Chapter 29 – The Diary

Mk23 -IRJ Droplet – Class 7 – Carpe Victoria (Wrecked)

Sector - Unknown

Planet - Unknown

11th July 2342 (BSST)

Day 36

Today we ran out of water and I told Janet to go and get some more from the lake. She refused! The gall! I can scarce believe it. It’s just outside the camp for goodness sake, all she has to do is take the pot and go fill it up. But no! She wouldn’t even deign to do that simple task, it was beneath her.

I got so mad that I had to take a count, the calming 1 to 10 and then I just walked off with never a glance. If she doesn’t want to contribute then I’m never helping her again, selfish Bitch!

Day 39

It’s been a few days since last we spoke, I’ve been ignoring Janet since the last entry. At first she didn’t notice anything but I’ve finally gotten to her, she still hasn’t filled up the water, Ed had to go do it in her place. The selfish bitch caused him to take time out of his day and stop him working on the tasks that need doing to take care of camp, something she should be doing. It’s not as if one of the chief foragers has anything better to do!

Anyway, after ignoring her I’ve been getting my work done much faster as a result. Today I split more fibres than ever, by my feet I’ve got a huge pile of the fibres that tomorrow I think I’ll braid together. Hopefully I can get some rope made and then we can start building a bit more, the children deserve someplace a little safer to be anyway.

Day 45

Today we lost one, Janet in fact. I’m trying to feel sad for her but I just can’t. She was such a bitch that I… I’m not happy she’s gone but nor am I sad, indifferent I guess. She was not my best friend but…

The others are wary though, I see it in the way they carry themselves. Maybe they think there’s something out there stalking us. Waiting, watching, wandering. Creeping, crawling and climbing. No! I don’t think so. If you ask me, I reckon someone got fed up with her shit and decided to knock her off. Good riddance. Though having said that I can see some of the others watching me, perhaps they think I had something to do with it. As if!

We may have disagreed with each other, maybe we fought a little. It’s just, she was so unbelievably irritating, a stuck up prissy bitch. Everything I hate. But I would never take action, I would have at least kept the corpse, we’re short on food as it is. Haha, stop being morbid Karen. Now look at me, I’m talking to myself – in the third person no less, and through a diary – god, I might be losing it. Have I lost my marbles? I guess that’s the crux of it, I wouldn’t know either way. Well I guess I’ll have to act on the assumption I’m not crazy, else where does that leave me? Karen says bye for now then.

Haha.

Day 52

James and Kurt have drafted up the first round of plans for a defensive wall and camp ground. At the moment we have about 30 people… 29 now, I write thinking back to Janet. Somehow the camp seems to miss her, myself included. At first I thought I wouldn’t miss her one bit. Not even an iota. But in this place it’s humans against the forest. We started off with 50 of us, the whole group. Now were down to almost half, the bugs, predators and landscape having stolen 21 human lives. So, yeah, I do miss her. Every single one of us adds life to the camp.

Day 71

THE WALL IS FINISHED!

Well, almost. The circle of logs extends around from the cliff face to meet the other side, only a small opening at the front is left. James says it’s going to be filled in once the treehouses are finished. Though I expect that’ll take a few more weeks. Everyone has worked their socks off chopping down the trees and building the wall. Camp feels much safer now though. With a nice boundary to ourselves and the world perhaps we can finally get some rest.

Sleep has been short in coming and light in quality as the anxiety built. Over the last month or so we’ve lost another 6 people. James Jr (James’s son), Duncan, Katie, Angela, Barry and Ed. At first we thought it was just them getting lost in the forest, Ed being a forager and all, it was perfectly reasonable for an untrained guy trying to forage in an alien world to get lost and turned around. Well we sent out a rescue group using my ropes to keep track of their path. I must say how proud I felt after that.

