Hey guys. This one was fun to transcribe. Reading some very old pages of hide written on in charcoal is more than a little difficult, but it was fun reliving these memories. I’m glad I decided to do this. These were the good days, before all the craziness. Stillhere was and always will be an important part of my memory. I’d never go back, but if I had too….I’d want to go back to here.
Entry #3
Now there were six people stranded in the middle of a seemingly infinite forest and surrounded by a seemingly infinite amount of creatures. As the voted leader, they told me to start making calls. Where do we go? Where do we sleep? What are our goals? Wonderful. This was the reason that I had no interest in leadership. Where do we go? There is nowhere to go. Every person I’ve talked to, that everyone has talked to, has seen nothing that indicates a way out of here, much less a way home. Goals? There are no goals. There’s no pregnancy, and no one here seems to have been added or brought in recently, which leads me to believe that we are all just here until we die.
Abdul has another theory for what’s going on. Lando is sticking to his alien conspiracy, but I find myself agreeing with Abdul’s more and more every day. He thinks this place is hell. It’s possibly coincidence, but no one here is super religious. Some here are “Christians” but more so as a title than an actual belief. Abdul is Muslim, but also more so in the title sense. Maybe all of us just weren’t devoted enough? This place is certainly starting to feel like hell.
When I was told to make a call, I gave a shrug. I had built a camp from scratch before, and it is not a fun process. Ironically, what made the most sense is what got us into this mess from the start. I decided to head to the nearest camp to where we were. When I told the group that’s what I had decided, I watched Zach carefully for any sign of joy or anger. It felt like any response he gave would be the wrong one. He did the only thing I couldn’t lash out on him for: nothing.
We headed off for Stillhere, the name of that camp, just a few hours after dawn. None of us had slept, and our dinner the night before was everything but substantial. We were starving and desperate. Nicky had an axe while Abdul, Lando, and I carried spears. Zach had made some sort of stone knife he kept in his pocket, while Cindy carried a decently strong stick she had found on the ground. We weren’t the most well-armed crew and realized that if we encountered any serious amounts of resistance, it wouldn’t be much of a fight.
It took hours before we made it to Stillhere. It was late in the afternoon when we arrived at the gates. Two people at the top carried bows and a makeshift quiver on their back. It looked a lot more like two kids playing make-believe in their backyard than any form of intimidating, but we were careful. We stated who we were and where we were from. They let us in.
Once we were inside, we met the camp leader. A woman named Jana welcomed us in. I had been there once before a couple months ago. They were significantly smaller then. It looked like they had at least doubled in size since I had last been there. I asked Jana how many were there, and she said that, with the six of us, it would make them 55 strong. Stillhere had apparently existed for well over a year, depending on how you count. There were log cabins, fires, and pathways between different structures within the 10ft tall walls. Several perches had been constructed along the wall and several small fields with crops growing were set up inside. Lando asked her about what they were growing, and she said they had found some potato-like plants a while back. They didn’t know if they were edible until they were too hungry to care.
A couple months later, and they were producing at least some of their own food, had decent fortification, and a constantly expanding roster of wooden structures. Jana doesn’t have a theory for how we got here, but she does have a theory for why we are here. She thinks that, for whatever reason, we are here to adapt this place. She thinks our goal is to figure out how the forest works and thrive. I’m not sure how much of that I believe, but she certainly seems to be on to something. This place was a five-star hotel compared to the previous camps I had been involved in. The survivors here also seemed to be of a higher quality. More muscles, weapons, and people with demonstrable survival skills were present here than anywhere I had seen. We contributed six malnourished people with sticks and a variety of mostly customer service professions. I worked as a manager at a fast-food place, Abdul was a university student, Nicky was a doctor, Lando worked at a zoo, Cindy was in college for interior design, and Zach worked retail.
In comparison, this place had “real” jobs. Farmers, an engineer, a doctor, several military members, and a lot of blue-collar construction workers. The head of security this place was a 23-year-old guy named Tyler. He was active-duty army and stationed in Korea when he woke up here. According to himself, Tyler had done jiu-jitsu, hunted as a hobby with his dad, and was on the track to go to Special Forces selection. No idea how much of it is true, but the guy had the build to back it up.
I talked to Jana about how they keep the monsters out. She said they actually don’t bother them that much. They don’t go to the river either, seems I made the right call on that one. All of their hunting traps are remarkably close to the village, and they have 24-hour watch duty on the walls. One of the blue-collar guys made knives as a hobby and was able to fashion some pretty heavy-duty knives out of the rocks and gemstones he found nearby. They attacked them to the spears and added really good heads to the arrows. Jana said that anything that comes up to the walls doesn’t last long. She gestured to the small holes in the wall along the perimeter, built so that spears can dart in and out of the wall. They hadn’t had a breach in well over a month, and the last breach they had were the bats. They scared them off quickly and only lost one member. She had built an effective fortress against the forest here. I was impressed.
I talked to the group, and we all decided to stay here. Well, five of us did. Zach still hasn’t spoken, yet. Lando was suggesting we kick him out, but I don’t want to raise trouble with Jana. The less she knows the better. We’re hoping this place will be good for us. No one here is pregnant either, so I doubt we’re going to continue humanity here. Just maybe, this place will be a place we can grow old and die. That’s what we’re all doing, anyways. We’re just spending our days here building camps that, hopefully, last long enough to serve as our graves.
It’s been a couple days here, and we all got our own jobs. I’m on the wall with Abdul. Lando and Nicky got assigned to the “research and medical” team. It’s apparently just five people whose job it is to figure out new ways to improve our situation. Cindy was put on the development and farming teams. Zach was put as a cook. Jana figured that, since he doesn’t talk, it might be the best and safest way for him to contribute. I’m writing this on guard duty right now, and it’s quiet. It’s been quiet. Nicky thinks this place is going to last, maybe I’m just a glass half-empty kind of guy.
(Chapter 4 will be linked here)