actually good people, but it's better to be safe than sorry.”
“Are we going to check the car tomorrow?”
“...Yes, getting our hands on weapons would mean alot to our security. Tomorrow, I’ll go and check the car, you two stay a distance away from me and hold on to the supplies. I’ll check the car, and if it has the weapons, I’ll take them, then we can fill the car with our end of the deal. If it's empty, then we run. We’ll go at night, when it's harder to aim.”
Day 65 ts
The gun was there, along with the machete and bullets. We left the food and medical supplies in the car and left. I don’t believe my actions nor thoughts were wrong to have, given the circumstances, but I’m happier to be wrong than right in this case. At least there are still some good people out there. The pistol is kept at the apartment, while the machete and bat are taken out for runs now. The pistol is more of a last resort, if times get more dangerous, we’ll bring it with us on runs, but we need to conserve ammo, and guns make too much noise on runs, meaning the undead will come running as soon as a shot is fired. At least this way whoever is home can threaten invaders with a bullet to the face, and barricade the door if zombies do come and wait them out. It's not an ideal outcome if they have to shoot, so I hope the threat is enough of a deterrent by itself.
I’ve also begun to feel different, my body has started to become stronger than before. Of course I have been exercising more than before, but it's different from what should be normal. Even small cuts and bruises are healing faster. My being is starting to feel as if it's drinking water after a long time of thirst, but the tap water is still drinkable so it's not dehydration being the cause.
Day 70 after ts
Fuck its mana. Normally I would be happy, ecstatic, but this means that this world is being introduced, not invaded by mana. Mana allows magic and all sorts of amazing inventions to be made, but it also was the cause for how strong and terrifying monsters and phenomena were possible in Thales. ‘Aqua Ball’, coalescing above my hand, water condensed to form a sphere, slowly rotating and conforming in my control. My experience and knowledge of magic remain, albeit rusty admittedly, but my physical limits constrain my magical capabilities. My body is slowly taking in the mana in the atmosphere now, steadily assimilating the mana into my blood. It's still not enough to create a mana heart, but if the mana remains present, it's only a matter of time, rather I’m inclined to predict that the mana levels will only increase from now on. The sky, the cracks. Unless something seals them, I imagine even more mana will flow into this world.
I lower the ball into an empty hydro flask, gazing at my hand. The mana I can hold, control, and absorb are limited, but I know how to advance, but bigger problems are on the rise as well. Not only the possible magical monsters to eventually appear, but the humans who also learn to manipulate mana as well. It will be slow, but there will be genius’, the talented who learn a primal way of using magic will make an appearance, and their presence will be another wave of chaos. Bullets will still stop the new mages, but if troublesome people appear with the power to conjure fires or create poisons, they could cause immense damage to our society that’s already walking a dangerous tightrope trying to survive on its dredges.
The rise of warlords, well I imagine some tyrants are bound to appear with or without magic, but they would still be normal humans. With magic, a new chaotic variables appears, allowing even a weak and young child capable of mass murder, although magic isn’t so easy as to be mastered by just anyone, especially the unguided, which is where my advantage will shine.
With my magic, I can take greater control over our situation. Even bullets and bombs could eventually be rendered moot, although maybe not high caliber sniper rifles for the near present,but in the future its possible, assuming a tarrasque doesn’t suddenly appear Hah…. uh I hope I didn’t jinx myself, I mean no way that thing appears, this kind of mana concentration is no where near enough to allow that thing to appear, I think.
What do I tell the others. My magic isn’t capable of killing a zombie much less a person right now, I can only do the basic daily life magics at this rate, like lighting a campfire. Teaching the others to use it would be…very troublesome. Of course it would detract from my own training, but the effort it would take to teach without knowing their aptitudes, or rather their body developing aptitudes with the introduction of mana would be tedious and take time. With this weak mana concentration in the atmosphere, I, a previous great sorcerer, could only manage this much, even if the time frame was small. It would take time not only for their body to adapt to mana, but also to utilize what are essentially the grains of sand in the wind for any noticeable effect. It would be a pitiful time to be honest.
It’s selfish, but if I told them about what I could do, they would badger me and waste both our time. They would also try to dig into my past, which would be another waste of time. No, if I can focus on training, I can get to a point where my results would assuage any kind of discontent they have with my decision. If I could get strong enough so that any criminal trying to threaten us would be but an ant, and I could help aid our supply problem, then they would have to even begrudgingly accept my actions. Unfortunately I mainly studied elemental magic before, not nature magic so I can’t super grow crops, but I can become a human water fountain at least if we ever need it.