Well, it didn’t last all that long. Barry and Angela left to go search for Ed. Well the rope just went tight, then loose and a piercing scream wrenched open the silence and Barry was gone, bloody mess that! Angela came back and a group of fifteen of us – those not looking after the children and the cowardly - went to explore. The rope was sheared like it had been cut by scissors and then drag marks led off into their trees. We followed for a few metres before they faded out of sight. Creepy!

Over the next few days the process repeated itself periodically claiming both Angela and Duncan. Then one night the rest of us woke up from our simple shelters to find James howling in grief. In a dead sprint he ran out of camp to return only a few days a later covered in scratches and bruises, caked in mud and grime. We had to force him to bathe in the lake and take care of him as he was inconsolable for a few days but eventually he just snapped into a focused state wherein he would hardly speak. It can’t be healthy to bottle it up the way he’s doing, but if it lets him cope then who am I to tell him he’s wrong?

We learnt later that Katie and James Jr were missing, Tony told us that he had woken up to see a human shape carrying the two children out of camp and James howling in grief as his child was stolen. At least no-one would miss Katie overly, her parents having been claimed by the wilderness several weeks prior. Though her presence would be missed around camp, the quiet little girl, inquisitive but shy. Look at how this place is changing me, I’m thinking in such harsh terms.

Day 99

The camp is finished now, well the exterior. The wall is sealed up and a rope lets us climb up to the treehouses that connect by a rope bridge over the wall. It should protect us from predators. The only issue is getting water from the lake outside the walls.It takes a few off us to do it. Two people had to go and collect water in a large clay pot. Then the pot was loaded into a wooden wire basket that would be tied to the climbing rope. Then the rope would be hauled up by another 2 people. About once every other day we would need to do this. I suppose it was much less exhausting than it would have been a while ago, much less people you see. We’ve lost another 3 people bringing us down to twenty people. I don’t know how much longer we can keep this up. Hopefully something changes.

Day 151

Well something changed alright. I don’t know if it’s for the better though. The temperature has ramped up, this planet seems to have seasons. The predators have gone away now, the foragers and hunters report seeing none. Small life seems to still be around but it is much harder to hit. At least the plants still seem to bear food for us. I’m guessing we were in spring and now summer is turning up. It’s already hotter than anything on earth and it seems to have no interest in stopping. The camp is a sweaty box of misery right now, despite the predators disappearing people still go missing, much the same way as Barry. A scream and some drag marks and nothing else. At least it’s never from within the walls though.

Day 176

It is still getting hotter and I don’t think many of us can survive much more. A few of us have died from the heat, a basic body-ware cannot handle it here right now. I have to take a bath in the lake about 5 times a day right now to keep my mind intact. From the 50 of us that arrived 40 have perished. Now its just: James, Kurt, Max, Tom, Jenny, Tony, Taylor, George, baby Jeremy and myself. I’m feeling the pressure of life here now, it certainly isn’t easy. I don’t know when it’ll get easier but it’s a fight right now. From the heat, and terrain to the sharp thorns and leaves that cut and stab at you as you make a path.

As I read the diary, absorbed in Karen’s story I’m taken from the moment by the loud roar by my ear. I slam closed the book and vault to my feet turning, wary of what I might find. The dead, dry campfire is still just as dead and dry as it was previously, the peaceful log pile, reminiscent of a little hut in the woods stands alone and sleepy, just as it was. The gentle breeze flowing through the camp is the same. Even the huts with the doors latched on the hooks are the same.

With a sigh of relief I realise the camp is exactly the same before I buried my head in the book. Come on Ronja, you know better I say to myself angrily. You’ve the training, in and out of war zones to keep awareness in the front of your mind.

With careful steps I march over to the hole in the walls, avoiding the sticks and branches that have fallen from the trees, There’s no use stepping on it and alerting whatever is out there that I’m here.

I retreat to the treehouse out by the lake and settle down in the chair to read the diary again, I should be safe up here.

I open up the diary searching for my place before abandoning it and starting from the beginning.